Some facts concerning the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. Presented to a hearing of legislative committees. Albany, April 5, 1910/Illustration showing the value of the experimental work of the College
ILLUSTRATIONS SHOWING THE VALUE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK OF THE COLLEGE.
It is impossible in this circular to discuss in any detail the experimental work of the College. The few illustrations given under this heading, however, will indicate the general nature of the work and its value to the agriculture of the State.
Experiments showing how dairying in New York may be improved. In 1873 the College of Agriculture owned a herd of ordinary cows, the average yield of which was about 3000 pounds of milk per cow per year. In this year, Professor I. P. Roberts purchased a pure-bred bull and began to breed and grade up the herd, retaining the best animals and constantly "weeding out" the less productive ones. This process has been steadfastly continued up to the present time, with the result that in the year which ended August 31, 1909, thirty-seven cows in the herd of the College of Agriculture averaged 7463 pounds of milk containing 302 pounds of fat, and yielding a gross return of $120 per cow, or a little more than double that yielded by the original herd.
What this would mean to the farmers of the State is seen from the statement that in 1899 the average production of the cows in the state of New York, as given in the United States Census Reports, was 4378 pounds. The methods employed in this improvement are those that are within the means of any farmer or dairyman. No expensive animals have ever been purchased, and practically all of the present members of the herd have been raised upon the place. If all of the farmers in the State for the past thirty-five years had practiced these same methods, the annual yield of the average cow in the state of New York would easily be twice its present amount.
The cow-testing work of the Dairy Department has enabled the farmer to know the total amount of milk and butter-fat made by each cow in his herd and the value of feed consumed by each cow. It has been found in some herds that certain cows were not producing enough to pay for their feed, while other cows in the same herd were producing a return of over $50.00 in excess of the feed consumed. The information obtained from this work enables the farmer to dispose of his poor cows and raise the heifer calves from his best ones, in this way steadily raising the productive capacity of his herd. The data on which the bove statement is based was obtained from the records of twenty herds a total of 209 cows. The value of this work can be shown toy the following illustration:
The average milk production per cow in New York State is at The average milk production per cow in New York State is at present not far from 4400 pounds per year. This average might easily be raised to 7000 pounds per cow by adopting the methods used in cow-testing work. This would mean an average increased production per cow for the entire state of 2,600 pounds per year. Considering the number of cows in the state to be 1,800,000, this would give an increased production of milk of 4,680,000,000 pounds. Figuring this at $1.30 per hundred, it gives an increased return to the dairymen of the State of $60,840,000.00 per year.
Experiments showing how New York State butter-making may be improved. The results of the work in determining the moisture content of butter will make it possible for butter-makers to produce a more uniform product which will bring a higher price on the market, and also to produce more butter from a given amount of cream, thus giving the butter-maker and the milk-producer an increased profit in two ways. The profits of such work may be as great as indicated by the following illustration:
Suppose a creamery receives an average of 10,000 pounds of milk per day. The difference in the cash returns to this creamery resulting from butter containing 14% of moisture as compared with butter containing 9% of moisture, is equal to $6.30 per day or $2,299.50 per year. This fact was determined by experiment. Poultry investigations. The Poultry Department has conducted experiments which have shown
(1) That the practice of starving hens to force a molt results in loss instead of gain, the difference amounting to 25c per fowl per year (Bulletin 258).
(2) That constitutional vigor is a vital factor in the successful handling of poultry ; that it can be recognized by external characters; that these characters are hereditary and that the constitutional vigor of fowls influences molt, fertility and hatching power of eggs, size and vigor of chicks and prolificacy, amounting to twelve to fourteen eggs per hen per year and 35c to 40c per year profit per hen (Reading Course Bulletin 45).
(3) That the supplying of ground feed as a dry mash in the feed hoppers materially reduces the labor, increases production, decreases mortality, and increases the net profits in the feeding of fowls (Bulletin 249).
(4) That chickens may be reared in flocks of two hundred by the use of a gasoline-heated colony-house system, which reduces the cost of the original investment and decreases the labor in feeding and brooding seventy-five per cent. (Bulletin 246).
(5) A large number of labor-saving and sanitary poultry appliances have been invented and given to the public, among which are indoor and outdoor feed-hoppers, a combination refrigerator crate for eggs and dressed poultry, watering devices, trap nest, etc. (Bulletin 248).
(6) Improved types of poultry houses have been adapted to New York State conditions as a result of experiments with different types of houses. (Reading-Course Bulletins 16 and 33, and Circulars 1 and 3).
