THE GENERAL ASPECTS OF ANIMAL BREEDING 445 
breeds of livestock is made up of elements drawn from that variety of 
material which constituted the early foundation stock; the hereditary 
material for the most part represents a recombination of factors already 
existing rather than discovery and utilization of new factors. 
The Animal-breeding Industry.—Any just conception of the extent 
and magnitude of the animal-breeding industry can only be gained by a 
consideration of the statistics of animal industry. In crude form these 
are given for the United States in Table LVII. The total number of the 
major kinds of livestock on date January 1, 1916, exceeded 200,000,000. 
TasLe LVIJ.—Estimatep NUMBER AND VALUE OF LIVESTOCK ON THE FARMS OF THE 
UniTEeD Srares on JANuARY 1, 1916 
Kind of stock Number Average value Total value 
| 
Orsest eet ee turt aoe te 21,166,000 | $101.60 | $2, 150,468,000 
Mules teeter nes 4,565,000 113.87 | 519,824,000 
Dairy cattle.............. 21,988,000 53.90 | 1,185,119,000 
Beef cattle............... 39,453,000 34.49 1,321,135,000 
Sheeper eee eee eee 49,162,000 5.17 254,348,000 
Swine ee eles eee 68,047,000 8.40 571,890,000 
reece eS Ihe 5 Sle rian ak EST 
TRRHIG, Seve eee mean ex 204,381,000 | 6,002,784,000 
Their total value which was perhaps slightly augmented by war conditions 
obtaining at that time was in excess of $6,000,000,000. Animal 
industry on an average contributes over 35 per cent. of the total 
income of the agricultural industries. These totals when examined 
closely show how great is the need and opportunity for improvement. 
For in this connection it is the average value which is of most importance, 
and average values as given here do not reflect much credit on the quality 
of livestock in the United States as a whole. 
Particularly is this true when the average value or production is com- 
pared with the high-water marks which have been reached within the 
past few years. Thus to consider a matter upon which we can get fairly 
specific statistical data of value as a basis of comparison, the average 
production of the dairy cow in this country is about 3500 pounds of milk, 
yielding about 150 pounds of butter. The figures are not very accurate, 
but they are sufficiently so for purposes of comparison. We may compare 
this figure with the records which have been made by pure-bred cows of 
dairy breeds. Thus the Holstein-Friesian record is above 30,000 pounds 
of milk, and is very nearly 1500 pounds of butter. The Jersey record 
stands at about 1200 pounds of butter, and other breeds are not far be- 
hind. The Holstein-Friesian cow Tilly Alcartra produced almost as 
much milk and butter in 1 month as does the average cow in 1 year. 
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