1262 
Guernsey, except for one Jersey, and a purebred 
Guernsey bull heads the herd. But these cows pro¬ 
duce the goods: that’s the point. 
BUTTER RETURNS.—What is more, these cows 
make butter money. It is a much more common 
thing to find cows making milk money, or even cream 
money. But butter profits are not compelling many 
men to pay an income tax. The Wiggin cows sold 
$171 worth of butter per cow last year. No special 
market; the butter was all sold in Sanbornville at 
from 60 to 65 cents a pound. The point was that 
they sold 1.773 pounds of butter. And, in addition, 
this is a family of eight people, using about four 
pounds of butter and 15 to 20 quarts of milk a week 
in the house. 
AVERAGE SALES.—The average sales of butter 
per cow from the farms making butter in the State 
last year wex-e somewhere around $S0. A few men 
sold above $125 woi*th of butter per cow, and these 
were the butter farmers who made money. Butter 
has been the least profitable of the dairy products 
for a period of years. A large majority of farmers 
producing butter have never received market prices 
for their ci’ops therein. The stock ai'gument is that 
selling butter retains more fertility on the farm. 
But there are few butter farms that show better 
ci’op yields than do those selling wliole milk. The 
point is, if you make butter you must either produce 
enough per cow to make it profitable or your whole 
farm business is likely to slide slowly downhill 
fei’tility and all. 
THE FEED BILL.—Frank Wiggin has solved the 
problem: his cows produce enough fat to be profit¬ 
able. The solution sounds very simple indeed. And 
so it is: We all know about it. But the long story 
of hope, faith, struggle, skill, experience, selection, 
losses, and all the rest, is not so apparent. A good 
herd is generally the achievement of an unusual man. 
It does not just grow, like Topsy; also it is a bit 
like the dry amendment in that it will not maintain 
itself unaided. It forever requires the good hus¬ 
bandman. The total feed bill on this farm last year 
was $590. Some of this grain went to feed the two 
to five pigs kept, and the tw T o horses. Practically 
no grain is gi’own. the bulk of the 2 d tillable acies 
being in hay. This makes the story ideally sound 
like New Hampshire. The feed bill is the one large 
item of expense, as it is on most of our farms. 
THE HOUSEWIFE’S PART.—Wiggin farm has 
another asset in the person of its housewife. It 
would be interesting, indeed, if we could fairly 
measure the ci*edit for successful farms that justly 
belongs to the women thereon. Here is one case in 
point of the forward-looking woman who not only 
cai’es for five young children, but looks after the 
farm accounts, the poultry, who reads and plans, 
who is interested actively in the school and the 
Farm Bureau. • She is an able first mate, and prob¬ 
ably captain some of the time. 
FARM POSSIBILITIES.—And so we find this 
little fann, l'emote from town, in a rough country, 
but well and profitably organized ai’ound a herd of 
real butter cows. There isn't anything startling or 
Unduly remarkable about this case. Tn fact, that s 
just the point. What Frank Wiggin has done, other 
men can do. Many other men can do it better and 
easier. But there is no question that as the dairy 
situation shapes at present the only one factor that 
the farmer can control much is production per cow. 
That is the point of attack. If you make butter, 
just sit down and figure up your sales during the 
past year. If you did not sell $125 worth per cow 
in the year it is quite probable that some of your 
cows need to be pensioned off and retired. We some¬ 
times tolerate poor cows for a considerable while, 
though we know they are working us instead of 
working for us. We get attached to them. But an 
attachment to a poor cow is uie prelude to a sheriff’s 
attachment. It is a fine thing to develop a herd of 
high-producing cows. The man who does this thing 
does not have to discount the satisfaction, of creative 
work well done, for he can always be assured that 
along with this satisfaction comes a reward in hard 
dollars. Tn Carroll County and elsewhere men appear 
here and there whose accomplishments in the face 
common difficulties plainly say, ‘ IIei*e lies the 
Loaded Truck With Canvas Cover. Fig. 310 
1b€ RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
way.” If butter is our product it is certain that the 
way lies in cows that produce a lot of it. 
A. B. GENTJNG. 
Futurelof the Aberdeen-Angus in 'the 1 East 
Part II. 
VEALS AND STEERS.—Shank Brothers, Auburn, 
N. Y., have for yeai-s been producing high-class 
veals by using a purebred Aberdeen-Angus bull on 
grade daily cows, and have also produced a steer or 
two of good quality, although the majority of their 
calves have gone for veal. They became so im- 
pressed with the prepotency of the Aberdeen-Angus 
and with the easy keeping quality of the cattle that 
they recently purchased a number of purebred cows 
of the breed, and should be heard from later. James 
A 
Frame of Truck. A is View From Above; B Side 
Tic iv. Fig. 380 
Morse of Levanna, N. Y., has been raising steers 
from gi*ade Holstein cows and sired by purebi-ed 
Aberdeen-Angus bulls for many years. Some years 
ago, while in charge of animal husbandry work at 
Cornell University, I purchased several of these 
steers and shipped them to the University Farm, 
where they were placed on feed. The steers that I 
purchased were taken fi*om the regular herd on 
grass, and had received no grain previous to going 
to the university. One of these steei*s, a two-year- 
old, made a lasting impression on me. When pur¬ 
chased on November 12 he weighed 1.200 lbs. at 
the Morse farm, lie was gradually gotten on full 
feed, and bn January 7 he was slaughtered, weigh¬ 
ing 1.315 lbs. after 48 hours’ shrinking, and dressing 
760 lbs. carcass, or 57.79 per cent net to gross. 
