FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. Pnyne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Boice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Hnrold W. Fastniaii, County Clult Agent 

 Mary Sulli-i'an, Clerk 

 Helen Clark, As.st. 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. 



"Xotiee 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, I>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 



L. L. Campbell, Northampton 



COUNTY NOTES 



Onion Crops Being Studied 



The latter part of July, soil samples 

 were taken from over one hundred 

 onion fields in this county. The owners 

 of these fields have agreed to give a re- 

 port of the yield. The degree of acidity 

 of these soils is being determined at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. It 

 is believed that there will be a relation 

 between the acidity and the crop. From 

 this work it is hoped that lime tests will 

 be started in several parts of the county. 

 So far soil samples have been taken from 

 fields that are growing set onions. It is 

 hoped that time will permit the sampling 

 of fields that are growing seed onions be- 

 fore fall. 



Weed Crop Late 



It is not uncommon to see weedy corn, 

 potato and alfalfa fields this year. Early 

 in the season there were very few rains. 

 Strong winds dried the soil quickly. Un- 

 der these conditions weed seeds did not 

 have a chance to germinate. Cultiva- 

 tion with the harrow, weeder and cultiva- 

 tor simply stirred up dry weed seeds. 

 They were "all set and ready to go" 

 when the July rains came on. Because 



these fields show more weedy than usual 

 does not mean that the system of getting 

 the weeds before they get started is 

 wrong. It simply shows that weed seeds 

 have to germinate before they can be 

 killed. 



CROP REPORTS 



The New England Crop Reporting Ser- 

 vice states that the potato acreage is 

 102, l^r of 192.5. This is 1.3. 77r below the 

 five year average. The forecast is for 

 .3.33,.540,000 bushels compared with 32.5,- 

 902,000 bushels hai'vested last year and 

 the five year average of 396,469,000. Ef- 

 fective cultivation and spraying seem 

 likely to pay good dividends this year. 

 New York crop indicates a gain of five 

 million bushels over last year. The New 

 Jersey crop looks as though it would be 

 one and half million bushels larger than 

 last year. It would seem that prices 

 should be good the latter part of August. 



The hay crop for the whole country is 

 estimated at 77.8 million tons; last year, 

 86.7 million; five year average 90.5 mil- 

 lion tons. Pastures are lOVr poorer than 

 last year. 



Forecasts of apple production is slight- 

 ly above the five year average but below 

 last year's crop. Low grade apples 

 are likely to sell at low ijrices. 



Massachusetts has 4,415 acres of 

 onions this year against 3,923 last year — 

 13% gain. Sets have 2,135 against 1,267 

 last year — 697p gain; seed 2,280 acres 

 against 2,656 last year — 147r decrease. 

 Sets are 489f of the total, last year 337r. 

 Franklin County has 53.2% of the valley 

 acreage. This county has 44.3% of the 

 total. Sets show a big gain in New York. 

 Wind damage has been heavy there. 



OnionN Xeed Ijiine 



I'ontinued from page 1, column 3 

 agricultural lime per acre has not been 

 enough while on other fields less than a 

 ton per acre has given striking results. 

 The time to apply lime to onion fields is 

 in the fall. This gives the lime a chance 

 to work and also growers have more time 

 to put in on then than they do in the 

 spring. 



The kind of lime to use is the kind that 

 will give effective oxides at the lowest 

 cost per ton. Limestone has about one 

 thousand pounds of effective oxide to the 

 ton, agricultural lime varies from twelve 

 hundred to fifteen hundred, lime ashes 

 vary from six hundred sixty-four to ten 

 hundred seventy-seven pounds of effective 

 oxides per ton. If limestone can be 

 bought for eight dollars per ton, agri- 

 cultural lime should not cost over twelve 

 dollars per ton for that carrying fifteen 

 hundred pounds of effective oxides per 

 ton and nine dollars and sixty cents per 

 ton for that carrying twelve hundred 

 pounds of effective oxides. Lime ashes 

 are worth about the same as limestone. 



JDNE POULTRY RECORDS 



Continued high production is noted in 

 the records of flocks in this county dur- 

 ing June. Six flocks produced over 

 twenty eggs per bird while the one 

 hundred-sixty egg standard calls for 

 eighteen eggs per bird. The following 

 is the list of leading flocks: 



Eggs 

 Birds per Bird 



40 24.60 



87 23.25 



18 22.05 



237 21.79 



Henry Randall, Granby 

 W. S. Chaftee, Pelham 

 S. G. Waite, Southampton 

 F. D. Steele, Cummington 



P. L. Wheelock, Amherst 110 21.53 

 John Bloom, Ware 300 20.01 



The first two flocks this month are Leg- 

 horns, the others are Rhode Island Reds. 

 Those who are planning to hold over 

 some of the yearlings for breeders should 

 cull rigidly from now on. Only the best 

 birds lay at this time of year. Even 

 good birds cannot lay if they are ovei-- 

 run with lice and if they are not proper- 

 ly fed. 



JULY COW TEST SUMMARY 



The July summary of the Hampshire 

 Cow Test Association shows that there 

 were 684 cows on test during the month. 

 Thirty-one of these cows produced over 

 fifty pounds or butter fat during the 

 month. 



The following is a list of the o^vners 

 of the high cows that made the record 

 on twice a day milking: 



Owner 

 C. E. Clark 



Rob. Adams 

 H. Bridgman 

 W. A. Parsons 

 E. P. West 

 Rob. Adams 

 H. Bridgman 

 C. J. Thayer 

 W. A. Parsons 

 C. E. Clark 

 E. T. Clark 

 W. A. Parsons 

 A. D. Montague 

 G. H. Timmins 

 Almon Shaw 

 W. A. Parsons 



Breed 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 G. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 G. G. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. H. 

 R. G. 



lbs. lbs. 



Milk Test fat 



1047 



1190 



1593 



1690 



1450 



1488 



889 



11295 



R. H. 11264 



3.5 

 3.3 

 4.1 

 4.5 

 3.6 

 3.6 



1903 



2015 



1503 



1364 



1705 



1643 



147214.0 

 t).6 

 4.8 

 3.4 

 3.2 

 3.7 

 3.6 

 5.4 

 4.1 



4.2 



66.62 



66.5 



61.6 



61.4 



61.4 



59.1 



58.9 



58.6 



57.1 



54.2 



54.1 



53.7 



53.6 



53.4 



53.1 



53.1 



The high cows on more than twice-a- 

 day milking were as follows: 



lbs. lbs. 



Milk Test tat 



1206113.5172.1* 

 |1590|4.2i66.8** 

 204313.2165.4** 

 1169013. 8164.2** 



Owner Breed 



E. T. Clark R. H 



E. P. West R. H, 



E. P. West R. H. 



E. P. West R. H. 



E. P. West R. H.|1758|3.2j56.3** 



*Milked three times 



**Milked four times. 



Of the fifty herds on test, seven aver- 

 aged over one thousand pounds of milk 

 per cow; four, over nine hundred pounds; 

 twelve, over eight hundred pounds ; eight, 

 over seven hundred pounds; twelve, over 

 six hundred pounds; and seven, below 

 six hundred pounds of milk per cow for 

 the month. The following were the high 



