Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1931-10-01
ROWAN
FARM
GLEANINGS
By w. G. YEAGER
County Agent

ily increasing in price during the past
month and two only and these are
butter fat and eggs, two products that
will do more to reclaim the south
from it's cotton dilemma than all the
legislation that the statute books can
carry in the humble opinion OF the
writer. The present story of butter
fat is SO we'll illustrated in a short
statement from the pen of Mr.. A. c.
Kinney, Dairy Extension Specialist OF
N. C. State college that we will give
space to it here.
PROFIT IN SURPLUS FEEDS
The outlook is favorable for dairy
men to sell their surplus feedstuffs to
COWS and double their money I'VE at
present prices for butterfat, declares
A. C. Kinney, dairy extension spe-
%cialist. He says the present relation
between the farm price of dairy feeds
and butterfat is very favorable and
bids fair to remain so during the COM
ing winter.
"At the present time," says KIM
rey, "$14.0o worth of feed at farm
prices, when fed to average good
cows, produces 100 pounds of butter
fat. When this butterfat is sold today
for butter-making purposes, it will
bring about $500. But in addition
to this income from the butterfat,
there will be left on the farm around
1900 pounds of skim milk worth IS
cents a hundred pounds. This has a
value of $3.50 or may be fed at home
to poultry Oh hogs"
Mr.. Kinney finds another income
from the feed that is not generally
considered. He says Is per cent of the
plant food in the feedstuffs will go
back to the farm as manure thus help
ing to reduce the bill for commercial
fertilizer. Therefore, if $14.OO worth
of farm feed can be converted into
$500 by feeding it to COWS, the man
who has both COWS and feed may be
assured of a reasonable and constant
cash income.
What is true of butter fat is
equally true of poultry. There has
been no time in past ten years when
poultry properly handled would turn
as large a net profit on investment and
feed as at the present time. With eggs
at so cents OF higher for next sever
al months and grains at about one cent
per pound means that the farm flock
will return to the farm owner fully
double the present market price for
the surplus grains. If carefully fed to
the poultry flock. The wise farmer
will be getting his laying house in
condition if not already so, ample
roost space, proper ventilation, con-
venient laying boxes, sufficient hop
per room for dry mash and in that
connection no progressive poultryman
would think of trying to make prof
liable eggs on scratch grains alone,
even if grains are cheap on the farm.
The experiments of the Missouri Ex-
pertinent Station shows that a flock
of hens fed grain alone laid an aver
age of five eggs per month while
those receiving laying mash along with
the grain laid an average of 17.8 eggs
per month or a difference of 1878
eggs per month. Why this difference?
Experiments have shown that the
grains develop the yolk of the egg,
but as it takes both yolk and white
to make an egg and then a shell to
cover it, the hen cannot get suffici-
ent material out of the whole grain to
do her full duty by the egg basket.
We are told that it takes about fiji
teen days to develop a yolk and one
day to develop a white and she'll. The
dry mash provides the quickly avail
able material that is used to build both
white and she'll and the hen that will
return to her owner a profit over the
next II months will have all the lay
ing mash that she can consume at her
disposal over about a thirteen hour
day (artificial Lightly during the year.
We are told that the hen can store
the yolk making material in her body
for considerable time but not that that
goes to make the whites and there
again comes the necessity of the lay
ing mash.
Getting back to the house, the wise
poultryman will have grit boxes and
shell boxes, green feed and alfalfa is
one Of the best ones, also a dry floor
in his house for moisture in the lay
ing house is one thing that sure will
spell trouble and spell it quickly. The
dry floor should be Uttered with dry
straw and then changed sufficiently
often to avoid moisture. He will also
practise close sanitation for there in
lies the secret of successful poultry