THEODORE SEDGWICK GOLD.

state of Connecticut

PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 18

Thirty-Ninth Annual Report

OF THE

SECRETARY

OF THE

Connecticut Board of A griculture

•fcarttorJ) press

OD & ]
1906

The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company

state of Connecticut

PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 18

Thirty-Ninth Annual Report

OF THE

SECRETARY

OF THE

Connecticut Board of Agriculture

I 9^5^ LIBRARY

NEW YORK
BOTANICAL

GAkiu'tiN

PRINTED ZBY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE

•fcatttorO iprcss

OD & ]
1906

The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company

I

Publication

Approved by

The Boaed of Control,

To His Excellency

Henry Roberts,

Governor of Connecticut :

In accordance with the provisions of an act creating the State
Board of Agriculture, 1 have the honor to submit herewith the Report
for the year ending December 31, 1905.

JAMES F. BROWN, Secretary.

North Stonington, December 31, 190S.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

1904-190^.

His Excellency HENRY ROBERTS, ex officio.

APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR AND SENATE.

LIBRARY
NEW YORK
BOTANICAL

GARDEN.

Charles L. Tuttle, .
L. H. Healey,
Charles E. Chapman,

IVERSON C. FaNTON, .

Terra Expires.
Hartford, .".... 1909
North Woodstock, . . . 1909
Westbrook, .... 1907
Westport, 1907

appointed by the general assembly.

Hartford County,
New Haven County,
New London County,
Fairfield County, .
Windham County,
Litchfield County,
Middlesex County,
Tolland County, .

Edmund Halladay, SufiSeld, .
D. Walter Patten, North Haven,
James B. Palmer, Jewett City,
Seaman Mead, Greenwich,
N. G. Williams, Brooklyn,
Edwin G. Seeley, Roxbury, .
W. L. Davis, Durham Center,
Charles A. Thompson, Melrose,

1909
1909
1909
1909
1907
1907
1907
1907

OFFICERS OF THE BOARD.
Governor Henry Roberts, President ex officio.

Edwin G. Seeley, .
James F. Brown, .
Chas. a. Thompson,
Dr. E. H. Jenkins,
Dr. G. P. Clinton,
Dr. W. E. Britton,
N. S. Platt, .

Seaman Mead

Roxbury,

North Stonington,

Melrose,

New Haven,

New Haven,

New Haven,

New Haven,

Auditors.
D. Walter Patten

Vice-Presiden t.

Secretary.

Treasurer.

Chemist.

Botanist.

Entomologist.

Pomologist.

Chas. E. Chapman.

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FARMERS' INSTITUTE IN 190S.

By vote of the board all its members were included in the
committee to superintend the work of Farmers' Institutes, each
member to provide for the special needs of his own section of
the State.

Pursuant to this plan Institutes were held as far as, possible
wherever desired throughout the State.

The tobacco growers were especially fortunate in having
the services of Mr. A. D. Shamel, of the U. S. Dept. of Agr.,
an expert in plant breeding and seed selection, who addressed
many meetings throughout the tobacco growing area, not only
during the winter and early spring, but well along in the
growing season.

He was ably assisted in this work by Dr. E. H. Jenkins, di-
rector of the Connecticut Agr. Exp. Station, who has given
the fertilization of tobacco careful scientific study and is justly
regarded an authority on this subject.

This part of our Institute work has been attended with the
most satisfactory and beneficial results.

The board has also had the hearty co-operation and sup-
port of Mr. J. K. Graham, manager of the poultry department
of the Connecticut Agricultural College, who has addressed
many institutes for the promotion of this important industry,
which is now receiving the attention it justly deserves.

There is no provision of law for a director of Farmers' Insti-
tutes in Connecticut as there is in many States, but in few, if
any, are more Institutes held in proportion to its farming
'population. In addition to these held by this board many suc-
cessful Institutes have been held along their respective lines by
the Connecticut Dairymen's Association, the Pomological So-
ciety, the Bee Keepers'. Sheep Breeders', and Tobacco Grow-
ers' association.

AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION AT
WILLIMANTIC.

The annual midwinter meeting of the Board of Agriculture
was held in Town Hall, Willimantic, Dec. 12, 13, and 14, 1905,
in accordance with the following programme. Favorable
weather, attractive speakers, and a large attendance made it
one of the most enthusiastic and successful meetings of recent
years.

The exhibits of fruit and other field and farm crops were
less in evidence than in some previous years, but what was much
more important the producers themselves were there and en-
tered heartily into the spirit of the meeting.

Tuesday, December 1 2th.

10.30 A. M. Music by the Loomer Opera House Orchestra.

10.30 A. M. Invocation.

Rev. Ashley D. Leavitt.

10.45 A. M. Address of Welcome.

His Honor Daniel P. Dunn,

Mayor of Willimantic.

Reponse by

His Excellency Henry Roberts,

Governor of Connecticut.

11.30 A.M. Address — "What the Department of Agriculture is doing
for the Farmer."
By Dr. H. J. Weber,

Washington, D. C.

2.00 P. M. Address — " The Essentials of Success in Future Sheep
Breeding."
By Dr. C. D. Smcad,

Logan, N. Y.

14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

DISCUSSION.
7.30 p. M. Music.

8.00 P.M. Audress — "The Story of Soils and Plants in their Re-
lation to Liming." Illustrated with stereopticon.
By Prof. H. J. Wheeler,

Director R. I. Agr. Exp. Station.

Wednesday, December 1 3th.
9.30 A. M. Music.

10.00 A. M. Address — "Poultry Management."
By Mr. Tillinghast,

N'ernon, Conn.

10.30 A.M. Address — "Dry Feeding: The New Poultry Culture."
By Mr. A. F. Hunter,

Associate Editor American Poultry Advocate.

11.30 A.M. Address — "The Real Origin and Development of Poultry
in Modern Times."
By T. F. McGrew,

Washington, D. C.

2.00 P.M. Address — "Breeding Animals on the Farm."
By Prof. Thos. Shaic,

St. Anthony's Park, St. Paul, Minn.

DISCUSSION.

7.30 p. M. Music.

8.00 P.M. Address — "How Shall We Attract Useful Birds About
our Farm Houses?" Illustrated with Stereopticon.
By Dr. Edzvard Hozve Forbush,

Wareham, Mass.

Thursday, December 1 4th.
9.30 A. M. Music.

10.00 A. M. Address — " The work of the Forest Service for Farmers."
By Herbert A. Smith,

Washington, D. C.

1906.] AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION AT WILLIMANTIC. 1 5

11.00 A.M. Address — "Alfalfa in Connecticut."

By E. H. Jenkins,

Director Conn. Agr. Exp. Station.

DISCUSSION.

2.00 p. M. Address — " Feeding Farm Animals."
By Prof. Thomas Shaw,

St. Anthony's Park, St. Paul, Minn.

DISCUSSION.

7.30 p. M. Music.

8.00 p. M. Address — " Why Present Conditions Necessitate a Knowl-
edge of Dietetic Value of Foods."
By Mrs: Sara Walrath Lyons,

New York City.

To get the largest good out of the meeting the audience must take
part by question or discussion.

To give all an opportunity to present any subject affecting the inter-
ests of Agriculture, a Question Box will be provided, which it is ex-
pected will be freely used for the presentation of practical questions
which will be taken up and discussed as opportunity offers.

To make this feature of the meeting profitable, bring in your ques-
tions and take part in the discussions. ■

Ample facilities will be afforded for the exhibition of Fruits and
Flowers, Grain and Vegetables, Butter and Cheese; and the bountiful
harvest just gathered warrants the hope that there will be a generous
exhibit. Mr. N. S. Piatt, Pomologist of the Board, will give his per-
sonal attention to this feature of the programme.

Articles for exhibition may be sent, properly labeled, by express, at
the expense of the Board, to the Secretary at Willimantic, to arrive on
Monday, December nth.

RAILROAD ARRANGEMENTS.

The N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co. has provided certificates which,
when countersigned by the secretary, will entitle the holder to return
over any of its lines at half rates. These certificates must be shown
when purchasing tickets at railroad* stations in Willimantic or New
London.

1 6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS.

The headquarters of the Board will be at the Hooker House.
A committee of the Board will be at the Hall to funiish delegates
and others such information as maj' be required.

Gov. HENRY ROBERTS,
EDWIN G. SEELEY.
N. G. WILLIAMS.
L. H. HEALEY,
TAMES F. BROWN.

Co)nmittec.

North Stoningtox, Nov. 25, 1905.

REPORT

OF THE

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

AT

WiLLiMANTic, Conn., December 12, 13, and 14, 1905.

MORNING SESSION.
WiLLiMANTic, Conn., December 12, 1905.

Preceding the opening of the Convention an enjoyable
concert was given by the orchestra of the Loomer Opera
House of WilHmantic.

Convention called to order at 10.30 a.m., in the Town Hall,
Willimantic, by Secretary James F. Brown.

Secretar}' Brown. The hour having arrived for the
opening of the Convention we will listen to an invocation by
the Reverend Mr. Leavitt of Willimantic.

Rev. Mr. Le.witt. Let us invoke God's blessing. Lord
God, Eternal Spirit, Immortal and Holy Judge, Merciful
Maker of all things in being, and by Thy power the ruler
of all things in Thy wisdom, we adore Thee for the wonders
of Thy earth and of Thy heaven, and for Thy living spirit
among us. We give Thee thanks for all Thy manifold bless-
mgs that Thou dost continually shower upon us; we bless
Thee and thank Thee for the harv^ests of our fields, the plente-
ous ore in the earth, and spirit of richness and growing
prosperit}- among us, and for all of those rich stores of in-
spiration and suggestion in our fellowship one with another.
Act. — 2

l8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

We beseech Thee that Thou wilt continue to give us in-
sight into the secrets of nature, skill to our hands, and in-
crease in us capacity for wisdom and efficiency that we may
be worthy of the prosperity Thou hast blessed us with, and
worthy of all high undertakings. And especially would we
beesech Thy blessing upon this assembly. May thoughts of
Thee occupy our deliberations, and wilt Thou enable us to
trace out Thy wonderful workings in all the laws and forces
of nature that we may come more and more into harmony
with Thee, and with Thy purposes in the world, and that
through Thee we may provide for ourselves and for those
dependent upon us a worthy subsistence. And wilt Thou
keep us continually in peace and good fellowship. Enrich
our hearts and our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Secretary Brown. I have the pleasure now of introduc-
ing to this audience the son of one of the gallant soldiers of
my old regiment that Vv'-ent to the front with me forty-three
years ago, and who now comes to the front as the chief execu-
tive of the City of Willimantic. I take pleasure in introduc-
ing his Honor, Mayor Dunn, of Willimantic.

Mayor Dunn. Mr. Secretary and gentlemen of the Con-
necticut Board of Agriculture, ladies and friends : When I
met Colonel Brown on the outside and he told me that he
was in the same regiment with my father, a thrill of pride
ran through my heart when I thought of the heroes of '6i,
and heard that the secretary of your organization was in the
same regiment with my father : I felt proud of it indeed.
But, ladies and gentlemen, I am not here to discuss that
subject, but here to welcome you to this grand old city of
ours, the city of spindles, a city known all over this State as
the " Thread City." I welcome you here today. As the
representative of the people of this city, I assure you that I
express the sentiment of the people who have a high respect
and appreciation for the Connecticut farmer for what you

ADDRESS OF WELCOME. I9

have done. The exhibits at the agricultural fairs held all
over the State of Connecticut show today that the farmers
are a progressive people, and not only progressive, but, like
the mechanic and inventor, they have worked out ideas,
studied them up and applied them, until today old line farm-
ing has almost passed away and business farming taken its
place. Today the prosperity of the farmer is known, not only
in the financial world but everywhere. He will soon stand
at the head. It is only a question of a few short years when
the farmers of this country will be the leaders in our country's
wealth. Just look around, all over the State of Connecticut,
in the farming districts, and what do you see? Not only in
Connecticut, but all over this broad country of ours the
farmer today shows prosperity everywhere. Beautiful homes,
magnificent barns and stock-houses, well-fed stock on every
hillside, beautiful poultry running everywhere, and the thrifty
farmer with his many assistants at work in the fields is a
sight worth witnessing indeed. But, my friends, I am not
here to discuss the subject of farming and agriculture. The
eminent men that appear on your programme will, I have n,o
doubt, deal with that subject to the satisfaction and instruc-
tion of our people, not only the farmers, but their efforts
will be a school of instruction for the citizens of Willimantic.
I hope and trust that when this convention adjourns and you
leave for your happy homes that you will leave feeling that
the people of our city have received useful and instructive
knowledge as well as yourselves .on the subject of farming.

Now let me say to you again before closing that as the
representative of the people of this city I welcome 3^ou. and
not only welcome you, but in their behalf I extend to you the
freedom of this city. It is yours. Do with it as you please.
Visit our places of industry, visit our places of business, and
when you leave our city, let us hope that the favorable impres-
sion that you have formed will be as lasting as the love and

20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

respect that the citizens hold for the honest, upright, and
thrifty farmer.

Secretary Brown. The programme at this point calls for
a response by His Excellency, Governor Roberts. I have to
say that I have just received a letter from the Governor in
which he regrets that business engagements detain him from
our presence. I will read his letter.

Hartfoeid, December 7, 1905.
Col. James F. Brown,

Secretary, North Stonington.

My Dear Sir : Replying to yours of December the fifth,
I promised partially, if possible, to be present at Willimantic
at the midwinter meeting of the Board, but I find at this writ-
ing that it will be impossible for me to be present.

I regret this very much, as I should have been very much
interested ■ in the proceedings of your meeting. The agricul-
tural interests are of such value to the State that I feel that
any official of the State should do all he could, either by his
presence or his efforts to stimulate and foster them. I know
they are well taken care of by our efficient Board of Agri-
culture, but it would be interesting to note the progress these
interests are making and to do everything in one's power to
assist.

Regretting that I cannot be with you at this meeting, but
hoping at some future time to have that pleasure and profit,
I beg to remain,

Sincerely yours,

HENRY ROBERTS.

Therefore, owing to the unavoidable absence of our Gov-
ernor, I have the pleasure to introduce to you our Vice-Presi-
dent, Mr. Seeley, who will preside at this session, and respond,
in the Governor's place, to this warm address of welcome,
which we have just had from the Mayor of Willimantic.

REPLY OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 21

Vice-President E. G. Seeley. Your Honor, the Mayor of
Willimantic, and ladies and gentlemen : I was informed after
coming into this room that the Governor was not to be here.
That was the first intimation I had of it, and that, consequently,
this response devolved upon the Vice-President. Well, I said,
give me a chance to get out into the open air, and I walked
down the street a little way thinking what I would say and
what I would do, and do you know what came into my mind
as I passed down the street? I remembered about that grand
old patriot, Cincinnatus, who was called from the plow to
arms. I remembered, when reading and studying about him in
history when a boy, my father said to me, if ever you are
placed where you cannot help it, and a responsibility rests
upon you, do the best you can. Do not make unnecessary ex-
cuses or back out under those circumstances. So, following
that instruction which has remained with me all these years,
I will endeavor to say a few words in response to the very
hearty welcome extended to us by the Mayor. Perhaps it is
only proper, to commence with, that I should say that we come
here not as a band of robbers ; not as a band of impostors,
for we do not come here in any such guise. We practice no
jugglery and none of the fine arts. We are a kind of insur-
ance company, but it is not exactly the kind of insurance that
some companies have been carrying on, because we pay our
premiums and we take none ourselves. We have not even
a place to lay our heads if we depended upon the State Board
of Agriculture, because we get nothing. We have no graft
in any shape. We are simply men of the soil and men of toil.
We have come among you and we are glad to have this
hearty welcome and see so many faces here at the opening of
our meetings. We are very glad to come among you and
feel something of the warmth and kindly greeting extended
by your Mayor.

Let me say to you what perhaps many of you have noticed,
,that the year book of the agricultural department, as issued

22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

by Secretary Wilson lately, shows that the agricultural prod-
ucts of this country today exceed more than six billion dollars.
That is the size of the farming industry in the United States.
Think of it ! What an immense sum that is ! Why, you can-
not compute it. It is more than all the mines. More than all
the financial power. It is really greater than the railroads
or any of the other vast interests of the country. Where does
it come from? Well, it comes from the soil. How does it
come from the soil? Why, the most of it comes through the
labor and the brains of the people who live upon the soil.
You cannot get away from that. It comes from those who
plod right down to the earth. Can there be any doubt then
about the agricultural interests of this country? Mark what
I say. It must be upon the agricultural interests of this
country that is based the perpetuity and maintenance of this
nation of ours. It cannot be otherwise. Look among any
other class of people on this broad earth, and you cannot
find such a condition as that ' anywhere else. It comes from
the agricultural interests of this country, the basis of which
is Mother Earth. That is all there is to it.

Now as to our mission. We come only as plain common
people among you. We are glad to be welcomed as we have
been. We come to receive good at these meetings, and we
hope we shall be able to do you good. We certainly shall re-
ceive benefit if we get your cordial sympathy and your coopera-
tion in the little work that we intend to do.

Thanking you, Mr. Mayor, for this hearty welcome which
you have extended for the people of Willimantic, I again say
we are glad to be among you this morning, and to receive
this greeting. (Applause.)

Now the next thing on our programme seems to be an
address on " What the Department of Agriculture is Doing
for the Farmer," by Dr. H. J. Webber, of Washington, D. C.
I have the honor of introducing the gentleman to you now.

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 2T,

" WHAT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IS

DOING FOR THE FARMER."

By Dr. H. J. Webber, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I feel some hesita-
tion in attempting to explain the work of the Department of
Agriculture. Although I have been connected with this in-
stitution for the last fourteen years, and have followed its
growth from a comparatively small institution to its develop-
ment to the enormous position it occupies today, still it is
practically impossible for any one man concerned with particu-
lar investigations, as I am, to explain many of the details and
various workings of that Department. You gentlemen who
are engaged in agricultural matters understand that it is
necessary for us to specialize in order to make advancement.
My specialty has been along the line of plant breeding. There-
fore, you will understand that I only comprehend in an indefi-
nite way the other lines of work which are prosecuted. Still,
I will attempt to explain some of the general features, and if
I fail in this, kindly overlook it and take up some of the books
and bulletins of the Department that will explain in detail, and
very much better than I can do, any particular points about
which you may wish for information.

This department has grown as marvelously as the growth
of the farming industry has been marvelous. In July, 1897,
the Department of Agriculture employed 2,160 men, while
just a few years later, in 1904, the Department employed
4,504 scientific investigators and helpers. Besides these we
have over a quarter million of special correspondents and co-
operators, who are looking up all lines of work. Many of
you gentlemen are probably taking part in that. The growth
of this Department, however, is simply a reflection of the
growth of the country as a whole, and the growth of the
agricultural interests. Our chairman spoke of the enormous
figures represented by this industry, taking his figures, I sup-
pose, from those contained in the Secretary's report. Now
let me give you those a little more in detail simply to impress
this matter upon your mind. Conceive, if you can, the value
of the corn industry. Corn, that little thing that we see every
day. We grew last year 2,208,000,000 of bushels of corn, at

24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail.,

a valuation of $1,216,000,000, an amount probably exceeding
any other industry in the United States, unless it be the steel
industry. Last year our hay crop was valued at $605,000,000 ;
cotton, $525,000,000. The cotton on which the products of
the industries of this city depend aggregated that enormous
total. Oats, $283,000,000; potatoes, $138,000,000; barley,
$68,000,000; tobacco, which you are all interested in, in
Connecticut, $52,000,000; horses, $1,200,000,000; cattle,
$1,144,000,000; hogs and sheep, $249,000,000. These items,
together with the valuation of other minor farm products,
gives us the enormous total of $6,411,000,000, representing
the product of our farms in the United States during the
last year, — something entirely beyond imagination, a sum
stupendous in its magnitude and far greater than the
product of any other industry of the country. But what
are the other results of this? Naturally with this increase
in the valuation of farm products comes an increase in
the valuation of the farms themselves. Farms which yes-
terday, or which a few years ago, could be purchased for from
$25.00 to $50.00 an acre are held at $100.00 and $125.00 an
acre now. Almost all over this country lands, and old lands,
have increased in value, and new lands have been brought into
the market and brought under cultivation. The increase in
values during the last five years is estimated to be $1,133,000.-
000, or, as the Secretary has put it, every sunset has registered
an increase of $3,400,000 in the farm values of this country,
and every month has registered an increase of $102,000,000.
I tell you, gentlemen, the wealth of this country is in the
hands of the farmers. No matter what others may say, the
wealth is in the hands of the farmers, and it is distributed
individually here and there exactly as wealth should be dis-
tributed. Now it would seem probable to us with all this great
increase in values in farm products and in the value of our
farms that we have reached the maximum development, but,
Mr. President and gentlemen, I want to tell you that this in-
crease has just begun. We cannot lie still and think we have
reached the maximum. This increase has been brought about
simply by intelligent effort, by the intelligence behind the
plow. And that reminds me of a little story I read the other
day in reference to an Irishman. The Irishman was in the
back coach of a railway train, and a gentleman came along

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 25

to him, and he says, " Pat, what are you sitting back here
in this coach for? Don't you know that the last car is the
easiest to jump the track, and that accidents are more apt to
happen in the rear coach?" "Well," says Pat, "why don't
they take off the rear coach then ? " Now that is the way with
us. Of course, they couldn't take it off, and we cannot stop
our development. Furthermore, we cannot afford to if we can,
for, as a matter of fact, we have competitors all over this broad
earth of ours. Our wheat growing industry must compete
with South America. Our cotton growers must compete
with the cotton grown in Egypt, in Porto Rico, in the West
Indies, and in other countries all over this broad globe. If
we are to keep in the van of this great commercial ad-
vancement we must hold our present position. We must have
investigators. We must advance all along the line. I think
that is what you are doing, and it certainly is a most satisfactory
situation.

Now the Department of Agriculture has a part to play in
this great development. We use four thousand men investigat-
ing the subject, and with such a number as that at work there
is bound to be something doing. I think I could give you pos-
sibly a more interesting talk if I was to talk on tobacco or on
some particular subject with which I am familiar, but I am
here to talk about the Department.

Now we have in the first place our organization. The
great Department of Agriculture is divided into bureaus which
represent certain subjects relating directly or indirectly to
agriculture which they are investigating. Take our weather
bureau. Who has not heard of the weather bureau of the
Department of Agriculture? We are expending $1,500,000 on
this bureau annually. Still we hear some say, what has it ac-
complished. I have heard it said, ladies and gentlemen, that
the most important work of the Department was to furnish
us with something to talk about. Well, all of us like to talk
about the weather at times. That may be true, for the weather
is of special interest to us all. But I want to tell you that the
bulletins of the weather bureau are in every city, and almost
every town of this country. With the daily maps the report
goes to every village and hamlet in this broad land of ours,
and you know and I know that every mariner before he sails
looks at the weather report to see whether there is going to

26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

be a storm, and if the weather report says a storm is coming-
on, or a hurricane, you know very well he enters a safe harbor
and waits for the storm to pass. So with the vegetable grower.
If he hears the warning of a coming frost you know that he
goes out and covers up his plants. You know that the orange
grower also if he sees the cold wave flags flying, goes out to
his orchard and banks up the trees and prepares his rosin to
burn, and all things of that kind, in order to protect his trees
against injury. So with other industries. That is the way
the thing goes. I think we can safely say that thirty millions
of our people know of the weather bureau of the Department
of Agriculture and its work, and no matter how we may be
inclined to laugh at these reports and joke about them, never-
theless down in our hearts we respect them, and the fellow who
has property values dependent upon the weather is pretty sure
to use them as a true criterion of what the weather is to be.
The man who has property values depending upon the weather
follows those reports almost certainly and surely. That shows
what their real value is regarded as being in any line of work.
The next great work of the Department is the bureau of
animal industry. Next to our plants animals are the greatest
source of our wealth. What is the bureau of animal industry
doing? That comes a little more closely to us because we are
studying animals and plants more particularly, and yet I ven-
ture to say that few of us realize what the bureau of animal in-
dustry is doing for us, for so much of their work is done in an
indirect way~ In the first place, it has an enormous inspection
bureau. You will remember that a large share of our wealth
comes from foreign commerce, and that this foreign commerce
is largely governed and controlled by the condition of the ani-
mals that we put upon the market, and if it were not for the in-
spection which the United States Government carries on
through this bureau it would be practically impossible for us to
ship cattle with the ease with which we ship them today. This
bureau is not only charged with carrying on this enormous in-
spection work, studying how to do it with the most effective-
ness, but they are also studying the diseases of animals with
which we have to contend. If there is anything that creates
consternation in the farmer's mind it is to have his stock taken
sick with a disease which he is powerless to combat. Let us
consider a few of the diseases which the Department is study-

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 2.J

ing. Take, for instance, blackleg, which affects our cattle
industry so severely. Through a careful investigation by the
men connected with this bureau, aided, of course, by the ex-
periment stations all over the country, it has been found that
we could put out a vaccine somewhat similar to the vaccine
used to combat smallpox or diphtheria, by which we could im-
munize cattle, and greatly reduce the effect of the disease.
Now the Department of Agriculture does that very thing.
Instead of paying, as you have to pay, for antitoxin, an
enormous sum, and which is almost prohibitive, the Depart-
ment is sending out doses of this vaccine with instructions for
administering it. During the last five years the Department has
sent out on the average 1,750,000 doses of this vaccine, or
whatever we may call it, per annum, for the treatment of
blackleg alone. As the result of this enormous distribution of
this material, and of other instructions that go with it, a loss
which was at one time from ten to twelve per cent, of the en-
tire amount of cattle grown has been reduced to one-twelfth
of one per cent. Now I maintain that that is coming right
down to the hard basis of fact and large usefulness. In the
same way the hog cholera has been combated. A vaccine has
been prepared and distributed which is greatly modifying the
extent of the disease. Take it in the case of Texas fever about
which a great deal has been said, and as the result of the study
which has been given to it we are now able to control the
spread of the disease. Take the sheep scab, with which the
majority of you are familiar. They have been studying
methods of treatment and control, and by the preparation of
a dip prepared from tobacco, sulphur, and lime, with which
you gentlemen are familiar, I think beneficent results have been
attained. These are the several things we have got to do if
we are going to control the diseases of our animals and the dis-
eases of plants. Now what is the result of these requirements
which are so much criticised? In 1899 there were 672,944
treatments. After that, as the result of the effectiveness of the
treatment the number swelled rapidly until in 1905 more than
seventeen million treatments were made. Now we have re-
turns from nearly six million of these treatments, and the
effective cases are figured up as 93.5 per cent., nearly a per-
fectly eft'ective treatment. We can control many of these dis-
eases if we simply stand together and exercise the best judg-
ment and best knowledge which is obtainable..

28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Now one of the main lines of the work of this bureau is its
inspection work and quarantine work. Many of you are doubt-
less familiar with the attack of foot and mouth disease which
occurred here in 1902. You remember it started in Massa-
chusetts and spread over into Rhode Island, Vermont, and
New Hampshire. I do not believe it came into Connecticut.
It did not, if I am correctly informed. If the disease had not
been stayed it would, of course, have prevented the exportation
of our meat. Commerce on that line would have been actually
stopped if we had not found some way to control it. Now
state boards of agriculture and the state authorities worked
together with the Department of Agriculture in quarantining
and bringing about an entire control of that disease, and as the
result of the quarantine and of that work, over four thousand
animals were slaughtered and disinfected. Congress made a
special appropriation of $500,000, I believe it was, to aid in the
eradication of the disease. The Department paid very nearly
$130,000 for anim.als which were condemned and destroyed.
So effective was that work that the year after the introduc-
tion of the disease, the year after it became broadcast over
those three states, it was nearly stamped out, the quarantine was
raised, and our exportation of meat went on the same as ever.
Now those are things we hardly think of as being the work of
the Department, but when you come to consider some of the
efforts of the Department I want you to take all these matters
into consideration. We have maintained a quarantine all along
the coast and all along the borders of the United States to pre-
vent the importation of infectious diseases. Sometimes we
must do it. Some years ago there was a ship inspection law
passed, providing for the inspection of ships, and for the treat-
ment of those in an unsanitary condition certain regulations
were prescribed. Now how does that affect the farmer ? Just
in this way. It made the ships more cleanly and safe, and as
the result of that all the insurance rates fell over one hundred
per cent. So it goes all along the line.

Now let me call attention for a few minutes again to this
inspection work which is being carried on. We have here and
there in connection with the great packing establishments of
the coimtry, men who are examining all these meats for ex-
portation, examining the carcasses to see if they are diseased
or in proper condition for food. Last year experts in the serv-

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 29

ice of the Department examined over forty million carcasses.
Just think of it! Forty million carcasses were inspected and
passed on, a great many of them in the meanwhile being con-
demned, simply to protect our homes against the utilization of
infected meat which would be dangerous to life. Last year
over 66,846 cars were inspected, and shippers required to put
them in proper shape for the shipment of animals. Last year
we inspected 731 ships to see that they were in proper condi-
tion for animals, and to see that the animals were held in the
proper way. The Department also prescribes regulations re-
garding the shipment of cattle in order that they may be
handled with all possible care and kindness. If they are not
certain loss is sure to result. The Department insists, and the
enforcement of these regulations makes it necessary for
shippers to give a much greater degree of kindness and atten-
tion to these matters than was formerly the case.

In the dairy work of this great bureau there are being some
exceedingly interesting things brought to light. For instance,
in butter, of which we produce enormous quantities, an effort
is being made to find a foreign market. We produce more
butter than we want to use at home, and the question is, can
we ship it abroad ? Can we establish a market there ? One of
the great lines of work of the Department is to look into the
possibilities of foreign markets for the purpose of seeing if
we can establish trade in other places than those in which it
now exists. In the first place, the question to be solved is
whether we can ship butter. We have got to have refrigerators.
In connection with that, experiments have been in progress
at the New York and Wisconsin experiment stations where the
Department has been studying the keeping qualities of butter,
taking, for instance, a fifty-pound tub and subjecting it to
different temperatures to see how it keeps. They have found
some interesting facts. If I was to give the maximum, it
would be something like five degrees below zero, while it has
also been found that if we keep it at the ordinary temperature
of, say, about twenty degrees above zero, the butter deterio-
rates. That is simply another line in which the Department is
reaching out and striving to help the farmer by increasing the
quality and increasing the market for farm products.

Take cheese. We are conducting experiments in connec-
tion with your station at Storrs, and also in connection with

30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

the New York and Wisconsin stations relative to the preserva-
tion of cheese and the making of cheese. Everything indicates
that some very beneficial knowledge will be obtained in these
lines. We are carefully investigating that subject. Probably
you gentlemen, many of you, are familiar with the results
obtained at Storrs up to the present time.

With regard to foreign shipments of butter T neglected
to state that on experimental shipments which have been made
to Manchester, England, and various other places, they seem
to indicate without question that we can establish a paying
market in those localities, and every market of that kind that we
can open up, is, of course, of the greatest benefit to every
farmer. So much then for this great bureau of animal industry.

Now the next most important, and probably the greatest
producer of wealth is the plant, and we have in connection with
the Department the great bureau of plant industry, which is tak-
ing up the subject of plants from all sides and studying it in all
its phases. One of the most important lines of work of this bu-
reau is the treatment of plant diseases. Now if a man is at a
loss when his stock becomes sick, why I must say that the ordi-
nary man, ordinary individual, be he farmer or other, is more
than at a loss when his plants become sick. We are not familiar
with plants. We are with animals more or less, and know how
to treat many animal complaints, but when our plants become
sick then we are absolutely helpless. The pathological practice
and treatm.ent of plant diseases practically originated with
this Department of Agriculture. I could not begin to tell you
all the various diseases which have been studied carefully, and
for which treatments have been proposed that are effective.
Take, for instance, the peach leaf curl, with which many of you
are familiar. This disease at one time caused widespread dam-
age. There seemed to be no wa}^ to stop it. We now know,
however, that by proper spraying we can control that disease.
It is not merely in the discovery of remedies to combat such
diseases that beneficial results have been obtained, that is not
all. One of the main things comes in carefully studying the
life history of the fungus which causes the disease, and finding
out when this treatment must be applied to make it effective,
and that is what is being done in every case. Take it in the
case, for example, of the bitter rot of apples, which is a new

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 3I

disease, and quite widespread over the western part of the
country. It is estimated that that disease alone causes damage
of over $10,000,000 annually. The experts of the bureau dis-
covered that by proper spraying at the proper time we are able
to practically control that trouble. In our experiments this
last season we saved over ninety per cent, of the crops where
application was made of the spray, while in orchards adjoining
those to which the applications were made the property was
entirely ruined. Up-to-date farmers must watch these new
methods and take prompt advantage of them. Take, for in-
stance, the peach yellows, a disease which has been more or
less prevalent in Connecticut and caused large losses. After
carefully studying, it was found eradication of the diseased
trees seemed to be the only proper remedy, the same remedy
that we applied in the case of the foot and mouth disease. That
was found to be the best method of treatment, and by that
method we are able to control this disease, if farmers and all
concerned will work together with us to do the work thor-
oughly.

We do not limit ourselves simply to the study of spray-
ing methods and things of that kind, but we go into the produc-
tion of new strains of plants to resist these diseases. Now I
am going into a subject with which I am familiar because that
is my line of work. It is more or less surprising to some people
that a scientist should be able to produce an immune strain of
plants. You know perfectly well that certain men are resist-
ant to certain diseases. We know, for example, that one man
may be exposed to yellow fever and not take it where another
will take it. Another may be exposed to smallpox and resist
the disease where perhaps another exposed at the same time
will take it. We apply that same principle to the production of
immune strains of plants. Wherever we can discover that
tendency to resist we can usually by breeding produce an im-
mune strain. This city depends largely on the cotton industry
of the South, and we have been able to do something in this
line, the benefit of which has been seen here. About ten years
ago there appeared in the South a new disease that attacked
the little fine roots of the cotton plants and ran up the main
stem, soon causing the plant to wilt and die. We found that
that fungus would maintain life for eight or ten years, and as
the result of the presence of that disease some of the best cotton

32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

lands in the South were abandoned ; it looked exceedingly seri-
ous. Take, for instance, James Island, where the finest cotton
was produced, and lands worth from $ioo to $125 an acre were
plowed up and put into other crops, vegetables and other
products, because they could not produce cotton. The disease
spread into Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and into other sections
of the South, and we thought it was going over the whole coun-
try and was liable to destroy the cotton industry. Now one of
the men in the employ of the Department discovered that an
occasional cotton plant here and there in the field seemed to
resist the disease, and would produce a good crop of cotton
when its neighbors were wilting and dying. Some experi-
ments were tried. A few of these plants that seemed to be re-
sistant were selected, the seed from those immvme plants were
planted, and as the result today we have produced some
varieties of cotton which will resist that disease completely.
When this resistant variety of cotton is planted in the center
of a field of the ordinary kind it will stand up like a hedgerow
while every plant on each side will go down as the result of
the disease.

We had a similar experience in the case of a disease which
attacked the cow pea, which is the clover of the South. We
selected the seed from the resistant or apparently immune
plants, went through the same process, and succeeded in pro-
ducing an immvme pea that would resist the disease.

As the result of these things today, gentlemen, those
cotton fields which were abandoned are growing with fine
staple cotton, and fields which would not produce a crop of
cow peas in the South are growing with fine crops of this
clover of the South. The tobacco growers of Florida, who
have no cover crop because of the work, are now growing
these cow peas resistant to the disease, and the pathologists
of the Department, wherever we can. are discovering these
troubles and propagating immune strains as rapidly as possi-
ble, putting them into the hands of the growers, and in that
way have been able to do much.

Now the same sort of work has been carried on, more or
less, in relation to tobacco, and several other crops. We
hardly know what can be accomplished in this direction as yet,
but from the beneficial results which have been produced in
the case of cotton and other plants we feel confident that

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 33

breeders can go ahead and produce crops which are resistant
to these diseases.

Now the breeding work of the bureau of plant industry
extends to other Hues. I want to speak about cotton, as long
as that is one of the main products of your manufacturing in
New England. All over this great country of ours, from
South 'Carolina to Texas, we grow a little short staple cotton
about three-quarters of an inch to an inch in length, and that
is the staple which mainly reaches your mills in New England.
In a few instances in the Mississippi valley, and in other sec-
tions of the South, they grow a staple cotton which is an inch
and a half long. In the case of the former it is worth from
six to eight cents per pound while in the case of the latter it
is worth a much greater price. On some of the islands along
the eastern coast of the South they grow the best staple cotton
which is known in the country ; in fact, the famous Sea Island
cotton comes from that section. I like to impress this fact,
that while we grow some of the short and poor staple cotton
yet nevertheless we also grow the best, for that Sea Island
cotton grows from two to two and one-half inches in length,
and instead of selling from eight to ten and twelve cents a
pound that sells right along for forty and fifty cents a pound
for the best grade, and for the poorer grade from twenty-
five to thirty cents a pound. Here was a chance to produce a
better product by getting a variety, for instance, which would
produce a longer staple. Every one familiar with the subject
recognizes that if we had a longer staple we would have a
better grade of goods because the longer the staple the stronger
the thread and the better the wearing quality of the goods.
Now the Department has taken up this question of the im-
provement of cotton. The Department experts said, why can
we not produce a better staple cotton ? We have here the best,
and also, if not the poorest, some of the poor. We have on
the one hand a short staple adapted to the climate all over the
South, and on the other hand we find some varieties with fibres
of the longest kind, and if these two could be combined, not
with the idea of producing all of the best, but of substantially
improving the poor, it would make an excellent cotton. So
the suggestion was made that possibly by hybridizing these
varieties and breeding them carefully we could produce a
variety of cotton which might not be as good as the best, but

Agr. — 3

34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

which would be substantially better than that which is more
commonly grown. The experts of the Department took this
up, crossed these two varieties of cotton and began to work
towards the idea of producing a better species. That work
has been nearly completed. It has reached a conclusion in
certain lines this year, and we are sending out to the growers
in the South a staple which instead of being less than ah inch
runs up from an inch to an inch and a half, but much longer
than the ordinary grade, and which, of course, is worth more
in the market because it will produce a better grade of goods.

Now in the same way we undertook the improvement of
the tobacco crop. Many of you gentlemen are interested in
that line of work. In the case of tobacco we believe we have
alreadv done something: for the industry, and that we can do
a good deal more. Our experts in studying this matter found,
in the first place, that a point of great value to the grower was
to separate his seed so as to use only the heavy seed. Well,
you say, those of you who are familiar with the subject, how
can that be done ? The seed is so small that we can hardly see
it any way. Well, that was the difficulty, but we found that by
separating this seed and using only the heavy seed, we got a
better yield, a better plant, and a more imiform plant. Of
course, as I say, the difficulty was to separate the seed. One
of our experts went to work and perfected a machine for
separating the seed, patented the machine in the name of the
government, so that any one of you could use it or make it
without danger. Now if there is a tobacco grower here I
think he has heard of that machine and of the results which
cam.e from the separation of the seed. That discovery in itself
has been doing a good deal of good for the tobacco growers
here in Connecticut, in Kentucky, and in Ohio.

Another thing. One of the greatest losses to the tobacco
grower is from the fact that the crop is not uniform. When
the shade industry was taken up in Connecticut a few years
ago, and the effort made to grow Sumatra tobacco in the
shade, it is probable as to that industry, if it can be said to
have failed, it failed because of the variability of the product
grown more than for any other reason. When we bring seed
from any foreign country and plant it here for the first time
we usually find that the plants produced are variable. We can
correct that by breeding. If you want a certain type of Suma-

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 35

tra we can produce it. If you want a certain type of Sumatra
with round leaves, or so that you can cut a certain number
of cigar wrappers from them, we can produce it. If you want
a round leaf we can get it. Think for a moment what it means
to the growers if we can do that, two more leaves to each
plant ! That, of course, largely increases the crop and, of
course, its value to the grower. That is just exactly what I
believe careful breeding will do. We have been breeding ani-
mals for years. We understand that principle as applied to
animals. Many of you are familiar with the gradual increase
of the trotting record. You know that a few years ago it
was thought that if a horse trotted in 2.16 it would be some-
thing marvelous, but we can, most of us, recollect the name of
several horses that have trotted in better time. It was thought
by some that the maximum had been reached, but breeders
will tell you that that time has not only been considerably
lowered, but that the record will be reduced slightly as the
result of still further careful selection and careful breeding.
Draft horses of different types are all the result of this ques-
tion of breeding. Now, while we have understood this princi-
ple as applied to animals more or less, we have been letting our
plants go. We have been considering that the plant came
under a different category, so to speak, but we are coming
to realize that we can breed them just the same as animals.
The corn growers of the west are organizing to produce
more and better corn. They say they can increase the yield
ten bushels per acre, and some growers have done it. Cotton
growers know from experience now that they can produce
a largely increased yield, and a better crop in all respects
as the result of seed selection. In the case of tobacco can
we not by that same course of selection produce a larger
yield? Every one of you men v/ho have seen a tobacco field
know that you have seen certain plants that will have from
two to three and four or five more leaves than any other plant
surrounding it. That is the plant for you to select your seed
from. Up to about two years ago the policy followed in
selecting tobacco plants for seed was simply to take a good
part of the field near the barn, or near the house, as the case
might be, where the plants were nice and thrifty, and leave
a couple of dozen plants for seed. Now that does not accom-
plish the purpose. That is simply taking any plant growing

36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

under good manurial conditions and thrifty because it is well
manured. As the result of the Department's work, coupled
with the work of the experiment station at New Haven —
and your experiment station has been cooperating by furnish-
ing funds and furnishing intelligence to run the work with —
as the result of this work it has been settled that the way for
the Connecticut tobacco grower today, as well as the growers
of all other states, is to select a plant here and there through-
out the field that is giving the best yield and the best growth,
and to take the seed from those plants. By so doing he wall
be able to get a better yield and a better product. Our ex-
perts, however, have gone a little further. They found out
that there was danger, owing to the fact that the seed of these
selected plants were cross-fertilized, and they found out that
if the seed from such plants became cross-fertilized it made
plants raised from such seed variable. As the result of that,
w^e have advocated that when such plants had been selected
for seed that a bag should be placed over the blossoms to
prevent cross-fertilization. This can be done by using a cheap
manila paper bag which can be obtained at most any grocery
store. By drawing that down over the seed head it prevents
the admission of insects so that there will be no cross-fertiliza-
tion. That policy has been pursued, has been put into opera-
tion by the tobacco growers, and I am glad to say with good
results. I drove up and down the Connecticut Valley this
last summer for a considerable distance, and could see the bags
here and there all along the road. Sometimes I came across
men who seemed to be a little bit doubtful. They did not
know whether that would work out or not. and so they placed
the bags upon seed heads that were hidden away from the
road, but you could look over behind the hills and see the
patches of tobacco occasionally with the bags upon them.
I think that practically every man that has adopted this
method and pursued it intelligently this year will testify to the
good results that have been obtained. Why? Why gentle-
men, this is not a theoretical matter. It is a practical fact.
These are things that you can see just as plainly as I can
see. They are results which can be accomplished by following
advanced methods.

Some other very interesting things have been developed
in the course of our work with the tobacco plant. For in-

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 37

stance, I told the growers of tobacco in Kentucky that it might
be possible for us to produce suckerless plants. They laughed,
but they all said if you can give us any of the seed we want
some of it. Now it would seem impossible to produce a sucker-
less type of tobacco, but we hope to attain it. You know that
one variety of apple branches out in a different way from
another. If you are a cotton grower, you know that one
brand is entirely different from another. We have one kind
of cotton which branches out with great branches over the
ground, and we have another type of cotton which is almost
limbless. It will grow right up in a column like a cedar tree
and produce bolls on each side. These things in nature are
not uncommon. It is not such a marvel to produce a plant
which is substantially changed from its normal form by the
proper treatment, and that is exactly what we believe can be
done with respect to the tobacco plant. If any of the growers
have seen the experiments which the Department has been
carrying on at East Hartford this last season you will bear
me out in saying that we have several types there this year
which are practically suckerless. I believe, gentlemen, that it
is possible for the plant breeder, working with intelligence and
care, to produce a tobacco plant which you will not have to
sucker, as we express it ; which will save all that expense,
and which will be just as good. But I am spending too much
time on this branch of our work and must hurry on.

I meant to mention another line of our work which has
been talked of a good deal, and that is in the production of a
new strain of orange. The newspapers have been telling you
people up in the North that you could grow oranges up here.
I even had letters from people in Canada asking for some
samples of this hardy orange-tree adapted to grow in a cold
climate. Now, unfortunately, all newspaper stories are not
true. I give them credit for trying to tell a thing in the right
way, but they occasionally stretch it a little. The fact is, in
this connection, that there is a little grain of truth which
afforded some foundation for the story which went out. The
Department two years ago was able to announce that it had
produced a hardy orange that could be grown further north
than any existing variety. We were able to distribute last
year to about five thousand farmers in Georgia. Alabama,
Mississippi, and in the region running through there to Texas

38 BOAEID OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

and the Indian Territory, a type of orange which we believe
will grow in those localities. The orange is not adapted, as
of course you all know, to a cold climate. This fruit will
not appear on the Boston market tomorrow. It is not even
an orange of commerce, but it is an orange which is edible,
which produces a marmalade which is first rate, which pro-
duces the finest preserves I have ever seen, and which pro-
duces equal to the best lemonade which you get from acid
fruits. But that is not the whole thing. We have the apple
here at home, but in this district to which this orange is adapta-
ble they do not have it. To the people of Georgia, Alabama,
and the 'Carolinas, and all through the northern belt of the
southern states where they lack an acid fruit, and where they
have to buy apples from the north, if they have them at all,
oranges there such as I have described, will come as a great
boon.

The Department has spent a great deal of time and money
in the importation of valuable productions of other lands.
Since Secretary Wilson entered the Department we have had
men who have made that their business. There was not origi-
nally an office for the importation of plants from other coun-
tries for introduction into this country, but now we have men
scouring all parts of the earth for the purpose of getting hold
of productions of value which can be transplanted here. Many
of the most valuable fruits which we have were originally

'&'

brousfht from abroad. These have been secured and broug^ht

»

over at various times during the last two centuries. Com-
paratively recently several valuable things have been obtained.
Take Durand wheat, which is a good illustration. You might
say that it would be strange that we should find in benighted
Russia a wheat which would be valuable to us, but the so-
called Durand wheat, which is essentially a Russian wheat,
was not imported into this country until lately. The Depart-
ment sent agents to Rvissia to study the industry over there,
to study into the methods of its cultivation, etc., before it was
sent over here. Now the Durand w'heat is very hard. It
differs quite a little from our wheat here. It yields more
heavily as a whole, and contains more gluten, and, all things
considered, it has quite a number of points which make it more
valuable than our present wheat. It seemed to be doubtful, for
certain reasons, whether we would succeed in importing the

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 39

Durand wheat, but in 1901, in the northwestern region of this
country there were produced nearly fifty thousand bushels
of that prime wheat. Last year, in 1905, there was grown over
twenty million bushels, and all the farmers who have tried it
have found this wheat to be a better yielder and to be thor-
oughly adapted to their conditions, and it is established now in
this country beyond doubt.

We have also imported from Sweden a very fine oat which
is a heavy yielder, and fills out well. It has been found that
this oat was a substantial addition to our native stocks. We
grow today nearly four million bushels annually of those oats.

We also sent a man to Japan to study rice, and have im-
ported some very fine varieties of rice. We imported one of
the Japanese varieties which bids fair to supersede the variety
usually grown in Texas and Louisiana. It has been found to
be well adapted to that region of our country, to be a good
yielder, and grows well in the southwest.

One of the interesting lines of work which the Department
has taken up, one which I personally enjoy, although I do but
little of it, is what we term " farm management work." I
know every farmer thinks he knows how to manage his own
farm, and we all know that the farmers of the country are
succeeding in managing their farms very well, so that they are
being made more and more profitable, but, at the same time,
we know that John Jones over here in one county is a fine
farmer, and we know that Joe Smith over here in another
county has a good farm but does not seem to be so good a
manager, and we think that if we can get John Jones and
Joe Smith together and let them talk over with each other
their various methods of management, good will result. That
is what the Department is trying to do. We are sending men
to successful farmers here and there, studying their methods,
and then publishing papers detailing exactly how they have
gotten certain results. All that has proven helpful. By reason
of these methods we believe that most farmers can improve
on the methods they are pursuing today, or, at least, get good
suggestions from it. We all know that if a man enters into
a business with which he is not perfectly familiar he wants to
go to a man who is successful in that industry and learn from
him just how he succeeds, how he carries it out, and the more
a farmer can learn the more he will enjoy his work, and, of
course, the more successful he will be. If we can bring to-

40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

gether this knowledge from every successful farmer and make
it available to all the farmers of the country, we believe that
that will be a very helpful line of work. That is one of the
things that the Department is trying to do.

Now aside from these that I have mentioned, the great
bureaus of the Department, we have the bureau of forest serv-
ice, but I notice in looking over your programme that you are
to have a talk on that particular subject and I shall not take
the time to speak of the details of the work of that department.

Another bureau is engaged in soil surveys, and we also
have the bureau of entomology, the bureau of statistics, and
several other bureaus which I shall not mention in very great
detail.

Probably you are all familiar with the work of the bureau
of soil surveys. One of the primary objects of that is to study
the soils where crops are grown, and map those soils out so
that a man unfamiliar with the soil may be able, by taking the
map, to find where certain types of soil adapted to certain plants
exist. This work has been going on for several years. Very
large areas have been mapped in all the principal crop regions
of the United States. Cotton soils, tobacco soils, apple soils,
and soils adapted to the growth of many dififerent crops have
been more or less studied and exactly mapped. Now this
brings that bureau naturally to the study of soil fertility and
soil cultivation, and they have given us some new suggestions
relative to soil fertility that I believe will be of great value.

