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FARMERS' MONTHLY" 



OF HAMRSI-IIRE COUIXTV 



Vol. X. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., AUGUST, 1925 



No. 8 



ECONOMICAL FEEDING 



Professor Fraser Champions Alfalfa and 

 Sweet Clover 



Speaking to a group of about two hun- 

 dred dairy farmers at the Massachusetts 

 Agi-icultural College during Farm and 

 Home Week, Professor Wilbur J. Fraser 

 of Illinois stated that he noticed that 

 Massachusetts farmers had better cows 

 than they had feed. Most of the cows are 

 too thin to produce well. He said that 

 regardless of location, the principles of 

 economical feeding are the same. 



The first requirement for economical 

 milk production is to have good cows. 

 Then dairy farmers are interested in 

 making a profit. Over half of the ex- 

 pense of milk production is for feed. It 

 is only the part of the ration above that 

 needed for maintenance that makes the 

 profit. If a cow, capable of producing 

 8,250 pounds of milk in a year, is fed 

 only enough so that she will give .5,-500 

 pounds, sixty per cent of her ration is 

 used to maintain her body. By increas- 

 ing her feed one-sixth, she will produce 

 one-third more milk or 8,2.50 pounds. At 

 this point there is two-and-a-half times 

 more profit than there is when she is fed 

 to produce only 5,500 pounds of milk in a 

 year. 



Some years ago a demonstration of 

 economical feeding was carried on at the 

 University of Illinois. Twenty acres of 

 land were used and ten cows were fed 

 from these twenty acres of land. No 

 pasture was used and no grain was pur- 

 chased. Ten acres were in corn for 

 silage each year and the other ten acres 

 were in alfalfa. The daily ration for the 

 cows was sixteen pounds of alfalfa hay 

 and forty pounds of silage. Under this 

 system each acre of land produced 

 3,888 pounds of milk for the average of 

 six years. Figures obtained from six 

 nearby dairy farmers showed that they 

 averaged 1,402 pounds per acre. The 

 difference was due to the quality of the 

 crops, not to a difference in the kind of 

 cows. 



Principles of Economical Feeding 



The following are the basic principles 

 of economical feeding of dairy cows: (1) 

 Fit the ration to the rotr. A cow's rumen 

 holds about four bushels. This is sim- 

 ply a pocket where she stores her food. 

 Continued on page 8, column 2 



ALFALFA-CORN SEEDING 



Professor Abbott Introduces 



New Seeding Method 



This spring five hardy men were found 

 who were willing to try a new method of 

 seeding alfalfa on Professor .John B. Ab- 

 bott's recommendation. The plan was to 

 plow, manure, lime and put acid phos- 

 phate on the land, fit it as for corn as 

 early in the spring as possible; then to go 

 over the piece with the spike tooth har- 

 row once a week till all of the weeds in 

 the top two inches of .soil were killed. 

 This was about the middle of .June this 

 year. Corn was then planted a little 

 thinner than usual for the silo and the 

 planter marks levelled with the spike- 

 tooth harrow. Then the alfalfa seed was 

 sown, covered with the weeder and the 

 whole piece rolled. The corn and the al- 

 falfa were then left to fight it out. 

 "Dick" French of Granby was one of 

 those to try this method on five acres. A 

 friend of his was like the man who said 

 that he had to console his wife once in a- 

 while. He did it by telling her not to 

 make a darned fool of herself. Dick al- 

 most got cold feet but Professor Abbott 

 and the County Agent did some more 

 "consoling" at the critical moment. If 

 you don't believe it works, ask Dick about 

 it and have him .show you the field. The 

 corn won't make twenty tons of silage to 

 Continued on page 10. column 1 



TOBACCO GROWERS MEET 



Experiment Field Station Plots Inspected 



Several tobacco growers from Hamp- 

 shire County attended the field day held 

 at the Tobacco Field Station, Windsor, 

 Connecticut, Tuesday, July 28. The 

 morning was devoted to inspecting the 

 experimental plots, while a short speak- 

 ing program was held in the afternoon. 



Director Sidney B. Haskell of the 

 Massachusetts Experiment Station stated 

 that the Connecticut valley differs from 

 all other tobacco-growing regions in that 

 rotation of land is not practiced and in 

 that little or no manure is used in grow- 

 ing the crop. Experiments carried on at 

 the Massachusetts station show that to- 

 bacco grown on the same land continu- 

 ously is as good or better than tobacco 

 grown in rotation. This work also shows 

 that the timothy cover crop last year de- 

 creased the yield of cured leaf about 200 

 pounds per acre without increasing the 

 quality enough to offset the loss in 

 weight. This year's experiments show 

 the same result. 



In the rotation experiments it makes a 

 difference which crops tobacco can safely 

 follow. Apparently lime increased Black 

 Root Rot .so experiments are being con- 

 ducted to find range of soil acidity where 

 this disease is injurious. Director Has- 

 kell stated that where wildfire was 

 really controlled in the seed bed, it was 

 not bad in the field. 



Mr. Horsfold of the American Cyana- 

 mid Company, who has been doing ex- 

 perimental work on wire worms, was 

 called upon. He stated that wire worm 

 injury was greatest in cool wet seasons. 

 A small narrow beetle lays the eggs 

 which become wire worms. The beetles 

 come out of the ground in June, mate and 

 the female crawls back into the ground 

 and lays eggs. The worms eat little the 

 first year, but are bad the second anJl 

 third years. Calcium Cyanide has given 

 best results in experiments. Treatment 

 consists of discing the land as early as 

 possible. Then corn or peas are put in 

 drills two feet apart. This land is cul- 

 tivated so as to encourage the worms to 

 get into these trap rows. When they have 

 moved in, Calcium Cyanide at the rate of 

 100 to 125 pounds acre is sown in the trap 

 rows with a Planet Jr. seeder. In this 

 way eighty-five per cent of the worms 

 have been killed. It is safe to set tobac- 

 Continued on page 10. column 2 



