No. 4.] BEEF PRODUCTION. 69 



jMr. Wheeler. I would like to ask Professor Wing if he 

 thinks it would be advisable in this part of the country to 

 bring in partly grown steers from the south or west and 

 attempt to fatten them here. 



Professor Wing. I don't believe that it can be done at a 

 profit if you have to depend upon purchased grain. 



Mr. Wheeler. Suppose you can grow your ow^n feed? 



Professor W^ing. Then, so far as feed is concerned, you can 

 get more out of it in the production of either milk or pork. 

 If the labor is as important a factor in the cost of production 

 as the feed is, then the decreased amount of labor in producing 

 meat may offset the increased cost of feed, and that, as I said, 

 is a question that will largely be determined by local con- 

 ditions. I am inclined to think, however, that where you 

 want to increase the amount of meat or beef production you 

 will be much more likely to do it by producing your own 

 feeding stock. 



It seems to me that the question of meat supply is very 

 closely connected with the question of the production of more 

 grass and of more corn. The corn need not necessarily be 

 raised for grain, because the results of experiments at the 

 Purdue Experiment Station have shown the great value of 

 silage in the production of beef. Now, silage revolutionized 

 dairy practice in New York and New England. Our dairy 

 stock probably would have gone the way of our other animals 

 to a greater extent than they have if it had not been for the 

 silo. Now, it is entirely possible that the use of the silo may 

 help us to partially revolutionize the beef production, or may be 

 a great aid in the increased production of beef in the north- 

 eastern United States. If you can raise more corn and more 

 grass on your farms you can grow more cattle, and, as they 

 used to say in New York about pigs, you will have more 

 manure to make your crops grow, until you have filled up 

 these New England valleys completely with corn and cattle 

 and grass. 



Mr. Wheeler. Don't you think that our problem here in 

 restoring the utility of our lands is in raising more animals, 

 and don't you think that our land is more adapted, in a 

 sense, to raising beef animals than dairy animals? 