It is not necessary to dwell upon the work of the bureau of
entomology. All of you have probably heard of the work which
this bureau has done in connection with the boll weevil which
is affecting the cotton of Texas and adjoining states. When
the foot and mouth disease was introduced here Congress made
a special appropriation of $500,000 for the purpose of studying
and stamping out that disease. When the boll weevil came
up from Mexico into Texas and attacked the cotton crop,
threatening its destruction. Congress made another emergency
appropriation for the study of this pest and its control, if
possible. Now, unfortunately, inasmuch as we have to deal
with millions upon millions of these little felloAvs, extermina-
tion seems practically impossible, and we have been obliged
to turn our attention to the study of some other method besides
extermination in order to secure the needed protection for the

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 4I

cotton crop. The Department experts almost over-ran Texas.
They have studied every phase of the boll weevil question
imaginable, from the use of this machine to the use of that, and
from the use of this spray or that spray, and have worked out
every idea for its control that could possibly be suggested by
the three million people that live down there. Unfortunately,
we have found no absolute remedy for this pest. However,
as the result of all this study there has grown up a policy which,
at least, is giving fairly good results. It was found, as a
matter of experiment, that the early variety of cotton, when
planted as early in the season as possible, and cultivated thor-
oughly, would give a crop before these little pests became
abundant enough to do damage. Therefore, the result of this
study was simply the discovery of this simple method for treat-
ment of the crop. Coupled with this use of early varieties and
early cultivation, it was found that by cleaning up the fields,
and burning up the old cotton stalks, etc., it would destroy large
numbers of the pest. That knowledge has been spread broad-
cast all over Texas and in the adjoining region afflicted with
it. The interest in the matter down there is simply intense.
During the last political campaign it was said that it was im-
possible to get the attention of the people fixed on the election
because they were so intent in discussing the boll weevil. You
could go into most any town in that district and find groups
of men who instead of talking politics were talking about the
boll weevil, and the new idea of overcoming the trouble by
better cultivation. Now as the result of the efforts of the
Department Texas has made a decided advance. There has
never been such a quick acquisition of knowledge on the part
of the growers of any crop, and I venture to say that the
farmers are better informed in regard to advanced methods than
in any other industry of like kind. While we have not been
able to absolutely control the boll weevil, we have been able
to show the farmers that they could produce a crop with the
boll weevil all around them.

The other lines of work of the Department probably need
not be mentioned this morning, but just a word in regard to the
dissemination of knowledge. You are all probably familiar
with our year book, in which we bring together special papers
on special topics. It is a book of from eight hundred to a thous-
and pages, and is published in editions of five hundred thousand

42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

each, the largest edition of any Government publication. That
goes to the farmers all over the coimtry. It also goes to the
libraries, as it constitutes a valuable work for reference, and is
thus made accessible to every farmer in the land. We also
publish a farmers' bulletin, which goes all over the country. It
is distributed broadcast. We are attempting in every way pos-
sible to cooperate with the experiment stations and with the
farmers' institute work. Many of our men are delivering lec-
tures and talking in that way.

I may say that our methods are undergoing something of
a revolution. You have perhaps heard of the famous corn
trains of the West, of the vegetable trains, apple trains, etc.,
which have been utilized as a means of spreading knowledge of
these crops. I never realized what a success those trains were
until I was detailed on one of the corn trains in Iowa last
season. The value of that method for distributing knowledge
simply depends upon the simplicity of the facts which are being
taught. Let me illustrate that. I joined a corn train in Iowa
at Sioux City in February of last year. On a Monday morning
we pulled out from the station in Sioux City running south.
It was snowing very hard. You could hardly see across the
street. There were at least two feet of snow on a level. When
we pulled into a little station with probably not more than a
couple of dozen houses I never was so surprised in my life
as I was to see teams lined up for almost half a mile about that
little station, and I would be willing to wager that three car-
loads of people were packed into a small space waiting to be
addressed. There were so many of them they could hardly
get in. At every station we visited that day, and I think it was
fourteen different places, giving talks of half an hour each,
we had from four hundred to five hundred people present.
And that in spite of the inclemency of the weather. Such a
movement under the direction of the State Board of Agricul-
ture, and of the Department, in conjunction with the experi-
ment stations, is certainly of the greatest value in enabling us
to bring to the farmers here and there information which they
otherwise would never get. It savors of political speaking
from the back platform of a train, but I believe that men will
attend those trains that never would attend a farmers' institute
meeting. The Department is endeavoring to aid in this move
ment so far as lies in its power.

GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 43

I can say no more, I believe, this morning on account of
lack of time, but I would like to say in conclusion that in con-
nection with this work which the Department is doing if you
can glean some idea of its immensity and at the same time get
some realization of the importance and dignity of farm life,
I shall certainly have succeeded in my mission here. The De-
partment is advancing all means of knowledge on agricultural
matters in a way never before undertaken, and if we are to
keep our sons and our daughters on the farms, if we are to in-
terest them and keep them there, as I believe we should in
this country, we must give them something to do ; we must
give them something interesting. If we can place in their
hands knowledge which will serve to interest them in farm
work and hold them upon the farm, we will accomplish an
exceedingly useful thing. In this connection I remember a
little story of Burbank, and you all know how the name of
Burbank as a plant breeder has spread over the country. You
have heard of the Burbank potato. Burbank describes the
origin of that in this way. He was familiar as a boy with the
original Early Rose potato. He knew of the methods that
had been pursued because he had talked them over with well-
informed people. He was a student in this region, and was
going to school. He said that his uncle had a patch of Early
Rose potatoes, and he had to pass through that patch every day
on his way to school. He was always interested in the matter,
and he began to look for seed balls. Now you know the Early
Rose is not a prolific producer of seed balls, but one day he
came across a plant that had a couple of seed balls developed
upon it. Why, he said he watched those seed balls with the
greatest interest every day. Every day he said he would walk
by them watching intently for one of the balls to fall. One
morning when he went by he looked at them and noticed that
one had gone. He said that he felt like crying over the loss
of that ball. He hunted for it but could not find it. He said
that he could not give it up, and every day for a week he said
that he went back to the place and searched for that seed ball
and finally he said he found it some distance away from the
plant, where some animal had passed rapidly through the
patch and the ball had been knocked from the plant. Now
being familiar with the work in plant breeding he took the seed
ball and from that progenitor produced the results obtained in

44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

the great Burbank potato. He said that little incident led him
to take up his life work of plant breeding, and led to his suc-
cess entirely. Now what was accomplished by Mr. Burbank
may be done by every boy. Any farmers' boy may take up the
same kind of work, to improve the crop, may select his seed
carefully, and by proceeding in an intelligent way, produce
something of value to the community.

Now every item of knowledge that we can add to this in-
dustry is a help to all. If we can make it an exact science it
simply makes it all the better, more interesting, and more en-
joyable. We cannot learn too much. That is what the De-
partment of Agriculture is doing, and what your State experi-
ment stations are attempting to do. How well they are suc-
ceeding I will leave you to judge.

I thank you for your attention.

The President. The time for adjournment has very
nearly arrived, but there is an opportunity for questions for a
few moments, if any of you desire.

Mr. Platt. Can the Doctor tell us if the Government is
doing anything towards controlling the gypsy moth ? We hear
a good deal about it in our neighboring states, and it may be
very near us for all we know.

Dr. Webber. In answer to the gentleman I will say that
they are working with it, but relative to the results I am en-
tirely uninformed. If you will address a letter to the Bureau
of Entomology at Washington they will give you a bulletin
and all the information they have on that subject. I am not
sufficiently informed to give you the details.

Mr. Sedgwick. I would like to inquire of the gentleman if
the Department is investigating the potato rot? What is the
cause of that?

Dr. Webber. They are investigating the potato rot very
thoroughly and investigating it in a very interesting manner.
The Department is trying to produce an immune strain. We
started work three years ago, I think it was, in cooperation
with the Vermont station, by the importation and testing of
foreign varieties of potatoes. I believe that every potato
grower has probably observed that certain varieties are less
susceptible to that disease than others, and we have knowl-
edge which has come to us of foreign varieties which are im-
mune. We have imported some of them. We sent Professor

DISCUSSION. 45

Jones of Vermont abroad to study those varieties and to im-
port some of the seed. We imported seed from all the good
varieties from Scotland and from other countries, those are
all being carefully studied, and we hope, although it is a mat-
ter of the future, but v^e hope v^e shall be able to place in your
hands varieties of potatoes which shall be immune to this
disease. Of course, the stations and the Department have
also been working along the line of prevention by the use of
various washes and sprays. The use of formaldehyde and
the corrosive sublimate treatment is probably familiar to the
most of you, but we hope we shall have an immune variety,
which, of course, will be by far the better thing.

A ]\Iember. Mr. President, I am not specially interested in
the subject of tobacco, but there are some tobacco growers
here, and in speaking of shade-grown tobacco the speaker
said that that is practically a failure. I want to ask if that
is not because it is grown under shade: if it is not because
it is grown without the sun and does not come out well any
more than grass does that is grown under shade?

Dr. ^^^EBBER. The gentleman has asked a mooted ques-
tion. It is true that a leaf grown under shade is very thin.
You are. therefore, fighting with the manufacturer. The
manufacturer, on the one side, wants a leaf from which he
can cut the greatest number of wrappers, the greatest number
per pound. On the other hand, they are liable to get so thin
that they break up on the cigar. Now it is believed that the
product in Connecticut is rather thin, and, as I understand
the matter, in the experiments this year which have been
conducted on various lines, they have attempted to correct this
in a certain measure. Possibly, it may be done by removing
the tent a portion of the season. It is well known that the
plant developed in the open sun has a tendency to thicken.
The trouble is that there a leaf is produced which is too thick.
We have got to reach a mean between those two. We have
two ways of doing it. W^e may be able to accomplish it by
removing the tent for a portion of the time. I do not know
whether that will be successful or not. It is a matter of ex-
periment. Then again w^e may be able to do it by breeding,
in the same way that one plant produces a lot of suckers
and another plant develops none of them. In the same way,
one plant will produce thick leaves and another thin. If

46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

these leaves are too thin, I believe we can produce a thicker
leaf by a process of selection and breeding. The industry at
the present time is simply in a stage of development. I may
say, however, for the gentleman's information (if he does
not already know it) that there are a good many things to
recommend Sumatra shade-grown tobacco. Whether the
market will take what we will be able to produce here I do
not know. I have not been concerned with this experiment
except from the standpoint of breeding.

The President. These remarks by our speaker bring this
suggestion to my mind in regard to that. What do you wish
of tobacco? If I grow grass under shade my horses or my
cows know the difference between eating that grass and that
which is grown out in the sunshine. I do not know what
may be desirable, but probably the taste may have something
to do with it. Those who love tobacco can tell about that
better than I. It may be that that is the question, whether
the man who uses that tobacco will like the taste, or the man
who manufactures it can wrap more cigars with it.

The hour for adjournment has arrived. This convention
will stand adjourned until two o'clock this afternoon.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Tuesday, December 12, 1905.
(Music.)

Convention called to order at 2.00 p.m., Vice-President
Seeley in the chair.

The President. By your programmes you will see that
we are to have an address this afternoon on " The Essentials
of Success in Future Sheep Breeding."

Now there has from the earliest times never been any better
or more honorable occupation than the rearing and caring for
sheep, and we have hundreds of acres here in Connecticut
which I have not the slightest doubt are well adapted to the
rearing of sheep, and would make it a most profitable indus-
try under proper rules and regulations, and system. Perhaps
better than anything else that much of that land can be used

ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 47

for. I am very glad this afternoon that we have a gentleman
here who is well posted, as I understand, in rearing and caring
for sheep, and it gives me pleasure to introduce to you this
afternoon this gentleman, Dr. C. D. Smead, of Logan, New
York.

"THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS IN FUTURE
SHEEP BREEDING."

By Dr. C. D. Smead, Logan, N. Y.

Mr. President and friends : It affords me a great deal of
pleasure to meet with you in your mid-winter meeting at this
time, because I expect to learn something of you, a great deal
more of you than you will learn of me. Therefore, it affords
me pleasure to be with you. I have always in my life en-
deavored to learn something and have not made a very good
success of it, but such as I have learned I shall endeavor to
impart unto you.

The President has stated in his opening remarks that in his
boyhood days he tended sheep, large numbers of sheep, and
became disgusted with sheep and quit the business, as I sup-
pose, resolved at any rate that he would have nothing to do
with it. Now I am very sorry indeed that he did that, and
I am more than sorry that others hav^ done the same thing.
Why ? Because, as a matter of fact, the sheep industry of the
world today is in a deplorable condition. There is no deny-
ing that. You who have given the matter thought and study,
looked up the statistics, realize as well as I that there are
less sheep in the world today than there have been at any time
in fifty years ; and the worst of it is they are growing less
and less rapidly, and your clothes and mine are wearing out
proportionately, and it is certain, Mr. President, that unless
a change takes place, which I have faith to believe there will,
it will not be long before you and I will not be finding fault
with our wool but, as a matter of fact, we will be pretty glad
to get it to wear. Our agricultural department at Washing-
ton has taken a great deal of pains in conjunction with other
countries of the world where sheep are kept in looking this
matter up and have now reported that at the beginning of this

48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

year there were ninety million less sheep in the world than
there were in 1873. There has been a steady decrease then
of three millions per year since 1873 in the whole world. A
more deplorable thing than that is that there has been a de-
crease of ten millions of sheep right here in the United States
since 1900. Now taking into consideration that fact, and
taking into consideration the fact that the sheep of today will
be, after the visual lamb crop is disposed of by the first of
March or April, above six years of age — and six years is
about the age of usefulness — and you can see that we are
pretty near on the verge of a sheep famine. It seems, farmers,
that it becomes the farmers of the whole United States, not
simply the farmers of the State of 'Connecticut, or the New
England States, or New York, ]\lichigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
or other states where they have been keeping sheep, to see
that this is really a serious question, and that the whole
United States should be interested. Why? For several
reasons. We cannot, in my judgment, and I believe you
will agree with me in that, we cannot safely and profitably
prosecute farm \vork in the New England States, or in the
states of New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio, at
any rate,and I know that it is so in those states because I am fa-
miliar v/ith them, — I know that we cannot carry on our farms
as we should without we keep some sheep, so I will put it
down as an essential thing, as the first essential thing, keep
some sheep on the farm. Why? As I came down through
Pennsylvania yesterday, and Southern New York, and saw
the weeds growing up in the pastures in the dairy sections of
Pennsylvania, that the sheep would eradicate and turn into
mutton, I could not help but feel that a mistake was being
made. Now take into consideration the fact that for the
past ten years what we call hothouse lamb has sold on the
average at $9.70 per head year after year in the markets of
New York, Buffalo, and Chicago, and yet from the lack of a
few sheep on the farm many of you have been allowing that
money to get right away from you into some other places that
could have been added to the income of the farm. I say the
first essential then is that a few sheep should be kept on
every farm, whether it is a grain farm, a fruit farm, or a
dairy farm for the purpose of rooting out the weeds and
turning them into mutton. As I travel over my own State

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 49

of New York I can pick out the farms by the weeds where
sheep have been kept all these years. You can tell where they
are.

I have been for some years engaged in the farmers' in-
stitute work in the State of New York, and at every meeting
the vital question that comes up in the dairy section is how to
regulate the pastures that cannot be tilled. Weeds of various
kinds are growing, coming into them continuously, and the
c[uestion has been, what are we to do? What is the answer?
Why the answer is, keep a few sheep. Now I know that some
men within the hearing of my voice say they will starve out
the cows, but are you, my friends, so sure of that? If a man
has over-stocked his pasture, put a few sheep upon it, put
them on with the cattle, and I will guarantee you they will
come out ahead. If a man will keep a few sheep with his
dairy herd of cattle he will be surprised to find that they will
make a more luxurious pasture for them. I know that because
I have had that on my own farm. I have tried to study these
matters, and I have found by experience that a few sheep
running wilfi my cows upon the farm will take the weeds out
of my pasture and clean them up so as to allow other grasses
grow up that are relished by the cattle. I have improved
my own farm in this way, and I could show you a pasture
that has been occupied with sheep and cattle side by side run-
ning together for the last twenty years. It is as fine a pasture
as you could find anywhere, and that has been brought about
largely in that way.

Now before we talk about the essentials let me say that
we sometimes can learn things by taking a back sight, as sur-
veyors say ; or as civil engineers say in running out country
lines we will take a back sight to know whether we are going
in the right direction or not. Now let us take a little back
sight of this industry. What has brought about this condition
of sheep culture today in this country? There is not a man
who has a flock of sheep today, I believe, but what will bear
me out in the assertion that if he has taken care of those sheep
he has made some profit for all the time that the flock has been
in existence.- Now I am not going outside of the United
States only as far as to say that in Australia, a great sheep
country, owing to the curse of rabbits and the curse of locusts,
large flocks of sheep have been decimated. The same has

Agr. — 4.

50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

been true in other parts of the world, but for the purposes of
this talk we will confine ourselves right down to the United
States. What was the condition of the sheep industry, Air.
President, when you were a boy? I will venture to say that
there were not in your boyhood days to exceed five thousand
sheep in the whole United States that were not merinos or
of merino grade. At the outbreak of the Civil War there
came a demand for a class of wool that had not existed to any
extent in this country before. It was needed for the purpose
of making army blankets for the soldiers. There came a de-
mand for some of the coarser wools. The coarser wools went
up in price. There was a large increase in the demand even
for the gray merino wool. The price went up steadily, and
then there began what we will call a revolution of the sheep
industry of this country, beginning as it did with the outbreak
of the Civil War. At that time there came a tremendous de-
mand for the coarser classes of wool, and with that large
demand a great increase in the price of wool, but at the close
of the war when that demand ceased, of course, the coarser
wools began to go back. There was no demand for them.
Something else took place and that something else was this.
The high price of wool stimulated the breeding of the merino
sheep as never before. I feel proud to say, and proud of the
American m.erino breeders who today produce sheep that
stand pre-eminent as the best wool sheep above any other
country on earth, but in the race to produce that American
merino sheep our breeders did something that brought about
a change in the market. It was something that all of us are
apt to do when we get a little too enthusiastic. We sometim.es
overdo. I know I do when I am on the platform. I sometimes
go a little too far. I hope I shall not in this. I do not want
to trample on any one's toes in what I am about to say. But
in the stimulus of breeding these wool sheep shortly after the
close of the v.-ar. or about 1864 or 1865, and from that on, as
the result of the stimulus to this breeding, merino sheep in-
stead of producing about five or six pounds of wool per
fleece the breeders actually increased the wool producing
power of the sheep very materially. They began to pro-
duce heavier fleeces, which brought them into prominence.
Here is where a mistake was made by New York and
Vermont breeders, and perhaps also by Connecticut breed-

1906. J ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 51

ers. The sheep developed a stronger constitution, they bred
more wrinkles in them in order that they might have more
surface and so get more wool, and in order to get weight they
bred for size. Shearing festivals were held all over New York
and I believe in New England. The weight of the fleece
came to be the dominant factor in shearing. It was the
weight of the fleece that counted, and it kept going up and
up ; instead of getting an old-fashioned fleece we began to get
fleeces which weighed anywhere from ten, fifteen, twenty, to
twenty-five pounds each, and occasionally some one would
sheaf a fleece weighing thirty pounds or thereabouts. Then
what happened ? When the manufacturer took that fleece and
scoured it down to about six pounds, he did not feel as though
he could stand the racket. There is where the trouble com-
menced, friends. The manufacturer could not afford to pay
for twenty-five pounds and then have it only come out after
it was scoured weighing about five or six pounds at the ex-
treme. What did he do? Sometimes a slight thing will change
the fashion. At that time there had been brought into the
United States with the coarse wools that we have been speak-
ing about some of the medium wools, such as the Southdowns,
and a few of the other Downs, the Leicesters, a long-wooled
breed, had been brought over. Under the stimulus of the prices
which had been obtained for wool they had been brought over.
Now this manufacturer, he says to himself, I wonder if I
cannot put in a little of that other wool and thereby reduce my
cost? Everybody at that time, Mr. President, wore a broad-
cloth coat. I know they did in New York, and I suppose they
did in New England. As a matter of fact, most everyone wore
broadcloth previous to 1871-2-3 for a dress suit; yes. and the
ladies wore merinos very largely. This manufacturer began to
wonder if he could not get out of the hole that he was being
driven into b}' introducing a little Southdown wool, and some
of the other medium wools that he could get. Then what
happened? Why, he purchased that wool, used it in his prod-
uct, the trade liked the class of goods that he turned out, liked
it because they wore pretty well, and the broadcloth suit was
changed for what was called tweeds and cheviots, and things
of that class, until today we have got to have a fellow that goes
pretty well dressed up if he has a broadcloth suit. Then what
took place? As the fashion changed over came the South-

52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

downs, the Shropshire Downs, the Hampshire Downs ; and
Leicesters and the Cotswolds all came to this country. Down
began to go the price of merino wool. Merino wool dropped
down and down, and the result of it all was in plain lan-
guage that these British breeds of sheep, by reason of the
change in fashion, almost drove out the American merinos.
They were driven away from Vermont, and perhaps Connecti-
cut. I am not as familiar with Connecticut as I am with some
other sections. They were driven from eastern New York to
western Xew York, into Ohio, and so on dowai into Texas,
and away on to the ranges. They were replaced by some of
these English breeds of sheep. Now I am saying nothing
against them. I do not wish to be understood that way at all.
It is a fact those sheep came here, and the attempt w^as made
to make them take the place of the merino, and as a conse-
quence more failures were made with them, I believe, than
successes. Men undertook to buy them, and did buy them,
and took them on to their farms and gave them a class of care
and feeding that they used to give to the merino sheep, and
the result was the sheep went to the clogs, and the dogs did
not do the killing either. Those flocks kept running down
and down until men who were attempting to breed them be-
came disgusted with them and what did not die were sold off.
Now in consequence of that movement, it is a plain simple fact
that large numbers of men today are not keeping sheep.
They say we tried those and we failed. Now there is nothing
against those breeds of sheep. It was simply a lack of knowl-
edge on the part of those that bought them in failing to give
them English care. The sheep came to this country but the
Englishmen did not come with them to care for them. There
Avas W'here the trouble came, along that line. I wall say to
you today that you cannot, friends, if you have been breed-
ers of merino sheep, and I think you have many of you,
vou cannot take any English breed of sheep and give it the
same care that you did those merinos and make a success of
the business. They must have a different line of care. British
methods must be" followed to a great extent or there wall be
a failure. A breeder w^ho has met a high degree of success
with the British breeds is the one w^ho has made a study of
the need of the sheep. He has found that he must care for
them according to the methods prevailing in England. He

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 53

has adopted those methods and has accordingly made a suc-
cess, while the American farmer that got them and endeavored
to breed them, and endeavored to care for them according
to the methods he pursued with merinos has made a failure
of it. But that is not all, that is not the worst of it. That
has been partly overcome. The American farmer has studied
English methods until today he is raising and furnishing his
flock with succulent food and giving them a little of the care
which is needed, and they are succeeding fairly well with
them, or did up until about nine or ten years ago. When the
English sheep came over without the Englishmen to care for
them there came wath them something that we knew nothing
about here, and I venture to say that previous to about twenty
years ago not a man within the hearing of my voice ever saw
a sheep louse. I have no reference to sheep ticks now. We
had sheep ticks here but they did not thrive very well on the
merino sheep. They did not like the mutton, I guess, but
they did like the mutton of the British breeds of sheep. I
do not know where the ticks came from. They were here.
There was however an unseen foe which we had not before
that time calculated upon. W'e could get rid of sheep ticks
because we had learned that there were certain classes of
poison which were not poisonous to the animal but were
poisonous to the sheep tick and the louse or scab mite. Dip-
ping was practiced to get rid of them, became quite well es-
tablished, until every progressive farmer was able to keep his
flock practically clear. After about ten years it was noticed
that the sheep were beginning to decline under a disease that
w^asmysterious. Sheep tick, lice, and the scab mite w^e could
get rid of, but as to the other many a farmer w^as fooled by
it and did not know what w'as the matter. I had a veteri-
narian make an investigation about fourteen years ago. That
was the first I knew about it. I began to hold post mortem
examinations, and others were doing the same. As the result
of those examinations we found a little infinitesimal worm,
the stomach worm, and we found some worms that were in
the bronchial tubes. Longer worms. We found along the
intestines little nodules. We thought for a time it was tuber-
culosis. Everything was going to tubercles along the intes-
tines, but under the microscope we found in these little nodules
a little worm, so small that we could not see it with the naked

54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan.,

eye, and it was soon established that it was this Httle worm
that was doing the damage. Here another thing took place
among the farmers of the east. I believe I may be talking
to some who had experience with it while I am speaking
here today. There seemed to be a kind of panic in the sheep
industry about five years ago, created by this disease, and a
good many have not gotten over it yet. The sheep began to
decline, and the farmers, instead of investigating the trouble
as they should, because it was not a difficult matter to locate,
became panic-stricken, and many a man went out of the busi-
ness. I know that in my own section we had a number of
farmers who were knocked out of the business by the worm.
The farmers got scared when that worm got to work in the
sheep folds, and the result of it was that a good many farms
that were profitably engaged in the sheep industry are today
sheepless. There is many a man that will laugh and shake
his head and say, " I cannot keep sheep," but that is because
he has been scared at a difficulty which is not hard to over-
come. We are living today in what may be called an age of
parasitism, or the parasitic age. If you will stop to consider
one moment you will see how it is. Take those apples that
are on the table, and I will guarantee that the man who raised
them fought parasites in order that he might raise them, and
if he had not fought parasites there w^ould not have been any
of those apples on the table today nor anywhere else. You
cannot raise a hill of potatoes without you use a spray of some
kind or something to destroy the bugs. We are in just that
condition in the animal kingdom. We cannot raise today
anything, either in the animal or vegetable kingdoms, any-
thing from a chicken to a lamb, without we get ourselves into
a position to fight parasites. If you raise vegetables or fruit,
to be successful you must carry on an eternal warfare against
bugs and parasites. If you raise animals, from a chicken up
to a horse, you must make up your mind that you must prepare
yourself to destroy the parasites, or you cannot be successful.
We are living in that age. Now that sounds large. It is not.
It is true it involves more labor, but it is a hard fight w^hich
confronts us, and we cannot raise sheep as we used to raise
them. We have got to take care of them and take care of
them properly. We must take care of them as the needs of
the time demand. That is the hard fact which we cannot

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 55

(lodge. We will say then, that the first essential thing is to
have some sheep on the farm, and the next, that they must
be properly taken care of. In my connection with the Na-
tional Stockman, and other farming publications, I have fre-
quently had men write to me, asking about their sheep. Now
what is to be the first essential thing in reviving the sheep
industry in Connecticut, or all over New England for that
matter, and in New York and these other states? In the first
place, it seems to me, Mr. President, that you people here in
Connecticut, or in New England, have a great opportunity in
this connection which other sections of the country do not
possess. I believe that you have an opportunity here of rais-
ing sheep so that they will pay you at least forty per cent,
more than anywhere in the West. Land can be bought for
from forty to sixty per cent, less in Connecticut and Massa-
chusetts, and in most all of the New England States, than
it can in the Far West. I know that from my experience in
my own business. I have been out in the West and I can tell
you that is the situation. I was there this summer and I was
there four years ago. So I am not talking through my hat
when I say that. It is a plain fact. Sheep can be raised
cheaper here than they can be raised at any point east of the
Mississippi River today because, first, the investment is much
less for land, which is one of the main things, and then besides
that, you have water here in abundance, while in the Far
West they have a great deal of trouble on that account.

What will be the next thing? I said in the beginning that
the sheep of the country, its lambs, that are now bringing from
seven to seven and one-half and eight cents a pound, and as
high as nine cents for some grades in the Chicago market, —
that is, lambs dropped in May, and when they will bring such
prices as that many a man will sell them off. The tendency,
therefore, will be to sell off the lamb crop. I will guarantee
you that because it is the money that the man is after, and
ninety per cent, of the 1905 crop of lambs will, in my judgment,
be eaten before the first day of next April. Now the first
essential thing for a man to do that is getting six, seven, eight,
nine, or ten cents, is to keep his old ewes, and to make up his
mind that no matter what the price may be next year he will
save his best ewe lambs. Now the next essential is this : you
must make up your mind that if you cannot raise the sheep

56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

\-ou want on your farm then go into the market and buy lambs.
If you find a man that has saved his best ewe lambs and wants
to sell them, of course, that is the best thing. The probability'
is, if that man knows his business, you will not be able to get
them. But if you find a fellow that is poor and has perhaps
got to sell, buy them so as to have a stock to start with. Xow
the next thing, of course, is to maintain them. That is one of
the main points. They must be properly taken care of, and,
as a part of that, diseases and troubles incident to sheep must-
be taken care of. Of course, for ticks and lice, vermin of that
kind, that can be met by dipping. Every successful man will
do it regularly. He will make it his business to dip his lambs
and dip his sheep in the spring of the year as regularly as he
will make it his business to spray his potato \"ines. Then he is
sure that there is no unseen foe that he can discover, except
what I am going to speak about in a moment, to interfere with
the flock. The best time to kill off lice and ticks is right away
after shearing. That should be done along late in the spring.
If you shear as we do in Xew York, it w^ll be usually about
May. Some wait until along into June, but quite rarely.
Usualh- from the latter part of April to the first of May is the
best time. There is no better time in the world to get rid of
lice and sheep ticks than there and then. A sheep has a long
fleece and a lamb has a little short fleece, and I believe by far
the greater part of such things can be gotten rid of by the right
kind of treatment at that time. I have experiniented upon it,
and I believe almost ever}' one of them can be gotten rid of.
There are a number of good sheep dips advertised on the mar-
ket. The carbolic sheep dips are good because they are non-
poisonous. They are non-poisonous to the sheep but they
are poisonous to all such insects. Some of the other dips,
such as arsenical dips, have got to be handled with care.
They will easily kill a sheep. They will kill sheep tick,
but they have got to be handled with care. Any one that
has had experience knows that it is impossible to dip a
sheep without getting his head under some of the^time.
In the straggle the sheep will go under, and if it swallows
any of the arsenical dip or gets it in its mouth it will be
apt to make the sheep sick even if it does not kill it. Now
wh}' is it there can be dips used which are poisonous to
the sheep tick and not to the "sheep? The cold tar or carbolic

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 57

sheep dips that are put upon the market simply have the effect,
when the solution is applied, of choking the tick and lice to
death. When you examine these insects with a microscope it
is fovmd that they have no lungs, but that air enters their
bodies through holes in their sides, and if we put these
carbolic solutions upon them it simply puckers up those breath-
ing holes and they choke to death. When it comes to the use
of the others they simply make a coating over the animal.
They do not kill by contact but they make a coating over the
animal, and the louse or tick is poisoned by simply taking a bite
of it, just as the potato beetle is poisoned with paris green when
you spread it on your potato vines. When a bug takes a little
bite of the potato leaf he takes the poison with it.

Now here comes the other thing that I want to speak of.
Presuming that you have a flock of lambs, or that you will,
if you save your best ewes, then what is the next step in
properly taking care of the flock? Suppose that you are just
starting now, and that you have got a flock of old sheep to
start with ; that you have an old flock of ewes such as I have
described. Now those old sheep may harbor a number of
different kinds of worms. The small stomach worm, a little
worm which will perhaps average from three-quarters to an
inch and a half in length, and no larger in diameter than a
common thread, number eight or twelve. That little Avorm is
doing more harm today than any other worm. The nodular
worm will come next in order. Now these are undoubtedly
today inhabiting the intestines of practically five out of every
six sheep in the whole United States. They have spread
pretty well over the whole country. These small worms are
today inhabiting the intestines of about five out of every six
sheep of the age of the old sheep in the United States, and if
they are there in large numbers they will cause the death of
the old sheep between now and the first day of May unless
taken care of. If they are not there in large numbers they
will still do damage. They are undoubtedly present to some
extent. While the sheep are off the pasture they are passing
from the old sheep and are doing little damage. They are
doing practically no harm, but next spring when the sheep
are turned out to pasture there will be a passage of the eggs
of the worm, or the embryo, on to the pasture fields, and then
is the time that the lambs will become infected. Now here

58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

is something that is really amazing. Young animals, and the
same may be said of children, are afflicted the most with worms
of all kinds. When those w'orms get into a lamb they accumu-
late in larger numbers in the lamb than anywhere else. Now
the flock will go well with the lambs until about weaning
time, and then from that time they will begin to decline. I
have had men write to me, " \\niat is the matter with my
lambs? They seem to be weak. They seem to be running
down. I feed them well, but they seem to be going back.
What is the reason of that ? "" It is simply because they are
worm infected. Xow let us reason a little about these w'orms.
So far as has been ascertained thus far, the average life of
any one of the worm family is only one year. Now we will
suppose that those sheep were turned out to pasture. W^hile
they are in the barn the}- are usually doing no harm by infect-
ing the lambs before birth or after birth, especially if the
lambs are born in February or ]\Iarch. Before we turn the
flock out to pasture we should try to rid the old sheep of the
trouble. We should treat the old sheep to get rid of the worms
that will later on infect the lambs. How^ will you do it?
There have been a great many experiments carried on at our
experimental farms in New York, and I do not know but it
has been the same with you. Today, however, it has simmered
down practically to two remedies which can be used. With
the gasolene treatment, w-ith one thorough application, fifty
per cent, of them can be destroyed. The second should destroy
at least seventy-five per cent., and the third dose will destroy
practically ninety-five per cent, of those worms. The gasolene
treatment stands toda}', in my judgment, ahead of any other.
The next one is a cold tar product, and is called creosote or
creolin. If the sheep are dosed with that previous to being
turned out to pasture the old sheep will be pretty free of the
disease. I know by experience that that is so. I have lost a
lot of sheep with worms. I have learned that to be successful
some treatment for this difficulty in the spring is absolutely
essential. I have learned to give them a dose of gasolene
before they are turned out to pasture. A dose of gasolene is a
tablespoonful. A dose of the creolin is one teaspoonful. Now
if I was to stop right there and simply say, give your sheep this
treatment before turning them out to pasture, a tablespoonful
of gasolene, you might use it, but I wall guarantee you would

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 59

hoot me off this platform if I ever came here again, because
I will guarantee that the first sheep you tried it on you would
have trouble on, and you would not go through the flock.
There is a right way and a wrong way of using the treat-
ment. There is a right way and a safe way, of giving gasolene.
Put into that tablespoonful about two tablespoonfuls of raw
linseed oil, and then add to that at least four tablespoonfuls of
milk. I do not care if you make it a half pint of milk. I do
not care how much milk you put in. Some of the experiment
stations in the West have said to use gasolene and milk. I
would not dare say that on the platform or say it through
the press or privately. I would not dare to mix gasolene with
milk and give it to sheep because there is too much of a fiery
nature in it, and if any mistake was made it woiild be apt to
kill the sheep. ]vlix the gasolene first with oil. The oil acts
also in another way. It is a mild cathartic, and when the gaso-
lene affects the worm a little cathartic crowds him out of his
home and the first thing he knows he is on the earth. The oil
takes off the fiery effect. Xow I said there was a right way
and a wrong way to mix gasolene. First, mix it up in that pro-
portion so that the sheep will get a tablespoonful. I do not
care how you make it, but put in two tablespoonfuls of raw
linseed oil, and at least four tablespoonfuls of milk, or more,
if you wish. Put it up in a bottle, and keep the bottle tipped
up until the' dose goes down the sheep's throat. Of course,
some have difficulty in administering the dose. I have been
called out of the State of Xew York to see flocks of sheep
that were dying, and I tell you I have learned a lot of
things about human nature along this line. One of the things
which I have done in such cases has been to fix up a dose and
then say to the man whose sheep I was inspecting. " Now,

Mr. will you please give this sheep this dose," and what

have I seen? I have seen a two hundred-pound man grab a
seventy-five pound lamb, get him up, and raise his head so
high that the lamb could not swallow to save his soul if he
had one. He would kick and struggle because when the man
had elevated his head above certain degrees of elevation it
became impossible for that lamb to swallow or breathe, and
the man was simply strangling him to death. And then the
man would say, " Confound that gasolene treatment, it has
killed my sheep." Now it was not the fault of the treatment.

6o BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

It was the ignorance of the man. He simply did not know
how to administer the dose. I have seen them grab a sheep
and throw it down, and then try to ram the bottle down the
sheep's throat, ram it down as far as they could and pour
that down the sheep. I have heard men say it is almost im-
possible to give medicine to sheep, but that is not so at all.
The right way is this : Take a sheep and simply set it up as
though }ou were going to shear it. Then you do not have to
elevate its head, but simply put the hand under its muzzle like
that, and the sheep will almost drink the medicine right down
out of the bottle. Shake the bottle at times, keep the bottom
well up. and pour it down. If you pursue -that course, then
you can dose them with anything you wish.

Now there is another thing about the gasolene treatment.
Gasolene is of a gassy nature, — and perhaps I ought to say
that there is practically little or no difiference, so far as the
effect is concerned, between the creolin or creosote, call it
whichever you are a mind to, because the destruction of the
stomach worm is accomplished, but I have been convinced
by experiments, and without going into details, that the gaso-
lene by itself, being of a gaseous nature, will permeate into
the intestines to an extent that the other will not. I have been
convinced that no other remedy at present known is apt to
reach these lung worms. Now in case a sheep has all three of
these worms I have described, we would probably entirely
destroy all three by giving creolin. You may have read this.
It has been published in the papers, but they sometimes get
things wrong. The creosote or creolin treatment, and that is
the way it is called in the drug stores, is usually given a tea-
spoonful at a time in half a pint of water, the mixture being
shaken up well, and then it will stay mixed. It is usually given
and it will destroy stomach worms.

After a flock of sheep has been treated in this way they
can safely be relied upon as free of worms. If you use the
gasolene treatment it is better to give it three mornings in
succession. Feed them very early at night, and then give
them a dose in the morning before they are fed. Follow that
up for three mornings, and you will get rid of fully ninety
per cent, of the nodular and stomach worms. Then we have
safetv.

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 61

Now comes another thing. We are not always sure.
These worms will live, or the eggs will live, we do not know
which, over winter, and infect the pasture. Keep in mind the
fact that an old sheep is most likely to be always more or less
infected with them. To be safe then, under the circumstances,
wherever it can be done, it is better not to pasture the same
field two years in succession. Many a man, however, is not
fixed so that he can do that. He has got to use his pasture
every year. If he is going to keep sheep he wants to keep
them on it. If such a man will provide simply a covered box
of salt, the box being covered so that the rains will not wash
away the salt, but so that the sheep can get their noses into it,
and with four quarts of salt mix a gill of turpentine, it will
have a good -effect. I remember when I was a boy that my
father on Saturdays when I was not attending school would
say to me sometimes, " Bub, I guess we better go to the woods.
You are at home, and I guess we better go and get some pine
saplings. The sheep need something green." You do not do
that. Now we should notice this fact, that a sheep would be
his own doctor if he could. We had some of these worms back
in those days, but by just such treatment as that our fathers
really kept them under subjection. My father' and your father
thought sheep needed something green to gnaw at, and there-
fore furnished them with that kind of material. Now we know
why they went for them. It practically kept them clean of
the worms. You accomplish practically the same purpose
with the salt and turpentine. When you mix the turpentine
with salt and put it in an infected pasture the result is sure
to be good. I have been surprised when carrying on experi-
ments with a flock of sheep that I knew had worms to see
how readily they would lick up my box of salt with the turpen-
tine in it, and to see how much more salt they would eat when
the turpentine was in it than when it was not. Therefore, if
you will provide the flock with that box of salt, it is one of the
best things you can do. When that is done we can pasture
year in and year out, in my judgment, so far as these worms
'are concerned. While this treatment will not kill the long
worm it will so saturate the system with turpentine that when
the little fellows hatch out they will not live long.

Now there is another thing. It is an unseen foe. Every
sheep today needs looking over. The sheep of today need

62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

attention when they did not need it in your boyhood days or
mine. If a man has a flock of sheep, and especially if he has
a lot of lambs that look a little unthrifty, dose them. It is
not a serious job at all. If 3-ou want to be successful in raising
sheep you must take care of them and pay the same amount of
attention that you do to be successful in other lines. If that
is done, our farmers in New England and New York can just
as well raise sheep profitabl}' now^ as they ever did.

The outlook in this country for sheep, as the President has
intimated, has never been as good as it exists todav. The de-
mand for mvitton has never been satisfied. It never will be in
your day or mine. The price of wool has reached a solid foun-
dation, and will remain. There is nothing that we can see to
cause us worry in other countries. We today stand pre-emi-
nently triumphant with our sheep, and there is no reason why
we cannot come to the front in the sheep raising industry if we
will. Not in your day or mine will you see wool back where it
w^as without the fashion changes and we go wdthout clothes.
We need have no fear of that. The tide of emigration is largely
towards this country. Thousands of those people are farmers.
It is building up the livestock industry in the east. The west-
ern sheep industry has had its day. As an industry it is badly
handicapped. Those great free pastures in the west exist
no longer, and the lack of water is a serious drawback. The
stock-raising opportunities for the farmer of the east never
were so good in the world as they are today. With the cheaper
land, and with the advantage of water, such as we have in the
east, the w^est cannot compete. I have a friend in Iowa, and
from letters that I have received within a few da}s I learned
that the problem of today with western farmers, with land
worth from seventy-five to one hundred dollars an acre, is
how can they compete with the east in raising stock. That
is their great problem today. You talk about w^estern com-
petition ! It does not exist. They are actually fearing today
eastern competition with your low^er price of land, and the
tremendous advantage which you have in having plenty of
water. We who live in this eastern country do not know how*
to appreciate water. I want to tell you a little story and then
I am going to stop. I alluded to the fact that I was engaged
for months in studying the situation and in lecturing to farm-
ers' institutes. I went up into that great country lying on the

1906.] ESSENTIALS IN FUTURE SHEEP BREEDING. 63

Red River of the north, taking in a part of North Dakota and
South Dakota, and went away up to the Manitoba Hue trying
to study the situation. While there I met a professor with a
Norwegian name. He was with us. I simply could not make
those people understand the situation. It was the hardest
thing in the world. Finally, I said to that professor, " Pro-
fessor, I want you to come down into New York State and
make us a visit. It is your business to do so, and it is your
duty to do so. He was western born and bred, but was a
college man. and had never been east of Chicago. I said to
him, " Away down east they don't know whether you walk
on two feet or four," and I says, " now you come east. If
you will come and do a little institute work in New York you
, certainly should do so." He came. We had a meeting at
Cornell University, and then we started out. The first place
lay about six miles off, and to reach it we took a livery team
and started to drive. When we were about half way the driver
drove up to a watering-trough. I noticed the professor. He
looked amazed. He turned to me and he says, " Where does
that water come from? " " There is a spring back here in the
hillside," the driver says, " back here about eight or ten miles."
" Why," he says, " does that run all the time? " " Why, yes,"
said the driver. " it is a never failing spring. There is always
plenty of running water there." Well, I noticed he looked a
little bit curious. He didn't know whether that was right or
not. Finally he said, " Is there any other such spring as that
in the State of New York? " " Why," says I, " we can count
them by the tens of thousands." Well, he never accused me of
lying before, but he came pretty near it then. " Well." I said,
" I want to have you believe me, and if you will stay here a
month you will be convinced of it yourself." We rode along
for a little ways, and says he, " Doctor, I don't know what you
people are thinking of. If I had that spring anywhere in North
Dakota it would be worth ten thousand dollars."

We do not think of this advantage of water, f Applause.)

The President. Now, gentlemen, do not be a bit bashful
about asking questions.

Question. What do you do with the dogs in New York
State ?

Dr. Smead. We have some trouble with dogs in New
York. They have killed a few sheep. I have learned this, in

64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J'Hl-,

controlling the dog question, that when there is a determination
of a man to do so he can beat a dog every time. Whenever
there is a determination by the sheep growers to control the
dog question it can be done. That is the case all over the
whole country. Dogs, while they are killing a few sheep in
the State of New York, are not doing serious damage, and
the damage that they are doing today is largely in sections
where there are but very few sheep. A dog has got to be^
educated to get along with sheep. The regular sheep-killing
dog, however, is a sneak thief. He does not like noise. If
you will put some bells on your sheep they will give a good
deal of protection. They will not afford complete protection,
but there is something about a bell that will afford at least
seventy-five per cent, of protection from dogs. If you will
get some small-sized cowbells and put them on they will
. create quite a racket. I have had quite a little personal ex-
perience with that. I always have at least fifty bells on. They
are good fair sized cowbells at that. A few years ago at about
eleven o'clock at night those bells began to make a racket.
It attracted attention. There was a hound that got into the
flock. I met him the next day and the hound ceased to exist.
That w^as simply because there was a sentiment of the people
against that kind of work. I do not know what your law in
Connecticut is, but in the State of New York it is provided
by statute today that any man has the right to shoot any dog
that is caught either killing, worrying, or annoying sheep, with-
out he is set upon the sheep by the owner or by his consent.
Something like five years ago that law was extended so that
now if the dog is even found chasing the animals a man has a
right to shoot the dog in the State of New York. Dogs, in
the State of New York, are recognized as property, and it
behooves a man to take care of his property. If a man does
not he is liable for damages.

Question. What do you do where sheep have worms in
the head?

1906. J DISCUSSION. 65

Dr. Smead. Worms or grubs in the head do not kill one
sheep where they are supposed to kill fifty. That may sound
like a strange assertion, but the fact is that grubs in the head
are not a dangerous foe to sheep except in locations where the
gad-fly is extremely numerous. Grub in the head is some-
times due to a lack of grub in the stomach. Where there
is no attempt to provide the proper variety of food, or where
there is an attempt to winter sheep upon timothy hay, or
where the flock is kept in such a way so that they are liable to
contract colds and weak lungs, then if the sheep have an ex-
cessive number of grubs in the head they will frequently
destroy the sheep. I have never yet found a sheep that was
actually killed by grubs in the head. I mean from that as the
direct cause. I have always found some other contributing
cause. In localities where the gad-fly is numerous it is well to
use some of the various remedies to keep away the fly.

Question. What is your opinion of ensilage as a food for
sheep ?

Dr. Smead. Aly sheep eat ensilage every winter. In this
climate sheep need a food of that kind in winter, and I have
learned by experience that ensilage will supply that need.
It is not well to feed too much of it. Ensilage should be fed
in the proportion of about two pounds of ensilage to a hundred
pounds of sheep. With a sheep weighing 150 pounds, three
pounds of ensilage per day is plenty.

jMr. Platts. Mr. Chairman, we have had lots of instruc-
tion how to take care of sheep, how to protect them from dis-
ease, etc., but the trouble with us in Connecticut is our in-
ability to protect them from dogs. It is simply dogs and
nothing but dogs. I live in a town in the southern part of the
State, and when I was a boy sixty or seventy years ago nearly
every farmer had sheep. At that time I rarely ever knew of
sheep to be killed by dogs. At the present time, so far as my
knowledge goes, there are no sheep kept within ten miles of
me. Until within a very short time it has been a continuous

Agr. — 5

66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

struggle to raise and keep them. I gave up the business many
years ago. When our factory villages grew up, and factories
paid pretty good wages to their help, and thereby attracted
a class of help which kept more dogs than poultry, and my
farm bemg located about two miles from two of these manu-
facturing villages I found the question altogether too hard for
me. After a series of years our State laws were changed,
giving us more and more protection, until at the present day
I do not know that a sheep raiser can ask for any better laws,
so far as compensation goes, than those in force in Connecticut.
That, however, does not solve the difificulty. Dogs will come
in the night and destrov half vour flock. Twice I have
struggled to get up a flock of a hundred breeding ewes, and
upon two occasions I have had over one-half my flock killed
in one night. The town paid me a reasonable compensation.
But that is not the point. I have no fault to find with the
compensation paid.. The trouble is there is no inducement to
try to raise a flock of sheep when that danger threatens us
as it constantly does. I gave the business up in disgust some
time ago.

Now where is the remedy ? I do not know. I have never
known a dog to kill sheep that was brought up with them. I
have sometimes thought that if there was a tax of five dollars
or more laid on each dog, that tax to be remitted to every
one who would keep two or more sheep to bring up with the
dogs, that it might be a remedy. I do not think it would be
a hardship, for any man who can afford to keep a dog can
afford to keep sheep. If I have been informed aright, in some
European countries there are la\YS which allow every dog to
be shot at sight which is trespassing. I think that might be
one remedy. Another remedy may be the use of wire fences
of sufficient height to keep the dogs out, but that I should '
throw aside as unavailable for I do not think that it is prac-
ticable. In raising sheep it is necessary to shift them some-
times from one field to another, and it would be necessary to

1906.] DISCUSSION. 67

have such a fence around all fields in which such sheep were
kept at any time. While it might be effective I do not think
that it is a practical remedy.

Mr. Stadtmueller. Mr. President, I should like to make
a few remarks on this subject.

In the first place, I think there has been a wrong impres-
sion gotten by the present generation, that the decline of sheep
husbandry in the State of Connecticut is, first and last, due to
the ravages of dogs. That is only a secondary consideration.
From the remarks of the gentleman who preceded me it can
be seen that owing to certain things it was easier for him to
obtain a livelihood in agriculture along other lines, and there-
fore he gave up the business of raising sheep. That has been
the case with many, and that phase of the discussion is some-
thing which the speaker did not attempt to speak upon. The
decline of the sheep industry is not alone due to dogs. It is
not alone due to the change of fashion. It is also due to the
relation which the sheep industry has borne to all of the other
great commercial industries of the world all along the line.
It has been due in part to conditions which have existed. We
can now see a change in those conditions. The industry is
coming in again. Sheep are on the ascendency. Under the
old condition of affairs a farmer kept sheep for wool. Now
the condition which confronts the farmer is to keep sheep for
eating. The position of things is completely reversed. Wool
is now a by-product, and the meat is the primary considera-
tion. Forty years ago the conditions were exactly the reverse
as was so clearly stated this afternoon. This is a period of
transition. We are going from one thing to the other. Under
this changed condition of affairs, I believe if my venerable
friend Mr. Platts would start again in sheep husbandry he
would find it profitable.

