FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Rolnnd A. Txiyne, County Agent 

 Hildreil W. Itoice, 



Home Denionstrntion Agent 

 Harold AV. RDstmsin, County Club Agent 

 Catherine lyucey. Clerk 

 Helen Clark, A.'ist. 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. 



"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, 50 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Charles W. Wade, President 

 Mrs. Clifton Jolinson, 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. Hov^res, Cummington 



Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 



Warren M. King, Northampton 



Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 



W. H. Atkins, Amherst 



L. L. Campbell, Northampton 



T. B. ERADICATION BY AREAS 



SHOWS PROGRESS 



The eradication of tuberculosis from 

 entire counties has become the most popu- 

 lar method of combating this menace to 

 cattle and human beings, according to a 

 report recently issued by the United 

 States Bureau of Animal Industry. 



Under this sy.stem of eradicating the 

 disease from cattle a circumscribed area, 

 generally a county, is used as a unit, with 

 the object of freeing it of the disease. 

 More than 6,500,000 cattle or over three- 

 fourths of the total number tested in the 

 whole work of tuberculosis eradication 

 were tested under this plan by County, 

 State and Federal veterinarians during 

 the last fi.scal year. 



At the close of the year 756 counties 

 had engaged in eradication under this 

 plan. This is an increase of 28 per cent 

 over the reported number for the preced- 

 ing year. 



It is hoped that the Massachusetts 

 legislature will pass an area test bill 

 this year. The plan is to use towns as 

 area unit. Huntington and Westhamp- 

 ton could easily become free areas. 



CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS 



Dr. Henry D. Chadwick of Westfield is 

 an authority on tuberculosis. His experi- 

 ence as surgeon and head of the We.stfield 

 Sanitarium where tubercular children are 

 cai-ed for has given him facts about the 

 control of this disease that should be 

 known by every -farmer in this county. 

 The following is the gist of what he told 

 a group of men in Northampton recently. 



"Statistics show that one-quarter of 

 the children that die from tuberculosis 

 are affected with the bovine type. In my 

 early experience as house surgeon in Bos- 

 ton a large part of my time every morn- 

 ing was used in dressing scrofula sores on 

 children. At the present time mo.st of the 

 milk sold in Boston is pasteurized. This 

 has caused a great decrease in scrofula, 

 meningitis, and peritonitis, all of which 

 are caused by tuberculosis. Children in 

 smaller towns do not have the protection 

 of pasteurized milk. A larger percentage 

 of rural children than city children have 

 these troubles at the present time. To 

 eliminate these troubles we should have 

 our cattle tested for T. B. and have the 

 reactors slaughtered." 



■'The intradermal test used to find re- 

 acting cattle is more accurate than the 

 older temperature test. The present 

 method of eradicating tuberculosis in cat- 

 tle is to slaughter the reactors. The so- 

 called "Bang" method in which reacting 

 cattle are isolated from the healthy ones 

 in a herd has not worked. We tried it at 

 Westfield but could not get the herd free 

 from the disease. We finally had all of 

 the reactors slaughtered and bought cows 

 from accredited herds. By this method 

 we eliminated the disease in the herd. It 

 has been accredited for two years. We 

 are now raising our own replacements as 

 we feel that this is the safest and best 

 way. While we had reactors we found 

 that we could not keep them up in produc- 

 tion. Some of them did well for a while 

 and then would drop rapidly both in 

 weight and in production. I believe in 

 the area test plan as this makes it easier 

 to keep herds free from T. B." 



"I believe people will gladly use more 

 milk when they are sure that it is abso- 

 lutely free from trouble. At Westfield 

 we have no difficulty in getting children 

 to drink a quart of milk a day. We have 

 milk but no water on the table at meal 

 time. The calcium in the milk is what 

 they need to overcome tuberculosis. The 

 calcium is deposited around the tuber- 

 cules thus walling them off from the rest 

 of the tissues." 



"Surveys show that sixty per cent of 

 the children in dairy sections are under- 

 weight. This makes them easy prey for 

 tuberculosis. This underweight c o n- 

 dition is largely due to failure to drink 

 enough milk. Clean, disease-free milk is 

 what these underweight children need." 



COW TEST SUMMARY 



The February records show that thirty- 

 six cows made over 50 lbs. of fat. The 

 high cows were as follows: 



Owner Breed lbs. milk lbs. fat 



R .C. Adams G. H. 1656 69.9 

 D. R. Pomeroy G. H. 1440 69.1 



C. G. Loud R. H. 1906 66.8 

 H. Bridgman R. H. 1512 66.5 

 W. H. Atkins R. -J. 1170 63.2 

 A. W. Houghton R. H. 1455 62.6 



D. R. Pomeroy R. H. 1515 62.1 



E. P. West R. H. 1605 61.0 

 W. H. Atkins G. J. 1320 59.4 

 Pelissier Bros. G. H. 1560 59.3 

 Pelissier Bros. R. H. 1644 59.2 



F. D. Steele G. H. 2414 79.7* 



E. P. West R. H. 2298 73.5** 



F. D. Steele R. H. 2209 68.5* 

 M. S. Howes R, H. 2044 63.4* 



E. T. Clark G. H. 1540 61.5* 

 *Milk6d three times daily. **Milked 



four times daily. 



The leading herds in average milk pro- 

 duction per cow for February were : 



No. Cows Lbs. Milk 

 (per cow) 



F. D. Steele, Cum- 

 mington, 6 1302 



D. R. Pomeroy, Am- 

 herst, 8 1245 



M. S. Howes, Cum- 

 mington, 9 1233 

 Pelissier Bros., Hadley, S 1220 

 .J. G. Cook, Hadley, 14 1069 



E. P. West, Hadley, 32 1000 



The following were the leading herds in 

 the average production of butter fat per 

 cow: 



No. Cows Lbs. Fat 

 D. R. Pomeroy 8 47.5 



Pelissier Bros. 8 43.6 



M. S. Howes 9 43.4 



F. D. Steele 6 42.8 

 W. H. Atkins 14 38.1 

 •J. G. Cook 14 37.3 



March Testing Records 

 The March records of the cow testing 

 association show that nine cows gave over 

 sixty pounds of butter fat during the 

 month on twice a day milking, while sev- 

 en cows milked more than twice a day 

 gave over sixty-five pounds of butter fat. 

 The records of the leading cows for 

 March are as follows : 



Owner Breed lbs. milk lbs. fat 



H. H. Bissell R. H. 1832 71.4 



G. H. Timmins R. G. 1355 69.1 

 Ellis Harlow R.J. 1065 67.1 

 F. Frost, Mgr. R. H. 1800 66.6 

 M. S. Howes R. H. 1262 65.6 

 E.T.Clark G. H. 1674 6.5.3 



D. R. Pomeroy G. H. 1740 60.9 

 F. Frost, Mgr. R. H. 1830 60.4 

 T. C. Marra G. A. 1277 60.1 

 H. Bridgman R. H. 2139 89.8x 

 F. D. Steele G. H. 2570 84.8x 



E. P. West R. H. 2340 77.2xx 



