88 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 240 



Preparation and Planting. 



Tractors were used for plowing on about a third of the farms as indicated 

 in Figure 4. Plowing with two horses and a 12-inch walking plow took 

 longer than usual on the two high labor farms because both the farmers and 

 the horses were old and did not work rapidly. 



Barnyard manure was applied on only four of tlie farms. This is a market 

 garden section with little livestock and manure is at a premium. The common 

 practice is to grow rye as a cover crop and plow it under the following 

 spring. Most of the land is kept in continuous cultivation, sometimes in 

 potatoes alone, and as soon as the potatoes or other crop is harvested in 

 late summer, it is disk-harrowed and seeded to rye. 



The land was commonly double-disked twice and smoothed with a smootli- 

 ing harrow once. The practice was not essentially ditferent from that in 

 other places. None of the seed was treated with corrosive sublimate or 

 formalin, and was ready for the planter as soon as cut. 



Two growers used a one-man planter, six used a two-man planter, and 

 five planted by hand. The usual operations in hand planting included furrow- 

 ing, fertilizing, diropping, and covering. Great pains were taken in placing the 

 seed pieces on the high labor farm, which accounts for the large amount of 

 time spent. The hours of man labor in planting are shown in Table 7. 



Operations After Planting. 



Following the planting the land was commonly gone over with the smooth- 

 ing harrow once and then with a weeder from one to four times. About 

 one-half of the farmers applied extra fertilizer. Most growers cultivated 5 or 

 6 times with a one-horse cultivator. A considerable amount of odd time 

 was spent in hoeing and pulling weeds. 



Very little spraying was done on this group of farms in 1926. Only two 

 growers used Bordeaux and the usual number of sprays was one or two of 

 lead arsenate. 



Harz'esting. 



Time spent in harvest ranged from 40 to 99 hours of man labor per acre. 

 Most of the extremely high amounts were caused by hand digging. The har- 

 vest labor was somewhat higher than in other sections because it included 

 sorting and barreling, which was usually done in the field. 



Seasonal Distribution of Labor. 



The seasonal distribution of man labor is shown by half-month periods 

 in Figure 10 for farm 44. Only Cobblers were grown on this farm and the 

 harvest labor all came in August and early September. The season is much 

 earlier in southern Bristol County than in the other areas and the planting 

 is largely done in April and the first half of May. This is a typical distri- 

 bution for those who grow only Cobblers. For those growers who also have 

 Green Mountains, the harvest period would be lengthened. 



