VIAR 2 ■ 1927 



FARMERS' MONTHLf 



OR HAMPSHIRE COUINTY 



icu\tura 



Vol. XII. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., FEBRUARY, 1927 



No. 2 



COUNTY FRUIT GROWERS MEET 



Officers Elected for 1927 at 

 Annual Meeting 



E. R. Critchett, Manager of the Bay 

 Road Fruit Farm of Amherst, was elect- 

 ed president of the Hampshire County 

 Fruit Growers' Association at the annual 

 meeting held January 27. Other officers 

 elected were: Vice Presidnt, W. A. Par- 

 sons, Southampton; Secretary-Treasurer, 

 Ralph Whitcomb, Amherst; Auditor, W. 

 A. Root, Easthampton; Executive Com- 

 mittee, W. H. Atkins, Amherst, E. C. 

 Searle, Easthampton. 



President C. H. Gould reported on the 

 work of the Association for 1926. He re- 

 ported that three interesting meetings 

 had been held during the year. As a re- 

 sult of one of these meetings one member 

 was able to cut his labor costs of spray- 

 ing in half. This past year telephone 

 information service on the time to spray 

 was had by fifty of the members. Dur- 

 ing Apple Week a display was put on in 

 Northampton. Some Co-operative buy- 

 ing of spray materials was carried on by 

 members of the as.sociation. 



After a discussion on the .spray infor- 

 mation sei-vice it was decided that the 

 telephone sei-vice .should be supplemented 

 by post cards so that all growers would 

 be sure to get the information. 



E. R. Critchett of Amherst reported 

 that increased competition in the market 

 had made it more difficult to sell apples. 

 The feeling was that an active campaign 

 should be carried on to attract apple buy- 

 ers.not just for a day or a week, but thru 

 the whole season. It was brought out in 

 the di.scussion that local advertising of 

 apples at low prices made everyone be- 

 lieve that all apples were cheap, whereas 

 these low priced apples were usually poor 

 stuff. 



W. R. Cole of Amherst reported on the 

 work of the Massachusetts Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Association and the "Apples for 

 Health" campaign. Alfred Burdette of 

 M. A. C. .stated that the barrel and the 

 Massachusetts standard bushel box were 

 the best wholesale packages. In packing 

 the box the diagonal pack is better than 

 the layer pack. W. H. Atkins reported 

 on the retail market as seen by the store- 

 men. Some of these men reported that 

 apples were the only product they 

 handled which had not increased in sales. 

 Peddlers, failure of consumers to cook, 

 roadside stands and the practice of con- 



sumers buying in small lots are some of 

 the reasons given for failure to increase 

 apple sales. 



WHY GROW UNPROFITABLE 



VARIETIES 



Why any apple grower will waste time 

 with unpopular apple varieties is a mys- 

 tery. If there is a good local demand for 

 a few odd varieties all well and good, but 

 competition is too keen for the Massachu- 

 setts grower to handle anything but the 

 best. Occasionally an odd variety is de- 

 sirable for pollination purposes, but for 

 most part such trees should either be cut 

 down of top-worked to salable varieties. 



Present market prices emphasize more 

 strongly than ever before the folly of 

 growing what the public does not want. 

 Spring is house cleaning time. Why not 

 clean up the orchard also, and retain only 

 those varieties which folks are willing to 

 pay for? King, Hubbardston, Wolf Riv- 

 er, Pewaukee, and a hcst of others, can 

 never compete with our standard sorts. 

 They may have a place in the home or- 

 chard but not in the commercial orchard, 

 and the spread between prices received 

 for good and poor varieties is almost cer- 

 tain to widen in future years. 



Older trees should, of course, be cut 

 down. Young, vigorous trees up to fif- 

 teen years or more may be profitably 

 top-worked. This should be done about 

 the time growth is starting in the spring. 

 Either the cleft graft, Coburn graft, or 

 bark graft may be used with success. 

 Generally six or seven favorably located 

 limbs are all that need be grafted to de- 

 velop the new top. Two years should be 

 taken to complete the top grafting opera- 

 tion. Thus, only one-half of the old top 

 is removed the first year. This permits 

 of some shade for the scions the first sea- 

 son, and facilitates the flow of materials 

 from the roots. Scions should be placed 

 as near the trunk as is convenient in or- 

 der to eliminate as much as possible of 

 the old top. After the first season's 

 growth, crowding and shading by compet- 

 ing branches must be avoided. If in 

 doubt about your ability as a "grafter" 

 con.sult your County Agricultural Agent. 

 Get the work started this year. Your 

 odd trees have a direct bearing on the 

 present apple market. 



—W. H. Thies 



SPRING IS THE TIME TO 



START REFINISHING 



"Furniture Can Be Made Like New," 

 Says Expert 



"Applying good material on a clean 

 surface is the first and perhaps the most 

 important .step in refinishing old furni- 

 ture," says W. S. Manchester, representa- 

 tive of the Sherwin Williams Paint Co., 

 in talking to the women of Granby, South 

 Hadley and Easthampton. 



"The first step," says Mr. Manchester, 

 "is to get the sui'face to be refini.shed in 

 good condition. For stains and varnishes 

 all the old paint must be removed. For 

 paint and lacquers, wa.shing and sand- 

 papering is enough. Beware of leaving 

 any paint remover or alkaline substance 

 on the wood. It will not only eat into the 

 wood, and roughen the surface, but will 

 lift the veneer and the new finish will not 

 dry. That is often the cause of sticky 

 varnish and paint." 



Choose Right Stain and Varnish 



"New wood, unless it is mahogany, 

 cherry, walnut or maple will probably 

 need to be .stained. There are four kinds 

 of stains on the market. Acid stain, wood 

 dye or penetrative stain, and oil stain. 

 The first one or acid stain is used very 

 successfully by professionals, but is not 

 recommended for the use of amateurs. 

 The wood dye is particularly good to use 

 on hard wood. The oil stain which is the 

 oldest of the four; is the best to use on 

 floors, soft woods and for outdoor use. 

 This is true because of the water resisit- 

 ance of the oil. The newest stain is the 

 varnish stain, which will do two jobs in 

 one, varni.sh and stain. This covers a 

 little better than an ordinary stain and is 

 used by a great many people. However, 

 it does not do as good a job as the stain 

 and varni.sh separately applied. Stain 

 should be applied freely, allowed to stand 

 fifteen minutes and then wiped off. 



"After the stain, a filler is needed, if 

 the wood is open grain. Paste filler, 

 comes in pound packages and should be 

 purchased according to stain applied, 

 such as mahogany paste filler. Apply 

 the filler, allow it to stand a short time 

 and then wipe off afjainst the grain of 

 the wood. Shellac is not a good filler, 

 contrary to the popular belief, it has only 

 one good characteristic, it dries quickly." 

 Continued on page 4, column 3 