Now in regard to this dog question. Of course, there is
this to be said about dogs, and it has been touched upon very
Hghtly in this discussion, that is the lack of public sentiment

68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. IJatl.,

upon this question. One thing we need to do and that is to
rouse pubHc sentiment against the dogs and in favor of the
keeping of sheep, and that is one thing that our Connecticut
Sheep Breeders' Association is trying to do. That is one thing
that every sheep breeder in Connecticut should stand for. We
have pretty good dog laws. You look them over, and you will
acknowledge, if you are fair and broad-minded, that it would
be very hard to suggest any improvement in them. The trou-
ble is that the dog laws which we have today are not en-
forced. Why are they not enforced? It is just because of
the utter indifference of the agriculturists themselves. You
cannot expect that those who have no interest in these matters
in the State are going to enforce the dog laws. We sheep
breeders cannot expect the dairymen to enforce them. The
fruit growers are not going to enforce the dog laws. It is
right up to us ourselves to see that they are enforced, and the
only way to accomplish it is to arouse public sentiment upon
this question and to go at it in the right way. I reside in the
town of West Hartford. It is one of those towns that is per-
haps equally divided between an urban and a suburban popu-
lation. We have some sheep in that town. I was talking with
our town clerk and asking about the dog tax. He said that up
to three years ago the dog tax amounted to about eighty or a
hundred dollars per annum. Our selectmen discovered that
there was a statute upon the book which had been there for a
great many years, reading something to this effect: that on
or before the first day of June the town clerk of each town
shall make a list of all the dogs which have been registered,
etc., and it shall thereupon become the duty of the selectmen
to find out if there are any dogs that have not been regis-
tered. Now how many towns are there in the State of Con-
necticut where that is applied? The statute is mandatory. It
says that the selectmen shall do that. That is what they did
in my town, and that is just what we want them to do in every
town. We want some good live member of our association in

1906.] DISCUSSION. 69

every town that will take it upon his shoulders to see that that
statute is followed out and enforced. Mark the results in
our town. Since that statute has been followed the dog tax
has increased from eighty to a hundred dollars a year to over
three hundred dollars per annum. It has increased the fund
available for the proper remuneration and payment of dam-
ages done by dogs. It helps in another way. Many useless
dogs will disappear in a town where that law is enforced.

Now just one word regarding the outlook. I presume
many of you are subscribers or readers of the Country Gentle-
man, and if so, you have noticed the movement headed by
Mr. Burr in western Massachusetts, for providing farmers
with ewes, for loaning out ewes to the farmers. It is reported
that that movement is meeting with unusual success. I do
not know how many thousand ewes they have placed upon
farms in western Massachusetts. They are loaned to the farm-
ers upon the basis that the company will require every farmer
receiving a loan of ewes to take care of them, and shall receive
for his compensation fifty per cent, of the progeny and one
pound of wool for each animal. If men can afford to take
sheep on that basis and make a success of it, I do not believe
there is a shadow of doubt but what they can go into sheep
husbandry tomorrow, owning their own sheep, and make a
good profit on the business. At first thought it seems surpris-
ing that such a proposition would be a success, and especially
when carried out on a large scale where thousands of sheep
are involved. Would you want to take a loan of ewes and
guarantee to take care of the flock, to keep them and take all
of the care of them for a year, and have for your compensa-
tion only fifty per cent, of the get and one pound of wool from
each ewe? Still that is what that company up in Massachu-
setts is offering, and apparently making a success of. I will
be much surprised if they do not offer it in Connecticut within
a vear or two.

JO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Secretary Brown. I invited the Secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture of Vermont to be here this afternoon.
He wrote me a very interesting letter, regretting exceedingly
that he was unable to be present. He said that he was thor-
oughly interested in sheep culture, and he believed that nothing
which he could think of promised so much success to our New
England farms as to see them again covered with generous
flocks of sheep.

Convention adjourned to 7.30 p.m.

EVENING SESSION.

Tuesday, December 12, 1905.
(Music.)

Convention called to order at 8 p.m., Vice-President Seeley
in the chair.

The President. The hour has arrived for opening the
meeting. While the men are arranging the stage for the main
address of the evening we will have the question box for a
few moments. The Secretary will please read what questions
he has.

Secretary Brown. Mr. President, I think we have two or
three questions relating to sheep, but as Dr. Smead is not in
the hall I will defer them until we can have the benefit of his
expert testimony.

Now Mr. President, before taking up the regular pro-
gramme, I would like to offer the following resolution :

" WHEREAS, there have been introduced into Congress
House Resolutions 285 and 286, appropriating $250,000 for
suppressing the Gypsy and Brown-tail moths, and $15,000 for
procuring parasitic enemies of such moths, now therefore,

" RESOLVED, by this convention that our Senators and
Representatives are hereby urged to use all honorable means
to secure the passage of said resolutions.

"RESOLVED, further, that the Secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture be directed to forward a copy of these

1906.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 7I

resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in
Congress."

It is no secret, gentlemen, that the gypsy and brown-tail
moth which have been so long a scourge in Massachusetts
have already crossed the line into New Hampshire and into
Rhode Island. A kind Providence has spared Connecticut
from the ravages of these insects thus far. We do not know
how long that intervention will continue. Any automobile
or any railroad car coming out of the infected section is liable
to bring them into this State. It has become more than a
local question. It has become a question of national impor-
tance. The presence of these pests is a serious menace to our
agricultural interests. The resolution introduced into Con-
gress proposes that the national government shall take a hand
in suppressing these pests, and this resolution is simply to
represent the sentiment of this body of farmers assembled in
convention. We are requested to urge our Senators and
Representatives in Congress to use every effort in favor of the
passage of these resolutions.

The President. Any one second the resolution?

A Member. I second the motion, Mr. President.

The President. Are there any remarks.?

Secretary Brown. Mr. Chairman, Professor Wheeler of
the Rhode Island Agricultural College is present. He is Secre-
tary of the Federation of Agricultural Clubs in the State of
Rhode Island, and has this matter in charge for that State.
I would like to ask Professor Wheeler if he would say a word
in regard to these resolutions.

»
PROFESSOR WHEELER.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I will say that the
people in Rhode Island have been very much asleep on this
gypsy moth question. I have been one of the worst of the
sinners. Last season I went through some of the infected dis-

72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan..

tricts. I had heard many things about the ravages of this
insect, but I found a great many things far worse than any
thing I had heard. These insects constitute one of the most
serious pests that we have had to deal with. They even get
into the houses and into the pantries. Conditions are so bad.
and the pest is so numerous it is absolutely impossible to keep
them out of the houses even where the greatest precautions
are taken. It is one of the worst pests with which the Ameri-
can people have had to deal in the history of the coimtry.

The female is unable to fly, and therein rests our hope of
controlling them. Our federation in Rhode Island took up the
matter, and we were of the opinion that the Government should
come to our aid at the present time. The trouble has developed
to such an extent that, in my opinion, it is beyond the ability
of the states to successfully cope with it. We should have the
aid of the national government. The insects have already
spread into New Hampshire, and we have a local colony in
Providence. It is reported that it is at the borders of Maine
if not already in the State of Maine. Our federation has sent
a circular to all of the New England State Boards of Agri-
culture, and I think they will be a unit in asking the govern-
ment to appropriate money at this time to help control this
pest. I wrote your Secretary about this, and found him very
favorably inclined to bring this matter before you. I only
wish to say further that whether you appreciate at present the
necessity for your action or not you will in a very short time.
I believe that the wisest course for Connecticut to pursue is
to urge upon all of your Congressmen the necessity for using
every efifort to have this pest controlled. If it is not controlled,
it is only a question of a very short time before they will
spread into Connecticut and bring about here the havoc and
ruin they have wrought in Massachusetts and other localities.
It is a matter which must not be delayed. Every dollar which
is spent now is better than ten later.

1906. j THE GYPSY MOTH. 73

Mr. Pl.vtts. What have they done to exterminate it?
What can they do?

Professor Wheeler. The State Board of Agriculture in
Massachusetts expended some large sums of money, and they
were on the point of exterminating the pest, but it is reported
that the expenditure of the money got into politics, and the ap-
propriation some years ago was cut off. As a result, the thing
has become such a pest that the people can take no comfort in
their homes. They destroy most everything in the way of
vegetation. Even the evergreens are being destroyed, and
whole orchards are being destroyed. Fruit trees and valuable
shrubs. One gentleman that I know of has spent forty thou-
sand dollars this last year in trying to control them upon his
place, and is to spend seventy thousand dollars this year.

There are three things to do. First, to destroy the eggs
close to the trunks of the trees. That is a work to be done
now. If the work is to be undertaken so as to do much good,
it ought to be undertaken now. Another thing, is to put a
burlap around the trees and allow it to hang down three or
four inches so that the caterpillars are unable to get up. Then
they can be caught and crushed. The important work needs
to be done before the leaves come out in the spring. An ap-
propriation should be made by Congress, and, if possible, on
the first day of January, or February, men should be at work.
We should not lose a moment's time.

The President. You hear this resolution regarding the
gypsy moth. All in favor say " Aye." It is passed. .

The address on the programme for this evening is " The
Story of Soils and Plants in Their Relation to Liming," by
Professor H. J. Wheeler, Director of the Rhode Island Ex-
periment station. The gentleman has just spoken to you about
the gypsy moth. I have the pleasure of introducing him to
you now.

74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. IJail.,

THE STORY OF SOILS AND PLANTS IN THEIR RE-
LATION TO LIMING.

By H. J. Wheeler, Ph.D.,

Director of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : It gives me much
pleasure to greet a Connecticut audience. This pleasure is
that of a former Massachusetts neighbor and as a neighbor and
resident of Rhode Island.

Only those who have gone from another State with the
plan of making Rhode Island the home of their adoption, can
full}' realize what it means to become a full fledged Rhode
Islander. The two years of probation before one can cast a
ballot inculcate a high appreciation of the blessings of true citi-
zenship, and give ample opportunity for intelligent American-
born citizens to arrive at a correct conclusion how to vote.
Not being burdened at the outset with this duty of citizenship,
my first two years in Rhode Island were devoted without inter-
ruption to becoming acquainted with her soils, the products of
her farms, her people, and the agricultural problems to be
solved. As a result of visits to every nook and corner of the
State one could not fail to be struck with certain peculiarities
which were markedly different from those that are to be ob-
served in many other States and countries. An abundance of
common sorrel, blackberry vines, certain varieties of St. John's
wort, violets, five-fingers, and wild-grass were visible at every
turn. The absence of a good stand of clover in freshly seeded
mowing lands, the rapid disappearance of timothy, and the
usurpation of its place by redtop and Rhode Island bent were
most characteristic features.

Few of the soils are derived from the underlying rocks, but
where they are, and whether from slate, pudding-stone, sand-
stone, conglomerate, or granite, the characteristics of the na-
tural vegetation are much the same as those of the other areas
where the soil is composed oi granitic glacial debris.

While skirting the western borders of the State it happened
occasionally that I inadvertantly found myself in Connecticut,
but neither the soil, the vegetation, nor even the people, gave
a hint that the limits of the State had been overstepped. Per-
haps it was the same recognition of the fact that there may be

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 75

considerable areas in Connecticut that are similar to most of
the land in Rhode Island which led your Board of Agriculture
to ask me to tell you something of our various liming experi-
ments.

It is with a peculiar sense of vindication that I have ac-
cepted your invitation to present this particular subject, for the
reason that many of my colleagues in New^ England were not
ready to believe, ten years ago, that our upland well-drained
soils were ever so acid and so greatly in need of lime that
profitable yields of certain crops and the greatest returns from
many of the commercial manures, were both impossible until
after resort to liming. It was claimed that lime had been
shown to be unnecessary in Massachusetts and that in all proba-
bility the need of lime in Rhode Island was confined merely to
the farm of the Experiment Station or immediately sur-
rounding areas. It is perhaps fortunate for the Rhode Island
Station that there were so many doubters, since in consequence
we had for several years a practically free field of investigation.

It may be of interest to state that in the early Massachusetts
experiments to which reference has been made lime was ap-
plied in too small quantities per acre and Indian corn w^as em-
ployed in the tests ; a crop which is frequently injured by
liming.

Believing that it will be of greater interest to hear the actual
story of our liming experiences than to listen to a pedagogically
arranged lecture on the subject of lime and liming, an endeavor
wall be made to trace the investigations step by step.

It will be recalled that in the winter of 1889-90 Prof.
Atwater, at that time Director of the Office of Experiment
Stations in Washington, issued two plans in cooperative ex-
periments. One of these embraced an ordinary soil test and
also a test of the relative efficiency of nitrogen in dried blood,
sulphate of ammonia, and nitrate of soda. Like amounts of
nitrogen were employed in each instance for the " full rations."
As a measure of control check plats were introduced. These,
like those where the nitrogenous manures were applied, were
all manured uniformly w^ith muriate of potash, and dissolved
bone-black. All of the nitrogenous manures were applied in
" OMe-third," " two-third," and " full rations." The " one-
third ration " of sulphate of ammonia amounted to 120 pounds,

76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

the '* two-thirds ration " to 240 pounds, and the " full ration "
to 360 pounds per acre.

At the request of Ex-Director Flagg ten of these coopera-
tive experiments were established in the spring of 1890, two
being located in each county in the State. An additional acre
was provided for upon the farm of the Experiment Station at
Kingston. In the latter instance a positive ill effect of the sul-
phate of ammonia was noticed the first season. The extent of
this injury is best indicated by the yields of stover. Instead
of increased yields with each increase in the amount of the
sulphate employed those produced with the " one-third," " two-
third," and " full rations " were 3,000. 1,500, and 1.300 pounds
per acre, respectively. The following year the corresponding
yields were 1,840, 1,140, and 825 pounds per acre. By the use
of dried blood and nitrate of soda in increasing amounts the
tendencies to give increased crops was the general rule.

At Hope Valley injury from the sulphate of ammonia was
visible the second and third years, and indications of approach-
ing injury were soon observed in one or two other localities.

Upon looking up the records of similar injury or those con-
cerning the inefficiency of sulphate of ammonia it was found
that most of the European experiments with beets showed it to
be far inferior to nitrate of soda as a source of nitrogen. With
the cereals this was more rarely or less strikingly true. Two
or three instances of the bad effect of sulphate of ammonia had
been cited by French and German writers but no one seemed
to be at all sure of the cause, nor had there been shown to be a
positive remedy.

In speculating concerning the probable reason for the
trouble in Rhode Island it was recognized at once that the
soil was derived from granitic rock and that in view of the
character of the minerals of which it is composed lime might
be deficient. It was also already a matter of record that the
granitic soils of Scotland need lime. The same was known to
be true of certain oi the sandy soils of northern Germany. It
had also been recorded by several French writers that suc-
cessful agriculture in certain Departments in France was im-
possible without resort k) liming, especially where the soil
was of granitic or of sandstone origin. Especial emphasis Jiad
been laid by these w'riters upon the conditions in the Depart-
ment of Limousin. Tliere the soil was derived from granitic

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. "J"]

rock and the agricultural conditions were miserable in an ex-
treme degree until the construction of a railroad rendered it
possible to introduce lime at a reasonable cost.

Several of these European writers referred to the soils as
positively acid.

In view of the knowledge of these conditions in other
countries it seemed probable that the difficulty in Rhode Island
was due either to soil acidity and a lack of sufficient carbonate
of lime in the soil, or to the absence of the organisms which
are capable of changing the ammonia intO' nitric acid.

The first step actually taken was to test the soil for acidity
or a lack of carbonate of lime, by means of several different
chemical methods. Of these the blue litmus paper test was
found to be the most trustworthy of the simple tests.

HOW TO MAKE THE TEST WITH BLUE LITMUS PAPER FOR AS-
CERTAINING THE NEED OF LIME IN SOILS.

Concerning the test, the best plan for farmers to pursue
is to have the soil tested if possible by the Experiment Station
Chemist, for familiarity with the method enables one to ar-
rive at a more correct judgment concerning the probable lime
requirement. Still other and more elaborate tests can also be
made in the laboratory.

In making the blue litmus paper tests the soil is first mois-
tened until it is of about the consistency of a thick porridge.
It is then parted, a strip of blue litmus paper (two inches long
by half an inch wide) inserted and the soil pressed around it.
After an hour or two the paper can be removed and rinsed by
dipping in water a little less deeply than it was inserted in the
soil. The end introduced into the soil should not be touched
with the fingers. If this latter precaution is taken and it is
found upon removal that the paper has entirely lost its blue
tint and an intense pinkish red or brick red color has taken its
place, it is probable that the soil needs liming.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH THE KINGSTON SOIL.

The soil where the sulphate of ammonia proved injurious
turned a blue litmus paper rapidly red. It was tested to as-
certain if proto-sulphate of iron, an occasional toxic constitu-

yS BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

ent of soils, was present, but the tests revealed none. In
order to correct the acid condition of the soil and to insure
the right conditions for the nitrification of the ammonia, it
was decided that it would be best to lime a portion of all
three of the plats which received sulphate of ammonia and to
sow some garden soil upon one-half of each of the limed sec-
tions, the garden soil to be immediately mixed with the other
by cultivating. The idea of introducing the garden soil was
to make sure of the presence of the nitrifying organisms.

Owing to doubt as to the probable success of the experi-
ment on the part of those in authorit}', it was not until late in
the season of 1891 that permission to undertake it was ob-
tained. It was then too late to introduce either the lime or
the garden soil into the soil of the field in a thorough manner
without injuring or destroying the crop of Indian corn already
upon the land. For this reason only slight indications of bene-
fit from liming were observed the first season.

During the following winter it was shown by Miintz, a
French investigator, that the nitrifying organisms are prac-
cally present everywhere, even under the glaciers of the Alps
and in the interstices of the rock masses of the Faulhorn. For
this reason it was not deemed necessary to try further inocula-
tions with garden soil especially since proto-sulphate of iron,
which was said to be poisonous to these organisms, had been
shown not to be present. In the spring of 1892 a further ap-
plication of lime was made to the same sections of the three
plats which had been limed in 1891. Indian corn was again
planted. As soon as the corn was a foot or more in height it
was evident that a wonderful change had taken place, for now
the growth was better upon the limed areas, with each increase
of sulphate of ammonia. Upon the unlimed sections of the
plats the results continued to be poorer with each increase.

The view upon the screen shows in the center three rows of
corn of the crop of 1893 where the "' two-thirds '' ration of sul-
phate of ammonia was used. The much better corn in the
background stood upon the limed sections of the plat.

A nearer view of the corn where the lime was used shows
the benefit from liming in a more striking manner.

The better growth with the full ration of sulphate of am-
monia, after liming, stands in striking contrast to the poorer
growth with the same ration before lime was applied.

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 79

Here are seen two lots of corn at the left which were grown
at Hope Valley, Rhode Island, by the use of a " full ration " of
nitrate of soda. The lot at the extreme left grew upon the
limed section of the plat and the one at its right grew^ upon
the unhmed section. Little difference in the tw^o is noticeable.
Nitrate of soda is, therefore, an immediately efficient nitro-
srenous manure for soils that lack carbonate of lime and bv its
continued use the conditions often improve rather than grow
worse. In this respect it differs wholly from sulphate of am-
monia. The two lots of corn shown at the right, were grown
where a " full ration '' of sulphate of ammonia had been ap-
plied. The large lot at the left was from the limed area of the
plat and the small one at the right was from the section where
no lime had been used.

At the same time that these and other ex-periments were in
progress in Rhode Island, Wagner and Dorsch in Germany ex-
perimented with summer rape grown upon a muck soil by the
use of sulphate of ammonia. It was found that when used
without carbonate of lime its effect was equal to 28 per cent, of
the effect of the same amount of nitrogen in nitrate of soda
but that after liming it rose to 90 per cent.

In connection with the publication of this experimental
work in Rhode Island, attention was called to the falling off in
yields with the ammonium salts as compared with the results
with nitrate of soda, at both Rothemstead and Woburn, Eng-
land. In fact it was shown at the Rhode Island Station in
1893 that the cereals were affected in a very unlike degree by
the conditions vrhich cause the ill effect of the sulphate of am-
monia. For example, Indian corn and rye withstood the con-
ditions best, then oats, w-heat, and finally barley. In this con-
nection it is of interest to note that in 1897 J. A. \'oelcker,
chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, called
attention to the greater falling off of barley than of wheat in
experiments with a mixture of ammonium sulphate and am-
monium chloride at Woburn. He attributed it at that time to
ability on the part of wheat to send its roots deeper and to ap-
propriate lime which the barley roots could not reach. Not
until 1 901 did Voelcker test his soil with blue litmus paper,
when it was found to give an acid reaction. In 1902 he
reached the conclusion that the dift'erences in barley and wheat,
which were observed earlier, were reallv attributable to a differ-

8o BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

ence in the power of the two cereals to resist acidity. Later ex-
periments showed, in full agreement with those in Rhode Island,
that oats could resist the conditions much better than either
wheat or barley.

The two plats now shown were embraced in the Woburn
experiment with the ammonium salts. The plat at the right,
where little barley is to be seen, had not been limed, while that
at the left, where there is a fine crop, received two tons of lime
per acre, about three years before this view was taken. It will
he seen that the lime has fvdly corrected the ill effect of the am-
monium salts.

Where certain mineral manures were used with the am-
monium salts the injury from the latter was longer delayed and
was slisfhtlv less serious than when it was used alone. Here
also the addition of lime corrected the condition.

Recently A. D. Hall, Director of the Rothamstead Station,
mentioned the bad influence of the continual use of the two
ammonium salts which have just been mentioned, and says
that sorrel became abundant upon the plats which received
them, excepting where carbonate of lime had been applied.

A more striking illustration could hardly be afforded of the
influence of soil conditions upon the relative amounts of sorrel
and clover than that afforded by the plats in the nitrogen ex-
periment at the Rhode Island Station. Where mineral
manures only were used there was no clover upon the unlimed
sections of the plats, but common sorrel was abundant. Where
lime was applied there was a full, splendid stand of clover,
with but traces of sorrel. The amount of the common sorrel
was less upon the unlimed plat where nitrate of soda had been
used than upon the corresponding plat receiving dried blood.
By the use of sulphate of ammonia, without lime, the amount
of sorrel was three and one-half times as great as with
dried blood used under the same conditions. In fact it fully
occupied the ground to the utter exclusion of clover and it was
nearly knee high. A more magnificent growth of sorrel than
was observed in that instance is hardly conceivable.

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 81

A SPECIAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF LIMING UPON DIF-
FERENT VARIETIES OF PLANTS.

In 1893 four adjacent plats of land of exceptionally uni-
form character were secured for more extended experiments
with lime. Observations were already on record concerning
the natural herbage of calcareous and other soils, and also
many miscellaneous observations as to the effect of lime upon
the growth of a few varieties of agricultural plants. It was,
for example, well understood that lupines are usually injured
by liming and that clover is helped by it. Nevertheless no one
had ever taken up the study in a continuous and systematic
manner, and so far as concerned the vast majority of agricul-
tural plants little or nothing was known concerning the in-
fluence of lime or of soil acidity upon their growth. In order to
study this matter experiments, which are still in progress, were
begun in 1893 upon four plats of land, separated by three-feet
paths. The plats have all been manured alike with mag-
nesium sulphate (Epsom salts), dissolved bone-black (or acid
phosphate), and muriate of potash, from the beginning of the
experiment to date. Two of the plats received their nitrogen
in nitrate of soda and two in sulphate of ammonia. The ab-
solute amount of nitrogen used upon each plat is nevertheless
kept identical. One of each of these pairs of plats was limed
in 1893 and 1894 and again recently.

The central path shown in this view passes between the
two plats which receive sulphate of ammonia. The unlimed
plat is at the right. It may be seen in the background that
some varieties of plants are making a good growth even upon
this plat. The two plats which receive nitrate of soda are in-
distinctly or partially seen at the left.

In this view are shown the two plats manured with nitrate
of soda, the unlimed one being at the right. Here also the
marked effect of liming upon certain varieties of plants is no-
ticeable.

With the exception of one or two }ears a large number of
Varieties of plants have been grown in rows annually across
the four plats.

The plat receiving nitrate of soda and lime is now slightly
alkaline to litmus paper. In other words it now turns red
litmus paper blue instead of turning a blue litmus paper red,
Agr. — 6

82 BOAKU OK AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

as it did originally. The plat receiving sulphate of ammonia
and lime is still slightly acid in its reaction upon blue litmus
paper. The plat receiving nitrate of soda but no lime is still
more acid, and the one receiving sulphate of ammonia but no
lime, reacts far more intensely acid than at the outset. At the
time when the varieties of plants were grown which are to be
shown upon the screen, even the limed plat, which received
nitrate of soda, was still very slightly acid as shown by blue
litmus paper, and the others differed from it only in the degree
of acidity.

The two apple trees at the left grew where sulphate of am-
monia had been applied, and the two at the right upon plats
receiving nitrate of soda. The better growth at the right of
each pair shows that liming was helpful. The tests unfor-
tunately could not be continued to the time of fruiting, and
hence they throw no light upon the yield and the quality of the
fruit as aflfected by liming.

It will be observed that in both instances the Norway spruce
trees exhibit injury from liming. The same susceptibilitv to
injury by liming is said to be true of the chestnut, azalia,
rhododendron, and of certain other members of the family to
which the two latter plants belong.

The white birch has shown marked adaptability to acid
unlimed soils, but it seems less likely to be injured by liming
than the spruce, cranberfy, and certain other trees and herba-
ceous plants that might be named.

The quince bushes show a marked beneficial influence of
the lime. A similar though somewhat less striking benefit
from liming was observed with cherries and the American lin-
den.

The two lots of cranberry vines at the left grew upon the
plats receiving sulphate of ammonia, and it is of much interest

1906.]

LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS.

83

to note that the best growth of vines, shown at the extreme
left, occurred upon the unHmed plat, where clover, lettuce,
spinach, cantaloupes, onions, and asparagus usually die out-
right. It will be seen that the vines at the extreme right from
the limed plat, receiving nitrate of soda, were inferior to those
at their left, where lime was omitted.

The reason for showing but three lots of asparagus is that
during the first and second years all of the plants died upon
the unlimed plat which received sulphate of ammonia. The
lot at the left represents the result where lime was used with the
sulphate of ammonia, and the one at the extreme right shows the
results with lime and nitrate of soda. In this instance the great
advantage of liming is shown even where nitrate of soda was
used, as seen by comparing the two lots at the right.

Below are given the relative weights of marketable aspara-
gus obtained in the year 1900.

Plate No.

22), unlimed, sulphate of ammonia
25, limed,

27, unlimed, nitrate of soda .
29, limed, " "

Pounds of asparagus
0.00

. 5-87

1. 01
9.62

From this it wall be seen that liming increased the crop
over nine times even when nitrate of soda was employed.

The pumpkins show a positive beneficial influence of lime.
It is hoped that these observations may aid the residents of
New England to continue to place before their Thanksgiving
guests the time-honored " open-faced " pumpkin pie.

84 BOARD Ol' AGRICULTURE. [J'ln.,

Serradella, which is sown with spring grains in Germany,
to serve later in the season as a sheep feed, and later as a soil
renovator, thrives well upon very acid soil, in which respect
it differs widely from most, if not all, of the clovers, the san-
foin, lentil, vetch, pea, and certain other legumes. The two
lots at the left, grown by the aid of sulphate of ammonia, were
apparently as good as the other two, grown with nitrate of
soda. In fact, liming heavily just before the crop is grown,
though helpful to clover, is injurious to serradella.

The soy bean and southern cow pea are two other legumes
which should follow in the rotation, preferably three or more
years after liming, though the soy bean seems to need the long
interval less than the cow pea.

The onion does not thrive upon a very acid soil, a fact in
full accord with the general idea that wood ashes, which con-
tain over 30 per cent, of lime, make a good manure for this crop.
Where sulphate of ammonia was used on the unlimed soil only
two or three small onion„ resulted. In the case of the two lots
at the right, from the limed and unlimed plats which received
nitrate of soda, the yield without lime was 24 pounds and with
lime, 44.3 pounds. These results throw satisfactory light upon
the former inability of certain farmers in Massachusetts to
grow onions, especially where brands of commercial fertilizers
had been used which were acid instead of basic in character.

In the case of the flax the products of the limed plats show
little increase from liming. Flax is, therefore, well adapted to
acid soil.

In the case of the chicory little difference in yields resulted ;
it is evident that chicory will thrive well even upon very acid
unlimed soil.

In the case of the broom corn the results with sulphate of
ammonia are shown at the left. The second lot from the left and
the one at the extreme right were from the limed plats.
Broom corn is, therefore, helped by lime.

The carnation pink can thrive upon quite acid soil. Liming
was nevertheless beneficial in both instances.

Crimson clover can thrive fairly well upon soil whicli shows
considerable acidity, yet upon very acid land liming proved
absolutely essential to its success. The two large piles are
from the two limed plats. Upon the unlimed plat receiving
sulphate of ammonia, it practically failed.

1906.]

LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS.

85

These two bundles of grass are from the.limed plat which
receives sulphate of ammonia. The grass was assorted, the

large bundle of timothy being shown at the left and the small
lot of redtop at the right. This should be compared with the
next view^

86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

In this view the resuhs are shown where sulphate of am-
monia was used upon the unhmed soil. The small amount of
timothy is shown at the left, and the relatively large amount of
redtop at the right. The foregoing results taken together with
these show the wonderful ability of redtop to thrive upon acid
soils, and also the fact that such soils will not support timothy
until after liming. What has been said concerning the need
of lime for timothy is likewise true of Kentucky blue grass
and in a less degree of the awnless brome and other grasses.
Rhode Island bent grass, which is closely related to redtop, ex-
hibits the same remarkable ability to thrive upon very acid
soil. The very fact of the existence of splendid fields of this

variety of bent grass in the State of Rhode Island is indicative
of soil acidity, and the need of lime. It is a case of the " sur-
vival of the fittest " upon the acid soil.

In view of the fact that the conditions favorable to timothy
are also favorable to Kentucky blue grass care should be taken
where timothy and redtop are both desired to secure seed free
from the seed of Kentucky blue grass or it will tend to crowd
out both the timothy and redtop, producing essentially a " turf-
bound " condition.

Alfalfa, like winter vetch, seems to thrive best after using
enough lime to render the soil slightly alkaline. In marked
contrast to lettuce, spinach, beets, the best results with alfalfa

1906.]

MMING SOILS AND PLANTS.

87

have usually been obtained upon the limed plat manured with
sulphate of ammonia instead upon the other limed plat.

The results with cabbages grown with the aid of nitrate of
soda are at the left, and they 'show its superiority to sulphate
of ammonia. Liming proved helpful in both cases as shown
by the larger piles.

The watermelon seems to be quite at home upon acid soil.
The product with nitrate of soda is at the left, and with sul-
phate of ammonia at the right. The smaller yields in both
cases were upon the limed plats. It is remarkable that the
watermelon should be injured by liming, and that it should
thrive splendidly upon the unlimed plat receiving sulphate of
ammonia, where upland cress, Kafifir corn, sorghum, barley,
the cantaloupe, and many other varieties of plants utterly fail.

Tlie cantaloupe is the opposite of the watermelon ! The
crop from the plats receiving sulphate of ammonia were al-
ways inferior to the corresponding ones manured with nitrate
of soda. In each case the limed plats produced the larger
product. In fact it was seldom, if ever, that fully ripened-

88

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE,

[Jan.,

fruit was obtained upon even the unlimed plat where nitrate of
soda was used.

The crops of German millet produced by the aid of nitrate
of soda are at the left. It will be seen that the result upon the
limed plat, shown at the extreme left, was not as good as where
lime was omitted. In the case where sulphate of ammonia

was applied, liming proved helpful. Though unable to endure
the degree of acidity which is favorable to the watermelon,

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 89

German millet seems to thrive best upon moderately acid soil,
and liming to the limit of producing alkalinity or even less,
is injurious to it.

The following five views show the results with rye, oats,
wheat, barley, and sorghum. The products obtained by the use
of nitrate of soda are arranged in each instance on the left.
The absence of a fourth lot of sorghum at the right was due
to its total destruction on the most acid soil. The lot at the
extreme left and the second one from the right in each case
shows the product from the respective limed plats. It will be
seen that the rye and oats endure the acid conditions best and
that the sorghum is helped most by liming. Barley needs lime
more than wheat and the latter more than oats.

The two lots of tobacco at the left were grown with nitrate
of soda, and the two at the right with sulphate of ammonia.
The larger lot at the left oi each pair was from the respective
limed plat. Liming improved the color of the ash in a most
remarkable degree.

This view shows that amber cane (sorghum) and Kaffir
corn refused to grow upon the unlimed plat, manured with
sulphate of ammonia, notwithstanding that the seed germinated
well.

This shows the wonderful benefit which resulted to these
plants solely from liming. These plants, like the upland cress,
onion, cantaloupe, poppy, lettuce, spinach, and beet, are
unable to endure a great degree of soil acidity, and the accom-
panying lack of carbonate of lime.

The limits of such a lecture preclude showing all of the
results obtained with about 200 different varieties of plants'.
Among the beans and also among the annual flowering plants
that have been tested, the most remarkable differences have
been observed. These results show that the poppy can never
become a pernicious weed upon our acid soils, as it has in the
wheat fields of the limestone regions of Europe. The castor
bean is injured by liming where the golden wax, a string bean,
will almost fail for need of liming. The bush lima bean in con-
trast to certain of the bush green-podded string beans thrives
well upon very acid soil.

90

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

[Jan.,

CONCERNING THE GENERAL NEED OF LIME IN RHODE

ISLAND.

Having begun the experiments just enumerated, it became
important to learn if the need of Hme was more or less common
in all of the five counties of the State, and in order to test the
matter, cooperative experiments were begun in many different
sections. Two plats were manured alike with standard agri-
cultural chemicals. One of these was then limed and beets,
barley, grass, and clover were employed in the various tests.

At Foster Center, R. I., in 1896, the yields of red table beets
upon the limed and unlimed plats were 143.4 and 36.6 pounds
respectively.

■■^<i

M'.,

In a similar test at Slocums, the yield of table beets upon-,
the unlimed plat was but i pound and upon the limed plat it
was 101.8 pounds. The barley (cut in the milk) was increased
in this case by liming from 3.7 to 39.1 pounds.

In 1897 clover was grown upon the plats at Foster Center.
The first crop, upon the unlimed plat, amounted to 140.2
pounds, and upon the limed plat to 195.6 pounds.

In a grass experiment at Hamilton, a section of the unlimed
plat gave a product of 15 1.6 pounds, consisting of about equal
parts of timothy and redtop. A corresponding section of the

1906.]

LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS.

91

limed plat yielded 205.1 pounds, consisting chiefly of timothy
associated with some redtop.

The clover section of the limed plat at Hamilton yielded
204.6 pounds, consisting of about equal parts of clover and red-
top, mixed with a few other grasses. The yield of the uniimed
section, shown at the right, was but 66.9 pounds ; only ^.S
pounds of which consisted of clover.

The second crops of clover from the lim.ed and uniimed
sections at Hamilton weighed 74.4 pounds and o.i pounds
respectively. The smaller amount was cut with a pocket knife,
and plr.ced in a straw hat in order to make it visible.

This experiment was conducted upon the hill land at Kings-

ton.

The crops from the two clover sections of the plots were
harvested and the clover was separated from the weeds. The
two lots at the left represent the clover and weeds from the

92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J'lH.,

limed section, the clover being at the extreme left. The two
piles at the right are from the unlimed section, the one on the
extreme right being the weeds. Where lime was vised, the
crop was chiefly clover, but upon the unlimed land the weeds
weighed nearly as much as the clover.

V,"- ■^- JJ¥^ "^'tzJ^Jfet^J

^i&Mm^i^

At Moosup Valley the yield of Mangel Wurzels upon the
unlimed land was at the rate of but three tons per acre, but
where lime was used it amounted to twenty and three-fourths
tons per acre. The view shows the exact relation O'f the two
crops. The lot representing the unlimed area is seen at the
right. This was pasture land where chemical manures had
possibly never been used.

These and many other similar experiments conducted in
different parts of Rhode Island were sufficient to convince the
most skeptical that the need of lime was more or less general
in every portion of the State.

INFLUENCE OF LIMING UPON THE POTATO SCAB.

While digging the potatoes grown in the previously men-
tioned series of experiments upon the four plats, it was noticed
that those grown upon the limed plats were badly scabbed
while the others were not. Professor Thaxter at your own
Station in New Haven had shown previously that the scab was
due to a fungus which grows upon the surface of the tubers.
He had also experimented in a limited way concerning the
effect of various substances in promoting scab. These latter
experiments were brief and necessarily inconclusive, since, for
example, it was noticed that plaster and cement exerted " a

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 93

very decided influence especially upon the virulence of the dis-
ease," but that wood ashes " had no apparent connection " with
it. No explanation for the action of the mortar and cement
was offered and it was even looked upon as possibly incidental.

Professor Thaxter found in his pure cultures of the fungus
that it grew best in a neutral medium, and this report sug-
gested the idea that if the soil were alkaline the fungus might
be aided by it in overcoming the acidity of the tuber while
growing upon its surface. If on the contrary the soil were
acid it seemed reasonable that it would be more difficult for the
fungus to vegetate upon the tuber which the soil surrounded.
With these ideas as a starting point the questio^n was studied
exhaustively for four years. In brief it was found that stable
manure did promote potato scab provided the fungus was
present ; that the addition of common salt or of acid to the
manure lessened the tendency, and that the addition of an al-
kaline substance, such as sodium carbonate, made the condi-
tions still worse. Slacked lime, wood ashes, carbonate of lime,
and substances such as calcium acetate and calcium oxalate
which yield calcium carbonate quickly in the soil ; or in other
words alkaline substances or other compoirnds which change in-
to such readily, favored without exception the development of
scab upon the tubers. On the contrary sulphate of lime (land
plaster) and calcium chloride, two compounds that under
ordinary circumstances can neither increase the alkaline re-
action of the soil nor practically lessen its acidity, both failed
to increase the scab. In short the experiments seemed to
establish beyond a doubt that even if the scab fungus is
present, no considerable amount of scab will develop in a very
acid soil if care is taken to avoid alkaline manures. On tht
contrary if the fungus is already in the soil or if it is intro-
duced into it upon the tubers used for planting, and alkaline
manures are used, the crops may after one or two years be
practically ruined by the scab.

In the view presented here, the product of potato tubers
obtained where air-slacked lime had been used is to be seen at
the left ; the lot at the right, grown also with the aid of chemi-
cal manures but without lime, was entirely free from scab
even though badly scabbed tubers were planted in each case.

94

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

[Jan.,

Tlie left hand lot in the present instance received calcium
sulphate, in addition to the same chemical manures which were
used in all of the other cases. The lot at the right was grown
with the aid of calcium chloride. In the former case but 4.3
per cent, of the tubers were scabbed and in the latter case none
of them were affected.

.*^^:-

This view shows the results with carbonate of lime at the
left, and with calcium oxalate at the right. In the former case
97.5 per cent, of the tubers were badly scabbed and in the lat-
ter case all of them were totally unfit for market, on ac-
count of scab.

^'r

Sii

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 95

In this final view of potatoes the results with calcium acetate
are at the left and those with unleached wood ashes are at the
right. In both lots every tuber was scabbed and in the former
case 97.5 per cent, of the lot was rendered unfit for market.
In the case where the wood ashes were used the yield was good
but not a single smooth marketable tuber resulted.

In the light of these results the question which naturally
suggests itself is : Why did not Professer Thaxter find
that wood ashes favor scab in the same manner as the mortar
and cement? The answer seems to be that either the tubers
which were planted where wood ashes were used were free
from the fungus, as well as the soil itself, or else Professor
Thaxter in his zeal used more wood ashes than would be likely
to be employed per acre in agricultural practice, thus rendering
the soil about the tubers so alkaline that the fungus could not
grow. This seems probable for the reason that the mortar
and cement would render the soil less alkaline than the same
weight of wood ashes, and possibly on this account they pro-
duced a condition which was especially favorable to the de-
velopment of the scab fungus.

Too great alkalinity like too great acidity should lessen the
scab judging by Professor Thaxter's experiments upon the
pure cultures of the fungus.

The practical suggestions growing out of the Rhode Island
experiments are the following:

First. Avoid using scabbed tubers in planting, if possible.

Second. If scabbed tubers or such as are not positively
known to be free from the fungus are used, wash them
thoroughly with water and then treat them with corrosive sub-
limate solution or with fresh formalin, as recommended by
Bolley and others. (For directions see Farmers' Bulletin
No. JJ, U. S. Department of Agriculture. )

Third. Avoid as direct manures for the potato crop wood
ashes, lime, stable manures, basic slag meal, carbonate of
potash and any and all other substances which are alkaline in
their reaction.

Fourth. If for other reasons these alkaline substances
should be added to the soil, apply them from two to four years
before potatoes are to be grown and always treat the " seed "
tubers as recommended under (2). In this wav the
Rhode Island Station has for more than ten vears avoided scab

96 BOARD OK AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

and at the same time enjoyed in a considerable degree the
beneficial influence of liming in increasing the yield of tubers
of merchantable size. By taking these various precautions at
the suggestion of the Rhode Island Station, a lady farmer in
the State reports this year a smooth crop for the first time in
several years.

Fifth. If the soil is already badly contaminated with the
scab fungus no treatment of the tubers will insure a smooth
crop.

Sixth. If the soil is contaminated, rolling of the " seed "
tubers in flowers of sulphur and scattering sulphur upon the
seed tubers in the drill, as first suggested by Halstead of New
Jersey, will lessen the scab. This is, however, an expensive
treatment. At the Rhode Island Station sulphate of ammonia
(ammonium chloride would doubtless accomplish the same re-
sult), muriate of potash, and acid phosphate applied in the drill
have been found effective in lessening the scab in soils already
contaminated. These materials also serve a manurial purpose
at the same time.

THE INFLUENCE OF LIMING UPON THE FINGER-AND-TOE OR
" CLUB-FOOT '' DISEASE OF TURNIPS AND OTHER PLANTS.

It has been found by investigators in England, and later in
the United States, that liming counteracts to some extent the
tendency to " finger-and-toe " or " clrb-foot " disease in the
turnip, cabbage, and other closely related plants. J. A. Voelck-
er of England tested the effect of gas-lime and slacked lime
as compared with no treatment. As a result it was found that
the least " finger-and-toe " disease resulted where the slacked
lime was used.

WHEN TO APPLY LIME.

In order tO' answer the flood of questions coming to the
Rhode Island Station concerning the best time to apply lime,
especially for grass lands, three plats were prepared in the late
summer. All three were manured in an identical manner.
To one plat slacked lime was applied at once and thoroughly
harrowed into the soil. The same amount of lime from the
same lot was set aside until the following spring, when it was
applied to the surface of the second plat as a top-dressing.

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 97

The third plat received no hme. All three of the plats were
seeded to timothy in the early autumn in an identical manner.

At the right, where the lime was worked into the soil before
seeding, the stand of timothy was good. Only a very small
stand of timothy was secured where the lime was used as a
top-dressing. Where lime was omitted altogether timothy
was wholly absent. In all but the first instance the product
was chiefly weeds mixed with a small amount of such grasses
as could thrive upon acid soil. The material from the top-
dressed plat is shown in the middle and that from the unlimed
plat at the left.

THE INFLUENCE OF LIMING UPON THE HUMUS.

It was found, -after a lapse of several years, that under con-
tinuous culture with hoed crops the amount of humus in the
soil became somewhat reduced upon the limed plats. At the
same time the percentage of nitrogen contained in the humus
became greater. It might be inferred, therefore, from the in-
vestigations conducted by Hilgard that on this account the effi-
ciency of the nitrogen in the humus may have been increased.
Under a system of cropping, which includes the occasional
turning under of a grass sod, there need be no' fear of injury to
the soil from a depletion of the humus by liming, so long as
proper attention is paid to the kind of soil and the amount and
kind of lime applied. To illustrate, a sandy soil should sel-
dom, if ever, receive more than from half a ton to one ton of
lime per acre at a single application, and for such soils the
carbonate of lime is usually preferable to either slacked or plain
burned lime.

In this connection a word ought to be said about " humus '"'
in a general way. Some of the dictionaries define humus as
essentially a brown substance produced by the action of the air
upon vegetable and animal matter. Many writers also refer
to the entire mass of the organic matter in soils as '' humus."
Grandeau applied the name Matiere noire (black matter) to
that part of the organic matter which could be extracted from
the soil by means of ammonia water after the preliminary re-
moval of the lime and magnesia. Much is said in the agricul-
tural press about the need of humus in the soil, yet usually
without reference to whether the term humus as used applies

Agr. — 7

98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

to the black matter mentioned by Grandean, or to the total
organic matter.

It 's a fact that some of the most fertile soils in the United
States have neither a large amount of " black matter " nor of
total organic matter. The soil of the Experiment Station
farm in Rhode Island was found to contain from 3V2 to 3^
per cent, of " black matter " or far more than many of the fer-
tile soils referred to above. In addition a considerable amount
of less fully decomposed organic matter was also present.
Here one would suppose there must surely be an abundant
supply of " humus," but yet as a matter of fact so large an
amount of the very fine " black matter " is present that it
seems to injure rather than benefit the physical character of the
soil. Notwithstanding the large amount of " humus," as the
term is ordinarily used, the further introduction of vegetable
matter, either undecomposed or in the first stages of decom-
position, seems to improve the condition of the soil greatly for
certain varieties of plants. Such matter is in condition to
lighten the soil and improve its tilth, but if already in the stage
of the " black matter " as described by Grandeau, the same re-
sult could not be expected.

WHY WAS LIME BENEFICIAL TO THE RHODE ISLAND SOILS?

The question which arose early in the history of the lime
investigations in Rhode Island was : How is lime beneficial ?
If it was helpful solely as plant food then this deficiency could
only be revealed by field tests with plants or by complicated
laboratory methods. If lime was needed because the soils of
Rhode Island were acid, then the simple test with blue litmus
paper was likely to reveal the need. This is a test which it
is possible for every farmer to make. It is also one by which
hundreds of soils can be tested in Station laboratories in a short
time at small expense. If lime were needed solely for physical
reasons it seemed possible tliat land plaster or other lime com-
pounds might prove equally or more efficient. At all events
the importance of answering why lime was needed must be ob-
vious to all.

If lime helped by virtue of correcting an acid condition of
the soil it was to be expected that similar benefit would result
from the use of still other substances that could neutralize

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. 99

acids. To test this point lettuce was planted in four pots
eighteen inches in diameter. All of the four pots were
manured alike. Two of the pots received no further treatment
and in the absence of crops from these pots stones were sub-
stituted for them when the photog-raph was taken. The third
lot from the right was grown where an additional " half-ra-
tion " of sodium carbonate was used, and the better lot at the
left where the " full ration " of sodium carbonate was em-
ployed. The wonderful benefit derived from its use showed
that here w^as another alkaline substance, containing no
lime, which was exceedingly helpful.

If slacked lime proved useful only as a plant food and in
floculating and thus improving the physical condition of the
soil, then it was to be expected (judging from experiments by
others) that sulphate of lime (land plaster) might be equally
as effective, provided an equal amount of lime in each combina-
tion were employed. It will be remembered that the lime in
sulphate of lime is already combined with a strong mineral
acid, oil of vitriol, and hence it cannot correct acid conditions
without first undergoing a change into carbonate of lime in
the soil. This change is so slow that it has little immediate
practical significance in ordinary well-drained upland soils.

The largest two piles of beets were produced by the aid of
air-slacked lime and the next largest pair with sulphate of lime.
The results were still poorer in the case of the other two plats
where neither lime compound was used. Mention should be
made of the fact that in all of the cases a liberal manuring with
potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen had been provided. It
will be seen that the land plaster failed to accomplish the same
result as the slacked lime.

Without going further into the details of the investigations
in this direction, which covered in all a period of three to four
years, it suffices to say that potassium, sodium, and magnesium
compounds which were capable of neutralizing acidity were
all more helpful to the soil than other compounds of the same
elements which could not aid in the same way. It was, there-
fore, concluded that the need of the soil was primarily alkaline
substances and that, therefore, the blue litmus paper test fur-
nished a probably reliable guide as to its liming requirements.
If this is true it is obvious that this or some equally or more
efficient test for acidity should be more generally applied to
soils. •

lOO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. | Jan.,

IN MAKING THE TEST IS IT NECESSARY TO WAIT UNTIL THE
LITMUS PAPER DRIES BEFORE DRAWING CONCLUSIONS AS
TO THE PROBABLE NEED OF LIME?

When the Htmus paper was first put mto use for testing soils
at the Rhode Island Station a statement was found on record
by one of the German authorities that the paper must be dried
before definite conclusions can be drawn as to the need of lime.
It would be but natural for a farmer to do the drying in the
sunlight, the action of w^hich is to bleach the paper to such an
extent as to interfere in drawing conclusions as to the proba-
ble efifect upon it of the soil. The drying also meant some
extra delay and trouble. A careful investigation of the ques-
tion was, therefore, undertaken in the laboratory, which
showed that it was not necessary to wait for the paper to dry
before drawing conclusions as to the probable necessity for
liming. An explanation of these details is unnecessary here
and it would be of interest only to chemists.

THE INFLUENCE OF LIMING UPON THE PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
OF THE SOIL AND UPON CERTAIN PHOSPHATES USED AS MANURES.

In the course of the liming experiments in Rhode Island
it was found that a soil which for years had failed to produce
good crops without the application of phosphatic manures, was
rendered capable after liming of yielding enough phosphoric
acid for several successive crops. Similar results have also
been noticed in France where superphosphates had first been
used without effect.

Roasted Redondite is a phosphatic manure upon which the
liming of the soil has a marked influence. It contains little or
no soluble phosphoric acid but frequently shows upon analysis
as high as 35 per cent, or more of reverted phosphoric acid.
If introduced into ready mixed commercial fertilizers in any
considerable amounts the proportion of the " available " phos-
phoric acid actually present as " soluble phosphoric acid " will
be much reduced. Hence in goods where the available phos-
phoric acid is high and the soluble phosphoric acid is
very low it is obvious at once that a considerable amount
of bone, tankage, or roasted Redondite has probably
been introduced. The tendency to use the Redondite in mix-

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. lOI

tnres is increased by the higli percentage of reverted phosphoric
acid which it contains which raises the phosphoric acid which
is reported as " available." Furthermore it makes the mixed
fertilizers drill far more readily.

Notwithstanding the high percentage of " available " phos-
phoric acid which it carries it has been found at the Rhode
Island Station that this roasted Redondite has but little value
for most crops if used upon very acid unlimed land. Liming
raised its efficiency for most of the crops tested, in a most strik-
ing manner. These results ought to show the importance of
putting the soil in the proper condition, if the best results are
to be expected from ready mixed commercial fertilizers which
contain this material. It is equally important not to go to the
other extreme and over lime, for by doing so the tendency
would be to lessen the efficiency of the phosphoric acid in bone
and tankage.

LIMING INCREASES THE EFFICIENCY OF ORGANIC NITROGENOUS

MANURES.

The absence of a sufficient amount of carbonate of lime and
the existence of a high degree of soil acidity have already been
shown to reduce the efficiency of nitrogen in sulphate of am-
monia. If plants are grown which are very subject to injury
upon acid soils even nitrate of soda cannot exert its normal
effect and much of it will be lost by leaching, before the next
season. The danger of financial losses in the case of the or-
ganic nitrogen is also great if the soil is very acid and in great
need of liming. This is also well shown by an experiment con-
ducted at the Rhode Island Station. The same amounts of
potash and phosphoric acid were used in all cases. The nitro-
genous substances were applied at such rates as to furnish in
every instance identical amounts of nitrogen per acre.

