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HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



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Agl'1<"M (1 ' ■ ! 1-^il 



FARMERS' MONTHLf 



Vol. VII. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., AI'KIL, ]i)2:i 



No. -1 



TOWN DIRECTORS AND 



PROJECT LEADERS MEET 



Thirteen Towns Represented at Spring 

 Meeting 



In spite of hard traveling the annual 

 spi'ing meeting of town directors, pro- 

 ject leaders and demonstrators of the Ex- 

 tension Service held at Boyden's, Satur- 

 day, March 18, was attended by 45 men 

 and women representing 13 towns of the 

 county. Mayor H. E. Bicknell of 

 Northampton, welcomed the county peo- 

 ple to the city and brought out the de- 

 pendence of city and country people on I 

 each other. 



Prof. W. C. Monahan, Extension Poul- 

 try Specialist of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, gave an illustrated talk on "Get- 

 ting Somewhere". He brought out force- 

 fully that in extension woik the Agents 

 of the County Exten.sion Service, the 

 town directors and the people of the 

 county must have a goal and then all 

 woi-k together to attain it. He illus- 

 trated his talk with a black board 

 drawings which showed clearly the dif- 

 ference between "Going to Help" and 

 "Getting Somewhere". 



Continued on page 7, column 1 



ONE MAN ONE DAY SEVEN MEN ONE HOUR 



CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING 



OF TOBACCO 



Connecticut Valley Growers Plan Big 

 Association 



Eighteen hundred tobacco growers 

 unanimously voted to form a cooperative 

 marketing association in Hartford, 

 March 29. This meeting came as the re- 

 sult of Farm Bureau activities since last 

 December, and promises to be the big- 

 gest thing of its kind ever .started in New 

 England. Aaron Sapiro who has so suc- 

 cessfully organized the Burley Tobacco 

 Growers of the South, presented the Cali- 

 fornian Plan of Marketing Association. 



Prior to 1910 speculators in Califor- 

 nia were making money while farmers 

 were accumulating larger mortgages and 

 a lower scale of living. Organization 

 offered the only way out but the way was 

 hard. After every failure the movement 

 started again avoiding previous mistakes 

 and finally the Californian Plan was per- 

 fected in 1910. The principles of mar- 

 keting are the same the world over so 

 Continued on page n, column 2 



POULTRYMEN ADOPT 



DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAM 



Successful Demonstrations Bring Results 



C. A. Drinkwater's poultry plant in 

 Greenwich was the scene of one of the be.st 

 poultry meetings held in the county this 

 year. Twenty-five poultry keepers were 

 present in spite of bad weather and mud- 

 dy roads. The large attendance was due 

 to the successful disease control demon- 

 stration which Mr. Drinkwater conducted 

 last year whereby losses were reduced 

 from 25'/r of the flock in 1920 to a normal 

 death i-ate in 1921. Professor W. C. Mona- 

 han showed how to autopsy hens, using 

 two birds which were in a paralyzed con- 

 dition. He brought out the fact that this 

 condition was brought on by a worm in- 

 fection and showed just where to look for 

 the infection and what type of worms 

 would be found in diff"erent places. When 

 twenty round worms were found in one 

 hen it did not take those present long to 

 .=ee that there was the undoubted source 

 of trouble. 



A short blackboard talk was given illus- 

 trating the difference between functional 

 diseases which cause a normal death rate 

 and infectious diseases which cause enor- 

 mous losses and cause most of the aban- 

 doned poultry plants in this state. A 

 simple yet practical program of disease 

 control was outlined. This consists of 

 disinfecting brooder houses with kereo- 

 sene and then putting them on clean 

 Continued on page 6, column 1 



PROPER PRUNING DEMONSTRATED 



Meetings Well Attended by Interested 

 Fruit Growers 



Ten pruning demonstrations were 

 held in the county during March at which 

 proper pruning of fruit trees was shown. 

 While the attendance in no case was 

 large, the interest of all present was good. 

 It seems to show that fruit growers are 

 interested in better pruning. The above 

 picture was taken at William Fisk's farm 

 in Westhampton, and is worth a little 

 study. It shows seven men all working 

 at the same time which in itself speaks 

 well for the interest of the group in the 

 work being carried on. Again it shows 

 an old Greening tree which in the past 

 has borne who knows how many barrels 

 of apples. The old tree has become thick 

 on the top and naturally the lower limbs 

 and those in the center which could not 

 get sunlight have died. In less than an 

 hour all of the dead wood was taken out, 

 the top lightly thinned and the old 

 tree thus given a new lease to life. 



The thinning of the top consisted mere- 

 ly of taking out broken, dead, disea-ed 

 and crossing branches so that those re- 

 maining would have an equal chance at 

 sunlight. This thinning will induce 

 growth lower down in the tree and then 

 the top wood can be gradually removed, 

 thus lowering the height of the tree. It 

 is best to do this way rather than to de- 

 Continued on page f;, column 1 



