DOES LIVE STOCK PAY? 69 



Lack of inclination to dispose of unprofitable 

 stock is a more serious problem, for if farmers with 

 the information at hand refuse to avail themselves 

 of it, there is no means of compelling them to do it. 

 The average of intelligence, however, is becoming 

 higher and higher on the American farm, so that 

 this problem will shortly solve itself. Further than 

 this, it has been demonstrated so ' clearly that un- 

 profitable animals are a serious detriment to 

 American agriculture that no wide-awake farmer 

 will tolerate them. Get rid of the unprofitable herd 

 as soon as possible. Do not breed from such stock 

 and unprofitable animals will soon disappear. 

 Fatten the unprofitable cow, sheep or hog immedi- 

 ately and get it out of the way. An unprofitable 

 dairy cow may have to be sold at a small figure, 

 but the thing to do is to fatten her and send her to 

 the slaughterhouse without delay. 



Probably one of the greatest sources of loss by 

 unprofitable live stock is keeping dairy cows that 

 do not return enough in the way of production to 

 pay for their keep. Before the advent of the Bab- 

 cock test and the schemes for analyzing and valu- 

 ing feeds, there might have been some excuse for 

 not knowing just what the dairy cow was worth 

 from year to year. With all these devices, how- 

 ever, it is now easily possible to determine just 

 how much a cow eats during a given period, deter- 

 mine its cost, and then compare the cost of feed 

 and handling with the return from the pail for a 

 few weeks or a few months and you will know what 

 the cow is worth to you for the year. Those that 

 do not produce at least $io to $15 above the cost of 

 production should be disposed of immediately. No 

 one should be satisfied with a herd that does not net 

 him between $35 and $50 per head per year above 



