Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-13
STATE BOARD. OF ACRICULT LURE
Mid Winter Meeting Held Town Hall Wednesday-Sidney B. Haskell Delivers Address the Future of the New England Live Stock Industry-Home Economies Prize WTnners


 tensive effort of national, state. and county organizations. working coop eratively, there has been great cam paign for more and better livestock. Milk Prices Have Been Low. Possibly one great cause of failure has been the low price of milk am ready to admit this. and state, fur thermore. that during, the last 20 years producers of market milk have had to I live by saving rather than to live by making producers have barely made expenses and have gotten by" only through boarding themselves and pay ing for the privilege. A contributory factor may have been waste in distri- button We all recognize that there 1 is this great waste, and that it must | be eliminated At the same time. the saving of l to . cents per quart in the cost of delivering milk to the con- l sumner will not make the dairy indus ! try profitable on the great bulk of i hill towns in Connecticut, Massachu 1 setts Maine. Vermont and New 1 Hampshire. In other words, we have I still to look for the real cause of our I failure.
 Manufacturing, Not Farming. Yet. in my judgment, all of these ] causes are contributory. not primary. ! The real cause Of the decline of our : livestock industry I believe to be the , rather than farming. We have bought the bulk of our feed stuffs-nearly all except the rougha age-and have tried 1 to make a profit by turning this pur- 1 chased feed stuff into milk and put ter, beef and pork, rather than 6y raising the necessary feeds--we have 1 failed-and becaEse we have neglect l ed one of the fundamenta! laws of economics-that it is always cllea per l to pay freight on meat than on the grain needed to produce this meat: | and on butter and cheese rather tran on the feed needed to produce this
  I pete i'll the production of beef or pork, butter or cheese. or in any animal product except raw milk. unless we at the same time can compete in rais- l irg the bulk of the feeds on which | these products are grown.
 More Grain the Solution of the Prob l If, in our own market, New Eng ! land is to compete against other sec l tions-against the west and the south in the production of animal pro- 1 ducts, she must raise a. much larger animals are grown. This may mean
 more corn-or perhaps on some of l the colder soils, barley instead of 1 corn. It may also mean the develop
 n1ent of local grist mills. so that the | farmers may have a market for their l grains and at the same time take home with them the milk producing l by products which these grains give. ! a iSO. as dn cSScnLldl C1dHSe III our i present farming system the production 1 of more grain means the possibility 1 of more clovers and more of other l Iegumes.
 l Market For Small Grains. I Now there is one objection that has great force, and this is that even if our farmers grow more of the small grains, just now we have no market l for the products. no place where the 1 g1 aim can be milled, where flour can | be manufactured, and where the milk 1 producing by-products can be. pro- | duced. Unfortunately this is partly l true, but the New England gIist mill has long since disappeared and ceased l Do you realize that one thousand acres of wheat or rye will furnish flour enough for community of three 1 thousand people? And furthermore do you know that if a grain mill can l have the guarantee of the product of one thousand acres of wheat or rye 1 it will be worth his while to install i the necessary milling and belting ma l cfiinery? And finally have you not re
 gently seen that in the state of Con necticut today there are now fifty l six mills scattered here and there over l the. state. which are actually making flour from home grown grains?
 1 Yes, there is force in this sugges- 1 tion, but the problem is very easy i Of solution.
 l The Farm Must Be Re- Organized. When our New England farmer keeps more stock as a result of fais- ing more grain, then will become nec- esSary q definite and conscious reOr- l ganization. of many of our farms. This 1 will lead to greater efficiency in all l departments of farming. Rou ghly
 speakins. every hill farm has land be longing to one of three classes:
 i CD Tillable land which can be worked by machinery; e>r 1 f(2) Steep side hills and stony land, 1 now in grass, which are difficult to blow;
 ~t3) Permanent pastures
 | It is on the first of these that our grain crops must be grown. and where rotation must be produced. In fact, l looking back over my own experience l where time after time I have failed l in giving service to my supporters in l the state of Massachusetts. I advised | rotation as it seemed to me farms 1 ought to be laid out in the square and l on the level. with fields of such a size l that it would be fairly easy to de- velop a three. four or five year rota- | tion. This idea is rotation as it is
 taught. All of your New England men know that the great difficulty is that the land simply is not built in this way. If, in planning a cropping sys- | tenn we will forget about our pas sides. and conf1nef ourselves to land
 which can and should be machine
 worked. progress will be made. '-~ | Lands belonging to the third group 1ssnould be left permanently in grass. l This, however, does not can that these
 lands should become less and less
 efficient, in the production of animal crops. 1 When our sheep come back-and I 1 believe that if they be rightly man aged, and if attempt be. made to grow all of. the feeds which sheep consume, i they will come back--the weed situa- | ton will be partially solved. I say | partially solved, for two reasons; the l first is. as you all know, that there are some weeds which hardly furnish l feed even for sheep. Certainly. the 1 great cause for weeds, in some pas l lures is because the soil has become 1 run down by over much pasturing. | None of our pasture lands are natI1r- l ally rich in lime Few of our pas | ture lands have a sufficiency of nin l eral elements of nlanf faod nhns-