(7) The management of live stock, including the rearing of poultry and the manipulation of dairy products, may be made to require a higher skill than the production of farm crops as ordinarily practiced. The communities which have given the most attention to dairying and to the rearing and fattening of animals have generally been the most prosperous. DISADVANTAGES OF KEEPING LIVE STOCK (1) Keeping live stock increases the capital required to operate a given area of land, especially where animals are kept in connection with the production of hay and grain. Not only must there be capital with which to purchase animals, but usually more is invested in buildings. In a self-contained farm--that is, one which raises sufficient food for the requirements of the live stock--ten dollars an acre may be considered a moderate investment for animals. If, however, the plan is to raise only the coarse feed, while the necessary grain as well as other concentrates is largely purchased, a farm may easily carry from $25 to $35 worth of live stock per acre. Lack of capital is one of the most potent influences in preventing a larger production of animals and animal products. Cattle paper, or notes given to secure money for the purchase of fattening animals, is a common bank asset in the feeding districts of the central West. (2) The very perishable nature of animals entails a great risk in the investment of capital in live stock. Not only the products of a single year, but the growth of a number of years, may be suddenly swept away by disease. This may include the crops of several years, thus destroying capital invested in the production of the crops as well as the capital originally invested in the animals. Many a farmer has seen the gradual accumulations of years rapidly melt away in the presence of some contagious disease. Tuberculosis in cattle, cholera in hogs and liver rot in sheep are striking examples of diseases that have caused the farmers of this country untold losses. (3) When an animal has been properly fattened he must be sold. If held for any great length of time, not only is there a constant outlay for food to maintain the animal, but the condition of the animal may actually deteriorate. Hence it is not possible to hold animals for a better market for a long period of time, as is possible in the case of the cereal grains.