HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. I*ayne, County Agent 

 Mildred VV. Bolee, 



Home DenionNtration Agent 

 IVoriiuin F. Whippen, ('i>iin(>- t.'luh Agent 

 Mary C. O'Leary, Clerk 

 Mary Sullivan, AsHt. 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. 



"Xotice 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. 



Price, TiO centM a year 



Officers of tiie 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 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton .Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 



COUNTY NOTES 



.Joe Wight of Hatfield believes that 

 potatoes are a profitable crop in the Con- 

 necticut Valley. He has demonstrated 

 his belief this year by growing a fine crop 

 and started harvesting the middle of -July, 

 selling the first lots for .$2.75 per bushel 

 and did not receive less than $2.25 dur- 

 ing July. A few years ago Joe tried out 

 certified seed and found they were worth 

 the extra price. Last year he found that 

 it paid to disinfect .seed potatoes with 

 corrosive sublimate. This year he tried 

 out making his own Bordeaux Mixture 

 for spraying. Joe is a good farmer and 

 believes in doing things when they should 

 be done. His potatoes were planted as 

 soon as the ground could be worked. 

 Some people may say that the good crop 

 was just luck but the combination of 

 early planting, certified seed disinfected 

 with corrosive sublimate, proper fertiliza- 

 tion, timely cultivation and thorough 

 spraying showed that he was taking no 

 chances. Better still it pays! 



How much is manure worth for tobac- 

 co? Some say that good crops can be 

 raised without it, others take the opposite 

 view and say manure not only gives in- 

 creased weight but better quality. O.scar 



I MARKET GARDEN NOTES 



Piofessoi- William Doran has taken the 

 place of Professor W. S. Krout, at the 

 Market Garden Field Station. Professor 

 Doran is ready to give all possible service 

 to vegetable growers, and it is necessary 

 for them to make their wants known. 



Expeiimental work is being conducted 

 on carrot blight, which is a very serious 

 disease with the carrot growers of cer- 

 tain parts of the state, particularly the 

 Essex County growers. It is important 

 as an aid to the work at the Market Gar- 

 den Field Station to have agents and 

 growers repoit when blight first appears, 

 how general its appearance and other ob- 

 servations which might help. It would 

 be particularly useful to have samples of 

 the first carrot blight put into a manila 

 envelop and mailed to the Market Garden 

 Field Station, in care of Professor Doran, 

 with a statement accompanying it, as 

 above suggested 



Seed Quality 



The problem of selecting the right 

 variety and strain of seed increases in 

 importance the more it is studied. It is 

 hoped that every vegetable grower will 

 have taken advantage of the exhibits at 

 the Market Garden Field Station, and ob- 

 tained some information which will be 

 helpful in making orders for 1924. The 

 representatives of leading seed firms will 

 be around to see men in September and 



Belden of Bradstreet has a plot which 

 shows that manure increased the weight 

 materially and it looks as though there 

 would be an increase in quality. it 

 would be worth your while to look this 

 plot up if you are in Hatfield. 



"The early bird catches the worm." So 

 it seems with the farmers who got their 

 crops in early this year. This is es- 

 pecially noticeable on the tobacco crop. 

 In large fields every days setting can 

 be seen, the earliest look fine while 

 the last has never grown the way it 

 should. The same is true with every 

 other crop. There is a proper time for 

 every farm operation, whether it be sow- 

 ing, cultivating or harvesting. The bet- I 

 ter farmers recognize this and plan theii- 

 woi-k accordingly. Others are so busy 

 they can't do anything but hurry and 1 

 the result is they are always just a few ' 

 jumps behind the procession. A nail will 

 hold a hat and it costs but little. Heads | 

 have a more important function. 



Professor Abbot says, "Farming is not 

 any job for an amateur; yet many farm- 

 ers never stay with certain very desira- 

 ble crops long enough to do more than 

 a very amateuri.sh job of growing them. 

 The man who tries something new every 

 year fritters away his whole life as an 

 inexperienced amateur at fifty different 

 games and never learns any of them well 

 enough to be really good." 



October for their 1924 orders. It is a 

 good plan to have them come early. Rec- 

 ollections of seed quality are more clearly 

 in mind at that season of the year than 

 later. Some growers have made money 

 through the study of varieties at Lexing- 

 ton. An increased market through quali- 

 ty, invariably results. 



Too many people think of selling what 

 they have to the best advantage today, 

 and forget that tomorrow is coming. A 

 good grade properly maintained means a 

 premium all the time. Are you getting 

 it? The first day or the first week is not 

 a fair test. It takes some time for people 

 to get acquainted with your pack, more 

 time for them to get confidence that it will 

 be the same day after day, but once you 

 have obtained your reputation you can 

 get a fair price. 



Vegetables for Health 



We are constantly talking and think- 

 ing about the value of vegetables to the 

 human race in terms of better health. 

 Good fresh vegetables are cheaper, better 

 to eat, and worth far more than all the 

 patent medicines that are sold today. 

 Would it not be a great thing for the 

 vegetable grower if all the patent medi- 

 cine money would go into his pocket? 

 Have you taken advantage of this adver- 

 tising campaign being fathered by the 

 Vegetable Growers' Association of Ameri- 

 ca, and done your part to push it along? 



The right time of day for harvesting 

 is in the cool of the morning. Those 

 eaily morning hours are the best for get- 

 ting many of the products of the market 

 garden from the field to the packing shed 

 before the heat of the sun gets into them. 

 Rapid harvest, quick transportation from 

 field to washroom, proper washing, and 

 packing are very es.sential, particularly 

 during the months of July, August and 

 September. They mean much to the 

 quality of the goods when sold. It takes 

 little to shrink values in perishable prod- 

 ucts. It takes care to maintain values. 

 Watch the.se places where leaks often oc- 

 cur to make profit. 



Celery Blight Control 



The fight against celery blight is on. 

 Blight seems to be very prevalent early 

 in the season, and in order to save the 

 celery crop efficient control measures 

 must be adopted. At the Market Garden 

 Field Station in 1922, spraying with 5-5- 

 50 Bordeaux every 10 days gave splendid 

 control. Dusting gave less perfect con- 

 trol, approximately 75Vi as satisfactory 

 as spraying. We do not know yet 

 whether dusting can be made more ef- 

 ficient than it has been in our test. We 

 hope that it can be. We know that some 

 of the market gardeners have been so 

 successful with spraying that they will 

 continue it and at a profit. In several 

 large celery growing sections spraying is 

 a regular practice. 



