188 PRODUCTION 



stances in which the costs of production are shown with consider- 

 able accuracy. The best results, however, are those based upon 

 material collected by Experimental Farms, Agricultural Colleges 

 and Departments of Agriculture in Europe and North America and 

 published by them. The purpose has generally been to ascertain 

 the comparative profitableness of various types of farming, and, 

 incidentally, the net costs of production of separate articles under 

 selected conditions or under the average conditions of a district 

 have been obtained. 1 



In the United States it is known that the cost of raising pigs and of 

 fattening cattle depends mainly upon the market price of maize, 

 or upon its cost of production if grown on the farm ; and when 

 pasturage is allowed lor according to -rental value, and the charges 

 for labour, for breeding-stock and for general overhead expenses 

 are debited to the account, the entire cost of raising pigs and cattle 

 to a finished condition can be determined with sufficient accuracy. 

 From this the producer's cost per pound of beef and pork can be 

 readily obtained. It has been ascertained that dairying, especially 

 when the milk is sold for town consumption, can be conducted with 

 profit on much higher-priced land than is possible when the entire 

 resources of the farm are devoted to the production of meat or of 

 ordinary crops ; that where there is a large and well-assured market 

 for particular kinds of animal foodstuffs, highly specialised breeds 

 of animals may yield the best results, and that elsewhere general- 

 purpose animals may be more profitable. This simply means that 

 the items in the cost of production vary according to locality, and 

 that the scheme of production has to be modified accordingly. 



Obviously differences in soil and climate, in the nature of other 

 established industries, and in the traditions and character of the 

 people themselves, will give rise to variations in essential features 

 of the animal industries from one region to another throughout 

 the world. Illustrations are numerous. Thus the production of 

 poultry and eggs is associated with cereal cultivation or with ready 

 supplies of cereals by sea, together with certain habits of care and 

 diligence on the part of the people. As cereal regions are much 

 more numerous and extensive than poultry- rearing regions are, it 

 appears that the human factor in this industry is a most important 

 one. Pig-rearing may be conducted primarily either for the pro- 

 duction of bacon as in Denmark, Ireland and Eastern Canada, or 

 for the production of the laid type of animal as in the United 

 States and Germany ; in the first case the foundations are an ex- 

 tensive butter-making form of dairying, yielding an abundance of 

 skim-milk, together with cheap supplies of such feedstuffs as 

 barley either of home production or imported, while in the second 

 case an abundance of cheap fattening materials, such as maize or 



1 The following publications of the U.S. Department of Agriculture serve 

 as illustrations of this kind of work : Bulletin 49 (1914) ; Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, Bulletin 131 ; Farmer's Bulletin, 811 ; Bureau of Statistics, 

 Bulletins 48 and 73 ; Office of Secretary, Report No. 111. 



