THE FARMERS' MONTHLY, DECEMBER, 1928 



f^ 4 HeCLUB 



Uk. 



1000 4-H Clnb Members 



Enrolled During 1 



Continued from page 1. column 3 

 since. These leaders are Miss Cora Hew- 

 lett, South Amherst; Miss B. A. Ryan, 

 Russellville, Hadley and Miss Nellie Shea, 

 Bondsville. There must be something to 

 it if these three vei-y able teachers will 

 incoperate the work as part of their 

 school curriculum and carry it on year 

 after year with no outside or additional 

 pay. 



In listing the projects carried on this 

 past year, it is hard to decide whether to 

 call them projects or clubs because of a 

 report sent to Paul Alger, Club Agent in 

 Franklin County. This boy sent in a re- 

 port about as follows: "Dear Mr. Alger: 

 I am reporting on my calf. I have fed 

 her, watex-ed her, cleaned her off and 

 showed her at the fair. I believe I have 

 finished everything you asked me to do 

 except to do a project on her. What is 

 that?" 



Dairy Project Best Known 



Perhaps because of our exhibiting at 

 many fairs and winning our share of the 

 prizes at most of them, the dairy project 

 is the best known of any in the county. 

 No doubt the poultry project would rank 

 second because of the same reason al- 

 though in numbers enrolled, neither would 

 rank first. 



Giving the boys' projects in the order 

 of their enrollment they are as follows: 

 Handicraft, Garden, Poultry, Dairy, Corn 

 and Potato while with the girls the fol- 

 lowing has been true: Clothing, Canning, 

 Food and Flower Garden. 



Corn Project On Gain 



The corn project had nearly died out 

 until we brought it back to life by stag- 

 ing a corn growing contest. In this con- 

 test we gave each contestant a quart of 

 either flint or dent corn. The flint seed 

 we bought from E. P. West of Hadley 

 while Dr. M. H. Williams of Sunderland 

 furnished us with dent seed. 



Prizes were awarded on the largest 

 amount of corn grown on i of an acre or 

 more each. Some rather high yields were 

 reported with Stephen Bruscoe, Jr. of 

 West Hatfield fir.st with 261 bushel on i 

 of an acre although on his acre he re- 

 ceived only 130 bushels of dent corn. 

 Daniel Cernak of Ea.sthampton was a 

 very close second with 24 bushels of dent 

 corn on s of an acre and Wilton Pearson 

 of Northampton came third with 20 bush- 

 els on I of an acre. Wilton had a most 



excellent project, having the largest acre- 

 age reported by any boy, a bit over Ih 

 acres, on which he harvested 241 bushels 

 of flint corn. The yield was fairly good 

 throughout the county there being 41 

 boys and girls enrolled with an average of 

 97 bushels per acre. 



Pure=breds Are Increasing 

 The dairy club members in Hampshire 

 County own 120 animals of which 100 are 

 pure breds, the remaining 20 being 

 grades. As this project has been going 

 well now for four years we have more and 

 more boys each year who have milking 

 animals. At the present time there ai-c 

 21 boys who own 35 milking animals, 

 many of them o^vning more than one, C. 

 Hilton Boynton of South Hadley owning 

 five milking cows. 



Last May we finished our third milk 

 production contest in which 24 cows own- 

 ed by 15 boys took part. These boys 

 weigh the milk for three days each month, 

 take a sample of it to be tested, weigh 

 the feed and send in the figures with the 

 milk sample to the county office where 

 the monthly report is made up from the 

 three day figures. Only 17 of these cows 

 finished the year's test as many freshened 

 for the first time during the middle and 

 latter part of the contest yet a very good 

 average production was made by the 17 

 that finished as is shown by these figures. 

 At an average age of 3 yrs. and 6 mos. 

 the average pi-oduction was 8,864 pounds 

 of milk and 320.6 pounds of fat with an 

 average test of 3.69r. 



We are extremely proud of what the 

 dairy members have done this year in 

 exhibiting. At the Eastern States Ex- 

 position 38 head were shown out of a 

 total of about 80 from the whole state. 

 Here, our boys won about $900.00 in prize 

 money. At the Three County Fair in 

 Northampton they showed 49 head and 

 won every junior championship they com- 

 peted for in the open classes as well as 

 a majority of the blue ribbons. Gordon 

 Cook of Hadley was the outstanding win- 

 ner of this season winning junior champ- 

 ionships at Greenfield Fair, Eastern 

 States Exposition and the Three County 

 Fair as well as many other prizes, in all 

 totaling over $250.00 at the three fairs. 



Boys Own 2488 Birds 

 The interest has been very keen this 

 year in poultry club work. One hundred 

 and four boys were enrolled in seven clubs. 

 These one hundred and four boys owned 

 and kept records on 2488 birds and entered 

 Continued on next page 



Rustemeyer and Cook 



Win Wirthmore Prizes 



George Rustmeyer of Williamsburg and 

 Gordon Cook of Hadley were the winners 

 for the first month of the milk production 

 contest which started November 1. 



The monthly prizes which they won are 

 100 poimds each of Wirthmore grain 

 given by the Charles M. Cox Co. of Bos- 

 ton. These prizes are given as follows: 

 100 pounds for member whose cow gives 

 largest amount of milk and the same 

 amount for member whose cow shows 

 highest test. Nineteen reports were sent 

 in during the month with the three high- 

 est producers as follows: 



Lbs. Lbs. 



Name Address Milk Test B. F. 



Gordon Cook, Hadley, 2070 2.8 58.0 

 C. H. Boynton, Hadley, 1630 3.0 53.8 

 Gordon Cook, Hadley, 1350 2.8 37.8 



The highest testers were as follows: 

 G. Rustemeyer, W'burg, 252 7.2 18.1 

 Lyman Pratt, Hadley, 675 6.6 44.6 

 Lyman Pratt, Hadley, 665 6.4 42.6 



The average for the 19 cows was as 

 follows : 



882.7 3.9 35.0 



AROUND THE COUNTY 



We thought that the boys in this state 

 owned, or at least knew most of the i»ul- 

 try breeds. It took Dennett Howe of 

 North Amherst to prove it wasn't true, 

 for after a summer spent in a camp in 

 Vermont he came back with three birds 

 which Mr. Nodine called Black Orping- 

 tons but which Dennett declares are 

 Black Austrolops. Have you ever seen 

 any? 



.James Flaherty of Belchertown has 

 one of the prettiest flocks of birds in this 

 state and also is the only boy in this 

 county to ov\ti Bufl" Leghorns. They arc 

 beauties. 



A new poultry club is being organized 

 in the Liberty School in Belchertown. 

 Valerian Senvatka, a high school student 

 and a 4-H club member is to act as 

 leader. Some of the boys have some real 

 birds and will boar watching. 



