.11)18.] FUTURE OF THE NEW ENGLAXU L1\E STOCK INDUSTRY. 57 



make a profitable live stock industry. Jf the fields are too 

 restricted and the farms t(jo small to make this change prcjfit- 

 able, it may be that the farm is one uf those which was never 

 meant tu have been cultiwited, and which should never have 

 been cleared. 



(5) "We are already short of labor, so why suggest a 

 •change that will take more labor?" 



^ly answer to this is that the suggested change will take 

 no more of human labor, although admittedly it will use the 

 teams which we already have to much better advantage. Let 

 me say, furthermore, that this last is aljsolutely necessary. 

 New England is a witch-grass country. Her stone walls 

 serve most excellently and efficiently as witch-grass nurseries. 

 \A'ith corn as her only grain crop, the possible area has had 

 to be limited to that which could be hand-hoed, for corn in a 

 witch-grass country can hardly be grown without some hand 

 work. This has really limited the production of clovers. 

 More grain can be grown without decreasing our present 

 acreages of other crops, but simply because the labor on 

 these crops is mainly at a time of the year which conflicts 

 neither with corn production nor with the making of the hay 

 crop. 



We Must Develop a Market for Small Grains. 



Now there is one objection that has great force and that is 

 that even if our farmers grow more of the small grains, just 

 now we have no market for the products, no place where the 

 grain can be milled, or flour and milk producing by-products 

 manufactured. Unfortunately this is partly true, for the New 

 England gristmill has long since disappeared and ceased to 

 be one of our cherished institutions. Do you realize that one 

 thousand acres of wheat or rye will furnish flour enough for 

 a communit}^ of three thousand people? And, furthermore, 

 •do you know that if a grain mill can have the guarantee of the 

 product of one thousand acres of wheat or rye it will be 

 worth while to install the necessary milling and bolting ma- 

 chinery? And, finally, have you not recently seen that in the 

 State of Connecticut today there are l)Ut fifty-six mills scat- 

 tered here and there over the state, which are actually making 

 flour from home grown grains? Yes, there is force in this 

 -suggestion, but the problem is very easy of solution. 