Alfalfa on sterile hill lands. The College farm consists largely of a heavy, tenacious soil known as Dunkirk clay loam. This is a type of soil that has been regarded as especially unsuited for alfalfa growing. About 1903, a study was begun to ascertain whether it is possible to grow alfalfa on this soil, and if so, what treatment of the crop is necessary to secure success. An acre of land was fitted and seeded in the summer of 1906. Harvests have been secured from it during the three succeeding seasons. In 1907, the yield from one acre was 3 tons and 1500 pounds of well-cured hay; in 1908, 3 tons and 500 pounds; in 1909, 6 tons and 360 pounds, a total of 13 tons and 360 pounds for the three years.
During this period alfalfa hay has varied in price from fifteen to twenty-one dollars per ton. Figuring at the minimum price per ton, the cash value of the three seasons product of one acre of land was $197.70. Since the season of seeding there has been no labor or expense for fertilizer given this land except in the harvesting of the crop.
There has been expended for labor, lime, manuring and seed about fifty dollars per acre. This, of course, is a large expenditure in getting the crop started, but when it is considered that no further expense is incurred, except the harvesting, for a series of eight to fifteen years, and with fair prospects of the average yields as they have been in the past, it will be seen that this experiment demonstrates that there is a great opportunity for financial success in growing alfalfa on this type of soil, not with standing the natural difficulties to be met.
It is demonstrated by this experiment that to secure successful alfalfa crops on Dunkirk clay loam, a very common type of soil over about one-third of the State, it is necessary that the land shall be well manured the season of sowing, dressed with lime and inoculated by means of soil from an old alfalfa field.
The use of lime. Investigations indicate that in the neighborhood of 75 per cent, of the farm land will respond profitably to the use of lime. In many cases, its use is fundamental to the profitable growth of crops and necessary to the maintenance of soil fertility.
Our investigations have shown that the use of lime by promoting nitrification, particularly in connection with a legume, increases the nitrogenous substance in both the legume and the non-legume, thereby materially increasing the food value of all these substances, and consequently adding materially to the value of the crop.
Better yielding timothy. In timothy-breeding experiments conducted by the Experiment Station, over 40,000 individual plants have been tested and about 200 distinct strains have been secured. Some of the best of the select types have in our experiments produced twice the average yield of all the plants tested. As seed has been grown and tested from almost every hay-growing section of the world, we are safe in assuming that the thousands of plants which we have tested represent the average of what would be found in ordinary hay fields. New York is the first state in the Union in the number of acres of hay produced, and in total production ranks first, with over 6,000,000 tons having a farm valuation of about $70,000,000. The average yield per acre in New York is 1.2 ton, which makes it rank forty-fourth among the states in the average production per acre. By the use of these new select strains the yield of hay would be increased at least one-fourth. The importance to the State of such an increase will be clearly apparent when the size of the crop is considered. Coupled with greater yield, some of the new strains are resistant to rust and avoid the injury which is produced by this serious malady.
Control of insect pests. The life history and habits of the codling moth have been exhaustively investigated and a definite and effective method of control demonstrated whereby hundreds of thousands of dollars have been saved to the apple-growers of New York State. After a careful study of the habits of the cabbage maggot, a remedy was prescribed that still remains the most effective one ever devised.
The pear-tree psylla threatened the extinction of pear-growing in certain parts of the State, but by a careful study of its life history an effective remedy was found that saved many orchards. In 1892, Mr. G. T. Powell estimated that he lost 1100 barrels of pears through the work of the pear-tree psylla. Other growers lost in similar proportions. The control of the psylla saved hundreds of thousands of dollars to the pear-growers of the State.
The investigation of wire-worms, the peach-tree borer, bud-moth, grape-vine flea-beetle, grape root-worm, grape-berry moth, pistol-case borer, cigar-case borer, apple-seed chalcis fly, and others have been carried to completion and helpful methods of control have been devised.
In 1900 there were approximately 15 million bearing apple trees in New York that produced over 24 million bushels of apples. Spraying for the codling moth is so universal and so effective in increasing the quantity and quality of marketable apples that if we were so conservative as to estimate an increased average income from each tree through spraying to be 25c, we should have a profit of more than $3,000,000 accruing to New York apple-growers each year through the control of this one insect as a result of the application of the arsenical sprays. The first spray calendar ever published was prepared in the Department of Entomology, and was of great service in diffusing exact knowledge of the use of sprays against this and other pests.