Upon the limed soil the sulphate of ammonia lost its tox-
icity and the efficiency of its nitrogen amounted to 92.2 as com-
pared with that in nitrate of soda placed at 100. Upon the
same basis of comparison with nitrate of soda, the efficiency of
the nitrogen in dried blood which was 45.5 before liming was
90.3 afterward, and that of roasted leather was increased by
liming from 0.9 to 13.8. Expressed in more direct language,

I02 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jail.,

the value of the dried blood was practically doubled as a result
of liming. Such facts as these and those also- brought out in
connection with certain phosphatic manures, show that the effi-
ciency of fertilizers is by no means always due to the character
of the manures themselves, but that the soil is sometimes an
equally important factor. Such being the case, the farmer him-
self is often to blame if good results are not secured, in con-
sequence of his neglect to put his soil in proper condition for
profitable agricultural operations.

It would be absurd to claim that the majority of soils in
Rhode Island, or that the majority in certain sections of other
states, need liming in as great a degree as the soil at Kingston,
yet no doubt many individual soils may stand in equal or in-
deed in still greater need of lime. Even if the influence of
these conditions is not ordinarily as great, the kinds of plants
with which difficulty is likely to be most quickly met, have now
been pointed out, and this ought to serve as a useful guide in
liming operations elsewhere. Before leaving this subject it
should be stated that even in Rhode Island upland soils have
been found which were more in need of liming than the soil
at Kingston, upon which most of these experiments were con-
ducted. Furthermore, in the case of most of the soils tested
in the five counties of the State, lime was so badly needed that
the yields of many of the important crops, such as clover and
timothy, were most seriously depressed.

THE NEED OF LIME WIDESPREAD.

The Rhode Island experiments have shown that the need of
lime in that State is by no means confined to the Station farm,
but that it is more or less general in every county. Since this
work was begun experimental data have come to hand showing
that lime is needed in parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Connecticut, New York, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama,
and other States.

One farmer writing from the State of New York says that
thanks to the liming hints from the Rhode Island Station he
is securing good crops of clover and grass where both failed
or partially failed before. Another communication from a
farmer in the same State began with an apology for the long
letter which he said was necessary in order to properly express
his thanks for the services rendered. He had taken up an

1906.] LIMING SOILS AND PLANTS. IO3

" abandoned " farm in a granitic region where abandoned farms
and acid soils were common. By the use of Hme he had been
put in a position so that he was rapidly paying for the farm
which the former owner had abandoned, on account of sheer
inability to make it pay.

It may not be amiss at this point to show a perfect field of
clover where only straggling individual plants were obtainable
before the Rhode Island Station called attention to the condi-
tion of the soil and the need of liming.

The excellent second crop in cocks in the same field also
gives an idea of the good results.

Liming alone without intelligent handling of the soil in
other respects is by no means the panacea for the Agriculture
of New England. The greatest need of the farmer and his
children today is agricultural education. Intellectual, techni-
cal training counts, whether the people are white, yellow, or
black. The Germans have made it count in their last inten^al
of peace perhaps more than any other nation. We should be
prepared to use it in peace and in war if necessary, and to em-
ploy it in peace as never before. The sons and daughters from
the homes of New England have been powerful factors in the
past in leavening the great human lump in this country, and
their work is not yet done. Wise leaders are needed today
in agriculture as never before and facilities for acquiring some
phase of agricultural education of the modern extension and
demonstration type should be extended to the vast multitude
of New England homes.

In closing this story of liming, practical suggestions and
directions for its use have been omitted for lack of time and for
fear of wearying a patient audience. These can be had for the
asking by sending a request to the Division of Publications,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, for
Farmer's Bulletin No. yj.

Thanking you for your attention and with the highest ex-
pectations for the future of the agriculture of Connecticut, I
bid you Good-Night!

The President. If there is no further business the meet-
ing will stand adjourned until tomorrow morning at 9.30.

104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

MORNING SESSION.

December 13, 1905, 9:30 a. m.

Music.

Convention called to order at 10 a. m., \'ice-President See-
ley in the chair.

The President. It is a beautiful morning, and I am glad
to welcome so many here. It is very encouraging to see such
a large audience.

I think the Secretary has some questions in the box.

Secretary Brown. There are one or two questions, Mr.
President, relating to sheep, which we would like to have an-
swered before Dr. Smeed leaves us. The first is : '' What
should be done with a flock of one hundred sheep that have
a few ticks on them now ? "

Dr. Smead. Mr. President, if I had a flock of sheep that
had ticks upon them at this season I would get rid of the ticks.
Of course, the question is how to do it. It is very easy in-
deed. Go about it just as though you were going to prepare
to dip the sheep. Catch the sheep and lay it upon its back,
put your preparation in a vessel that }0u can pour from hand-
ily. A good thing to use would be an old teapot or coffee-pot
that would hold just about as much of the dip as necessary,
and from that pour a stream of the preparation along the body
and around the skin the whole length of the bodv. In about
one minute or a little less you will discover the ticks are going
out from along the backbone and the job is done. Be particu-
lar to turn the sheep on its back. The set of the wool is then
in such a position that the preparation wall take effect. Every
particle of the dip runs right to the body and reaches the place
where the ticks are. If the sheep is laid in any other way,
you will simply have a wet fleece and a dry body. A sheep's
wool, you know, is made to shed water.

Question. Why would it not work just as well if you
dipped the sheep?

1906.] DISCUSSION. 105

Dr. Smeed. It would.

Secretary Brown. What is the nature of the mixture you
use?

Dr. Smeed. There are a good many mixtures that make
a good sheep dip. A strong sokition of tobacco will do the
work, but I do not consider it the best. Sheep do not like it.
A sheep is a good deal life myself. I do not like that, so I do
not recommend the tobacco dip. As I stated yesterday, there
are several carbolic sheep dips on the market. In fact, there
are so many of them on the market that it is hardly worth while
to speak about them in detail because undoubtedly many of
you have read the advertisements. If you cannot purchase one
near by, you can go to a drugstore and get a pint of pure car-
bolic acid and mix it with a pint of soap, dissolved in any kind
of soft soap. Mix it all together in a solution, and use that
in the proportion of one part to one hundred of water. The
soap is simply used so as to make the carbolic acid a little
more solvent. If it is not used it will not mix well with the
water. But by mixing it with soap it will mix with the water,
and it makes a very good remedy. If you cannot purchase
any of these prepared carbolic sheep dips, you can get pure
carbolic acid in any quantity you want and mix it up yourself.
When the mixture is properly made it makes a very good
remedy.

Secretary Brown. I suppose there are a number of gentle-
men in this hall who are interested in poultry. This is not the
first time that the State Board of Agriculture has secured
speakers upon that subject. A year ago Mr. Delano, of Mill-
ville, N. J., presented a paper on " Thoroughbreds versus
Mongrels from the Farmer's Standpoint." I have a few pam-
phlets which contain the address of Mr. Delano, and any mem-
ber of this audience can obtain a copy by calling upon the com-
mittee at the rear of the hall.

The President. The program, for the first thing this
morning, calls for an address on " Poultry Management,"

I06 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

by Mr. T. C. Tilling-hast, of Vernon, Conn. You know last
^ night some one was saying that while there were a great many
things that the farmers do not have, yet almost every farmer
has some chickens. Every man, woman, and child is, to some
extent, interested in poultry. Now we are today a good deal
interested in poultry, and I am glad that we are to have a man
talk to us who has taken a great deal of interest in it, and I
am happy to introduce him to you at this time.

" POULTRY MANAGEMENT."
By Mr. T. C. Tillinghast, Vernon, Conn.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :

It is very doubtful if there is any industry in our country
in whkh so many people are engaged or interested as in poul-
try culture. Most every one keeps a few hens, or at least
wants to. They often, if they are not themselves the owners
of a plot of ground, find their chickens thriving fully as well
on their neighbor's ground or garden. When we consider that
the poultry industry is one of the largest in the United States,
we certainly believe that it merits the recognition it is receiv-
ing here today by the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, and
we hope the time is not far distant when its claims will be
recognized by our legislature, and that the Connecticut Ex-
periment Station at Storrs will receive an appropriation com-
mensurate with its importance.

I see by the program that I am to speak to you on poultry
management. That gives me a very elastic text. I presume
anything that I m.ay say on poultry might come under that
head. I am very glad to see so many young men present this
morning. I think it is evidence, Mr. Chairman, that more
than a few are interested in this subject of poultry, and per-
haps I could not better use the limited time that I have than
by telling you what I think I would do were I a young man
and had to start life over again, or, in other words, if I were
permitted to return and begin life again. Assuming, however,
that I could carry back with me all the information that I may
have gained by my experience and observation, I of course
would choose the occupation of a farmer, believing that it would
give me the largest measure of all the good things that really

1906.] POULTRY MANAGEMENT. IO7

make life worth living. The trolley, the rural free delivery,
and the telephone are destined to become important factors in
removing from the farmer's life that isolation to which he has
hitherto been subjected, and to make the farm a more desir-
able place for a home. I can conceive of no branch of agri-
culture that to me would be as congenial, and at the same
time as remunerative as that of fruit and poultry culture. I
believe that the two make an ideal combination. One naturally
goes with the other. The people never get quite enough good
fruit to satisfy an ever increasing appetite. When we scan
the market reports and note the price of strictly fresh eggs
at forty, fifty, and even sixty cents per dozen, we are com-
pelled to believe that the poultry industry is not overcrowded,
and I believe we have no conception of its future possibilities.
In this line of work we need not fear competition from any
source. I think it is a conceded fact that no better fruit can
be grown anywhere than on the hills of old New England,
and the market reports tell us that southern and western eggs
are always sold at a discount, while, upon the other hand,
fresh eggs coming from near-by localities always sell at a
premium.

Now, for a young man to engage in fruit and poultry cul-
ture, I doubt if any locality could be found anywhere better
suited for such work than right here in old Connecticut. We
are blessed with a healthy climate. Land is cheap. You can
buy a good farm for less than the cost of the buildings origi-
nally erected upon it. W^e have the best of markets right at
our door. And last, but not least, our environment here is all
right. We have all the advantages of the twentieth century
civilization.

I am aware that many believe that poultry cannot be profit-
ably kept in large numbers. They will tell you that a few
hens will pay all right, but when you increase the number you
diminish the profit. You will hear it frequently said that a far-
mer kept forty or fifty hens and made them pay, and made
them net him perhaps over a dollar each. Well, that, upon the
amount invested, was a better return than anything on the
old farm. Some farmers have thought that if fifty hens paid
well they could increase their poultry and their profit by add-
ing to the number, but have found to their sad disappointment
that a hundred hens did not pay as fifty formerly paid. Hence

I08 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

they came to the conclusion that poultry on a large scale
was a failure. Now if that was the fact, if poultry could not be
profitably kept in large numbers there certainly would not be
much encouragement in the development of the poultry indus-
try, and instead of my being here today to talk poultry to you,
it would have been better had I remained at home. If we stop
for a moment to consider methods, I think we will find that the
hundred hens were crowded into the same little house that for-
merly accommodated the fifty. There was ample room for the
smaller number, but it made a crowded house for the hundred.
And then again the scraps from the table helped to make a bal-
anced ration for the smaller number, but they did not amount to
much with the hundred. There was not enough to go around.
Now if, when they increased the number, they had
enlarged their accommodations, and had supplemented
the table scraps by green cut vegetables and cut
clover, so as to give them ^a balanced ration, they,
no doubt, would have more than doubled their income. I
believe, and I have my past experience and observation to sub-
stantiate such a belief, that there is absolutely no limit to the
number of fowls that may profitably be kept, provided, as we
increase the number, we keep pace with the increase by provid-
ing suitable accommodations and a well balanced ration. That
is the key to the whole situation. It is the gist of the whole mat-
ter. Here is a neighbor, for instance, that keeps a flock of hens,
perhaps forty or fifty. They pay well. Another neighbor keeps
an equal number and they pay. Perhaps there are a dozen
within a very short distance, each of whom keeps a lot of hens,
and they pay well. They are practically on the colony plan.
Most of the year they have free range, and they get a pretty
good balanced ration from the table scraps and from insects
and worms they can glean. Perhaps the women take care of
them, and, if they do, a good many of them get lots of pin
money out of the poultry. If we knew the facts in some cases,
I am sure we would find that the poultry pay for a large part
of the groceries. The pin money that the ladies get, however,
is not the whole story. They get good health. They get
needed exercise in the open air and sunshine which the caring
for poultry gives. I think if more of our ladies would engage
in poultry culture they would find it helpful in more ways than
one.

1906.] POULTRY MANAGEMENT. IO9

Now in the transaction of any business the labor question
enters largely, and is an important factor in determining profit
or loss. It does not matter so much at what prices we sell our
farm products. If they cost us more to produce than we re-
ceive for them, we are the losers every time, but when we can
reduce the cost of production to the minimum, we are in a fair
way to pay off the old mortgage. Now I wish to try to show
you how by adopting twentieth century methods in poultry
culture, you can eliminate nine-tenths of the labor in the care
of poultry, and still get better results. I know a great many
of you think that an extravagant statement, to say that we
can care for poultry for only one-tenth of the labor usually
given to the work, but that is just what I believe can be done.
Now if I could be a young man again, I would want about
one hundred acres of land, a farm of about one hundred acres
for my poultry grounds. I would want that farm located near
some good market, or, at least close to some good shipping
point. I would want the land suitable for the production of
fruit. Such land generally is all right for poultry. I would
like to have that farm well watered. I would like to have a
living stream of water passing through the whole farm, or
numerous springs upon it, so that water would be easy of
access from any part of the farm. Now what would I do with
such a farm ? A\'hy, I would make that farm a fruit and poul-
trv farm. I would set out about seventy-five acres of that farm
in apple trees, with peach and plum trees between. I would
set the apple trees forty to fifty feet apart. I believe in letting
everything have the sunshine and the air. I would reserve
twenty-five acres of the one hundred for the culture of small
fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries, grapes, strawberries,
and also for the growth of such vegetables as I might need
for my poultry. I would also raise some clover. I would have
on those twenty-five acres my brooding houses for growing
my chickens. Now that would make an ideal place for chick-
ens to develop in. The shade of the raspberry and blackberry
bushes would be a protection against hawks and crows. On
the whole, I think it would be a safer place than on my neigh-
bor's lawn or in his garden. Then on the seventy-five acres
set with the lars:er fruit I would reserve twenty-five for my
breeding stock and for thoroughbred stock. I should expect
to have some pretty good birds, and if good birds were worth

no BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

one hundred dollars each, why I should expect to capture some
of those prizes. I would have my breeding stock also on the
colony plan, which I will describe later. Then on the fifty acres
remaining of that part of the farm set with the larger fruit,
the apples, peaches, and plums, I would use to keep my stock
upon devoted to the production of market eggs. That would
make a poultry range for that stock of fifty acres. Now I
would have the best egg machine I could get for the production
of those eggs. From my experience and observation, I should
say today that the White Leghorn on such a range gives the
best results. We get a fairly large white egg, and an egg that
in the New York market brings top prices. I would scatter
over those fifty acres my colony houses, built perhaps ten by
twenty, and designed to accommodate fifty fowls. In other
words, I would put on about four houses to the acre. That is,
if I wanted to keep the largest number possible on that num-
ber of acres. Of course, you can have the intensive colony
system or you can have the extensive. You can let a hundred
hens run over five acres if you wish, but I think it is all right
on the colony system to put two hundred hens on an acre. If
the land was good, they would get all the green food they
would require. Therefore, I would stock those fifty acres with
poultry at the rate of two hundred per acre. Now I would
have my colony houses scattered, and assuming that I have
them filled with White Leghorns, I am all ready for business.
Now many of you think, undoubtedly, it would be quite a task
to care for so many. It would under the old system, but under
the new it would be nothing but play. I would not feed my
hens over once a week. I would feed them in self-feeding
hoppers. I would have my man fill up those hoppers once a
week. I would have him fill them with wheat screenings, if
I could get them. They are, on the whole, as economical a
poultry food as I think we can get. I would have one hopper
filled with wheat screenings, and another with beef scraps.
That would give them all they need. Then in the winter I
would supplement the wheat screenings by giving them
cracked corn at night, giving them all they want. There is no
danger of a hen that is fit to lay, and that is worth keeping,
eating too much of a well-balanced ration. More hens are
starved than over-fed with the right kind of food. Snow and
corn would not make an ideal poultry food. It would not make

1906.] POULTRY MANAGEMENT. Ill

a balanced ration, but those with other materials to balance
the ration would do no harm. Now, as I said before, I should
want my plant to be well watered. If there is a stream of water
running through the place, or there are springs here and there
which are accessible to the poultry, it will be a good thing.
Hens will go quite a distance to get water, where they do not
find it readily and the exercise does not harm them in the least.
I would also in the winter feed roots of some kind. Turnips
are very easily grown, and after being run through a machine
the hens devour them very greedily. Anything in the line of
roots you may have, can usually be utilized. I would also have
cut clover to give them. I would keep beef scrap all the year.
Occasionally, in the orchard I would sow some oats, throwing
them into the spaces between the trees, and harrow them in,
and then let the hens dig them out. Hens do not consider it
work for them to scratch. It is the natural propensity of the
hen to dig. As many of you know, they do pretty good work
of that kind in the flower garden or in the vegetable garden.
Even a little bit of a chick, almost as soon as it is hatched, and
before it has learned to toddle around much, commences to dig.
You place a hen where she can exercise her natural propensity
to dig and it will do her good, and it will be doing good in the
orchard. In this orchard of fifty acres you will have ten
thousand helpers to assist you in keeping the insects down. I
do not think we appreciate the capacity of ten thousand hens
in helping to cultivate an orchard. I will guarantee if you will
take some screenings once a week, and throw them near the
base of vour trees, the borers never would trouble that orchard.
Now what would be the proper course to pursue as to
water? Some of you may say the course I have pursued is
all right in the summer and fall when the ground is bare, be-
cause then they could go to the stream or springs for drink, but
that when the snow is deep and when it is cold, you say, how
would you manage them? I would let them eat snow. I
would not water them. But some of you may say, if hens are
allowed to look on snow or step on snow it would stop their"
laying. Well a good many things are said that experience
does not bear out. One gentleman said to me last winter at an
institute where I was speaking, how do you know that hens
will lay where you give them snow? He said that his hens
had snow all winter and that he had not gotten an egg. I

112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

asked him if his hens got any grain. And I tried to impress
on him the fact that snow and a httle grain was not a balanced
ration, and that it was necessary, if he would have his hens
lay, to give them a well-balanced ration. Give them enough
to eat snow will not hurt them. I have experimented with
that and I think that is correct. He claimed that the snow
would not make good eggs, that the eggs would be all yolk,
but I do not think there is anything to that. I have found
that the poultry get along very well by eating snow. We want
to get rid of as much of the drudgery of poultry keeping as
possible. I am satisfied that snow properly given with a bal-
anced ration does not hurt them. I doubt very much if I would
let a man water my hens in the winter if he would do it for
nothing.

Now most of us before engaging in any new enterprise very
naturally want to know if there is any money in it, or whether
it can be made to pay. I presume there may be some men and
women here who would like information on that question. I
presume there may be also some fruit men here, and I think
they would tell you that a hundred acres of fruit would net
anywhere from one hundred to two hundred dollars per acre.
One hundred dollars per acre would be a very conservative es-
timate. Now you can do a little figuring yourselves. One
hundred acres at one hundred dollars per acre from fruit would
give a pretty good income, or enough to buy a pretty good
farm in old Connecticut. But what of the poultry ? There are
ten thousand White Leghorns on that fifty acres. If a hen
will not net one dollar per head there is some fault in her
keeper and not in the hen. One dollar per head is a moderate
estimate. A farmer told me the other day that he had fifty
hens, and that their product at the ordinary market rate netted
him about two dollars per head. Well, ten thousand hens, at
one dollar each, does not make a bad income. If you make it
two dollars each you can see where it goes. I do not dare to
give these figures. Figures will not lie. I will let the boys
in the audience do the figuring.

Then again for my breeding stock. I should expect to sup-
ply all my neighbors far and near with eggs for incubation,
and I would get fancy prices for those; that is, I would get
above the market price, and I should expect to have some fine
specimens for the shows. I would not show myself, I would

1906.] POULTRY MANAGEMENT. II3

let the other fellow do that, but I would have them pay for
the fancy birds I raised. That would help me in the end and be
much less expensive. The other poultrymen would soon find
out where those fine specimens were raised. I should expect
as large an income from the twenty-five acres of thorough-
bred poultry as from the fifty acres of market poultry.

Now all these figures seem large, but I honestly believe
that they are within the range of possibility. I believe if a
young man that has the know-how in him, and has the energy
and push to make it possible, he can approximate the figures
that I have given. I would not advise every one to engage in
fruit and poultry culture, for if I did, and my advice was fol-
lowed, I should expect in a few years to find a good many
abandoned poultry plants scattered over the country. Our
talents are not all the same. It is a great thing for a young
man to find his niche in life ; to find the place he can best fill.
We find many misfits all about us. The different professions
are crowded with those who are complete failures. They might
possibly have met with success had they remained on the old
farm. And then again there are those who have spent their
whole lives on the old farm and have not amounted to any-
thing. They have barely made a living. It is possible had
they followed the avocation of their choice, they might have
achieved success. I believe largely in hobbies. I believe that
every one should have some high ideal. We find that most
of those whose names are written in the halls of fame are men
and women of one idea; they have had one supreme purpose
in life, and have bent their whole energies and strength for its
accomplishment. Life is too short for the average man to be-
come expert in a dozen different lines of work. It is better to
be moderately successful in one thing than to fail in a dozen.
For those, however, whose tastes incline them to fruit and
poultry culture, we believe there is nothing in the line of agri-
cultural pursuits that begins to offer the inducements, both in
pleasure and profit, that the raising of poultry and poultry
products, according to modern methods, offers.

I think my time is nearly up.

Agb.— 8

114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

DISCUSSION.

The President. I think an audience like this is quite in-
spiring. I think it is a demonstration that more people are
interested ip poultry, perhaps, than in any other branch of the
farming industry in our state.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. I forgot to say that I have here some
of the plans and models of the hoppers and brooders and
things of that kind we use. The feeding hopper is rather a
crude model, but it shows the points. Those can be passed
around. As to this brooder, there is no patent on it. It can be
used by anyone. We find it does good work. The principal
advantage of this is that this space here is covered by a piece
of galvanized iron. There is about an inch of space between
the iron and the floor, and the air goes into all of the four cor-
ners. The heat rises from the heater into the pan, permeates
over the back of the chicks, and tlien is forced out. With
some of the brooders the same air is breathed over and over
again. As you can see, with this, there is no opportunity for
the fumes of the lamp to get into the breathing space where the
chicks are. There is a circulation all the time of pure air. I
have found a brooder of that kind more successful than any-
thing I have ever bought and which costs five times as much.

I will be glad to answer any questions.

Professor Beach. Will you kindly tell the audience what
per cent, of eggs are produced in the winter months from that
body of hens?

Mr. Tillinghast. That is a very good question. I have no
data so that I can give you precise figures. I have always
been a little delicate about giving figures. I will tell you why.
If I should tell you that I made my hens pay three dollars net,
lots of you would say that I lied. I do not want to pass for a
liar. If I should come here and tell you that my hens did not
pay their keep, why, you would say that Tillinghast was a fool,
and I do not want to pass for a fool. No man wants to ad-
vertise his failures. On the whole, I will say this. I am in the

1906.] DISCUSSION. 115

poultry business to stay. We are perfectly satisfied with what
we are getting. We get all we deserve and all we work for
in the poultry business. If there is any failure in any way, it
is not the fault of the hen. It is the fault of the keeper.

Professor Beach. Then are we to understand that you
do not know the per cent, of eggs obtained ?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. No, I do not.

Professor Beach. Is it a fact that it is as large as during
the summer months ?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. In what I have said I have been trying
to tell what I would do. I am not here telling what I am doing.
I am telling what I would do. I will tell you this, however,
that I would not be afraid to wager that I could take hens,
taking my own pullets, and commencing the first of November,
I could get a half yield from that time to the first of April. I
would be willing to put up a wager that I could do it. I know
I can get results by working for them. But I am not saying
that we are getting that. I am telling these boys what I would
do if I was a boy again, knowing what I do now about the
poultry business.

Question. Did you ever know of any person who suc-
ceeded for five years in getting one hundred dollars per acre
from a fruit farm, or an average of a dollar each for ten
thousand hens?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. I ncvcr knew a party that kept ten
thousand hens. I have known a good many who have engaged
in poultry culture on the old style. That is, with long house*
or in little pens. Those methods have all been written up in
books and papers. I am not trying to follow those methods.
They knew nothing about the methods I have described. We
often read or hear of some rich New Yorker who has gone out
into the country and proceeded to establish a big poultry plant,
putting in a considerable investment, and organizing it upon
a large scale, but in a few years the plant has been abandoned.
Now, as I said, lots of farms keep a flock of hens and they

Il6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

make them pay. There is no question but what they make
them pay, and the idea seems to have been spread among them,
that while you can keep a few hens and make them pay, you
cannot increase the number, but I have proven to my own satis-
faction that there is no reason why if fifty hens will pay, with
proper care, many times fifty will not pay just as well in pro-
portion. If one colony pays fifty dollars, is there any reason
why you cannot spread these colonies over additional space, and
by taking the right kind of care, make the additional number
pay equally well in proportion? If we can make a hundred
hens pay a hundred dollars net, there is no reason in the world
why we cannot make one thousand hens pay one thousand dol-
lars. Yes, or five thousand hens pay five thousand dollars, pro-
vided we give them as good care and a balanced ration.

Mr. Graham. Mr. Tillinghast, about how long have you
been keeping chickens ?

Mr. Tillinghast. About twenty-five years.

Mr. Graham. About how long have you been keeping
them on this colony plan?

Mr. Tillinghast. Oh, roughly, perhaps eight or ten
years.

Mr. Graham. I understand you have houses for your pul-
lets where you start them, and after you take the cockerels
away, you let them grow up gradually and run in with the
other hens in the house, is that so?

Mr. Tillinghast, After we have disposed of the cocker-
els, we put the pullets where they eat with the hens from the
hopper, and they get their water in the same way, so that they
are no more care at all until they begin to lay. I have some
which we have not given any care since they were a third
grown.

Mr. Graijam. I wanted to bring out that fact that the pul-
lets and hens were running together.

Mr. Tillinghast. They are running together. The pul-
lets are marked so we can tell them.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 117

Mr. Graham. How long have you been doing that? How
many years have you been marking the pullets ?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. That is a comparatively new thing
with me. We have only been doing that for two or three
years.

Mr. Graham. Do you suppose that you have got any hens
on your plant over three years old?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. Yes, I have got them there, old grand-
mothers, six or eight years old.

Mr. Graham. Have you any method of telling how old
your hens are, or how many of those hens are over two years ?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. I have for the last two or three years.
Some of the older ones I cannot tell whether they have passed
that age or not.

Mr. Graham. Do you make a practice of culling them
out? Do you take the old hens out each year, and put new
blood in, or do you leave a hen there until she dies?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. Why, that depends.

Mr. Graham. I understand that your plan is to increase
the number each year, and I wanted to know how you kept
your stock up?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. If I do not get as many pullets as I
want, I keep the old hens. A Leghorn hen will lay as long as
she lives, and she will pay as long as she eats. She will not
pay as much as when she is younger, but if I want to in-
crease my stock, I take that method.

Mr. Graham. You think that no matter how old a hen is
she will pay for what she eats?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. A White Leghorn hen will pay for
what she eats and more. There is one thing about older hens.
You get better eggs and you get stronger chicks. In my ex-
perience I have found a good deal of difficulty in getting pul-
lets' eggs to hatch.

Mr. Graham. You have found from experience that the
eggs from older hens are better ?

Il8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. That has been my experience. I was
going- to say that I would not set an incubator with pullets'
eggs if you would give them to me. I will say this: I
would hardly accept eggs that were laid by hens that were kept
in little runs and had hot mash and all that. I would hardly
accept them as a gift, for I used to keep hens that way and I
could not understand why the eggs would not hatch. Some-
times if they did hatch, the chicks would die off like poisoned
flies. Die right off in a week or two. I would raise a very
small percentage of those hatched. Since I have given my hens
free range, I have had no trouble in that way. If I put fifty
chicks in a brooder I expect to take out about that number.

Mr. Graham. You are raising a larger percentage of
chickens then within the last two or three years, since you
have adopted these methods, than you did before, that is, you
are raising a larger percentage of chickens that you hatch now
than you did four years ago?

Mr. Tillinghast. If they die there is always a cause for
it. They do not die unless there is some cause. If we find
there is a considerable mortality among any lot of them, we
try to trace it, and to trace it back to its original cause. If
we look carefully we can generally find the cause and remedy
it. There is no trouble. To be successful in raising chickens,
you want first to give your breeding stock every care. There
is where the foundation of your success is laid.

Question. What do you do with your surplus stock, and
stock that you want to work off?

Mr. Tillinghast. Sometimes we sell it to some one for
breeding. It would be all right. Sometimes I would sell them
in a pen of ten or fifteen for breeding purposes to some one
who wanted thoroughbred stock, and they would get good
results. They would be all right for that purpose. If I had
anything that was not fit for breeding and wanted to get rid
of them, I would sell them to whoever would make the best
offer.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 119

Mr. McGrew. Mr. Chairman, I have been listening with
a good deal of interest to what Mr. TiUinghast has had to say.
He has got the only plant of the kind in the world, so far as
I know, and he has been very successful with it. He has made
money. I want to bring out a little more clearly the business
side of his plant than has been brought out by the questions
which have been asked. I have never been at a place where a
man seems to grow a larger percentage of chickens from what
he hatches than Mr. Tillinghast's. I never have seen a man
that handled Leghorns, and got as many eggs and as good re-
sults under a special system of management as Mr. TiUinghast,
and the point we want to find out, and one which he apparently
will not let us find out at present, is what percentage of eggs
he can get from those hens, especially during the winter
months, under the system that he is using in keeping them.
H he will just answer that, it would be a great benefit. I do
not know of anybody here who can get it out of him unless he
is willing to tell us.

Most of the poultry keepers tell us that if we want to raise
four or five thousand hens, and want to get the best results
irom them, we must not water them early in the morning;
that we must wait until the sun is up, and to give them a little
lukewarm water. Now this gentleman keeps one, two, or three
thousand hens. I think when I was there he had about two
thousand, and he tells us that they must depend upon what
they get. He is getting eggs from them. Now it would be of
great value if he could come before us at some time and tell
us what the percentage is, or could tell the world what per-
centage of eggs he gets from one of his colonies of fifty hens.
That is what the people want to know. If Mr. TiUinghast,
with his information and ability, could see his way clear to give
us that information as to egg yield per month for twelve
months from just one of his colonies, he will benefit every
single man that is giving his life to the study of poultry. I
wish to impress upon him the duty of keeping for the informa-

120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

tion of the poultrymen of the world, a record during the twelve
months from the time he goes home tonight of at least one
pen, so that a year from now he can tell us what that pen did
per month during the year. That is what we want him to tell
us, because he is on the road to a great success or a great fail-
ure under this twentieth century style of breeding hens.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. I will say to my brother in reply to
that, that I hope some time to give the public some figures, but
our plant now is in an embryonic stage. We have not been able
to keep a record which the public might deem satisfactory.
We are sometimes handicapped with help. Sometimes a man
that is used to doing all sorts of work about the place gets sick
and we have to do it ourselves. All those things enter into the
cost. I have had a record which has been kept to the satisfac-
tion of Tillinghast, but not for the public perhaps. Some time
I mean to have figures that can be given out. When I get my
plant covered with poultry, I shall expect that the figures will
mount up into the thousands. I am afraid if I give figures to
the public that they would question my veracity.

Mr. Graham. Mr. Chairman, I would say that at the Ex-
periment Station at Storrs, we are taking up that very question.
We have now several pens of stock that are getting snow.
Those birds have been getting cold water before breakfast
since about the first of November. We have several other pens
which are getting warm water twice a day, and have been since
the first of November. Sixteen pens, I believe. The others are
getting cold water. When they jump off the perch in the
morning they get a nice cold drink. Before very long we will
be able to give you some data.

Mr. Tillinghast. How do those birds do that eat snow ?

Mr. Graham. We have only had snow a couple of days,
Mr. Tillinghast.

Mr. Stockman. The gentleman says on the platform here
that he is not telling \vhat he does but what he would do on
his ideal one hundred acres. I would like to inquire if he is

1906.] DISCUSSION. 121

using this method to any extent on his poultry plant at the
present time. I have kept poultry more or less for some time,
and twenty-five per cent, of my hens are laying now, but I am
not feeding them snow for drink.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. I would advise the gentleman to try
one pen with the same method, to give one pen snow and the
others water. Perhaps the first day the snow might not have
the desired effect. I think a hen wants to get used to the con-
dition, perhaps, or to the use of snow. I will guarantee, how-
ever, that you will get eggs from snow. A gentleman came to
my place about two years ago. He had about a hundred hens.
He was not getting the eggs he should. I showed him some
pens that had not had anything but snow all winter, and I was
getting about two-thirds from those pens. I said to him, " If
you will follow my prescription, you will get eggs in two weeks'
time." " Why," he said, " I will do anything." I asked
him how he fed his hens. He said he carried down some warm
water about eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and then he
gave them some potato peelings and such, and then scattered
a little corn in the winter. " Why," I says, " your hens are
half starved." " Why," he says, " they tell me»there is danger
in getting them too fat." I told him to get a bag of wheat
screenings, and a bag of scraps, and to give them all the corn
at night they would eat; to never mind about the hot water,
but to open the little door so that they could help themselves
to snow. I asked him to try that plan and then report. The
next time I saw him he said he was getting eggs from the
hens and had not watered them at all.

Secretary Brown. I do not think the speaker has answered
the question of the gentleman from Morris. The gentleman
from Morris asked Mr. Tillinghast if he pursued the methods
that he would pursue if he was a boy again.

Mr. Tillinghast. Why, that would be self-evident. Any
method that I would pursue with the information I have
gained by experience and observation I would certainly pur-

122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

sue if I were to start over again. I am practicing whatever
I am preaching. Most certainly, I am using the method that
I am speaking of.

Question. I would like to ask the gentleman this ques-
tion. He says he has four brooding houses on an acre. How
does he keep those hens properly divided up? Do you have a
wire fence between the houses?

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. We have no fence except the fence
around the whole place to protect the stock from dogs. Dogs
sometimes get in, and we have lost at times a good many hens.
We have no division fences except between the breeding and
laying stock. The stock on our fifty acres is our laying stock.
We do not keep any cockerels there, but we are keeping that
stock entirely for the purpose of raising market eggs. We have
those houses scattered about, and there is no difficulty in get-
ting the hens to divide themselves up properly among the
houses. If you have ever noticed, where there has been a brood
of chickens, and you try to get those chickens into the hennery
and notice how tenacious they are to get back to the house.
It is the same way when they grow up. It is an old saying
that a hen will cfcme home to roost every time.

Question. I understood the gentleman to say that he only
fed his chickens once a week, and then later on he said some-
thing about feeding them every night. I would like to under-
stand how he does, if he only feeds them once a week.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. We feed just once a week. That is,
the hoppers are filled once a week. Of course, in the summer,
we do away with the cracked corn. We feed cracked corn
more to give color to the yolks. In the winter if you feed a
hen on wheat screenings altogether, the yolk is not so desirable.
If you want to make a bright golden yolk, the corn is better.
We supplement the other food in the winter with cracked corn
because I want the hen to eat all she can, and corn does no
harm, even if she does eat all she can of wheat screenings.
If this is given at night, the hens have a long time to grind it
up through the night.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 123

Now on a place of fifty acres of fruit, instead of buying
fertilizers, commercial fertilizers, fine bone, and such things,
I would not bring the fertility of the west here to the east,
but I would buy my corn by the carload and let the hens grind
it. Also feed the cracked bone and let the hens grind it. They
will grind it finer than any mill can do, and give it back to you
in a more available form for plant food. So in this way we
have a double profit. We have no fertilizer bills.

Question. I would like to ask Mr. Tillinghast if he has
ever used the stuffing process.

Mr. Tillinghast. I never have.

Question. Do you consider it any advantage to feed warm
food once a day to your poultry?

Mr. Tillinghast. Why no. Not any great advantage,
and yet if I had certain material that I wanted to get rid of, if
I could not feed it well in a hopper, perhaps in the winter if I
had help that was not doing anything, I could feed it that way.
I would not want to feed it to breeding stock. I prefer to feed
the flock as much as possible from the hopper. About twenty
years ago, when I commenced, I was away from home a good
deal through the day, and did not reach home at night until
four or five o'clock. At that time I found my poultry was all
on the roost. It was too late to feed them. I used to get up
at five o'clock in the morning and give them a hot food. I
thought I had to do it. And then at noon I gave them some
kind of grain to scratch for, and at night I used to give them
corn. That practice was not very satisfactory. I conceived
the idea of making a kind of hopper. I had a little boy about
five or six years old, who was old enough to do what I told him
as near as he could. I put the grain in the hopper, and had the
little boy, about three o'clock, go out and open the door to the
hopper. His mother would send him down to open that door.
The hens could get it at that time and go on the roost with
full crops.

124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

One advantage of this system of dry feeding from a hopper,
is that you can get along with less intelligent labor. Most
any man is intelligent enough to fill a hopper, but it requires
more or less of an expert to feed soft food. I have had men,
and they would overfeed or underfeed. If too much was placed
before the fowls, then it was left to sour and spoil, and, as a
consequence, I used to have fowls in the hospital a good deal
of the time. I have no use for that system now. The hens
are kept now under natural conditions. We are bound, of
course, to lose some under the best conditions.

Question. I would like to ask the gentleman if he can
give us some more details of his houses and what they cost.

Mr. TiLLiNGHA.ST. I think there are some papers here do-
ing that. I take quite a number of poultry papers. The
" Feather " is a good paper, and there is a picture here of the
colony houses, and instead of explaining the details, I thought
you would get a better idea if you took that and examined it.
You can then see the way it is built up.

The President, I think, gentlemen, that we shall have
to leave this discussion temporarily. We have another gentle-
man who is going right on with the same subject. Mr. Hun-
ter is going to speak to us. We should be glad to have him
come forward and tell us about " Dry Feeding; the new Poul-
try Culture."

DRY- FEEDING; THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE.

By Mr. A. F. Hunter.

For many years past there has been a growing dissatisfac-
tion with both the methods employed and the results attained
in our poultry work. The methods employed have involved an
excess of labor and the results attained have been, in far too
many cases, disappointing — the disappointments taking the
form of poor health of flocks of both mature birds and the
young chicks, resulting in a lowered egg-yield, increased mor-
tality, diminishing profits, and in very many cases an abandon-

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. 1 25

ing of the poultry business. That there may be many con-
tributing causes to the unsatisfactory resuhs has been conceded
by poultry writers, among them unsanitary conditions in the
houses and ground of yards poisoned by the droppings, ver-
min infestation, stock debilitated by inbreeding and breeding
from late hatched and consequently immature pullets and cock-
erels, bungling methods of feeding, shutting the birds up in
tight houses, etc., etc., etc., — any or all of these may have
helped to the unsatisfactory results above noted.

In the last few years observing poultrymen have been ex-
perimenting along two dififerent paths, in the hope of finding
aids to better results ; one of these paths being to more and
more open up the houses to fresh air and sunlight, the other
being a better and more common-sense method of feeding;
the first of these we have not time to study in detail, merely
pausing to observe that it is a decided gain in method, and sub-
stantially improves the conditions of health in the flocks — the
second, that of feeding, gives us all the range we have time for
today.

That quite a good deal of the trouble we have been having
with our flocks was due to defects in methods of feeding has
come to be the opinion of many observers, and of late the
feeling has been gaining ground that the feeding of a cooked
mash is a serious rnistake. One reason for this is found in
the fact that the fowls gobble the food down very quickly, far
too quickly for the digestive organs to properly perform their
allotted task, and the results have appeared in the form of indi-
gestion, looseness of the bowels, and other symptoms of the
birds being out of condition. Not infrequently the birds have
become over fat, the organs become engorged, a blood vessel
bursts, and a fowl is found dead under the roost in the morn-
ing. The explanation of this is that feeding a cooked mash is
" forcing " the birds beyond their ability to digest and assimi-
late ; it is analogous to " forcing " for rapid growth of tender,
delicate flesh for market, and the process is all right for chick-
ens that are to be early killed for the table; for that definite
purpose the quicker the growth the greater the profit. But for
birds that are to endure the strain of persistent egg-produc-
tion, and are to be the parents of strong, vigorous, bound-to-
live offspring, the " forcing " process invites disaster, because
it induces and continues a condition of tenderness, which is

I2b BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

exactly opposite from the hardiness so desirable for the best
results.

The conviction that feeding a cooked (or wet) mash is a
mistake is well illustrated in the statement of a poultryman,
writing in one of the poultry papers, who says : " When I
want to force the birds to heavy egg-production, I feed a
cooked mash, but when I want to get good strong-bodied
eggs, eggs that will hatch out a large proportion of strong,
vigorous chicks, I feed the breeding pens a dry mash and all
dry grain — and I get eggs that will hatch ! " There is a clear
statement of the conviction that mash feeding is a mistake if we
want the limit of strength and vigor, and who does not ? It is
clear that not only the best of health and strength is desired by
all who want the best profit from their flocks, and it is being
demonstrated by experiment that the best and most contin-
uous egg-yield is gotten by a radical departure from the
cooked-mashed method of feeding, and adopting the method
suggested by our friend quoted above, of feeding the mash dry
and supplementing it with the usual feeds of dry grains and
seeds.

A farmer in Illinois tells his experience in feeding, and
how he came to adopt the dry-feeding method. He says : " Af-
ter reading much upon the subject I concluded the greater part
was nonsense, and I now fully believe that inside the next ten
years feeding poultry in every stage wi»ll be much simplified.
I have had some experience in growing hogs, and did consid-
erable experimenting with feeding. I found that by using
ground, mixed grain, fed dry, I could grow a prettier, more
shapely, and firmer fleshed hog, than by feeding a slop.

" Nothing under the sun fed in its natural state will blow up
a pig to such an extent as a rich slop, and no pig so fed will
have the fine symmetrical appearance of one that is fed more
in accordance with nature. I fully believe the slop-feeding is
destructive of the digestive organs of the pigs, and also fully
believe the mash business for chickens and hens gives the same
unfortunate result. Any mash will begin to sour soon after
being eaten and subjected to the heat of the body, and this too
early souring of the food in the crop, before it is properly
passed on to the gizzard and intestines, is the foundation of
sour-crop and bowel trouble. I will guarantee you that if
cracked or whole grain is given regularly (and not in spurts

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. I27

now and then), examination of the crop at any time will not
reveal that sour smell so frequently noticed in mash-fed hens.

" When dry-fed, a chick or fowl will not gulp down a great
amount of the food at one time, and I fully believe that with
dry feed, moistened with saliva, it will not sour nearly so
quickly as if it is moistened with hot water or milk. If my
method of feeding will grow good, healthy Plymouth Rock
pullets to weigh seven and one-half to eight and one-half
pounds in seven to eight months, I believe that pullet is in bet-
ter shape to lay, and, if continued on dry food, will at two years
of age lay as many or more eggs than will a mash-fed chick
and hen ; and not only this, but the eggs will be larger and
more fertile, and when you come to sell the carcass it will have
both a better appearance and better weight. I know the eggs
I am getting now are better in size, color, and shell than any
I ever bought ; I mean thirty-five to fifty per cent, better in
quality, and this I attribute to my having adopted the dry-
feeding method. I am certain that dry food properly fed
means health, with no sour-crop and no bowel trouble.

" When I began dry feeding I had never seen an article
upon the subject. I knew I could do better with hogs on dry
food, but had never studied why. I knew I had too
much to do, was too busy with the farm work, to grow
chickens with mashes. I planned my year's campaign before
a chick was hatched, that is, the best of grain and sweet milk
before the chicks all the time, beef scraps also and charcoal
accessible all the time, with clover-hay chaff for litter,
and good range. I have experimented with dry feed for chicks
for two years, the past year for all ages of poultry, with the
best of success."

That tells us how a busy farmer out in Illinois worked out
a better method of feeding his flocks, better because it cut
down the work fully a half, and gave him better results, both
in growth of young chicks and in egg-production. He had
learned that he grew a better looking hog, and one that the
meat of was firmer and better, by feeding it on dry grains, and
he argued that if all dry grains were better for a hog the same
method of feeding would give better results with chicks and
hens. This farmer " put brains " into his work, and an emi-
nently satisfactory saving of labor combined with a bettering
of results, was his reward.

128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Here is another writer's argument : " Well-bred chicks
are naturally hardy. Chicks born of strong hardy parents
come into the world about as well fitted for the battle of life
as anything we know of. Given half an opportunity, fed within
the bounds of reason and common sense, and properly brooded,
it seems almost impossible to kill them. They have an ample
coat of down which protects them from almost all kinds of
weather for short periods. Given a well regulated brooder
they will cheerily run out into an almost zero temperature, and
apparently be as happy and contented as though it was warm
summer weather, and they certainly grow much better than
when placed in what some call better conditions. They eat a
mouthful or two, kick up the scratching litter in search of a
tidbit of seed or grain, and then scamper back under the cover
for a minute's warming, and they certainly grow much better
than when placed in what some may think more favorable con-
ditions. Fed improperly, or kept at too warm a temperature,
or when they are so unfortunate as to have had weak parents
on one or both sides, the reverse conditions seem to be the
result — they are about as delicate, puny, and unsatisfactory
atoms of mortality as the world produces.

By closely studying nature's methods with chicks, we find
that the mother hen, leaving the nest when the chicks are from
one to two days old, does not have a chance to lead the way
to a dough dish and fill them up with an indigestible mess of
dough. On the contrary, she starts out on a hunt, if she is un-
disturbed, she makes a good display by nightfall, and has suc-
ceeded in filling the crops of her numerous family. If we
could dissect those crops we would not find a scientifically pre-
pared mixture of one to four, or one to five, or " sixteen to
one," or any other startling array of chemical combinations;
instead we would find a bug or two, a worm, some seeds that
we may have carefully planted in the garden a day or two ago,
together with a variety of weed seeds, and plenty of grit. This
composite mass has been gathered together in ten or twelve
hours' time, with a liberal sprinkling of exercise thrown in,
and if the weather conditions are favorable and the mother
hen does not drag the youngsters around through the wet
grass too much in the morning, she usually comes out at the
end of the season with as many full sized chickens as she
started from the nest with.

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. 1 29

Instead of this common-sense method of feeding chicks,
the usual way, when the old hen brings off her brood, is to
shut her up in a coop and dump down on a board in front of
the coop all the wet dough she and the chicks ought to eat in
a day's time. Some of this is eaten, but most of it is trampled
into a door mat for the youngsters, and in an hour's time looks
much like the dirt surrounding the coop. Exposed to the hot
sun, it does not take long to start the process of fermentation,
and we soon have the germs of bowel trouble growing at the
rate of forty miles an hour ! The books say that chicks should
be fed five times a day, and the nervous owner argues that if
five times is good, six times is better, and soon comes around
with another mess of wet dough which he deposits on the top
of the first " charge," and there is now a sandwich of dough
and dirt. In a few days' time the chicks begin to drop off one
by one, the common manifestations of bowel trouble, such as
pasting up behind and watery diarrhoea, are in evidence, and
the owner begins to " darn the chicken business " or else he
blames the man from whom he purchased the eggs for having
inbred stock, and we have another of the many cases of " the
chicken business don't pay nohow ! "

" Perhaps our friend's more painstaking neighbor improves
upon this method and bakes the mash into a sort of bread,
which is a decided improvement, because it removes the greater
part of the water, but at the same time it considerably increases
the labor. His chicks certainly do better, and make a very
good growth for a few weeks, and he begins to boast that the
solutions of the poultryman's troubles lies in cooking the food,
so he invests in an amateur bakery and bakes everything. His
chicks apparently continue to thrive, -but as the weather gets
hotter he notices some bowel trouble among the half-grown
birds ; these die and he shouts that cholera has struck him,
and writes to the editor of a poultry paper, who tells him it
probably is cholera, as the symptoms he describes look like
that. After changing the method of feeding once or twice,
and losing half of his flock, he gets around to feeding hard
grain and pulls the remainder of them through, although they
are not now as large, nor nearly as healthy as chicks raised
under the natural method and without the assistance of a bake
shop ! "

Agr.— 9

130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

This graphically describes a common experience in feeding
chicks, but does not explain the cause of the difficulty, which
may be defined as, in part at least, a too rapid eating or " gulp-
ing " of the food. One poultry writer describes it as follows :
" Your mash-fed chicken gets up in the morning, waits around
an hour or two vmtil the feeder gets ready to bring along a
bucket of hot or cold mash, which is thrown down on a board
or trough and a wild scramble begins. Each one gulps down
what he can reach ; the weaker get a little and the stronger
get the bulk of the food. If the mash is hot it raises the tem-
perature of the bird above what is normal, and perspiration is
started, which is far from what should be, as this opening of
the pores of the skin paves the way for a chill and the founda-
tion of colds and roup is laid. The food goes through the crop
with very little change except fermentation, and the extra work
of preparing the food for digestion is thrown upon the gizzard
and intestines, whereas the saliva of the mouth and kneading
of the crop should have done quite a little towards softening
and partly digesting it.

" The cooking of food, some say, makes it more digestible,
which we have no doubt is true, but the question arises as to
what particular part of the food it makes more digestible. Of
course, the starch is more easily digested, but the protein is not,
and we think that here is where the mischief arises from
cooked food. The simple scalding of a mash makes no chemi-
cal change in it; you may just as well mix it with cold water
as hot, the chemist tells us. The writers say mix the mash as
dry as you can mix it ; if it is better to mix it as dry as possible,
why is it not better to leave the water out of it entirely ? Surely,
it is very much easier to»mix it dry than wet. ' But,' it is ob-
jected, 'the fowls won't eat it!' This is true. They will
not eat the dry mash for a day or two, when they have been
brought up on the wet-mash ration, but brought up on the dry
mash they eat it freely and whenever the appetite prompts, and
it never stands before them sour — the last spoonful in the
hopper is as sweet as the first.

