Norwich bulletin., 1914-08-27
HAY IN NEW ENGLAND.
BY GEORGE FRENCH.

Another man in New England bought a small field of 2lk acres. ad-
 joining his farm. that was regarded as good for nothing. It was a sandy knoll. producing absolutely nothing.
 He made it yield an average of 11-lo
 tons of good hay per acre for the 1our years succeeding his purchase de
 put on fertilizer that cost, including applying it, s65. What he got for the hay I do not know, but hay is hay at all times. and at all times is worth a good price. This is very like find- ing money. Where is there gold mine that will yield such dividends, simply for the asking?
 The more this question of hay in New England is looked into the more important and promising 1t appears Think what it means. Not only may
 we supply all the native demands for feeding but we may plan to raise
 beef and sheep. It is by rolling up
 money that bankers and lenders make money. So if we can make hay at a
 price, and make enough of it. so that we can afford to raise beef cattle.
 feeding them through the long and
 cold winters we are blessed with, there is still another chance for our i'm
 aginations to picture the possible wealth that New England has in view Imagine, if you can. what it would
 mean to all New England if the graz ing land in Maine were to be so
 handled that it would produce half the possible maximum in hay. It now probably produces something like one fifth, or one-sixth, the maximum. There is no good Fundamental reason
 for not expecting it to produce the maximun but we may concede 50 per cent to the lack of faith, the laziness, and the lack of capital among the
 owners of the land, even after all of fhnuo gn af7thTSaH a fn vaaL O any kind of effort for improvement. If this is a big proposition, to ask you to imagine Maine raising half as much hay as could be raised on the land now
 in grass, just look about your own town and note tho hundreds, probably thousands, of acres that are almost
 va1ueless, and which might be pro- ducing hay at the rate of from two to five tons te the acre.
 There is an enormous potentiality in
 of the animal world. With it we can
 have herdsN and fiocks innumerable.
 almost without other cost except the
 growing and harvesting of the hay. Cattle and sheep will breed such in creases as will take care of ell the hay that can be raised, and if the prices
 are not too high, the people of New ] England will take care of all the cat tie and sheep that can be raised.
 Think also of being able to keep five
 pr six cows to the acre instead of one.
 which is now a. good average. What about the supply of milk for the cities
 when we are able to keep five cows to the acre? There would not be any
 milk problem if the men who raise
 milk for the market could contribute
 to their contractors five times as much
 as they now do.
 And the hopeful thing about it all | is that it is feasible. It is so feasible that it is strange that it is not done,
 has not been done these past 25 years. Considering the opportunity that Ma
 ture places under our feet. We see that people progress with great delibera-
 tion. In twenty years, perhaps, but
 possibly not until fifty years. such stuff as I am now writing. and you are
 reading with some skepticism, will seem like. history. It will not have a
 single element of novelty or a scrap
 of information. Why should we not l hasten that day a little? Why should we not raise five tons of hay to the acre? If anybody who chances to read this will tell me that. I shall be grate- ful for the information I cannot inn agtne why not.