128 



The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Decline in 

 Beef Cattle 

 and Sheep 



Room for 

 150,000,000 

 Slieep in the 

 South 



its face value, and that this line of animal husbandry is being 

 systematically advanced throughout the South. The hog is a 

 mortgage lifter in the truest sense of the word, and will pay the 

 farmer as large a return on his investment in as short a time as 

 he can obtain from any other class of stock. As a means towards 

 increasing the food supply and adequately feeding our own peo- 

 ple, building up the income of our farms, and enabling us to di- 

 versify and rotate our crops in a satisfactory manner and reduce 

 or overcome the losses which the boll weevil may cause in various 

 states, let us encourage swine husbandry in every legitimate man- 

 ner. • If we do this, many of our most difficult problems will be 

 satisfactorily solved. 



It may be surprising to many that there should have been a 

 decrease in beef cattle of 790,000 head. This is a grave economic 

 mistake and must be corrected if the South is to become perma- 

 nently prosperous and successful. It is all the more regrettable 

 that this decrease in beef cattle should have occurred in view of 

 the great success which has attended the campaign for tick eradi- 

 cation, and the relatively large area which has been set free as a 

 result of this work which has been carried forward by the federal 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, in co-operation with the several 

 states. The decrease in the number of sheep on Southern farms 

 is also to be greatly regretted. There is no explanation for such 

 a condition save the fact that the worthless cur has been allowed 

 to flourish at the expense of the "golden hoof" of the sheep. In 

 England sheep are grown by the millions on lands similar to 

 thousands of acres unadapted for general cultivation to be found 

 in the South, yet which are susceptible of producing a fine variety 

 of grass and forage crops. In England sheep are raised for 

 mutton and the wool is a surplus crop. There is no reason why 

 this industry should not be established on similar lines in the 

 South. Where Great Britain, with an area of 120,000 square 

 miles, maintains, roughly speaking, between twenty and twenty- 

 five million head of sheep, we in the South are maintaining less 

 than seven million on 899,747 square miles. On a comparative 

 basis, the South should be maintaining over 150,000,000 head of 

 sheep, or between five and six for each inhabitant. At the present 

 time, England is maintaining one sheep for each two of her popu- 

 lation. Is it any wonder that the cost of living should be rapidly 

 increasing ; that meat should become in some senses of the word 

 scarce and so high-priced that the average individual cannot u.se 



