HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



SEP 2:; 192! 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



Vol. VI. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., SEPTEMBER, lfl-21 



No. 9 



FIELD DAYS AND PICNICS 



Important Phase of Community Life 



Coming between haytime and harvest 

 August furnishes one of the best months 

 for field days and picnics. The old adage 

 about "all "work and no play" surely is 

 as. true with farmers as it is, with any 

 other class of people and these social 

 gatherings'' Have an important place in 

 community life. 



Several Market Gardeners from this 

 county attended the annual field day at 

 the Market Garden Field Station in Ar- 

 lington, August 3rd. This station is 

 doing experimental work for the benefit 

 of the market gardeners. Variety tests, 

 tests of strains of the same variety of 

 vegetables are being carried on showing 

 wide range in trueness to type, earliness 

 of maturity and other important charac- 

 teristics. The manure economy test is 

 sure to give important results. Already 

 the supply of stable manures which the 

 market gardeners may purchase have 

 been greatly reduced and green manure 

 must take their place. Mr. Stoddard, a 

 veteran Brookfield market gardener, 

 staged a plant setting demonstration 

 which caused much discussion. A potato 

 planter marked, fertilized and ridged up 

 the rows. Cabbage plants were then set 

 at the rate of over 1,800 per hour. 



Holstein Field Day 



The local Holstein Club held a field 

 day at Mt. Hermon on August 13, which 

 was largely attended by men and women 

 of both counties interested in this breed 

 of cattle. Mr. Elder may well take pride 

 in showing this fine herd of cattle num- 

 bering at present over 175 head. It was 

 pointed out that over half of the cattle 

 in this herd trace back to their great 

 foundation cow. Over sixty-five of the 

 females of the herd are daughters of one 

 bull. It surely is an object lesson for 

 any breeders of cattle and the trip was 

 well worth while. To those who visited 

 Mt. Hermon before it was a pleasure to 

 return. To those who were there for the 

 first time it was merely a start for future 

 trips. 



Cummington Picnic 



Over three hundred people gathered at 

 the fair grounds in Cummington, August 

 18, for the picnic held under the joint 



GOLD MEDAL JERSEY 



Fine Record Made by E. C. Harlow 



Three calves, two records of 27,686 

 'pounds of milk, 1,541 pounds of butterfat 

 j is the performance record of Gamboge's 

 i Edla in 28 consecutive months. She was 

 I six years and nine months of age when 

 I placed on test in 1920. She completed 

 her first record with a production of 

 18,398 pounds of milk, 731 pounds of but- 

 terfat; carried a living calf 205 days of 

 'his test, qualifying for the gold medal. 

 Her second record was finished May 8, 

 1921. She produced 14,292 pounds of 

 milk, 810 pounds of butterfat; dropped a 

 living calf .June 22, 1921, which had been 

 carried 229 days during the test, quali- 

 fying her for her second gold medal. She 

 is a vei'y persistent producer. 



She received the same attention as the 

 other cows in the herd, with the exception 

 of a few extra pounds of grain a day. 

 In pasture about five months, the rest of 

 the time she stood in a stanchion in row 

 ■ with the other cows. 



The sire of Gamboge's Edla is Gam- 

 boge's Oxford Lad 67284, and her dam is 

 Countess Edla 171423. 



Mr. Harlow started his .Jersey herd 

 thirteen years ago with two purebreds 

 and five grade Jerseys. Today he has 

 sixty-three registered Jerseys, all high 

 producers. 



auspices of the Pomona Grange, Cum- 

 mington Creamery and the "Farm Bu- 

 reau". The committee on sports put on a 

 fine program for the young people in the 

 morning and deserves much credit for the 

 fine way in which the events were run 

 off. All of our picnics should have more 



iof these events. After dinner addresses 

 were given by Leslie R. Smith, Master 

 of the State Grange and O. M. Camburn 

 of the State Department of Agriculture. 

 Mr. Smith always is good and stressed 

 the importance of .social gatherings and 



! the part the grange should take in com- 

 munity life. Professor Camburn showed 

 the importance of dairying in this section 

 and what must be done by local cream 

 producers if they are to compete with 

 other sections. He suggested cow testing 

 associations or dairy clubs to eliminate 

 unprofitable cows and to .study feeding 

 methods and better care of cream so that 

 the quality of butter produced locally 

 might be raised. 



Continued on page 5, column 2 



TOP DRESSING PAYS 



Nitrate and Acid Phosphate Increase 

 Hay Crop 



Two Hampshire County farmers con- 

 ducted top-dressing demonstrations this 

 past year on their hay land. Both knew 

 that it paid to use Nitrate of Soda and 

 Acid Phosphate, yet they kindly left an 

 unfertilized plot as a check for their own 

 information and for the benefit of others 

 interested in fertilization of hay land. The 

 mowings in both ca-ses were natural hay 

 land and would give good yield anyway 

 as they had only been down one year. 

 Fertilizer application was 450 lbs. per 

 acre of a mixture of 100 lbs. nitrate of 

 soda and 200 lbs. acid phosphate. 



At Joe Lang's in South Hadley, the 

 check or unfertilized plot gave 4114 lbs. 

 hay per acre while the fertilized area 

 gave 7013 lbs. of hay per acre or 3899 lbs. 

 of hay increase due to the use of fertili- 

 zer. 



At F. W. Jerome's farm in South Had- 

 ley, the unfertilized plot gave 4510 lbs. of 

 hay per acre while the fertilized plot 

 yielded 9130 lbs. per acre, an increa.se of 

 5620 lbs. of hay per acre due to the fer- 

 tilizer. These weights were of cured hay 

 ready to put in the barn and do not mean 

 that this amount would be taken out of 

 the barn as hay will shrink considerable. 

 However, it clearly shows that it pays to 

 top-dress good mowings with nitrate of 

 -soda and acid phosphate. If these mow- 

 ings had been run out but little increase 

 would have been noted. 



While no actual figures were obtained, 

 a striking example of what nitrate vsrill 

 do on old sod was shown on the farm of 

 C. S. Cooley in Plainfield. In his orchard 

 5 lbs. of nitrate were applied per tree 

 on part of the orchard and part left un- 

 fertilized. In the fertilized section, the 

 timothy got over knee high while is the 

 unfertilized area little or no timothy was 

 noted. 



More farmers in this county should 

 be acquainted with nitrate of soda as a 

 fertilizer. There are places where it will 

 pay and pay big while in other cases it 

 is of less value. You should know when 

 it will help. If you don't, let us tell you. 



