American Agriculturist, March 24,1923 
20 G 
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WHY YOU SHOULD PLANT 
DIBBLE’S FARM SEEDS 
1. Because Dibble’s Seeds are better Seeds for less money. 
2. Every member of the Dibble Company is a practical farmer, 
one of them with over a third century’s experience in Sedd-growing. 
3. There are over 1,000 acres in the Dibble Seed Farms, 
comprising some of the choicest farming lands in the far-famed 
Genesee \ alley, and they ship from their Farms to yours. 
4. The Warehouses, Elevator and Storage Houses, 400 
feet in length, with a capacity of around 100,000 bushels, located on 
private switches, are owned and paid for. Seed Houses of similar 
capacity located in our leading cities on the best business streets 
would rent for at least $50,000 yearly. You save this enormous 
rental charge in buying direct. 
5. The Dibble Farm Seed Business is established in the little 
village of lioneoye Falls, right in the heart of the best seed-grow¬ 
ing district of the Empire State. This means, as nearly as pos¬ 
sible, eliminating middlemen, cutting out heavy freight charges, no 
drayage or cartage expense, and saving you money every time. 
6. Dibble’s Farm Seeds are tested in our own laboratory 
by a graduate seed analyst who is a member of our firm, and every 
bag of Alfalfa, Clover, Timothy, Corn, Oats, Barley, etc., is tagged, 
showing our purity and germination test, also the month in which 
the test was made. We were pioneers in giving this service to our 
customers, long before the state seed laws made it compulsory. 
7. In buying Dibble’s Farm Seeds, you are assured of 
getting the highest grade obtainable. Take Alfalfa, Clover and 
Grass Seed for instance. There are five grades of these seeds, each 
above 97 per cent imrity which will conform to the New York laws. 
Dibble never buys nor liandles but just one quality—the best money 
will buy. 
8. Dibble’s Farm Seeds are northern grown, full of vitality, 
hardy and vigorous, and adapted to the northern and eastern 
states. We do not handle cheap southern or foreign seeds that are 
not adapted to our climate. Southern or foreign-grown Alfalfa seed 
is offered at several dollars less per bushel than we pay for our 
Northern D. B. Brand, but it will not stand our northern winters. 
Southern Seed Corn looks nice, grows well, but will not produce 
ears in our northern states. Hundreds of our customers have written 
us that Dibble’s Northern-grown Seed Potatoes have doubled 
their crops, 
9. Dibble’s prices are usually lower than the same quality 
of seed can be purchased for elsewhere, as we have no over¬ 
head expenses, own our own Seed Farms, Warehouses, etc., have no 
rent to pay, and are satisfied with a just and reasonable profit. 
10. In addition to surrounding our customers with every pos¬ 
sible protection against poor seeds by buying only the highest grade 
obtainable and testing every lot in our own Seed I-^boratory, we 
sell Dibble’s Farm Seeds on a ten-days* money-back-if-you-want- 
it guarantee, subject to any test any customer may make or wish 
to have made within ten days after the seeds come into his possession. 
FREIGHT PREPAID 
11. If you buy 300 lbs. or more of seeds to be shipped at 
one time, for use on your own farm or in a neighborhood 
club order, we prepay the freight. Complete explanation 
given on page 30 of our Catalog. 
BUY DIRECT—SAVE MONEY 
Ten sample packages Dibble’s Farm Seeds, Dibble’s Farm Seed 
Catalog and Dibble’s rock bottom Price List, FREE. Address 
* I II 11. ■■■■ I ^ 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE SEEDGROWER 
Box A, HONEOYE FALLS, N. Y. 
I Visit Two Unusual Farms 
Two Ways in Livestock Management in the East 
D uring Fanners’ By J. VAN WAGENEN,JR. the line of irregularity 
Week at Ithaca, in breeding and calves 
late one cold, blustery afternoon, I 
made a little visit to the farm and herd 
of H. E. Babcock, located in the Inlet 
Valley, three miles south of Ithaca. I 
remember calling upon his father a 
number of years 
ago, when he was 
a dairyman and 
Guernsey breed¬ 
er in Chenango 
County. Since 
then the son has 
held a good many 
jobs, and made 
good in all of 
them, including 
Fai’m Bureau 
Manager, State 
Leader of Farm 
Bureaus, Profes¬ 
sor of Farm Man¬ 
agement at the 
New York State 
College of Agri¬ 
culture, and now 
the head of the 
G. L. E. Exchange. But after all, 
I am inclined to believe that his farm¬ 
ing is his most noteworthy achieve¬ 
ment. By the way, it is surprising 
how many of the Professors in our 
State College are owning and work¬ 
ing land as well. They will tell you 
that they are doing “a little farming on 
the side.” Possibly some of them_ are 
farming as a business and “Professing” 
on the side. In any case it ought to be 
a source of satisfaction to us that 
where you find a teacher of agriculture 
running a farm he is usually doing a 
pretty good job at it. Around Ithaca 
the woods are full of these Farmer- 
Professors. 
No ‘'One Best Breed” Policy 
R. BABCOCK is surely not hide¬ 
bound or narrow-minded in his 
choice of a breed. In one barn where 
were 18 “black-and-whites” that were 
skillfully cared for and doing splendid 
work, while in another barn were a 
string of fawn-and-white registered 
Guernsey beauties that in average daily 
production were exceeding any stable 
of Channel Island cattle that I ever 
saw.” 
