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vesters and gleaners. During the summer months they har- 

 vest for themselves huge amounts of food in the form of 

 pasture grasses. During the fall and winter they are glean- 

 ers, gathering up food that would otherwise be wasted. In so 

 far as these animals eat crops that man himself cannot eat 

 and in so far as they harvest and glean crops that would 

 otherwise go to waste, they add to man's food supply. 



Other Foods Condensed by Livestock 



There is another type of livestock which serves more as 

 condensers of food than as refiners. Farmers use hogs and 

 poultry to condense crops already fit for human consump- 

 tion. Hogs were equipped by nature with a digestive system 

 much like man's ; neither the hog nor the hen can survive on 

 large quantities of coarse, bulky foods. Hogs and hens con- 

 dense the cereal grains that man does not require into nu- 

 tritious and highly prized but expensive pork, poultry, and 

 eggs. 



Some of the animals are kept to serve as scavengers, to 

 pick a precarious living from foods that man will not eat or 

 has not the means of gathering. On many farms a hog and 

 a few chickens serve this purpose. 



Since, for the greater part, these animals consume food 

 which could otherwise be used by man, they deduct from 

 man's total supply of food. Consequently, when man's food 

 supply is seriously threatened, these animals are quickly 

 liquidated. 



Number of Refiners and Condensers 



On January 1, 1943 the nation had 55 million units of 

 animals that might be classified as refiners of food unfit for 

 man (table 3). Sheep were the most numerous, but dairy 

 cattle were the most important. 



The nation had almost 90 million units of animals that 



