HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 

 FARMERS' MONTHLY 



College 



Vol. XIII. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., AUGUST, 1928 



No. 8 



Fruit Growers Hold 



Successful Field Day 



Wilfred Parsons and Edward C. Searle 

 of Southampton both acted as hosts to 

 about 7.5 fruit growers of Hampden, 

 Hampshire and Franklin Counties on 

 Friday, August 10. 



The growers met at the farm of W. A. 

 Parsons where they inspected the apple, 

 peach and small fruit 

 plantings. Mr. Parsons 

 expects to sell about 

 3,000 baskets of peaches 

 this sea.son, a good deal 

 of it being disposed of 

 at his roadside stand. 



A basket lunch was 

 sei-ved at the farm of 

 E. C. Searle who has 

 the largest Northern 

 Spy orchard in Massa- 

 chusetts. Some of the 

 intere.sting things ob- 

 served at the Searle 

 farm were trees clearly 

 bolted to avoid splitting 

 of weak crotches, or- 

 chard inter-cropped 

 with corn and potatoes 

 alternating to facilitate 

 spraying, alfalfa in the orchard, hogs to 

 eat up the drops, a unique peach basket 

 holder, a promising young peach orchard 

 and a home made apple grader which 

 operates particularly well. 



Collins Speaks on Marketing 



Thomas Collins of the Winn-Ricker Co. 

 of Boston gave a very interesting talk to 

 the growers on grading, marketing and 

 apple prospects. 



Mr. Collins believes that our fruit 

 growers should grow better fruit and 

 sent it to market graded and packed in 

 the best possible manner if the local 

 apples are to compete favorably with 

 those from other sections. Furthermore 

 he believes that no better quality fruit 

 can be grown than that of New England. 



The best fruit should be packed in a 

 bushel box and poor fruit should be pack- 

 ed in barrels. Our growers may have to 

 use the western box in order to compete 

 favorably with the western growers. The 

 basket package is not popular in Boston. 

 The best trade buying the best fruit want 

 Continued on piige 8, column 3 



Fair Dates We Are 

 Interested In 



Middlefield Fair, Aug. 29-30. 

 Greenfield Fair, Sept. 10-12. 

 Eastern States Exposition, 



Sept. 16-23. 

 Cummington Fair, Sept. 2.5-26. 

 Worcester Fair, Sept. 25-29. 

 Northampton Fair, Oct. 2-4. 



Farm and Home Week 



Draws Big Crowd 



SWEET CLOVER FURNISHES 

 ECONOMICAL GREEN FEED 



The above picture shows the growth of 

 sweet clover on Sumner R. Parker's three 

 acre piece in So. Amherst. This stand is 

 pasturing 12 cows daily at the present 

 time. 



The following facts regarding the his- 

 tory of the three acre field were given by 

 Mr. Parker. In 1924 after an application 

 of lime of two tons per acre the field was 

 seeded to timothy, red top and clover in 

 oats. In 1925 a light cutting of hay was 

 taken from the area. In 1926 half of the 

 field was seeded to sweet clover after an 

 application of two tons of lime to the 

 acre. This seeding was not successful. 



During 1927 the whole area was pas- 

 tured and in the fall it was all plowed. 

 In the spring of 1928 half of the field re- 

 ceived lime at the rate of two tons to the 

 Acre. To the other half which had not 

 been seeded before, lime was applied at 

 the rate of three tons to the acre. The 

 Continued on page 3, column 2 



Miss Lucile Brewer, the Extension 

 Specialist in Food Preparation and Pre- 

 sen'ation, Cornell University, drew the 

 homemakers to her as a magnet draws its 

 opposite. 



Her first demonstration ajid lecture on 

 "Vegetables Fz-esh From Your Garden" 

 proved very popular 

 for she gave many 

 new ways of prepar- 

 ing the "same old 

 vegetables" as many are 

 apt to say. Too often 

 it isn't that we don't 

 like vegetable, it is 

 mostly that we haven't 

 a new way of preparing 

 it and are tired of it. 



The next morning- 

 she pi-esented "One 

 Dish Supper" in her de- 

 monstration. Suppers 

 are our main problems. 

 Too often because of 

 lack of time or because 

 one is tired after the 

 days's work, a supper 

 goes on without much 

 thought. If a child has been in school all 

 day and had a few sandwiches for lunch, 

 we must be sure that he or she is going 

 to get the required amounts of fruits and 

 vegetables in the supper which is served. 

 We all know that the following quota- 

 tion is only too true: 



"The greatest of follies is to sacrifice 

 health for any other advantage. 

 Proper food brings good health." 

 t'ontinued on page 4. column 1 



My Trip to the 



National 4-H Camp 



The Second National 4-H Club Camp 

 was held on the grounds of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in the shadow of the 

 Washington Monument, during the week 

 of June 21. 



Forty states were represented making 

 a total of 225 delegates and their leaders. 



The states represented, covered the 

 Continued on page 7. column 1 



