The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 115 



land is there, and the first thing to do in this development is to 

 follow the most promising line that offers. 



There has been only one speaker at this Conference — and 

 I make this statement without any spirit of criticism — there has 

 been only one speaker who has even hinted that the question of 

 labor is going to cut any figure here. We know what we can do 

 in the way of raising crops for hogs. There is a lot of informa- 

 tion on the success of live stock farming under intensified condi- 

 tions, such as Mr. Enochs described; but, gentlemen, you are talk- 

 ing in terms of 76 million acres, not in terms of 160 or 320 or 640 

 acres. You are dealing in big things. It is a tremendous propo- 

 sition. This is no child's play ; it is a man's game ; and it is a game 

 that will call for all the brains and intelligence that can be brought 

 into it. 



Meat production in the United States has not been keeping 

 pace with the increase in population. Without burdening you Nation's 

 with a large array of statistical information, I will simply call Scarcity of 

 your attention to the number of meat animals in the country in ^^' 

 1900, 1910 and 1917. 



In round numbers there were reported in the 1900 census 

 seventeen million dairy cows and fifty million "other" cattle, the 

 latter being principally beef cattle. In 1910 there were twenty 

 million dairy cows and forty-one million other cattle. In 1917 

 there were twenty-two million milch cows and forty million other 

 cattle. 



We observe that there has been a considerable increase in 

 the number of milch cows, from seventeen million to twenty-two 

 million in seventeen years, an increase of almost thirty per cent. 

 On the other hand, in the case of beef cattle there has been a 

 decrease of over nine million head, or eighteen per cent. 



Of sheep, the country possessed in 1900 sixty-one million 

 head; in 1910 fifty-two million head, and in 1917 forty-eight mil- 

 lion head, a decrease of thirteen million head. In the case of 

 swine, on the other hand, we see an increase. In 1900 there Sheep 

 were sixty-two million head ; in 1910 fifty-eight million head ; in Decreasing; 



1917 sixty-seven million head, a net increase of five million head. , 



■ Increasing 

 These figures are taken from the census figures, and from the 



estimates of the Department of Agriculture. An accurate statis- 

 tical comparability is impossible, on account of the different con- 

 ditions under which the two censuses were compiled, the dates at 



