FARMERS' MONTHLY 



OF HAMPSHIRE COUINTV 



Massachusetts 



JUN2 - 1926 



Agricultural 



Vol. XI. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., JUNE, 1926 



No. 6 



LARGE ATTENDANCE AT 



HOMEMAKERS' MEETING 



Women From Every Town But Two 

 Attend Meeting 



About three hundred women from 

 eighteen towns of Hampshire County 

 gathered at Laurel Park .June 9 for the 

 annual home makers' day of the Hamp- 

 shire County Extension Service. Mrs. 

 Clifton -Johnson of Hadley, chairman of 

 the women's advisoiy committee, stated 

 that the meeting was a commencement 

 day for the women who have been carry- 

 ing on extension work under the direction 

 of Miss Mildred Boice, the Hamp.shire 

 County Home Demonstration Agent. 



The Happy Kitchen Club of Westhamp- 

 ton, a group of school girls who have been 

 carrying on food club work, gave an ex- 

 cellent playlet in which methods of pre- 

 paring escalloped dishes, the cooking of 

 vegetables and the making of desserts 

 wei-e described. 



Miss Lucille Reynolds of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College stated that 

 Extension Work was no longer in the ex- 

 perimental stage. Local women are plan- 

 ning and carrying on programs of work 

 designed to make finer homes and better 

 communities. In the future broader pro- 

 grams will be carried on so that more 

 people may become acquainted with the 

 up-to-date information that the agricul- 

 tural colleges have to offer the women 

 of the state. 



The West Chesterfield Clothing group 

 under the direction of Mrs. H. D. Stanton 

 gave a playlet, showing the value of 

 clothing construction courses, bringing 

 out the fact that attractive dresses may 

 be quickly and easily made. 



Miss May E. Foley, State Nutrition 

 Specialist gave this recipe for health. 

 Take plenty of fresh air, sunshine, sleep 

 and recreation. Eat the right kind of 

 food. Develop a sense of responsibility 

 and a desire for service. 



The Huntington group gave a playlet 

 on furniture renovation written by one. 

 of the members. This group has ren- 

 ovate.d many articles of furniture which 

 had been put up in the attic as un- 

 serviceable, besides finding time for cloth- 

 ing and millinery cour.ses. 



"It is every women's job to look as at- 

 tractive as she can" said Miss Bertha 

 Knight, Extension Clothing specialist of 

 Continutd on paAft- 4. column 3 



FARM AND HOME WEEK 



Honorable William M. .Jardine, Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture is to be one of the 

 prominent speakers at the Eighth Annual 

 Farm and Home Week, which will be held 

 at the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege, July 27-30. 



An excellent program is being planned 

 for home-makers, fruit-growers, poultry- 

 men, home flower-growers, home-garden- 

 ers, forest-owners, livestock-raisers, feed- 

 dealers, daii'y-farmers, farm and home 

 canners and bee keepers. 



Among the well-known speakers are 

 Dr. .James J. Walsh, New York; Mrs. 

 Arnold Gesell, New Haven; Prof. Loyal 

 S. Payne, Kansas State Agricultural Col- 

 lege; Prof. F. C. Bradford, Michigan 

 State College; .James C. Farmer, Master 

 of New Hampshire State Grange and 

 Walter R. Clarke, Milton, New York. 



One of the features of the program 

 will be a dynamometer demon.stration, at 

 which will be present Wayne Dinsmore, 

 Secretary of the Horse Association of 

 America, and representatives of the Ma.s- 

 sachusetts Fair Association. A dyna- 

 is a scientific instrument by which tests 

 can be made of the best ways in which 

 to hitch horses, the be.st types of horses 

 to use for various kinds of work, and the 

 relative pulling power of light and heavy 

 teams. 



TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE 



Nearly three years of service as club 

 agent in Hampshire County has given me 

 the pleasant acquaintance of hundreds of 

 boys and girls, many of whom I can call 

 by name and many whom I know by sight. 

 4-H Club work seems to attract and .sure- 

 ly keep in its organization only young 

 people with a "will to do." This fact 

 alone makes a club agent work nights, 

 sweat at fairs, travel miles and miles to 

 find calves for members, take the dis- 

 couragement of failures and still keep 

 going. I am sure I came to the best 

 place in Massachusetts when I became 

 club agent in Hampshire County. As far 

 as agriculture goes none can surpass it. 

 The boys and girls show, by their win- 

 nings in judging in poultry and live.stock 

 exhibitions all over the .state against 

 other counties, to be very much alive — to 

 be winners. 



I was amazed when I learned that eight 

 Continufd on page 7. column 1 



WHEN SHOULD ALFALFA 



BE CUT FOR HAY! 



When to cut alfalfa hay is a question 

 of vital importance to the grower. Stage 

 of cutting affects the yield and quality 

 of hay and the life of the stand. Un- 

 fortunately, there is so much conflicting 

 advice on the subject that one who reads 

 the various articles on the subject may 

 be more confused than enlightened. 

 Many experiment stations in the United 

 States have conducted experiments to an- 

 swer this question, but the results of some 

 of them seem diametrically oppo.sed. Un- 

 questionably, further information is 

 needed before all the questions involved 

 can be an.swered. The writer carried on 

 investigations on cutting alfalfa in 1925, 

 and, while the results of one year's work 

 in an abnormal season are in no sense 

 conclusive, they have been of great value 

 in interpreting other work and applying 

 the results of these investigations to Ohio 

 conditions. This "talk" is based partly 

 on these observations as well as a review 

 of most reported experiments. 



The Two Most Common Standards. — 

 The two standards most commonly used 

 to determine the proper time' to cut al- 

 falfa are the stage of bloom and the 

 presence of new shoots at the crown of 

 the plant. Various stages of flowering 

 have been recommended as the best time 

 to cut, and cutting whenever new shoots 

 appear has also been extensively recom- 

 mended. In order to have as clear an 

 idea as possible as to the most favorable 

 time of cutting under various conditions, 

 let us consider in detail how time of cut- 

 ting affects the alfalfa. 



How is Yield Influenced by Time of 

 Cutting? — This question, apparently so 

 simple, is the one on which there is much 

 conflicting information. Experiments in 

 several states have indicated diff'erent 

 stages of cutting as giving the greatest 

 yield for the year. These experiments 

 show clearly, however, that the most 

 cuttings do not make the largest yield. 

 We sometimes hear a farmer boasting 

 about how many cuttings he secured from 

 his alfalfa, but it is doubtful if he has 

 done much more than go over his ground 

 more times for less hay. Every reported 

 experiment has shown cutting at some 

 .stage after bloom to yield more hay than 

 cutting before bloom, regardless of the 

 number of cuttings made at the earlier 



Continued on page 8. column 2 