" Furthermore, each bird gets its full share. There is no
wild scramble for the heaps of wet mash in the trough. A bird
goes to the food hopper and eats two or three mouthfuls of the
dry mash, taking time to turn over and properly moisten it with
saliva, and then turns away to search for other bits, as a seed

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. I3I

or two, or a grain of wheat, or oats, or barley, or kernel of
corn ; there being no frantic scramble for the feed-hopper
there is ample time for each bird to help herself to all she
wants, and they all get their full share.

" The pith of the argument for dry-feeding lies in that eating
slowly, a bit at a time, first a mouthful of dry mash, then a
bit of grain, or a seed or two, and then a snip at a clover leaf
or head, then to the drinking fountain for a sip of water. It
does not take us long to discover that this is exactly the way
the fowl or chick eats when rvtnning wild and finding its food
bit by bit — it is ' nature's way ' for a bird to feed, and if we
but do our part in supplying the essential food elements so the
birds can take what they want and as they want it, the condi-
tions seem to be right for them to eat in the natural way, and
they will eat no more than they want and eat it in the way
their systems can best appropriate it."

Dr. Nottage, of Goshen, Mass., who is a sturdy advocate
of the dry- feeding method, says : " To better understand the
advantages of dry-feeding, let us look at the method I employ
in using the grains. The fact that I have gotten rid of mixing
and cooking mashes, and am now feeding most of the grain
and for the greater part of the time from feedhoppers, shows
how much easier it is to care for a good sized flock of fowls.
The advantages are apparent to all who feed their flocks four
or five times a day. and are constantly fussing with them. I
have come to be spoken of by the farmers around here as ' the
man who feeds his hens twice a week,' from the fact that dur-
ing the growing period, from the incubator to the pullet that
is about beginning to lay, I feed all the grain and beef scraps
from feed hoppers, which I fill twice* a week. Keep in mind
that all young stock is on free range, and the laying birds
in yards so ample they seldom wander to the ends of them ; also
that this laying stock is let out to wander at will on alternate
days.

" I would not advise changing suddenly any method of feed-
ing, as it will seriously affect the egg output for a time ; but
after a few days the hens will be laying as before. The best
way is to begin with the chicks right from the incubator.
Looking at the subject of feeding from the beginner's stand-
point, I am certain that fewer mistakes will be made and a lar-
ger number of chicks raised to a healthy maturity by feeding

132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

dry grains and beef scraps from feed hoppers kept constantly
filled, provided the chicks can run upon grass range. There
will be seen no rushing and trampling crowds of chicks, but a
contented and lively set of youngsters that are plump, healthy
and happy, although on free range, where some people think
they are likely to run all the flesh off their bones ! They will
also find time to dig holes in the dirt, lie under the shade of the
trees and enjoy life. He will be surprised at the rapid growth
of his stock, if it has any ' grow ' in it. More of this when we
speak of results. Do not get the idea that an experienced poul-
tryman cannot produce like good results with his mashes, for
he certainly can. However, let a beginner start with mashes
and they will often become ' messes,' and more chicks will
drop out of the race than if he adopts the plan that I pursue
with mine.

" Have plenty of grit where the chicks can pick it up for
their first meal. Get your miller to mix together one part of
good sound wheat to two parts good sound corn and crack
them a little finer than common cracked corn. Put a small
heap of this in the front of. the brooder, and beside it a small
heap of dried beef scraps, from which the coarser pieces have
been sifted out; this sifting out of the coarse pieces to continue
till the chicks are big enough to eat the scraps as they come
to hand, li you have skimmed milk, keep the youngsters on
that for a drink until they become a little tired of it, which
may be in two or three weeks ; you can let them have their
choice between milk and water. If there is not a green sod
for them to pull and work at when they get into their second
week, chop up some onions, or lettuce, or cabbage, and let
them have some once a day. Get them out on the ground as
soon as there is a blade of green grass to be seen pushing
up through the sod.

" You can carry the birds along on the ration of half wheat
and half cracked corn, with the beef scraps added, until the
pullets are about half grown, say ten to twelve weeks old, tljen
the grain ration is gradually changed by the introduction of
the best grade of oats till in a couple of weeks it will be a
fourth oats, a fourth wheat, and half cracked corn, and on
this ration they are left to grow to full maturity. The addition
of oats to the hoppers is to strengthen the body-building side of
the ration, oats being the best body-builder of all the grains.

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE.

133

In this simple way it is possible to grow good, strong, healthy
layers, and not have one bit of fuss about ' balanced rations '
and forty different kinds of food. When the pullets show
signs of getting ready to lay, which they will do by October
first, if they are hatched in April, it is high time to get them
into the quarters they will occupy during the winter, and it is
now time to change the manner of feeding somewhat."

The food for the laying hens is in a food-hopper which is
divided into three compartments, each holding about half a
bushel ; in one compartment is a mixture of one-half barley
and a half cracked corn, in the middle compartment is the beef
scraps and in the other whole oats. This food is there in the
hoppers all the time, the hoppers being re-filled twice a week,
and never being empty, and they eat of either or all of them
just as they choose. It is evident that if the hoppers were
sufficiently large to hold a full week's supply of grain, they
would only need to be filled once a week, and then the Doctor
would have it told of him that he only fed his hens once a
week !

The question of green-food supply, here in our rigorous
climate, where snow covers the ground for many weeks and
some winters as much as four months, is an important one,
and the question is frequently raised as to feeding something
warm, " to warm up the birds when they come off the roosts."
If one has the feeling that he must feed something warm, by
all means make it a feed of steamed clover, cut in half-inch
lengths, and the green-food supply will be covered at the same
time. The freshening of the cut clover by either steam or
hot water makes it more palatable, makes it considerably like
new-mown hay before it is cured, and the fowls relish it
greatly. They also relish the cut clover dry, and some pro-
gressive poultrymen keep a wire-netting pocket of cut clover
hanging against the wall of each pen, the clover being cut in
half-inch lengths and a half-bushel at a time put in the pocket.
The fowls eat a good deal of it. The usual green foods, such
as beets, turnips, carrots, cabbages — any of the vegetables
commonly used for this purpose, can be fed just the same when
the grains are fed in hoppers as when the old-time mash
breakfast was fed, followed by the noon and night feeds of
grain in the litter.

134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Another prominent poultryman's method of dry-feeding he
describes as to give the chicks a mixture of assorted grains
and grit about the size of a pin head for their first food. With
a dish of beef scraps standing constantly before them, and the
fine ground food thrown in Htter, with plenty of green food
(cabbage or green grass), they have an inducement to scratch
from sunrise to sunset, and they take the food slowly and natur-
ally. With the beef scraps always within reach, they at no
time crave more animal food, their systems rapidly adapt them-
selves to a season of plenty, and nature constructs a body
planned for a continuation of this same diet, namely, good,
thick, strong leg and frame, and a chicken that looks ready to
eat at any stage of the game ! Long-bodied, short-legged,
hardy, " born-to-live " looking fellows, free from all the ills and
pains of chickendom, and fit to wrestle for a living through
thick and thin, through good weather and bad, so long as the
food holds out.

" When they reach the age of six to eight weeks, we grad-
ually wean them from the small grains and substitute cracked
corn and wheat, place them in colony coops on grass range,
and soon discontinue the wheat, feeding cracked corn and beef
scraps in hoppers, feeding once a week or oftener as the size
of the hopper and number of chicks demand. These food-
hoppers should be made quite high in front, three inches at
least, as the birds are always trying for the larger pieces of
beef scraps, and with a low front to the tray of the hopper they
waste quite a little by throwing it out with their bills. The
hoppers should be covered with waterproof paper to prevent
the food becoming wet, if they are placed outside the roosting
€Oops ; an excellent plan is to have a small ' shelter ' to put
the food-hopper under ; this will protect it from the rain and
give the birds shelter also — a double advantage. This system
continues until the sexes are separated, and then we place the
males in yards sufficiently large so the birds never eat them
bare of grass. Putting the cull cockerels which we intend to
market in pens by themselves, we compound a mixture of
equal weights — corn, wheat, oats and barley, ground as fine
as flour — if we can induce the miller to reduce it to that fine-
ness — feed it dry and continue the beef scraps as before.
This method of feeding market cockerels has given us fatter
chickens than we have ever been able to produce by any other
method.

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. 1 35

" A mixed lot of cockerels is about as uncomfortable a set
of individuals as is ever gotten together, and this method of
feeding is the only one by which each bird can be fed singly
and all get a full share. Here each one goes to the hopper and
eats as long as he has plenty of saliva to moisten the food, then
moves away, allowing a weaker brother to come up and take
his turn. They must necessarily eat slowly, because they can
swallow only a small amount of this dry mixture at one time,
and thus all have an equal opportunity at the food.

" Here the digestion of the food begins in the mouth. If
the crop of one of these birds is cut open, in place of the sour,
partly fermented mess that is found in the crop of a mash-fed
chicken, we find the grain as sweet as ever, but smelling as
though partly cooked ; there is no fermentation of any kind,
and we think the crop now does the work nature intended for
it to do.

" With the system of dry-feeding and the chickens on range,
the hopper of food awaits them immediately they are off the
roost in the morning ; they eat a little and then start upon the
day's hunt over the fields for the bugs, worms, grasshoppers,
and grass, which go to make life one sweet dream for them.
At any time during the day that their appetites dictate, they
can call around at the coop, get a supply of such grain and
meat food as they desire, and eat it unmolested, and in a gentle-
manly and ladylike manner. Much more uniform gains result ;
the younger and weaker chicks thrive as well as the larger
and stronger, summer chicks grow practically as well as the
spring hatched — and bowel trouble is a thing unheard of from
the shell to maturity ; the essential things are that the proper
heat be maintained in the brooders for the baby chicks, plenty
of room in the coops for them to be comfortable as they get
older, and that the grain and beef scraps used are of the best
quality.

" When the pullets go to the laying houses they are
fed cracked corn, wheat, oats, and barley ; fifty per cent, of
this, however, is cracked corn. A hopper of beef scraps is
kept constantly before them, and we now add a hopper of dry
bran. The whole grain is thrown in litter two or three times
a day, as convenience dictates. The birds are made to scratch
for all of their grain, and there are cabbages for them to eat
constantly before them. If cabbages are not plenty we use cut

136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

clover, scalded to soften it, fed in deep troughs. We have
used with excellent success a dry mash, consisting of twenty-
five per cent, corn meal, twenty-five per cent, beef scraps and
fifty per cent, bran, fed dry in boxes during the morning, giv-
ing what they will eat up by noon, when we give a light feed
of whole grain, with a full feed at night. Hard grain is thrown
in litter, as previously noted, and while this ration is a little
cheaper than the other, because the dealers put the poorer
grades of corn into their meal, the results are not always so
satisfactory as we could wish, and for that reason. A good
egg-yield will result from this ration if the ground grain and
beef scraps are of good quality. We have no difficulty in get-
ting birds to one or two pounds above standard weight by this
method, and we want to say that we believe that ninety per
cent, of the chickens raised in this country do not have sufficient
quantity of the right quality of food ; what is called over-feed-
ing we believe would be more correctly expressed as improper
feeding !

" There are very few breeds that would get too fat to lay
if properly exercised, and we have yet to find one of our birds
in this condition.

" As to fertility, and the strength of the germs, we believe
no system of feeding can equal this method. The eggs uni-
formly test well, and the germs live through and hatch good,
strong, bound-to-live chicks that are ready to take up the dry-
feeding method as their ancestors did. No weaklings result,'
provided the other conditions surrounding the birds are right
— one of the most important of which is an abundance of fresh
air, and our fowls will stand an almost unlimited amount of
this if the houses are free from draughts and they are not sub-
jected to the daily sweating over a hot mash. Each generation
of these youngsters seems hardier than their ancestors, are
more cheaply raised, for any uplifting of the general health
of the flock must be reflected in the decreased mortality of the
youngsters.

" The labor saved is no small item, for the difference be-
tween feeding the chicks three times a day with grain, plus
the cooked Johnny-cake, or heating the water and stirring up
the mash for a large flock of hens — and having the food al-
ways accessible to the chicks in summer, and the dry mash with
throwing the dry grain in litter in winter, amounts to a saving

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. I37

of a third to a full half of a man's time and physical energy —
all of which we have demonstrated to our complete satisfaction
is labor wasted. This labor directed to other details, and the
poultry work is full of them ! — will grow the chicks and care
for the flocks much better, or will allow double the numbers
to be kept wnth the same number of steps taken daily. Experi-
ment has demonstrated that quite as many, if not more, eggs
will result, than from the mash-feeding system, and any old
stock that is kept over will be found to lay nearly as well the
second year as the first, the birds lay better through the molt,
there is less mortality among the adult birds, and the profits
will be found to be on the right side of the ledger when the
accounts are made up."

An excellent test of the dry-feeding method was made at
the Maine Experiment Station this last year, the report, given
in Bulletin No. 117, of that station, confirming many of the
claims made by the advocates of the dry-feeding method of
rearing chicks and feeding adult fowls. After describing the
former method of feeding the chicks, w-hich includes two feeds
of mash a day, the bulletin says :

" Until last season we had continued feeding two feeds of .
cracked corn and wheat and two of mash dailv as long as the
birds remained in the field. Last June we had 1,400 chickens
well started, and we changed the plan of feeding by keeping
cracked corn, wheat, and beef scrap in separate slatted
troughs where they could help themselves whenever they de-
sired to do so. Not more than one-fourth of the grain was
wheat for the pullets, while in the cockerel division, nothing
oyster shell w^ere always supplied. There were no regular
but cracked corn and beef scrap w^ere fed. Grit, bone, and
hours for feeding, but care was taken that the troughs were
never empty.

" The results were satisfactory. The labor of feeding was
far less than that required by any other method we have fol-
lowed. The birds did not hang around the troughs and over-
eat, but helped themselves — a little at a time — and ranged
off, hunting or playing and coming back again when so in-
clined to the food supply at the troughs. There was no rush-
ing or crowding about the attendant as is usual at feeding
time where large numbers are kept together. While the birds
liked the beef scrap, they did not over-eat of it.

138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

" During the range season — from June to the close of
October — the birds ate just about one pound of the scrap
to ten pounds of the cracked corn and wheat. They had op-
portunity to balance their rations to suit themselves by having
the two classes of food to select from always at hand. It would
seem that we had not been far wrong in our previous feeding,
as the birds used just about the same relative amounts of scrap
to other food, when they had liberty to do so, that we had for-
merly mixed in for them.

" We are not able to say whether this method is more or less
expensive of material, than when we fed the four feeds each
day at regular hours. As near as we could calculate, there
were no appreciable differences.

" The birds did well under this treatment. The cockerels
were well developed and we never raised a better lot of pullets.
The first egg was laid when the oldest pullets were four months
and ten days old. For the last six years the pullets have been
from four months and ten days to four months and twenty
days old when the first eggs were found. This year we shall
make another change by adding dry mash to the menu — hav-
ing a trough of that material besides the ones containing beef
scrap and cracked corn. The difficulty of keeping the food
clean and dry during continued exposure is nearly overcome by
using troughs with slatted sides and broad, detachable roofs.
We make them from six to ten feet long, with the sides five
inches high. The lath slats are two inches apart and the
troughs are sixteen inches high from floor to roof. The roofs
project about two inches at the sides and effectually keep out
the rain except when high winds prevail.

The roof is very easily removed by lifting one end and
sliding it endwise on the opposite gable end on which it rests.
The trough can then be filled and the roof drawn back into
place without lifting it. This arrangement is the best of any-
thing we have found for saving food from waste and keeping
it in good condition. When dry mash is used in it, there is
considerable waste by the finer parts being blown away. When
used for that purpose it is necessary to put it in a sheltered
place out of the high winds."

The dry-feeding was continued with the pullets thus raised,
with decidedly satisfactory results. The report says :

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. 1 39

" On the first of last November we began feeding 550
April and May hatched pullets wholly on dry food. They were
in the curtain-front houses with warm elevated roosting closets
and in flocks of 50, 100, and 150. At five o'clock in the morn-
ing the flocks of fifty birds were given two quarts of cracked
corn ; at half-past ten they had one quart of wheat and one
quart of oats. This dry material was all spread on the litter
on the floor but was not raked in. Along one side of the pens
were feed troughs with slatted fronts, in which was kept a sup-
ply of the dry material of which the moist mash, before de-
scribed, was composed. These troughs were never allowed to
remain empty when the supply was exhausted. The dry mash
was constantly within the reach of all birds and they helped
themselves at will. Oyster shell, dry cracked bone, grit, and
charcoal were accessible at all times. A moderate supply of
raw mangolds and plenty of clean warm water was furnished
them. When they were first put upon this ration they were
not acquainted with the dry mixture in the troughs and ate of
it sparingly, but in three or four days they were using as much
of it as at any later time until they got to laying heavily. When
the feeds of cracked corn, wheat, and oats were given, the birds
were always ready and anxious for them and would scratch
in the litter for the very last kernel before going to the troughs
where an abundance of food was in store.

" It was very evident that they liked the broken and whole
grains better than the mixture of the fine materials ; yet they
by no means disliked it, for they helped themselves to it — a
mouthful or two at a time — whenever they seemed to need it,
and never went to bed with empty crops so far as we could
discover. They apparently did not like it well enough to gorge
themselves with it, and sit down, loaf, get over-fat and lay
soft-shelled eggs, as is so commonly the case with Plymouth
Rocks when they are given warm morning mashes in troughs.

" Some of the advantages of this method of feeding are
that the mash is put in the troughs at any convenient time,"
only guarding against an exhaustion of the supply, and the en-
tire avoidance of the mobbing that always occurs at trough
feeding when that is made a meal of the day, whether it be at
morning or evening. There are no tailings to be gathered up
or wasted as is common when a full meal of mash is given at
night. The labor is very much less, enabling a person to care
for more birds than when the regular evening meal is given.

140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

" We cannot give the results of a full year's feeding in this
way, as we have practiced it only from the first of last Novem-
ber to the close of June. The number of hens lost during the
winter has been less than ever before, even when they were
kept in the same style of houses. We can ascribe this to no
other cause than that the birds did not overload with food at
any time. We have never had so many eggs laid during the
winter months by a like number of hens, but that may be due
to better breeding, or to the open-front houses which the
birds occupied.

" During the months they were not laying heavily, the con-
sumption of mash was but about four pounds and the demands
for shell, bone, and grit were less. It will be noticed that the
proportion of wheat fed was less than in any former ration we
have fed and that the cracked corn was increased, thus cheap-
ening the ration.

" The average yield of the 550 hens during March was
20.4 eggs per bird. The whole number of eggs laid by them
during the six months from November ist to April 30 was
42,126, an average of 76 per bird. It must be borne in mind
that these birds were not selected but were the whole number
of chickens reared last year."

The most radical of all methods of dry-feeding is that fol-
lowed by Mr. Tillinghast, of Vernon, Conn., and he, literally,
feeds his birds but once a week and waters them not at all !
As to the watering, the birds go to near-by springs or a tiny
brook to drink, and when the springs and brook are frozen
and there is snow on the ground they eat snow for their drink.

The remarkable thing about Mr. Tillinghast's feeding
method is the very few grains he feeds ; the ration is almost
wholly wheat screenings and beef scraps, and they are kept
in hoppers, one of each in each house, and are accessible to the
■ birds all the time. The hoppers for the wheat screenings are
made from good sized boxes, shoe boxes chiefly, and will hold
a bushel or more each, a supply amply sufficient for a week
for the fifty or sixty birds in a house ; the hoppers for the beef
scraps are about eight inches square by a foot and a half high,
and will hold something more than a peck each. These two
hoppers of food are refilled once a week, and an ample sup-
ply is always at hand.

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. I4I

The very small addition made to this ration is a remarkable
feature of it. In the winter time about a quart of cracked
corn is thrown on the scratching litter on the floor of each
house, about the middle of the afternoon, when the wagon is
driven around to collect the eggs ; during the summer the beef
scrap is likely to become caked in his hoppers, so they will not
feed down, and for that reason Mr. Tillinghast stops filling the
scrap-hoppers about the first of May, and puts about a pint of
beef scraps in a feed trough in each house, at time of driving
around to collect the eggs. The birds have free range over the
fields and orchards in which the houses are located, and in sum-
mer can get abundance of green food ; in winter a supply of
vegetable food, of such roots as mangolds, turnips, sugar beets,
or refuse squashes, is fed out to them, and a wire-netting
pocket of cut clover, dry, is hung against the wall for them to
pick from — it is surprising what a quantity of this dry cut
clover the birds will eat, and it seems to fill a manifest want in
the balancing of the ration.

The first question that arises is as to the profits when poul-
try is kept on this go-as-you-please plan, and unfortunately Mr.
Tillinghast does not give us figures of egg-yield to prove the
profits. It will be evident that the work of feeding and caring
for the flocks is reduced to the minimum ; and as Mr, Tilling-
hast is increasing his plant and stock each year he is evidently
satisfied with results. He has housing capacity for about three
thousand head and last winter had about that number of birds
on his place ; it is his intention to increase to eight to ten thou-
sand head and he claims that he can himself care for five thou-
sand head of layers housed and cared for upon his plan.

We visited him in midwinter and saw some houses of pul-
lets in which the egg collection of the day was about fifty per
would feel was quite satisfactory. As illness had prevented his
cent, of the number of birds in each house, a result that anyone
getting out so great a number of chickens as he had intended,
he was carrying over a very large proportion of old stock, and
those old birds, while laying some eggs, were, as always, laying
scantily. At that visit we personally went around to more than
three-fourths of the houses, and saw but one bird of all the
great number we inspected that gave any indication of indispo-
sition ; that bird was sneezing, which indicated a slight cold.
We visited him again this summer, when the hens were molt-

142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

ing, and of all the birds we looked over, probably over three
thousand in all, saw but two that seemed out of condition, and
the egg yield at that time w^as quite as good as could be ex-
pected in molting time ; some of the pullets had even then be-
gun to lay.

It is evident that if a ration which is nine-tenths wheat
screenings supplemented in winter with a good light feed of
cracked corn, will give such a good showing in general health-
fulness of the flocks and egg, yield in midwinter, then we who
have expended a great deal of time in compounding a mixed
ration and feeding three times a day have thrown away our
labor and pains ! The tables of analysis given in Bulletin No.
22, of the United States Department of Agriculture, show
wheat screenings to have a feeding value very closely approx-
imating to that of good, sound wheat and that wheat is the best
food of all the grains is very well known.

That wheat screenings is a very economical food, there
is good proof in an experiment made at the Connecticut Ex-
periment Station last summer. Mr. Graham wished to test the
Tillinghast method of housing and feeding chickens, and had
built two colony houses exactly like his. In one of these houses
he put 44 Rhode Island Red chickens, that were hatched April
24th, from a hundred eggs bought of a farmer living near. On
June 5th two of the chickens had disappeared, probably having
been caught by some animal or hawk, and the 42 chickens
left, then about six weeks old, weighed 22 pounds and 12
ounces. Twenty-four of them were pullets and eighteen were
cockerels ; on the 29th of July the cockerels were killed and
dressed for market; they averaged to weigh three and one-
half pounds apiece undrawn, and sold, at the wholesale market
price, for 82 cents apiece. The cost of the food for both them-
selves and the twenty-four pullets to that time was $4.28 — the
one hundred eggs cost five dollars, making $9.28 as the cash
outlay for the forty-two chickens at about fifteen weeks old,
and there had been a cash return of $14.76 for the cockerels
sold, and the twenty-four pullets were left. On the 8th of
September one of those pullets began to lay, when about four
and one-half months old, and in the month of September forty-
eight eggs were laid by that lot of pullets. Their food for the
first two weeks was commercial chick-foods, bought of deal-
ers in poultry supplies, and after that was wheat screenings

1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE, 143

supplemented with what insects, worms, bugs, etc., they could
pick up on range. Not an atom of meat food of any kind
had been given them, no milk or other animal food, and here
we find the remarkable showing of Rhode Island Red pul-
lets reaching laying maturity at four and one-half months old
on wheat screenings alone, supplemented by the animal food
picked up on the range. We feel justified in calling this a
remarkable showing !

And the grand total of results, as evidenced by the testi-
monials coming from many different sources, all point to an
equally remarkable showing in favor of the dry-feeding method
of feeding both chicks and fowls. The general health of the
flocks is better than where the cooked mash was fed, the eggs
are larger, stronger-bodied, more fertile and hatch out strong,
vigorous chicks — chicks that are of the bound-to-live kind,
and that are the delight of their owner. Here is one reported
test of the fertility of winter eggs from dry- fed hens :

A Mr. Boulton, living in Connecticut, was advised by a
neighbor to send to Dr. Nottage for some eggs from which to
hatch early chicks, and sent him an order for a hundred eggs,
in February. The following is his verbatim report upon them.

" We put yours in one tray (100 eggs) and marked them,
and in the other tray put a hundred eggs from a man of a
great deal of reputation, who feeds mash. I wanted to test
the difference, thinking it might show in the fertility. Of your
hundred, sixteen were infertile, and of his, sixty-four ! I paid
the same price for both, and I think the result shows well for
your method of dry-feeding."

Experienced incubator operators well know that the meas-
ure of fertility is (approximately) the measure of weak germs
left in the machines at the first test, and expect that about the
same proportion of the eggs will fail to hatch, that there are
infertile. As 64 per cent, of the eggs from the mash-fed hens
were infertile, it is fair to suppose that 64 per cent, of the thir-
ty-six eggs remaining would be weak germs and fail to
hatch. That would give 23 (plus) of weak germs, and a " fair
expectation " of thirteen chicks to hatch. Of the dry-fed hens'
eggs, there were but 16 per cent, infertile, which would indi-
cate but thirteen (plus) weak germs, and a " fair expectation "
of eighty or eighty-one chicks to hatch. Certainly, quite a dif-
ference there !

144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Last summer we were visiting a large poultry farm in
southern New Hampshire, and the manager called attention
particularly to the bright, lively appearance of the youngsters,
of which there were about 2,100 running about, some of them
about half grown then. He told us that he had lost but
thirty-four in all, out of that great number, and upon our ex-
pressing surprise, for there are usually a greater proportion
than that which are born weak and cannot possibly survive the
hardships of infancy, he told us it was a fact, and that a care-
ful census of several of the older families had proved the
correctness of the records of mortality among them.

At the Jordan Farm, Hingham, Mass., they raised several
thousand chickens each year, with practically no loss from that
scourge of chickenhood, " bowel trouble," and all the food for
the first weeks is Cyphers' Chick Food. The result of this simple
feeding method is a most gratifying growth of the youngsters,
who seem to have no set-backs, and to grow " naturally," to
grow from the start, without having any time lost or back-
ward slips to make up.

The most remarkable growth of young fowls of which we
have ever heard, was a pair of Barred Rock cockerels castrated,
and grown to be " soft-roasters." They were killed the day
they were six months old, and weighed (the pair) twenty-three
pounds, live weight, and the larger one weighed ten and a half
pounds, dressed. They were grown on a ready-mixed chick
food for the first weeks, with cracked corn added after the
first four or five weeks to increase the ration, and beef scraps.
The last two months the ration was cracked corn and beef
scraps, and the total result was a growth never equaled by any
other method of feeding.

A New Jersey friend writes me :

" My young stock this year are simply wonders ! Some
of the pullets are already showing good sized combs and wat-
tles, and from appearances, look as though they would lay by
the middle of September. Some of the capons, hatched March
23d, will weigh five and one-half to six pounds now ; certainly
a fine testimonial to the dry-feeding method. All I have to do
is to keep the hoppers filled, and they do the rest. I find I am
this year raising three times as many birds as last year, with
only about one-half the labor."

Let us, however, turn again to the Maine Station bulletin,
and quote the statement given there. This is a State experi-

1906.] DISCUSSION. 145

ment station bulletin, and the statement has the weight of being
an official report. It says :

" The number of hens lost during the winter has been less
than ever before, even when they were kept in the same style
of houses. We can ascribe this to no other cause than that
the birds did not overload with food at any time. We have
never had so many eggs laid during the winter months by a
like number of hens, but that may be due to better breeding, or
to the open-front houses which the birds occupied.

" The average yield of the 550 hens during March was
20.4 eggs per bird. The whole number of eggs laid by them
during the six months from November ist to April 30th inclu-
sive, was 42,126, an average of 76 eggs per bird. It must be
borne in mind that these birds were not selected, but were
the whole number of pullets reared last year."

Doesn't that have a triumphant ring to it? Isn't that a
most convincing proof of the great gain of dry-feeding? That
*' we have never had so many eggs laid during the winter
months by a like number of birds," and " the number of hens
lost during the winter has been less than ever before," covers
the whole range of profitable work in egg production ; when we
get more eggs during the winter months and fewer birds die,
we may feel reasonably certain we are upon the right road,
that we are making the best of success with our poultry work.
Outside of the question of saving in labor and there is a de-
cidedly great gain there, stated to be as much as a third to a
half — the better growth of the youngsters, and the better
health and greater egg yield of the laying stock, is ample
ground for adopting the dry-feeding method of keeping poul-
try.

DISCUSSION.

The President. This is an exceedingly interesting paper
on the same line as the one we have already had. Are there
any further questions?

Mr. Blakeman. Mr. Chairman, I have noticed that this
gentleman in speaking of food which should be given to poul-
try says nothing about the addition of shells. Most poultrymen
think that the addition of broken shells is indispensable. I want
Agr. — 10

146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

to inquire whether that is used generally, or whether he recom-
mends it.

Mr. Hunter. It is used universally. It goes without say-
ing. That is the reason it is not spoken of. Every intelligent
poultryman keeps a supply of ground shells. Most of them
pulverize the shells into fine bits.

Mr. Wakeman. May I ask one question? I do not keep
a large number of poultry, but what I have, have been kept in
a very convenient place on my farm near the barn. They have
been there a number of years. I find I cannot keep them there
any longer on account of the condition of the land. I am told
that by plowing the ground once or twice it will be all right to
use again. How many times will it be necessary to plow it, and
how long must it be kept plowed up before it will be safe for me
to use it again for the same purpose?

Mr. Hunter. I should want to do it two or three times.
If I were in your place I would move the chicks to new ground.
Your chicks will do better on new ground. A thing that is
worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. Mr. Chairman, I see we have quite a
number of ladies present. I wish Mr. Hunter would tell them
if he knows of any ladies who are successful in raising chick-
ens. He goes all over the country and he knows.

Mr. Hunter. Last week I visited a farmer's wife in Maine,
who keeps about five hundred head of Barred Plymouth Rocks.
She is most successful. She helps her husband milk the cows,
and she makes butter and all that sort of thing, but she finds
time amid all her work to take care of about five hundred
Barred Plymouth Rocks. She gave me some figures which I
am going to publish in my paper one of these days. She makes
an average of two dollars apiece on from four hundred and
fifty to five hundred head. It is a better average by a good
deal than from her cows.

Mr. President. Our program having been somewhat
overcrowded this morning, Mr. McGrew's address is to come

1906-] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. I47

the first thing this afternoon instead of this morning. Mr.
McGrew is from Washington, D. C, and is to continue right
along on this same subject.

The meeting will now stand adjourned until 2 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

December 13, 1905.
Music.

Convention called to order at 2 p. m., Vice-President Seeley
in the chair.

The President. The address given on the program for
1 1 :30 this morning we are to have now. We had chicken this
morning, some of us had chicken for dinner and we are going
to have more chicken this afternoon, and we are going to have
it by a man who understands it, Mr, McGrew, of Washington,
D. C.

THE REAL ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
POULTRY IN MODERN TIMES.

By Mr. T. F. McGrew, Washington, D. C.

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen:

We were told this morning that the hen comes home to
roost. I love to come back to Connecticut. I was born in
Ohio, and, as you know, the people of Connecticut had much
to do with the early settlement of the State of Ohio. When
but a lad, I was fond of poultry, and had a few chickens in a
shoe box in the corner of the lot.

In 1879, with a friend, I visited the Board of Trade in the
city of Indianapolis, and while there made the statement that
we expected to see the poultry products of the State of Indiana
ultimately far exceed the pork product of the State. The
President of the Board of Trade replied that he loved to see
people stand by their oars, but he said he would as much ex-
pect to see the clouds fall as to see that statement come true.
Be it said, however, to the honor of the State of Indiana, that

148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

the last census shows a greater number of dollars and cents
in poultry and its products in that State than in pork.

The question was asked just as we were adjourning this
morning, if we knew of any woman who had been successful
in the cultivation of poultry. This same census states the fact
that five millions and six hundred thousand farms reported the
growing of poultry. We all are familiar with the fact that the
largest amount of poultry grown upon the farms, is grown by
the women, and if the lords of creation ever reach that point
where they will permit every dollar which comes from poultry
grown by women to go to them rather than appropriating it
themselves, the next census would show seven or eight hun-
dred millions of dollars credited to poultry grown by women.
Women are most successful in the business. The Board of
Trade and Commerce, of New York, credited five hundred
and twenty millions of dollars last year to poultry and its
products, and more than one-half of all this has been produced
by the hand and physical labor of women and children through-
out the country. Poultry is a product that any child over ten
years of age can produce, and a product which our old grand-
fathers and grandmothers can indulge in to their profit.

Two conditions of poultry are observed. We discussed
this morning the utility side of poultry. In dealing with the
utility side of poultry, as generally spoken of, people say that
it is the expectation that a hen will lay more than enough eggs
to pay for its feed and keep. But that is not the whole story.
Where would our Short-horn cattle, our Herefords, our De-
vons, and our Plymouth Rocks be if it had not been for the
fanciers who follow the show-room? Fanciers whose effort
has been constant all the while to increase the quality of the
stock, and who have increased the quantity of the product
from about twenty-five or thirty eggs to a hen thirty years
ago to a point, according to the last census, of over seventy.
The only difference between the utility hen that lays eggs and
the show-room hen is the same difference that exists between
our daughters and our wives at home doing their work and
when they are dressed up to go to church. Then they are on
dress parade. Poultry in the show-room must be in the finest
condition in order to win prizes. Let me cite to you what J
know of one -Wyandotte hen, in her seventh year, a hen which
has won dozens of prizes in the show room. She is a celebrated

1906-] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY.

149

hen. I think it was on the i6th day of last November that the
hen commenced to lay again this fall, and up to the time I heard
last, she had laid seventeen eggs in three weeks. Utility is the
condition of the fowl for that purpose. Exhibition in the hall
is another matter which simply means excellence, elegant con-
dition and the pink of perfection so as to place them in the ex-
hibition hall.

I have been asked to recite the history of the origin of
poultry. Before going into that dry subject I wish to state
this fact — perhaps I will cite a few more before I start upon
that — when people, not familiar with figures, delve into them,
they are very apt to go a little astray. When I asked the ques-
tion this morning of the per cent, of egg yield of Mr. Tilling-
hast's hens, I did so in good faith. You will hear people
thoughtlessly say we get ninety-four per cent, fertility from
our eggs. \\''e hear people say we get eighty and ninety per
cent, egg yield from our hens. What does that mean ? That
does not mean that eighty of our hens lay in one day. Thirty-
three and one-third per cent, egg yield in round numbers everv
year is one hundred and twenty eggs. Taking it by the month,
and it is ten eggs per month. Sixty-six and two-thirds per cent,
is two hundred and forty-five eggs per year from a hen, and
with all due respect to all the records of the world, I think
that all the hens that ever laid two hundred and fortv-five
eggs in one year could be placed in one small wagon and hauled
by a pony ten miles away to market. Let us deal in facts.
There is nothing in facts to be afraid of, but do not let us be
misled by them. We are very apt to gain a wrong impression.
People do not mean to lead you astray, but the man who says
" I had ninety-four per cent, fertility " is apt to unconsciously
create an erroneous idea. Now that means to him that after
he had made his last test ten days before the eggs hatched,
that the eggs he left in the incubator produced ninety-four per
cent, of living chicks. If he only had ten eggs left in the in-
cubator, he does not count the other ninety which have been
taken out. So that when you figure it dowa, the extreme
probability is that he does not produce to exceed twenty-five
living chicks from every hundred eggs that he places in the in-
cubator. And when I say living chicks, I mean chicks past
one week old. Every single chicken that goes into the market
in the United States has cost from some source or other four

150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

eggs to produce it. I have been challenged in this statement,
but I have sent letters out until I am tired, and I have received
hundreds of answers from people who have kept account both
of eggs hatched in an incubator and under hens, and they could
not prove that they had exceeded twenty-five living chickens
to every hundred eggs. That being the fact, how would it be
possible for a man to have ninety-four or ninety-eight per cent,
fertility. In the same way if the hens of a poultryman pro-
duced thirty-three and one-third per cent, of eggs, it would
raise the average of seventy to a point where it would add al-
most one hundred and eighty-seven millions of dollars in one
jump to the egg product of this country. Those are things that
we must look at. If a man has got a hen that will lay one hun-
dred and twenty eggs per year, and those eggs are sold in a
good fair market, he can make from a dollar to a dollar and a
quarter a year on that hen. That is a fact without any stretch
of the imagination to lead up to it. If you have a flock of hens
that are producing an average of ten each per month of egg
yield, you ought to make from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter
per year from every one of those hens. You ought to make that
much over the cost of feeding the flock and the care of the
poultry.

In the origin of poultry we have simply what might be
called the theory of the naturalist. The naturalists of early
days were not men of letters or men of great information.
They gathered information from what they saw and recorded
it as best they knew. Some of these naturalists have accepted
the theory that all of the numerous families and varieties of
pigeons have descended from one variety known as the Blue
Rock pigeon, so plentiful throughout many of the continental
countries. We are told that our chickens have descended from
one Gallus Bankiva, or the Jungle Fowl of India. Following
that original statement comes the discovery of the naturalist
who found another jungle fowl which he named Sonnerati.
We are taught by these early naturalists that these two were
the original ancestors, from which have descended our poul-
try. Naturalists again tell us that the most immense animal in
the world was that species of elephant called the Mammoth.
Later they discovered the great Lizard, and within a few
months the naturalists of the Museum of Natural History in
New York have discovered one very much larger than any

1906.] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. I5I

of the Others, so that they had to call it Rex, in order to get a
name superior to those which they have already described.

We might accept the theory that the Jungle Fowl of India
was the ancestor of all our games and game bantams, but I
would ask the scientist and the naturalist, and I would appeal
to you if you can believe that the mammoth fowls of China,
the Shanghai, the Brahma, and Cochin could have descended
from those little miniature birds known as the Jungle Fowl.
I think that other sources must be looked for beyond all this
to tell us the truth of whence they came. Perhaps I have been
led a little astray from the pathway of the naturalist, from the
fact that a friend of mine visited China some twenty years ago,
in company with a good Catholic father, who was in a position
to have great insight into the buildings and homes of the Chi-
nese people of a class much like our Jesuits here. They call
them their retreats. In these retreats are a lot of people and
their descendants who have lived there for ages on the bor-
ders of the Chinese Empire. These people have records which
this old father of the church found out, went so far back be-
yond anything that he knew of, or that was recorded in the
Bible, or by the church, that he said he was afraid that if it
became published to the world it might upset the Christian
religion. In these records, the part that I was interested in,
and my friend as well, was recorded the fact that four thousand
years at least before the beginning of the Christian era, these
people had these retreats ; and kept some of the large sizes of
Chinese poultry. The record shows that they had been culti-
vated, and that the hatching of such fowls had been in prac-
tice. The eggs from such poultry had been sold, and the
young chicks hatched and sold four thousand years before the
Christian era. In our own Bible we have it recorded that when
that Good Man upon earth was deserted by his nearest friends
the cock crew thrice. If there had not been some such variety
of fowls at that time they would not have been domesticated
so as to have been near enough to the pathway of the Master
to have crowed so early in the morning. Some thirty-five
years after the crucifixion, three separate varieties are men-
tioned in Roman history. In Pompeii they dug up a flagon,
on one side of which was engraved a beautiful game cock, and
on the other was a pea fowl, showing that these two were
known in their beauty and elegance. Now with all this in-

152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

formation that has come to us, cannot we realize and be ready
to accept the idea of a more extended creation originally than
the one little Jungle Fowl ?

Another matter that has interested me very much, and which
carries us back, is the intimation made by the members of the
American Legation in China during the troubles there, that the
records show that the Chinese people had discovered America
centuries before Christopher Columbus was heard of. Why
not, if these people came here to settle in the far north, is there
not enough similarity of appearance between the Eskimo and
the Chinese to lead us to such a conviction ? The ancient his-
tory of China goes back beyond anything that has ever been re-
corded by the ancient Hebrew or anyone else. Those records
are undoubtedly authentic. Taking the method and their man-
ner of keeping the records, it is said to convince every one who
has come in contact with them of their truthfulness. This be-
ing the fact, and it being found in the recorded history of this
brotherhood that they kept poultry of this mammoth size, it
leads me to believe that long before there was anything known
of the Jungle Fowl in India, there was some other fowl from
which those large Chinese fowls descended. Now in proof of
this, let me make this statement : All poultrymen know of the
Malay Game, a mammoth game fowl. It is a question, ac-
cording to the ancient records of India, whether the Malay
or Kulm fowl was the first. It may be somewhat unim-
portant whether the Malay was first or the Kulm fowl was
first. That cannot be decided. They do know, however, that
the Kulm fowl and the Chinese Shanghai were very similar.
From what origin came the great Shanghais and Brahmas and
Langshans? Some of the original of all these, like the Kulm
fowl, had no feathering whatever upon the shanks, while others
showed the development of the shank and toe feathering to a
slight extent when they came to us from China. The plastic
condition of the conformation and changes has been cited from
the fact that Bantams can be created almost at will. Nature has
willed it almost to an absolute certainty that the largest per
cent, of influence as to size and character rests with the female.
The making of Bantams is accomplished through the selection
of the very smallest of females, and pairing them with the small-
est males possible to obtain ; through the breeding of two gener-
ations in the one twelvemonth, and curtailing the size through

1906.] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. 153

the hatching at the beginning of winter and rearing during the
cold months without much care and protection. As an example
of this, the writer, within the space of six years, reduced
through nine generations Dark Brahmas to Dark Brahma Ban-
tams that were shown within the standard weight. These were
all built up or created through the selection of the smallest fe-
males and then reduced in size under the influence of rearing
the young during the winter months. This entire family was
disposed of, and within four years from the time of their pass-
ing into other hands, we scarcely think there can be one de-
scendant found from that family that could go into the show-
room at maturity and weigh in under standard weight. The
dwarfing through unnatural methods does not prove anything
for or against the early or original creation of the ancestors.

Many years ago the breeders of Leghorns said their fowls
were too small, and they introduced the Minorca blood. Soon
they began to learn to use only hens in their second year, and
the largest they could get, and thus they began to increase grad-
ually the size of the fowls. As you increase the size of the bird
you increase the size of the egg.

Following along in recent or modern history of poultry,
the first great event in this country was the production of the
Light Brahma. Following this came the Leghorns, a breed
which came into the possession of a gentleman of White Plains,
N. Y., from a vessel lying at anchor in New York harbor ;
when they came he recorded the fact that these White Leg-
horns had white shanks and beaks. That fact led many of us
to believe that the original Leghorn was a White Minorca.
All of the European poultry, the Polands, the Hamburgs. and
the Leghorns, are the producers of white shelled eggs. Every
bit of poultry that we have that is in any way tainted with
Asiatic blood, produces eggs having a brown shell. If you
will remember that distinction, you will find that in European
poultry, Polish, Hamburgs, Leghorns, and Minorcas, all of
these produce eggs with a white shell. On the other hand, the
Asiatic family, including the Langshans, Malays, Cochins, and
the Brahmas, all belong to the class of fowls that produce
brown shelled eggs. When you intermingle either of these
you never get aught but a tinted colored shell. There is no
blood so strong in the whole poultry fraternity as the blood of
the Asiatic fowl. Our Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, and the

154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Orpington varieties of England, are all influenced by the supe-
rior power of the Asiatic blood. Ever\' one of these produces
a brown shelled egg. You cannot bring together two separate
breeds or varieties of poultry and intermingle the blood with-
out changing three things, the form, size and shape of the egg.
Whenever you produce a cross from pairing together anv two
breeds you have interfered with the regular line of product,
and therefrom come the countless numbers of ill-formed and
misshapen eggs. Mr. Tillinghast told you that he preferred
the White Leghorns because the White Leghorn egg went
into the New York market at the highest price. It is a white
shelled egg. \\'hy does the white shelled egg go into the New
York market at the highest price? Because they are all white
and all of regular size. Nothing but European fowls will pro-
duce such eggs. You cannot violate the laws of nature to
any great extent in crossing without showing the effect upon
the egg. By the time you have influenced size and form, you
will find you can get neither the clear brown nor the clear
white egg. It is the clear, bright, white-looking egg that the
New York market wants. If there is anything in the world
that caters to the taste of the New Yorker, it is appearance.
There is no place in the world where so much stress is laid upon
appearance as in Xew York and they want these beautiful
white shelled eggs. But you can leave Xew York in the
morning, after having had white shelled eggs for breakfast,
and go from there to Boston, and there everything is brown.
You could not hire them to introduce anything else but the
brown shell. If people would be as particular in taking care
of their poultry* as they are to get the doctor for the horse,
when he is sick, they would succeed better in the business.

Mixed hens lay mixed eggs, and when you go into the mar-
ket with them, you get from sixteen to nineteen cents a dozen,
while Brother Tillinghast may go into the market and find
plent>' to take his at forty-two cents. What is the meaning of
that? He keeps his Leghorns pure. He can get fort\--two
cents a dozen for the best white shelled breakfast eggs, and
these other mixed eggs sell at from sixteen to nineteen cents
in any commission house down-town. Suppose you have five
hundred mixed hens. My advice is to go home and sell those
five hundred mixed hens in the market for what you can get
for them. As far as possible handle only pure bred fowls

1906.] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. 1 55

of some variety. If anybody tries to induce you to cross your
stock, chase him off the place. If you have a variety of hens
that lay nice, clean, fine-shaped, brown shelled eggs, you can
sell them even in the New York market for forty cents. Do
not put mixed eggs into the market if you wish to get the best
price. These are facts. These are things that people should
stop to consider. If you could put into the market from the
State of Connecticut every single egg that will be produced
this winter, and get forty-two cents instead of sixteen to nine-
teen cents for off-colored and ill-shapen eggs, you would have
about two hundred and fiftv- thousand dollars coming into this
State for eggs, simply because you did not allow somebody to
come along and try to persuade you that their idea of cross
breeding is better than pure bred poultry. When you see a
man that is getting nineteen cents a dozen, just think of
Brother Tillinghast, and think how nice he is fixed down there
at his home with his forty-two cent eggs. It is just as easy
for you all to have fort\-two cent eggs, for there never will be
a time as long as this country increases in population as it does
when there will not be a market for such eggs, and there will
never be, I am afraid, more than enough to supply the people
of the cit\- of New York alone.

Xow I do not wish to tire you, but I must mention one
or two facts more. I want to help you to do better because
nothing makes people feel happier than a nice little cash bal-
ance in the bank. Then they can look even.- man in the face,
and say, " I do not owe you a cent." I have visited the mar-
kets of New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Balti-
more, Kansas City, Chicago, Dallas, Texas, and St. Louis, and
I do not think there is a city of over one hundred thousand in-
habitants where I have not gone among the poultrymen and in-
quired as to the price of eggs and dressed poultry and I find
this yen.' same condition in most all of them. Dressed poultry
is selling from seven, nine, twelve, fourteen, sixteen to twenty
cents a pound, and if vou want something nice out of the ice-
box, you must pay about thirty cents. Now what are the facts
about that situation ? The man that sold that thirty cent poul-
trj' made money ; was doing well. The fellow that sold the
seven and nine cent poultn,- probably has a mortgage on his
place and never will be able to lift it.

156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

I received a letter from a lady in New York, who said to
me:

" I have two little children to support, and I want to sell
my eggs in the New York market." I went down to a gentle-
man whom I knew, told him about the matter, and he said,
" Why certainly, I will take all she has to sell." She shipped
them in, and he immediately telegraphed her not to sen'd any
more. I telegraphed her to come to New York. She came, and
I took her to the store. That man paid her five dollars to stand
in his store for two days and try to sell her own eggs. It taught
her a lesson. She went back home, and for five years she has
never been paid less than thirty cents a dozen for her eggs in
that store every single week in the year, summer and winter.
She learned the lesson that every one must learn in the future
who expects to successfully run a farm, and that is, if you sell
at the bottom price you are going to be bankrupt ; if you sell
at the top price, you are going to make money.

There is another thing that I want to talk to you about, and
that is the agricultural interests of the United States. Five mil-
lion and nearly six hundred thousajid farms are reported as
growing poultry, in the last census of the United States. That
proves conclusively that we have five million six hundred
thousand farmers not only interested in agriculture but inter-
ested in poultry. It is safe to say that each one of
those farms represents or .supports five people, making
a little over thirty millions of the population of the
United States that we know are farmers or dependent
upon the farms. If those thirty million of people go with a
load of potatoes or a load of corn, or a load of water-
melons, or with a basket of eggs to market to sell they have
got to deliver to the people to whom they offer those goods,
the identical article that they are selling. Perchance, some of
the good ladies here have gone to market with their farm pro-
duce, and they desire to return home and make some lovely
mince pies, such as my grandmother used to make and serve
when I was a child. I want to ask them if they believe that the
people to whom they present their products for trade will be
as particular in returning a good quality of cinnamon, cloves,
allspice, ginger, or whatever they wish to use at home, as they
are to get good products from you ? How do you know when
you trade your wagon-load of potatoes, in part, for a few

I906.J DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. I57

pounds of pepper, that you do not carry up to your home finely
ground hulls of buckwheat flavored with capsicum ? It is due
to the farming interest of the world that every man, woman,
and child shall rise in his might, over the length and breadth
of this great country and say we demand at the hands of our
government a law that will return to us pure food products
in exchange for the products that we grow upon the farms
by the sweat of our brows and bring them in exchange for
barter.

I have but a few minutes more to stay, but if any one has
a question to ask, I would be glad to have you ask it. Before
you do so, however, I want to say one more word. The back-
bone of the American government is the agricultural people,
from Maine to California, and from Alaska to the Gulf. You
are the people that own the country. You are the people that
can govern. You are the only people that can say to the legis-
lature of the national government, we demand our rights ; we
demand that the people that have gone ahead and practiced
this outrage upon our stomachs, our homes, our families, by
selling impure articles of food, shall be compelled to brand
upon the product that they sell us, the honest contents of the
package. How many of us, when we buy canned goods,
ground coffee, a package of tea, or cinnamon, cloves, allspice,
or any of these things know what we get and what we pay
for? Now if you people will look facts in the face and act
together as the saying is, you can be the power that will rule
the world, so far as America is concerned, and you can have
whatever is your right, if you, will only unite and say we are
the people, and we wish the true return that is our due.

