FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. I'ayne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Uoice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Normun F. Whippen, County Club Agent 

 Mnry Uimond, 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'rice, 50 cents a 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 



WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL FARMER? 



After a study of the business records 

 of 400 farms, covering the period from 

 1910 to 1922, the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture says, 



"While high crop yields alone do not 

 insure a good farm income, the yields on 

 the successful farms averaged higher 

 than on the unsuccessful farms. In the 

 case of corn, the average yield on the 

 four best farms was 50 bushels an acre, 

 compared with 44 on the four least suc- 

 cessful farms. Similar proportions held 

 for the other crops. In general, the men 

 obtaining the best yields kept consider- 

 able livestock, used commercial fertilizer, 

 drained their land and limed the soil 

 when necessary, used good seed of varie- 

 ties adapted to local conditions and treat- 

 ed their seed to prevent diseases, and 

 followed good methods of cultivation. 



"On the most successful farms there 

 was less variation in cropping systems 

 than on other farms. Thus the four most 

 profitable farms had a yearly variation of 

 only 14 per cent in their corn acreage, 

 compared to 21 per cent on the four least 

 .successful farms. Variations in other 

 crop acreages likewise were smaller on 

 the most profitable farms. It was also 



found that the most successful farms 

 usually had as many fields of equal size 

 as there were years in the crop rotation 

 followed, or else they had fields that 

 could be combined in such a way as to 

 divide the crop acreage into as many 

 equal parts as there were years in the 

 crop rotation. In other words, the best 

 farms had the most scientific layouts." 



SAVE THEToul<rLIVESTOCK 



Cutting down the high and costly 

 death rate among infant livestock is one 

 of the farm pi'oblems for which the farm- 

 er must apply the solution himself. Sec- 

 cretary of Agriculture Jardine recently 

 declared that less than 10 per cent of the 

 farmers' problems can be remedied by 

 legislation ; the remaining 90 per cent can 

 best be solved or approached for solution 

 through the business of farming. The 

 prevention of the high mortality among 

 young stock is among the latter. 



Before birth the young animal is in an 

 environment where it is fairly well pro- 

 tected from shock, injury, and infection. 

 It has practically a uniform temperature, 

 and under normal conditions has an ade- 

 quate and suitable food supply. But 

 once launched into the world for itself it 

 is surrounded with danger — infectious 

 organisms; changing temperature, with 

 storms, wind, snow, hail, rain, and ex- 

 treme heat ; the possibilities of inadequate 

 or improper foods, overfeeding; and the 

 presence of actual poisons of various 

 sorts. The threat against an animal's 

 life is greatest at birth. 



Breeding from good stock is funda- 

 mental. But it is not practical to put off 

 the problem until all the livestock in the 

 country is purebred. And the tremen- 

 dous losses amongst our livestock infants 

 are due only to a very limited extent to 

 faulty breeding, according to Dr. Maurice 

 C. Hall, of the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry, United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



"Whatever the objection to scrubs, 

 mongrels, and similar animals of cross 

 breeds and no breeds at all may be, a lack 

 of toughness is hardly their leading 

 characteristic. The highest infant mor- 

 tality, all other things being equal, would 

 probably be among our purebreds, not our 

 scrubs and mongrels. Of course, all 

 other things are not equal. Our pure- 

 breds receive better care because they are 

 more valuable, and they are usually the 

 property of the more intelligent stock- 

 men. Equally good care should be ex- 

 tended to young animals in general, re- 

 gardless of whether they are purebred. 

 The bulk of our livestock to-day is not 

 purebred, and the protection of that live- 

 stock industry is our business. We must 

 drop our attitude of fatalism and indif- 

 ference toward the deaths of young ani- 

 mals, and challenge every death to show 

 cause why it occurred. We will usually 

 find the an.swer to be misunderstanding 



and lack of proper care and sanitation." 

 The causes of early deaths in livestock 



fall into three general classes: 

 I 1. Conditions little influenced by treat- 

 iment: Malformation, extreme feebleness 

 j or extreme prematurity, certain accidents 

 I during birth. 



2. Those capable of considerable re- 

 duction, chiefly through proper hygiene, 

 sanitary isolation and medical treatment: 

 Tuberculosis, acute respiratory diseases, 

 certain acute contagious diseases, some 

 forms of animal parasitism. 



3. Those capable of a veiy great re- 

 duction through proper feeding, care, and 

 sanitation: Acute gastro-intestinal dis- 

 eases, goitre troubles, prematurity (if not 

 extreme), many forms of animal parasi- 

 tism. The last is of first importance. 



TURNIPS WITH JULY SEEDING 



I ran acioss a man the other day who 

 makes a regular practice of including 

 half a pound or so of white egg turnip 

 seed per acre with the gi-ass and clover 

 in all of his July seedings. It is his ex- 

 perience that the turnips do not inter- 

 fere in the least with getting a good stand 

 I of grass and clover and in favorable sea- 

 sons they sometimes produce a yield of 

 200 to 300 bushels per acre. 



If there is a market for them, the best 

 ones are sold to pay the cost of seeding 

 down, the poorer ones being fed out. 

 Otherwise the entire crop is fed out. 



In view of their extremely low cost of 

 production, when grown incidental to 

 seeding down, turnips appear to be one 

 of the most economical of succulents. 

 Though regarded primarily as feed for 

 sheep, they may be used to good advant- 

 age for young stock or even for milking 

 cows if fed after milking rather than be- 

 fore. 



Their feeding value, in comparison 

 with some of the more familiar succulents, 

 is given by Henry and Morrison as fol- 

 lows: 



Turnips will be found to respond to 

 just the same fertility treatment which 

 is required for the grass and clover any 

 way, mainly lime, phosphates and am- 

 monia. To a considerable extent the 

 turnips may help pay for fertilization of 

 the hay crop. 



The most obvious disadvantages of the 

 practice are, first, the necessity of pro- 

 viding some sort of convenient, frost- 

 proof storage and, second, the necessity 

 of buying a root cutter if any consider- 

 able quantity of turnips is to be fed. 

 J. B. Abbott. 



