HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



Massiaohuaett 



SEP 2 y 1922 

 AsrHcuItural 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



Vol. VII. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., .SEFTEMBEK, 1922 



No. 9 



FARM TOURS 



Many Demonstrations Visited 



Four field inspection trips held in 

 August brought farm demonstrations to 

 the attention of the farmers of Granby, 

 Easthampton, Westhampton and Chester- 

 field. While the attendance was not large 

 on any trip, the interest was keen. This 

 is shown by the picture above, taken at J. 

 E. Clapp's potato field in Westhampton. 

 The crowd did not know the picture was 

 being taken until the shutter clicked. 

 Then the County Agent received a 

 bawling out for not giving every one a 

 chance to look pretty. 



Twilight trips were held in Granby and 

 Easthampton. In Granby, it was clearly 

 shown that it is a gamble to plant any- 

 thing but certified seed potatoes. Mr. 

 Galusha's field well illustrated this as 

 selected stock, which looked as good as 

 the certified seed, gave a poor stand of 

 plants and a lot of disease. Acid phos- 

 phate compared with 4 — 8 — 7 for corn on 

 manured land demonstrations were 

 visited. At Galusha's there seemed to be 

 no diff"erence while at W. F. Forward's 

 the mixed goods looked a little the best. 

 It was shown that potato blight could be 

 controlled by dusting. C. N. Rust left 

 a check plot undusted while the rest of 

 the field had 5 applications up to August 

 16. The undusted plot showed 50'f late 

 blight while the rest of the field showed 

 less than S'r. 



At E. Thornton Clark's a legume 

 demonstration was visited. In August 

 1921 three plots of an acre each were laid 

 ofl'. All had been plowed, manured, limed 

 and fertilized alike. All received 10 lbs. 

 of Red Clover and 10 lbs. Orchard grass 

 per acre. Then 10 lbs. Alfalfa was sown 

 on Plot I; 10 lbs. Biennial White Sweet 

 Clover on Plot II ; and Winter Vetch on 

 Plot III. The first crop yielded as 

 follows: Plot 1—3 tons; Plot II— .3i tons; 

 Plot III — 2 tons. At the time of the trip 

 the Alfalfa showed about 1 ton per acre; 

 Plot II had no white clover left and 

 would yield only a light crop. Plot III 

 would yield about 1500 lbs. of fine clover. 

 This demonstration showed that the seed- 

 ing of 10 lbs. Red Clover, 10 lbs. Orchard 

 grass and 10 lbs. Alfalfa per acre was the 

 best mixture and also that alfalfa could 

 be grown profitably. 



Continued on page 7. column 2 



FIELD DAYS AND PICNICS 



Farm Organizations Busy During August 



There have been many field days of in- 

 terest to farmers during August and for- 

 tunately not one of them had to be held 

 in the rain. While some days were not 

 as pleasant as one could wish, not one of 

 the many field days and picnics had to be 

 cancelled on account of the weather. 



The Market Gardeners' Field Day held 

 at Lexington was attended by market 

 gardeners from all over the state. About 

 six men from this county took the trip 

 and all felt it well worth while. Another 

 year more men should plan to take in this 

 day and see what the field station is doing. 



Coming early in August the Farm Bu- 

 reau Picnic in Hadley had only a small 

 attendance but all made a regular family 

 picnic of it. Secretary Russell of the 

 Farm Bureau told of the activities of the 

 organization in the state. Dr. Anderson 

 spoke on the control of Tobacco Wildfire. 

 In the afternoon the whole party took an 

 enjoyable auto trip through the Valley. 



The Hampshire County Pomona Grange 

 held a very successful picnic at F. A. 

 Shumway's Farm in Williamsburg. 

 Sports were enjoyed by the younger peo- 

 ple in the morning. The Williamsburg 

 Grange won the silver cup offered by the 

 State Grange for the town having the 

 most entries in the sports. At noon all 

 enjoyed a basket lunch. The crowd was 

 so large that the free ice cream gave out 

 Cofatinued on page .5. column 2 



DISEASE CONTROL MEETING 



Successful Greenwich Demonstration 

 Visited 



Early in August a successful poultry 

 meeting was held at Henry Lego's poultry 

 plant in Greenwich Village. Besides 

 having a good group from Greenwich, 

 practically every town in the neighbor- 

 hood was represented. All spent a prof- 

 itable afternoon inspecting the plant and 

 listening to Pi-of. W. C. Monahan, Ex- 

 tension Specialist of M. A. C. 



Mr. Lego conducted the group around 

 the plant, pointing out improvements 

 which have been made. Starting several 

 years ago with but limited capital, Mr. 

 Lego has built up the plant so that it is 

 one of the largest in the county. One 

 interesting improvement is the remodel- 

 ing of the laying houses. The original 

 houses were 12X48 with a shed roof. 

 These were unsatisfactory so this year 

 the houses are being deepened 8 feet 

 making a house 20X48. The front of the 

 old houses was between 8 and 9 feet high 

 and from this the new raftei's slant for- 

 ward and the new front is a little over 

 five feet high. The remodeled house 

 looks very similar to that recommended by 

 the Agricultural College. 



For the last few years Mr. Lego noticed 

 that the pullets put in one of the houses 

 seemed to go light and lose the use of 

 their legs. This trouble increased so 

 that this year, after the hatching season. 

 Continued on page 6, column 1 



