ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 205 



farms for two years indicated that as high as 98 per 

 cent of the grain is purchased. This is undoubtedly 

 considerably higher than the average. The general 

 effort on the part of farmers is to grow more protein 

 in the form of leguminous hays, and to some ex- 

 tent roots, thereby reducing the amount of grain 

 that must be purchased. 



While the total number of animal units has been 

 fairly constant, there has been a large shift in the 

 relative number of the different types of live-stock. 

 Cows have regularly increased in number throughout 

 the last sixty-seven years. Other cattle have fluctu- 

 ated considerably. Horses reached a maximum in 

 1890 and have been decreasing since that time with 

 the exception of the last two or three years when 

 there seems to have been some return of interest in 

 their production. This may be due, however, to the 

 increase in the acreage of tilled crops which require 

 more horse power. Sheep reached their maximum 

 in 1845 with a secondary maximum in 1900 since 

 which date they have rapidly decreased until in 1917 

 their number, about 600,000, was only 10 per cent 

 of that in 1845 and 35 per cent of that in 1900. 

 Swine have decreased irregularly from their high 

 point in numbers in 1840. At that date there was 

 nearly 2,000,000 swine of all ages in the State. They 

 had fallen off somewhat by 1860 and heavily by 1870, 

 the post war period, after which they increased to 

 1890 when the number was 843,000. Since that year 

 they have undergone a general decrease. In 1910 

 there were 660,000 swine, while in 1917 there were 



