HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 



Roland A. I'aym*. County Agent 

 Bella G. Krliard, County <lnl) Aifeiit 

 Mary C. O'Leary, Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 



Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as sficond class matter Nov. 9, 1915. at the 

 Post Office at Nortbainpton. Massacliusetts. under 

 the Act ot March 8. l.STlt. 



"Notice of Kntry " 



"Acceptance for mailint; at special rate of post- 

 age provided for in section IlOy, Act of October H, 

 1917. Authorized October :il. 1917." 



Price, r>0 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Edwin B. Clapp, President 

 Charles E, Clark, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Koland A. Payne, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 William N. Howard, Ware 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton .Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 



Notice is hereby given that in the 

 month of October, 1921, two .sworn state- 

 ment.s were filed with the Northampton 

 Post Office that the Hamp.shire County 

 Farmers' Monthly is published by the 

 Hampshire County Trustees for County 

 Aid to Agriculture, the editor being Bena 

 G. Erhard of Northampton, the business 

 manager being Mary O'Leary of North- 

 ampton, and the following men officers of 

 the organization: E. B. Clapp of East- 

 hampton, Chas. E. Clark of Leeds, War- 

 ren M. King of Northampton and Ro- 

 land A. Payne of Northampton. 



CONGRATULATIONS! 



In behalf of the trustees, the staff and 

 the people of the county "The Farmei''s 

 Monthly" extend heartiest congratulations 

 to Mr. and Mrs. Roland A. Payne. We 

 wish them the best of happiness and .suc- 

 cess. 



Correction 



In the editorial in September issue 

 figures from the census were given the 

 average production of Hampshire County 

 cows 4416 gallons. This should have 

 been 461 gallons. 



DO YOU KNOW THIS TOWN? 



The apple growers in our town don't 

 seem to realize their good fortune. 

 Everything is in their favor. It is .so 

 ea.sy to grow apples. Curculios chew 

 them, red bugs bite them, but they merely 

 dimple up in appreciation. Apple scab 

 spots them and along comes a hailstorm 

 and knocks the spots out of them. 



And then, in the fall, when farmers are 

 wondering where they can get pickers, a 

 gale puts the apples all on the ground. 

 It is then a simple matter to pick them up 

 and they are hustled off to market. Most 

 commission men will handle apples for 

 farmers if they can get them for nothing. 



The farmers handle a good deal of 

 money in this way. But they are a 

 thrifty lot, these horny-handled apple 

 growers of ours. Nothing is wasted. 

 All the apples that are not sent to mar- 

 ket are worked up into a snappy, invig- 

 orating drink for the townspeople. 



— Anonymous. 



Continued from patie 1. column ;} 



price as compared with a five year 

 average while on the other hand, a bum- 

 per crop may cut the average price in 

 half. If it were possible for our farmers 

 to obtain double the price of these past 

 five years, they could retire from such an 

 uncertain business. 



It is manifestly out of the question to 

 expect .such prices as that during even 

 normal times, let alone a business depres- 

 sion. Prices in general were higher early 

 in 1920 than at any other time recorded 

 by history, and financial conditions 

 have completely reversed themselves these 

 past eighteen months. In arriving at 

 any basis for safe calculation of values 

 for today we might as well forget war 

 prices. 



It must be kept in mind that the price 

 levels in force at the beginning of this 

 harvest showed agricultural prices in 

 general to be at only a trifle above the 

 level of the five years before the war. 

 The general price level had not fallen so 

 far, but the general wholesale price level 

 was only at a little over one-half of the 

 peak of 1920. It must be remembeied 

 that industrial production slumped while 

 agricultural production continued nearly 

 at normal and the result was a compara- 

 tive as well as absolute decline in whole- 

 sale agricultural prices. 



There is not the slightest rea.son to be- 

 lieve that war prices will bo re-established 

 as a general level. It would be safer to 

 assume the levels of this summer as the 

 new normal. If the history following 

 the Napoleonic and Civil Wars repeats 

 itself, we shall see a comparatively brief 

 recovery followed by another decline, sure 

 but gradual. Present indications are for 

 general price advances this winter, but 

 there is strong reason to believe that the 

 post-war general decline has not finally 



I Continued from paire 1. column I 



mcnt while showing some improvement 

 over former years could still be made 

 better as Ware farmers have some good 

 cows and they should .show them. 



Cummington 



Having the surrounding towns all in- 

 *^orested in Agriculture makes Cumming- 

 ton Fair a round up for the agricultural 

 activities of the section. Dairy and beef 

 cattle were present in goodly numbers 

 and competition was keen in all classes 

 of live stock. The local granges all put 

 on creditable exhibits and added largely 

 to the beauty of the hall. While the fruit 

 classes were not as well filled as last year 

 the quality was good and shows that fine 

 apples can be grown in this section. The 



t'ontinued on pajre H. c-olumn 2 



passed. A. fairly safe assumption would 

 be that this summer's general price level 

 is not high for post-war average. It 

 must be conceded that the disparity be- 

 tween agricultural and industrial prices 

 must be largely overcome. 



If we take such an assumption and ap- 

 ply the experience, noted above, of price 

 advances over normal amounting to 

 i007r, we would have a fairly safe limit 

 to our aspirations for this year's short 

 crops. 



Aside from the present fact of a finan- 

 cial deflation from war boom, we must 

 not lose sight of the fact that large masses 

 of our consumers are out of work and 

 cannot pay large prices. When men are 

 out of work, on part time, or even 

 trembling lest they lose their jobs they 

 spend carefully. Some industries have 

 recovered remarkably, and those are the 

 ones we like to talk about, but we must 

 remember that it is not so long since 

 such an important mass of our consumers 

 as the iron and steel trades were running 

 at less than one-quarter time. It is true 

 that there is every reason to believe that 

 business is commencing to recover, but 

 it has a great deal of strength to gain 

 back yet before it can be pronounced in 

 good health. Even the decline from nor- 

 mal which we see in our chief crops is 

 not nearly so great as the decline from 

 normal activity which our leading indus- 

 tries have been experiencing. It is the 

 activity of industry that is our index of 

 the pay envelope that the laborer has to 

 trade with our crops. The decline in 

 agricultural production is certainly not 

 more than the decline in industry, and all 

 agriculturalists can hope from such a 

 situation is to see the disparity between 

 agricultural and industrial prices over- 

 come. 



A pretty safe rule to follow is for the 

 average unorganized farmers not to 

 gamble with future prices when they 

 have a really profitable offer. 



F. T. McFall, 

 Professor of Marketing, M. A. C. 



