HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 



Roliind A. I'ayne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Itoice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Norniiin I'. Wliippen, County Club Agent 

 Mnry Dimond, Clerk 

 Mary Sullivan, Asst. Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 



Northampton, Mass. 

 Entered as second class matter Nov. 9. 

 1915. at the Post Office at Northampton, 

 Massachusetts, under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. 



"Notice of Entry" 

 "Acceptance for mailing- at special rate 

 of postage provided for in section 1103, 

 Act of October 3. 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober 31. 1917. 



I'rioe, r»0 cents n year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Charles E. Clark, President 

 Charles W. Wade, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Roland A. Payne, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 



SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 



The story is told of the man who went 

 into a store to buy a second-hand over- 

 coat. The price started at fifteen dollars 

 and the sale was made at five. When he 

 got home, he found that moths had eaten 

 away a large part of the pockets. He 

 returned to the store and complained. 

 The merchant asked, "What did you ex- 

 pect to find in the pockets for five dol- 

 lars? Humming birds?" This story 

 merely illustrates the point that many 

 people want something cheap or, in other 

 words, something for nothing. As a 

 rule, people do not receive any more than 

 they pay for. 



It is in response to this demand for 

 something cheap that hundreds of low- 

 priced chicks are shipped into this county 

 every year. All the loss among these 

 chicks is not always apparent. For ex- 

 ample, if the loss up to three weeks of 

 age is twenty-five per cent, the buyer is 

 usually satisfied as the chicks did not 

 cost much. If, on the other hand, the 

 shipment threatens to be a total loss, the 

 buyer complains. If it can be shown 

 that Bacillary White Diarrhea instead of 

 poor management was the cause of the 



loss, the chicks are replaced either in full 

 or in part as may be agreeable to the 

 parties concerned. 



When this is done, the apparrent loss 

 is made good. But is this all? For ex- 

 ample, if the first chicks came in March, 

 the purchaser has every reason to believe 

 he should be getting eggs in October 

 when prices are high. If the replace- 

 ments come in May, he has little prospect 

 of getting eggs before the price drops. 

 Then, too, the broilers bring less money. 

 This loss however is seldom considered by 

 the purchaser. He holds a dollar bill so 

 close to his eyes that it shuts out much 

 good scenery. 



Another man buys certified chicks. He 

 pays ten to fifteen cents more than he 

 would have to pay for common stock. 

 His losses depend on how carefully he 

 cares for his chicks. If, as in this state, 

 every one of the birds to be certified is 

 handled by an expert, he is getting chicks 

 from birds that are bred to lay and not 

 from stock that will just live. This man 

 knows that there is a difference in hens. 

 Some are bred to lay one hundred twenty 

 eggs per year, others are bred to lay two 

 hundred. It takes as much feed to keep 

 one bird alive as it does another of equal 

 size. It takes about ninety eggs to pay a 

 bird's board bill. The one hundred- 

 twenty-egg hen lays thirty-eggs profit 

 in the year. The other lays one hun- 

 dred-ten-eggs profit. Experts figure that 

 the higher-priced chicks have only to lay 

 six eggs more per year than the cheaper 

 chicks to pay the difference. Too few 

 poultrymen consider these facts when 

 buying chicks. 



Recently we visited a poultryman who 

 bought "commercial" chicks. He paid 

 fourteen and a half cents each. He lost 

 several so ordeied one hundred from a 

 certified breeder at twenty-five cents. He 

 said he did not know there was so much 

 difference in day-old chicks. He was like 

 the negro who came from a family of 

 thirteen children and who said that he 

 never knew a chicken had anything but 

 a neck till he left home! Yes, chicks 

 can be purchased at all sorts of prices. 

 Within reason, one gets what he pays for 

 and few, if any, get something for noth- 

 ing. 



"READ 'EM AND WEEP" 



Edward L. Schmidt of Belchertown 

 bought 3,600 chicks this spring. We 

 saw them when they were five and six 

 weeks old. They were the best lot of 

 chicks we have seen this year — uniform, 

 active and evenly feathered. "How 

 many do you suppose we have lost?" he 

 asked. "About four hundred," we guess- 

 ed. "Just one hundred is the correct 

 answer" was the reply. Mrs. Schmidt 

 says it's the truth and so we believe it. 

 Mr. Schmidt attributes his success to four 

 factors: (1) strong, healthy chicks; (2) 



proper feeding; (3) right brooder tem- 

 peratures; (4) ventilation of brooder 

 houses. He says, "I believe many of the 

 losses in chicks are due to faulty ventila- 

 tion of brooder houses. We run our 

 stoves hot so that the chicks can get 

 warm quickly. At the same time, we 

 ventilate our houses so that they are 

 cool. Look at the chicks and .see if it 

 doesn't pay." 



LAUGH WITH, NOT AT, PEOPLE 



Several friends have laughed at W. W. 

 Haswell of Easthampton for his efforts 

 to get alfalfa started. This spring he 

 has as pretty a field of alfalfa as can be 

 found in the county. It is a real field, 

 too, six and a half acres. The friends 

 laughed at the amount of lime he used 

 and at the way he kept the field smooth- 

 harrowed from April till July before 

 seeding down. They believed that alfalfa 

 could be grown but did not believe that 

 it was necessary to use as much lime, 

 harrow so much or to seed so early. 

 Haswell has the alfalfa, the friends have 

 none. If they had done as he did, they 

 could laugh with him because of their 

 alfalfa fields. Now he must laugh alone 

 at this success. Think how much more 

 pleasant it would be to laugh together. 



Fruit growers have found that it pays 

 to put on a spray for curculio a week or 

 ten days after the "calyx" spray. Cur- 

 culio makes russeted and crescent-shaped 

 scars on the fruit. Use arsenate of lead 

 and lime sulfur. 



TO TEST OUR CERTIFED SEED 



Potato growers in this county import 

 hundreds of bushels of certified seed each 

 year. Experience in our valley towns 

 has shown that certified seed pays. At 

 present these seed potatoes come from- 

 states to the north. It means that much 

 cash goes out of this county every spring. 

 If a larger part of this money could be 

 kept right here, the county would be that 

 much better. 



Last year several men in the western 

 part of the county grew certified seed. 

 There has been little market for this as 

 it has not proven its worth in lower alti- 

 tudes. In several towns, tests are being 

 made of this seed to see how it compares 

 with other certified seed. We expect that 

 our local seed will make a creditable 

 showing. It is practically free from 

 disease and produced from 275 to 400 

 bushels per acre last year. 



The following are some of the men 

 who are conducting these tests this year: 

 R. C. Turner, Enfield; E. Thornton 

 Clark, Granby; Felix Charon, South 

 Hadley; George Burt, Westhampton; Joe 

 Wight and Scott Harris, Hatfield. Tests 

 are being arranged in other counties of 

 this state and at Storrs, Connecticut. 



