FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



11 



^ 



large Holsteins that showed that they 

 were producers. After seeing the stock, 

 a vote of thanks was given Mr. Ellis and 

 County Agent Bevan for their part in 

 making this one of the best field trips 

 ever held by the club. 



Fruit ^JrowerK Orfsitnixv- 



Continued from piige 1. lolumn 2 

 In the afternoon Prof. W. H. Thies, 

 Extension Fruit Specialist of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College e.xplained 

 the significance of National Apple Week 

 and urged all fruit growers to help ad- 

 vertise the fact that Hampshire County 

 grows fine apples. Secretary Westervelt 

 of the Northampton Chamber of Com- 

 merce stated that many of the Northamp- 

 ton merchants had difficulty in getting 

 good apples for display during national 

 apple week last year. This year more 

 merchants are interested in making dis- 

 plays, he stated, and asked for the 

 hearty co-operation of all of the fruit 

 growers to make this year's apple week 

 the best ever. 



I'jisfiire Ini|>rf»veiiienf 



Continued from p^igr- 1. column :i 

 tions and farmers have demonstrated that 

 an acre of sweet clover will carry a cow 

 .giving 30 pounds of milk a day all sum- 

 mer without other feed. That means a 

 worth while saving in the grain bill and 

 would justify even more expense than is 

 involved in getting a sweet clover pasture. 



Establishing a stand of sweet clover is 

 simple enough. First have the soil tested 

 for lime requirement and lime it. Work 

 the lime in as much as is practicable. 

 After the lime has had time to act on the 

 soil, depending mainly on how well it 

 could be worked in, apply a seeding down 

 fertilizer to give the crop a start and 

 sow 20 pounds per acre of scarified inocu- 

 lated seed. 



Early spring (oats seeding time) is the 

 best time to seed and the crop may be 

 sown either with a light seeding of oats or 

 barley or alone. Land to be seeded next 

 spring should be limed this fall, parti- 

 cularly if it is not feasible to work the 

 lime in very well. That would be a good 

 thing to be laying plans for right now. 

 There will not be time to put lime on next 

 spring anyway and even if there is time 

 to do the work the lime will not have 

 time enough to .sweeten the soil before 

 planting time. 



Management of a sweet clover pasture 

 is another .story, for di.scussion later. The 

 present problem is to get some land 

 limed up this fall to a point where it will 

 grow sweet clover in order to be able to 

 do some spring seeding. 



J. A. Abbott. 



COW-TESTING ASSOCIATION 

 RECORDS TELLS MANY STORIES 



First-class, profitable dairy farms are 

 usually found in groups. The center of 

 each group is some farm, some man, some 

 idea, says the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. The 732 cow-testing as- 

 sociations now active in the United 

 States represent that many groups of im- 

 proved dairy farms. What has been ac- 

 complished by these groups for the in- 

 dustry and for the members of these as- 

 sociations is told in Farmers' Bulletin 

 1446, entitled "Cow-Testing Associations 

 and Stories the Records Tell," and is now 

 ready for distribution. 



The purpose of this bulletin is to show 

 the need and the value of cow-testing as- 

 .sociations, to present briefly some of the 

 outstanding results obtained from a tabu- 

 lation of cow-testing association data, and 

 to .show how such associations may be or- 

 ganized and conducted. 



In most sections of the country we have 

 enough cows, but not good enough cows, 

 says the author of the bulletin. Our slo- 

 gan should not be "More Cows" but 

 "More Good Cows." Here is one place 

 where there is an abundance of room at 

 the top. Knowing the individual produc- 

 tion records of the cows in the herd is 

 one way to get more good cows. This in- 

 formation is made available to dairymen 

 through the cow-testing association. 



In the Newaygo County, Mich., cow- 

 testing association the herd that one year 

 had the highest average production of 

 butterfat per cow consisted of 10 cows, 

 and the herd that had the lowest aver- 

 age production consisted of 20 cows. The 

 herd of 10 cows had a total income over 

 cost of feed of .$666 and the herd of 20 

 cows $455. The owner of the larger herd 

 needed 9 more cows of the kind he was 



keeping to get as much income over cost 

 of feed as was produced by the smaller 

 herd. 



Ltcal Associations to be Formed 



The County Agent is getting many 

 farmers who are interested in knowing 

 just how each cow is doing to agree to 

 pay their share in the cost of a cow test- 

 ing association. It is fig:ured that the 

 cost of membership will be about forty- 

 five dollars a year, payable quarterly 

 ($11.25) in advance. This will take care 

 of equipment and pay the tester's salary. 



The tester comes to the farm one day 

 a month, weighs and tests each cow's 

 milk for butter fat and figures cost of 

 feed. From this a profit and loss state- 

 ment is given for every cow in the herd 

 each month. It takes twenty-five men to 

 keep the association working. If you are 

 interested, write to the County Agent at 



RAISE HEALTHY CHICKS ! 



CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE 



is valuable for 



Disinfecting Brooder Houses and Yards 



We carry it in powdered form 



Put up in the size package you need 



It is cheaper by the pound 



WISWELL THE DRUGGIST 



52 Main Street 



Northampton, - - 



Mass. 



*^e^s^^K5^^^SK^K^5esK;^**5K^BK5BK^5e^«*5^^K5K^K5K;«5^^5e$^**^e^5!es*^ 



Buy your Agricultural Lime on the 



basis of Available Ca O 



CHESHIRE AGRICULTURAL 



LIME 



High percentage of Ca O 

 DRY GROUND SCREENED 



CHESHIRE LIME MFG. CO. 

 CHESHIRE MASSACHUSETTS 



