THE FARMERS' MONTHLY, NOVEMBER, 1928 



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 

 Miss Blanche Spurr, Ass't. in Home 



Economics 

 Nora Foley, Clerk 



Office at 184 Main St., 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9, 

 1915, at the Post OfBce at Northampton, 

 Massachusetts, under the Act of March 



"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 



plates, 49's and bushels. The varieties 

 will be only the winter sorts. 



Premium lists will be out December 8 

 and may be obtained from C. H. Gould, 

 Haydenville or W. R. Cole, M. A. C, 

 Amherst. 



The county agent urges every fruit 

 grower to save out some apples for this 

 coming show. Let's have Hampshire 

 county frait growers well represented. 



Our New Agent 



Congress in its last session, passed the 

 Capper-Ketcham bill which provides for 

 appropriations to the several states to be 

 used for the further development of Ex- 

 tension work through additional workers. 



The trustees at their last regular meet- 

 ing decided to accept Hampshire County's 

 proportion of the appropriation. They 

 also decided that a new worker who would 

 be of assistance to both the club agent 

 and the home demonstration agent in such 

 projects as clothing, foods and canning, 

 would be of most benefit to the county. 



With that in mind a new worker has 

 been employed and we take this oppor- 

 tunity to welcome Miss Blanche Spurr of 

 Southboro to Hampshire County as our 

 new assistant agent. 



M. A. C. RADIO FORUM 



STARTS WINTER PROGRAM 



Plans and schedule for the regular win- 

 ter radio forum of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College over Westinghouse 

 stations WBZ and WBZA are practically 

 complete, W. R. Cole, in charge of radio 

 work at the college, announced recently, 

 the time allotted to the forum this year 

 being at 6:15 p. m. Mondays. 



George L. Farley, state leader of 4-H 

 club work in Massachusetts, opened the 

 forum on Monday, November 19. The 

 forum this year will be in the form of a 

 dialogue, the plan being to have a home 

 maker, a farmer, or some other person 

 appear at the studio and ask the speaker 

 from the college questions which will be 

 answered extemporaneously. The two 

 weeks follovnng Mr. Farley, will be in 

 charge of H. B. Rowe, extension specialist 

 in agricultural economics, and Mrs. A. T. 

 Herr, state home demonstration leader of 

 the extension sei-vice. 



Complete schedules may be obtained 

 from W. R. Cole, French Hall, M. A. C, 

 Amherst, Mass. 



The schedule for the forum until Janu- 

 ary 14 includes, in addition to the three 

 speakers mentioned, R. B. Parmenter, 

 December 10; a poultry talk, December 

 17; junior extension talks, December 24 

 and 31 ; W. R. Cole on home canning, 

 January 7; and Mrs. Harriet J. Haynes 

 on home management, January 14. 



The broadcast runs until June 24, 1929. 

 Ten dates will be devoted to home econo- 

 mics, 5 to club work, 13 to agricultural 

 projects, and 5 to miscellaneous subjects 



FOUR GROWERS MAKE 



300 BUSHEL POTOTA CLUB 



The county agent is glad to make public 

 the names of the four farmers in Hamp- 

 shire County who, as members of the 

 state's 300 bushel club, made over 300 

 bushels of potatoes per acre. 



Many growers this year questioned the 

 value of spraying potatoes to control late 

 blight. Far be it from me to say that a 

 poor or average job of spraying would 

 control blight in a season like the past 

 one but the men making membership in 

 this club have proven to themselves and 

 to others that a thorough job will control 

 the disease and furthermore that it pays. 



In a season of low prices like the pre- 

 sent one growers with a high yield per 

 acre are assured of some profit per bushel 

 owing to their lower cost per unit. 



The following Hampshire County fann- 

 ers are members of the Massachusetts 300 

 Bushel Potato Club 



Total yield 

 Name Town per acre 



R. C. Turner, Enfield 385 bu. 



Pelissier Bros., Hadley 353 bu. 



F. L. Sears & Son, Cum'ton, 318 bu. 



G. R. Tedford, Cum'ton 312 bu. 



APPLE SHOW AT WORCESTER 



The Massachusetts Fruit Growers' 

 Association is planning to hold its usual 

 apple show at the Union Agricultural 

 Meetings which will be held in Worce.s- 

 ter, January 9, 10, 11, 1929. A good 

 show was held last year and this year 

 there will be liberal prizes for classes of 



Superphosphate Adds 



Value To Manure 



Superphosphate added to manure near- 

 ly doubles the value of the manure as a 

 fertilizer. This happens because manure 

 is very low in phospherous which super- 

 phosphate supplies in a cheap form. 



It is good practice to apply this each 

 day on the manure in the gutters at the 

 rate of one pound per day for each horse 

 or cow. Besides balancing the manure in 

 regard to plant food it also keeps down 

 some of the odor and flies object to living 

 in a stable where it is used daily. When 

 applied to manure in a spreader the rate 

 .should be about 50 pounds of superphos- 

 phate per spreader load. 



R, C. Turner of Enfield 



Grows 385 Bu. Per Acre 



Continued from page 1, column 2 

 to 4 inches deep so that the land could be 

 treated with a spike tooth harrow or 

 weeder without disturbing the seed piece. 

 A broad wheel 24 inches in diameter was 

 attached to the rear of the planter to pack 

 the soil on the seed pieces and define the 

 row for cultivation. One ton of 4-6-10 

 fertilizer was used per acre all of which 

 was applied with the planter. 

 Spraying Regularly 



Spraying was done once a week 

 throughout the season. A 4-4-50 Bordeaux 

 mixture was used until August 1 with 

 arsenate of lead being added in the first 

 and second sprayings. After August 1 a 

 5-5-50 Bordeaux mixture was used until 

 the vines were killed by frost in October. 

 The pressure at all sprayings did not ex- 

 ceed 160 pounds but three well arranged 

 nozzles were used per row and a thorough 

 job was done each time. In a few cases 

 the machine was run in both directions 

 on each four rows in order to get more 

 complete coverage. 



The crop was dug by a tractor drawn 

 digger. No potatoes were allowed to lie 

 in the sun over an hour and wet potatoes 

 presented no problem because proper stor- 

 age conditions prevailed and no i-ot was 

 present. 



Mr. Turner states that the entire crop 

 is practically sold and that he had no 

 trouble in disposing of his crop at a good 

 price because the quality was so high. He 

 believes it very important to produce a 

 high yield of quality potatoes which will 

 command top prices in our local markets^ 



