STOCK BREEDING INDUSTRY. 3 



TABLE I. 



Showing the Numbers of Different Breeds of British Live Stock. 



Number of Distinct 

 British Breeds and 

 Kind of Stock _ Varieties 



Horses 17 



Beef cattle 13 



Dairy cattle 7' 



Sheep 34 



Swine 8 



It is evident from this table that the skill of the English 

 breeder has well justified the reputation it has created for 

 the British Isles as one of the chief sources of the pure-bred 

 live stock of the world. 



To produce the world's supply of domestic animals, which 

 we have seen to be the business of the animal breeder, is a 

 task of great magnitude. Resort must be had to statistics' 

 if any just conception is to be formed of the extent and im- 

 portance of this breeding industry. We shall confine our atten- 

 tion to the United States, remembering that except in certain 

 rather restricted lines, the animal-breeding industry in this 

 country has as yet had no special or intensive development. 



The following table shows the number of living domestic 

 animals of various kinds which were on farms in the United 

 States on January i, 1912, together with their estimated farm 

 value. The figures take no account of the vast number of 

 horses, for example, which are not on farms. 



^Counting the Dairy Shorthorn as a distinct variety. 



*The raw data on which the following statistical discussion is based 

 are taken from the official returns of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, as published in the Yearbooks. The writer is, of course, 

 responsible for the treatment of these figures here developed and for 

 the deductions made. 



The fact that the statistics here used are three years old in no wise 

 invalidates the conclusions. Essentially the same conclusions would 

 be reached from- a survey of the stock-breeding industry in any normal 

 year. Of course just at the present time industrial conditions of all 

 sorts, including stock-breeding, are upset by war conditions. On that 

 account, indeed, it is altogether probable that the facts as here pre- 

 sented give a much more nearly normal picture of the industry than 

 would statistics for the years 1914 or 1915. 



