The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-12-11

tif1c assistant in the farm manage
ment Investigations of the Bureau of
Plant Industry, has been able to re-
port to the bureau a series of criti-
cisms and suggestions which farmers
may find of practical use. The in
formation is timely, for although
dairying has been a profitable bust
ness in New England, conditions have
changed in recent years, and the out
look is said to be not as satisfac-
tory as it has been in the past. Some
Of the present difficulties are due to
the high prices of concentrated feeds
and of labor. Some sections of New
England, furthermore, says Mr..
Dodge, feel the pressure of unsatis-
factory market conditions, especially
those sections which ship milk to the
large cities, where the farmers are
offered a price for their milk on
which they can hardly make profit.
According to Mr.. Dodge the fact
that grass is so much at home in New
England States has led to a serious
fault in New England dairy farms,
namely, the mismanagement of grass
lands. This consists chiefly of a lack
of proper treatment for permanent
grass lands and of suitable rotation
for other lands, as we'll as for the use
of grass growing on land which does
not give profitable returns from grass
and should be devoted to tree growth,
either as woodland or orchards. An
other fault quoted is that of cutting
the hay crop too late in the season,
which shortens the life of the meadow
and results in an inferior quality of
hay for dairy feeding.
Mr.. Dodge also notes the failure
to utilize the land for other crops
available for that section, especially
corn. In southern New England he
finds little difficulty in growing good
silage corn, but as one travels north
ward there is evidence of a lack of
suitable varieties of corn for this pur-
pose. In all but the most northern
counties in New England, Mr.. Dodge
believes, varieties of silage corn can
be grown. What is most needed, he
says, is to give sufficient attention
to the selection of suitable seeds.
The report of the expert describes
several farms, sometimes with illus
trations, of which he says that they
have demonstrated that the average
New England farm is working at only
a small fraction of its capacity.
Hon. c. L. Jones, of Penobscot
County, Me-, raises all the rougnage
and some of the grain for forty head
of cattle, four horses and twenty
sheep on forty acres of tillage, and
spares from this area three or four
acres for potatoes every year. About
each year for silage, nearly as much
small grain, mixture of oats and
barley, and the remainder of the for
ty acres, aside from the potatoes, is
devoted to hay. The rotation COM
prises one year of corn, one of small
grain, one of clover hay, and part of
the land is run for mixed hay sec
ond year. The land is seldom left in
hay for more than two years before
it is again plowed up for corn, max
ing either three year or four year
rotation.
The manure is mostly applied in
the late summer and fall with ma
nure spreader, both as top dressing
to the new seeding or other grass
land and to the. land to be used for
corn the next year. 1t is applied at
the rate of ten loads per acre for
either purpose. The seeding is done
with the grain in the spring. NAM
moth clover is seeded at the rate of
twelve to fourteen pounds to the
acre, with two or three pounds of
radtop and four quarts of timothy.
The result of the short rotation. the
frequent manuring, and the heavy
seeding is crop of three tons of hay
10 the acre at one cutting. Other
crops yield in proportion, SO that this
farm furnishes feed for so large a
number of stock that it seems I'M
reasonable to the average dairyman.
Another farm described is that of
Professor ]. w. Sanborn in New
Hampshire, consisting of some 400
acres of titled land suited to frequent
blowing and rapid rotation, besides
100 acres of permanent meadow and
another 175 acres of permanent pas
ture.
The 400 acres of easily plowed
land are put in rotation as follows:
Corn, one year; peas and oats fer
hay, one year; clover for hay, two
cuttings, one year; potatoes to sell,
one year; Hungarian millet for hay,
one year; timothy for hay to sell,
two years, and then one year fol
pasture.
The hay from the whole of the
cleared land in 1894, when Professor
Sanborn took the farm, amounted to
112 tons. In 1905 the yield was SEQ
tons, this increase being accomplished
by frequent blowing of the land and
frequent applications Of manure,
which serves to illustrate on large
scale what has been shown already
in other places in New England,
namely, that land which can be
plowed conveniently and is therefore
adaptable to a rapid rotation can by
this kind of treatment generally be
made to produce the roughage nee
essary to keep a COW for each acre,
at least, if it be supplemented with
pasture for part OF the summer feed
of the cow.
The fundamental principle on