FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. Tayne, County Agrent 

 Mildred W. Boice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Harold W. Fastnian, County dul> A>^ent 

 Mary Sllllivjin, Clerk 

 Helen Clark, Asst. Clerk 



Office First ISJational 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. 



"IVotlce 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, .%0 cent.s 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 



Annu:il Meeting: Draw.s Crowd 



Continued from page I. column 3 

 conducted. This year ultra violet ray 

 machines were tried to avoid leg weak- 

 ness. It was found that this machine 

 did not have to be used but a few minutes 

 a day to do effective work. Their feed- 

 ing experiments showed that semi-solid 

 buttermilk made the chickens grow 

 rapidly but that it was not any help in 

 preventing rickets. In some of the feed- 

 ing experiments chicks reached one-pound 

 weight in five weeks. 



PAYING THE BILLS 



I believe it was Newton Newkirk who 

 once made the statement that "after 

 every day of feasting comes six days of 

 hash." The November records of the 

 cow testing association show that too 

 many dairymen have figured that their 

 pastures were a lot better than they 

 really were. The result is their cows are 

 thin and their production poor. The 

 dairymen who expect a real dairy cow to 

 travel around enough to support herself 

 on poor pastures without enough sup- 

 plemental feed is fooling himself and 

 ruining his chances for pi'ofit. During 

 the summer some men were getting as 

 high as eight pounds of milk for every 

 pound of grain they fed. Their balance 

 after paying the grain bill looked good. 

 This was their feast period. Now those 

 who pursued this practice have their 

 period of "eating ha.sh." They either 

 have to feed liberally enough to get their 

 cows into producing shape or else take 

 very low production per cow. And low 

 production chases away all chances of 

 profit. On mo.st of the pastures the cows 

 need as much grain as they do in winter. 



County Agent Heport.s ^Vork for I!»2e 



Continued from page 1, column 2 

 parts of each field and these samples 

 were tested for acidity. Late in the 

 season a record of the yield on these 

 fields was secured so as to see if there 

 is any relation between the degree of 

 acidity and yield. This work is being 

 summarized at M. A. C. at the present 

 time. The larger part of the fields tested 

 extremely acid and most of these gave 

 poor yields. The percentage of poor 

 yields on fields showing medium acid was 

 .decidely smaller. More lime than usual 

 has been used on onion fields this fall as 

 a result of this work. 



Animal Husbandry 



Considerable time has been spent in 

 organizing and keeping the Hampshire 

 County Cow Testing As.sociation going 

 this past year. Forty herds completed 

 a year's work in November. The sum- 

 mary of this is given elsewhere in this 

 paper. Practically all of the members 

 can reduce the cost of milk production 

 more than a cent a quart but this un- 

 fortunately does not have the same ap- 

 peal as raising the selling price half this 

 amount. At the present time we need 

 eight more members to bring the associa- 

 tion up to full strength. 



Farm Management 



Tlie county egg laying contest has been 

 the leading line of farm ftianagement 

 work carried on this year. The reports 

 of thirty-three flocks have been sent in 

 monthly. Thirteen of these have aver- 

 aged over one hundred sixty eggs per 

 bird. Three of the leading flocks aver- 

 aged over 200 eggs per bird. 



Fruit Growing 



All fruit work this year has been car- 

 ried on in cooperation with the Hamp- 

 shire County Fruit Growers' Association. 

 Worthwhile meetings have been held 

 during the year and have been well at- 

 tended. In the spring a telephone spray 

 service was established so that fruit 

 growers in the county could get timely 

 information regarding when and with 

 what to spray. During National Apple 

 Week an exhibit was put on in the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce I'ooms in Northampton 

 particularly for consumers. Good at- 

 tendance was secured and a large number 

 expressed their interest in the exhibits. 



Poultry 



Work has been continued on poultry 

 disease control through circular letters 

 and personal visits. Poultrymen here are 

 probably having as little trouble as in 

 any county. This year an eifort was 

 made to have poultrymen grow rape as 

 a supplemental green feed. As a result 

 more rape was planted than in past yeai-s 

 which was fortunate considering the dry 

 and cold sea.son. Articles giving up-to- 

 date poultry information have been pub- 

 lished regularly in the Farmers' Monthly. 

 Hopper feeding was urged this year be- 

 cause of labor economy and its sanitary 

 advantages. Many poultrymen have also 

 improved their systems of watering birds 

 on the range. 



Statit tics 



The county agent spent one hundred 

 eighteen days in the office. This time 

 was divided between poultry and cow test 

 association records, reports, office calls, 

 writing articles, letters and other office 

 routine. One hundred eighty-three days 

 were spent in the field. Eight hundred 

 fifty-seven farm visits were made to four 

 hundred sixty-seven diff'erent farms. 

 Three hundred nineteen people called at 

 the office and seven hundred fifty-six 

 telephone calls were received. Forty-five 

 meetings were held during the year with 

 an attendance of two thousand ninety- 

 four people. 



1926 COW TEST SUMMARY 



Records Show Only Good Cows 

 Make a Profit 



Nineteen of the forty herds in the 

 Hampshire County Cow Test Association 

 averaged over 300 pounds of butter fat 

 per cow for the year ending December 

 first 1926. This a record that few as- 

 sociations make even after several years 

 of this work. The following is a list 

 of the herds that averaged over 300 

 pounds of fat for the year: 



Average Per Cow 



Owuer lbs. milli lbs. fat 



Peli-ssier Bros., Hadley 11832 



E. Harlow, Amherst 7374 



W. H. Atkins, Amherst 7862 



E. P. West, Hadlev 11149 



E. T. Clark, Granby 11133 



W. P. Quirk, Ware 8059 



3. G. Cook, Hadley 1079.5 



A. D. Montague, Westh'ton 9801 



Bisbee Bros., Che.sterfield 9811 



Easthampton Town Farm 9432 



D. R. Pomeroy, Amherst 9239 



H. H. Bissell, Go.'^hen 9192 



H. J. Searle & Son, Hadley 9230 



H. Bridgeman, Westhampton 8695 



G. H. Timmins, Ware 6644 



A. Gagne, South Hadley 8764 



R. C. Adams, Amherst 8524 



G. A. Galu.sha, Granby 8617 



C. E. Clark, Leeds 8525 



411.2 

 394.1 

 388.5 

 387.7 

 375.0 

 362.8 

 362.6 

 355.6 

 345.2 

 331.2 

 324.3 

 324.0 

 320.3 

 317.6 

 316.9 

 316.1 

 314.2 

 311.9 

 302.3 



Feed Cost of Producing Milk 



The following table is a .summary 

 showing the effect of production on the 



