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HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAF 



Roland A. I'ayne, County Agent 

 Mildred W. Iloiee, 



Home Uenion.stnition Agent 

 ]Vorni:in I'. \Vlii|i|>en, t ounty C'lul> Agent 

 M:ir> nitnoiid. Clerk 

 Mjiry SullM'iin, Asst. t'lerk 



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. 



".Votiee of Kniry" 

 "Acceptance for mailing at special rate 

 of postage provided for in section 1103, 

 Act of October Z. 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober 31, 1917. 



l*riee, r.O cents :i ye:ir 



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 

 Milton S. Howes, Cunimington 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amher.st 



President llutterlield I{e.sign» 



Continued from pase 1. column 2 

 Returning to M. A. C, President But- 

 terfield continued, "If imposed bureau- 

 cratic methods, constant annoyance from 

 a multitude of petty requirements, the 

 minimizing of effective lesponsibility for 

 both expenditures and policies, or even 

 personal humiliation were a necessary 

 price exacted of the executives of the Col- 

 lege to serve the fundamental interests 

 of the Commonwealth, one should not 

 complain. But these restrictions are not 

 necessary to the effective management of 

 the College, they do not result from es- 

 sential economy and I am not willing 

 longer to submit to them. 



"I believe the present Chairman of 

 the Commission on Administration and 

 Finance has approached his thankless 

 duties with fiimness and courage and in 

 our case at least with marked personal 

 courtesy. I bear him no grudge what- 

 ever, although I think a radically differ- 

 ent mode of handling the pjoblem even 

 under pre.sent laws would have been far 

 more effective and certainly less irksome 

 to us. 



The pre.sent arrangement with the 



Lbs. Milk 



for 



1 lb. Grain 



SUMMARY OF MAY DAIRY FEEDING RECORDS 



Some Improvement Shown in Way Cows are Being Fed 



Number of Cows giving 

 Lbs. of Milk Per Day 



10-20 I 20-30 30-40 [ 40-50 



Above 

 50 



I 



% of Total 

 2.1 



Of the cows reported 32.7';/; are giving 

 less than 3.1 pounds of milk per pound 

 of grain. With milk bringing for 31 to 

 54 cents on the farm, this type of feed- 

 ing does not pay. It may be necessary 

 becau.se of having more cows on the farm 

 than there is roughage. There are but 

 two ways out (1) Produce more home 

 grown feeds, (2) Sell cows. With the 

 late season, the silage crop is apt to be 

 short. Sun flowers will make a silage 

 crop which will be eaten by the cows. 



They are a mean crop to handle, but may 

 be one solution of the feed problem. 



The second alternative may be fairly 

 attractive in the near future. The cow 

 market has picked up a little lately, prob- 

 ably in anticipation of higher milk prices 

 during the summer. For the man with 

 too many cows, there seems to be a way 

 of making his own position better by sell- 

 ing while there are still some who feel 

 optimistic. 



Commissioner of Education controlling 

 by law the educational management of 

 the college is no less to be deprecated 

 than its fiscal management by a central 

 administrative board. With all respect 

 and regard to the Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation, he stated to his trustees, "You 

 .should determine expenditures once the 

 Legislative appropriations become avail- 

 able; employ members of the staff and 

 fix their salaries; pa.ss upon additional 

 policies — perform, in fact, all the func- 

 tions of a responsible governing body." 



Leaving, he leaves with regrets for the 

 loss of associates, but with personal sat- 

 isfaction in the hope of relief from an 

 intolerable situation, but he "is proud to 

 have had a part in the upbuilding of the 

 College." 



Director Phelan came here in 191.5 

 from the Stevens Point Normal School 

 in Wisconsin, taught rural sociology, in 

 1918 organized the two-year course in 

 agricultui-e including in it six months' 

 work on farms approved by the college, 

 and in 1919 organized the rehabilitation 

 courses for 650 veterans. He has pub- 

 lished two books, "Elements of Rural So- 

 ciology and Economics", and "Readings 

 in Rural Sociology", and taught at 

 various times in other colleges. 



KaNt sind \Ve.sf Coinpiired 



Continued from pase 1, column 1 

 there. Even so, many farmers aie now 

 "hanging on through the indulgence of 

 their creditors." Such indebtedness is 

 preventing farmers from making neces- 

 sary repairs, from buying new ma- 

 chinery, from buying much fertilizer, and 

 they are even selling pure-bred stock for 



veal and beef. He believes pure-bred 

 stock raising booms in boom times and 

 suffers acutely from depressions. 



He seriously wonders whether industry 

 and agriculture can live as neighbors ex- 

 : cept in such garden spots as the Connecti- 

 cut Valley. This region will always hold 

 its own in competition. Farm lands in 

 England and Scotland are being sold 

 cheap because industry has ruled for 

 "cheap food". The result of competition 

 for labor is to move our farming lands 

 back towards Vermont. Northern Maine 

 farmers are clearing new land. 



New England's major farm business, 

 milk production, he thinks, has .seen the 

 worst of the present difficulty. Unfor- 

 tunately the confidence of the milk pro- 

 ducers has been shaken. He believes that 

 Eastern dairymen have enjoyed a boom 

 through and since the war period, as the 

 cornbelt butter manufacturing was for a 

 time checked, relieving Easterners of 

 competition. He noted this change in the 

 dairy business. Milking machines now 

 enable a farmer and his wife to handle 

 30 or 40 cows whereas formerly he hired 

 three or four additional hands to run 

 such. He thinks the increased efficiency 

 on good farms during the past half cent- 

 ury compensates largely for the loss of 

 marginal farms. 



This is a good time to buy and a poor 

 time to sell farm land, he thinks, though 

 there is no relief in sight from the burden 

 of taxes. If a man is going to mort- 

 gage his place. President Thomson urged 

 him to bear this in mind — nothing hurts 

 his credit so much as a chattel mortgage 

 on livestock or crops. 



