Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/586

582 better treatment and in considering the means or methods of obtaining for them more complete and efficient protection it is necessary to take into account several somewhat distinct topics, namely:

 1. The value of domesticated animals as servants of man and producers of food and clothing for the human family, 2. The sanitary significance of the diseases of animals communicable to man, and 3. The methods best adapted to afford them better conditions of life as determined by the accumulation of knowledge concerning their hygienic and physiological requirements.

If we consider the place animals actually occupy as servants of man and as factors in our economic and living conditions we shall at once recognize the necessity for their proper protection. The dog, ox and horse have served as the great burden bearers in nearly if not all the important industries that have to do with the production and distribution of food. This service will continue to be important. In 1873, when this country was swept with an epizootic among horses, commerce was paralyzed, crops were unharvested, and had this disease been of long duration much human suffering would have prevailed.

The value of animals in the food-producing and other industries can perhaps be best understood from a few statistics concerning the place of animals and animal products in agriculture. The agricultural products of New York state for 1911 were valued at $350,000,000 of which $141,000,000, or nearly two fifths, of the total was of animal origin. More than this, the hay and forage, which constitute one third of the vegetable products of the state, are valuable only because of animals. In Massachusetts, of the annual farm production of $59,000,000, $27,000,000 are credited to animals and dairy products. If we take the United States as a whole, we find that in 1910 the total annual income from agriculture was $8,500,000,000 of which $3,000,000,000, or more than 35 per cent., belongs to the animal kingdom.

It is difficult to appreciate the magnitude of the animal industry of this country. The last census report states that there were in the United States 24,148,580 horses; 61,803,866 cattle, of which 20,625,432 were milch cows; 52,447,861 sheep and lambs; 58.185,676 swine and 292,880,000 fowls. Although these numbers are large, the report shows a decrease since 1900 of 3,485,971 beef cattle, 8,011,326 sheep and 4,682,000 swine. There has been an increase in the number of dairy cows, horses and poultry. The total value of farm animals in 1910 was $5,296,422,000 or about 12 per cent, of the value of all farm property, including land, buildings and equipment ($40,991,000,000).

The report of the chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry shows that the federal meat inspectors in 1911 passed for food 52.776, 855 carcasses of cattle, sheep and swine. In addition to the fresh meat consumed, there were processed under inspection 6,934,233,214 pounds of meat and