FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STArF 



Allen S. lieland, <'oiin(y Asenl 



Mnry I'oxzi, Home Deiiionstratlon Agrcnt 



Harolfl AV. RiLstniMiit County Club Aj^ent 



iVorn Ff»iey, Clerk 



Helen Chirk. Assf. Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Entered a.'s second cla.s."! matter Nov. 9. 

 1915, at the Post Office at Northampton, 

 Mass.-ichusett.s, under the Act of March 

 8, 1879. 



**Xotlee of Kntry" 



"Acceptance for mailing at .special rate.s 

 of pcstage provided for in .section 1103, 

 Act of October 3. 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober ,31. 1917. 



Priee, r»0 cents :i yenr 



Officers of the Trustees 



Charle.s W. Wji«ie l*resident 

 >Ir.s. Clifton .fitlinson, \"ice-i'resiilent 

 AVarren M. Kin^:, Tre:i.surer 

 Allen S. Leinnf], Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Charle.s W. Wade, Hatfleld 

 >IrN. Clifton ,Jolin.son, Hadley 

 Wjirren I^I. Kin;2r. Northampton 

 KdM'in it. Clapi», Kastliaitiiiton 

 Clarence F. Hod^kins, \ortliani|iton 

 >Iilton S. Howe.s, Ciininiin^ton 

 AV. H. Atkins, Anilierst 

 I.. li, Campbell* Nortlianipton 



As your new County Agent, I am very 

 glad to be with you in Hamp.shire County. 



Having developed a liking for this sec- 

 tion of the state while at the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College I feel sure that 

 my future work here should be very pleas- 

 ant indeed. 



I realize that Mr. Payne has set high 

 .standards for me to follow, but by your 

 cooperation with me I shall do my best to 

 carry on the work so that it may come to 

 mean even more to the farmers of Hamp- 

 shire County. 



FRANK STEELE COMBINES POULTRY 

 AND DAIRY CATTLE WITH SUCCESS 



On Friday of Farm and Home Week in 

 Amherst, Mr. Frank Steele of Cumming- 

 ton gave an interesting talk on his success 

 with the poultry-dairy cattle combination 

 on his farm. 



It should be noted especially that Mr. 

 Steele has high producers both with his 

 poultry and dairy cattle and that both 

 groups are fed and managed for that 

 high production. 



He hatches his 2000-3000 chickens early 

 in order to have the heavy labor period of 

 feeding and brooding over with by the 



time that the crop season commences. 

 Plenty of land is available nearby the 

 houses so that he can change his range 

 each year. He saves some of the labor of 

 feeding, which is done at a regular time 

 each day, by feeding a ma.sh which con- 

 tains milk rather than feeding milk as an 

 extra operation. Feed is placed in large 

 hoppers which saves much time. 



His poultry and cattle are kept entirely 

 separate. 



Legumes such as alfalfa, soy beans and 

 clover furnish green feed for his laying 

 hens and those whose eggs are to be used 

 for hatching are fed cabbage in addition. 



Water which has been used in cooling 

 the milk is piped to the poultry yards as a 

 source of drinking • water and refuse 

 roughage from the cattle is used for litter 

 in the laying houses. 



The manure and litter are used for a 

 top dressing on the hay land, care being- 

 taken not to put any where the chickens 

 will range. 



The orchard which produces 1-50-.300 

 barrels of apples, furni.shes shade for the 

 chickens and the chickens help greatly in 

 destroying the railroad worm as well as 

 furnishing fertilizer for the trees. 



Mr. Steele does not claim that poultry 

 and dairy cattle can always be combined 

 with success but the factors which make 

 up his busniess are combined in such a 

 way that he is achieving excellent results. 



Valne <»f Heal Pastures 



Continued from page 1. column 1 



have practiced a more or less standard 

 soil treatment. At the same time the 

 grazing land has been neglected because 

 of a lack of knowledge concerning the 

 possible feeding value of a highly devel- 

 oped pasture. Comparing ecjual areas of 

 highly developed pasture with a rotation 

 of corn, oats, wheat, and grass the pas- 

 ture area produced 1,403 pounds of di 

 gestible nutrients as compared to 562 and 

 6,730 pounds respectively for the grain 

 rotation. 



