FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. l«nyne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Itoice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Normiin F. Wliippen, County Club Agent 

 Mary Dimond, Clerk 

 Mury 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*riee, r»0 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 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 



ALFALFA LEAVES 



Times Have Changed 



Time was when a dairy farmer who 

 tried to grow alfalfa was looked upon as 

 a fit subject for admission to an insane 

 asylum. Then there was a shift and the 

 few who had ten plants to the acre (at a 

 cost of two dollars per plant) would 

 throw out their chests and say, "Yes, I 

 grow a little alfalfa." Then methods 

 were improved and a certain group would 

 tell that they cut their alfalfa three times. 

 Come to find out they had a half acre of 

 the real stuff. They were the leaders in 

 the movement. 



Within a few days, we had the pleas- 

 ure of introducing two men who are 

 growing alfalfa to each other. "Oh, I've 

 only got five acres," said one. "Well, I've 

 got ten acres that I moved this year but 

 I'll have twenty to cut next year," said 

 the other. With the progressive dairy 

 farmer it is no longer a cjuestion of 

 whether alfalfa will grow; it is a ques- 

 tion how many acres can be properly fit- 

 ted and financed. 



We Are Not Eating It 

 The other day we stopped in at the 

 Microbiology Department at M. A. C. to 



get eight alfalfa cultures. The clerk 

 could only find three. She asked if we 

 were eating it. We replied that we wei'e 

 not but that there were quite a few farm- 

 ers who were using a little of it with 

 good results. 



Cuts Ton-and-a-half Per Acre 



E. Thornton Clark of Granby cut his 

 alfalfa-timothy-clover mixture that he 

 seeded May first about the first of Au- 

 gust. In spite of the fact that the major- 

 ity of the grasshoppers that were in an 

 adjoining hay field moved into the alfalfa, 

 this piece gave about a ton-and-a-half of 

 hay per acre. This will be the only cut- 

 ting that will be taken this year. 



It is Catching 



There are three farmers living in the 

 same neighborhood. One man started 

 with alfalfa after attending one of our 

 Twilight meetings. One of his neighbors 

 called the County Agent to find out how 

 it was done. That made two fields as a 

 result of the trip. The third neighbor 

 saw what the other two were doing and 

 decided that he was as smart as they. 

 Now, there are three fields in the neigh- 

 borhood and the end is not yet. There 

 must be something in the saying that 

 nothing succeeds like success. 



GETTING GOOD HATCHES 



It was the last day of the Poultry Con- 

 vention at M. A. C. The subject under 

 discussion was "Solving Incubation Prob- 

 lems." William E. Ryan of Stoughton 

 was the last speaker. He was limited to 

 fifteen minutes. Bill didn't get to be 

 proprietor of one of the largest Rhode 

 Island Red breeding establishments in the 

 state by wasting time. He sure said a 

 mouthful in those few minutes. Here's a 

 summary of it. 



"Good fertile eggs are more important 

 than the kind of incubator. The import- 

 ant thing in getting good eggs is to build 

 up the health of the breeders. We use 

 yearling or older hens largely. They are 

 fed fifteen to sixteen quarts of scratch 

 feed a day. For green feed we use three 

 to four pounds of oats that have either 

 been germinated or sprouted, (weight is 

 taken before oats are sprouted). In ad- 

 dition, we use Crude Cod Liver oil at 

 the rate of one quart to 100 pounds of 

 scratch feed. We tried feeding all 

 scratch feed treated with the cod liver 

 oil but found that the birds lost appetite 

 after a couple weeks. Now we feed the 

 oiled scratch feed three times a week. On 

 the breeders, we start feeding the oil the 

 middle of August. 



"We also give three to four pounds of 

 semi-solid butter milk to 100 birds each 

 day. The butter milk is fed as it comes 

 from the barrels and is smeared on the 

 wall of the house. Dry mash is al- 



ways before the birds in hoppers. It is 

 made up of 100 pounds bran, 1.50 pounds 

 corn meal, 100 pounds standard mid- 

 dlings, 100 pounds ground oats, .50 

 pounds high grade beef scraps, 25 pounds 

 bone meal, 25 pounds calcium carbonate 

 and 5 pounds salt. The scratch feed is 

 300 pounds cracked corn, 100 pounds 

 wheat and 100 pounds barley. 



"We used to put in ten males with 100 

 hens. Now we put in five or six, leave 

 them in the breeding pens two to three 

 weeks and then replace them with other 

 males. When the males are taken out of 

 the breeding pens they are put by them- 

 selves. Of course they fight but we al- 

 ways keep one or two cowards in the pen 

 to be picked on." 



In answer to a question, Mr. Ryan re- 

 plied that he always hated to tell how his 

 hatches came out. He said that there 

 were many different ways of figuring 

 hatches. He set 117,450 eggs this year 

 and hatched 100,067 chicks. 



Mr. Ryan has shipped a lot of chicks to 

 this county this year. We can vouch 

 for the fact that they were strong husky 

 fellows. 



PINE NEEDLES ARE GREEN, TOO 



Last spring we called at Henry Lego's 

 in Greenwich and found that he had a 

 piece of rape planted on his range. The 

 last of July we called again and found 

 that the pullets had eaten it all up. We 

 casually inquired what he was doing 

 about green feed. Henry is not thin- 

 skinned and has been talked to before .so 

 he knew what was coming. "Say, you 

 are always worrying about something, 

 aren't you?" he shot back. "Come on out 

 behind the barn." No, we didn't fight, 

 because he showed us as fine a patch of 

 rape as one could wish to see. 



"I put hen manure on here as thick as 

 the manure spreader will spread it. Then 

 I drill the rape in rows three feet apart 

 as early in the spring as the land can be 

 worked. Then I cultivate it two or three 

 times to keep the weeds down. As soon 

 as the rape could be cut with a scythe, I 

 start feeding it. I haven't cut over one- 

 half the piece yet and that which I cut 

 first is ready to cut again. There isn't 

 over half an acre in the piece yet it has 

 kept 3,200 chickens and 1,200 hens in 

 green feed all summer." 



No, Henry Lego has no chicks off their 

 feet. Range rotation and plenty of 

 green feed have kept them up. Thare are 

 poultrymen, however, who have stuff 

 that is green on their ranges but who dis- 

 like to be told that it has the same value 

 as pine needles as far as poultry is con- 

 cerned. Look over the flocks that are on 

 clean land and that have plenty of rape 

 to eat and see if they are having birds off 

 their feet. 



