FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 41 



and imports five million bushels. If we did that way, we would 

 raise eight million bushels of wheat and import a billion bush- 

 els, but we can hardly do that. But, in addition to importing 

 five million bushels of wheat, Denmark imports fifteen million 

 bushels of corn on an average, and about fifteen million bushels 

 of barley and about 800 million pounds of oil cake and the same 

 quantity of mill feed, and she produces about 180 million pounds 

 of butter and ships it to London markets, chiefly. 



If we were to produce butter in proportion to Denmark, we 

 would have to go to another world to find a market. We would 

 certainly require more. oil cake than the world produces. We do 

 as Denmark does around some of our large cities in the dairy 

 business. There we feed what we raise and buy a little more, 

 either from near neighbors, or from our Minnesota neighbors, 

 from who we buy bran. We buy cotton seed meal from Mis- 

 sissippi neighbors, and even alfalfa from Nebraska neighbors. 

 We sometimes buy bran also from our Kansas neighbors. 



I think we might consider this question from rather a 

 broad standpoint. First, in regard to the maintenance of the 

 fertility of the soils of the United States by live stock farming, 

 including dairy farming, and if you have not looked up the late 

 records of the United States Bureau of Census, I think you will 

 be interested in the data bearing directly upon that problem. 

 There are people who say all we need to do in the United States 

 to return fertility to the soil is to keep live stock and use manure. 



There were 62 million head of cattle in the United States 

 when the last census was taken. It was found that there were 

 27 million head of horses and mules which means 89 million 

 head of cattle and horses and mules, including colts and calves 

 of all ages. If we count that 10 of these animals would be 

 equivalent to 8 dairy cows, which is a fair basis, then we have 

 the equivalent of about 71 million head of cows. Then we have 

 58 million head of swine, including pigs and hogs, and 53 mil- 

 lion head of sheep, lambs, etc., and if we count that 10 pigs and 

 10 sheep of all ages are equivalent to one dairy cow for con- 

 sumption of food and production of manure, adding that to the 

 total number of cattle and horses, we have the equivalent of ap- 



