IMPORTANCE OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 



our ordinary foods. As shown in Table 1, a pound of 

 b'ltter will furnish three and two-thirds times as much 

 energy as a pound of sirloin steak. Usually it does not 

 cost twice as much as the steak. It is one of the cheap 

 animal foods, is highly concentrated and easy to digest. 

 C heese is a cheap source of animal protein. We use over 

 four times as much butter as cheese, but the amount of 

 ciieese used is increasing. 



4. One Dairy Cow per Family. In the ten years 1900 

 to 1910 the number of steers and bulls in the United States 

 decreased one-fifth, but the number of dairy cows increased 

 \vith the population. In 1910 the average number of 

 persons living together as one family was 4.5. Counting 

 tne dairy cows on farms and those not on farms, there was 

 one dairy cow for each 4.2 persons, or a little over one cow 

 per family. For sixty years the United States has main- 



TABLE 2. POPULATION AND NUMBER OF DAIRY Cows ON FARMS 

 AND RANGES IN THE UNITED STATES EXCLUSIVE OF OUTLYING 



POSSESSIONS 1 



1 Twelfth Census, Vol. V, p. 704. Thirteenth Census, Vol. I, pp. 24, 

 1285, and Vol. V, p. 341. In addition to the above there were 973,033 

 dairy cows not on farms in 1900 and 1,170,338 in 1910. Most of these 

 were kept by families in villages, Vol. V, p. 430. The census does not 

 give the number of cows in cities for the earlier years. 



