T  yyYTT  Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Co., 
\  OL,  LAAAil.  333  ^v.  30th  St.,  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year. 
NEW  YORK,  APRIL  21,  1923 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter,  .Tune  26,  1879, 
Office  at  New  York,  N.  Y.,  under  the  Act  of 
Eastern  Farm  Dairying, 
PRESENT  CONDITIONS.  —  Diversification  in 
farm  dairying  should  be  more  seriously  con¬ 
sidered  on  the  Eastern  farm.  Producers  of  market 
milk  are  competing  formidably  with  one  another  on 
an  extensive  scale,  and  the  probability  for  further 
intensive  development  is  everywhere  obvious.  The 
seriousness  of  this  condition  from  the  standpoint  of 
dairymen  receiving  a  deserved  return  on  their  in¬ 
vestment  and  for  their  labor  is  further  augmented 
by  our  failing  hay  market.  Only  emergency  condi¬ 
tions,  such  as  existed  during  the  Great  War,  or  a 
famine  in  the  hay  crop 
well  to  practice  some  phase  of  beef  production.  The 
practices  in  beef  production  are  many  and  varied. 
During  the  past  few  years  our  markets  have  been 
exerting  an  increased  demand  for  baby  beef.  In  the 
production  of  this  class  of  beef  the  calves  are 
allowed  a  full  supply  of  milk  from  their  dams  dur¬ 
ing  the  lactation  period,  either  on  or  off  grass,' and 
are  finished  during  the  last  four  or  five  months  on 
good  leguminous  roughage  and  suitable  grain  mix¬ 
tures.  The  young  beeves  are  marketed  when  about 
a  year  old.  Because  of  the  smaller  pasturage  neces¬ 
a  stabilizing  influence  which  will  operate  to  absorb 
a  surplus  crop,  or  to  release  a  supply  for  the  market 
when  the  commodity  will  bring  a  satisfactory  return 
as  a  cash  crop. 
MARKETING. — In  this  day  no  consideration  of 
a  production  problem  of  this  kind  is  complete  with¬ 
out  a  careful  study  of  the  factors  involved  in  mar¬ 
keting.  The  common  practice  has  been  for  farmers 
to  sell  to  middlemen.  A  wholesale  butcher  or  a  re¬ 
tail  meat  man  would  come  to  the  farm  and  buy  the 
animal,  preferably  on  foot,  or  by  dressed  weight  if 
the  farmer  thoroughly 
itself,  can  bring  the  de¬ 
mand  for  this  commod¬ 
ity  anywhere  near  equal 
to  the  supply.  In  many 
sections  of  our  State 
hay  is  'the  most  success¬ 
ful  of  any  of  our  main 
crops.  For  this  reason 
it  must  continue  to  be 
grown  in  large  quanti¬ 
ties,  or  the  meadows 
utilized  for  pasture. 
Where  practicable,  how¬ 
ever,  considerable  areas 
of  this  land  should  be 
used  for  the  production 
of  legumes  and  grains 
to  displace  the  purchase 
of  cattle  grains  for  Win¬ 
ter  feeding. 
SURPLUS  H  A  Y.  — 
The  question  now  arises, 
how  shall  we  dispose  of 
our  surplus  hay?  If  we 
follow  the  same  ten¬ 
dency  which  has  been  in 
operation  during  recent 
years,  our  dairy  herds 
will  be  considerably  in¬ 
creased,  and  we  will  sell 
more  milk.  A  broader 
recognition  of  the  food 
value  of  milk  by  our 
growing  poulation  will 
influence  a  continued 
development  *  along  this 
line.  Not  all  farms, 
however,  are  adapted  to 
the  economic  production  of  market  milk.  Long  hauls 
over  bad  roads  are  a  discouragement.  The  drifting 
of  rural  population  to  the  cities,  resulting  in  many 
farmers  trying  to  work  two  or  even  three  farms, 
imposes  new  and  greater  difficulties,  which  must  be 
overcome  where  any  form  of  intensified  farming  is 
successfully  conducted.  The  farmer  with  one  hired 
man  can  thoroughly  work  the  average  dairy  farm 
of  150  acres.  However,  when  he  tries  to  practice 
the  same ‘plan  of  farming  on  double  or  treble  this 
area  the  problem  of  maintaining  a  dependable  force 
of  workers  is  always  serious  and  often  unsuccessful. 
