FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. Payne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Koice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Norman F. AVIiippen, County Club Agent 

 Mary 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. 



Price, 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 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 



spected. This piece was sown in -June 

 and has made a fine growth. The piece 

 was plowed this spring and manured. 

 Then three tons of limestone and five 

 hundred pounds of acid phosphate were 

 disced in. The field was then worked 

 every week with the spike tooth harrow 

 till the middle of .June. The seed was in- 

 oculated, sown and covered with the 

 weeder and the whole piece rolled. The 

 seed mixture used was twenty pounds 

 Grimm Alfalfa and five pounds of Timo- 

 thy to the acre. Plants were pulled up 

 arid showed fine inoculation. 



At E. Dumas' farm, alfalfa that was 

 sown about the middle of July was shown. 

 One piece showed that too little lime had 

 been applied but the lower part with suf- 

 ficient lime was making an excellent 

 growth. The Dumas Brothers also have 

 an acre of sweet clover which is doing 

 nicely. 



At O. B. Buffington's, a two-acre field 

 of soy beans was seen. The beans were 

 planted in drills about eighteen inches 

 apart. The stand looks as though it 

 would produce at least two tons of hay 

 per acre. The county agent explained 

 that the purpose of the trip was to show 

 that excellent quality roughages could be 

 grown on Ware farms. It was also 

 brought out that by growing more and 

 better quality roughages that grain bills 

 could be reduced to a reasonable figure. 



A further advantage of fall liming is 

 in the better distribution of labor. In 

 the spring there is usually a lot of manure 

 to be spread, fields to be plowed and har- 

 rowed and fertilizer to haul. All of 

 these operations take time and leave very 

 little for the hauling and spreading of 

 lime. With fertilizer and seed to be 

 bought, there is very little cash left to buy 

 lime. Under these conditions dairy farm- 

 ers, who know that lime used to grow al- 

 falfa and clover would make possible a 

 big saving in the grain bill, let the pur- 

 chase of lime go because it is an easy 

 thing to do. Usually in the fall after 

 the crops are haivested there is more 

 money available to purchase lime than at 

 any other time of year. 



Another advantage is that the roads 

 and the fields are in better condition to 

 haul lime in the fall than in the spring. 

 Therefore, we are urging farmers to sup- 

 ply at least a part of their lime require- 

 ments this fall. We are in position to 

 test soil samples promptly, free of charge. 

 Just send in samples of the soil from 

 fields where you want to use lime and let 

 us know what crops you want to grow. 



THE OBJECT OF FIELD TRIPS 



You have probably heard the old song 

 about the worthless fellow who married. 

 His wife contracted tuberculosis and died. 

 Then the song states "He went to the 

 funeral but just for the ride." When we 

 hold field trips we sometimes wonder how 

 many people that attend are like this 

 man. Few we hope! 



It is a fact that but few people can 

 read how to do a thing and then go and 

 duplicate it. The majority can see how 

 something is done and then do it them- 

 selves. The agents of the Extension 

 Service find people who are doing certain 

 things better than the average. They 

 find that by taking people to see how it is 

 done is an effective way of getting the 

 practice or idea more generally used. 

 Field trips held by the Extension Service 

 are not run "just for the ride." 



FALL LIMING 



WARE DAIRYMEN MEET 



Alfalfa and Soy Bean Fields Visited 



Fifty-thi-ee Ware Dairy farmers show- 

 ed that they were interested in alfalfa 

 and soy beans by attending the twilight 

 tour held August 20th. At Dominic Dug- 

 gan's an acre field of alfalfa was in- 



Has Many Advantages over Spring 

 Application 



Much progress has been made in the 

 use of lime in this county during the past 

 few years. Dairy farmers have found 

 that it is impossible to grow profitable 

 crops of alfalfa without liming heavily. 

 Others have found that lime has given 

 profitable increases in clover, timothy, 

 onions and asparagus. Men who have 

 handled lime have shown fine co-operation 

 in that they have obtained orders and 

 handled the business on a very narrow 

 margin of profit where farmers would 

 pay cash and get the lime from the car. 

 Most of the lime has been shipped in 

 during the spring and summer. 



Too few faimers realize the many ad- 

 vantages of fall liming. In the first 

 place lime difi'ers from nitrate of soda 

 and other readily available fertilizers in 

 that it works rather slowly. Many have 

 had rather disappointing results with 

 lime because they have used it too soon in 

 advance of the crop. Because of the rel- 

 ative slowness with which lime acts we 

 are urging farmers who plan to sow al- 

 falfa next year to get their soil tested 

 and put on the lime this fall. After 

 spreading the lime, disc it in so that it 

 will not blow away. There is very little 

 danger of loss from leaching. 



ALFALFA RESPONDS TO 



PHOSPHATE AND POTASH 



White spots appearing in a peculiar 

 and distinct pattern-like marking on al- 

 falfa leaves indicate potash starvation, 

 according to soils specialists at the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin. The marking first 

 appears at the border of the leaves (usu- 

 ally the older leaves) and later invades 

 the center, when the leaves lose all their 

 coloring matter and dry up. Because of 

 the pattern of spots at the border of the 

 leaves, potash starvation is easily distin- 

 guished from irregular blotches or leaf 

 spots that frequently appear on alfalfa 

 leaves. Experiments show that the ad- 

 dition of potash results in a disappear- 

 ance of these leaf spots and a greatly in- 

 creased top growth. 



Out of 20 soils from difi'erent parts of 

 Wisconsin, 1.5 responded to potash ferti- 

 lization, and all responded to phosphate 

 fertilization. Ten of the soils were over 

 medium acidity and responded to liming. 



The essentials for maximum production 

 of alfalfa are, first, the correction of 

 acidity, where present, by liming, and, 

 secondly, the use of phosphate, and in 

 many cases, phosphate and potash fer- 

 tilizers. Alfalfa is one of our best soil 

 improvement crops. When properly in- 

 oculated, it gathers most of its nitrogen 

 from the air, and when fed alfalfa adds 

 to the revolving fund of plant food on the 

 farm. However, to get the greatest ef- 

 fect from alfalfa as a gatherer of nitro- 

 gen from the air, it is necessary to satisfy 

 the mineral requirements, — lime, phos- 

 phate, and potash. 



