THE HAMPSHIRE CUUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



Published By The 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. MacDougall, County Agent 



Office, First National Bank Bldg. 



Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Nov. 9, 1915 at the post office at 

 Northampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1879. 



OFFICERS OF THE FAEM BUEEAU 



LesUe R. Smitti, iTesidenl, Hauiey. 



W. D. Mandell, Treasurer, Northainp 



ton 

 K. K. Clap?, Secretary, Nortaamp- 



ton. 



Advisory Board 



I.pslie R. Smiih, hadley 



Chas. R. Damon, Williamsburg 



Ferley E. Davis, Granby 



C. E. Hodg:kins, Northampton 



Warren JI. King, Northampton 



M. A A'orse, Belchertown 



Mariin Norris, Southampton 



EDITORIAL 



A few of the towns have reported 

 on the membership campaign that 

 was made in the County during the 

 past week. 



A good example of how the hill 

 towns are backing the. Farm Bureau 

 is shown by the results in Chester- 

 field. Besides appropriating money 

 at their town meeting. Mr. Frans. 

 Baker, the, director, obtained 26 new 

 members, which brings the total 

 membership in that town up to 36. 

 At the town meeting in Southampton 

 $25 was appropriated and 17 mem- 

 bers joined tlie Bureau. It is this 

 fine, spirit of cooperation that is 

 bound to promote Agriculture in 

 Hampshire County. 



THE NEW AGRICULTURE 



The following quotation is taken 

 from an address of Hon. Carl S. 

 Vrooman. given at the Annual Con- 

 ference of State Leaders and State 

 Agents in County Agent Work, St. 

 Louis, Mo., Nov. 17, 1915. Mr. Vroo- 

 man brings out clearly the aims of 

 the. organized movements that is on 

 foot at the present time for the pro- 

 motion of Agriculture and how the 

 success of tt all depends on the farm- 

 er being willing to cooperate with 

 his neighbors and do his share to- 

 ward elevating the life of the com- 

 munity in which he lives. 



"The New Agriculture is not only 



a body of well-authenticated scien- 

 -iflc fact; the New Agriculture means 

 a new spirit. I often lay stress on 

 the fact that people farm for money, 

 lor a living, and that the economic 

 basis is the foundation stone. But if 

 that is all there is to farming, juai 

 merely the laying up of one dollar on 

 another, then we are engaged in a 

 very sordid pursuit in a very sordid 

 world. But, fortunately, the New Ag- 

 riculture carries with it not merely 

 this conception of a new scientific 

 liinthod ot making use of the natural 

 resources of the country, not merely 

 a conception of a new standard ot 

 business efficiency in the conducting 

 of farm operations and in the mark- 

 eting of farm products — the New Ag- 

 riculture means to us, and Vill meau 

 to all succeeding generations, a new 

 spirit in the minds and hearts of the 

 farmers of the country. What spirit? 

 The spirit of cooperation. That's an 

 old word, a word we are all familiai 

 with. What does it mean? It is tht 

 synonym for civilization. As human 

 beings have learned to cooperate, so 

 fast and no faster civilization has 

 progressed. 



"There are a great many problems 

 that you have to work out on your 

 own farms, by the use. of individual 

 energy and initiative. There are also 

 a great many problems which indi- 

 vidual initiative, individual energy, 

 and iaidividual intelligence are not 

 competent to deal with, and which 

 can only be worked out in common 

 with your fellow farmers in your va- 

 rious townships, counties. States, and 

 in the nation. Unless we famiprs be- 

 come imbued with this spirit of co- 

 operation, unless we are willing to 

 take a larger view than that of a 

 man whose horizon is bounded by his 

 own fences, unless we are willing to 

 lay aside something of our suspicion 

 of our neighbors, and unless we are 

 willing to take a chance on poor old 

 human nature, to unite with our fel- 

 low human beings, who, like our- 

 selves, are made up largely of clay 

 perhaps, yet clay that harbors a di- 

 vine, spark within, — unless we are 

 willing to do these things and to 

 take that divine spark into account, 

 we cannot succeed. Some men per- 

 haps, are not worthy of our confl- 

 donce. but in the main the average 

 neighbor, the average farmer. Is 

 worthy of confidence, and I am will- 

 ing to take off my hat and coat and 

 embark with him on any well-thought 

 out common enterprise. Until that 

 spirit fully imbues the people of this 

 coimtry, we are bound by a limiting 

 factor which Is just as real and et- 

 f'^ctive as the limiting factor In tfie 

 fert'lity of the soil, or the limiting 

 factors of the hours of sunshine 



that the man who goes through life 

 suspecting everybody but himself of 

 incompetence and moral obliquity, is 

 riding for a fall, and that it is up 

 to him as a human being, on a planet 

 where the progress of man has be«n 

 nu'de through the sacrifice of the 

 blood and the lives of better men 

 than he, or than you or I, to con- 

 tribute his share and to take, his 

 chance with the rest of the people, 

 and to build up here in the future 

 something better than we have had ti> 

 the past; to join his local cooperative 

 society, whether it be an elevator or 

 a store, or whatever it may be.; to go 

 to the polls and vote like a patriot 

 and not like a partisan, and do his 

 duty as a citizen even if he is only 

 a renter; to make of his home a home 

 worthy of an American and worthy 

 of a Christian, not merely a" place 

 where he and his wife and children 

 can turn out crops to sell for cash, 

 but a real home, a thing of beauty 

 that will attract his children so that 

 they will stay on the farm, a center 

 from which will radiate civic in- 

 fluence that will elevate the life in 

 the community to a higher plane. 

 Unless a farmer appreciates sonjje- 

 thing of the dignity and the "signifi- 

 cance of his work right on his own 

 farm and in his own community, he 

 will never realize anything of the 

 higher possibilities of his great call- 

 ing. For it is a great calling. I 

 think that the farmer of the present 

 and of the future will have the lordli- 

 est life on earth if he develops ability, 

 character, and energy commensurate 

 with unparalleled opportunities that 

 are opening up before him." 



WASHINGTON TRIP 

 Continued From Page One 



In touring the City, the boys and 

 girls met many noted men. Among 

 these were President Wilson, Champ 

 Oark, Senator Lodge, Congressmen 

 Page and Walsh of Massachusetts, 

 McKinley of Illinois, Secretary of 

 Agriculture, Huston and his Assist- 

 ant Mr. Vrooman, A. C. True, chief 

 of the States Relation Service, P. H. 

 ClaxoD, U. S. Commission of Educa- 

 tion. 



To the prize winners, the trip was 

 most Interesting and instructive. 

 They realized full well that they 

 were extremely fortunate in winning 

 such an excellent prize as a free trip 

 to Washington. The Champions re- 

 turned to Massachusetts with words 

 of praise for all who helped to make 

 their trip such an enjoyable one, to- 

 gether with a firm resolve to do a 

 bigger and better piece of club work 

 in Massachusetts in 1916. 



E. J. Burke 



