G56 
THE RURAL NEW-YOR KER 
May 1, lnir,. 
Milk Production Problems 
PASTURE OR SUMMER SILOS. 
For the hill farmer who takes up dairy¬ 
ing. the providing of sufficient forage to 
keep up a normal flow of milk during a 
drought season often is a serious problem. 
When a cow freshens in the Spring it is 
very important that her milk flow be kept 
up during July. August and September if 
she is to pay for her feed throughout the 
Winter. Pasture grasses on rich lands in 
the corn belt, as well as in the hill sec¬ 
tion. will not furnish succulent feeds suffi¬ 
cient for the cow's needs for more than 
three months, unless there is an abun¬ 
dance of rain, and almost invariably there 
is a failure of rainfall in all localities. 
Where there is plenty of pasture land 
fields can be provided where the grass can 
be held in reserve. Pdne grass, if allowed 
to grow unmolested, will furnish a great 
deal of feed for the late Summer. How¬ 
ever. few farmers have so large a terri¬ 
tory that they can afford to hold any of 
it in reserve. It is a question whether an 
investment in reserve land would pay as 
well as the practice of feeding soiling 
crops or filling a silo for Summer use. 
There is a question to be raised wheth¬ 
er more labor is not required feeding soil¬ 
ing crops than would be necessary to fill 
a silo and open it up for Summer use. It 
is plain that feeding silage would be 
much handier, and weather conditions 
would never interfere with the work. 
Feeding green cut forage in the rain 
would be a difficult undertaking. The 
only disadvantage about filling an addi¬ 
tional silo each Fall for use the follow¬ 
ing Summer would be that of having cap¬ 
ita! tied up for several months in the ex¬ 
tra feed. 
Several farmers through this section of 
the State are beginning the practice of 
feeding silage during the drought season. 
Such a silo gives an opportunity for win¬ 
tering a greater number of cows. We 
have found, however, that the building of 
a second silo in many instances causes 
the farmer simply to increase his herd 
and make them all subsist on shoi't pas¬ 
ture each drought season, when a small¬ 
er herd sorted with care and fed silage 
during late Summer and Fall would un¬ 
doubtedly yield a greater income. 
Several things are to be learned from 
feeding silage while cows are on short 
pasture. Unlike dry hay. silage is so 
palatable that cows will come in to the 
barn from pasture and eat a half ration 
of it, and if kept up during the night each 
cow will clean up her full morning ration 
before being turned out for the day. An¬ 
other advantage that a combination of 
grass and silage as a cow’s ration has is 
that the grass gives the butter its rich 
color, and also unless unusually dry sup¬ 
plies quite a little protein to help balance 
the silage. And as for the benefit to the 
flow of milk one has only to try feeding 
silage during the Summer to note imme¬ 
diately the increase in the yield of milk. 
There is one more way in which feeding 
silage he]iis the cow. To gather sufficient 
grass during a dry season to satisfy her 
appetite causes a cow to travel over a 
large territory and use up a groat deal of 
energy. After eating a ration of silage 
she goes off and lies down, or fights flies 
in the shade, letting her energies go 
toward increasing her flow of milk. 
Ohio. n. u. cobb. 
A Comparison of Milk Prices. 
The New Jersey Herald recently print¬ 
ed an article by a well-known milk pro¬ 
ducer which contained an analysis of the 
Borden milk prices—offered for the next 
six months: 
“They certainly are a surprise in two 
ways. First they are graduated accord¬ 
ing to butterfat which in itself is a com¬ 
mendable thing, as good milk ought to 
bring more than poor: and the seller gets 
according to what he has. But the prices 
are too low for the producer to make a 
profit. Secondly, it may not have been 
noticed by all that the prices are a great 
reduction from last year’s prices. Below 
find the prices paid last year and those 
promised for the next six months: 
1914. 1915. 
$1.70 April.$1.55 per 100 lbs. 
$1.45 Mav.$1.30 per 100 lbs. 
$1.40 June.$1.24 per 100 lbs. 
$1.55 July.$1.40 per 100 lbs. 
$1.70 August.$1.56 per 100 lbs. 
$1.80 September.$1.65 per 100 lbs. 
“These are the prices paid and prom¬ 
ised for milk testing 3.8% butterfat. It 
is not difficult to see that this is a drop 
of about 15 cents per 100 pounds, and 
all producers know that last year's prices 
were considerable below what they were 
two, three and four years ago. How is 
the producer going to pay $100 or more 
for cows and sell milk for such prices? 
He must be a good dairyman to make a 
profit. Surely the average dairyman can 
not. make a profit, on these prices if he 
takes into account the price of labor and 
the depreciation of the cow. The Bor¬ 
den prices for the year from October 1. 
