lO MAINE AGRICUI^TURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I917. 



Animal Industry of the Federal Department of Agriculture^ 

 particularly so far as concerns the registration of imported 

 animals. 



The statistical data given in the foregoing discussion are 

 by no means complete, but they serve sufficiently well the 

 present purpose, which is simply to give some conception of 

 the magnitude of the live stock breeding industry and its impor- 

 tance as a source of wealth to the nation. .No account has 

 been taken of other than farm live stock, and such obviously 

 represents only a part of the animals which somebody has to- 

 breed to supply the needs of the people. Further, nothing has 

 been said about poultry, which represents an important industry 

 in itself. Altogether, however, the following statement by 

 Heape,^. in concluding a review of the value of the breeding 

 industry in England, is as well justified by conditions in this 

 country, as in the country for which it was written. He says : 



All I have attempted is, to give such a broad idea of the nunnber 

 and value of live stock in the kingdom, as the careful consideration 

 of evidence I have been able to obtain, permits. I have taken the 

 utmost care to avoid exaggeration, and in this, at any rate, I have- 

 reason to think I have succeeded. 



When it is recollected that the Board of Agriculture returns are 

 below, may be 10 per cent or even more below the correct figures ; 

 when it is recollected what a large proportion of the people in the- 

 country, farmers, dealers, shopkeepers, farm-laborers, working men 

 of various kinds, and gentlemen's servants, make their living in one 

 way or another by means of stock; when it is recollected what a very 

 large number of valuable animals there are in this country, as shown- 

 by a sale of yearlings at Newmarket, the. prices obtained at the dis- 

 persal of a herd of Shorthorns or a flock of Southdowns, the value of 

 a successful horse on the turf, of a good hunter, polo pony, pair of 

 carriage-horses or car-horses, of a couple of pointers, a spaniel, a bull- 

 dog or lap-dog, etc., when such facts are borne in mind I do not think 

 there can be found justification for objection to the final figures I have 

 arrived at on the score of excess ; and yet they show a total sum of 

 nearly £450,000,000 invested in live stock in this country. 



When to this is added the capital necessary to provide both buildings 

 to house the stock, land on which to grow their food, barns, machinery, 

 vehicles, harness and attendance, the total becomes so gigantic that I am 

 surely justified in asserting: We have here an industry of enormous 

 importance to the country, and one which merits far more attention than 

 has ever yet been accorded to it. 



^Heape, W., "The Breeding Industry," Cambridge, 1906.. 



