FARMERS' MONTHLY 



OR HAMPSHIRE COUINTY 



Vol. X. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., NOVEMBER, 1925 



No. 11 



IMPORTANCE OF THE HOME 



Massachusetts Home Bconuniics Assccia- 



tion Discusses Subject at Meeting 



at Mount Holyoke College 



One hundred and forty people attended 

 the annual fall meeting of the Massachu- 

 .setts Home Economics Association at Mt. 

 Holyoke, Saturday, October 17. The 

 group was made up of resident teachers 

 in home economics in the public and pri- 

 vate schools and colleges in the state, 

 county and state extension workers, heads 

 of houses at Mt. Holyoke and Smith Col- 

 lege and a large repi-esentation of home- 

 makers. It is significant that every 

 speaker on the program (and the list in- 

 cluded Pres. WooUey, Miss Abby Turner, 

 Prof, of Physiology at Holyoke and Mrs. 

 Chase G. Woodhou.se formerly professor 

 of sociology at Smith College and now 

 in the Bureau of Home Economics at 

 Wa.shington) emphasized the importance 

 of the home and the responsibility of the 

 liberal arts college to fit its students for 

 intelligent homemakers. Miss Turner 

 spoke of the satisfaction that comes to 

 parents who make companions of their 

 children and share in their intellectual 

 life. She told how the science courses at 

 Mt. Holyoke function in the homes ol 

 graduates. Pres. Woolley spoke of house- 

 keeping and meal getting as a means to 

 an end, that the end was making a hon^e 

 where each individual could develop to 

 its fulle.st capacity, physically, intellec- 

 tually, spiritually. Mrs. Woodhouse said 

 in part, "The family is the most im- 

 portant .social and educational unit. It 

 is the connecting link between one gen- 

 eration and the other. It is the unit 

 which is developing for our nation a 

 philosophy of life. Good technique, good 

 household management is essential if we 

 are to have time for perspective, for i 

 leisure. You don't have to be a paid em- 

 ployee in order to be a professional 

 woman. While the father is providing 

 an economic basis for the family the 

 mother is developing standards in the 

 home. It is her responsibility to co-or- 

 dinate all of the interests of the home 

 and to reconcile all the interests to out- 

 side activities in which she wishes to en- 

 gage." 



Mrs. Horatio Dresser was our hostess 

 for luncheon. Mrs. Dresser inaugurated 

 the work in kitchen improvement in 

 Hampden County. 



COW TESTING ASSOCIATION 

 STARTED NOVEMBER 4 



Forty=eght Herds to Keep Production 

 and Keed Records 



The Hampshire County Cow Testing 

 Association has been revived after a lapse 

 of about six years. The present organiza- 

 tion started November 4 with forty-eight 

 members. There is an opportunity for 

 four more men to join the organization 

 as the testers can handle fifty-two herds 

 each month. The members elected tlic 

 following directors: Ellis Harlow, Am- 

 herst; E. P. West, Hadley; Josiah Par- 

 sons, Northampton ; Charles E. Clark, 

 Leeds; A. D. Montague, Westhampton. 



These directors met October 26 and 

 elected Ellis Harlow, president; Roland 

 A. Payne, secretary-treasurer; .losiah 

 Parsons and E. P. West, executive com- 

 mittee. Chester A. Smith of Hadley and 

 Henry Phinney of Amherst were hired as 

 testers. Mr. Smith will have charge of 

 the work on the east side of the Connecti- 

 cut River while Mr. Phinney will test on 

 the west side of the river. The testers 

 started work November 4. 



Credit for starting the cow testing as- 

 sociation is due the Hampshire-Franklin 

 Holstein-Friesian Breeders' Club. Of the 

 twenty-two members of the club in this 

 county that own herds, eighteen have 

 joined the cow testing association. Four 

 of the directors are members of the club. 



The object of this cow testing associa- 

 tion is to provide means and methods for 

 improving the dairy herds of the mem- 

 bers. This will be accomplished through 

 the keeping of production, feed and in- 

 come records of each cow, on the basis of 

 which unprofitable cows may be elim- 

 inated and feeding done more economical- 

 ly. Membership in the association is 

 available to any dairy farmer in the 

 county who is willing to pay his share 

 of the expenses of the association for one 

 year. The cost to each member has been 

 estimated to be about forty-five dollars. 



The following are the members of the 

 cow testing association : 

 Amherst: R. C. Adams, W. H. Atkins, 



Ellis Harlow, C. E. Stiles, I. Hendrick, 



J. W. Tufts, C. Hobart, A. Houghton. 

 Bclchcrtowji: A. S. Brown and Son, D. C. 



Randall. 

 Clu'sterfield: Bisbee Bros. 

 East hump ton: Ralph Clapp, Easthamp- 



ton Town Farm, Fred Frost, Mgr. 



('nnlinii'-ri mi p;iK'- I", roluinn 1 



FEWER CIGARS SMOKED 



Prospects of Reduced Tobacco Acreage 

 Next Year 



A study of the tobacco industry as it 

 affects the Connecticut Valley has been 

 made recently by the Connecticut Agri- 

 cultural College. The results of this 

 study were presented by Prof. I. G. Davis 

 at a meeting of about two hundred to- 

 bacco growers held November 2 at Suf- 

 field. In presenting the .study, Professor 

 Davis stated that while the information 

 was not complete, it did contain informa- 

 tion of value to our tobacco growers. 



Charts showed that people are smoking 

 fewer cigars than they were a few years 

 ago. The use of snuff, chewing and 

 smoking tobacco has fallen off since 1910. 

 In 1880 cigarette production was 50 per 

 capita. It is now about 650 per person. 

 Most of the increase in cigarette produc- 

 tion has come since 1910. 



The production of cigar tobacco began 

 to increase about 1906. This increase 

 came in spite of the fact that the pro- 

 duction of cigars had declined. The re- 

 sult has been that the stocks of our to- 

 bacco on hand has increased from 70 

 million pounds in 1920 to 110 million 

 pounds in 1925. The price of this tobacco 

 would have gone down if the tobacco had 

 been sold. The figures on the number of 

 years' supply of Connecticut Valley to- 

 bacco in the hands of the trade show that 

 there was 11 years' supply on hand in 

 1918. The stock on hand increased 

 gradually till 1922 when it amounted to 

 about 1.8 years' supply. Since then it 

 has increased till this year it amounts to 

 3 years' supply. No figures are available 

 on the grades of tobacco, making up this 

 supply. 



The problem then is to keep from 

 yearly accummulation of stocks. Among 

 the possibilities are: (1) increasing de- 

 mand for our tobacco; (2) decreased in 

 price; (.3) cut acreage to eliminate over 

 supply. The prospect of increasing the 

 demand in the face of decreased consump- 

 tion is remote. A decrease in the price 

 of the tobacco would drive many men out 

 of the business. A decrease in the price 

 might stimulate demand. As it takes 

 seven pounds of tobbaco to make one 

 thousand cigars, a drop in the price of 

 tobacco would not lower the piice of ci- 

 gars very much. Production figures show 

 ('ontiniKcl ml puKe 2. column ."! 



