CHAPTER XXVI 



THE RELATION OF FOOD TO PRODUCTION 



ONE of the questions much discussed by farmers, 

 and which has an important bearing upon the eco- 

 nomics of animal husbandry, is the food cost of the 

 various animal products. To illustrate, a herd of cows 

 consumes a certain quantity of food and produces a 

 certain weight of milk, milk solids, cheese .or butter, 

 according to the terms in which we state the produc- 

 tion. If the same food is fed to a lot of steers a cer- 

 tain increase in their live weight is secured. There is 

 in each case a relation of quantity between the food 

 and the product. The food cost, that is, the food con- 

 sumption, involved in growing a pound of beef, is quite 

 unlike the food requirements for producing a pound 

 of pork, a pound of veal or a pound of eggs. If we 

 consider merely food expenditure, that branch of ani- 

 mal husbandry is most economical of raw materials in 

 which the largest proportion of the food dry substance 

 is converted into some new, useful product, or, differ- 

 ently stated, where the food units bear the lowest ratio 

 to a unit of product. 



In presenting the matter it is necessary to first de- 

 fine our units. What shall we accept as a food unit? 

 Certainly it cannot be a pound of food as eaten. One 



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