While this steer was in excellent condition, he was 
by no means finished, and could have stood consid¬ 
erably more feeding, and would have given a higher 
dressing percentage. He was, however, in good 
enough condition to be used in a demonstration dur¬ 
ing our Farmers’ Week, after having hung in the 
cooler 36 days. The meat was of the highest qual¬ 
ity, being nicely marbled and covered, of good eoloi*. 
and yielding a large percentage of weight in the 
high-priced cuts. This steer was far superior to the 
average run of Western branded feedei’s that are 
commonly fed in New York State, and, in fact, the 
average run of steers that I have seen resulting 
from this cross were the equal of, if not superior to, 
these Western feeders. Michigan breeders have for 
many years been producing steers of high quality 
by this method, and a commission man on the Buf¬ 
falo market recently stated it was his opinion that 
no breed of cattle, when crossed upon the average 
scrub lot of cows, would make such a marked im- 
provement or produce so uniform a lot of steers as 
the Aberdeen-Angus. 
CATTLE FOR EXPORT.—Eastern Aberdeen-An¬ 
gus breeders have in the past sold some bulls and 
a few females for export to South America. Since 
the war South American breeders have been think¬ 
ing moi-e seriously of importing animals from the 
United States, and some shipments have already 
been made. That this business is going to develop 
rapidly is indicated by the fact that a company 
fi n anced by Mouth American capital and managed 
July 31, 1920 
by Americans has been formed for this express pur¬ 
pose, and expects to do a large business. It is need¬ 
less to say that they will purchase their animals for 
export as near the port of shipment as possible, so 
that the Eastern breeders are looking forward to 
this market. 
USING ABANDONED LAND.—Thei*e are millions 
of acres of land in the eastern section of the United 
States that should be used for some pui-pose, but 
that is lying idle and abandoned at present. Due 
to the fact that it is excellent pasture land, but. so 
far from a railroad that milk pi*oduction is imprac¬ 
tical, this can only be used for either sheep or beef 
cattle, and since the dog menace is quite serious, 
and bi*eeders are shy about sheep on this account, 
most of this land must be used for beef pi-oduction 
or continue to lie idle. Many people have demon- 
sti’ated to their own satisfaction that this is a 
profitable method of bringing these lands back into 
usefulness, and before many years this should make 
a market for Aberdeen-Angus bulls and for breeding 
cows as well. As the market for Aberdeen-Angus 
cattle of oi'dinary quality for use on grade hei-ds 
incx-eases, the demand for high-class bulls of inter¬ 
national caliber is bound to increase. 
INCREASING DEMAND.—To get down to pres¬ 
ent facts, there is a very good demand for Aberdeen- 
Angus of good quality throughout the East, so that 
no breeders in this territory have more than one 
or two animals for sale, and most of them are buy¬ 
ing rather than selling. Practically all the cattle 
changing hands in the Eastern States are coming 
from the Middle West, and if the same quality of 
cattle were to be had in the East they would have 
ready sale. Eastern shows of Aberdeen-Angus dur¬ 
ing the past few yea rs have been a revelation to 
the breeders of Aberdeen-Angus, as well as to other 
breeds, for the numbers were excellent, and many 
high-class animals of international quality were 
shown, as demonstrated by the fact that the Evenest 
of Bleaton. a New York bull, was made Grand Cham¬ 
pion at'the International Live Stock Exposition in 
Chicago in 191S. The showing of the breed at East¬ 
ern fairs this Fall will surpass any showing made 
in the past, and Eastern herds will take away their 
share of the prize money. k. j. seulke. 
Use of Trucks in Haying 
construction of truck.— in one of his 
notes on Mississippi the Hope Farm man spoke 
of the trucks that are used in that Southern country 
for curing hay in seasons when the rainfall is heavy. 
Our people are interested in this, and some of them 
write to know more about these trucks. This infor¬ 
mation is particulaidy desired this year, when many 
of us have had great trouble in trying to cure our 
hay. The Mississippi Agricultural College at Stark- 
ville, and the Department of Agriculture at Washing¬ 
ton. D. C.. have issued good bulletins on the sub¬ 
ject which no doubt can be obtained by our readers. 
A picture of one of the trucks is shown at Fig. 381, 
being taken from Farmers’ Bulletin 956 of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. The truck is made much 
like the ordinary hay rack. It is 12 ft. long and 7 ft. 
wide, holding from 1,500 to 2.000 lbs. of partly cured 
hay. Fig. 380 gives the general construction. The 
small, wheels are of steel or iron, 16 or 20 in, in di¬ 
ameter. At the front end is a wooden block or 
trigger which holds the truck off the ground, and is 
hinged so that it will not interfere with hauling the 
truck along the ground. The standai'ds at each end 
of the truck ran to a point at the top. A notch is cut 
there so that a 2x4 ridge-pole can be laid across and 
thus support a canvas tent, keeping it from lying 
flat on the hay. Fig. 379 shows one of the trucks 
loaded and covered with its canvas, while Fig. 382 
shows a group of trucks, or a “town,” as it is called, 
bunched together ready for baling. * 
METHOD OF USE.—In actual use six or 10 of 
these empty trucks are hauled into the field togetlici\ 
When the hay is about half cured it is bunched. 
The truck is hauled along the windrow and the hay 
is loaded on the same as it would be on a hay wagon. 
As soon as the truck is fully loaded the canvas is at 
once put on. and the truck and its load are left in 
(Continued on page 1264) 
A “Town" of Trucks. Fig. 382 
