28 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 430 



the Milk Control Board, which already has been responsible for a considerable 

 degree of improvement in various stages of distribution. The main advantages 

 of all the economy measures in production and distribution will be that the price 

 of milk, while being maintained at a level providing a fair return to producers, 

 will also be such as to encourage rather than curtail the sale of this important 

 product to the consumer. 



Taking the country as a whole, there has been a 9.5 percent increase in the 

 number of cows during the war years. Milk production per cow, however, has 

 increased only slightly. In the postwar period, under favorable economic con- 

 ditions, it should be possible to increase the total production of milk as the result 

 of both larger numbers of cows and higher production per cow. Massachusetts 

 must make the most of this situation if it is to maintain at least its present rela- 

 tive position in the nation's dairy production. More, however, could be expected 

 in view of the prospects for newly developed improvements in the dairy industry 

 in the State. 



Poultry Farming 



The poultry- industry in Massachusetts has been on the increase over a con- 

 siderable period of time. As will be seen from Chart 3, the number of chickens 

 on farms was expanding rapidly, even prior to the war. During the war, produc- 

 tion of poultry meat and eggs was further accelerated (Chart 4). With the short- 

 age of meat and other animal products, poultry production was the easiest way to 

 expand and get quick results. The production of eggs for market has always been 

 an important factor in Massachusetts agriculture, although in the prewar period 

 only about 40 million eggs were produced, which filled less than 40 percent of 

 local consumption requirements. During wartime the quantity of eggs produced 

 was boosted over 45 percent which provided almost 50 percent of the wartime 

 consumption of eggs. The production of poultry meat, largely commercial 

 broilers, more than doubled, as compared with the prewar period. 



MIUUION^ 



1S80 



f 890 



4000 



1910 



iseo 



19»d 



^9Ao 



Chart 3. Chickens on Massachusetts Farms, 1880-1940. 

 Source: U. S. Census (The date of enumeration has varied from January 1 to June 1). 



