FARMERS' MONTHLY 



OF HAMPSHIRE COUINTV 



Vol. XL 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., NOVEMBER, 1926 



No. 11 



USE THE LABOR 



SAVERS YOU OWN 



Leaders Learn to Use Sewing Machine 

 Attachments 



It is very interesting to get the reac- 

 tion from the women on the use of the 

 machine attachments. Most of them are 

 eager to know about any new device that 

 will make work easier, and will buy it 

 as soon as their pocketbooks allow it. 

 But when you ask them if they use their 

 sewing machine attachments their hands 

 go up in horror, and their answer will 

 invariably be, "No I can do my sewing 

 quicker by hand". Of course these 

 women can do it by hand more quickly 

 if they have never learned to use the 

 attachments. They could do a washing 

 quicker and easier with a wash board 

 than with a washing machine, if they 

 did not know how to run the Washing 

 Machine. If you ask a woman who has 

 learned to use her attachments, the same 

 question, the answer is always, "I could 

 not get along without them". 



It is a shame to have labor saving 

 devices in our homes and not make use 

 of them. For that reason Miss Alice 

 Pratt, a representative of the Singer 

 Sewing Machine Co. has been teaching 

 twenty Hampshire County leaders the 

 artifice of using machine attachments. 



In the morning session Miss Pratt gave 

 a demonstration using each attachment 

 in several different ways. If anyone 

 thought they could use the binder, they 

 changed their mind when Miss Pratt 

 began binding scallop after scallop, turn- 

 ing square corners and making plackets. 

 Ruffles were made, piped and sewed on 

 the garment in one process. The narrow 

 hemmer proved popular in sewing on 

 laces and hemming at the same time. 



In the afternoon each leader was fur- 

 nished with an electric sewing machine 

 and materials to practice making all the 

 clever things Miss Pratt made in the 

 morning. 



The leaders attending the meetings 

 November 9 and 10 at the Extension 

 Service Rooms are: Mrs. John Bitner, 

 Mr.s. David Mullany, Hatfield; Miss Effie 

 Edwards, Mrs. Charles Burt, Mrs. Dana 

 Pelton, Westhampton ; Miss Clara Searle, 

 Mrs. Grover Sherwood, Norwich Hill, 

 Huntington; Mrs. A. L. Moore, Mrs. F. 

 Continued on page 5, column 3 



DAIRY CLUB PRODUCTION 



CONTEST ENDS 



Lyman Pratt of Hadley Wins 



O.xford's Lad's Bena, a three year old 

 fine bred Jersey, owned by Lyman Pratt 

 of Hadley carried off the highest honors 

 and incidently the -600 pounds of grain 

 given by the Eastern States Farmer's 

 Exchange as first prize in the production 

 contest staged by the Hampshire County 

 Dairy members. The contest, which 

 stai-ted April first and closed September 

 30, was between eleven of the dairy club 

 members who owned milking cows. Of 

 these eleven, eight sent in reports the 

 whole six months, the other three having 

 animals that dried up during the contest. 



The second and third prizes of 200 

 pounds each of gi-ain given by the ex- 

 change were won by Joseph Sena of 

 Easthampton and Joel Dwight of West 

 Hatfield, respectively. 



The winner of the contest was decided 

 on the following score: Production of 4 

 per cent milk counted 45 per cent; cost 

 of producing 100 pounds of 4 per cent 



Continued on page 6, column 2 



MASSACHUSETTS FRUIT GROWERS' 

 ASSOCIATION MARKET MEETING, 

 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1926 



In early December, 192.5, the Mass- 

 achusetts Fruit Growers' Association 

 held a Market Meeting in Boston which 

 was very enthusiastically commended by 

 many of those in attendance and the 

 directors are planning to repeat this 

 effort this year. The meeting will be 

 held November .30, 1926 and will include 

 visits to the auction rooms in Charles- 

 town, the side walk markets around 

 Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, pos- 

 sibly a visit to one of the boats which 

 carry export apples. For the women 

 folks a visit to the Waldorf kitchen is 

 being planned. 



Dinner will be enjoyed at noon at one 

 of the nearby restaurants and beginning 

 at 1.30 a meeting will be held in the 

 rooms of the Boston Fruit and Produce 

 Exchange at which speakers with in- 

 teresting comment and information will 

 be heard. The program as outlined in- 

 Continued on page 8, column 1 



KEEPING POTATOES HEALTHY 



The Tuber Unit Method 



Mosaic, leaf roll, spindle tuber, giant 

 hill, are words that signify much to the 

 potato grower, for these are the names 

 of diseases that must be dealt with seri- 

 ously. To them is credit the job of "run- 

 ning out" the seed. But now they are 

 working against handicaps for the plant 

 doctor has brought them from under 

 cover, classified them, studied their 

 strong and weak points and mapped out 

 effective methods of attack. It remains 

 for the grower to follow the advice of 

 the doctor. 



Because these diseases are transmitted 

 from field to field and from plant to plant 

 during the growing season by certain 

 kinds of insects, the seed potato grower 

 attempts the reduction of infection by 

 isolation of fields. A field which is prac- 

 tically free from these diseases is not, 

 or should not be, contaminated by close 

 proximity to potato fields that have not 

 been subjected to the cleaning process. 

 These diseases are carried from one sea- 

 son to the next in tubers from diseased 

 plants that are used for seed. The clean- 

 ing process consists of roguing fields that 

 are intended for seed. This roguing is 

 simply removing all infected plants to- 

 gether with such tubers as may have de- 

 veloped, so they will not become a part 

 of the crop. The imperfection of this 

 method is in the very practical difficulty 

 of not being able to recognize a diseased 

 plant in every case, so that 100 per cent 

 freedom is seldom obtained. Improve- 

 ment is noted though, for seed growers 

 have gradually lessened the per cent, of 

 disease to be tolerated in their crop. 



As a further stej) toward perfection, a 

 more refined method of roguing has been 

 adopted by certain growers of certified 

 seed. The basis of this is the tuber unit 

 method of planting instead of promiscu- 

 ous mixing of the seed pieces after cut- 

 ting, each tuber is cut and the seed 

 pieces planted consecutively in the row. 

 Extra space is left between these family 

 groups so they can be identified through- 

 out the season. Going down the row, the 

 first four plants will be from one tuber, 

 then a space and four plants from an- 

 other tuber, then a space and another 

 family group and so on through the field. 

 It is possible to do this with certain types 

 of planting machines where one operator 

 Continued on page 8, column 2 



