HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



Roliind 

 Mildred 



STAFF 

 A. Payne, County 



Ag;ent 

 W. Boice, 



Home Denionstration Agent 

 Norninn F. AVhippen, County Club Agent 

 Miiry Diniond, Clerk 

 Mai-y Sullivan^ Asst. Clerk 



Oflfice 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. 



"IVotice 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, no cents ;i 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 

 Milton S. Howes, Cumniington 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 



COUNTY NOTES 



Barn to Mouse 900 Birds 



Edward L. Schmidt of Belcheitovm is 

 enlarging the poultry housing capacity 

 of his barn again this summer. Last 

 year about 400 birds were housed in four 

 pens on the south side of the barn. This 

 summer the east side of the barn is being 

 again remodelled so as to make pens 

 30 X 40 feet on the first and second floors. 

 This fall he expects to house 900 birds in 

 his barn. Those confronted with a hous- 

 ing problem could profitably visit Mr. 

 Schmidt's plant. Incidentally he is tired 

 of carting tons of gravel in and out of 

 his "A" house and is putting in a cement 

 floor. He expects to have 1.500 laying 

 pullets in November. 



More Labor Efficiency 



Henry Witt of Belchertown tells me 

 that it does not take him any longer to 

 care for 400 pullets than it takes Fred 

 Bean. Incidentally they are both follow- 

 ing the same plan. Mr. Witt no longer 

 carries water in a pail to his birds. He 

 says he never realized the saving in hu- 

 man effort till the hot weather came on. 



He also has a mash and scratch feed hop- 

 per that is worth seeing. 



Nitrate Pays in Culti\'ated Orchard 



Experiments have .shown that nitrate of 

 soda does not usually pay in a cultivated 

 oichard. Wright A. Root of Easthamp- 

 ton has an exception. Last year he 

 started using nitrate on his Broad Brook 

 orchard, which has always been culti- 



ble and that a high individual cow pro- 

 duction should be aimed at. 



Massachusetts Cows in 19»3 Average 

 5,800 pounds each 

 According to the report of the New 

 England Crop Reporting Service of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture 

 working in cooperation with the Massa- 

 chusetts Department of Agriculture the 



vated. The treated trees showed larger number of milk cows in the State in 1923 



and better foliage. This year more ni- 

 trate has been u.sed and he states that it 

 has been money well invested. Perhaps 

 there are other fruit growers in the 

 county whose orchards are exceptions to 

 the rule. 



Lower Protein Feed Being Purchased 



A certain item of information received 

 regarding the 1924 Feed Pool furnishes 

 one more indication that New England 

 farmers are fast coming to an apprecia- 

 tion of alfalfa and clover as an economic- 

 al supplement to a medium protein ration. 

 At least, they appajently aie planning to 

 feed more 20 per cent ration this year 

 than formerly. In last year's Feed Pool, 

 of the total tonnage ordered 68 per cent 

 was Milkmore, the 24 per cent ration; 20 

 per cent of the total was Fulpoil, the 20 

 per cent ration. This year, Milkmore 

 orders represented 49 per cent of the 

 total, while Fulpail increased to 36 per 

 cent. (Fitting Ration and Egg Mash, 

 making up the balance of the Pool ton- 

 nage, letained about the same proportion 

 this year as last.) Like County Agents, 

 Farm Bureaus, Agricultural Colleges, 

 and all other organizations serving the 

 farmers' best interests, the Exchange has 

 long encouraged the feeding of more and 

 better roughage, and the choice of a 

 ration whose protein will most economic- i 

 ally supplement that of the roughage 

 available. Very evidently, much of the 

 educational work on clover and alfalfa is 

 bearing fruit. 



Only High Producing Cow.s Profit:ible 



Continued from page 1. column 2 



vegetables; and while apples are in many 

 localities a good side line; Massachusetts 

 conditions are such that most of the farm- 

 ers must devote the larger part of their 

 arable land to hay, and market this crop 

 and that of the pasture through the milk 

 cow. Massachusetts has gone through 

 the stages of cheese factories and butter 

 production and is now at the point where 

 the sale of fluid milk to the inhabitants of 

 the large cities of the Commonwealth is, 

 all things considered, probably the best 

 way to market the hay and pasturage 

 produced on the land. 



Conditions laigely beyond his control 

 make hay and the cow the chief lines on 

 the Massachusetts farm. To render pro 

 fitable returns it is evident that a maxi 

 mum production of hay per acre is desira 



was found to be about one hundred and 

 sixty-four and a half thousand. These 

 produced about nine hundred and fifty 

 million pounds of milk. This was an 

 average of approximately fifty-eight hun- 

 dred pounds or twenty-seven hundred 

 quarts of milk per cow. That year the 

 State had four hundred and thirty-four 

 thousand acres of cultivated grass land 

 which yielded nearly six hundred thou- 

 sand tons of hay. There were also twelve 

 thousand acres of land in wild grass 

 which yielded about an equal number of 

 tons of wild hay. On a unit basis the' 

 cows averaged to produce fifty-eight hun- 

 dred pounds of milk and the land aver- 

 aged to yield about one and one-third tons 

 of hay per acre. For each kept cow there 

 was nearly three acres in grass yielding 

 about four tons of hay. 



Wisconsin Finds Cows of Massachusetts 

 Production Unprofitable 



In a study made with a large number 

 of herds the Wisconsin Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station found that the feed and 

 labor requirements are not so fundamen- 

 tal when they are expressed per cow as 

 they are in terms of milk produced. On 

 cows averaging five thousand pounds of 

 milk it took thirty-eight pounds of grain, 

 one hundred and forty pounds of silage; 

 seventy-five pounds of hay and other 

 roughage and three days of pasturage to 

 produce one hundred pounds of milk. 

 And with cows producing seven thousand 

 pounds of milk in a year it took only 

 thirty-one pounds of grain; one hundred 

 and twenty pounds of silage, forty-four 

 pounds of hay and other roughage and 

 one and six-tenths days of pasturage to 

 produce a hundred pounds of milk. It 

 also required one hour less of labor per 

 hundred pounds of milk from the large 

 producers than from the low producers. 

 That is it took seven pounds more of 

 grain, twenty pounds more of silage, 

 thirty-one more pounds of roughage, a 

 day and a half more pasturage and an 

 hour more labor to produce one hundred 

 pounds of milk from cows whose yearly 

 average was five thousand pounds than 

 it did in the case of cows that produced 

 seven thousand pounds in a year. Put- 

 ting this on a money basis, even with 

 Wisconsin's lower prices for hay and 

 grain, the seven thousand pound cow pro- 

 duced milk at a dollar and a quarter per 

 hundred cheaper than the five thousand 

 pound cow. 



