36 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



Besides this, these animals require a large amount of labor in 

 caring for their needs, and a still additional expense for the 

 shelter of themselves and their feed.^ 



The animal population of the United States in millions as 

 compared with the human is substantially as follows : 



Census of igcx? 



Estimated for 1910 



Human population . . 

 Horses, mules, and asses 

 Cattle of all kinds . . 

 Sheep ...... 



Swine 



75,000,000 

 2 1 ,000,000 

 67,000,000 

 61,000,000 

 62,000,000 



90,000,000 

 27,000,000 

 73,000,000 

 67,000,000 

 68,000,000 



With five people to the family, we can say that in general 

 and on the average every family has one horse, four head of 

 cattle, four sheep, and four swine, with several millions left over, 

 — a total average of three animals for each human inhabitant, 

 or fifteen to the family. The estimate for 19 lo can be only 

 approximate, for these proportions vary greatly. 



It is little wonder that we raise immense acreages of hay, 

 corn, and oats to maintain all these animals. It is only on care- 

 ful thought that we realize how much of our lands and how 

 much of our labor are devoted to the care and maintenance of 

 the animals we have domesticated and brought to live among 

 us, and whose support we have undertaken. 



There is argument enough now for the highest attainable 

 efficiency on the score of expense, but it must be evident to the 

 most casual reader that with the increase of human population 



1 Read Circular ii8, Experiment Station, University of Illinois, and see how 

 extensive the barns must be to shelter the large number of inefficient cows 

 necessary to return the same profit as would be returned by a few economical 

 producers. In the case in hand, one class of cows return fourteen times the 

 profit of the other. This would mean that in order to realize a certain net in- 

 come, fourteen times as many cows of the one kind would have to be kept as 

 of the other, which means fourteen times as much barn room, fourteen times 

 as much capital tied up in feed, fourteen times as much milking, and more 

 than fourteen times as much waste and risk. 



