

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



W_.-<k» *s^--^/ 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



Vol. \III. 



NoHTHAMrToN. MASS.. .lANlAKV. 19-28 



No. ] 



TO DOUBLE YOUR 



DO YOU WORK FOR 



THE PROBLEM OF PROFITS 



EGG PRODUCTION 



A Method of Breeding for More l!jcss 

 that Succeeded at M. A. C. 



For the past eight .veais the work of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station with poultry has centered 

 about the problem of breeding for in- 

 creased egg production. A certain 

 measure of succe.ss has been reached. In 

 reporting the results of the breeding- 

 experiment the following lecommenda- 

 tions are made. They are intended only 

 for the man who is prepared to go to the 

 necessary expense, time and trouble to 

 secure high egg production. 



ESSENTIALS FOR A HIGH PKODUCING 

 FLOCK 



1. Proper management, including 

 housing, feed, .sanitation. 



2. Maintenance of vigor. It is true 

 hens of poor vigor are sometimes good 

 layers, but good vigor as a rule i.s es- 

 sential. 



3. (f() Careful trapnest egg record. 

 ih) Careful pedigree records. 



4. A good understanding of both de- 

 sirable and undesirable egg production 

 charcteristics in the flock to be improved. 



5. Families of at least .seven pullets. 



6. Pullets hatched between March 25 

 and May 15. 



METHOD OF IMPROVING EGG PRODUCTION 



The flock is to be improved by de- 

 grees, taking one desirable character at a 

 time and making sure that it is well es- 

 tablished in the flock as a whole before 

 concentrating on a second. In order to 

 be specific as possible, the following de- 

 tailed outline is given: — 



Fii-.'if Sfep. — Get the flock so that the 

 pullets will mature before 200 days of 

 age, by choosing as breeders those that 

 mature before that age. The males must 

 be from hens of the same qualifications 

 or brothers to those families of pullets 

 that give the greatest percentage of 

 qualifying males. 



Second Step. — Choose as breeders birds 

 that mature right and which are not 

 broody. This step is not necessary for 

 Leghorns. 



Third Stip. — As soon as a sufficient per- 

 centage of the fiock — say 50 per cent — 

 qualifies in these two respects, make the 

 Continued on paee 2. column 1 



PLEASURE OR PROFIT? FROM PASTURE IMPROVEMENT 



Harm Accounts Tell the Story 



Duiing the winter months is the time 

 : to start farm accounts. Your County 

 I Agent is ready to furnish you with one 

 of the Massachusetts Extension Service 

 Account Books free if you will agiee to 

 keep it. The book is simple enough for a 

 child to understand and complete enough 

 f to give you a perfect understanding of 

 your farm business. 



Be sure that this year, if never before 

 you will run the farm on a strictly busi- 

 ness basis and know whether you are 

 learning a rea.sonable day's pay or .iust 

 working for exercise. 



The County Extension Service, cooperat- 

 ing with the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, agree, to furnish you with the 

 book with complete instructions as to how 

 to use it. At the end of the year you are 

 to mail the book to the Farm Manage- 

 ment Department of the College where it 

 will be checked on an adding machine, a 

 summary made, and the_ book together 

 I with the summary and the average sum- 

 mary of your county, returned to you for 

 your own information and use. One man 

 stated that this service is worth at least 

 $25.00 to any farmer. It is yours for the 

 asking. Call up or write your County 

 Agent at once for one of these books. 



NEW FOREST LAW MAKES 

 TREES MORE ATTRACTIVE 



FARM CROP 



An inducement to farm owners of idle 

 land to plant trees as a farm crop is seen 

 by Prof. L. R. Gro.se of Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College in the new Massa- 

 chusetts forestry law effective Aug. 1, 

 1922. 



This statute, Professor Grose feels, is 

 a decided advance in forestry legislation. 

 It permits owners of growing timber to 

 have their lands classified, and thereby 

 exempts them from any tax above the 

 value of the land until the wood has 

 grown to merchantable .size. The initia- 

 tive must be taken by the landowner, who 

 should apply to his local assessors for a 

 classification of his land. Profes.sor 

 Grose is advising farmers who own idle 

 land to take advantage of this law which 



Continupd (iii page T. roUimn 2 



Acid Phosphate (iives Results on 

 Good Land 



A cow of average size eats approxi- 

 mately 40 pounds of silage and 10 

 pounds of hay per day, besides her grain 

 ration. At $24 a ton for hay and $6 a 

 ton for silage the hay and silage which 

 a cow eats costs 24 cents a day. When 

 a cow is on good pasture of course these 

 feeds are not required, so the real value 

 of pasturage, estimated in this matter, 

 is 24 cents per cow per day, of for a 

 pa.sture .season of 150 days, $36. 



Few pastures in Massachusetts are 

 good enough to carry a herd of milking 

 cows for a full pastuie season of one 

 hundred and fifty to one hundred and 

 eighty days, without some .supplemental 

 feeding, but even so the pasture does 

 make a very substantial contribution to 

 the dairyman's yearly income. In fact, 

 it has been estimated that in the typical 

 hill towns where the be.st pastures are 

 to be found the annual value of the 

 milk, meat, and maintenance produced 

 on pasture is nearly equal to the annual 

 labor income on the majority of farms. 

 If this estimate is correct, and there seem 

 to be no good grounds for questioning 

 it in principle, though it may involve a 

 slight error, then it follows that if these 

 farms were deprived of their pasturage 

 they would yield no labor income at all 

 and would necessarily cease to exist as 

 profitable or even self-.sustaining enter- 

 prises. As a matter of fact that is 

 exactly what is happening. Farms are 

 Deing deprived of their pasturage by the 

 process of exhaustion of the fertility of 

 pasture soils and reverting to brush land. 

 Pastures which not only carried but fat- 

 tened 40 head of stock fift.v years ago 

 carry 10 heads or less at present and re- 

 quire supplemented feeding at that. 

 Further continuance of this trend certain- 

 ly would mean seriously diminished 

 profits from such faiTns and probably 

 would necessitate abandonment of a gi-eat 

 many of them. This being the case, it 

 seems that the future prosperity of such 

 farms is dependent upon the development 

 of some practicable method of pasture 

 improvement. 



The problem is a particularly difficult 

 Continuefl on pjigp n, rohiinn :i 