The seed bed for grass should be pre- 

 pared as is done for oats. Disc in one 

 to two tons of limestone per acre. Apply 

 150 lbs. nitrate of soda, 500 lbs acid pros- 

 phate and 100 lbs. muriate of potash. 

 After the limestone and fertilizer are well 

 worked into the seed bed, apply one 

 bushel of Kentucky blue grass (14 lbs.) 

 and li pounds of White Dutch clover per 

 acre. The pasture should be seeded in 

 early spring, at the time oats are usually 

 seeded. No nurse crop is recommeded. 

 The pasture should be mowed before the 

 annual weeds go to seed. The use of 

 nitrogen greatly hastens the development 

 of the blue grass pasture, gives an earlier 

 pasture in the spring, reduces the tenden- 

 cy of the grass to turn brown during the 

 hot weather, and prolongs the growth in 

 the fall. The pasture .should not be over 

 stocked e.specially the second year it is 



E. VAN DEUSEN PRODUCES 300 



BUSHELS OF POTATOES PER ACRE 



Hampshire County farmers who were 

 at Farm and Home Week in Amherst had 

 the pleasure of listening to Mr. E. Van 

 Deusen give some of the essentials of suc- 

 cess in raising 300 bushels of potatoes per 

 acre. 



Sandy or gravelly loam which has just 

 grown an alfalfa or clover sod seems to fit 

 his needs best. This is fall plowed in 

 order to allow the sod to decompose and 

 to take up a good supply of water. Fall 

 plowing also destroys many pests. In the 

 Spring this land is thoroughly harrowed 

 until the soil is in fine tilth and most of 

 the weeds de.stroyed. 



Only certified seed is used and this 

 should be treated with corrosive sublimate 

 to destroy the scab and rhizoctonia organ- 

 isms. These potatoes are then spread in 

 the shade to dry and to green, growing 

 small stubby sprouts. Seed pieces should 

 be chunky, and weigh 11 to li ounces. 

 They should be sprinkled with flowers of 

 sulphur or gypsum if not immediately 

 planted. Seed should be planted late 

 enough so that the tubers will set when 

 there is a good supply of moisture in the 

 soil and Green Mountains should be plant- 

 ed in 32-34" rows at the rate of 16-18 

 bushels per acre at a depth of 3-4 inches 

 if a machine digger to be used. The 

 fertilizer which is a 5-8-7 is applied be- 

 low the seed piece at the rate of a ton per 

 acre. 



The land is harrowed before the plants 

 come through the ground and gone over 

 with the weeder before weeds show up in 

 order to efficiently and effectively destroy 

 them. The rows are hilled to a medium 

 height and all cultivation should cease by 

 the time the plants are in blossom. 



The plants are sprayed every week or 

 ten days from the time they are 6" high 

 until they are killed by frost with a 5- 

 5-50 Bordeaux mixture and at a high 

 pressure. Caeso added to the spray solu- 

 tion seems to spread it better over the 

 leaf. 



Mr. Van Deusen is a grower who keeps 

 in touch with the latest and best informa- 

 tion as it becomes available and by plant- 

 ing the best seed and following up-to-date 

 cultural practices combined with regular 

 and efl^ective spraying, is raising 300 

 bushels of potatoes per acre. 



seeded. 



The limestone should be put on once in 

 four years, top dressing the sod in the 

 late fall. Annual applications in the 

 spring of 150 lbs. nitrate of .soda, 200 lbs. 

 acid phosphate and 50 lbs. muriate of pot- 

 ash or 300 lbs. of an 8-6-6 fertilizer per 

 acre .should be made if a highly developed 

 blue grass pasture is desired. The annual 

 cost is about $10. In our experiments 

 the computed value of such a pasture 

 runs from .$39.43 to $48.58. 