1914. to Oct. 1, 1915, will be a trifle over 
3 7-10 cents per quart for 3.8% milk, 
and a small proportion of the producers 
are able to produce milk that will test 
3.8 butterfat. Unless the producer of 
milk has some secret he did not have five 
years ago we ask how he can pay 50% 
more for cows and take about 20% less 
for his product? Borden's or any other 
milk dealer are not going to pay more 
than they need to pay for milk. Is it 
not getting time for the producer to set 
a price on the article he has to sell? If 
(according to the N. J. experiment sta¬ 
tion, at New Brunswick) it costs 3 */> 
cents per quart to produce milk, how 
much profit is the owner of 20 cows go¬ 
ing to make if he sells his milk for 3 7-10 
cents per quart? He would make 2-10 
cent on one quart and on 2,700 quarts 
the product of one cow. lie would make 
the enormous profit of $5.40 per cow, or 
$108.00 from 20 cows. Any one can 
readily see that with the price of con¬ 
centrates advancing, the time is soon 
here when dairying cannot be carried on 
at a profit. The price of milk ought to 
be advancing instead of receding. Let 
some producer show us where his profits 
come from. The market, is flooded with 
milk, hence the low price. Can the milk- 
producer turn to something else? Not 
very well. His laud has gotten where 
he cannot raise grain at a profit, and 
he can’t turn to potatoes or fruit, for 
there is almost no profit in these. By 
the time he has raised some young stock 
the price will drop and the number of 
cows will have multiplied.” 
New England Milk Conditions. 
At a meeting of the directors of the 
New England Milk Producers’ Associa¬ 
tion held in Boston recently some im¬ 
portant business was done. In the gen¬ 
eral talk the fact was brought out that 
in some sections of Massachusetts seven 
inspections of dairies are made per year, 
while in other States from which the 
Boston supply comes no inspection has 
been made for two or more years. The 
general opinion was that insnection is a 
farce as now conducted. The premium 
system used by the Hood Milk Co. has 
worked fairly well, still many have not 
received them, but believe the- are en¬ 
titled to them. A committee was appoint¬ 
ed to form some plan or policy to have 
a system of inspection for all alike, and 
have competent men as inspectors, and 
urge this be brought about by the proper 
authorities. It was voted to demand that 
the price be the same- in all localities 
where the cost of getting to market was 
the same: this to remedy the present cases 
where milk in two or three sections, each 
equal distance from Boston, varies in 
price two or more cents per can of 8!{> 
quarts. Also at. present milk is bought 
and paid for in different units of measure, 
some by 8%-quart cans, some in 2144- 
quart cans, some in 40-quart cans, others 
by the 100 pounds and so on. To work 
to have all this bought by some unit of 
measure would be more practical and sat¬ 
isfactory to most people concerned. Also 
in regard to paying for milk each month. 
It —as decided to demand that all buyers 
pay by the 15th of following month for 
all milk taken the month before. This 
has in the past been a bad feature, some 
buyers being one to three months behind 
at times, especially the past Winter and 
one or two firms have made this a prac¬ 
tice for several years past. 
In regard to prices to be paid this 
Summer conditions in some ways are bad. 
and to get any increase over last Sum¬ 
mer's price seemed out of question. The 
two leading contractors have agreed to 
pay the same as last year. 
The Turner Centre Creamery of Maine 
which in the past has been a large sell¬ 
er of wholesale milk in Boston is to 
start in the retail business very soon, and 
expects to sell on the cash in advance 
ticket plan, at 10 quarts for 75 cents nr 
7*4 cents per quart, this may cause other 
contractors to cut prices, which in turn 
will affect the producer if milk should 
become plenty. There is no prospect of 
near-by milk being very plenty this .Sum¬ 
mer; on the contrary it is likely to be 
quite short, and the Whitings are openly 
admitting the prospect of this by asking 
their producers to be sure to send them 
as much or more milk during the Sum¬ 
mer and Fall months as during the Win¬ 
ter, and to plan for this arrangement, ai 
once. Their Summer prices as announced 
are as follows: April 31 cents per Slji 
quarts; May and June 25; July, August 
and September 31; being an average of 
29 cents for the six months; two pre¬ 
miums (of one-half cent each! for milk 
complying with Massachusetts statutes 
and regulations, and also for being at 
or below 50 degrees temperature and con¬ 
taining less than 100.000 bacteria per 
cubic centimeter, will bring this price up 
to 30 cents. The Hood's price will net 
about the same, and their premium plan 
is different and more complicated, being 
cut into one-quarter and one-eighth cent 
for milk cooling, barn conditions and etc. 
Many small firms are paying better than 
the above, and to compete with the above 
and others will have have to do business 
on a small profit this Summer to bold 
their customers and business, a . e. n. 
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