•il4 RURAL NEW YORK 



KixmpUm. Most of the island is iiiisiiited to produc- 

 ing t'orao;e economically and its geographical situation 

 plai'cs a heavy embargo on the importation of con- 

 centrated feed because it must pass through the heav- 

 ily congested traffic region of New York City. 



In the centers of most intensive fruit-production, 

 the south shore of Lake Ontario, the grape-belt, the 

 Seneca-Keuka Lakes region and in the Hudson Val- 

 ley fruit area, the cow has a secondary place. The 

 aggregate area of these regions is relatively small. 

 In the Genesee Valley, dairying is about coordinate 

 with cash crops and with sheep. But even here the 

 cow maintains a place of very considerable im- 

 portance. 



The year-round demand for market milk with the 

 consequent higher price, the opportunity to use the 

 stored roughage of the farm and the possibility of 

 better utilizing labor, liavc combined to make winter 

 dairying the general practice. The silo has been no 

 small factor in the transition from almost exclusive 

 summer dairying. By winter dairying is meant the 

 practice of arranging for the cows to freshen in fall in- 

 stead of in the spring. In summer dairying the cows 

 received very little concentrated feed. A very large 

 flow of milk was -ecured in spring and a fair supply 

 during the summer and fall months, produced by the 

 pasture alone. The cows were wintered almost ex- 

 clusively on roughage and consequently they gave 

 very little milk in that period. Under this system 

 the cost of producing milk was the lowest possible 

 for the labor and feed employed. By the winter 



