HAJMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. Payne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Boice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Bena a. Eriiard, County Club Agent 

 Mary C. O'l.eary, Clerk 

 Mary sullivjin. Asst. Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 



Northampton, Mass. 

 Entered as second class matter Nov. 9. 

 1915, at the Post Office at Northampton, 

 Massachusetts, under the Act of March 

 8, 1879. 



"Xotiee of Entry" 

 "Acceptance for mailing- at special rate 

 of postage provided for in section 1103, 

 Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober 31, 1917. 



Priee, .%0 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Edwin B. Clapp, President 

 Charles E. Clark, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Roland A. Payne, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Geo. E. Timmins, Ware 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton .Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 



COUNTY NOTES 



If you could water 3,000 chickens in 

 a half hour, wouldn't it give you a grand 

 and glorious feeling? That is just what 

 it takes Henry Lego or his son Fred, 

 of Greenwich Village to do the trick. Of 

 course there is a joker in it! They are 

 letting their heads save their heels! In 

 the center of their poultry range is a 

 50 gallon barrel on an elevated platform. 

 From this barrel are lines of « inch pipe 

 which run to watering troughs. The 

 central barrel is filled in a novel way. 

 A brook runs at some distance from the 

 range and in this they have sunk a barrel. 

 Over this barrel they have a common 

 spray pump which is connected vdth the 

 barrel on the range by a i inch pipe. 

 A half hour's pumping fills this barrel 

 and the gas pipe arranged with shut ofl^s 

 does the rest. Incidentally the Legos are 

 running a poultry disease control dem- 

 onstration and are doing a real job of 

 it too. If you visit their plant be pre- 

 pared to step in a pan of disinfectant be- 

 fore entering the range. 



Thornton Clark of Granby has a thir- 

 teen acre field of clover on the state road 

 between Granby and Belchertown that 

 would please any dairy farmer. The 

 whole field was seeded in oats last year. 



Continued from page 1, column 3 

 purchase. They do the best work of any 

 of the machines, however, and often pay 

 for themselves in a season like that of 

 last year. 



Materials for Blight Control 



For dusting, a copper lime dust con- 

 taining at least 6'a metallic copper should 

 be used. This may be purchased with 

 or without poison. For the small grower 

 who plans to use only 100 pounds or less 

 of the material during the sea.son, the 

 dust with poison can be purchased more 

 cheaply than by having small lots of both 

 kinds. For growers using 200 pounds 

 or more, both kinds should be purchased. 



There may be a more efficient spray 

 material developed to control blight than 

 home-made Bordeaux Mixture but we do 

 not know of it. The simplest way to 

 prepare this is by the stock solution 

 method as follows: Slake 50 pounds of 

 lime and add to a 50-gallon barrel of 

 water. Put 50 gallons of water into an- 

 other barrel. Tie 50 pounds of copper 

 sulphate in a bran sack and suspend it 

 at the top of the barrel. These two then 

 become the stock solutions and will keep 

 indefinitely. 



To mix Bordeaux, stir up the stock 

 solution of lime and dip out 4 gallons 

 of it. Dilute this with 21 gallons of 

 water in a bairel. Do the same with the 

 stock solution of copper sulfate. Then 

 pour the two dilute solutions together. 

 NEVER pour STOCK solution together 

 Another common method is to pour the 

 copper sulfate stock solution into the 

 spray tank and fill two thirds full of 

 water. Then add the lime stock solution 

 and fill up the tank with water. This 



Some lay the good catch to the weather 

 but we are inclined to believe that there 

 is something else that took a hand. In 

 the first place the oats were seeded lightly 

 not over a bushel and a half per acre. 

 Fertilizer too played a part as the land 

 was manured lightly and limed well. This 

 spring a top dressing of 100 lbs. nitrate 

 of soda, -300 lbs. acid phosphate and 100 

 lbs. muriate of potash was put on. Per- 

 haps it was luck but anyway Mr. Clark 

 is threatened with a hay crop on this 

 field. 



Ernest Hibbard of North Hadley does 

 not wonder whether it pays to grade 

 asparagus. He knows! Three grades 

 are made and every bunch has his per- 

 sonal inspection. Only the first grade 

 bears a card with his name and address 

 and it is a package worthy of a name. 

 Eveiy bunch has only large straight 

 "grass". The second grade is made up 

 entirely of small stalks while the "crooks" 

 make up the third. Market reports are 

 received every day and returns carefully 

 checked. This year his returns have 

 either been as high as the best quotations 

 given or a little better. 



makes a rather heavier precipitate which 

 does not go on as evenly as Bordeaux 

 mixed according to the first method. To 

 kill "bugs," 2h pounds of dry arsenate 

 of lead or 5 pounds of paste should be 

 added to each 50 gallons of Bordeaux 

 mixture. Some growers even add an 

 extra gallon of lime and a half pound 

 of Paris Green to get quick action. 

 Where dry arsenate of lead is used, it 

 should be placed in a pail and only a 

 cupful of water stirred in at a time until 

 the whole mass is in suspension. A 

 quantity of water added at once causes 

 the arsenate to form dry balls which do 

 not break up readily. The same is true 

 of Paris Green. 



Spray to Keep Vines Covered 



After selecting the equipment and ma- 

 terials the main operation comes. It 

 makes no difference as far as control is 

 concerned, whether you use dust or spray, 

 but it does make a diff'erence how it is 

 put on and when. Growers need no en- 

 couragement to spray for bugs, but they 

 do need something to keep them constant- 

 ly on the job after the bugs are gone. 

 Blight control depends entirely on keeping 

 the vines covered with a copper dust or 

 spray through the entire growing season. 

 Starting about the middle of July this 

 means an application at least every 10 

 days or a total of from 5 to 7 applica- 

 tions for the season. In a blight year 

 this is one of the few farm jobs that 

 will pay big returns for time and ma- 

 terials. Every grower can control blight 

 if he is willing to go after it. Let's do 

 it this year. 



The County Agent wants to get men 

 in every potato town to demonstrate home 

 mixing of Bordeaux or dusting. Will 

 you be the one in your town? If so, let 

 us know at once. 



This spring there was a lot of talk 

 made by a few lucky men to the effect 

 that there was no use in dusting or spray- 

 ing tobacco beds for wildfire. They sited 

 their own experience to prove their point 

 and apparently gathered a large follow- 

 ing as is .shown by the number of infected 

 beds. Some men waited to see infected 

 spots before they started spraying or 

 dusting. These men say that dusting 

 is no good. In their cases they are right 

 as dust or spray acts on tobacco plants 

 the same as screens on a house. If the 

 screens are kept on for a few days and 

 left off one day, the house will be full 

 of flies even though the screens are after- 

 ward replaced. So it is with dust or 

 spray. Protection is afforded ONLY so 

 long as the plants are kept entirely cov- 

 ered. Let us hope that another year 

 every tobacco grower will start his pro- 

 tective mea.sures early and will keep them 

 up till plants are set in the field. In this 

 case a pound of dust will save many 

 pounds of \vildfire infected tobacco if the 

 dust gets there first. 



