CHAPTER VI 

 ECONOMICS OF THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY 



THERE are certain crops such as cotton, tobacco, and flax 

 which are always intended for the market in their native form ; 

 there are many other crops, such as the grains and the hay and 

 forage crops, which may be sold in their native form or trans- 

 formed by the farmer into animal products; and there are 

 many other products of the farm, such as soft corn, corn fodder, 

 second growth on grain fields and meadows and the grass 

 growing on land not suited for tillage or hay crops, which are 

 not salable in their original form, but which may be converted 

 into valuable products by means of live stock. 



No question arises regarding the utilization of the first and 

 the third of these three classes of products, but in case of the 

 second class the farmer has ever before him the problem of 

 determining whether the largest, long-time average net profit 

 can be obtained by selling or by feeding these crops. The 

 proper solution of this question is determined by the relative 

 prices of the crops and the live stock products. 



One factor ever to be kept in mind in counting the profits of 

 the live stock industry is the value, as fertilizer, of the manure, 

 which is a very important by-product of this industry. This 

 element is usually underestimated in a new country, but in 

 the older countries, where commercial fertilizers have long been 

 necessary if the farmer would secure the largest net profit in 

 the production of field crops, full value must be given to this 

 by-product. 



Charles F. Curtiss, of the Iowa Agricultural College, says : l 

 " Maintenance of fertility is secured by rotation of crops, by 



1 From a paper entitled " Economic Functions of Live Stock," read before the 

 Economic Section of the A. A. A. S., St. Louis, December, 1903. 



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