58 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



In comparing the relative profitableness of crops and live 

 stock, especial attention should be given to the alternative 

 opportunities for the employment of labor and to the extent 

 to which crops and live stock compete with each other in their 

 demands for labor. 



The live stock industry comes into competition to some extent 

 with the production of field crops. The farmer who feeds and 

 properly looks after hogs, cattle, or sheep may not be able to 

 spend as much time in the field as he who keeps no stock of 

 these kinds. The dairy industry comes more into competition 

 with the crops of the fields than do the other live stock indus- 

 tries. But while a part of the time devoted to live stock must 

 be subtracted from the time which can be spent in the field, yet, 

 for the most part, the live stock industry is supplementary, in 

 its demands for labor, to the other branches of farming. Live 

 stock requires the especial attention of the farmer in the winter 

 when nothing can be done in the fields. In the summer, when 

 the farmer is busy in the field, much of the live stock is shifting 

 for itself in the pasture, and there is usually enough time when 

 the ground is too wet for work in the field, to permit the farmer 

 to give the needed attention to the live stock which is in the 

 pasture. 



To the extent that the live stock industry is supplementary, 

 in its demands upon the time and energy of the farmer, to the 

 production of farm crops, he has only to decide whether the 

 additions to his total net profit resulting from the transforma- 

 tion of the various crops into animal products, are sufficient 

 to remunerate him for the extra efforts put forth. But to the 

 extent that the live stock industry encroaches upon the time and 

 energy available for crop production, the problem of determin- 

 ing whether to sell his crops or convert them into animal prod- 

 ucts presents itself in practically the same form as that of 

 selecting crops for the field system. The general principle is 

 simple, " Seek the largest, long-time average net profit," but 

 the practical application of this principle is especially difficult, 

 because of the limited extent to which these two lines of work 

 come into conflict with each other. It can be said, however, 



