THE FARMERS' MONTHLY, NOVEMBER, 1927 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 



Allen S. Leland, County Agent 



Mary Pozzi, Home Demonstration Agent 



Harold W. Eastman, County Club Agent 



Nora Foley, Clerk 



Helen Clark, Asst. 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. 



"Notice of Entry" 



"Acceptance for mailing at special rates 

 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 Johnson, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Allen S. Leland, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid 

 to Agriculture 



Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 

 L. L. Campbell, Northampton 



THE COUNTY AGENT 



The County Agent is a marvelous man. 

 And tries to do as much as he can. 

 No end he knows about his county 

 From weanin' pigs to the hedge hog 

 bounty. 



There are times of course when he gets 



stuck 

 And then is when he's sure out of luck. 

 For, how in time can he pretend and pose 

 When he knows less than the farmer 

 knows. 



Folks take delight in seein' him suffer, 

 Try to make out he's more or less a 



duffer. 

 And just to uncover more defects 

 They ask him questions darn complex. 



Why, for instance, did that cow die? 

 Not a word about the pail of lye 

 That was left around careless like. 

 You don't know? Well for the love of 



Mike! 



Or, why didn't that alfalfa grow? 

 With a tone that says, "I told you so". 

 I used the lime you said, and more. 

 But the fact is 'twas a ton instead of 

 four. 



What's the matter with my biddies 

 They seem to have the fum-da-diddies. 

 I put some vitamins in the mash 

 But not a word about feeding them trash. 



And so it goes the county around, 

 The agent feeling he's losing ground. 

 If only they'd treat him on the level 

 He wouldn't feel so like the devil. 



Soon, however, he learns the game, 

 And plays the part to save his name. 

 Of all these cases he makes a list 

 And calls to his aid the Specialist. 



The County Agent is a marvelous man. 

 Beat him to it if ever you can. 

 For he in turn will cheer and gloat 

 When some poor Specialist becomes the 

 goat. Spec. 



DAIRY HERD IMPROVEMENT 

 RESTS ON THREE PRACTICES 



Three ways of improving the dairy 

 herd — better feeding, rigid culling, and 

 intelligent breeding — were emphasized by 

 J. C. McDowell, dairy husbandman of the 

 United States Department of Agricultur- 

 al, in a talk at Orono, Me. 



"Better feeding of the cows we now 

 have," he said, "increases average pro- 

 duction, increases total production, and 

 usually increases net profits. Rigid cull- 

 ing out of low producers increases aver- 

 age production, decreases total produc- 

 tion, and nearly always increases net pro- 

 fits. The use of better dairy sires event- 

 ually increases average productions, in- 

 creases total production and, I believe I 

 may safely say, with proper management 

 always increases net profits. 



"All diary herd improvement due to 

 better breeding tends to increase profits 

 to the producer and to decrease costs to 

 the consumer. It is one of the ways by 

 which the world may become richer with- 

 out decreasing the prosperity of any in- 

 dividual. Therefore, as I see it, the 

 breeders of good purebred dairy cattle are 

 among the world's greatest benefactors. 



"It is a common practice to select dairy 

 bulls on their appearance and their pedi- 

 gree. The day is coming when dairy 

 bulls will be selected on appearance, pedi- 

 gree, and progeny. The production re- 

 cords of a large number of daughters of 

 a dairy bull, when compared with the pro- 

 duction records of their dams, determine 

 the breeding value of the bull as certainly 

 as the records show the producing ability 

 of the cows themselves. If a sire has a 

 high producing dam he may transmit high 

 production to his daughters, but if he has 

 already transmitted high production to 

 every one of his first 5 or 10 daughters 

 it is a practical certainty, not that he 

 may, but that he will transmit high pro- 

 duction on an average to all his offspring. 

 The record of the dam of any dairy sire is 

 a promise, but the record of a large num- 

 ber of high producing daughters is the 

 fulfillment of that promise." 



FRUIT GROWERS 



COOPERATE TO MAKE 

 APPLE WEEK A SUCCESS 



Much fine fruit was on display in 

 Northampton and Amherst store windows 

 during National Apple Week, October 31 

 to November 5. The Hampshire County 

 Fruit Growers Assn. was back of the 

 movement in co-operation with the local 

 Chambers of Commerce, the merchants 

 and the Extension Service. 



The local growers furnished the fruit 

 and in most cases the merchants made up 

 the displays. Grocery stores, banks, fruit 

 stores, jewelers, clothiers, florists, drug- 

 gists, restaurants and the Chamber of 

 Commerce all had apple displays. 



The blue ribbon given by the State 

 Dep't. of Agriculture for the best win- 

 dow display in Northampton went to the 

 Boston Fruit Store while Wells Central 

 Grocery had the second prize window. 



Charles H. Gould of Haydenville had a 

 display at Butler & Ullman's which at- 

 tracted a great deal of attention. 



C. E. Stiles, E. F. Critchett, W. H. At- 

 kins and R Whitcomb with others of the 

 Amherst section helped to make the win- 

 dow displays attractive in that town. 



Wright A. Root of Easthampton placed 

 apples at the plates of all Rotarians, Ki- 

 wanians and Exchangites during Apple 

 Week. 



"Apple Stickers" were used on enve- 

 lopes of the Chamber of Commerce and 

 several city firms while banners furnished 

 by the National Apple Week Committee 

 adorned the delivery trucks in the city. 



Dealers have found that this week has 

 given an increased stimulus to their sales 

 of fruit and growers have noted the in- 

 creased demand for quality fruit by the 

 buying public. 



POTATO GROWERS HAVE 



A FIELD DAY IN CONN. 



On Thursday, October 20, a group of 

 about ten potato growers from Hamp- 

 shire County attended a field day held at 

 Lewis Grant's in So. Windsor, Conn. 

 This interesting meeting was arranged 

 by Mr. Ben Southwick, County Agent of 

 Hartford County, Conn. 



All kinds of potato machinery from 

 planters through sprayers to diggers and 

 graders were on display there and in act- 

 ual operation. Mr. Grant had a field of 

 about 20 acres of potatoes on that farm 

 and the various companies had their 

 machines do the digging, Mr. Grant 

 furnishing the horses to draw all the 

 equipment. 



The display of various makes of spray- 

 ers, dusters and diggers was particularly 

 interesting and complete. 



One hundred foot sections of four rows 

 of potatoes were dug and a guessing con- 

 Continued on page 3, column 3 