Now if there is any question that anyone would like to ask
before I go, I would be glad to answer it. Before I go I want
to thank you for your kind attention.

Secretary Brown. At this point I would like to offer the
following resolution :

" Whereas, the agricultural experiment stations are found
to be of the greatest aid to the farming interests of this State,
and

Whereas, the Hon. H. C. Adams, Congressman from Wis-
consin, has introduced a bill, H. R. 345, providing for increased
federal appropriations for these experiment stations,

158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Resolved, that the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture
in annual convention assembled, endorses this step in agricul-
tural progress with most hearty approval, and

Resolved, further, that the Secretary be instructed to trans-
mit copies of this endorsement to the several Senators and Rep-
resentatives from this State, together with a respectful and
urgent request that they lend this bill their earnest and favor-
able support."

Mr. Stimson. May I say just a word in that connection?
The finest champion in Congress today, of modern progressive
agriculture, is the Hon. H. C. Adams, of Wisconsin. He is
aggressive, he is full of modern agricultural ideas. For several
years, in the face of big odds, he has struggled in the commit-
tee to secure the passage of a bill providing for an increased
appropriation for the different States for the benefit of the ex-
periment stations located within them. Several times he has
been very close to getting the bill through. This year if we all
work together with this best friend of ours who has appeared in
recent years, we believe that the bill will pass. The bill is un-
qualifiedly endorsed by the National Association of Agricul-
tural Colleges and Experiment Stations, and by the presidents
of the colleges. The bill has no string to it whatever. A string
in previous years has been put on. For instance, a string of
this sort has been put on, providing that some one may say
how the funds shall be used in the different States. The bill
as it stands today is without a string of any kind. We in Con-
necticut will be at Hberty to say what this money shall be used
for. The experiment stations in Connecticut are investigating
some of the present problems of agriculture and problems
that are going to demand attention, and the stations are be-
coming very much pressed for funds to do this work,

Mr. Tillinghast said this morning that he had no records
of his egg yield over a month or two that he wanted to make
public. We have an experiment in progress at the College by
which we are testing Mr. Tillinghast's method and keeping

1906.] DISCUSSION. 159

careful account of it. Now it is cheaper to make a mistake in
one place than it is to make a mistake in four or five hundred
or a thousand places. It is cheaper to demonstrate to your
satisfaction the best method of success in one place than to
make people attempt to attain such success in many. We, at
the experiment station, want to help you poultrymen. We want
to do four times as much as we are now able to do. We want
to do four times as much for the dairymen of this State, and
for the fruit growers, as we now do. The appropriation that
the federal government will provide, if this bill passes, will not
increase our capacity four fold, but it will increase it two fold.
This resolution puts upon the Secretary of the Board of Agri-
culture a duty. If you pass it he will transmit the will of the
Board of Agriculture to our several Senators and Representa-
tives. I hope, however, he will not stop there. I said in the be-
ginning that farming needs friends. How ? Last winter when
we wanted a dormitory at the Agricultural College, you went
up to Hartford on that day when the matter was under dis-
cussion before the legislature, and you filled the hall of the
House of Representatives. You said we need a good house for
our boys to live in so that they can get an agricultural educa-
tion, and you got the building. Now buy two postal cards, or
one postal and a two-cent envelope, and by spending ten min-
utes' time you can show your interest as a friend in this move-
ment for the advancement of agriculture in Connecticut and
in the country, and at large. Let every man here, I do not care
how many women — the more the better — write to every man
of our Representatives and Senators from Connecticut. Write
to your Representatives and Senators this: " Please send me
a copy of the Adams bill." Do not forget it. Or you can go
a little further, " Please send me a copy of the Adams bill ask-
ing for an increased appropriation for experiment stations."
When you get it read it through. The friends of agriculture
only ask that these measures shall be passed on their merits.
Read the bill. If you think it stands for what you want it to

l6o BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

stand for, then please write a letter to each one of the Sena-
tors and Representatives from Connecticut in Congress, and
say, " I am familiar with that bill. As I know the needs of
agriculture in Connecticut, and as a favor to me, as a Connec-
ticut citizen, and to the people of my township, whose senti-
ments I know in regard to it, will you please lend your efforts
to the passage of this measure ? " Let us work together. The
bane of farming in the past has been incredulity and divided
endeavor. In union there is strength. (Applause.)

The President. Any further remarks ? Are you ready for
the question? All in favor of passing these resolutions signify
by saying " Aye." Contrary minds, " No." It is unanimously
passed.

We must now go on with the program. Professor Thomas
Shaw, of St. Anthony's Park, St. Paul, Minn., will now give
us a paper on " Breeding Animals on the Farm." I have the
honor of introducing Professor Shaw to you now.

BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM.

By Prof. Thomas Shaw, St. Anthony's Park,

St. Paul, Minn.

Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
Before leaving home to visit New England, one of my
friends was good enough a short time before I left to call my
attention to an article in one of the St. Paul papers. It referred
to the subject of abandoned farms in New England. He
wanted to know why I was going down to New England, the
country of abandoned farms, to talk to the people on agricul-
ture. The next morning I happened to get hold of a copy of
the census report on agriculture in the United States. He
aroused my curiosity a little bit, and I wanted to know a little
more about that country of abandoned farms, so I looked up
the question in regard to the production of corn, and I found
that the average production of corn per acre in the six New
England States for the ten years ending in 1899 was thirty-
five bushels per acre. I then turned to the report regarding
the production of corn in seven States of the corn belt of the

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 161

West, and I found that the average yield per acre in those
seven States for the same time was twenty-nine and a fraction
bushels per acre. Then I sat down and wrote an editorial for
the Orange Judd Farmer, and wound it up by saying that I
would recommend to the people of the corn States to send on
a delegation of thorough farmers to New England to find out
how to grow corn. So I came to New England to talk on
agriculture, or to attempt to talk on agriculture. I know, fel-
low-farmers, it is a bold undertaking. I know it better than
some of you know it, if you have never tried it. To go to a
country in which you never have set foot before, and to look
into the faces of an intelligent audience, and to talk to them
on the agriculture of their country — I tell you, farmers, it
takes a little nerve. But I may tell you that I am delighted to
be able to say that while I never took much stock in that ques-
tion of abandoned farms, I take less than ever I did before I
came to New England. Now I want you to understand that
this abandoned farm business is something serious. It is hurt-
ing you people. It is hurting your reputation, and it is hurting
you unjustly, as I am glad to find, and I want to have you un-
derstand that the people of the West are not responsible for
those views which they hold in regard to your country. It is
due to the pamphlet and magazine articles that are printed
somewhere in the West, but not in the East, sensational in
character, and they find their way into our periodicals, and
these are the sources of information from which the people
of the West form their opinion in regard to what is going on
in New England. But fellow-farmers, really some of our
Western men think New England and New England agricul-
ture is going to the dogs ; that there is no hope for New Eng-
land farming. But, Mr. Chairman, I have not heard, sir, a
single note in a minor key in regard to agriculture since com-
ing to this State ; there is hope in the sound of your rivers that
run down from the mountains towards the sea ; there is hope
in New England everywhere ; there is more hope in the intelli-
gence of the men that till your lands. One can see it in the
faces of New England farmers, such as those I am looking
upon today. But fellow-farmers, I did not come to New Eng-
land to talk to you simply about the hope of New England
farming. I came to talk to you about a very different subject.
I came to talk to you about what the students call " hardtack,"
Agk. — II

l62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

if I may use the phrase. I do not think it is very far wrong.
I came down here from Minnesota, more than a thousand miles,
to talk to you, farmers, about the subject of animal breeding.
I want to tell you right here, lest you should be disappointed,
that I did not come to tell you anything that you do not know.
You may say that is strange. You may say, " You come a
thousand miles to. tell us what we know already ? " Right.
Let me ask you — did you go to church last Sunday? What
did you go for? Did you go with the idea that the man who
stood up and faced you and talked to you about the higher
things of life was to tell you something new? No, you did
not go for that purpose at all. You just went for the pur-
pose of keeping in remembrance and refreshing your memory
upon what you did know. I came to New England, not in the
hope of telling you anything new, but with the hope of putting
your memory in such a condition about some of these things
that you will go out and try to do some of the things I be-
lieve you should. I shall look upon my mission as a failure
if these things which I shall now attempt to give you on the
subject of animal breeding are not of value. I would like to
know, fellow-farmers, how many times you have listened to
this kind of discussion from the institute platform. I do not
know whether you discuss the question of animal breeding
much in New England or not, but I do know that they do not
talk about it very much from the platform in the West. I
sometimes think it is because of the complexity of the question.
In some respects the art of breeding is like a great hole in
which an intellectual giant may sink a thousand fathoms and
more at the very first plunge. In other respects it is a broad
shallow, in which a child intellectually may wade without
any difficulty. In some respects the operation of its laws is
so regular and plastic that the skilled breeder may almost
mold and fashion at will. In other respects they are so er-
ratic and subtle as to confound the most skillful, the results
are so different from what he expected. The great dififerences
thus resulting in some instances from even skillful breeding
are doubtless the outcome of laws that are apparently antago-
nistic, but not really so. They are only apparently so because
they are not yet sufficiently understood. It may be that they
never will be, but, happily for the breeder, the results from the
proper application of principles, that are now well understood,

ifc.

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 163

are so regular and uniform, that the man who diligently ap-
plies them will, with unfailing certainty, so improve the aver-
age of the animals in his stud, herd or flock, that they will be
brought to a higher level.

The known laws that govern breeding are three in number.
They are known respectively as the law that like produces like,
the law of variation and the law of atavism. The first and
second of these laws are apparently antagonistic. The third,
like a pendulum in operation, swings between the two.

The law that like produces like, means that the progeny
shall be like the parents, not an exact facsimile, for two parents
are never found exactly alike, but in all essential features there
will be a close resemblance. This resemblance will, with more
or less of uniformity, extend to the physical form, to function,
to habit, to disposition, and indeed to every feature of the or-
ganization. This law is the great Magna Charta of the breeder.
The results from the operation of this law are by no means
uniform. They will be nearly so, however, in proportion as the
parents have been purely bred, in proportion as they have been
bred in line without having reached the danger point of weak-
ened stamina, and in proportion as the parents are strong and
vigorous.

The law of variation, or the law that like does not always
produce like, is apparently antagonistic to the law of likeness.
It means that the progeny shall not always be like the parents.
Though apparently antagonistic to the first law, it may be sim-
ply a part of the same, the differences being the result of modi-
fying factors in transmission as yet not well understood, and
until understood, beyond the control of man. In breeding
pure blood animals, these differences are not usually very well
marked, though they are constantly present. Sometimes they
are very great, as when, for instance, the progeny of horned
parents are hornless, but such variations are of infrequent oc-
currence. Some have claimed that in transmission, variations
are more constant and greater than resemblances, in other
words, the second law of breeding operates more strongly than
the first law. In breeding pure bred animals, this is not true.
If it were so, the breeder would be on an uncertain sea; with-
out sail or rudder. The only improvement that he could make
would be through selection.

164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

The presence of the law of variation is by no means in-
herently adverse to improvement in breeding. The result de-
pends first, on the character of the variation, and second, on
the disposition made of the animals which thus vary. Varia-
tions are sometimes downward, in other instances they are up-
ward. . When downward, the animals should be eliminated.
When upward, they should be retained for breeding. Were it
not for variations in the direction of improvement, advance in
breeding would be impossible. Viewed from this standpoint,
the law of variation is a blessing rather than the thorn which
it sometimes proves to be.

The law of atavism is the law which, in transmission, de-
termines that the progeny shall be like some remote ancestor.
It is probably a branch of the first law of breeding acting in
an erratic way. Like the law of variation, it is a disturbing
factor in breeding. But it is more disturbing than the former,
in that it introduces variations that are undesirable. It resur-
rects from out the dead past what the breeders have been
trying to eliminate. The frequent occurrence of a white calf
in the breeding of Shorthorns which the breeders have been
trying to avoid for generations, illustrates the disturbing char-
acter of this law. It may be that its existence is intended to
compel the breeder to give careful attention to purity in blood
lines, since its power wanes in proportion to the increase in
the duration of the period covered by pure breeding.

Having thus briefly outlined these laws, the effort will be
made to enlarge on some feature of their practical application
to the operations of the breeder, and also of every farmer who
breeds even one animal on his farm. The points that will be
more particularly dwelt upon are those which relate to the
evidence of prepotency in sires, to the improvement of live-
stock through upgrading, and to the futility of promiscuous
breeding in so far as it relates to the improvement of live
stock.

Prepotency means the power possessed by a parent to trans-
mit individual and breed properties to the progeny. The
measure of its strength, however, is more evidenced in the
former than the latter. Thus it is that prepotent sires produce
uniformity in the stud, herd, or flock. The uniformity thus
produced is proportionate to the prepotency of the sire and
the excellence of the uniformity is at least measurably propor-

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 165

tionate to the excellence of the individuality in the sire. The
importance, therefore, of possessing good and prepotent sires
cannot easily be overestimated. The truth that the sire is half
the herd is only a half truth. He is as much more than half
the herd as his prepotency exceeds that of each female parent
in the same.

But how may it be known that a sire is prepotent before his
prepotency has been actually proved, as evidenced in the off-
spring. The answer to this question is of all absorbing in-
terest to the breeder, for sires are usually chosen before they
have begotten progeny. This raises the question as to the
probable guarantee of prepotency. These include purity of
breeding ; line breeding in degree and individual vigor.

Other things being equal, a sire is prepotent in proportion
to the duration of the time that he has been bred pure. This
result follows from the continuous increase in the dominant
blood elements wdth increase in duration in breeding without
the introduction of alien blood. Whether there is a time limit
to this increase is as ^-et an unsettled question. In other words,
it is not yet certain that an animal from an ancestry bred pure
for a thousand years will be appreciably more prepotent than
an animal bred from an ancestry kept equally pure for five
hundred years. These dominant blood elements having be-
come thus fixed and stable, are transmitted with at least reas-
onable certainty to the progeny.

Other things being equal, a sire is visually prepotent in pro-
portion as he is line bred or otherwise. Line bred means bred
within the limits of one family for at least several generations.
The closer the relationship at the outset of the line breeding
and the longer the duration of such breeding, the more prepo-
tent the sire is likely to be. For instance, suppose a Shorthorn
sire is chosen from the Missie family of Cruikshank Shorthorns.
If the said sire is chosen amid progeny bred for generations
from Missie sires and dams, no other Shorthorn blood mean-
while having been introduced, the line is likely to be more pre-
potent than if drawn from progeny whose ancestry included
members of various families of Chuikshank Shorthorns.

Other things being equal, prepotency is strong in propor-
tion as the sire is possessed of inherent vigor. This is in keep-
ing with that other observed fact, that usually prepotency is
stronger in an animal when at that age in which bodily vigor

l66 BOARD OF AGRICU-LTURE. [Jan.,

is greatest, rather than at an earlier or a later period in its life.
The evidences of bodily vigor are form and action. The latter
is usually spoken of as carriage, and, as an evidence of pre-
potency, it is probably some more important than bodily form.
The evidences of bodily vigor are such as relate to strength
and vigor for the breed. The most prominent of these, prob-
ably, is not chest size so much as chest capacity. Vigor in
action may be nicely illustrated by observing the carriage of a
Southdown male. The vigorous male steps quickly. He car-
ries his head proudly. His full eye observes everything. The
slightest sound causes him to prick up his ears. Such a male
purely bred, is almost certain to be prepotent.

But what is meant by other things being equal? Simply
this, that with each of the indications mentioned, the other in-
dications shall be present in at least fair degree, and that the
parents and progeny shall both be sustained with suitable food,
fed in liberal but not in excessive supply. For instance, long
purity of breeding will count far more if linked with line breed-
ing and bodily vigor, and so of each of the other indications,
and all these will be more potent v/hen the feeding and man-
agement are favorable to high development.

In addition to the indications mentioned, the performance
of the immediate ancestors for several generations should be
carefully noted. By performances is meant what the animals
have done in speed attainment, milk, meat or wool production,
according to the end for which they are kept. Nor should the
fact be lost sight of, that high performance in the ancestry is
valuable as it is near, and less valuable as it is remote. High
performance in the immediate parent of a sire is of great value,
but high performance in an ancestor of ten generations in the
upw^ard line of ascent is of but little account. This will be
readily apparent when it is remembered that the blood prop-
erties of an ancestor of ten generations, previously, are only
present in an infinitesimal degree.

The claim, therefore, that an animal traces to some famous
ancestor of many generations back, is of but little account. It
can only deceive those who do not know. Excellence in per-
formance in the near ancestry is not only valuable, but it is val-
uable in proportion as it is uniform in the near ancestry and far
reaching in its comprehensiveness. By uniformity is meant
evenness of performance in all the near generations, and by

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 167

comprehensiveness, the extent to which various desired quali-
ties are present.

By upgrading is meant the improvement of common stocks
through the use of successive sires chosen from one and the
same pure breed. For instance, when common females, it may
be of mixed breeding-, are mated with a pure bred Holstein
sire, and when the female progeny continue to be thus mated
in succeeding generations, the produce are termed grade Hol-
steins, and when this line of breeding is continued for several
generations they are termed high-grade Holsteins. When good
and prepotent sires are chosen, it is, in a sense, wonderful how
quickly common stocks w^ill be improved, providing the food
given is suitable, and the care of the animals is proper.

When the process begins, mixed blood elements in the fe-
males is no detriment. It does not stand in the way of quick
improvement. In fact, the reverse may be true, since every ad-
ditional blood element lessens prepotency in the female. In
other words, the less purely bred she is, the less the power that
she will have to transmit her own properties. Consequently,
when mated with a purely bred prepotent sire, the preponder-
ance of resemblance in the progeny is to the sire. The prepond-
erance in all essential properties will come from him also, and in
both instances because of his superior prepotency.

Analyze . further this upgrading process. Suppose the
foundation female is a ewe secured from the range and that
she is possessed of the blood elements of a dozen different
breeds. She is mated with a prepotent Southdown male. Let
the difference in blood elements or properties between the
two at the outset be represented by one hundred. The first
thought would be that fifty per cent, of the properties or ele-
ments in the progeny would be inherited from the dam and the
same from the sire. That is not true. More than fifty per
cent, of those properties come from the sire, as many more
as the prepotency of the sire, in virtue of his purity of breed-
ing, exceeds that of the dam. Less than fifty per cent, of those
properties come from the dam, as many less as her prepotency
or power to transmit her properties is less than that of the sire,
as a result of her mixed breeding. The preponderance ir. prop-
erties in the progeny inherited from the sire will exceed those
inherited from the dam, as much as the power of the sire to
transmit his own properties because of his strong prepotency,

l68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

exceeds that of the dam to transmit hers, because of her weak
prepotency. This explains why in the first instance of such
mating, the progeny bear so strong a resemblance to the sire.

The difference in blood elements at the first, as previously
stated, may be represented by one hundred. Now, since the
progeny inherits far more largely in such breeding from the
sire, the difference in those blood elements will have been re-
duced more than fifty per cent. So far as the sire is concerned,
the progeny will be possessed of far more than fifty per cent,
of inherited properties from him. The exact per cent, repre-
sented by such inheritance cannot be exactly stated, but it
would be approximately correct to say that seventy-five per
cent, of properties in the progeny were inherited from the sire,
which would leave twenty-five per cent, of the same to be in-
herited from the dam. Thus a great stride has been made in
the very first mating. The difference in blood elements now
between the Southdown sire and progeny will be represented
by twenty-five instead of one hundred, as at the first.

Mate with a Southdown male again and the progeny of the
second generation will be possessed of approximately ninety
per cent, of Southdown properties ; of the third generation of
approximately ninety-seven per cent., and of the fourth gen-
eration, of approximately ninety-nine per cent. The progeny
of the fifth generation will, in individuality and useful proper-
ties, be practically equal to pure bred Southdowns. This won-
derful transformation may be accomplished in five generations
of such breeding. In other words, the entire common stocks
of farm animals in the United States could be transformed
within the time named into pure breds, that is, into animals
as good as pure breds, for practical uses. At the present time,
however, the supply of pure bred sires would be far too little
to accomplish such an end within the time.

Suppose that instead of pure Southdowns, grade South-
down sires had been used. If the prepotency of those sires in
each instance exceeded that of the dams with which they were
mated, then there would be improvement. The improvement
would be proportionate to the excess of that prepotency. But
even on the supposition that the prepotency of each Southdown
male was superior, variable elements would probably appear
in the progeny as the outcome of these elements in the sires,
and these would in some instances, at least, make improvements

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM, 169

slower, while such sires were used, the level of improvement
reached would never equal that made in the former instance,
and improvement would be made very much more slowly. The
advantage, therefore, and profit, from using only pure bred
sires is clearly apparent when these can be secured without
excessive cost.

Suppose again, that the Southdown sires had been inferior,
individually, though purely bred, what would have happened?
Why, because of their prepotency the result of the purity of
their breeding, they would sustain their own individual su-
periority in the progeny. This might not have followed in
some instances because of the influence of atavic transmission,
resulting in bequeathing properties to the progeny possessed
by superior ancestors. As a rule, however, the transmission
would more or less resemble the inferiority possessed by the
sire. The breeders of grades are usually content with a very
common or inferior pure bred, because of the cheaper cost,
but to invest in such is clearly a mistake. The place for all these
inferior sires is the block in the case of meat-making animals,
and in the dray or van in the case of horses. The breeder who
chooses sires thus, makes a grievous mistake. An inferior sire
is dear at any price. He is dear as a gift. The extent to which
such sires have been used by the breeders of grades has greatly
retarded live stock improvement.

The view so widely held that while the progeny of the first
mating are a great improvement on the females from which
they are bred, the progeny of the second mating and also of suc-
ceeding generations, is likely to be inferior, is a fallacy. In up-
grading, such a result would be clearly impossible. The im-
provement will be continuous until the level of the breed is
reached from which the sires are chosen. It is in cross-breed-
ing that such results sometimes follow, that is, when sire and
dam are mated each strong in the blood elements of a differ-
ent pure breed. In such instances, usually but not always, the
progeny is at least the equal of the sire or dam in useful prop-
erties, but not in prepotency. The improvement is probably
the result of the renovating influence that would seem to inhere
more or less in introduced alien blood. In succeeding genera-
tions, however, there may be a tendency to revert to one or the
other of the two breeds thus mated, thus leading to uncertainty
in the results and sometimes to retrogression.

I/O BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

What may be termed promiscuous breeding is the style of
breeding most commonly practiced. The average farmer
chooses a sire from a certain breed, it may be on the ground
of convenience or because the breed for the time being is popu-
lar. Soon another breed becomes popular, and a sire is chosen
from that breed. It may be that in a lifetime sires have been
used from half a dozen breeds.

Now see what this means. Suppose, for instance, a pure
Jersey sire is mated with a grade female of breeding that is
much mixed, far more than fifty per cent, of properties in the
progeny will be inherited from the Jersey. Suppose that now
a pure Holstein sire is used in mating with the females thus
begotten, the progeny will possess more than fifty per cent, of
Holstein properties, but the Jersey properties will be propor-
tionately eliminated. Suppose again that pure Shorthorn sires
are chosen to mate with the grade Holstein females, then more
than fifty per cent, of the properties will be Shorthorn, the
Holstein properties will be proportionately reduced' and the
Jersey properties will be still further eliminated. Those who
breed thus are like the man who, as. often as he walks up the
hill, walks down again, or like him who sails continuously in a
circle. At the end of a lifetime of such breeding, the breeder
will find himself just where he was when he started.

Upgrading is the true system of improving live stock.
Cross-breeding, that is, the mating of two distinct breeds, should
have but little place in the operations of the farmer. It may
be advantageous in some instances, as when the dams and their
progeny are to go to the block. It may be profitable, for in-
stance, to cross aged Merino ewes with males of some better
mutton breed, and to prepare both for the market by fatten-
ing them on rich pastures, but ordinarily such crossing should
stop with the first cross. To carry it further would, probably,
for a time at least, introduce elements of reversion.

But, it may be asked, are there no instances in which alien
blood may be introduced with animals that have been up-
graded? There are such instances, as when the animal thus
graded have partially lost some useful property or prop-
erties. It is possible to restore those properties or at least to
improve them greatly in some instances by the introduction of
an outcross, that is, by making one cross from sires of another
breed.

1906.] BREEDING ANIMALS ON THE FARM. 17I

This may be illustrated in the condition of many of the
high-grade herds of Poland Chinas in the corn belt at the pres-
ent time. Many of these have too little bone, too little stamina
and weakened breeding properties. One cross from sires of
either the large Yorkshire or Tamworth breeds would lead to
wonderful improvement along those lines. The breeders could
then fall back again upon Poland China blood if they desired
to do so. Such teaching may sound like rank heresy to some,
but that it rests on a sound basis, will be found by all who put
it to the test.

The way to improving the average stocks of the country
is therefore so plain that any can understand. It is so entirely
feasible that all may practice it and it is so inexpensive com-
paratively that every one may adopt it. But the thought should
ever be present, that in all upgrading the food must be adapted
to the needs of the animals, otherwise the improvement sought
will be hindered in proportion as such adaptation is lacking.

Now I do not know whether I have been talking to you,
farmers, in regard to anything you wanted to hear or not, or
about what will help you. I think I better find out, so I think
I better stop right here. I hope I am not through yet, but
I want the audience to do the rest. I forgot to say to you right
at the beginning, to think about this question, and if there are
any of the points in regard to this that are not clear to you,
be prepared to ask questions. Let your questions come in like
a shower. I do hope that you farmers will have a lot of ques-
tions to ask in regard to this important matter. I do not think
there is a more important matter relating to your work, or to
those who are engaged in the breeding of live stock, than this
very thing we are talking about this afternoon. Now let us
have your questions.

Mr. Manchester. I would like to ask the gentleman this :
We are breeding cattle and have been using pure bred Jersey
sires for the last twenty years. According to the theory you
are going on, our stock ought to be greatly improved. It has
been improved, but not over three out of five are any improve-
ment over the dam. Why is that so?

Prof. Shaw. You say not over three out of five?

172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Mr. Manchester. Not more than three out of five show
any improvement on the dam.

Prof. Shaw. You remember that we have been talking
about the law of variation. Now I suppose that explains it.
I hope that you are not going to tell me that your herd now
is not a pure bred herd, if you have been choosing pure bred
sires for twenty years. I hope you are not going to claim
that your herd is not as good as though they were pure bred,
I hope you will not say that.

Mr. Manchester. I could pick out a great deal better
pure bred herd.

Prof. Shaw. Of course, you knOw that breeding alone will
not do it. There must be careful selection.

Mr. Manchester. If that theory of yours is correct, why
are not all of them an improvement on the dam?

Prof. Shaw. Because of the operation of the law of varia-
tion. A man may be breeding from pure bred sires, and that
man may be breeding in the very best possible manner, and yet
probably one out of every three will not be as good. The prin-
cipal thing for a man to do in breeding that kind of stock is
to turn it off and save the best. There must be a constant se-
lection along with the improvement in breeding.

Question. What is the cause of the law?

Prof. Shaw. I could tell you better if I understood how
those animals were cared for.

Question. Is there any danger in using a thoroughbred
sire after keeping him one or two years that he may not be
prepotent? He may look all right but, unfortunately, may not
be prepotent for reasons that cannot be seen.

Prof. Shaw. That is a good thought. It is true, you may
get a sire that is not prepotent, and who may be purely bred.
There is another mistake that farmers make sometimes. They
sometimes get a pure bred sire that is prepotent, but he is an
inferior individual. He has prepotency of the wrong kind. A
sire of that kind is dangerous. You remember when I was

1906.] DISCUSSION. 173

talking, I presupposed that every sire chosen was good. A
farmer should not use an inferior sire.

Question. I would like to ask one question. How many
sires were used in getting that result of ninety-nine good points
of the same blood as the improved breed? That is, how many
different sires were used in order to get that result?

Prof. Shaw. Five.

Question. How could anybody tell? How could you get
back to the blood of the original sire anywhere in that line ?

Prof. SHAW^ That depends on the man who is doing the
work. I do not recommend it for a man who is not well versed
in that work. He is very apt to make a mistake, but it can
be done.

Question. In other words, if we have a good sire this
year, and next year a heifer should be bred to another sire,
and the following heifer bred to still another sire, and so on
down the line, do you get back to the original blood at all?

Prof. Shaw. That is the safest line of breeding, in my
judgment. The other line may be adopted. A skillful man
may adopt it. I might have attained this result by using simply
three sires.

The President. Do you think that this rule is invariable ?
As I understand it, you say there is an invariable rule, but it
does not seem to work always.

Prof. Shaw. The law of variation is always unquestion-
ably operating.

Mr. Stadmueller. I would like to ask a question as to
how much the progress of breeding has been helped by not
paying any attention to negative results? That is, suppose we
select a sire, a prepotent sire, who has sired possibly a dozen
cows of superior merit — doesn't that go to demonstrate some
ability of the strain ?

Prof. Shaw. I do not know that I understand the question.
How do you explain that? Is that it?

Mr. Stadtmueller. In other words, do we not exagger-

174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

ate our knowledge in general regarding breeding? Do we
know very much about it as long as we get negative results?
For instance, take a certain sire, and say that ninety per cent.
of his progeny is excellent, I am afraid that the records would
show that only a very small per cent, of the greatest sires that
ever lived have amounted to anything.

Prof. Shaw. I think I understand you. You are quite
correct now. You mean where the prepotency is maintained
in a remarkable degree? That is certainly true. It is rare.
It is easy to find it in a fair degree, but not in a remarkable
degree. In one case out of twenty-seven sires, I think only
five were remarkably prepotent, the rest were only ordinarily
prepotent.

Secretary Brown. I would like to ask Professor Shaw
whether the result produced there is the result of theory or
practice. Is that the practical result which is attained?

Prof. Shaw. Why, gentlemen, I have already told you
this : We began at the Minnesota station with a range ewe,
very common grade of sheep. The blood all mixed up. We
have no other animals bred quite as the range sheep are. We
began some experiments at the Minnesota station. We used
pure bred Southdown sires, the best that we could get. The
Southdown is a mutton sheep. In three generations we beat
the world at Chicago. Mark you, it was not in five generations
but in three, and with that kind of breeding. That shows
whether the theory holds good in practice.

Mr. Phelps. I think now we are getting to the meat of
the whole question. The Professor made the statement that
in five generations he will produce a herd, by breeding graded
stock, which would be just as good as a thoroughbred herd.
I think possibly Prof. Shaw can do it, but I do not believe that
five per cent, of the farmers of the State of Connecticut can
or will do it. Now we have an instance here of a young far-
mer, whom I have known for a number of years, who has been
working to upbuild his herd. He has been breeding from Jer-

1906.] DISCUSSION. 175

sey thoroughbred sires, and yet he says that only two out of
five of the offspring have shown improvement over their dams.
Now either the theory is wrong, or else the theory and the
practice do not agree.

Prof. Shaw. Now just wait a moment. On what lines
were those sires chosen? That is an important question.

Mr. Phelps. I think that now we are getting to the heart
of the matter. I think in five generations the average man will
not produce a herd of graded stock that will be anywhere near
equal to a herd of thoroughbreds, that the same man might
probably produce, and I think it is owing to this reason. If he
pays good money for a few thoroughbred females, he will be
very ready to go out and pay a good, big sum of money for a
sire to mate with such females. The average farmer has a
herd of graded cattle which he knows to be worth from forty
to fifty dollars, and he is not apt to use that care, and that fore-
thought, and the amount of cash necessary, to get the kind of
sire he ought to have. On the other hand, if he does not hesi-
tate to pay for and use the right kind of a sire to mate with his
grades, the result is much different. That, sometimes, is the
reason why a man using thoroughbreds on both sides " gets
there " faster than the man working with thoroughbreds on
one side only.

Prof. Shaw. I did not say that he won't get there faster.
I only say that what I have indicated is what the other man
could do.

Mr. Phelps. But I do not believe that five per cent, of
the farmers of Connecticut will do it.

Prof. Shaw. I have shown you that it can be done in
three generations.

Mr. Stadtmueller. I am sorry that the gentleman who
has been referred to has been obliged to leave the hall, because
I believe he is a very good exponent of the very doctrine that
Prof. Shaw has been promulgating this afternoon. He has
been working upon the same identical theory. He has bred his

176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

animals by using pure bred sires, and the proof that the theory
works out in actual practice, is that he admits, on the whole,
that his herd is better. Now, from my personal knowledge
of the case, and from what I have heard him state at insti-
tutes, and from personal statements he has made to me, I am
safe in saying that his herd has a larger product in butter fat,
and in the production of fine butter than the average herd of
thoroughbred Jerseys. He has accomplished every result that
Prof. Shaw insists may be accomplished, but the average far-
mer of the State of Connecticut cannot afford to come to the
thoroughbred cow, because it requires more capital, and in
the general market, the product of the thoroughbred cow will
not bring one cent more. That brings about a condition that
we must remember. We are not going to help the average
farmer by preaching to him the necessity of starting out with
thoroughbred dams. He cannot do it. I am very glad of the
explanation which has been given here this afternoon by the
gentleman.

We ought not to forget the fact that we are bound to have
some disappointments in breedings thoroughbreds. I have
been breeding thoroughbreds for over twenty years, and out
of every five, even with thoroughbreds, there are quite a pro-
portion that are not successful.

Mr. Phelps. I believe that both gentlemen are right. I
believe, however, that we cannot afford to preach the doc-
trine that thoroughbred stock should not be kept by the aver-
age farmer, or, at least, by many more than now do keep it.
I think, if a man is endeavoring to build up a good grade herd,
the very best thing he can do is to mix in with that herd a
small number of 'thoroughbred females, and then to breed
the majority of his herd along grade lines, using, however, the
same bull on the thoroughbred females that he does on the
grade animals. Gradually, he will thus work from graded
stock to thoroughbred stock, and then he will have a desirable

1906.] DISCUSSION. . 177

product, and, not only a desirable, but a salable class of off-
spring.

Prof. Shaw. Mr. Chairman, I am exceedingly thankful
for the side-lights that have been let in on this question by the
last two speakers. I would like to say in this connection that
I do not want to discourage the breeding or sale of pure bred
females. I would rather that all animals in America were pure
bred or registered stock than to have them as they are, but what
I wanted particularly to represent to this meeting was this :
That while perhaps nineteen farmers out of twenty have not the
money to buy pure bred females, they do have the money, as
a rule, to buy one male, and that if a farmer has a large herd,
he can effect a tremendous improvement in that herd in that
way. Now the suggestion made is perfectly correct, but I say
let him introduce the pure bred blood as he can. If he cannot
do any better than that, then introduce it as he can by intro-
ducing pure bred females. I would recommend that, however,
only under this condition, that if he finds he has made a suc-
cess of his graded stock. If he has not made a success of his
grading he has no business to touch the thoroughbred stock,
for he will make less of a success with the pure bred if he has
has not been making a success with the graded cattle.

A Member. I would not object to it, provided the females
had good strong stamina. I am a great stickler for stamina.
I believe, gentlemen, that the difficulty with many of the pure
bred sir^s today, is that we do not get stamina. If our animals
are possessed of strong stamina of the right kind, we can
use them to breed from.

Mr. Phelps. Do you object to vicious sires, provided they
are properly handled, for use in breeding stock ?

Prof. Shaw. Well, I would like to know what causes the
viciousness. There is a viciousness that is inherited. I do not
like that. There is also a viciousness that is caused by a man
who does not know how to handle that animal. If it arises
from any such source as that, I would not object to breeding
Agr. — 12

178 . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

from such an animal as long as the animal did not endanger
somebody's life. It goes to show that such a sire has the right
kind of vigor, such as I have been talking about. I do not like
inherited viciousness, and would not recommend breeding from
such a bull.

Mr. Phelps. Are not some of the very best sires vicious
sires ?

Prof. Shaw. Yes sir, they are.

Mr. Sedgwick. In breeding thoroughbreds, why do we
get such a lack of uniformity in milk production among heifers
of a given strain of blood ? I have two three-year-old heifers,
who are from two cows who are sisters by the same bull. The
mothers are both what you might call smaller than the average
as milkers. Both of these heifers came in about the same time
and looked very much alike. One of them dried out at the
end of three or four months. She did not hold out well in her
milk at all. The other one continued for a year, and shows a
tendency to a large yield or flow of milk still.

Now one thing further. I have bred Holstein cattle for the
last twenty-five years, and I have noticed that same thing in
thoroughbreds all the way along the line. It is an exceptiori
when you get an extra good heifer from among them. Why
is that ?

Prof. Shaw. There is no man in the United States that
can answer that question. We simply have to recognize the
fact. It is the outcome of the working of the law of variation,
but why it is an outcome of the law of variation we cannot be
quite sure. It may arise from the food, to some extent, or it
may arise from exposure. From elements of that kind.

Mr. Sedgwick. I have had precisely the same result from
breeding what you might call scrubs ; from these old red cattle
of Connecticut. It seems to be impossible to get a uniform
type that will increase the milk product in all instances.

Prof. Shaw. You cannot get any class of animals that will
be uniform in producing good performances. There will al-

1906.] DISCUSSION. 179

ways be variations. That never has been done since the world
began. Whether it ever will be, I do not know.

Question. I would like to ask the speaker if the progeny
get their milk-producing power from the sire? Is that gener-
ally an acknowledged fact ?

Prof. Shaw. I do not know whether you all heard that
question. The gentleman asks the question whether the milk-
ing qualities are inherited from the sire or are they partly in-
herited from the sire and partly from the dam? I can answer
that only in this way : that prepotence is always inherited from
the animal that is the more prepotent. Whichever one is the
more prepotent, the inheritance will be from that end. It is
usually from the sire, because the sire is most always the more
prepotent, but I would say right here that I am a beHever in the
fact that a male as such transmits such properties to the female.
The female also transmits certain properties.

A Member. A man must use his eyes in breeding cattle.
I have had considerable experience in breeding. I bred for sev-
eral years from graded bulls, and afterwards used a thorough-
bred bull, which was not registered, and which was supposed
to be selected with great care. It came from some of the most
fashionable stock in the State of Wisconsin, but that bull
proved worthless to breed from. He was a thoroughbred
bull, but simply because he was not registered, did not have
the standing of thoroughbred registered stock. Every farmer
that wants to spend his money for a thoroughbred sire has got
to choose wisely, or he is going to lose.

Prof. Shaw. That is a very good point.

A Member. Can that be stated again? We did not hear
that question back here.

Prof. Shaw. The substance of the statement of the gentle-
man is that a graded sire had been used, and afterwards un-
registered sires chosen with very great care, and the results
from the former were better than the results from the latter.
I can readily understand how that would be possible, because

l8o BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

you know if an animal is bred after the method I have been
talking about for, say, about ten generations, even then you
cannot get that animal recorded according to the rules in force
now in any herd book. That sire, bred in that way, and partic-
ularly chosen, might be better than any registered sire. I will
admit that.

Mr. Phelps. There is one very important lesson brought
out right there, and that is, that a pedigree is nothing more or
less than a record of the ancestry of an animal, and may be
worth two cents, and it may be worth two hundred dollars.
There may be an instance where an animal has no pedigree,
simply because there was no printed record kept of the ances-
try of the animal, yet it would not hurt the animal for breeding
purposes. On the other hand, there are many animals w^ith
big, long pedigrees, w^hich are of little value either for their
direct product or their offspring.

A Member. I have listened with a good deal of pleasure
to the statement which the Professor has made concerning his
success at the international stock show, with his Southdown
sheep, and I would like to ask this question. I am not a stock
breeder, but I am curious if you are going to breed animals,
for instance, mutton sheep, to send to the international stock
show, would you, if you were going to do that again, select
dams from range sheep and breed them with a fine South-
down, or would you breed the Southdown pure?

Prof. Shaw. I would rather prefer the former course.

A Member. With the native range sheep ?

Prof. Shaw. Yes, and I will tell you why. There is no
harm in introducing a little alien blood. That is very apt to
strengthen the strain. Now I am ready to quarrel with all the
live stock associations in the L'nited States on this point, but no
matter about that now. If an animal is bred for twenty gen-
erations in that way you cannot get that animal recorded in
any herd book. I think it is a damage to the breeding interests,
but perhaps that caution may be necessary. Be that as it may.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 181

a little alien blood gives stamina and generally increases the
size, and does not prevent grading the stock up to a thorough-
bred standard, provided it is chosen in the right way.

A Member. Could you, with your experience and your
ability in choosing Southdown ewes, if you picked them out and
bred them with your Southdown bucks, couldn't you get as
good results as to go out on the range and use the same num-
ber of range animals?

Prof. Shaw. Well, I think there would not be much dif-
ference, but it would depend upon the range of choice that I
had. I think it could be done. Of course, it could be done
more quickly. If you took the other course, you would have
to breed through three or four generations.

A Member. But you are going to spend six or eight years
in getting your high-grade stock that way where it might have
been attained by the first course, are you not?

Prof. Shaw. I do not say I would rather do that. I say
it can be done that wav.

A ]\Iember. How long will it take you to get that ninety-
nine and two-thirds per cent, animal, how many years after you
start?

Prof. Shaw. Five. There it is on the blackboard.

Q. Do you get those five generations in five years?

Prof. Shaw. I beg your pardon, but it would take at
least ten years,

Q. Then why couldn't you start with a few good, well-
bred animals and get more money in ten years by breeding than
you are able to get by that plan? Is it not possible? I am
asking practical questions, and not trying to bring up any side-
light discussions.

Prof. Shaw. There may be some farmers present who
have some two-thirds Jersey cows, we will say, today. There
may be others present who .have scrubs. Now the man who
has the two-thirds Jersey, if he wants to improve his stock, he
has got that much further on than the other man, and he will

l82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

get to the perfection point so much the quicker because he is
two-thirds of the way now. You see the point.

O. What is the expense of such a sire as you speak of,
and where would I go to work to find such a sire?

Prof. Shaw. It is impossible to answer that question defi-
nitely. The price might run all the way from fifty dollars to
five hundred dollars. Of course, it would be absolutely ab-
surd for an ordinary farmer to buy a five hundred dollar sire
for a common herd, but I think he might afiford, probably, to
pay a hundred dollars, and, generally speaking, good sires of
that kind can be gotten for near that price. For thorough-
bred sires, of course, a man has to pay more.

Mr. TiLLiNGHAST. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the
Professor if what he has said about animals would apply to
poultry. Would the same law govern in poultry breeding?

Prof. Shaw. I am almost sorry that the gentleman put
that question. Inasmuch as he puts it, I will answer it, but it
conflicts with what I heard on this platform a little while ago.
I should answer unhesitatingly yes, but I heard the statement
from this platform, if I understood the speaker aright, and I
am sorry he is not here to correct me, if I am mistaken — I
heard him say that cross breeding, which is just the kind of
grading I am talking about, would give seventeen cent eggs
instead of forty cent eggs. I cannot understand that, gentle-
men. I think I would rather trust to cross breeding to im-
prove my stock, whether animals or poultry.

The President. This convention will stand adjourned un-
til seven-thirty this evening.

EVENING SESSION.

December 13, 1905.
Music.

Convention called to order at 8 p. m., Vice-President See-
ley in the chair.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. 183

The President. We are to have a stereopticon address this
evening, the subject of which is " How shall we attract useful
birds about our farm homes." Dr. Edward Howe Forbush,
of \\'areham, Mass., is the gentleman who will give the address,
and he is now on the platform. I take great pleasure in intro-
ducing him to you.

HOW SHALL WE ATTRACT USEFUL BIRDS ABOUT

OUR FARM HOMES.

By Edward Howe Forbush, Wareham, Mass.

Horace Greeley once said that the farmer who allows a
man to shoot his birds would be just as consistent were he to
allow him to shoot his cattle, for one is of as much value as
the other. While this may be an extreme statement, it is prob-
able that were all the birds destroyed the consequences would
be quite as serious to the farmer as would be the destruction of
all his cattle. Few people realize the value of the services that
birds render to man in checking the multiplication of insect life.

When we fully appreciate the number, the fecundity, and
the consuming powers of insects they assume an economic
importance greater than can be accorded to the ravening beast
of prey. Let us consider briefly the potency for evil that lies
hidden in the tiny but innumerable eggs of injurious insects
which require only the summer sun to give them destructive life.

The number of insect species is greater by far than that of
all other living creatures combined. ( More than three hundred
thousand already have been described.) There are many
thousands of undescribed species in museums. Dr. Lintner,
the late distinguished State Entomologist of New York, con-
sidered it not improbable that a million species of insects would
be found in existence. The number of individual insects is be-
yond human computation. Dr. Lintner says that he saw at a
glance, in a small extent of roadway near Albany, more indivi-
duals of a single species of snow-flea, as computed by him, than
there are human beings on the face of the earth. A small
cherry tree, ten feet in height, was found by Dr. Fitch to be in-
fested with an aphis or plant-louse. He estimated, first count-
ing the number of these insects on a leaf, the number of leaves

184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

on a branch, and the number of branches on the tree, that there
were twelve million plant-lice on that tree ; and it was only one
tree of a row similarly infested. To give the reader an approxi-
mate idea of the number of insects on the tree, it was stated that
were a man to count them singly and as rapidly as he could
speak, it would require eleven months' labor at ten hours a day
to complete the enumeration.

Insects are enormously reproductive, and were the progeny
of one pair allowed to reproduce without check they would
cover, in time, the entire habitable earth. The rapidity of
propagation as shown in some insects is, perhaps, without a
parallel in the animal world. In order to give some idea of
the powers of multiplication of the Colorado potato beetle,
the Canadian Entomologist states that all its transformations
are effected in fifty days, so that the progeny of a single pair,
if allowed to increase without molestation, would amount, in
one season, to over sixty millions. Speaking of the power of
multiplication shown by plant-lice, or aphids, Dr. Lintner says
that Professor Riley, in his studies of the hop vine aphis
{PJwrodon humuli) has observed thirteen generations of the
species in the year. Now if we assume the average number of
young produced by one female to be one hundred, and that
every individual attains maturity and produces its full com-
plement of young (which, however, never occurs in nature),
the number of the twelfth brood alone, not counting those of
all the preceding broods of the same year, would be 10,000,000,-
000.000,000,000,000 (ten sextillions) of individuals. Where,
as in this instance, figures fail to convey any adequate concep-
tion of numbers, let us take space and the velocity of light as
measures. Were this brood marshaled in line with ten indi-
viduals to a linear inch, touching one another, the procession
would extend to the sun (a space which light traverses in
eight minutes) and beyond it to the nearest fixed star (trav-
ersed by light only in six years), and still onward in space
beyond the most distant star that the strongest telescope may
bring to our view, to a point so inconceivably remote that light
could only reach us from it in twenty-five hundred years. The
smallest approach to such unchecked multiplication on the part
of this insect might paralyze the hop-growing industry. Wliile
the aphids may represent the extreme of fecundity, there are
thousands of insect species, the unchecked increase of any one

MR. DIKE, WHO FEEDS THE WILD BIRDS ABOUT HIS HOME, IS HERE SHOWN
WITH A CHICKADEE EATING SEEDS FROM HIS CAP.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. 185

of which would soon overrun a continent. Kirkland has com-
puted that the unrestricted increase of the gypsy moth would
be so g-reat that the progeny of one pair would be numerous
enough in eight years to devour all the foliage in the United
States.

Many insects are remarkably destructive because of the enor-
mous amount of food which they must consume to grow rapidly
to maturity. ]\Iany caterpillars eat daily twice their weight of
leaves, which is as if an ox were to devour every twenty-four
hours three-quarters of a ton of grass. Their voracity and
rapid growth may be shown by the statement of a few facts :
A certain flesh-feeding larva will consume, in twenty-four
hours, two hundred times its original weight; a parallel to
which, in the human race, would be an infant consuming, in
the first day of its existence, fifteen hundred pounds of food.
There are vegetable feeders, caterpillars, that during their pro-
gress to maturity within thirty days, increase in size ten thou-
sand times. To equal this remarkable growth, a man at his ma-
turity would have to weigh forty tons. Mr. Leopold Trouve-
lot, who introduced the gypsy moth into this country, says:
" The food taken by a single American silkworm {Telea Poly-
phemus) in fifty-six days equals in weight eighty-six thousand
times the primitive weight of the worm." In view of such
statements, need we wonder that the insect world is so de-
structive and so potent a power for harm !

When we consider the dangers arising from the immense
numbers, fecundity, and voracity of insects, the fact that
insects new to cultivated crops are constantly appearing be-
comes a source of grave apprehension. Every year economic
entomologists, who are constantly increasing our knowledge
regarding insect pests, discover new insects attacking important
crops or trees. Dr. Lintner made a list of insects injuring
apple trees in the United States, which was published in the
appendix to his first report as entomologist of New York state.
It contained one hundred and seventy-six species, while large
though lesser numbers have been found on the plum, pear,
peach, and cherry. Dr. Packard described four hundred and
forty-two species which prey upon our -oaks, and believed it not
impossible that ultimately the number of species found on the
oaks of the United States would be from six to eight hundred or
even one thousand. The list of insects which feed on grasses,

l86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

cereals, field and garden crops is very large and constantly
growing, for it is continually receiving accessions both from
native and foreign sources.