Control of plant diseases. Very marked advance has been made in the control of many of the serious diseases which affect economic plants in this state. The following are a few of the most suggestive of these investigations:
1st. Black rot of grapes. Black rot is the most serious disease of grapes present in the State. The grape crop in the State is valued at $2,763,711. It has been found that the key to the control of this disease is to spray before the rains and not after rains. The discovery and demonstration of this fact alone is worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars to grape-growers of the State.
2nd. Bean pod spot has been a very serious interruption to the bean industry, the annual crop of which in the State is valued at $2,-472,668. It has been found that this disease can be practically controlled by the hand selection of pods free from the disease for seed the next year. This simple method will save the industry in this State.
3rd. Pear blight. This disease, which causes extensive damage to the fruit industries of the State, it has been found, can be practically controlled by systematic inspection, removal and disinfection of dis- eased parts. The demonstration of this method of control will save the pear-growing industry of the State much money.
4th. Apple scab. The control of this disease, which means so much to the successful prosecution of the apple industry, has heretofore been effected by the use of Bordeaux mixture, which frequently causes injury to the fruit. It has been demonstrated that lime-sulphur solution can be used as a substitute for Bordeaux, is just as effective in controlling the disease, and does not cause the fruit-injury produced by Bordeaux. It is believed that this discovery alone is worth more to the growers of the The control of this disease, which means so much to the successful prosecution of the apple industry, has heretofore been effected by the use of Bordeaux mixture, which frequently causes injury to the fruit. It has been demonstrated that lime-sulphur solution can be used as a substitute for Bordeaux, is just as effective in controlling the disease, and does not cause the fruit-injury produced by Bordeaux. It is believed that this discovery alone is worth more to the growers of theState than all the money which has been invested in the Plant Pathology investigations. The application of this practice will make possible a reduction of one-third the cost of spraying as given at present for this disease. It has been found, furthermore, that the lime-sulphur solution is a fairly effective treatment for peach leaf curl, which is also a serious disease in the State.
What is the value of agricultural surveys? The Agricultural Surveys accomplish three important results:
1. They show in detail what are the agricultural resources of each township, and enable the College to supply local knowledge in such matters as soil adaptation, best rotations and most successful systems of management.
Frequently certain profitable practices that prevail in one section might be introduced to great advantage in another section which has the same natural conditions but where these practices have not been tried. The drainage of muck lands and the growing of truck crops on them is very profitable system of farming. It is practiced in only a few isolated sections of the State. There are many other localities in which muck lands just as favorably situated may be found. A considerable area of the State, including some of what is known as the "abandoned farm" land in the southern part, is just as well adapted and located so far as soil, climate and railroads are concerned, for the production of apples as are Niagara, Orleans, Monroe or Wayne Counties. The fact that the soils of the cheap hill lands are well adapted to potatoes has been brought out by a survey. As a result of detailed knowledge of this sort gained in the surveys, the College is recommending and encouraging the adoption of these and other systems of farming wherever conditions are favorable and where they will pay better than the systems previously in vogue.
2. They supply material for studies of farm management. They enable the College to determine what are the factors conditioning success or failure.
The surveys have shown a striking relationship between the size of farms and profits. Contrary to the old impression that a "little farm well tilled" yielded the greatest profits, the surveys have proved conclusively that for general farming in the regions surveyed the largest farms are paying best. They have also shown that in spite of the high wages demanded for labor, the most successful farmers hire the most help. A study of the most successful farms upsets the old teaching that dairy farmers should raise their own grain and that they cannot afford to raise their own stock. These most successful farmers buy the most grain and raise their own stock. The amount of capital, machinery, and the number of horses, all have a direct relationship to profits. The surveys show why some farms are successful and why others are not.
3. They furnish the results of hundreds of experiments more cheaply than the College can conduct one. They show the relative productiveness of the various types of soils, the efficiency of different rotation systems, the comparative production of different breeds of dairy cattle, the effect of topography on crop production, and many other relationships, not in one instance under one set of conditions but on hundreds of farms and under a great variety of conditions.
Soil surveys. The intelligent development of farm land must take into account the character of the soil and is determined by it. The soil survey, by determining the character of soils and their relation to crops and management on the one hand, outlines the problems confronting the farmer, and, on the other hand, presents them to the Experiment Stations for their solution in a manner which makes for most rapid progress. With the large number of farms which are offered for sale or exchange in New York State, the soil survey is the only reliable and thorough method by which the true values of such farms may be compared and studied.
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