Dairy Farming

  Although cattle of the dairy breeds are kept primarily for milking purposes, they furnish nearly one-half Of the beef supply of the United States; and in addition they are the source of nearly all the veal that goes to market, amounting to more than nine million head annually.
  As population becomes more dense and land values higher, a still larger proportion of the meat supply will come from dairy animals. This condition has long existed in Europe, where beef is
primarily a by-product of dairying; and there is evidence that the same factors are at work in America.
  From 1900 to 1936 the number of dairy cows in the United States increased 67 per cent, while the increase in those classed as beef animals was only 0.8 per cent. Between 1900 and 1910 the numbers of beef animals actually decreased, while the dairy herds were materially expanded. The fundamental reason for this is the greater efficiency of the dairy cow as a producer of human food.