The destructiveness of some of these insects is so enormous
as to amount to a heavy annual tax on the people of the United
States. Hence, since the first settlement of the country, the
amount of this annual tax has been increasing. In September,
1868, Professor D. B. Walsh, editor of the American Entomol-
ogist, estimated that the country then suffered from the depre-
dations of noxious insects to the amount of three hundred
million dollars annually. By the census of 1875, the agricul-
tural products of this country w^ere valued at two billion five
hundred million dollars. Of this, amount, says Dr. Packard,
we, in all probability, annually lose over two hundred million
dollars from the attacks of injurious insects. In the report
of the Department of Agriculture for 1884, the losses occasioned
by insects injurious to agriculture in the United States, it is
said, are variously estimated at from three hundred million
dollars to four hundred million dollars annually. In 1890,
Professor C. V. Riley, in response to a letter of inquiry, stated
that no very recent estimate of the injury done to crops by
insects had been made, but that he had estimated some time
previously that the injury to agriculture by insects in the
United States exceeded three hundred million dollars annually.
Mr. James Fletcher, in his annual address as president of the
Society of Economic Entomologists, in Washington, in 1891,
stated that the agricultural products of the United States were
then estimated at about three billion eight hundred million
dollars. It was believed that a sum equal to about one-tenth this
amount, or three hundred and eighty million dollars, was lost
through the ravages of injurious insects. The latest calcula-
tion of the loss occasioned by insect injury in the United States
which has come to my notice is that of Dr. C. L. Marlatt, who,
"by careful estimates, approximates the percentage of loss to
cereal products, hay, cotton, tobacco, truck crops, sugars, fruits,
forests, miscellaneous crops, animal products, and products
in storage. Dr. Marlatt attributes a loss of eighty million dol-
lars to the corn crop alone, and approximates the loss to the
wheat crop at one hundred millions each year. The injury
done to the hay crop is estimated at five hundred and thirty
thousand dollars, while the codling moth alone is believed to

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. 187

injure fruit crops to the amount of twenty million dollars. His
statement, based on the value of farm products as given in the
Reports of the Bureau of Statistics of the United .States
Department of Agriculture for 1904, gives the loss from insect
depredations for that year as seven hundred and ninety-five
million one hundred thousand dollars, and this is believed to be
a conservative estimate of the tax now imposed by injurious
insects on the people of the United States, without reckoning
the millions of dollars that are expended annually in labor and
insecticides in prosecuting the fight against insects.*

In considering the losses caused by insect pests, and the
possibility of preventing them, it is well for us first to observe
how nature, if left to herself, provides a system of checks, which
in the forest or wilderness operate to maintain the balance of
life so nicely that, ordinarily, neither low-growing plants,
shrubbery, nor trees, suffer greatly from the attacks of insects.

First, birds, bats, other insectivorous mammals, batrachians,
reptiles, and predaceous insects, feed upon injurious insects,
and thus hold their increase in check. These are the primiary
controlling agencies. When these fail, parasitic insects,
increasing, attack the insect hosts, and when these also prove
ineffective — when vegetation is destroyed and the food supply
•exhausted — disease and starvation kill off the swarming in-
sects and give vegetation a chance to renew itself. These latter
agencies, which are so effective under natural conditions, are
of less immediate service to the farmer, however, in checking
injurious insects than are the birds, for, although parasites,
disease or starvation, ultimately check many great outbreaks of
injurious insects, these most effective checks do not avail until
such insects are most numerous, usually in the second year
of their abundance, when it is too late to save the crops. The
birds, on the contrary, form a mobile standing army, that can
Tje concentrated at once upon any insect outbreak, reducing it
before it has done much harm. This quelling of insect inva-
sions by birds is a common occurrence, but is seldom noticed
for the reason that birds often suppress the insect uprising
before it has become apparent to common observation, or has
done any considerable injury. The instances where birds fail
to check insect outbreaks at once attract attention, for then

* "The annual loss occasioned by destructive insects in the United States," by C.
i. Marlatt, Year book, U.-S. Department of Agriculture, 1904, p. 464.

l88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

these uprisings soon become apparent because of the injury
they do. Birds would ordinarily hold in check all insects
which they eat with avidity were it not (i) that the birds have
been much reduced in numbers; (2) that man in planting and
cultivating crops makes conditions favorable for the propaga-
tion of insects and unfavorable to the increase of birds. Many
species of birds, especially game birds, are gradually disappear-
ing; a few are extinct. The farmer, by devoting large areas
to a special crop, and growing the same crops year after year,
offers the insects that infest those crops a splendid opportunity
to multiply, wdiile the cultivation of the field drives out the
birds that formerly nested there.

Birds are remarkably active and energetic creatures, having
a high temperature, rapid circulation and respiration, and re-
quiring a tremendous amount of food to sustain their activity
and repair the waste of the tissues.

Some of the smaller birds require only half an hour to an
hour and a half to digest a full meal, and the stomach is filled
many times each day. The rapidly growing young need far
more food in proportion to their size than do the old birds.
An adult crow will eat from five to eight ounces of food daily.
A young crow, nearly fledged, requires about ten ounces. Pro-
fessor Treadwell found that a young robin needed, daily, a
quantity of beef equal to one-half its own weight, or forty-
eight per cent, more than its own weight in worms, to secure its
healthy growth and development. Where insects are numerous,
birds eat them with almost incredible rapidity. INIy assist-
ant, Mr. F, H. Mosher, saw a pair of tanagers eat thirty-five
newly hatched caterpillars in a minute. They continued eating
these minute insects at this rate for eighteen minutes ; so that,
if Mr. Mosher's count is correct, they must have eaten in this
short time six hundred and thirty of the little creatures. This
would not make them a full meal, as the entire number would
hardly be equal in bulk to one full-grown caterpillar. By care-
fully watching two yellowthroats, and counting the plant-lice
they ate, he estimated that they destroyed seven thousand
within an hour, — a thing almost incredible, but still possible,
when we consider the exceedingly small size of the insects
at the time, their swarming numbers, the activity of the chicka-
dee, and its remarkably rapid digestion. Dr. Judd speaks
of a letter received from Mr. Robert H. Coleman, in which he

A HOME FOR A SCREECH OWL.

DOWNY WOODPECKER ATTRACTED TO
THE WINDOW BY SUET.

VIREO FEEDING HER YOUNci
(Photograph by C. A. Ueud.)

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. 189

says of a palm warbler that he watched, that it must have
killed nine thousand five hundred insects in about four hours.
These may be extreme cases, but even if we halve the numbers
given, they will still show the bird's possibilities for good.

The remarkable appetites of the young birds keep their
parents very busy. The old birds usually carry to the young
from one to twelve insects at each visit to the nest, although
some visits are made for other purposes. A pair of vireos
visited the nest one hundred and twenty-five times in ten
hours. A pair of chippies made nearly two hundred visits to
their young in a day. Two martins have been seen to visit
their young three hundred and twelve times in fourteen hours.
A pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks made four hundred and
thirty-six calls at the nest in eleven hours. House wrens have
been seen to enter their nest from thirty to seventy-one times
an hour.

If we turn for a moment to the records of the amount of
food found in birds' stomachs by dissection, we can see at once
why they are such effective checks on the increase of insects.
A large part of the alimentary canal is often packed with food.
The stomach of a bird is not seldom found to contain, as Pro-
fessor Beal remarks, enough food to form a pile " two or three
times as large as the original stomach with food all in it."
Where birds have no crop or special enlargement of the gullet,
to contain an extra supply of food, the whole gullet is used for
this purpose, and when favorite food is abundant the bird will
fill itself to the throat. The amount of food found in the stom-
achs of birds, as given by the investigators connected with the
United States Biological Survey, seems large, but anyone can
verify the statements made by examining the stomachs for
himself, for they are all preserved and kept for reference.
Professor Beal found in the stomach of a yellow-billed cuckoo
two hundred and seventeen fall web worms, and in another
two hundred and fifty American tent caterpillars. Two flickers
were found to have eaten respectively three thousand and five
thousand ants. Sixty grasshoppers were found in one night-
hawk's stomach, and Professor Harvey has found five hundred
mosquitoes in another. Seven thousand five hundred seeds of
wood sorrel had been eaten by a mourning dove, six thousand
four hundred by another, and nine thousand two hundred,
chiefly of weeds, were found in a third. Dr. Judd says that the

190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan.,

Stomachs of three bank swallows contained, altogether, two
hundred ants, and a nighthawk has been known to take a
thousand at a single meal. One thousand seven hundred seeds
of weeds had been taken at one feeding by a bob-white; three
thousand leguminous seeds were found in another, and no less
than five thousand seeds of pigeon grass were taken from a
third. Dr. Warren has taken twenty-eight cut-worms from
the stomach of a red-winged blackbird. Stomachs of snow-
flakes examined at the Biological Survey have contained from
five hundred to fifteen hundred weed seeds. Professor Forbes
took from the stomachs of seven cedar birds, or cherry birds,
nearly one hundred canker w^orms each. In a letter recently
received from Professor Beal he says that one hundred entire
beetles were found in the stomach of a cliff swallow ; that from
the stomach of a yellow-billed cuckoo there were taken the
remains of eighty-two caterpillars, each of which was origi-
nally from one to one and one-half inches long; another had
taken eighty-six, and from forty to sixty were found in several
others. From the stomach of a Franklin gull there were taken
seventy entire grasshoppers, and the jaws of ninety-five more,
showing that it had eaten one hundred and sixty-five grass-
hoppers. Another contained ninety grasshoppers and one hun-
dred and two additional jaws. Another contained sixty-eight
crickets. These grasshoppers and crickets were each more than
an inch in length. When we consider that the digestion of
birds is continuous, and that when food is plentiful the stom-
ach is filled many times each day, the effect that must be pro-
duced on the insects with which birds satisfy their appetites
will be more clearly understood. There are many records of
the benefits resulting from the insectivorous habits of birds,
and many others w-hich tell of the increase of injurious insects
which has followed the destruction of birds, but time will not
allow me to quote them here, for the chief question to be con-
sidered tonight is, " How shall we attract and protect the use-
ful birds about our homes ? "

He who is about to purchase a farm or country place may,
by keeping in mind the attractions which birds require, secure
a place naturally well adapted to their wants. Such a place
should be so situated as to provide shelter from cold northerly
winds and storms. It must be well watered, and partly wooded
with groves or patches of evergreen trees and windbrakes of

A CHICKADEE COMES TO MR. A. C. DIKE'S DOORSTEP AND ALIGHTS

UPON HIS KNEE.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. IQT

trees, shrubs, and vines. It should be near a small swamp, a
meadow, or large stream, which should also be sheltered by
woods or hills upon its north side. It should have a great di-
versity of wild vegetation, including a variety of fruit-bearing-
trees, shrubs and vines. If the place be situated in a broad
river valley, it is likely to be visited by many migrating birds.

Were I selecting a place with special reference to its fit-
ness to maintain bird life, I should prefer to have a large
portion of the land wooded. If there are too many trees, they
can be cut in much less time than it takes to grow them, and
those trees, shrubs and vines, especially attractive to desirable
birds, can be left. There should be an orchard with some trees
going to decay, thus furnishing homes for woodpeckers and
cavities for such birds as nest in them. There should also be
an old field, much pasture and mowing land, with cleared land
enough besides for garden and cornfield. As this is a brief
description of many New England farms, one need not go
far to find such a place.

The cultivated cherries are well known to be among the
most attractive of bird foods, and those who have enough
cherries for themselves and the birds are fortunate. Those
not well provided with cherries may protect their fruit by
planting the Russian mulberry or shadberry, for these fruits
ripen as early as the earliest cherries and appear to be preferred
by the birds. The greatest difficulty encountered in culti-
vating the shadberry, is that the birds get all the fruit. Since
I first learned, by my own experience in Medford, that birds
prefer mulberries to cherries, I have found that many farm-
ers and fruit growers have had a similar experience.

We may protect our fruit in this manner, but how shall
we get the best results from the presence of the birds? At
present birds are not often numerous enough to do more than
reduce somewhat the numbers of injurious insects. Birds have
abundant choice of insect food and are not compelled to make
a close search for their prey. Now if we can attract more
birds to our orchards than would ordinarily come there, and
keep them there, especially in winter, by supplying them with
a little inexpensive food to tide them over the storms, they
will search the trees so thoroughly that few insects will es-
cape. If we wish to secure the greatest good possible from
birds at points threatened with insect attack, we must maintain.

192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

there a larger bird population than the land will support un-
der ordinary conditions. How to do this with the least trouble
and expense becomes our next study. It is well to begin with
the winter birds, as they are of the utmost importance to the
farmer because of their destruction of weed seeds and hiber-
nating forms of insects. Insects lie dormant in some form for
six months or longer, each year, and so they cannot escape
the attacks of birds. The winter birds are obliged by necessity
to search them out. One bird can destroy, during a winter, at
least one hundred times as many insects in embryo as it can
in the same time in summer when the insects have grown
larger. In winter, the farmer is likely to have more time
to attend to birds than in summer, and at that time they most
need his help. No doubt thousands of birds are starved in
hard winters that might be saved with very little trouble on
the farmer's part.

It is very desirable to keep with us, so long as possible,
the many species of sparrows which pass through the country
on their way south in the fall, and to persuade some of them
to remain through the winter. Careless husbandry tends to
bring these birds about ; they gather to feed upon weed seeds
in neglected gardens and fields. But if we wish to have them
continue this good work all through the winter and spring,
they must be provided with food and shelter to which they can
resort during snow storms and afterward while the snow lies
deep, or when all vegetation is covered with a coating of ice
from driving sleet or freezing rain. Unless they are thus
provided for, they must either go farther south or succumb to
the inclemency of winter.

The sparrows prefer the shelter afforded by thickets, and
tangles of deciduous bushes and vines, such as are sometimes
found on the south side of a hill near the edge of a swamp,
A few brush piles will give them additional shelter. A little
chaff from the barn floor scattered in the dooryard, whenever
a flurry of snow covers the ground, will bring them about
the house. Where there are scratching sheds for poultry, with
the south side of each shed open except for its screen of poul-
try netting, the birds will find shelter and food on cold stormy
mornings. These sheds are strewn with straw or other litter,
which is likely to contain weed seeds, and fine particles of
grain overlooked by the fowls. In time the birds become bold

CHICKADEES (SEEN THROUGH THE WINDOW) FEEDING ON SUET.

A WINTER SHELTER FOR BIRDS.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I93

enough to enter the sheds even when the fowls are there, and
they will always resort to them in the early morning before
the hens are out. Birds readily pass through ordinary poultry
netting, and when once in the sheds they are safe from the at-
tacks of cats and hawks. Those who wish to provide any food
more attractive than the above, have their choice of the various
seeds sold at the bird stores.

Farmers should always grow sunflowers for the fowls.
These will attract goldfinches ; sunflower heads or the detached
seeds make a good winter bird food. If the farmer wishes
other bird food, he can give one or more of the children a
small patch of land near the house on which to raise Japanese
millet. This is merely a cultivated and improved variety of
barnyard grass (a common weed) and sparrows seem to be
fond of it. If sown broadcast on rich, moist soil, it will grow
from five to seven feet in height, and the large seed heads will
supply an immense quantity of seed. It takes but three or four
square rods of land to produce all the seed one will need for
birds in winter. A bushel or two ought to suffice for the birds
during an ordinary winter.

Winter is the time to feed jays and crows. If they do not
molest the smaller birds, they can do no harm in winter, and
they may do much good. In Massachusetts the jays are al-
ready learning to eat the larvae of that notorious pest, the
brown-tail moth, which hibernates in winter in " nests " upon
the limbs and twigs.

Hang up a bit of worthless meat in a tree. It should be
high enough from the ground to be out of reach of dogs and
far enough from the house so that the cautious crow will trust
his precious skin within the distance. The skinned carcass of
a fox or cat will do very well ; but it will not last long after the
crows find it. It should be so placed that they can find no con-
venient roost within reach of it, for it will then last the longer
and keep more crows from starvation. When the snow is deep
they will resort to it, and when the ground is more or less bare,
they will still remain and hunt field mice and hibernating in-
sects in the fields or the shrubbery along walls and fences.

Woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees are all attracted

by animal food. Juncos and tree sparrows will eat it during

deep snows when their usual food is buried. Unsalted bones

with meat, fat, or marrow attached, beef or mutton tallow, fat

Agr. — 13

194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.^

or suet, all may be used for this purpose. Uncleaned bones
from the market hung upon the orchard trees will furnish food
for these birds. Fat or suet will give them the needed animal
heat on which they must rely during the coldest weather. If
a bird can get food enough, it can withstand very cold weather,
but if it starves, it soon freezes. Bones and suet should be put
out early in the fall, that they may attract and hold birds that
are migrating. These food materials should be renewed occa-
sionally until late in spring, for when we have once taught the
birds to rely upon them, we must keep up the supply, if we wish
to retain the birds ; if they are not provided with a never-
failing food supply, storms may drive them away or starve
them. When birds have found the food provided for them
and have become accustomed to look for it daily, we may, if
we will, attract them about or even into our dwellings.

Chickadees and nuthatches are remarkably unsuspicious, and
may be taught to eat from the hand of any one who cares to
spend the time necessary to accomplish that end.

Several. other species may be enticed to our doors and win-
dows, where their habits and manners may be watched and
studied in comfort during the most inclement winter weather.
To accomplish this, and at the same time to see the birds upon
the limbs and in their natural attitudes, small shrubs or
branches may be fastened upright to each window sill that may
be selected as most convenient for the purpose. The branch-
lets and twigs may extend over the entire window and they
may be further supported by being tacked here and there to
the window frame. Small pieces of meat, fat or suet, may
then be tied on the branches. These morsels should be well
wound with twine, to prevent any bird from tearing one down
or carrying it off bodily, and should be tied up about a foot
apart that the birds may all have an opportunity to come at the
same time, if they w-ish to do so. If only one piece of meat is
provided, the birds are likely to fight over it, or to drive one
another away; but if the above directions are followed, they
will soon learn that there is enough for all, and several birds
may be seen feeding at once at the same window. While these
birds are being thus attracted to the windows, the sparrows
also may be drawn about the house by chaff or bird seed thrown
upon the ground or snow.

THE BIRDS' CHRISTMAS TREE.
(CHICKADEE FEEDING.)

JUNCOS ON THE WINDOW SHELF.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I95

Next a shelf or table may be made of half-inch box boards.
The side of a large shoe box will do. This may be covered
with old bagging and a cleat or rail put about the edge to
prevent the food put on it from blowing away. A little ever-
green tree may be set up on the shelf which is then fastened
under a window sill, as seen in the plate, and the birds' Christ-
mas tree is ready. Various food materials are fastened to the
tree. Chaff and seed are scattered on the shelf, and when the
first snowstorm comes, if not before, sparrows, chickadees,
woodpeckers, and perhaps even jays will visit the shelf at in-
tervals all day. This feeding shelf can be attended to, the snow
brushed off, and the food replenished from within by merely
opening the window. If the birds are shy at first, a lace sash
curtain may be put up, and any one may then sit at the win-
dow and watch them as well as though they were hung up in
a cage in the house. The birds may quarrel some at first,
but they will soon learn to feed together in amity, and so with
very little trouble and care we can establish a winter aviary
out of doors. This shelf should be high enough to be out of
the reach of cats and dogs, so that the birds may feel safe in
coming there. In time they will become so tame that they will
come into the house when the window is left open and will take
food from the table. We have to keep the doors and windows
closed at my home, else the birds will come into the house.
The chickadees always come into the woodshed when the door
is left open, and there they search the woodpile for borers.
One bird came several times to take from the hand a borer that
was held out to him. We have had about the house at different
times, flocks of from thirty to fifty j uncos and tree sparrows,
many jays and chickadees, and one or two pairs of nuthatches
of both the common species; while flickers, kinglets, creepers,
cross-bills, robins, quail, and pheasants come in greater or less
numbers. In 1903-04 two fox sparrows stayed all winter, and
this year a towhee or chewink is still with us. Myrtle war-
blers and meadow larks are commonly seen, and one season a
pine warbler came in January. Their presence gives a healthy
stimulus to observation and serves to break the monotony of
winter isolation upon the farm, while as one result of it our
trees are seen all summer in full foliage and never suffer se-
riously from the attacks of insects. The sparrows also help
by eating most of the weed seed in the garden.

196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan.,

Our first attempt at availing ourselves of the services of
winter birds was made in 1896. The birds were attracted to an
old orchard by the methods just described, and in the fall, win-
ter, and spring they destroyed thousands of the eggs of the
cankerworm and tent caterpillar moths, probably also the larvse
and pupae of the codling moth, as well as scale insects, and
other enemies of the trees. When spring came, efforts were
made to attract the summer birds to the orchard with such suc-
cess that they destroyed most of the insects that were left by
the winter birds, and our orchard retained its foliage and bore
■a good crop of fruit in a year, when nearly every other orchard
an the town (Medford, Mass.) was leafless and fruitless be-
cause of the prevalence of insect pests.

The food of the birds in our orchard was carefully studied,
and the numbers of insects consumed by them estimated. For
■example, four chickadees were found to have eaten at one
meal one thousand and twenty-eight eggs of the fall canker-
worm moth. Four birds killed later in the season were found
to have eaten one hundred and five egg-bearing females of
the spring cankerworm moth. As the female moths had,
on the average, one hundred and eighty-five eggs
each in their ovaries, these four birds had destroyed
at one meal over nineteen thousand of these eggs.
]\Iy assistant, Mr. C. E. Bailey, estimated that each
chickadee would consume each spring 138,750 of these eggs.
It is easy to see why our trees were not leafless that summer.
In spring and summer, birds are attracted about our homes
mainly by the insects and fruit to be found there, and if the
farm is well provided with these, there ought to be no dearth
of birds. Still it is a good plan to keep our feeding shelf sup-
plied with food all the year round, and in warm weather, a
pan of fresh water will be used daily unless there are other
places near bv, at which the birds can drink or bathe. At nest-
ing time a little nesting material hung on tree or fence will
sometimes decide birds to nest near by. Swallows and phoebes
may be induced to nest, if they have free entrance into the farm
buildings, and projections are available on beam or rafter,
which will give needed support to their nests. But the most
successful plan to assure the presence of certain birds, is to
put up bird houses and nesting boxes. These boxes may be
inexpensive. Large cigar boxes will do for wrens, but should

INEXPENSIVE NESTING BOXES.

YOUNG CHICKADEE JUST FROM THE BOX.
( Photograph by C. A. Reed.)

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I97

be used only where sheltered from the weather, for sun and
rain will soon warp and crack them, thus rendering them leaky
and unfit for use. Other small boxes may be utilized. Very
acceptable bird boxes may be made of hollow limbs.

For practical utility a nesting box should not only provide
the birds with an acceptable nesting site, but it should also
furnish them perfect protection from the elements, and should
be so made that the interior can be quickly examined and the
contents removed, if necessary. The entrance must not face
prevailing storms. The box must be so strong that woodpeck-
ers cannot easily enlarge the entrance sufficently to allow
enemies of the occupants to get in. It must be placed beyond
the reach of cats or other night prowlers. All these essentials
may be secured without expense by using worn-out or discarded
utensils or receptacles. In a few minutes an empty tomato can
may be made into a bird box by slitting the tin of the opened
end twice and turning down the piece between the slits, thereby
making a hole not over an inch wide and high. It can be put
up very quickly by placing the bottom of the can against a
tree trunk and nailing it there with two ware nails driven
diagonally through the edge, or by fastening it to a board or
pole, which can be attached to a tree or building. The cover
may be kept in place by pinching the mouth of the can a little.
This is a practical box for wrens, and it may be used by blue-
birds, if the entrance is made larger. When holes are cut
through tin, the sharp, edges around the opening should be
turned over with a pair of pliers, that the birds may not injure
themselves while passing in or out. Rusty or painted tin is the
best, for birds seem suspicious of bright surfaces. There should
be a few nail holes in the lower side, to allow any water that
drives in \o escape. Milk cans, oil cans, tin tea kettles, large
tin funnels, flower pots, sections of stovepipe, drain pipe, and
various other objects may be utilized, but those are best which,
like pails, milk cans, or tea kettles, have removable covers. The
cover should also be made to fit rather tightly, that it may not
be too easily removed.

My experience indicates that chickadees prefer a wooden
doorway to their tin castle.

Ornamental bird houses add to the attractiveness of a
countr}- home, and may be displayed where old tin cans and
cheap bird boxes would be out of place. In building such bird

198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

houses, the best plan is to imitate the design of some dwelHng.
A pretty cottage or country villa in miniature may be con-
structed.

A house for a large martin colony ordinarily involves the
expenditure of a considerable sum ; but a very good house that
will accommodate a colony of ordinary size, may be made from
a flour barrel. The roof is of zinc, or of wood covered with
painted canvas. The house should be placed on a pole, at least
fifteen feet high. It should have several large rooms, six or
eight inches square, with entrances two or three inches in
diameter, that it may ofTer plenty of room for several pairs of
birds, and that each tenement may be readily inspected and
cleaned when necessary. A house of this size will accommo-
date so large a community of martins, that when once in-
trenched within, they will be able to hold their own against
bluebirds, or sparrows. The rooms should be so tight that
there can be no draft, and the whole house should be painted
in light colors, that the young birds may not suffer too much
from the rays of the hot sun. It is well to have the floor of
each tenement a few inches below the entrance, that the voung
birds may not be readily pushed or crowded out of the nest
and so become a prey for cats. Such a catastrophe may be still
further guarded against by having a piazza extending around
the house below each tier of doorways, and constructing a
railing three inches high around it. Each of these platforms
should have a slight downward slope, to carry off the rain and
prevent it from driving into the doorways below. In fitting
up rooms, a square box should first be made to go up the cen-
ter of the barrel. All the rooms will be backed by this, and the
pole will go into it. .

Generally a bird will use a box much larger than it needs,
but it will not occupy one which it deems too small. For
chickadees, the hole should be at least nine inches from the
bottom of the box ; they sometimes use a one and one-eighth
inch hole, but prefer one an inch and a quarter in diameter.
The entrance should not be larger, for then the bluebirds or
swallows may use it. Bluebirds require a one and one-half
inch entrance, while a two-inch hole will do for martins.

During the past few years I have been experimenting with
nesting boxes, in the hope of attracting about the house some
birds that do not ordinarilv breed there. As there were a few

THE " OBSERVATION BOX " ON THE
WINDOW SILL.

A CHICKADEE FAMILY IN A WINDOW BOX.

1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I99

chickadees in the woods not far away, I first attracted them
to the house in winter by putting out food, then I put up a few
boxes near the house in the hope that the chickadees might use
them. As spring approached all the hollow trees and decayed
stumps that might be chosen as nesting places by these birds
within a radius of many rods of the house were cut down.
Soon a pair of chickadees began to build a nest in what we
called an observation box, w^hich had been attached to the sill
of an upper window. This was made after a pattern which I
began using thirty years ago, and is illustrated here. The large
door is kept closed until the birds have nested and the young
have hatched, after which it may be opened at will, and all
the family affairs of the birds may be observed through a pane
of glass which is inserted in the rabbet into which the door
closes. This box is quite safe for the young birds, as the hot
sun cannot shine into it, and they cannot be seen, except from
the window on the stool of which the box is fastened. Seven
young were reared from this nest the first season, and other
broods have been graduated from it since. Another box on a
near-by apple tree has become the nursery of several more
broods. Still another box was fastened to the frame of a
kitchen window within a few feet of a door opening outward.
A quantity of cotton was placed in this box, in the belief that
it would form a warm nest for the birds on cold winter nights,
and we thought that one or more of them occupied it at times.
Early in the spring a pair of chickadees began carrying cot-
ton out of this box. Day after day they worked industriously,
but did not appear to make any use of the cotton. Finally it
became evident that they were merely digging out of the cot-
ton a hole for a nest, as most of the cotton taken out was car-
ried to a neighboring pear tree and either thrown to the breeze
or left hanging on the twigs. So the little birds continued to
work day after day until they had hollowed out a neat white
nest in the midst of the cotton. Then they lined it with a few
threads, hairs and feathers, and the female deposited ten eggs,
from nine of which young birds were afterward hatched and
reared. As the box had a door that could be opened, the little
mother could be watched from the kitchen a very few feet
away. She seemed as interested in our housekeeping as we
were in hers. When the young were hatched, however, she
had no time to indulge her curiosity, for it required trips aver-

200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

aging about two minutes apart during most of the day to sup-
ply them with food and so stop their gaping mouths. In the
meantime another brood was being reared by another pair of
birds in a box in the apple tree, some two rods away.

In 1904 an attempt was made to provide a dwelling place
for the screech owls that occasionally were heard in the grove
near by. These birds are believed to feed mainly on insects,
mice, and other so-called vermin. A box, similar to the one
in the illustration, was put up in a large pine tree about four
rods south of the house. It w'as not occupied that season, but
the next winter an owl visited it occasionally, and, as spring
approached, a small gray owl might be seen some evenings at
sunset, sitting in the doorway and solemnly looking over its
hunting ground. The jays, robins, and chickadees soon learned
the secret of the box and told it so that all the world might
hear. A little later sticks, straws, and other rubbish might be
seen protruding from the opening. Late in April I ascended
the tree and found the little owl sitting upon her eggs. Soon
the white, downy young appeared, and then the lining of the
nest was embellished with the wing and tail feathers of several
blue jays, one robin, and one red-winged blackbird. Otherwise,
however, the owls did not appear to trouble the smaller birds,
but rather protected them by killing the blue jays which form-
erly ate their eggs. I believe that rather more small birds than-
usual reared young in the neighborhood, although fewer chick-
adees were seen the following winter. The owls reject the in-
digestible portions of their food, which are thrown out through
the mouth, and may be found upon the ground about their
nests or roosts, in the shape of pellets, composed mainly of
bones wrapped up in fur or feathers. In order to determine
the character of their food, I gathered all the pellets that could
be found, and in only one instance were there any remnants
of a bird (a robin, of which we have a surplus). On the other
hand, there were found the bones of deer mice, wood mice,
field mice, and mole shrews, the remains of from one to three
of these little animals being found in each pellet. While this
experiment has not yet progressed far enough to prove that the
owls are desirable tenants, it seems probable that they much
more than pay their rent. Five young were raised to maturity
last year and sent out into the world to earn their living, as
their parents did before them.

SCREEUH OWL BROODING YOUNG. ( FRONT
OF BOX REMOVED.)

YOUNG OWLS IN NESTING BOX.

1906.] ■ DISCUSSION 201

The work of attracting birds about the house and domes-
ticating them there is of inestimable vakie to children as a
source of amusement, as training for the observational facul-
ties, and as an object lesson in kindness. This may be illus-
trated by the story of a bird box that was put up by the little
son and daughter of Professor C. F. Hodge, of Worcester,
Alone and unaided, they set up a pole, fastened a box upon it,
and later, when the young birds, which were reared in it, were
deserted by their parents during a severe storm, the young
people fed and reared the little ones. These birds became so
tame that when called, they w^ould come to be fed long after
they could fly and had left the residence of their human friends.
\\'hen we teach our children thus to love, protect, and feed the
birds, it may be possible to so increase the bird population
that those insects pests on which they feed, will give us little
trouble.

DISCUSSION.

Secretary Brown. You intimated in your lecture. Profes-
sor Forbush, that you had seen signs of the brown-tail moth
in Connecticut. We are very anxious in Connecticut in regard
to that insect. In fact, we live under the shadow of a great
fear that the gypsy moth and the brown-tail moth will invade
our territory. Will you please tell the convention more defi-
nitely where and what the indications were of the presence of
the brown-tail moth.

Prof. Forbush. I do not want to say positively, Mr. Chair-
man, that the brown-tail moth is in Connecticut. What I saw
on the train was w^hat seemed to me to be indications of its
presence, but a man traveling at the rate of thirty miles an hour
cannot be sure. What I saw was simply a few leaves wound
up into a small web about so large, sometimes larger and some-
times smaller, and that is the usual way in which the young
caterpillars pass through the winter, and then the minute the
foliage starts up in the spring, they start out and commence
their work. I think I saw signs of it within two or three towns
of yours here, but, of course, it may have been something else.

202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Secretary Brown. There is one other question. " Have
the birds lessened the quantity of gypsy and brown-tail moths
in Massachusetts ? "

Prof. Forbush. Unfortunately, we have in this country a
plentiful supply of English sparrows, and they have a tendency
to drive other birds away. Just at the time when the English
sparrow began to drive our other birds out, these moths ap-
peared. We had comparatively few birds in that section, so
that the moths have increased. They have become so many
in fact, that nothing has stopped them. You are going to have
them right here. You will have the brown-tail moth within
five years, and the gypsy moth within ten years, and you might
as well understand it and get ready for them. There is no
question about it. You want to do everything you can to stop
these insects because they are going to be the worst pest you
have had to deal with in years. The gypsy moth preys on all
kinds of vegetation. It will kill your pines, and get into your
houses, and is a nuisance of the worst order. I know a man
who five years ago thought the gypsy moth was not going to
amount to much, and he did not want anything done on his
property. I went out to see him the other day. He said, " I
have lost two-thirds of my apple trees, and have suflFered much
damage on other trees and shrubs." That is the way it goes.
One gentleman I know of has spent over fifty thousand dollars
on his place in trying to stop these insects. He is still working.
We have got some parasitic natural enemies of these creatures.
Of course, they can be cultivated, but until they can be to a suf-
ficient extent, we have got to fight. You will have them here
just as sure as there is a God in Heaven, and you have got to
do everything that you can to fight them.

Convention adjourned until lo a. m., Thursday, Decem-
ber 14th.

1906.] QUESTION BOX. 203

MORNING SESSION.

December 14, 1905.

Music.

Convention called to order at 10 a. m., Vice-President
Seeley in the Chair.

The President. W'e have a few questions that I will ask
the Secretary to read.

Secretary Brown. You remember that poultry was the
prominent subject discussed yesterday. In the box I find this
question, " Do rats trouble when self-feeders are used? And
if so, what can be done to get rid of them?" Is there any
poultryman here who can answer that question?

The President. Is there any other man that knows what
to do with rats when they get to eating up grain and doing
mischief, and all that sort of thing?

Secretan,^ Brown. Mr. President, I know^ what I do.
I get some arsenic and mix it with grated cheese and a little
flour. I put it where nothing else can get it, in one of the
buildings outside, and then I put some water near so as to
accommodate the rats. They like the cheese and they do not
feel the arsenic until it is too late. They naturally go to the
water, and the water gives them a comfortable exit.

Secretary Brown. There is one other question that in-
terests truckmen : " Has anyone had experience in using a
tobacco setter for settling cabbages and other plants ? "

]\Ir. Mitchell. In the next place to where I am now liv-
ing is a large cabbage shipping station, and they are using
the setter entirely for setting cabbage plants. I have asked
what kind of service they gave, and am told that the plants
live even better when set by the machine than you can make
them live when set by hand.

Secretary Brown. Here is a question for stockmen, or
those w^ho own large barns : " Is it wise to have all of your
barn buildings under one roof ? " Those that have encountered

204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

fires lately may have a word to say on that. Perhaps Mr. Pat-
ten can give us some information.

Air. D. W. Patten. I do not think, Mr. Secretary, if my
barns had been so situated I would have had any buildings to-
day, but being scattered somewhat, I was able to save the larger
part of them.

Prof. Shaw. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say a word
on that question. Is it possible to be as economical in labor
by having barns separate as it is when they are under one
roof? Suppose that buildings in one case are separated, and
suppose in another case that they are under one roof. Is
it possible to have as much economy in the labor of feeding
when the buildings are separate as when they are under one
roof?

The President. I think not.

Secretary Brown. I suppose the whole question turns on
whether the danger arising from having them under one roof
is more than counterbalanced by the extra labor where the
buildings are separate.

I would like to ask Mr. Averill if he does not think it is
well to have more than one barn where you have diseased
cattle quarantined with tuberculosis or anything else of a con-
tagious nature ?

Mr. Averill. I would say it is highly important to have a
place where animals can be quarantined and isolated away from
other animals in the herd. It is not necessary that that should
be done in an outside building, because after having an animal
sent to quarantine the stable or place occupied by the animal
in quarantine can be thoroughly fumigated, cleansed, and dis-
infected.

The President. You say that they may be in the same
barn ?

Air. Averill. I think if people would exercise due caution
about traveling between infected and uninfected animals, so
as not to carry the infection v;b^n passing from the stable

1906.] QUESTION BOX. 205

where the animal was in quarantine to the others, it would be
safe enough to keep quarantined animals in the same barn.
I would say, however, that if you have a separate building
there is an added risk of fire and loss by lightning. If you
have buildings scattered about the farm you are more liable to
have buildings destroyed by fire and lightning.

Prof. Shaw. May I ask the gentleman if the risk would
not be less by keeping the infected animals in separate build-
ings than in the same building with the other animals?

I\Ir. AvERiLL. There would be less risk in keeping them
in neighboring buildings. I am free tO' admit that if an ani-
mal was kept in a separate building and was cared for by a
separate attendant there would be far less risk of further in-
fection and secondary cases. We have had and are having
at the present time scarlet fever in my own town. The school
is closed. It broke out in three families. In each of these
families there were not less than seven children. Now if those
patients were quarantined in the same building with those
children, in two out of three cases I am sure there would be no
secondary cases. It looks to me, Mr. President, that we do
not need, in treating cases of contagious disease among cattle,
to go to that extent, of course, the foot and mouth disease ex-
cepted. If scarlet fever patients can be isolated in a house
where there are six or seven other children I think that the
same precaution observed in the treatment of animals would
undoubtedly have a similar efifect.

Prof. Shaw. I would like to ask the gentleman's opinion
about this : Take a tuberculous cow, for instance, kept in
the same building with cows that are not tuberculous, and in
the same part of the building, only in a box stall, but not a tall
box stall, or where the partition does not go up to the ceiling.
I am asking about this for this reason. I was asked to visit
the station at Geneva in the summer. I went there for in-
formation about tuberculosis. They had been conducting
some experiments, and they took me to a stable where they

206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

had a tuberculous animal put into a stall by itself. The stall
did not extend to the ceiling-. There were other animals in
that room. I thought, Mr. Chairman, that that was a queer
thing for an experiment station to do. I would not want
them on my own barn, but I would like to know the opinion
of this gentleman on that subject.

Mr. AvERiLL. Why, as I said before, Mr. President, if an
animal can be quarantined so as to be entirely separate from
the rest of the herd there is, of course, less danger. A box
stall, such as Prof. Shaw suggests, should afford protection
to the other animals in the herd, but it is not absolutely per-
fect. We know that because a farmer that has a tuberculous
animal in his herd keeps it among his other animals until,
perhaps, it dies. It does not necessarily follow that there
will be any secondary cases. On the other hand, there may
be some that will have the disease. If the owner has a good spa-
cious box stall to put that animal into, the danger to the other
animals will be very much less, but the danger would not be en-
tirely removed. Everything that can be done by the caretaker
or owner to remove danger, is, of course, an advantage, but the
only way to be absolutely free from the danger of infection or
inoculation is to keep the infected animals entirely apart.

Secretary Brown. As pertinent to the subject to be dis-
cussed this morning, I want to ask pennission to read a few
lines from the Hartford Courant: " Wisconsin, by not apply-
ing practical forestry work, will soon suffer, in the practical
exhaustion of her pine lands, the penalty of wastefulness.
The figures of statisticians of the Department of Commerce
and Labor show that the pine shipments for the first eight
months of this year were almost as great as the corresponding
period of 1904 and greater than 1903, but notwithstanding
this seeming abundance it is a question of drawing upon the
few remaining larg^e tracts which are owned by the lumber
companies and which are being cut off very rapidly. The
development of scientific forestry seems to have come too late

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 20J

to save the Wisconsin pineries, but they afford an excellent
object lesson for other states." This morning's paper seems
to be very timely in view of the subject which we are to dis-
cuss at the opening of this morning's session.

The President. You will notice on your programs that
we are to have an address on " The Work of the Forest Ser-
vice for Farmers." That is one of the things that is coming
to be very important to farmers, and I am glad to introduce
to you Mr. Herbert A. Smith, a native of Connecticut, but now
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C,
who will speak to you upon this subject.

"THE WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE FOR

FARMERS."

By Dr. Herbert A. Smith, Washington, D. C.

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen :

I am indeed glad to come back here and talk to the people
of Connecticut about our forests, and especially so from the
fact that this very region is connected with my earliest mem-
ories. From the time I was foi.ir years old until I was nine
I lived within twenty-five miles of here, and always these
woods and hills have held a place very close to my heart.

The Forest Service is, as perhaps you know, a new name
lately given to an old organization, formerly known as the
Bureau of Forestry, a part of the Department of Agriculture
at Washington. Up to a little less than a year ago the Bureau
of Forestry held a somewhat singular position. It was the
recognized authority in this country in all matters connected
with conservative forest use. It was the only part of the
Government which had in its employ trained foresters, and it
was the one place to w^hich other Departments of the Govern-
ment controlling forests had to apply when they wished any
information and guidance in the management of their forest
land. At the same time there had developed in this country,
as a recognized part of our National policy, the policy of
setting aside and maintaining forest reservations. A year
ago the National reservations, set aside under both Democratic

208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

and Republican presidents, embraced a total area of over sixty
million acres of land. Yet notwithstanding that the Bureau
of Forestry had all the technical knowledsre necessary to
handle these lands in the proper way, it did not have under its
control one single acre of forest land in the whole United
States.

Now Congress has changed all that. The Bureau of For-
estry has become the Forest Service, because evidently its
most important task is going to be the management of that
part of the national domain in which forests are to be main-
tained and used for the benefit of the people. During this
last year the forest area in reservations has increased to a far
greater extent than in any previous year, for President Roose-
velt is a great supporter of the reserve policy, because as a
clear-sighted and far-sighted man of affairs he recognizes the
vital importance of this question to the people of the country
as a whole. One hundred million acres of land are now under
the administration of the Forest Service. That is a greater
extent of territory than all New England, New York, and
Pennsylvania. It is to be maintained in perpetuity for the use
of the people, for the preservation of the timber supply which
is absolutely necessary for them and for the protection of
water supplies, especially necessary in the West. This work
of administering the reserves will ultimately be the main work
of the Forest Service, and hence its change of name.

At the same time, the present work of the Service is broadly
along the line of all the work of the Department of Agricul-
ture — the work of making the land of this country contribute
all that it can to the welfare of the nation. Idle land or waste
land is not helping us ; it is not mere expanse of territory, but
land which is being well used, which makes vis powerful and
prosperous. Our forest lands, on the whole, are not being
well used. A forest may be cultivated just as much as a
plowed field. A wild forest, even a wild forest in a state of
nature, is not equal to a cultivated forest in point of its ability
to contribute to the welfare of mankind. We have treated
our forests generally as purely natural resources, and have
taken their timber without any effort to keep up the supply.
Take the pine forests of the Lake States. We have used them
up. They have contributed tremendously to the upbuilding of
the country. In every little village of New England and in

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 209

every farming community of the Middle West, the benefit
of cheap hmiber from those forests has been felt. It has gone
to build farmers' houses and barns, it has gone to build fac-
tories and workingmen's homes. But in the future we shall
not have these forests as sources of timber supply, and we
shall all be the worse off on that account. If instead of
cutting those pine forests off, with tremendous waste in some
instances, they could have been cut under such conditions that
a new crop would have come up to take the place of the old,
what a benefit it would have been to the nation ! On land
which is now desolate and for the greater part worthless, we
should then have a supply coming on against the day of our
need which is certainly approaching.

I wonder if you appreciate at all how much agriculture
as practiced at present owes to science, or to what an extent
the common, everyday practice of today is indebted to the
scientific researches of the past. I sometimes think that if we
could look back upon the practice of our ancestors when they
first came to this country, it would seem to us hardly less bar-
barous than the method of culture employed by the Indians
in raising their small crop of Indian corn. In England, at
the time when the colonists came to this country and practi-
cally through the eighteenth century, farming land was for
the most part held in common. This land was divided into
three classes. First was the meadow along the stream, or
grass land, in which each man had his portion assigned up to
the time when the grass was cut, after which it became com-
mon again for all the cattle to graze upon. Next above this
was the plow land, of which one-third was sown to wheat, one-
third to peas, barley, and a very limited range of other crops,
and the third was fallow. The third to be left fallow was
changed every year, so that any given piece of land was culti-
vated only two years out of three, and then allowed to rest
for a year in lieu of fertilizing. Individual allotments changed
every season. No man could improve his land under such
circumstances, because he did not hold it permanently, but
only in turn. All implements were home-made. The cattle
and sheep were pastured on the " waste," or higher land, which
was never tilled, and which furnished wood material as well
as pasture. Weeds were abundant, manuring unknown, im-
provements discouraged ; in every way the system of agricul-
Agr. — 14

210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan.,

ture was primitive and wretched. Agricultural progress was
necessary before a larger population could be supported, and
great parts of England were waste at that time which are now
highly productive, thanks to the improvements which the
study of scientific farming introduced. This kind of study,
which virtually adds to our territory because it adds to the
supporting power of our land, is what the Department of Agri-
culture exists for.

Now our way of treating the forests has not advanced so
much over the method of those early days. We leave it largely
to take care of itself. We oftentimes turn our cattle out to
pasture in it. We do not attempt to use the land to its full
power. Farmers' holdings are small individually, but in the
aggregate they are of tremendous importance to this country.
Something like two hundred million acres of land — upwards
of one-third of all the forest in the United States — is held
in farmers' woodlots. It is a work most emphatically of
national importance to see that this land is well used, that it
yields its fullest contribution to the individual and to the na-
tion, that instead of being only half as productive as it might
be it shall have as many trees growing upon it as it will
properly bear, and of the best possible kinds, and that these
shall be utilized in the best way. The needs of this country
for timber in the future are going to be far more pressing than
you probably realize. Lumber prices have risen steadily dur-
ing the past century, and rapidly in the latter half of it. Good
timber in the woodlot, if it is not deteriorating, is exactly like
money in the savings bank. Interest is accruing on it irre-
spective of the growth, and the woodlot is in fact a most ex-
cellent auxiliary savings bank for a farmer. He has the
equivalent of money in it. He can get more in it. He will
not have to withdraw money from other purposes in order to
do this. He can get more money in his woodlot, and at the
same time use it for the production of ties and cordwood
which he can sell, as well as for the production of fuel for his
own use. That is to say, he can use it under such methods
that the woodlot timber will be getting better all the time.
The ordinary way is just the opposite. The forest is allowed
to deteriorate through the use of careless methods by the
farmer. When he goes into his forest he takes his axe and
cuts the best trees, or those which are the easiest to work up.

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 211

It does not occur to him that he is leaving inferior trees, which
he will not want, to take the place of those which he removes.
In other words, the weed trees, as the foresters call them, are
left — the useless trees, or trees that crowd out and displace
good trees. The result is very much as though the farmer
went into his garden and kept pulling his vegetables and al-
lowing the weeds to grow up and fill the groimd. The work
which the Forest Service is trying to do for the farmer is to
teach him to cultivate his woodlot, to learn about his trees, and
about the different requirements of different species, and to
make the land yield its fullest possible supply.

The question of timber supply is a matter of vital im-
portance to the entire country. The railroads, for instance,
the means of transportation, are absolutely dependent upon
the forests for their ties. Every railroad tie laid in the track
— and engineers have foimd no substitute which they are
willing to accept in place of the wooden tie — every tie laid in
the track all over the country requires two trees growing in
the forest in order to keep it there.

The present price of railroad ties of the best quality bears
no proportion at all to the nearness of the exhaustion of the
supply, and the railroads know this very well. Some of the
most important railroads in the country are going into the busi-
ness of raising ties for themselves because they fear the time
may come when they cannot buy the ties that they need. But
tie production is going to be one of the most profitable em-
ployments of the woodlots. White oak ties are the ties which
the railroads prefer, and I suppose that the supply of white
oak ties is going to be substantially at an end before very many
years have passed. The white oak is too good a tree ; we can
not afford to use it for ties. A white oak tree which can be
bought in this country in the region of its best growth for a
dollar and a half, in Germany would bring perhaps a hundred or
a hundred and fifty dollars ; sometimes even two hundred dol-
lars are paid for a single tree. An acre of white oak is sold
sometimes in Germany for over two thousand dollars, and it it
is not at all unlikely that our prices will, before very many of us
are old men, be but little below the prices of timber in Germany.

The capacity of the country to consume timber is almost
beyond any credible form of statement. You may think that
the substitution of other materials will diminish the need of

212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

lumber. Quite the contrary. Our cities are built of stone,
brick, iron, and concrete, but more wood goes into our cities
for construction purposes today than in the days when they
were built entirely of wood. Our steamships are built of iron ;
but more wood goes into ship building now than formerly.
And so on through one industry after another. The
cooperage industry, which consumes large quantities of oak,
recognizes that its existence is imperiled by the scarcity which
it has itself created. The amount of lumber that is consumed
for barrels of all sorts — oil barrels, sugar barrels, molasses
barrels, beer kegs, whiskey barrels, flour barrels, apple barrels,
and then for lime, cement, truck, and almost every other kind
of article, is enormous in its total amount. The coopers will
have to turn to the woodlot as one of their main sources of
supply. So also in the case of mining, which consumes even
more timber than the railroads, the demand upon our forests
is very great. The miner must have timber to prop up as he
goes along. His demands require provision for the future.
And so with every great industry ; all are consumers of timber,
and will suffer when timber grows scarce and dear.

To meet this need the farmers must do their share. What
is the method? What is the wisest course for the farmer to
take who wishes to make the most out of his woodlot? Well,
he must begin by remembering that he wants his land fully
stocked. If he has an old pasture that is coming up slowly to
forest growth, on which the red cedar and the white birch,
or gray birch, as it is more properly called, is coming
in, he ought to help nature along. Here is probably- an
opportunity for him to do some planting with very profita-
ble results, and although he may not himself live to cut planted
timber, it is not necessary in order that this savings bank
should be helpful to him that he should wait until the timber
is full grown. It is certain that well-timbered land is going
to be salable land, and especially that which has a good stock
of young timber on it. It is going to be salable at a much
better price than land which has received no care.

Then the farmer must look out that as he cuts his trees
he selects them in such a way as to benefit the forest and to
provide for another generation. The branchy, wide-spreading
tree, the crooked tree, or a tree of a kind which is not likely
to prove salable, is the best kind for him to cut down when he

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 213

is getting out his supply of fire^A'Ood, because he thus makes
room for better trees. As he ctits he wants to look about and
see which are going to take advantage of the cut. Perhaps
he will see that he had better cut some young sapling or some
half-grown tree which is ready to push into the opening he
will make, but which he will not want. He must pick the
trees that he wants left, and provide for them. There is a very
striking picture in the back of the room, of a chestnut tree
which had grown seven inches in diameter in thirty-four years.
The rings showing the growth which the tree made are very
close together for these years ; the tree had been too crowded
to have a fair chance. Then the trees about it were cut suffi-
ciently to give it an opportunity, and in the next eight years
it doubled its diameter. In other words, it made four times
as much wood on the same length of trunk in eight years as
all that it had made in the preceding thirty-four years — since
the ratio of volume increase is the square of the ratio of diame-
ter increase — besides the increase due to its greater height.
You can see in the picture the wide rings which are the indi-
cation of this rapid growth. So that thinning is an important
means of making your timber add to itself at the fastest rate.

