30 BULLETIN 651, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



annually per hen being the chief cause of losses. Most farms raised 

 chickens for home use only, as under present conditions there is only 

 a very limited market for the surplus products. The number of 

 chickens per farm in any region is usually influenced by the type 

 of agriculture. Chickens are kept largely as scavengers, and the 

 section that produces grain and live stock is the one where the most 

 chickens are found. On most farms of a general type, when chickens 

 have to be fed to any considerable extent, they become unprofitable 

 unless handled with, the skill of a professional poultryman. In 

 Anderson County, where so high a percentage of the land is planted 

 in cotton, and where such a comparatively small amount of grain 

 is grown and not much live stock kept, it does not take many chickens 

 to consume the waste, and when more than the number needed for 

 this is kept, only a few farmers find them profitable. 



There are evidences on every hand that although live stock has and 

 should have an important place on the farms for home use, the county 

 as" a whole is not well adapted to live-stock production. It takes feed 

 to grow live stock. The kind of live stock grown on the farms of 

 the Belton area is an indication of the shortage of the feed supply and 

 the high cost of producing feed in this region. The work stock are 

 mostly mules, the cattle have a high percentage of Jersey blood, and 

 the chickens are small sized and of the egg-laying strains — all facts 

 attributable to the limited supply of feed. Regions that have an 

 abundance of feed use horses instead of mules, produce as a rule 

 cattle of larger frame than the Jerseys, and grow chickens of the meat- 

 producing strains. In few sections of the country is less feed wasted 

 than in such regions as the Belton area. Fodder was "pulled" on 

 every one of the 112 farms surveyed and from practically all of the 

 corn that was grown. Any kind of forage that can not be profitably 

 harvested is pastured some time during the year. One main cause, 

 therefore, of the status of live stock on these farms is the short supply 

 of feed and the high cost of producing it. 



The keeping of live stock on these farms is, like the growing 

 of feed crops, profitable only when primarily for home consump- 

 tion. Dairy and poultry products are substantial articles of diet that 

 no farmer can well afford to be without, even though the cost of pro- 

 duction is high. Usually, however, even on cotton farms, some of the 

 land pastured or the feed used would be wasted were it not for cattle. 

 A few hogs can also be profitably kept, but the number is not large. 



A few farms are apparently finding dairying in a small way profit- 

 able under their conditions. On these farms in most cases the fami- 

 lies are large, and the work is done by the operator and his family. 

 The family labor is comparatively cheap, which makes it easier to se- 

 cure a profit from cows. Hired labor would make unprofitable some 

 of the cows on the farms where they are now profitable. 



