ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 



STATION -- 1941 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 

 AND FARM MANAGEMENT 



A. H. Lindsey in Charge 



Competitive Factors Influencing tlie Supply of Market Milk and Cream in 

 Massachusetts. (A. A. Brown and Alabelle Booth.) The manuscript on the 

 Production and Price of Milk in the Springfield-Holyoke-Chicopee Milkshed 

 has reached the final stages of editing. This report is the third in a series per- 

 taining to the shed and represents a tentative appraisal of the forces aifecting 

 the crigin of the milk supply. The principal one appears to be the system of 

 pricing f. o. b. the market. In secondary markets this type of pricing underlies 

 the inefficiencies in transportation which in turn are probably a cause of the non- 

 economic pattern of milksheds. A reasonable correction would seem to be a shift 

 to pricing f. o. b. the farm. 



An Analysis of Selected Merchandising Practices in the Fruit and Vegetable 

 Industry. (A. A. Brown and Mabelle Booth.) A record of the operations on the 

 Boston Regional Produce Market in 1941 has been secured in addition to that of 

 1940. Cursory examination indicates that conditions were similar in both seasons. 

 Most of the farmers using the market are small operators. The majority of them 

 used it only a few times during the season. A few of them, however, are large 

 operators who supplied the bulk of the produce. 



The financial situation of the market corporation is its chief obstacle to growth. 

 Because of this, the fixed plant remains undeveloped. Until a greater degree of 

 permanency is assured, improvements such as store and storage facilities are not 

 probable. Lack of these facilities keeps wholesalers and jobbers away from the 

 market; shipped-in produce is not generally available; buyers go to other markets 

 where complete supplies may be had. 



Crop and Livestock Enterprise Relationships to the Farm Business in Massa- 

 chusetts, (C. R. Creek.) 



Vegetable Growing in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in 1940. Records of the 

 farm business were obtained on 22 specialized vegetable farms and on 10 livestock- 

 vegetable farms for 1940. Since the season was more nearly normal than in 1939 

 in regard to yields and prices for vegetable crops, the 22 specialized farms showed 

 a net cash return over cash operating expenses ranging from a gain of $8,022 to 

 a loss of $270 per farm. 



Average returns for the livestock- vegetable farms were lower than for the 

 specialized vegetable farms in 1940. The livestock enterprises showed a return 

 over costs but the important crops — potatoes, sweet corn, and cabbage — were 

 relatively unprofitable in 1940. On many farms income from the livestock enter- 

 prises prevented a loss in net returns. 



Recommendations for improved practices and management were made on the 

 basis of results obtained from this study. Many small farms have incurred un- 

 necessary losses in recent years chiefly because of poor management and lack of 

 adjustment to changing conditions in vegetable growing and marketing. 



Results of this study were published in Mimeograph FM8 in October 1941, 

 under the title, "Vegetable Growing in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in 1940." 



