HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



Vol. IX. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., JUNE, 1924 



No. 6 



EAST AND WEST COMPARED 



Thompson sees Better Times for 

 Efficient Dairymen 



President E. H. Thomson of the Fed- 

 eral Land Bank of Springfield attributed 

 the current agricultural depression to the 

 low buying value of farm products which 

 were raised with labor, supplies and capi- 

 tal secured at city prices. 



In the past 20 years he notes farming 

 has become less of a home and more of 

 a manufacturing industry. It has ac- 

 cummulated a much higher overhead. 

 The total public debt in the country was 

 seven billion dollars in 1916 and it is 

 SO billion now. Interest on it is high, 

 six per cent government bonds having 

 been called in only a few months ago 

 and the majority outstanding are at four 

 per cent or better. Automobiles requir- 

 ing improved roads are to be found on 

 most farms today. 



The depression has been severe for 

 many farmers. There are as many 

 farms being abandoned in New England 

 today as in the West. It is easier to 

 abandon them here, he stated, because 

 there are other industries to go into. In 

 general, he believes, "man will go where 

 he can work least and get the most in 

 the long run." 



President Thomson's records show that 

 a farm near an industrial center will be 

 abandoned more quickly than the same 

 farm would be abandoned in a remote 

 region. For many marginal farms, aban- 

 donment during two or three years means 

 they are out of the running for good. 



He noted the following elTects of the 

 depression; a detrimental lowering of 

 farmers' morale; loss by some farmers 

 of their life savings; forcing out of farm- 

 ing of inexperienced farmers who bought 

 on inflated prices and farmed on poor 

 farms with city ideas of thrift. 



He half believes that agriculture is now 

 suffering from too much credit. In Iowa 

 a whole generation's savings have been 

 lost. Instead of paying off their mort- 

 gages with the cheap money available in 

 the war and post war period farmers 

 boosted valuations and borrowed more. 



Mortgage indebtedness in New Eng- 

 land, he stated, has not arisen so much 

 as in the West, partly because economic 

 conditions here are more stable than 

 Continued on page 2, column 2 



LEGO'S REMODELED POULTRY HOUSE 



PRESIDENT BUTTERFIELD 



RESIGNS J 



Michigan Offers Greater Opportunity 



President K. L. Butterfield presented 

 his resignation to the trustees of the 

 College, asking to be relieved by Sep- 

 tember 1. He will become President of 

 the Michigan Agricultural College. -John 

 Phelan, director of Short Cour.ses and 

 head of the department of Rural Soci- 

 ology, will leave with him to become his 

 assistant and head of the department of 

 Rural Education there. 



The President's resignation reasoned as 

 follows: — Since his Alma Mater in a 

 critical period offers him a greater op- 

 portunity for organizing agriculture than 

 exists here, and since his departure from 

 this college and its State House control 

 is inevitable in the near future, and since 

 there is no immediate prospect of relief 

 from their restrictions, it seems wise to 

 move to the larger work. 



He is not critical of the Legislature nor 

 of the Executive, but, he states, the sys- 

 tem of control is unsound, detrimental 

 and discouraging. His protests against 

 it have been futile. His new office has 

 been shaped with greater vision. The 

 Supreme Court of Michigan has recently 

 ruled that the governing board of the 

 Agricultural College is a constitutional 

 body with complete control of both pol- 

 icies and expenditures of the college. 



Continued on page 2, column 1 



AN EFFICIENT POULTRY 



PLANT 



Henry and Fred Lego Lead Where 

 Others Follow 



At least nine poultrymen out of ten 

 would seek other lines of endeavor if they 

 had 800 pullets that only paid .$400 above 

 feed costs in a year. Henry Lego and 

 his son, Fred, of Greenwich had just that 

 experience three years ago. The Legos 

 did not quit. Past experience showed 

 them that there are a good profit in poul- 

 try. What they had done once they knew 

 could be done again. They knew the ad- 

 vantages of early hatching and having 

 hens well fed and eared for. Their prob- 

 lem was to get Healthy Stock and to have 

 it well housed. That they have succeeded 

 is shown by the fact that they had 1,200 

 healthy pullets to put in the laying houses 

 last fall. Their egg production per bird 

 is also above the 160 egg standard. 



Experience in Disease Control 



Three years ago their trouble reached 

 its climax. Losses from so called paraly- 

 sis reached .50 per cent in the flock for 

 the year. Upon autopsy, it was found 

 that the birds had a heavy infestation of 

 intestinal worms. The infected birds 

 were given the wet mash tobacco treat- 

 ment with the result that egg production 

 dropped to almost nothing and a large 

 number of the birds were killed by nico- 

 Continued on page 8, column 1 