BEEF  PRODUCTION. — Such  circumstances  open 
the  way  for  a  greater  diversification  in  farm  dairy¬ 
ing.  Where  it  is  desirous  to  employ  a  minimum 
amount  of  labor,  especially  on  large  farms,  and 
where  the  market  is  not  easily  accessible,  or  under 
circumstances  where  an  extra  farm  is  rented  for 
scarcely  more  than  enough  to  pay  taxes  and  depre¬ 
ciation  bills,  many  of  our  Eastern  farmers  would  do 
Beef  from  the  Dairy ;  a  Steer  from  a  Butter  Dairy.  Fiy.  221) 
sary  baby  beef  production  can  be  adapted  to  smaller 
acreages  than  is  practicable  for  the  growing  of 
mature  steers. 
CREAM  AND  BUTTER.— Where  pasture  is  plen¬ 
tiful  a  commendable  plan  is  to  maintain  a  home 
dairy  of  high-testing  Holstein  cattle  for  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  cream  or  butter  to  offset  running  expenses, 
and  skim-milk  to  give  a  good  start  to  an  annual  crop 
of  calves.  By  mating  this  herd  to  a  sire  of  good 
beef  blood  the  calves  should  have  the  dual  advantage 
of  receiving  an  abundance  of  milk  and  of  developing 
good  beef  form.  Under  this  method  of  development 
each  crop  of  beeves  should  be  marketed  when  they 
are  from  two  to  three  years  old.  The  exact  time  of 
marketing  would  depend  on  local  conditions,  and 
particularly  on  the  value  of  the  feeds  which  would 
be  consumed.  If  the  price  of  hay  should  become 
high  advantage  could  be  taken  of  this  circumstance 
by  precipitating  a  quick  reduction  in  the  beef  herd. 
Hay  production,  as  a  business,  is  in  great  need  of 
insisted  on  absorbing 
the  speculative  profit 
himself.  Of  course  the 
liver,  heart  and  tongue 
Avere  not  weighed  in, 
but  were  demanded  by 
the  middleman  as  a 
bonus.  Many  farmers 
have  dressed  their  own 
beef,  and  have  either 
wholesaled  the  quarters 
to  local  meat  markets 
or  have  retained  still 
another  slice  of  profit 
by  selling  them  direct 
tq  consumptive  trade. 
Marketing  difficulties 
have  greatly  increased 
since  the  slump  in  beef 
prices  which  followed 
the  closing  of  the  Great 
War.  Eastern  beef  is 
very  hard  to  sell  at 
wholesale  unless  you 
are  willing  to  dispose  of. 
it  at  a  price  consider¬ 
ably  below  market  quo¬ 
tations.  One  reason  for 
this  is  that  our  local 
dealers  need  only  use  the 
telephone  to  get  what 
they  want  when  they 
want  it  from  a  wholesale 
house  of  one  of  the  West¬ 
ern  packers,  and  will  not 
buy  locally  produced 
beef  unless  they  can  slice 
an  extra  profit  out  of  the 
Eastern  farmer.  Some  one  will  say  that  Eastern  beef 
is  inferior.  That  statement  should  be  qualified  by 
adding  that  it  can  also  be  superior.  It  depends  on  the 
kind  of  animal  that  is  offered.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  Western  beef  consumed  in  an  Eastern  city 
of  40,000  people  with  which  I  am  familiar  is  but 
partly  finished  or  of  an  inferior  quality.  Our  meat 
men  claim  that  Western  beef  has  a  uniform  cure, 
but  many  of  them  readily  admit  that  freshly-cured, 
well-finished  Eastern  steer  beef  is  excellent  in  flavor. 
SOME  EASTERN  ADVANTAGES.— The  Eastern 
producer  of  meat  enjoys  two  distinct  advantages. 
He  is  adjacent  to  large  importing  centers  of  con¬ 
sumption,  so  that  he  has  no  real  transportation  prob¬ 
lem,  and  his  meat  need  not  be  delayed  in  reaching 
market  by  passing  through  a  multiplicity  of  hands, 
including,  perhaps,  cold  storage.  By  virtue  of  these 
facts  he  can  offer  the  consumer  a  strictly  fresh  pro¬ 
duct — meat  which  has  that  distinctive  flavor  in¬ 
herent  only  with  freshness. 
