1912. 
THE RURAE NEW-VQRKER 
Li 7 7 
MAPES THE HEN MAN HELD UP. 
Because I think so much of The R. 
N.-Y. I am going to chide you, as a true 
friend should discover to a friend a griev¬ 
ous fault, even though he lose the friend. 
True “a friend should hear a friend’s in¬ 
firmities, not make them greater,” but I 
cannot bear with an infirmity of my be¬ 
loved R. N.-Y. because it is a weakness 
that is wholly unnecessary. I refer to a 
fault of inaccuracy. You know its dan¬ 
gers. its pitfalls, let other farm papers have 
that monopoly, as they have, but do you 
stickle for accuracy. There was a recent 
Instance in some figures on potato growing. 
Here is one this week, and it is signed 
by Mapes. I cannot for space go over all 
the article, but will point out briefly some 
of the glaring errors. Mr. Mapes says, at 
one place: “I have not kept a record of 
amount of grain feed used, but feel sure 
that .$50 per cow will cover it, leaving 
$100 per cow for labor and other costs.” 
Those are the sort of things that make 
me mad. Mr. Mapes, if you don’t know 
what you are talking about, shut up. You 
have no right to come into the columns of 
a paper like this with generalities. If you 
have something to say, and can back it up 
with actual facts and carefully recorded 
data, all right, but there is too much of 
this guesswork about these farming prob¬ 
lems. What riles me still more, is the im¬ 
pudence of the whole thing when a little 
later he says that December 1 the grain 
ration was increased to 16 pounds. This 
gives us something to work on, and figure 
it out yourself to save space; at present 
prices the grain feed must have cost any¬ 
where from $70 to $75. Then he passes 
over a very broad matter as to other feed and 
labor, by saying, “leaving $100 per cow 
for labor and other costs.” With hay and 
almost all roughage at its present price, 
where would that odd $79 go in maintain¬ 
ing a cow? And there is still the labor 
item. Go to, Mr. Mapes, you are a nice 
fellow and all that, and you have some 
nice hens and cows, but —“speak by the 
card equivocation is the bane of agricul¬ 
tural news to-day. Horace markley. 
New Jersey. 
The above is enough to take one’s 
breath away were it not for the fact 
that this man is barking up the wrong 
tree. The writer of it evidently be¬ 
longs to that large class of pessimists 
among milk producers and editors who 
are continually claiming that it costs 
more to produce a quart of milk than 
it brings at the farm. Let me give 
them a little good advice. “Quit 
knocking,” and “boost,” if you want 
to give dignity to farming, increase the 
selling value of our farms, and keep 
the boys and girls from getting away 
from the job as soon as mamma’s apron¬ 
string parts. 
I did not go too much into details in 
the article spoken of, not thinking the 
performance of my grade herd very re¬ 
markable, but gave myself plenty of 
leeway as I thought. I have no doubt 
there are many grade herds that are 
doing even better. My cows were too 
young to break any records. This self- 
appointed critic says “Mr. Mapes, if 
you don’t know what you are talking 
about, shut up.” Here are some facts 
in detail, and readers can judge for 
themselves whether or not I know what 
I am talking about. 
fed 10 pounds a day of grain, and often 
could not get them to eat that much. 
Our hay crop this year is short, as 
well as our beets, so on or about De¬ 
cember 1 we increased the grain ration 
to 16 pounds a day as stated, instead 
of 14 pounds as during the previous 
Winter. We thus have, January 1 to 
May 20, 140 days at 17.78 cents, $24.89; 
September 1 to December 1, 90 days, 
at 13.6 cents, $12.24; December 1 to 
December 31, 31 days, at 21.78 cents, 
$6.75; total, $43.88 of the $50 which 
I estimated. This leaves us $6.12, 
which is more than ample for the little 
that was used in Summer prior to 
September 1. 
When I said “leaving $100 per cow 
for labor and other costs,” I intended 
of course to include all costs aside from 
grain. This means labor, roughage, 
pasture, cartage, depreciation, interest, 
taxes, etc. Allowing these at fair 
figures there is not very much margin 
for profit, but there surely is some, for 
that particular year at least. This was 
probably an exceptionally good year. 
There was no abortion or tubercu¬ 
losis, and no old cows to turn off. We 
were told at the farmers' institute 
which I attended yesterday, that the 
gross sales of milk from Delaware 
County cows only average about $60 
per cow. How the owners of such 
cows can figure out any profit is a 
problem which I am perfectly willing 
for the above critic to monopolize. 
Don’t get the idea that I am particu¬ 
larly in love with the business of milk 
production, even with high-yield cows, 
for I am not. It is a sort of dog’s life 
from 5 a. m. to 6 p. m., from New 
Year’s Day to December 31, and when 
the city inspectors come and demand 
your keys and take control of opera¬ 
tions, one sometimes feels like spelling 
the dog with a c-u-r, even if he does 
not add any more letters. 
William’s lamp has been shining in 
the stable by five o’clock every morn¬ 
ing all Winter, while seven o’clock 
often finds ‘‘the hen man” still i-n bed. 
The hens need no attention before 8 
o’clock these short Winter days, and 
by four-thirty or five p. m. all should 
be snug for the night, just when the 
army of milk producing slaves is march¬ 
ing for the barn for the evening’s tussle. 
They are lucky if the stable odor is all 
removed from their hands before bed¬ 
time, even if a social function is on the 
cards for the evening. With my pres¬ 
ent plan of housing and feeding I can 
care for 200 hens in less time than 
it takes to care for one milch cow. 
How much per cow do you have left 
in a year, after you have figured all 
the items of cost except labor? 
I only have to clear 50 cents per hen 
from the 200 hens in order to have $100 
return for the same amount of time it 
takes you to milk and care for one 
cow. Get the notion out of your head 
that you must be tied to a cow’s tail 
in order to live on a farm. 
By the way, that hatch of September 
chicks which I fed under the direction 
of Prof. Rice of Cornell, began to lay 
in January. There are about 200 pul¬ 
lets in the lot and they laid 51 eggs to¬ 
day, February 27, when not yet six 
months old. o. w. mapes. 
Orcnge Co., N. Y. 
I find by referring to my books that 
early in 1911 I paid the following prices 
for grain feeds: Gluten, $26; dried 
grains, $26; cornmeal, $23; $25.40 per ton 
for mixture. This lasted until well into 
Summer. About September 1, I paid 
$26 per ton for dried grains, which 
lasted until after the close of the year. 
At the same time I bought gluten for 
$28 and cornmeal for $28, the mixed 
grain feed then costing $27.20. At the 
present time it is still higher, but we 
are not discussing 1912. Last Winter 
we had an abundance of hay as well 
as of beets, and only fed 14 pounds 
each per day of grain feed, costing 
17.78 cents per day. When pasture was 
ready, May 20, the cows were so far 
advanced in lactation that we practi¬ 
cally quit feeding grain, using just a 
handful in lieu of a dog. 
In September, October and Novem¬ 
ber, when we had an abundance of 
apples, green corn, turnips and beet 
tops, in addition to pasture, we only 
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