FARMERS' MONTHLV; 



LIBRARY 

 Massachuset 

 UL 2G 1927 



ricultura! 

 College, 



OF HAMPSHIRE COUINTV 



Vol. XII. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., JULY, 1927 



No. 7 



ALFALFA TRIPS HELD 



Growers Bnthusiastic About Crop 



"Alfalfa can be grown here success- 

 fully," wa.s the conclu.sion of those who 

 attended the alfalfa tours held the middle 

 of June in Granby, Westhampton and 

 Ware. Excellent stands and splendid 

 yields were typical of the fields visited. It 

 is small wonder that the owners were all 

 enthusiastic about the crop. 



All of the fields had some points in com- 

 mon. The fields had all been limed right. 

 Past experience had shown most of the 

 men that to try to get by with too little 

 lime was not conducive to good crops. 

 That the fertility of the fields was well up 

 was shown by the fact that the alfalfa 

 was lodged on about every field. Inocula- 

 tion was excellent as was shown by the 

 dark green color of the plants. 



Time and method of seeding varied. At 

 Galusha's Granby Hay Farm one field was 

 seeded the middle of .June last year, while 

 a second field was sown after oats. The 

 oat crop was hayed and the field harrowed 

 the latter part of July and was seeded 

 early in August. At E. T. Clark's in 

 Granby his field of three acres was seeded 

 the middle of August last year. Rimbold 

 Brothers of Granby, Geo. H. Timmins of 

 Ware, M. K. Parsons and J. Davis Turner 

 of Westhampton all seeded the middle of 

 June la.st year. Burt Brothers of West- 

 hampton seeded in August. 



Practically all of the fields were top- 

 dressed with chemicals this spring. The 

 concensus of opinion of the growers was 

 that fertilizer paid well on this crop in 

 spite of the fact that many believe it 

 needs no fertilizer. Most of the fertilizer 

 combinations were high in acid phosphate 

 and potash. 



Different seed mixtures were used. 

 Some u.sed straight alfalfa at the rate of 

 15 to 20 pounds per acre. Some of the 

 fields were seeded with as little as twelve 

 pounds of alfalfa plus three pounds of 

 timothy and four to five pounds of clover 

 per acre. When conditions as regards 

 lime, fertility and inoculation were right 

 for alfalfa there seemed to be no need of 

 using timothy of clover seed. It looked 

 as though the combination of timothy and 

 alfalfa would give a greater yield than 

 either one alone. 



It was shown that where the alfalfa 

 was sown in June and is to be cut once 

 the same year it must be harvested by the 



Continued on page 2, column 3 



IN APPRECIATION 



Miss Mildred W. Boice completed four 

 and a half years of service as Home De- 

 monstration Agent the middle of June. 

 The summary meeting held at Laurel 

 Park was a fitting tribute on the part of 

 the women of Hampshire County for the 

 quality of the service that Miss Boice has 

 rendered. Her splendid training, her care- 

 ful analyzing of home problems, her pain- 

 staking preparation of her material and 

 her willingness to give unstintingly of her 

 time and energy have endeared here to a 

 host of women in this county. The best 

 wi-shes of the people of this county go 

 with Miss Boice who is now Mrs. Mark 

 Germaine of White Plains, N. Y. 



HOME MAKERS MEET 



Summary of Miss Boices' Four and 

 a Half Years Work 



Nearly five hundred people from 

 twenty-two of the twenty-three towns of 

 the county attended the summary meet- 

 ing of the Home Department of the Ex- 

 tension Service at Laurel Park, June 9. 

 The afternoon session was a pageant 

 summarizing Miss Boices' four and a half 

 years work as Home Demonstration 

 Agent in Hampshire County. The last 

 scene of the pageant was a living map of 

 the county with all but one town repre- 

 sented. At the close the women of the 

 county presented Miss Boice with a chest 

 of silver as an appreciation of her work 

 here. 



What The Community Owes The Child 



Dr. Caroline Hedgor of the Elizabeth 

 McCormick Fund of Chicago gave the ad- 

 dress of the day on "What the Communi- 

 ty Owes the Child". She said "The Com- 

 munity Owes its Future to the Child. The 

 school of today is a photograph of the 

 community of tomorrow. If the school 

 room shows .skinny, nervous, open mouth- 

 ed children we will have that kind of a 

 community in the future. The child has 

 the right to be well born, not feeble mind- 

 ed. In some states they do not know how 

 many feeble minded there are. Ways 

 should be devised to keep the feeble mind- 

 ed from breeding. 



"The Community owes the child a pro- 

 gram which will bring him through to 

 participating citizenship. This is not 

 simply the right to vote but the ability to 

 Continued on page 4, column 1 



PROGRESS OF T. B. TESTING 



First Tests in Western Towns Show 

 Less Reactors than State Average 



A comparison of the first five months 

 (December to April inclusive) of T. B. 

 testing in the state this year with the 

 similar period of last year is of interest 

 to cattle owners: 



Per 

 1926 Herds Head Reactors cent 



1st test 260 3489 1099 31 

 2nd test 151 2079 300 14 



3rd test 195 64.58 512 8 



Accredited 109 3207 56 1.7 



Total 



1145 21521 



2122 



107o 



It will be noted from the above that 

 with nearly a 50% increase in the number 

 of cattle tested there were actually 32 less 

 reactors. In the eight weeks, April 4 to 

 May 28 there were 776 reactors killed. Of 

 these 20 of 3% showed no lesions, while 

 46 of 6% were "tanked" as unfit for beef. 

 The average appraisal on these cattle was 

 $134.50 and the average salvage $37.50. 



The figures for the town in the western 

 part of the county where considerable 

 testing has been done is as follows: 



Totals 



118 1052 81 7.7% 



The list of owners in Huntington has 

 not been checked but it is believed that 

 over 90% of the cattle in the town will be 

 under test this fall. There are only five 

 herds in Goshen that have not applied 

 for the test, ten herds in Chesterfield, 

 nine in Cummington. In Worthington 

 41 of the herds have applications in 

 for testing. In these five towns the census 

 figures .show that there are 297 herds with 

 2222 cattle. About 227 of these herds are 

 signed up to be tested. 



