The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-02

vantage of less fertile soils.
Of no small advantage is orr large
areas of cheap lands, and espe :ia,ly
of large areas now unused or noI-
productive. AS lands advance in price
beyond a certain point the tendency
is for the dairy cow to displace the
beef steer, because she is a more eco
nomical producer of human food.
But she requires more IRE and at
tention, not to say more intelligent
personal attention, and u cheap
lands, therefore, offer special attrac-
tons for beef production at this time
Silage and C~ottonseed Meal Our Best
Feeds
Northern experiment stations are
now demonstrating, as the writer's
experience proved to his own salts
faction ten years ago, that the cheap
est or most economical feeds for fin
fishing or fattening beef cattle are
silage and cottonseed meal. While
this disposes of the fallacy that the
South cannot finish her beef cattle, it
gives US no large advantage, not al
ready mentioned. Unless we produce
two forage crops a year our advan-
tage of cheaper cottonseed meal will
be balanced by greater cost for sill
age.
These are important basic advan-
tages. In fact, the conditions now
existing in the South, are apparently
the only ones favorable to the con-
tinued economical production of beef
in this country. 1t is not so much in
numbers, as in fundamental impor-
lance, that these advantages point to
the profitable production of beef in
the South.
Some Of Our Disadvantages
But we are not without our disad-
vantages, and it may not be amiss to
consider the obstacles to beef pro-
duction in the South. That these OBJ
stacles are largely, if not entirely
surmountable makes it none the less
important that they be seriously con-
sidered. These obstacles may be di-
vided into three general classes; first,
climatic; second, soils; and third,
business.
The obstacles resulting from eli
matte conditions are long, hot sum-
mers--heat; a heavy rainfall result
ing in mud in winter, and erosion at
all times; and the combination of
heat and moisture, which tend to
cause a greater damage from para
sites, such as ticks, flies, etc.
These are obstacles which it is the
duty of the livestock man to over
come. They are only serious when
not overcome, but as they may be
overcome with small effort they offer
no serious obstacle to livestock pro-
duction.
Our soil conditions which offer OBJ
stacles to livestock production are
much more important and serious.
The chief obstacle to livestock pro-
duction arising from soil conditions
is that u soils generally lack fer
tility. Successful livestock produc-
ton is as dependent on fertile soils
as other farm production. The basis
of successful livestock production is
large yields of feedstuffs or forage.
1t is true that livestock production
tends to preserve, and under proper
management to increase, soil fertili-
ty; but the most important produc-
ton is feed, and this depends largely
on soil fertility. Let US not deceive
ourselves; the greatest obstacle to
successful beef production in the
South is lack of soil fertility. 1t is a
surmountable difficulty, but it is a
real difficulty just the same, and
should not be underestimated.
Another serious obstacle to sue
cessful beef production in the South
is a lack of good pastures. This alb
sence of good pastures is due to all
three of the general classes of obsta-
cles mentioned,-climate, soils and
the absence of proper management.
Our heavy rainfall, while an ad-
vantage in some respects, also has