Remember that this farm does high- 
pressure dairying, and the condition of 
the cattle and the records being made 
demonstrate that there is being exer¬ 
cised care and skill that leave almost 
nothing to be desired. In the old days 
this farm grew tobacco—an unusual 
crop in our State which is now con¬ 
fined to two limited areas—and part of 
one of the tobacco barns has been 
utilized as a big, roomy yard for the 
young stock, where they run loose to¬ 
gether. Now, I do not mean that they 
were “roughing it” in the usual sense. 
A Sound Policy 
A S a matter of fact, they had plenty 
of good alfalfa hay with a liberal 
grain ration and abundance of bedding, 
and they were bright-eyed and full of 
pep. But the building made no pretense 
of being tight or warm. It seemed to me 
so much better than standing in stanch¬ 
ions in a close, stuffy stable. Cattle 
seem to adapt themselves pretty quickly 
to their environment, and the yearling 
running half in the open thrives and 
grows thick-haired and lusty. But she 
will not look as slick as the same ani¬ 
mal confined in a barn where it never 
freezes. 
I believe that this idea of giving 
calves and yearlings their freedom just 
as long as possible is sound. Our grand¬ 
fathers (and some few men even yet) 
thought that the open barnyard was 
the best place for a cow during at least 
the daylight hours. Of recent years 
some of us, half as a matter of better 
care and half as a measure of conven¬ 
ience, have swung to the opposite ex¬ 
treme, and it is at least debateable if 
the results have been wholly good. We 
have a line of cows at Hillside Farm 
that stand in the same stalls from No¬ 
vember to May. Probably it is true 
that every time you let a cow loose you 
lose a little milk. On the other hand, 
I sometimes get a bit afraid that in the 
long run there may be danger in this 
continuous stabling, especially along 
that are not as strong at birth as 
we could wish. This much at least 
is true. The cow which is tied in a 
stanchion for six months at a stretch 
is making or being compelled to make 
a most violent change from her ances¬ 
tral habit. 
Cornell students whose memory goes 
back to Prof. Roberts and the old red 
barn which stood on the ground now 
occupied by Bailey Auditorium will re¬ 
member the covered barnyard, with the 
big water trough in the center where 
the milking herd took their ease during 
the daytime. The system was rather 
expensive for two reasons. The cost 
of a roof to shelter a good-sized herd is 
a big item in construction expense, and 
it certainly did require a tremendous 
amount of bedding to keep it dry and 
clean. This last fact would limit its 
use to those farms where a large sur¬ 
plus of straw was produced. On the 
other hand, it was a perfectly ideal 
method so far as the saving of manure 
was concerned, and it did give the 
cows a chance to take exercise and 
comfort without the shivers. I think 
there was no one thing which Roberts 
did_ which was so distinctive and of 
which he was as proud as his “covered 
barnyard,” and Babcock is using the 
same system for his young stuff. 
Another interesting point that I 
noted is this: that in the feeding of 
those splendidly productive animals, 
silage does not have the overshadowing 
place that it does on many farms. It 
is true that the farm has silos, but if 
I understand the owner correctly, he 
does not deem silage an absolute essen¬ 
tial for successful dairying. Silage 
seems to be one of the minor rather 
than the major constituent of his 
roughage ration. I think I quote him 
correctly in saying that if he did not 
have the silos on hand with the capital 
already invested in them, he hardly 
thinks he would now build them. This 
is somewhat unorthodox, not to say 
revolutionary doctrine, but I have been 
leaning that way a little myself, so I 
feel more comfortable and less like a 
heretic after hearing him say it. 
A Noteworthy Feeding Practice 
A n acre of ground in good silage 
corn has possibilities of cattle food 
production unapproached by any crop 
known to our State’s agriculture unless 
it be alfalfa under the most favorable 
conditions; but, on the other hand, 
silage costs a lot of labor and real 
money from the time we begin to plow 
the sod until it is safely blown into the 
silo. The labor costs of producing and 
harvesting a crop of hay are relatively 
insignificant. I believe that Dr. War¬ 
ren—the commanding figure in Farm 
Management at Cornell—says that in a 
general way it will cost twice as much 
to pi'oduce a unit of nutriment in 
silage, as in hay. Hay, then, Is a cheap¬ 
er, even if not as good a source of food 
supply. Then, too, do we know that 
early cut legume hay is not fully the 
equal of the best silage, even in pala- 
tability! 
If these conclusions are sound, then 
there was never a better time than 
now—with rising labor costs and un¬ 
satisfactory farm prices—to lay a lit¬ 
tle more emphasis on the clover mead¬ 
ows and let up a bit on the corn 
areas. I ought to add that the Bab¬ 
cock farm grows alfalfa rather easily. 
If he was located in a river valley like 
some I know, where corn grows very 
easily but alfalfa is not at home, he 
would probably revise his statements. 
A Very Different Farm Scheme 
A nd on another evening, with that 
fine, free-handed farm hospitality 
which I have so often enjoyed, a Cay¬ 
uga County farmer insisted that we go 
home with him to supper, and later hs 
would drive us to catch the train back 
to Auburn. 
Cayuga County, by the way, with the 
single exception of Herkimer County, 
which has it beaten, is the queerest and 
worst-shaped county in the State. 
the north it has a little stretch of the 
clean sand-and-pebble beach of big 
Lake Ontario, and it extends south 00 
miles to Summer Hill, more than 
J. VAN WAGENEN, JR. 
