THE HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUKEAT MOXL-IILV 



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 FARM BUREAU 



Ijefi]i.e R. Smith, President, Hadiey. 

 W D. Maiidell, Treasurer, Northainp- 



ton 

 Iv. K. Clap?, Secretary, Nortliamp- 



ton. 



Advisory Board 



Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 



Chas. R. Damon, Williamsburg 



Ferley E. Davis, Granby 



C. E. Hodgkins, Nortliampton 



Warren M. King, Northampton 



\i. A Morse, Belchertown 



Martin f^ orris, Southampton 



EDITORIAL 



The price of milk is a subject 

 much discussed. At the- present 

 time with other staple products ris- 

 ing in price, many farmers wonder 

 why they cannot receive more for 

 their milk. In some sections they 

 are receiving more, but for the most 

 part the price remains the same. It 

 is necessary to lay the most of this 

 blame at the door of the farmer. One 

 of the largest dealers in a certain 

 local city made the statement a short 

 time ago that if all the farmers sell- 

 ing milk into this city would or- 

 ganize, set a standard price for their 

 milk according to their distance 

 from the market, and hold to it. the 

 dealers would gladly meet a rise of 

 one-half cent or a cent whichever it 

 might be. The dealer who would 

 try to vise his producers right and 

 pay 5 cents or 5% cents at the door 

 would have to compete wth another 

 dealer who could go into the same 

 locality or a similar locality and buy 

 milk for 4% cents, 4 cents or even 

 less. In trying to raise the retail 

 price to 9 cents so as to give both 

 the farmer and himself a larger mar- 

 gin of profit, he has to compete with 

 the dealer who is buying cheap milk 

 and can retail it for seven cents. 

 Only through a cooperative organ- 

 ization in which the price of milk 

 is set, uie surplus taken care of, a 

 certain btanaard of quality main- 

 tained and the farmers bound by 

 contract, can the farmers hope to 

 ask for a raii° in the price of milk 

 and receive it permanently. 



The farmers in the towns of 

 Southampton, Belchertown, South 

 Hadley, Granby and South Amherst 

 are to be congratulated for the way 

 in which they have stood together 

 for the purpose of setting the whole- 

 sale price of milk for the city of 

 Holyoke. Several meetings have 

 been held with an average attend- 

 ance of about 150. The price of 

 milk has been rased 1 cents a quart. 

 A Constitution and a set of By- 

 Laws have been adopted and the or- 

 ganization is to become incorporat- 

 ed as soon as possible. Organized 

 efforts of tills kind or what bring 

 results. 



In some sections, the farmers are 

 not satisfied with the number of 

 calls the County Agents has made. 

 This criticism is justified in a great 

 many cases. The general policy has 

 been to make farm visits only on 

 written or personal requests and 

 where the farmer has had a definite 

 problem he wished to solve. The 

 time is so limited that it is impos- 

 sible for the county agent to visit 

 among the farmers with no definite 

 project in view. The Farm Bureau 

 will, however, gladly send assistance 

 whenever it is requested and is 

 more than pleased to receive re- 

 quests for farm visits but please do 

 not expect calls when no requests 

 are made. 



At the Northampton Fair the boys 

 and girls will be given a wonderful 

 opportunity to display their garden 

 products. A tent, 100x60 will be 

 furnished to house the exhibits 

 Specal prizes are offered for school 

 exhibits and duplicate prizes are 

 given for individual exhibits so that 

 young children will not have to com- 

 pete with the older ones. From the 

 present prospects it looks as if this 

 tent would be filled to overflowng. 

 Every boy or girl planning to ex- 

 hibit at the fair send to A. J. Morse, 

 Secretary Three-County Pair, North- 

 ampton, or to the Farm Bureau office 

 for entry blanks and cards so as to 

 have everything in readiness when 

 the time comes. Remember the date 

 of the Fair — October 4 and 5. 



As the apples in the County that 

 are to be sold in closed packages 

 will have to be packed according to 

 the new apple grading law this fall, 

 many growers are wondering to 

 what extent the law will be en- 

 forced, some people having the im- 

 pression that absolutely no prosecu- 

 tions would be made this fall. The 

 State Board of Agriculture is plan- 

 ning to carry out the law in an ed- 



ucation way and assist the farmers 

 in every way possible in packing 

 their apples according to the law. 

 Secretaiy Wheeler slates that me 

 idea is not to prosecute for first of- 

 fense this year or in cases where 

 there is an apparent misunderstand- 

 ing of the law, but that they do not 

 intend to let persistent violators of 

 the law go free, and tliose who ab- 

 solutely disregard the law after 

 warning will certainly be prosecut- 

 ed. 



We heartily endorse this state- 

 ment of Mr. Wheeler's knowing that 

 it will work to the advantage of the 

 farmer who attempts to put up his 

 apples according to his best judg- 

 ment and keep off the market poor 

 quality fruit that only tends to low- 

 er the price of the good fruit. 



FIELD DAY RESULTS 

 Continued From Page 1 

 188.87 lbs. butter at 3Sc, $66.10 

 Increase cost of grain 11.12 



Net increase ?o4.98 



In herd of 20 cows 1099.60 



Mr. Putnam gave the following 

 table to show that if even only one 

 cow was located in the year, that 

 was losing money, by selling her, 

 the saving in the cost of milking 

 alone, would more than offset the 

 cost of weighing the milk oi a herd 

 of 20 cows. From actual records tak- 

 en in his own barn for the time to 

 milk a cow and weigh her milk, he 

 found the average was that a man 

 could milk 10 cows an hour or 12 

 min. a day per cow for 300 days in 

 a year and the weighing took 10 

 seconds per milking. 



Time required to milk one cow 



1 year 3600 min. — 60 hours 



60 hrs. at 15c per hr. $9.00 



Time required to weigh milk 



1 cow, 1 year 100 min. 



1 2-3 hrs. at 15c — 25 cents. 



Cost to weigh milk of 20 cows 1 

 year $5.00 



In order to raise higher producing 

 stock, Mr. Putnam bought during 

 the ten years two pure blood bulls 

 and some registered calves and heif- 

 ers. His total expenditure for live- 

 stock, milk scales and record sheets 

 was $983.00 



Live Stock bought to bring in- 

 creased production: — 



1 Bull $100 



1 Bull 75 



4 Heifer Calves 150 



4 2-yr. old heifers 250 



4 Cows 404 



$975 



