FARMERS' MONTHLY 



OF HAMPSHIRE COUINTV 



P£C 2 u 1926 

 ■iculturai 



Vol. XL 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., DECEMBER, 1926 



No. 12 



SUMMARY OF HOME 



AGENT'S REPORT 



The Home Demonstration Agent 

 reached 1500 women with the project 

 work this year. This is an increase of 

 five hundred over last year and was ac- 

 complished because we had fewer meet- 

 ings to a project. 



Clothing and Millinery 

 The clothing work proved just as 

 popular as ever. Four hundred thirteen 

 women received help on children's clothes, 

 advanced clothing and on the use of 

 machine attachments. About one thous- 

 and hats have been made in the millinery 

 classes. The felt hat has been particu- 

 larly popular and this fall women in 

 eighteen of the twenty-three towns of the 

 county wanted to take this work. 



Vegetable Gardening 

 One hundred fifty-eight homes in the 

 county received a correspondence course 

 on vegetable gardening. This contained 

 information on liming, pest control, fer- 

 tilizing, hints on general care of the 

 garden, the need and value of vegetables 

 in the diet, new and attractive ways of 

 preparing and serving vegetables as well 

 as easier methods of canning and pre- 

 sei-ving. 



Fuod Selection 

 Two hundred eighty-nine homes adopt- 

 ed practices suggested at our food selec- 

 tion meetings. Six towns are sei-ving 

 more dark breads, vegetables and fruits 

 at their community meals. Fifty child- 

 ren are having better school lunches as 

 a result of the lunch box clubs. 



Kitchen Improvement 

 One hundred fifty-one homes have im- 

 proved their kitchens. Sixty re-arranged 

 their equipment and one hundred twenty- 

 one obtained the following new labor sav- 

 ing equipment: sixteen power washing 

 machines, seven kitchen sinks, twenty 

 vacuum cleaners, thirty-one kitchen cab- 

 inets, twenty-two electric or gasoline 

 irons. Numerous smaller pieces of equip- 

 ment were purchased. 



Home Furnishings 

 Thirty-five women did some work in 

 home furnishing. Most of the work con- 

 sisted of re-seating chairs, using cane 

 splint and rush. A few pieces of furni- 

 ture were refinished. 



Stutistics 

 The Home Demonstration Agent made 

 one hundred seventy-four home visits to 

 one hundred fifty-three different homes 

 in the county; spent eighty-seven days 

 in the office and two hundred one days 

 in the field. She held nine training meet- 

 ings for leaders with an attendance of 

 one hundred twenty-nine leaders; One 

 hundred twenty-seven method demon- 

 strations were given with an attendance 

 of 2315 women. Fifty-three extension 

 schools and other meetings were held 

 with an attendance of 2093. 



ANNUAL MEETING DRAWS 



CROWD 



COUNTY AGENT REPORTS 



WORK FOR 1926 



During 1926 five lines of work have 

 been carried on by the county agricul- 

 tural agent: (1) Agronomy, (2) Animal 

 Husbandry, (3) Farm Management, (4) 

 Fruit Growing, (5) Poultry. The fol- 

 lowing is a brief report of the aims and 

 the results secured. 



Agronomy 



An effort has been made to interest 

 dairy farmers in growing more and bet- 

 ter roughage as a means of increasing 

 their profits. Particular emphasis was 

 placed on the use of lime when seeding 

 down for clover and alfalfa. As a re- 

 sult of this work the use of lime increased 

 five hundred tons over last year's record. 

 Thii-ty-nine men started ninety-one acres 

 of alfalfa this year. Many were in- 

 terested in growing oats and peas and 

 soy beans as emergency hay crops. The 

 use of the leveling harrow and the weeder 

 as economical and efficient tools to keep 

 weeds from starting in corn was demon- 

 strated on more farms than usual this 

 year with satisfactory results. 



The pasture problem was worked on 

 in a small way. Experimental plots 

 where varying amounts of acid phos- 

 phate, muriate of potash, calcium nitrate, 

 and lime were applied as top dressings 

 were put on in three pastures in Chester- 

 field and Worthington. Thirteen men 

 tried thirty-one acres of white sweet 

 clover for pasture. Some of these plots 

 look very promising. 



A survey was made on one hundred 



twenty-five onion fields in Amherst, 



Hadley, Hatfield and Northampton. Soil 



samples were taken in more than ten 



Continued on paf^e 2. column 2 



Interesting Results given by Leaders 

 and Demonstrators 



Over one hundred people from sixteen 

 of the twenty-three towns of the county 

 attended the annual meeting of the 

 Hampshire County Extension Sei-vice 

 held in Odd Fellows Hall, Northampton, 

 Wednesday, November 17. President 

 Charles E. Clark of the Trustees for 

 County Aid to Agriculture opened the 

 maeting with a few words of welcome. 

 The treasurer's report showed that there 

 was a balance of $1,163.89 on hand Nov- 

 embsr 20, 1925. Receipts during the 

 year were .$14,643.74 and expenses 

 amounted to $14,606.52, leaving a balance 

 nn hand November 17, 1926 of $1,201.11. 

 The morning session was devoted to re- 

 ports of the agents of the Extension 

 Service and reports of project leaders 

 and demonstrators. 



Ernest Hibbard of Hadley reported 

 that the use of lime for onions had in- 

 creased the yield on one field from 175 

 to 325 sacks of number one onions per 

 acre. Mrs. Earl Hewlett of Southamp- 

 ton said that she found the clothing con- 

 struction work had shown her how to 

 effect a great saving in time and nervous 

 energy in dressmaking besides having 

 the satisfaction of knowing that dresses 

 would fit after they were made. 



Joseph Hathaway, manager of the 

 Pollard Farm in Northampton, gave his 

 experiences in growing white sweet clover 

 for pasture. 



Walter Granger of Worthington gave 

 some of his experiences in club work. 

 Results of nutrition work were reported 

 on by Mrs. R. S. Schoonmaker of Am- 

 herst. Mrs. D. C. Randall of Belcher- 

 town whose two daughters have been club 

 members gave her impressions of club 

 work. 



At noon the Northampton Grange put 

 on one of their excellent dinners to which 

 all did full justice. Norman D. Bottum, 

 superintendent of poultry at Mount Hope 

 Farm, Williamstown told of the poultry 

 breeding work that is being carried on 

 at Mount Hope Farm with White Leg- 

 horns. In this work records of families 

 are kept separate so as to discover valu- 

 able breeding lines. In brooding and 

 rearing, extensive experiments are being 

 Continued on paKe 2. column 2 



