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Newspaper
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Location
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Apr 15, 1933
Page
5
Iowa farm hand wages as of April 1 averaged 16.50 dollars a month with board and 23.75 without. day wages 85 cents with board and 1.20 without. Supply of farm labor at 127 percent of normal, demand 56 percent, with declines tied to lower crop prices and cost-cutting by farmers.
A poetic fragment captures spring swelling buds and playful animals including wildflowers, chicks, pups, kittens, pigs, calves, lambs, colts, kids, birds, and bees. Easter is celebrated as a season of renewal with lines from Susan Coolidge about blossoms and laughter.
The report notes April 1 conditions in major rye states were below last year and well under average, marking the lowest April condition in fifty four years on record.
Special to The Gazette notes farm hands receive seasonally low day wages with no board from 2.10 in New England states to 0.55 in the South. Spring price declines offset demand, farmers cut costs, and the wage index sits at 72 on April 1 from a prewar 100, with a surplus of workers over demand.
Farmers in Mount Vernon and north toward Springville report average wages for farm hands at fifteen dollars a month with board this spring.
Fayatte county farmer J. Pattison sold fifty hogs at Chicago on Wednesday. The hogs averaged about 305 pounds and brought 3.65 dollars per hundredweight.
In Cedar Rapids area and north and east, a clammy snow storm paused field work Thursday but little precipitation fell west of the city. Sunshine Friday allowed oat sowing to resume and early gardens to be planted as frost protection measures were set.
The Ames dairy extension highlights a pasture calendar to keep cows on grass year round. Forage crops are suggested to minimize production costs, with grass feeding costing only a third to a quarter of barn feeding per cow says Earl N. Schultz extension dairyman.
Unfavorable weather woes hit Cedar County farms as early pigs show better health than those born late March or early April. Wheat seeding sits around 50 percent of normal due to late spring, while all small grain planting is roughly half finished per County Agent Emmet GC Gardner.
Farmers resumed field work in Anamosa but report soil extremely wet and slow to dry due to cold weather. Seeding of small grain has been delayed because fields remain saturated and conditions hinder proper operation.
Snow halted field work but forecasted sun will permit finishing oats seeding. Some plowing completed and early gardeners active. Lewis Pieper, local truck gardener, planted 500 early hardy cabbage transplants.
One hundred seventy five of the 430 head of horses offered at the weekly auction here Wednesday were sold at private sale. Most offerings were well broken farm chunks weighing 1300 to 1600 pounds. Top team sold for 350 dollars, top horse 165, good chunks 110 to 140, bulk 75 to 110 dollars. Market watchers urge farmers to sell now as spring peak seems reached.
Five testers from district cow test associations met for the annual conference with Floyd Arnold and G. G. Gibson of the Ames dairy extension service. Attendees included Henry Nieman, Herbert Kliess, John Cray, Carol Frederics, and Gravers Underberg. The group toured Wehrmann dairy farm where a purebred Holstein herd will enter official testing under Ames direction and national herd improvement registry.
Cascade Fagan Brothers feed ers near here drove sixty three Berkshire hogs to Chicago market. The 229 pound average hogs sold at 3.85 a hundredweight, the top for the class, while a few 241 pound averages brought 3.75 a hundredweight.
Mrs. Melvin J. Faber of a farm seven miles northwest of Manchester proves poultry can be a major enterprise. Her flock of 69 Barred and Buff Rocks and 10 White Leghorn pullets yields 50 to 71 eggs daily, with careful feeding of home grown mash and scratch grain. She keeps 240 three week old Light Brahmas and culls her flock, noting mash returns more than double its cost and that small flocks can outperform large half-kept flocks.
North English reports March butter production at 49041 pounds up from 32049 a year ago a 53 percent gain. Leading butterfat producers include Harry Morse Orval Fry W W Fleig and Son Paul Peiffer and L E Jordan with further top contributors listed from Keota Deep River Delta Webster Gibson and South English.
Two carloads of steers averaging 1,088 pounds sold on the Chicago market at five dollars per hundredweight Wednesday. Buyer was August Hansen of Jones county feeder.
Ames Iowa entomologist B W Travis warns a white grub invasion will hit corn and other crops in year. farmers should avoid planting corn on newly broken sod or land with prior grub presence. Small grains and alfalfa may be better on infested ground. control options are limited and costly.
Dr. H M Hamlin of Town State college vocational education says Iowa lawmakers repealed the requirement to teach agriculture in high schools. He notes savings are limited and most districts will keep ag courses as superintendents favor practical education and community value.
Earlville reports unusually large litters from several Spotted Poland sows. Albert Kramer notes a sow with sixteen piglets from seventeen farrowed, with seventy total pigs. Others include George Harris with 150 Poland stock and about ten per litter, William Kragenhrink's three sows yielding twenty nine pigs, and Frank Faust with two sows bearing twelve each. Lambs also arriving, with John LeGassick listing sixty and Carl Hunt reporting thirty five spring lambs with several ewes triplets.
The third annual veterinarians clinic at Mechanicsville is scheduled for June by the Eastern Iowa Veterinary Association executive committee. The decision followed a Cedar Rapids meeting preceding Linn County Association dinner with twenty five practitioners in attendance.
Frank Brower of Keokuk County led the Wednesday heavy hog market in Chicago with a 317 pound average price of 3.70 per hundredweight. The sale highlighted continued demand for large hogs among buyers at the Chicago market.
Waterloo Iowa butterfat producers averaged 21.3 cents a pound at the creamery door in 1932 per a report by Clyde Bechtelheimer of the Iowa Creameries association. The study covers 123 creameries and notes costs, production totals, and patron returns.
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