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Show Farm News-Notes j By LEW MAR PRICE j County Agent J Protect The Pastures Granting that grass is the best food for dairy cows, some precautions precau-tions are necessary for using it, warns Prof. George B. Cf.ine, Head of the dairy department, U. S. A. C. Grass is a succulent feed, containing contain-ing only about 10 per cent dry matter, mat-ter, therefore must be eaten in large quantities to supply the needs of the cow. With practically no dry feed available this spring in our country, our cows will be under heavy strain during the greater part of the season trying to build up their bodies and maintain mifk flow. Our feed wheat coming in now will relieve the strain some, and may help to give the pastures pas-tures a slightly better chance. But wheat must be fed with the utmost care. Already we have had livestock killed with the wheat on what was though to be a light ration. One to one and one half pounds a day to start with and a very gradual increase in-crease up to double that amount for a maximum may be used with safety, but a close watch should be kept at all times for any indications of trouble. Good pastures is no doubt the cheapest feed for the dairy herd, and they should be protected as much as possible until they get a start in the spring. Expert Sees Hope For Poultrymen (by Professor Byron Alder) The suggestion on preserving egg; for house use is very timely now for the Utah home due to the fact that eggs are so very cheap at present. The prospects are that eggs may be rather difficult to obtain and possibly expensive next fall. There are three reasons for that last statement: First, there was a marked reduction reduc-tion in numbers of -hens in the U. S. at the beginning of this year as com-I com-I pared with last year or two years ago. This is very evident from the fact that receipts of eggs at the leading lead-ing eastern markets are approximately approximate-ly 23per cent less than last year up to April 15. Second, eggs are accumulating in storage at the present time at a very much slower rate than in previous years and an important part of the storage season is now past. On April 15 there were in storage in the five leading markets, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, only 566,-052 566,-052 cases of eggs as compared with 1,402,705 cases on the corresponding date last year. This is a decrease of over 1,000,000 cases or 74 per cent. During the late fall and early winter months a large part of the demand for eggs is usually supplied from the cold storage holdings as production of fresh eggs is at the lowest point of the year during that period. Third, there appears to be a rather marked reduction this spring in the number of chicks that are being brooded as compared with the last few years. This means that there will be fewer pullets to come into production next fall. These three factors should carry to the poultry raisers two important suggestions, first, that there is yet time to brood chicks to fill the laying houses next fall, but only a very limited lim-ited time for this important work; and second that the storage holdings of eggs next fall will undoubtedly be decidedly short as compared with previous pre-vious years and will therefore not have the depressing effect on the egg market that existed especially during the past two winters. The late hatched birds do not grow and develop as rapidly as the earlier chicks due to the hot, dry summer weather and usually do not come into production until the peak of egg prices pric-es has been past. Pooriy developed pullets are a handicap in the flock even when the price of eggs is high and a much greater handicap for profitable pro-fitable egg production during periods of low prices. Good chicks, brooded under favorable conditions, and fed so as to grow them into strong, vigorous, vigor-ous, well developed pullets in the early ear-ly fall, are the first essential for profitable pro-fitable poultry production. If we expect to eat eggs in ou county next fall and winter, we should plan now to produce them. We have been importing eggs all during the winter this past year. Grain should be very cheap this fall, making it possible to produce very cheap eggs, if we have the pullets. Producing our eggs along with our garden, meat, and other food stuffs, will help to hold here what money we- have come in. "To live well this year, live at Home." |