CHAPTER II 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LIVE-STOCK PRO- 
DUCTION 
Tuer West is essentially a live-stock country and must 
remain such because of the fact that we have an immense 
quantity of feed in the form of grass and hay which can- 
not be used directly for support of the human race and 
which must, therefore, be converted into live-stock be- 
fore it can serve any useful purpose. This includes the 
millions of acres of grass, the alfalfa produced in the ir- 
rigation sections, and the straw, stubble, and waste from 
the grain fields and meadows. On the cultivated farms 
the great value of live-stock is to consume waste which 
would otherwise be unmarketable, and to maintain the 
fertility of the soil. About the only part of the cultivated 
areas of the West in which fertility has in any way ma- 
terially diminished up to date is in the humid sections of 
western Oregon and Washington. In the other parts 
fertility is still very high. It behooves all farmers, how- 
ever, not to allow the fertility to run down, as it is much 
easier to take land which is already in a good state of 
fertility and maintain it as such, than to take land which 
is run down and attempt to restore it. 
BREEDING 
The production of live-stock depends on two things: 
first, the ability of the animals to multiply or increase 
their kind, and secondly, their ability to grow, in other 
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