When the farmer goes in to cut he is very likely to lay
about him with the axe pretty freely. The little stuff in his
path is regarded as brush, and is cut out of his way without
much thought that it has any value. • Very likely just the trees
that should have grown up are thus sacrificed, and the next
cutting may be set back a dozen or fifteen years. You all
know that the growth of sprouts, which start from the stump
after cutting, is much more rapid that the growth of seedlings.
This is because the sprouts do not have to establish a root sys-
tem of their own, but are virtually branches of an old tree
which has been pruned back to the very ground. Conse-
quently, in this region of second-growth hardwoods, almost all
of which sprout from the stump, by far the largest volume
of wood can be secured under a system of sprout, " coppice,"
management. But it must always be borne in mind that the
vigor of sprout growth declines as the root systems age, for the
sprout is itself, as has already been said, only a branch. Con-
sequently new seedlings are needed in a sprout forest to replace
the enfeebled stock.

214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

So when the farmer begins to cut in his woodlot he needs
to remember that a small sapling which has grown from seed
and is well located with respect to an opening is valuable out
of all proportion to its size. And he wants to remember also
that it is highly wasteful to cut a tree, even when it has reached
a fairly good size, if it is still growing vigorously, unless, of
course, it is a tree which is not wanted. A 12-inch tree puts
on twice as much wood to each foot of trunk in growing an-
other inch as does a 6-inch tree. To cut a tree which is six or
eight inches in diameter is like drawing your money from the
savings bank just before interest day. You lose the benefit of
the earning power that the tree has been gathering.

There is such a thing, however, as having too many trees,
though as a rule the danger is that your land will be under-
stocked rather than overstocked. That chestnut tree to which
I referred a moment ago, which was thirty-four years old before
it really began to grow, should have made, I suppose, a tree from
which three ties could have been cut in something like that age.
A white oak will require from forty to fifty years, I believe,
in this region, under favorable conditions, to make a three-tie
tree. I do not wish to go into this too far, because it is a
matter for your State forester to inform you on rather than for
me to discuss, but I presume that the fact of the greater rapid-
ity of gro\\i:h of the chestnut will make that generally the best
tree to grow for tie purposes in this State. That is the sort
of thing that the farmer must ask himself, or must ask the for-
ester. He must inform himself as to what tree is going to be
the most profitable in the long run, and also what the require-
ments of the diflferent kinds of trees are. One tree will grow
in a situation where another will not. It is necessary to know
about each kind, and how to give it the conditions which will
make it grow the best. The farmer must study his forest.

Now I have said something about what the forester calls
thinnings, and what he calls improvement cuttings. The pur-
pose of thinnings is to improve the growth of trees already on
the ground, and thinnings are, therefore, naturally made in
rather young timber, and yield only small stuff. Improvement
cuttings, on the other hand, aim primarily at making place for
new growth by the removal of trees which are overmature,
crooked, broken-topped, or otherwise defective, or which are of
the less desirable kinds. The man who wants to increase the

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 21 5

productiveness and value of his woodlot must not expect to
get something for nothing. It will pay him to cultivate his
land, woodland as well as plowland ; he will get more from it ;
but he cannot cultivate without putting in labor. When he be-
gins to make thinnings or improvement cuttings he must not
expect to secure his cordwood as easily as if he picked out his
best and biggest timber and cut it clean, or cut all that was
good and left the bad. You cannot eat your cake and have it
too; or rather, you cannot eat your woodland goose and keep
on pocketing future golden eggs. The difference is between
gathering your capital, on the one hand, and letting it roll up
interest on the other. If you can make the cultivation pay for
itself in the incidental product of wood, you are not doing
badl}-. If you can make your improvement cuttings more than
pay, it is very much like finding money. You will then, in fact,
have kept all of your cake, and had a taste of it too.

Yet the forester, as a practical man, ought to be able to
tell you how on occasion you can harvest your timber at a rea-
sonably low cost and at the same time provide for a speedy re-
newal of the forest. It is hard to give general prescriptions
in such matters ; ordinarily the Forest Service tries to answer
requests for information from individual owners by sending an
agent to make an examination and give advice on the ground.
But I believe that in this region as good a method to recom-
mend as any I can give you is what the forester calls the group
method. Select a spot, or several spots if one will not supply
what you w^ant to cut, where your forest crop is ripest — pos-
sibly overripe; and clear, with due care of course for young
growth, a hole in your forest, taking care that the diameter of
this hole is not more than twice the height of the surrounding
trees. Another year, or better several years later, after you
have opened as many holes as you think advisable, but not until
after seedlings have had a chance to establish themselves
wherever they are needed, you can begin to widen the holes by
cutting in concentric rings about them, and this can be con-
tinued until the whole area has been cut over. By this method
you can get an entirely new seedling forest, if you are cutting
trees which do not sprout, or if you have an old or deficient
sprout forest you will fill up the blanks and get supplementary
seedlings under way.

2l6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Bear in mind, however, that if in any one year you cut
more wood than grows on your whole woodlot in that year,
you have diminished your principal, and if you cut over your
w^hole area before the area which you cut first has had time to
grow to maturity, a period will have to follow during which
your woodlot will stop paying dividends.

The farmer is in a better position to care for his forest and
make money from it than other owners, because he can do this
work in the woods at a time when there is not much else to
be done on the farm — that is, in the winter. If he takes an
interest and is observing, if he goes into the woods with his
axe and notices what is happening, and thinks what he wants
and takes his measures accordingly, he will soon learn a good
deal about his forest as well as make a decided difference in
its value.

The work which the Forest Service is doing for the farmer
is perhaps better appreciated in other parts of the country at
present than it is generally in the East. In the West the
farmers' need in a large part of the country is for water, and
the farmers there now recognize that the first and most impor-
tant means of securing water is through forest conservation,
not because forests make rain but because forests enable the
farmer to get the benefit of what rain does fall, through the
storing power of the forest. I was very much struck
last winter to hear a Congressman from western Kansas say in
Washington, at a very important meeting of forest users, held
under the auspices of the American Forestry Association, that
in his Congressional district alone — that is to say, in a region
having a population of about two hundred thousand people —
there was more arabi* land than in the entire kingdom of
Japan, if they only had water for it. Japan supports a popu-
lation of forty millions. Japan is a first-class power, about on
a par with England in population, and a little ahead of France,
We have room within our confines for empire after empire,
but the development of these western lands depends very
largely on irrigation. Irrigation and forestry are so closely
connected that one can not exist and do its full work without
the other. Tlie most important work of the forester in the
West is to conserve the water supply so as to hold the rain as
it falls and let it run down little by little from springs that flow
all the year, instead of rushing from the hillsides and moun-

1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 217

tain slopes and sweeping down in destructive floods. And so
this work which the Forest Service is doing for the farmer is
appreciated in the West as of tremendous importance to its
people. That work is important for New England too, for
every farmer in the West means a larger demand for the manu-
factures of the East. New England is essentially a manufac-
turing district. It must have a market for its manufactures,
and is, therefore, directly interested in this matter of irrigation
in the West.

Again, the West is largely a grazing section. A map was
prepared recently in the Forest Service showing the extent of
the Western range. This range, you know, is for the most
part public land. That map, which showed in green the por-
tions utilized for grazing, looked as though pretty nearly all
the West from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
was green, as though it was all grazing land. Now a very
large part of this vast livestock industry depends on the forest
reserves for summer pasture. In its efforts to make the re-
serves yield as much forage for the grazing industry as is pos-
sible without injury to the forests themselves, the Forest Ser-
vice is working for the agricultural interests of the country,
applying here again the principle that every kind of land should
be put to its most profitable use.

Before I leave this subject I want to say a word about the
use of our forests for pasture here at home. If you are pas-
turing your woodlots you are almost certainly decreasing to
a very considerable extent their productive capacity. Cattle
will graze upon the young seedlings and the young shoots as
they come up. They will break them down, and they will
trample the ground and make it hard so that the seeds when
they fall will not take root easily in it. Oftentimes you may
notice, as you drive through the country, woodlot pastures in
which there are only old trees. It is, therefore, perfectly evi-
dent when you think of it that when once those trees are cut
or dead the forest will be like a stream which has been turned
aside near its fountain head. It passes by and nothing is left.
So I say to the farmer, decide what your land is most valuable
for. Trees and grass do not get on well together. They are
mutually antagonistic. Grass is not good for the forest, and
trees are not good for grass. To a very moderate extent you
may perhaps pasture in your woodlot, but you must be' con-

2l8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

stantly on your g-uard that grazing does not go far enough
to affect the condition of the forest. It is just as well if you
can keep the woodlot absolutely separate from the pasture.

And then, of course, you must keep out fire. Fire is the
worst foe of all to the woodlot. A young farmer was telling
me not long ago how near his house there was a very dense
grove of young saplings. " You could not see into them at
all," he said. " If a cow got in there I could not find her.
But last spring, when the leaves were dry, I touched a match
to them, and the fire went up like a flash." Now perhaps it
was best for him to make that land into pasture, though I
doubt it very much. I do not believe, however, that he had
ever given the question whether the land would be better un-
der forest or for pasture a moment's consideration. He simply
looked upon that young growth as brush. If he had left a five
dollar bill lying around and a little child had touched a match
to it, and it had " gone up like a flash," I think he would have
found some speedy way of making a very distinct and posi-
tive impression upon that child of the fact that he had done a
mischievous and wasteful thing. Yet, from my point of view,
he had probably done just exactly that kind of a thing himself.
Fire must be kept out if we are going to have our woodlots
amount to anything at all.

The farmer who will bear these things in mind, who will
seek for information, who will make his forest produce all that
it is capable of, will not only do a good thing for himself and
his family but will also be doing something toward the public
good. In making his own land most useful he will be helping
to make and keep this country great, rich, and prosperous
among the nations of the earth.

•»

Tlie President. I do not trouble myself much about al-
falfa, but I would like to know more about it, and we have a
gentleman here who I think has been sitting up nights with
the problem. Dr. Jenkins, of the Conn. Agrl. Experiment Sta-
tion, New Haven, and whatever he tells us is sure to be well
worth hearing, so I am going to introduce Dr. Jenkins to say
something about alfalfa.

1906.] ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT. 219

ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT.
By Dr. E. H. Jenkins.

Alfalfa is no new thing in Connecticut. It has been tested
now and then and here and there in the State for twenty-five
years or more with no success, so far as I can learn, until very
lately.

The facts that it is a success in the West, that if it could be
grown here it would be a great boon to all our dairymen, and
that comparatively recent study and observation have shown
reasons why earlier tests have not succeeded and how we may
hope to succeed where we failed before, have caused a great
revival of interest in it.

The Station has made a number of careful trials with it in
various places, and the aim of this paper is to notice some
things which must be done in order to get a good stand of al-
falfa and incidentally to show that in this State, at least, it is
a difficult and painstaking matter to start the crop. It is no
such easy thing as if often represented.

THE MERITS OF ALFALFA.

About its yield and its fodder value little need be said, for
they are constantly emphasized as chief reasons for its exten-
sive use. From fields of more than an acre, where the alfalfa
had been three years on the land, an average of 13.8 tons green
weight per acre were harvested at the New York Station, con-
taining over 1,100 pounds of protein.

In New Jersey the yields on carefully measured fields have
ranged from 18 to 24^ tons of green matter, or 4.4 to 7.2
tons of alfalfa hay per acre.

The Colorado Station reports an alfalfa crop which yielded
about twice as much dry matter as a corn crop on an equal
area and similar soil, and four times as much protein. The
corn crop was called a fair one, yielding 14 tons of green fod-
der ; but this is in a country where, I imagine, alfalfa will grow
much tetter than with us and com will not yield as well.

The Canadian farmers report from 12 to 24 tons of green
fodder, or 3 to 6 tons of hay.

The figures which I have here, but need not read in detail,
show that a moderate crop of alfalfa, 18 tons, green, contains
1.7 times as much protein as 28 tons of green corn fodder, and
four times as much as three tons of hay of good quality.

220

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

[Jan.

Alfalfa hay is a richer feed than clover hay, containing as
much digestible protein, pound for pound, as wheat bran.
One of our Connecticut correspondents says " My horses would
leave their grain to eat it and the hens would do the same. I
shall keep at it till I make it go."

If alfalfa can be grown and cured here, its value to our
farmers and dairymen will unquestionably be very great.

AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA, CORN FODDER,
CLOVER HAY, AND MEADOW HAY.

Percentage Composition.

Alfalfa,
green

Corn
Fodder,
green

Red-Top,
green

Alfalfa
Hay

Clover
Hay.

Fodder
Corn,
field
cured

Hay,
miied
Grasses

Water, . . . .

71.8

79-3

64.8

8.4

iS-3

42,2

16.0

Ash, ....

2.7

1.2

2.3

7-4

6.2

2.7

4.6

Protein, .

. 4.8

1.8

3-3

14-3

12.3

45

6.4

Fiber,

7-4

50

9-4

25.0

24.8

4-3

29.9

Nitrogen — free extract,

. 12-3

12.2

19.0

42.7

38.1

44-7

41.0

Fat,

I.O
lOO.O

0.5
lOO.O

1.2

lOO.O

2.2

3-3
1 00.0

1.6

lOO.O

2.1

lOO.O

lOO.O

Percent, digestible.

Protein, .

3-6

1-3

2.3

7.6

6.5

2.6

3.6

Nitrogen — free extract, .

1 1.4

ii.S

20.5

37.8

34-9

33-3

42.7

Fat, ....

0.4

0.4

0.7

1-3

1.6

I.I

1.0

Besides yield and richness, alfalfa has other great merits.
At its best it is permanent on the land. There are very few
meadows in the State which do not need to be taken up every
five years, at least, and re-seeded. Alfalfa is claimed to keep
up its productiveness almost indefinitely, only needing perhaps
occasional top-dressings of phosphates and potash salts.

It is an excellent soiling crop ; the first cutting being ready
somewhere between the middle of May and early June, and
two or three other cuttings follow until the 15th of Septem-
ber or later. I believe that if we introduce it here this will be
its chief use and its best use at first and while it is in the ex-
perimental stage.

We all know that to cure clover hay properly, so that it is
not so dr\' as to lose its leaves and its value in handling, nor so
wet as to heat too much and spoil in the barn, is no easy matter
in our New England weather.

1906.] ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT. 221

The same is true of alfalfa, all the more because of the
greater burden of the mowing. It is not quick to dry, but if
too dry loses its leaves like clover and with them a large part
of its value. Rain on the nearly cuj-ed crop spoils it. It must
be cut too, when ready ; for the stalk gets woody very quickly
as it comes into bloom. We have much to learn about making
clover or alfalfa hay. Most of us, I think, err on the side of
too much drying. If we can get in clover or alfalfa without
dropping any leaves, pack it down well in the mow, close the
barn and have it heat a good deal, without fire-fanging, \j-e
shall be sure of good feed.

At the West, in a dry climate, where the praises of alfalfa
are chiefly — and with most reason — sung, this matter of
making hay is, by comparison, simple, for there is no danger
from rain and it cures much more safely in the cock than here.

For these reasons, I say, a successful alfalfa culture de-
pends firstly on our ability to get and to keep a good per-
manent stand, and secondly on learning how to house it for
winter use.

ALFALFA IS A CROP TO HARVEST^ NOT TO PASTURE.

Under the best conditions, when well established, cattle
may be pastured on it lightly. If they feed too long on it
they will bloat, as on clover, and if they eat it too closely, as
sheep are likely to do, they may damage the stand permanently.
It is ver\' hard to patch an alfalfa field by re-seeding the thin
places. The new-sown plants never get vigorous and fill the
gaps.

ALFALFA IS A NITROGEN-GATHERING CROP.

So much has been said too on this point, both of alfalfa
and of all the cultivated legumes, that any more words may
seem quite unnecessary. But let us have our heads clear as to
the facts. The crop contains each year very much more pro-
tein — of which the distinguishing element is nitrogen — than
any of our cereals or hay crops. Yet it does not seem to ex-
haust or diminish the store of nitrogen in the tilled soil as they
do, but rather increases its store, and yet keeps up its yield
year after year, while cereals, if raised continuously, steadily
decrease their product till they come to a certain minimum
production which they can keep up for a long time perhaps.

222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

A part of this difiference between legumes and other kinds
of crops may be explained by their deeper rooting ; a part also
perhaps by their stronger feeding capacity — their ability to
assimilate forms of nitrogen from the soil which cereals can-
not assimilate — to eat, let us say, what cereals cannot eat; and
partly (and to my mind only partly) this nitrogen-gathering
quality is to be explained by the action of those bacteria which
live on the roots and in connection with the well-known
" nodules " of the roots. It has been fully proved that alfalfa
plants having these nodules with living bacteria, are able, in
ways not fully understood, to get hold of the free nitrogen of the
air in the soil and combine it in vegetable forms. This, other
plants than legumes, with few exceptions, and as far as we
now know, cannot do. This gives to alfalfa and other legumes
their greatest agricultural value. .They enrich the crop and^
through the roots, stubble and crop residues, the soil itself with
nitrogen, that most expensive element of plant food. This
fact of the enrichment of the soil by legumes was well known
a good while ago, and the practice of growing pulse alter-
nately with a grain crop is immemorial in India. Such parts
of the explanation as we now have it is quite modern.

I believe that Professor Atwater and Dr. C. D. Woods at
Middletown were the first to give an absolute proof of the as-
similation of free nitrogen by legumes under conditions which
were beyond criticism, and European investigators chiefly have
taught us what we know of the extent and the method of this
assimilation.

It is not the only way in which soils gather free nitrogen.
It is certain that other microbes, low forms of vegetable life^
which are not connected with legimies, also gather it. A soil
containing humus and not acid, under favorable conditions^
wnll of itself gather a certain amount of nitrogen. What con-
ditions favor this and how much nitrogen may be gathered by
this means remains to be learned, and to my mind this is one
of the most important questions regarding the maintenance of
soil fertility which is waiting for solution.

But certainly the supply of free nitrogen which legumes
furnish seems at present to be far greater and more rapid than
that from other sources.

The raising of legumes is and has long been known to be
a "way of restoring exhausted soils, by increasing the amount

1906.] ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT. 223

of hiimiis, nitrogen, and perhaps also available mineral mat-
ters in them.

It needs to be remembered, however, that there is a limit
to this nitrogen-gathering action of any legume. If a soil al-
ready contains a good supply of available nitrogen, a crop of
legumes will not add to that supply from the air, but will live
on the combined nitrogen already present in the soil. You
cannot go on forever catching nitrogen in your " nitrogen trap,'*
as some call it. The plant and the microbe have to be starved
into activity.

REGARDING THE HARDINESS OF ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT.

We have grown it for five years at the Station with no
sign of winter-killing. Scattered plants of it still persist in
our turf ten years after the patch of alfalfa was plowed up and
cultivated. Here and there through the State I have found it
thriving in headlands and fence corners from seeding of un-
known date. But whether it will bear exceptionally cold win-
ters without being ruined or badly damaged as a farm crop
is more questionable.

I have seen a half-acre on very sandy land but in a moist
place, which had yielded fairly well for seven years with al-
most no care. Another field of several acres on heavier soil
yielded very satisfactory for a longer time, but was so damaged
by the last two exceptionally cold winters that it was turned
under to be re-seeded to alfalfa after a year's cultivation to
subdue the grass which had come in. Of course, even rye is
sometimes badly winter-killed, but to make alfalfa profitable
we must hold it on the land for a term of years. Its value
is largely in its permanence. The land requires special prepa-
ration for it, the crop needs considerable care, compared with
other forage crops, during the first year of its growth, and the
reward comes in the permanence of the alfalfa, which must
yield two to four cuttings yearly of very valuable hay or green
fodder for a term of years with no more care than a permanent
meadow, if it is to pay. It has been grown long and success-
fully in the province of Quebec, in Canada, and it is now grown
in the British possessions north of us from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and is stated to be the staple forage for winter feeding
in the drier parts of British Columbia. Yet, on the other
hand, Fletcher, of the Ontario Experimental Farms, says that

224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

the attempts to establish it as a regular forage crop of Canada
have not been very successful.

In New York, reports from 86 growers of alfalfa showed
that in a very severe winter 67 per cent, of the crops were more
or less damaged and 33 per cent, were not. The damage was
most common on heavy lands.

A small patch of Turkestan alfalfa on the Station grounds,
drilled in in the spring of 1904, in a rather exposed situation,
• and which grew feebly that year, though kept clean of weeds,
was given a light mulch of stable manure in the late fall and
came through the very severe winter of 1904- 1905 with abso-
lutely no damage and did extremely well this last summer.

I believe that alfalfa will stand ordinary winters in most
parts of this State with the little mulch that the fall growth
gives it, that it will stand very severe winters if covered with
snow, but may not if the ground is bare, and that a light mulch
of long manure in the early winter is a desirable thing as a sort
of insurance against winter-killing. It also greatly favors the
increase of the bacteria of the soil on which the success of the
crop depends, and in this way, as well as a direct fertilizer,
pays for itself.

We have had trouble and, I believe, if it is generally grown
there will be general trouble during the winter from the attacks
of field mice, especially where it is under deep snow or other
heavy mulch. The mice are fond of the large roots and eat
out their crowns, thus killing many of the best plants.

It remains to say something about the fitting of an alfalfa
field and its care.

A very erroneous impression has been widely spread lately
regarding the possibilities of alfalfa culture. Magazine articles
regarding the artificial inoculation of land and the advertise-
ments of firms who offer inoculating material have given the
impression that very recent discoveries had made it possible
for the farmer, simply by inoculating his field with a labora-
tory preparation, to ensure success with almost any legume
crop, enrich his land, and at the same time get large crops of
very rich fodder. In short, to sit still and get rich ; to get a
good deal for nothing. This may work for a time in life in-
surance, but not in farming.

The truth is that he may succeed with alfalfa if he is skillful
and fortunate. But in this State, at least, as our experience

1906.] ALFALFA IX CONNECTICUT. 225

shows, he can only succeed with alfalfa by taking the greatest
care in selecting his land, in fitting it for the crop, and in caring
for it after planting. If he succeeds fully he will be very
richly repaid for his work. If he does not make a great suc-
cess he will make a pretty thorough failure.

In the first place, the very poorest land will not grow alfalfa.
It has got to have a fairly deep soil without a hard-pan under-
neath. It cannot live in standing water for any length of time,
nor will it endure drought.

A well-drained but not a very dry field is essential. If
not naturally a lime soil, a heavy dressing of lime in some
shape is required in the beginning, and a top-dressing of lime
or ashes from time to time. 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of lime
kiln ashes or of stone lime is not too much. Alfalfa is a lime-
loving plant. Potash salts and bone may also be used when
fitting the land.

Equally important is it to get the land as clear as can be of
weeds. Alfalfa is sure to fail on weedy land. Once estab-
lished and growing thriftily after the first year it will choke
out weeds, but in the first summer weeds will easily choke
alfalfa. If land is not clean in the spring, it will pay better to
summer fallow and sow alfalfa in August than to invite failure
on such land by spring seeding. August is a better time to seed
than spring because the summer weeds slacken their growth
from then on, while alfalfa thrives until hard frost.

A proper seeding is not less than 20 pounds, and I believe
30 pounds is better when not less than 90 per cent, of the seeds
germinate. It is essential to get at the start a perfect seeding.
You cannot mend or patch it later.

And lastly, as regards preparation of land — what about
inoculation? To succeed with alfalfa the soil tnust contain the.
microbe, which by its housekeeping with the plant makes possi-
ble the fixing of free nitrogen. That is absolutely certain. It
may be in the soil to start with, it may be introduced at seeding
time by inoculation of the soil or of the seed, but in one way or
another the particular nitrogen-gathering microbe which asso-
ciates with this particular plant must be there, or the crop is
doomed to failure.

Some soils naturally contain this organism apparently. At
least, alfalfa sown without any intentional inoculation does

Agr. — 15

226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

well from the start and develops nodules on the roots. In
our Station garden this was the case.

Other soils, and, I think, most soils, do not have this or-
ganism in them and need to have it brought to them. In places
where repeated trials with alfalfa have failed, the inoculation
of the soil has been at once followed with a good stand.

As to the best way of getting this microbe into the soil, I
believe the surest way is to scatter on it soil taken within a
few inches of the surface of a well-established alfalfa field
where the plants show abundant root nodules. One hundred
pounds of soil is enough, sown over an acre and harrowed in
with the seed, or any time within three months before seeding.

Equally successful in Illinois has been the use of soil taken
from waste land where the sweet clover, melilot, grows abun-
dantly. Tliis plant is not uncommon on waste lands here in
Connecticut ; it is a nitrogen-gatherer, and the observations and
tests of Dr. Hopkins have proved its value in inoculating alfalfa
fields.

The cultures made as a commercial venture, which have
been so widely advertised to " double the yield " with the state-
ment that " you can be absolutely sure of a heavy crop of al-
falfa the first year after seeding," cannot be recommended.
Experiments indicate that tliey are worthless.

I have tried to give very briefly an idea of the merits of
alfalfa as a crop, the work which is necessary to success with
it, and not to hide the difficulties of its introduction.

We need to raise more leguminous crops than we do now,
not more for the sake of our cattle than for the sake of our
land. We need them as cover crops for the winter, to prevent
washing and leaching. We need them as green manure in the
spring, and we need them to lessen our grain bills. Cow-peas
and soy-beans are used to some extent. Red clover is neg-
lected. To my mind there is more chance of general success
with red clover than with alfalfa.

I wish every farmer in Connecticut might have seen the
fields at the Agricultural College at Storrs as I saw them be-
fore snow flew. They were certainly an object lesson in good
farming. There was no bare ground in sight in the late fall.
Every field was tucked up for the winter with a coverlet either
of rye or, for the most part, as it looked to me, of red clover.
There was no chance for loss of nitrogen from the soil by

1906.] ALFALFA IN CONNECTICUT. 227

leaching ; there was rather the certainty of a gain. None of
the land was lying idle.

But this is not a talk on clover. Alfalfa at present has the
center of the stage. An acre of alfalfa, at its best, will cer-
tainly yield more concentrated cattle feed than any crop which
we can grow. It is worth a trial by all dairy farmers, even those
who have failed with it years ago, for we have new knowledge
regarding the causes of failure and the road to success.

But this is the real point of this talk. Don't let us take the
time to simply fool with it. Laying down an alfalfa field is
like making a road. It requires skill and work. It is to last for
years. Do it right then, or leave it alone. Choose the land
very carefully ; get it as clean of weeds as it is possible, either
by a summer fallow or by a hoed crop which is kept specially
clean ; put on a heavy dose of lime ; get seed of which 90 per
cent, will sprout, preferably from unirrigated western seed
farms ; inoculate with soil from another alfalfa field or from a
patch of sweet clover ; if weeds are abundant, clip the field
five or six inches from the ground as often as needed to keep
them down ; and if the stand of alfalfa is thin and the weeds
rampant, be prepared to turn the piece under and seed again
between the first and fifteenth of August.

Every one of these points is quite essential to a fair trial of
alfalfa. To omit any one is to endanger the whole experi-
ment. They will not ensure success. On many soils alfalfa
will not grow successfully. The thing should be tried as an
experiment and as one where you can afford to lose. If you
succeed, it is easier to increase your acreage than it was to make
the start.

Success will pay handsomely, but it will come, like every
other success, only with labor and skill and watchfulness. Suc-
cess is not distributed in any two-dollar packages with nitro-
cultures.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. Phelps. Dr. Jenkins made the statement in his in-
teresting paper that some soils naturally contained the alfalfa
microbe, and I think he said that he found that to be the case
with the Station grounds at New Haven. I would like to ask
if he has found that condition common about the State,

228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Dr. Jenkins. No. As a rule, I think inoculation is neces-
sary. The soil must have the microbe in it in order to be suc-
cessful with the crop. It is necessary to inoculate the soil if
the organism is not present. I have already spoken of the
manner of getting the microbes into the soil.

I might add to what I have already said that you should
not be discouraged if the first year you get no crop from your
alfalfa that is worth saving, that is, from the first year's seed-
ing. Do not be discouraged if you do not get any alfalfa that
you can make hay with. If your plants look heavy and thrifty in
the fall, and the field shows signs of your getting a good stand,
give a good mulch of stable manure late in the fall and that
will probably bring the field through in good condition. The
next year, in all probability, the results will be better. Every
one of these points is quite essential to the production of a good
crop.

Now I recognize that this is a discouraging, lukewarm, and
half-hearted sort of a paper, but the intention of the paper has
been to give the facts as they appear to us. I think it is better
to tell the truth about it as we see it now. There has been so
much inordinate praise of alfalfa that it is likely to damage the
success of the crop in the State through a misunderstanding
of the difficulties in the way of successfully raising it. You
remember how it was with ensilage. When ensilage was
brought out the shout went up at once that you could increase
the amount of digestive food for your cattle by putting the
green fodder into your silo and manufacturing a food. After
a while it was discovered that the matter was not sufficiently
understood. Ensilage did not turn out as was expected, and
the consequence was that it got a black eye in this State, Now
we are beginning to see things in their true light, and are
getting the benefit of that knowledge.

Take the matter of Sumatra tobacco. We went into that
quite extensively in some parts of the State in 1900, and after
the first crop dealers in Xew York were apparently so pleased
with it that they said it was worth $1.75 a pound, that they

1906.] DISCUSSION. 229

would give that for it. We sold a lot of it for $1.75 which,
of course, was very encouraging. We cautioned the farmers,
however, at that time to go slow until it was fully understood,
to try it as an experiment, and not to put in more money than
they wanted to throw away, but the promoters came down on
the State, companies to raise Sumatra tobacco were formed,
subscription agencies were opened in Hartford in special offices,
and the farmers in the tobacco raising sections besought to
take stock and go into the raising of Sumatra. After a short
time it became plain, as many of you know, that the matter
was not sufficiently understood, and the result is that the whole
business is now as flat as a pancake.

Now it has been somewhat the same with alfalfa. There
has been a lot of talk about alfalfa that has been in the nature,
as they say on the street, of hot air. It has been boomed by
some as something with which we could certainly succeed.
We cannot certainly succeed. It depends very much on cir-
cumstances, and upon how the crop is handled. It has been
tried in the State for twenty-five years. We have been trying
it for a considerable time, trying to learn the facts about it ap-
plicable in this State. We have been testing growing it with
farmers for a couple of years, and we do not feel at all sure
about it yet. There are many encouraging things about it,
but it is not a thing that we can afford to go into on any con-
siderable scale as yet. It must be tested further. Tliere are
two or three alfalfa fields in the State that seem to be very
promising, and which look as though they would be worth a
great deal to those who have them, but it is not a thing to
bank upon as an assured success yet. (Applause.)

Mr. Phelps. Professor Jenkins has given us a consider-
ble amount of meat in his paper, and we want to see if we can-
not digest some of it.

I have interested myself in the work of growing leguminous
plants, including alfalfa, and as I have had considerable ex-
perience on the subject, I thought possibly it might be of some

230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

interest to the people here, and I want to ask your indulgence
for a few minutes.

In the first place, there is need for investigation along this
line, from two standpoints ; one from the standpoint of soil
improvement, and the other from the standpoint of cheaper
feeds. I want to speak of the first. For the last six or seven
years, it has been my privilege, and a part of my duty, to pre-
pare for use about a carload of chemicals every year, and I have
found that the prices of phosphates and potash materials have
remained about uniform for the past eight years. There has
been very little change in the price from year to year. How
is it with regard to nitrogen? When I started in making
home mixtures, I could buy nitrate of soda for from thirty-
seven to thirty-eight dollars per ton. How is it today? The
price has gone up. Last winter, when getting the prices for
chemicals, I became quite concerned on the nitrate of soda
question, and I began to look around to see if I could find any-
thing for a substitute. I found I could buy nitrate of potash,
and get it more cheaply than I could the same amount of ni-
trogen and of potash in the form of nitrate of soda and
muriate of potash. I talked it over with my proprietor, and
he said you had better put in five tons of it at seventy-five dol-
lars a ton. This year I thought I would be a little forehanded,
and for several reasons it seemed best that we should put in
our chemicals in the fall, and I began to get prices. I found
nitrate of soda quoted at fifty to fifty-two dollars per ton in
New York. I sent to the house where we got our nitrate of
potash last year, and it was ninety dollars per ton. That knocked
out the nitrate of potash question. I investigated carefully to
see where we could buy our chemicals in the bulk best, and
found, as the result, that we could save about a dollar a ton,
on the average, over New York prices by buying in Baltimore ;
but at the best, the nitrate of soda cost us over fifty dollars per
ton delivered. Now this great advance in the price of nitro-
genous fertilizers brings up a very serious question. What

1906.] DISCUSSION. 231

are we going to do with the nitrogen question ? What are we
going to do for this food element for our plants ?

We find the same condition of affairs when we study the
question from the standpoint of feeds for our animals. Ten
years ago we could buy plenty of cotton seed meal for from
twenty to twenty-two dollars per ton. Xow we are lucky if
we can buy a carload for twenty-eight or twenty-nine dollars
per ton, and all nitrogenous feeds have pushed upwards in the
same way. We are face to face with a very serious problem,
in fact, with a double problem. How can we buy nitrogen for
feeding our plants and how can we obtain protein for feeding
our animals? It seems to me that along the line of growing
legumes on our farms, and the conservation of soil nitrogen by
using certain crops as a means of drawing nitrogen from the
air lies our best hope of success. I believe, for that very reason,
that, in a careful, conservative way, every dairyman should ex-
periment with alfalfa, and make it a success, if possible. I
have been experimenting with it more or less for the past six
or seven years, but more particularly in the last two years.
When I went onto the farm where I am now located I found
a very nice field of alfalfa. My predecessor was interested in
the question, and he had foreseen the need of alfalfa. How
good the crops were before I took charge of the farm I do not
know, but I do know this, that we cut three very good crops
in the year 1903, and used it for soiling purposes. You will
remember what a severe winter we had in 1903 and 1904.
During the summer of 1904 we cut three light crops. The
clover and other grasses came in, and crowded out the alfalfa,
but we used it for soiling purposes, getting, on the whole, a
fairly good yield. In the spring of 1905 we started a new field,
using about thirty pounds of seed to the acre. I got some
pure culture from Washington and attempted to follow their
directions for starting it. I should like to relate this because
I can see from my experience some difficulties ahead for the
average farmer in handling the pure cultures. The directions

232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J^n.^

were to place the culture in a certain amount of rainwater, or
distilled water, adding the nutrient salts, and then to set it in
a warm place for a period of twenty-four hours. I did not
know what would be considered a warm place. It was, how-
ever, the month of May, and the weather was getting warm,
so I thought I would set it on the piazza of the house and see
what would happen. I left it there for twenty-four hours, but
at the end of that period the milky color which the directions
said would show did not manifest itself. I said to myself
there must be something that is not quite right, I will leave it
by the stove. I did so, and the next day the milky condition
was very apparent. Now suppose that condition was placed
before the average farmer. What would he have done about
following directions ? I left it in a warm place for twenty- four
hours. I knew, however, it was not in condition to use, and
I waited for another twenty-four hours. I then soaked the
seed in the culture solution, dried it by spreading it on some
sheets, and then went ahead and sowed the seed in the usual
manner.

I found, in the early part of July, that the nodules were be-
ginning to appear on the roots. I looked over the field, and
here and there were plants which had a different appearance
from others, and I found, when I dug down carefully, that the
nodules were present on the roots. I soon found that I could
tell by the appearance of the foliage the plants that would have
the nodules, and I could pick out those that would not. Not
more than a quarter of the plants showed the presence of
nodules, even though I had been reasonably careful in follow-
ing the prescribed method of seed inoculation. We had a very
fine growth which we cut off when about a foot high, about
the 15th of July. For the next two weeks the weather was
dry, and the weeds came on very rapidly. They choked the
alfalfa back and it seemed likely to go into the winter in rather
poor condition, so I plowed it up.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 233

In the fall of 1904 we plowed up the old alfalfa field where
we g^ot such a good crop in 1903, and a fair crop in 1904. This
year, I said, I will see if we cannot get ahead of those weeds.
So I re-plowed the field last spring, manured it, and re-plowed
it again. During the summer we cultivated and harrowed thor-
oughly once in about two weeks. The seed was sown about the
middle of August, and when the cold weather came on the
alfalfa was a thick mat about four to five inches in height. It
was looking in good condition as the winter season came on.
I think we shall get something in the way of a crop the coming
year as the field is now quite free of weeds.

I believe in following out, in a very careful way, the direc-
tions that Dr. Jenkins has given, and especially that we must
have these inoculating bacteria from some source. If they are
not in the soil they must be placed there. I believe if we will
follow Dr. Jenkins' advice, and work with the very best
methods we can get, there is a fair degree of certainty that we
can prove that alfalfa may be raised successfully in Con-
necticut. We must, however, clear our fields well of weeds
during the early summer season, and seed after mid-summer.
I should have preferred to have seeded two weeks earlier than
I did, or about August ist, but the working conditions on the
farm are sometimes such that one cannot do things just when
he wants to do them. I believe fully that alfalfa, and a good
many of the other legumes, are crops that we must grow more
generally if we are going to produce cheap nitrogen for the
feeding of our plants, and if we are going to produce a cheaper
form of protein for the feeding of our animals. We certainly
should do more than we have been doing in the past toward
producing and saving nitrogen on the farm.

Mr. J. B. XoBLE. I would like to ask Dr. Jenkins if we
can get a crop of alfalfa in Connecticut whether it is a desirable
dairy feed? We know that they do grow large crops of it,
and it is fattening for animals, but is it a good dairy feed k»r
the production of milk and butter ?

234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Dr. Jexkins. I have not had any experience. I never got
so far that I had a lot of it to feed to cows. I know this, how-
ever, that Mr. Stadtmueller, on a big farm at West Hartford,
has used it. I beheve he is selling milk from thoroughbred
Jersey and Guernsey herds, and I know he would not have
used it if, in his observation, there was anything about it that
was not just right for a good dairy herd. Unquestionably,
it is very rich in nitrogenous food, and I should think it would
be important as a dairy feed. I never heard the point made
anywhere that it was not good for milk and butter products.
Of course, Mr. Stadtmueller is raising milk and not butter,
and for his milk producing I think he certainly finds it an ad-
mirable thing.

Mr. StR(\whecker. Mr. President, this is an intensely in-
teresting subject to farmers in Connecticut whether we
ultimately succeed in raising it here or not. I can hardly agree
with the Doctor in the statement made during the last part of
his address that his paper was a lukewarm paper. I consider
it a very valuable exposition of the alfalfa subject.

It has been my pleasure to have been in a position to ob-
serve during the last four or five years considerable in regard
to alfalfa growing in central and western New York, and
down through southern Ohio. Of course, central New York
appeals to us with rather more interest than points further west.
They have had splendid success with growing it in Ne^v York.
I remember riding from Dunkirk into Buffalo along in June,
and noticed at one point that the railroad embankment was
thoroughly covered with it. In fact, it seemed to be quite a
good solid stand.

I knew of a party that started to grow it upon upland
ground, and after growing some on lower land he found he
could get three good cuttings. The good cuttings were from
thirty to thirty-four days apart. There is another point that
I would like to ask the Doctor's opinion on, and that is in re-
gard to getting a good stand the first year when it has attained

1906.] DISCUSSION. 235

a height of six inches. It is said if you try to mow it before
it gets up to a certain height that it will slip right over the
machine. Have you ever had any experience w^ith that ?

Alfalfa has a tendency to grow too much top unless it is
cut. It needs to be cut at the right time or the stalks become
woody. When it is cut at the right time you cannot get any
better hay.

As for feeding purposes it is most excellent, and it is highly
relished by most all kinds of stock, pigs as well as cattle. They
have grown it to some extent in the Housatonic Valley, w^here
I am still interested. Just what kind of land will do the best
for it I am not quite sure, but I apprehend it needs a good
quality of land. I think it would be almost useless to attempt
to start it on some of the old cold river plains over there. I
would not want to do that. I think we must prepare perhaps
the best land to be inoculated with the proper bacteria, and
then the prospect for getting a crop is pretty good.

I am intensely interested in this subject, and would like to
hear from any others who have tried it, and especially with
reference to the kind of ground it seems to do the best on.

Mr. Phelps. The gentleman has touched on a very im-
portant point, and that is the necessity of taking some good
soil. I think that is where a great many of the failures with
alfalfa have come about. Farmers have thought that alfalfa,
being a legume, would gather its nitrogen from the air and
would 'thrive even if put in rather poor soil. I think that is
a great mistake. Alfalfa, especially the first year, gets very
little nitrogen from the air, and the soil really wants to be a
rich soil. After it gets well established we have got a different
condition to deal with, but you want a rich soil the first year.

Mr. Strawhecker. I have heard it stated that the bacteria
needed for red clover is the same as that for alfalfa. I am not
sure whether they are or not. I would like to ask Dr. Jenkins
if he has any information about that.

236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Dr. Jenkins. I do not think that bacteriologists can tell
whether they belong to the same species or not, but certainly
they are two different strains, if they are not distinct species.
They are distinct strains so that a culture that would inoculate
an alfalfa field would not with the same efficiency inoculate red
clover. I am quite sure they are distinct strains, if not species.
Recent observations and tests at one of our agricultural sta-
tions, which were repeated by bacteriologists in several other
stations, showed that cultures which have been put out by some
of the commercial companies with which to inoculate alfalfa
fields, showed that they were so full of fungi and other things
instead of being a pure culture that if they ever had any of
the organisms which would inoculate an alfalfa field to begin
with they were run out and destroyed by this fungi and were
absolutely worthless for the purposes for which they were sold.

Question. If we sow alfalfa with red clover wiM it help
you out in any way? I do not know whether anyone here is
familiar with the work of Mr. Goble at Bristol. He has been
trying for a number of years to get some alfalfa on his farm,
and has tried both by sowing it in the spring and also in the
fall. This year, about the last of June or the first of July he
mixed it up with red clover. Will the clover help the alfalfa ?

Dr. Jenkins. That I cannot say. It is frequently sown
with the clover crop. I never have tried it in that way. As
far as my results and knowledge of others have gone they have
not seemed to favor the use of any cover crop with it. They
have had better results without. In some cases, particularly
in the west, I have read of their using clover, but I think it
would only help it as a shelter or protection and not in any
way help the inoculation of the roots.

Air. Matthews. Will the alfalfa do any better on land
that has the clover bacteria in it? I have the bacteria on my
clover. I am using clover as a cover crop, and I was thinking
of trying alfalfa, and wondering whether I would be more
likelv to succeed on the clover land.

1906.] DISCUSSION. 237

Dr. Jenkins. I do not think that clover nodules in them-
selves will materially assist the success of alfalfa, yet the land
on which a crop of red clover is grown will be more apt to
raise a successful crop of alfalfa. I should think so. I should
say if the soil had sufficient lime, or the right kind of plant food
for leguminous plants in it, alfalfa would succeed. In other
words, I should expect more success on that kind of land, but
not, so far as we know, by any transfer of bacteria from one
root to another.

The President. I would like to ask Professor Shaw to
say something about this matter.

Prof. Shaw. Mr Chairman and Gentlemen:

As the time is so far gone I will not say very much on this
question, although I have thought a little about it and have had
some experience in growing alfalfa. The thought came to me
when Dr. Jenkins was referring to the fact that sweet clover
would grow in dry places in different parts of the State,
whether alfalfa w^ould not grow in the same localities. I won-
der if anybody has tried it. I will qualify that by saying that
it is quite possible for sweet clover to grow in the west in
certain localities, and alfalfa grown on that same land and un-
der the same conditions will not grow well. I apprehend it is
because the sweet clover has more power to gather nitrogen
from the soil than the alfalfa; that it would be necessary, in
order to be quite sure of success, to enrich the land thoroughly
by applying some fertilizer, and especially, I should say, of
farm manure.

Now if the bacteria are not the same, and scientists seem' to
be agreed on that, for growing sweet clover as for growing al-
falfa, it seems to me that all that would be necessary would be
simply to enrich the soil. I hope that some one of the farmers
in this State will find that out. Dr. Jenkins is undoubtedly in a
good position to do it, and it seems to me to be a piece of infor-
mation that will be of some service to the farmers of this State.
I believe that alfalfa is going to be grown right up in the

238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

Saskatchewan River valley in the Canadian Northwest. In
fact, it includes alfalfa at the present time. You will pardon
me for this personal reference, but when I wrote that chapter
on clover and said that the 49th parallel was about the limit
of clover as well as alfalfa I found later on I was wrong. I
spent sixteen days in riding over the Canadian Northwest, and
when I came back home I had to revise that chapter. I said
that the northerly limit of growing clover or alfalfa is north
of the Saskatchewan River in the Canadian Northwest, —
about four hundred miles north of parallel 49. I simply refer
to this, farmers, so that you may be encouraged to believe that
you will succeed in growing alfalfa. I think you will find the
same to be the case in the State of Connecticut. We are grow-
ing it in Minnesota very successfully, where the winters usually
are much more severe than they are here. We are not grow-
ing it all over Minnesota, and we never will because some of
our land is not suited to it, and before I sit down I would like
to refer to an experience in growing alfalfa that I had myself.
It was on a patch of eleven acres, which was, of course, a little
large for an experiment. The patch came up fine. It w^as
sown in May, and we cut it off two or three times during
quite a wet summer. Some of the cuttings of plants and weeds
we allowed to lie as a mulch on the ground, and the plants grew
admirably until about the first of September, and then began
to wane. When winter fairly set in I said to one of the men
to take some of the best rotted manure that he could get in the
yard and draw it over the poorest part of the field, and he did
so, going over it several times back and forth, and the result
was this ; that the next summer there was a magnificent stand
of alfalfa where the fertilizer was scattered over the poorest
part of the field, and on the other part of the field the plants
were more or less sickly, so that they were plowed up.

Now I am not prepared to say that farmyard manure has
the power of giving to alfalfa the ability to draw nitrogen from
the air, that is, to draw it from the air without being inocu-

1906.] PROCEEDINGS. 239

lated, but I cannot help but think, gentlemen, that there is a
pretty close relation between that ability and the amount of
fertilizer that is put on the patch.

The President. The meeting will stand adjourned until
two o'clock this afternoon.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

December 14, 1905.

Music.

Convention called to order at 2 p. m., Vice-President Seeley
in the Chair.

The President. If the speaker of the afternoon was not
in the house, I should like to have the Secretary read some
communications just received from two different sources. I
think, however, that if the speaker will shut his ears we will
read them even though he is here, and I will ask Secretary
Brown to read the communications.

Secretary Brown. I think, gentlemen, it is due to you and
due to the speaker of the afternoon that a better acquaintance
should be established between you, and in order that there may
be a better understanding between you and him I will read a
letter received this morning from Mr. Herbert Myrick, whom
you all know.

" Springfield, Mass., Dec. 13, 1905.
" My dear Mr. Brown :

" Our good friend. Prof. Thomas Shaw, received a warm
welcome at Lisbon, N. H. ; also here yesterday before the
Massachusetts State Grange. I never knew a speaker to be so
warmly received by a New England audience. I hope he will
be equally beneficial to you. He is absolutely the best informed,
from both a practical and scientific standpoint, of any man in
his line in this country."

Enclosed with Mr. Myrick's letter was a paper containing
what the Master of the Massachusetts State Grange said when
introducing Prof. Shaw.

240 ' BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.,

" It gives me pleasure to introduce to this great audience of
Massachusetts farmers and their wives the leading expert in
America upon the subject of live stock breeding, feeding and
management. This gentleman's name is already a household
word in New England although this is his first visit here. He
has this week addressed the New Hampshire State Board of
Agriculture at Lisbon, and tomorrow speaks before the Con-
necticut State Board of Agriculture. Brought up in Ontario,
Director of the Minnesota Experiment Station, and now live
stock editor of the New England Homestead, he is also identi-
fied with the Homestead's contest to add millions to the profits
of grain growers."

The President. Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great
pleasure to introduce Professor Shaw, who will speak to us
this afternoon upon the subject of " Feeding Farm Animals."

FEEDING FARM ANIMALS.
By Prof. Thomas Shaw,

St. Anthony's Park, St. Paul, Minn.

Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen :

The introduction which your Chairman and the Secretary
of the State Board have been pleased to give me I must say
somewhat takes away my breath. If an introduction of that
kind had come after my talk rather than before it I would
probably feel a little more self-possessed than I do at present.
I do want to say this, however, before taking up the subject
that I shall more particularly talk upon ; I do want to say that
I do hope to be better known in New England in the future
than I have been in the past, and I do hope to be able to enroll
on the list of my friends a large number of the intelligent
farmers of this part of the great American Republic.

I do not know that I have referred to that grain-growers'
contest, and had it not been for the reference made in that
document read by the Secretary, should probably have
passed it over, but I will say simply in passing that it is true
that I do have to look after that contest. I believe it is to be
the greatest contest that was ever established among the

1906.] FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. 24I

farmers of any country. In regard to the causes of the con-
test in growing grain, and increasing the product of the farm,
of course, the future can only speak, but I do want to say to
you, farmers, that it is not simply an advertising dodge. It is
something that is, in my judgment, very greatly for the benefit
of farmers everywhere. It is something that is intended to
help not only the farmers of New England, but the farmers all
over the United States.

I have been announced to talk to you on the question of
feeding live stock, — a great, wide question, like the question
that I attempted to speak upon yesterday. I can see, brethren,
as you cannot, perhaps, some difficulties with the discussion of
this question before an audience of Connecticut farmers. I
put the question to several, — are any live stock fattened in
Connecticut ? And generally the answer came in the negative.
I did hear about one or two that attempted to fatten live stock
in a somewhat extensive w'ay, but I have yet to meet the first
man who is fattening live stock upon his farm in the sense in
which live stock is fattened upon the farms of the western
country. I know, of course, that my subject does not confine
me to the question of fattening live stock, because it is a ques-
tion which involves not only the fattening of live stock but the
feeding of dairy animals and the feeding of all kinds of farm
stock. I put this question to the same men. I said, " Do
the farmers in Connecticut grow their own meat for their
tables ? " but, farmers, they told me " No." I asked, " Do the
farmers grow their own pork for their own tables?" and,
farmers, they told me " No." I w^onder why Connecticut
farmers do not grow their own beef, and do not grow their
own pork, for I do not need to tell you, farmers, that every
dollar kept upon the farm in that w-ay is a dollar saved. I am
not here on this platform to tell you that you cannot bring in
cattle from the west and fatten them and sell them in the
market here and make them pay you. I am not here to tell
you that. I am here, however, to tell you that I do not see
why you should do that ; that it is my profound judgment that
you can grow your own beef, that you can gro