ECONOMICS OF THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY 55 



chemical fertilizers, and by physical and bacteriological methods ; 

 but by none of these has the virgin strength of the soil been 

 maintained over long periods except as plant production has 

 been associated with animal husbandry. By selling dairy 

 products in the form of butter and cheese, and restoring the 

 by-products by feeding the skim milk, buttermilk, and whey, 

 we take from the soil but one-tenth of the fertility lost by a 

 grain crop. ... If fertilizing material must be bought 

 for the farm, it can, under all ordinary conditions, be bought in 

 vastly cheaper form as feedstuffs and utilized as such, and the 

 residue applied to the soil, than by purchasing fertilizers out- 

 right. The very best of fertilizers are often obtained in this 

 way without any direct outlay. The use of feedstuffs, rich in 

 fertility, may even return a handsome profit as a separate 

 proposition, and thus fertilizing constituents come on to the 

 farm under most advantageous circumstances. The British and 

 other European farmers buy large quantities of our flaxseed 

 and corn by-products. They figure that they are the gainers, 

 even if they do not make any profit on their feeding operations 

 with these products, and they are. Until recently the packing- 

 house by-products, including dried blood and tankage in various 

 forms, have practically all gone direct to the land as fertilizers. 

 To-day these products are serving a most important purpose 

 as feedstuffs, and the time is near at hand when practically 

 every pound of this material will first be utilized as stock 

 food, and later returned to the soil. The returns are so much 

 greater and so much more economical in this way as to put 

 the purely commercial fertilizer farmer out of business in the 

 space of a few years at the outside, where other conditions are 

 similar." 



The feeding of grain, hay, and fodder to live stock is an effec- 

 tive means of converting these crops into products of higher 

 specific value, which will better stand the costs of transportation 

 to distant markets. " Cattle and hogs not only convert, but 

 also condense, Indian corn (maize). They enable it to be raised 

 profitably in regions too far removed from the markets of the 

 country to be transported in that form. By condensing the 



