THE MILK SUPPLY OF MASSACHUSETTS 131 



Table 1. — Pounds of Feed used per Hundredweight of Milk Produced, 

 Year's Average, 1923. 



Source: Xpw England Jlillc Producers' Association. 



Sample data are available for both winter and sunmier which show tlie 

 relative proportion of each kind of concentrated feed used in each of the 

 states. These data have been submitted to the scrutiny of men familiar 

 with the commercial movements of dairy feeds and pronounced to be in 

 reasonable agreement with trade information. Table 2 presents the data 

 in detail, showing the percentage of each kind of feed used and the net 

 thermal equivalent of each per hundredweiglit of all grain. 



In northern New England there is a certain amount of home-grown grain 

 fed to the cows. The list of concentrated feeds in Table 2 shows, however, 

 tliat nothing other than corn, oats or "provender" can come from home 

 farms. Practically all corn fed to cows is consumed as silage or stover, 

 which latter is classed with hay. Any small use of grain from local corn 

 on a few^ farms offsets the use of silage on the typical farm. Some oats 

 are grown and either fed direct to cows or exchanged as seed oats with the 

 feed dealers who supply an equivalent amount of ground oats. Even in 

 the case of oats in Maine, however, the grain is shipped in from the outside 

 i(! large quantities. These northern states, whicii do produce some coarse 

 grains, feed more of this tyjie of concentrates tiian the soutliern states do. 

 It is estimated from this fact and other evidence in Table 2 that 5 per cent 

 of the grain in Maine, 2 per cent in New Hampshire and 1 per cent in 

 Vermont is home grown. 



In southern New England little or no home-grown grain is fed except 

 ill tlie form of silage. The corn-and-cob meal fed on a few farms takes 

 tlie place of silage. Shelled corn and oats from local fields go almost 

 entirely to t1ie hogs or horses. 



No direct feeding data being available for Rhode Island, it is estimated 

 that the feeding practice in that state follows tlie average of its two neighbors, 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut. However, the estimated purchase of hay 

 from the outside is based upon the local shortage as computed from census 

 data. The relation between the feeding value of pasturage and other 

 roughage is also worked out from data applying directly to this state. 



Table 3 brings all these data together in summary form and shows the 

 final computations of the percentage relation of home-grow^n and shipped- 

 in feed to the total. The data for New England as a whole are computed 

 fiom those of the separate states, assuming that all hay is grown in New 

 England and weighting the averages by the production of milk in each 

 state. Any error arising from the particular samples taken probably under- 

 estimates the dependence of Connecticut upon outside feed and over- 

 estimates that of Maine and Veriuont. The sample should be more ac- 

 curate for Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 



The final computations show that, for New England as a whole, 23.01. 

 per cent of the milk production is based upon outside feed and 76.96 per 

 cent on home-grown supplies; while for Massachusetts the corresponding 

 figures are respectively 30.48 and 69.52 per cent. 



