hamrshire: county 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



Published by the Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



PRICES 50 CENTS PER YEAR; $1.00 PER YEAR INCLUDING MEMBERSHIP IN FARM BUREAU 



Vol. 2 



Northampton, Mass., July, 1917 



No. 7 



AN APPEAL TO WOMEN 



Secretary Houstdii of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture has 

 made a significant appeal to the pa- 

 triotism of the women of the country, 

 and the following paragraphs are of 

 peculiar interest to the readers of the 

 Monthly: 



"Every woman can render important 

 service to the Nation in its present 

 emergency. She need not leave her 

 home or abandon her home dutie.s to 

 help the armed forces. She can help 

 to feed and clothe our armies and help 

 to supply food to those beyond the 

 seas by practicing effective thrift in 

 her own household. 



"Every ounce of food the housewife 

 saves from being wasted in her home 

 — all food which she or her children 

 produce in the garden and can or pre- 

 serve — every garment which skill and 

 care make it unnecessary to' replace — 

 all lessen that nousehold's draft on 

 the already insufficient world's sup- 

 plies. 



"To save food the housewife must 

 learn to plan economical and properly 

 balanced meals, which, while nourish- 

 ing each member of the family prop- 

 erly, do not encourage over-eating or 

 offer excessive or wasteful variety. It 

 is her duty to use all effective meth- 

 ods to protect food from spoilage from 

 heat. dirt, mice or insects. She must 

 acquire the culinary ability to utilize 

 every bit of edible food that comes in- 

 to her home. She must learn to use 

 such foods as vegetables, beans, peas 

 and milk products as partial substi- 

 tutes for meat. She must make it her 

 business to see that nothing nutri- 

 tious is thrown away or allowed to be 

 wasted. 



"Demonstrate thrift in your homes 

 and encourage thrift among your 

 neighbors. 



"Make economy fashionable lest it 

 become obligatory." 



President, E. F. Richardson of Nor- 

 folk: vice president, L. R. Smith of 

 Hampshire; secretary, A. F. Mac- 

 Dougall of Hampshire; treasurer, C. 

 P. Grant of Hampden. Hampshire 

 county was represented by President 

 Smith, Agent MacDougall and Mr. 

 Fred Pelissier of Hadley. 



FIEST FARM LOAN ASSOCIATION 



On June 16 a representative of the 

 Northeastern Farm Loan Bank and a 

 representative of the Farm Bureau met 

 a group of farmers from the eastern 

 part of the county at Enfield and or- 

 ganized the first farm loan association 

 of the county. The two requirements 

 of the bank, namely, that the appli- 

 cants number at least ten men and 

 their combined wants aggregate at 

 least $20,000. >vere readily met and 

 most of the afternoon was spent in 

 the process of organization. Officers 

 and a board of directors were elected. 

 Mr. F. A. Upham of Three Rivers was 

 chosen president of the board of di- 

 rectors, and Mr. Alfred LaBeTle of En- 

 field was chosen secretary. Other men 

 may join upon vote of the directors. 

 The advantage of borrowing money 

 through this organization is the long 

 term for payment and the process of 

 paying off the principal in 36 years h? 

 keeping up the interest. Eventuall/ 

 the farmers who belong to the asso- 

 ciation will, though stock in the bank 

 taken out for the period of the loan, 

 become the owners of the bank. 



ANNUAL MEETING OF FARM BU- 

 REAUS 



The annual meeting of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Federation of County 

 Farm Bureaus and Improvement 

 Leagues was held in Worcester, 

 June 29. The most important sub- 

 ject of discussion was the problem 

 of financing the farm bureau orga- 

 nization. The following oflBcers 

 were elected for the comin.g year: 



BOYS AND GIRLS ENLISTED FOR 

 CONSERVATION 



The Bureau, through the Boys and 

 Girls worker, Mr. Gould, and the Home 

 Demonstration Agent. Miss Harriman, 

 is organizing the young people in con- 

 servation clubs to meet the great prob- 

 lem of food wastage. These clubs are 

 to be under the direction of a local 

 supervisor, who will be encouraged to 

 attend the conserv.-itinn school in Am- 

 herst July 10-20. Miss Harriman will 

 also give instruction before each of the 

 clubs. Exhibits and contests will fea- 

 ture in the club work, and a minimum 

 amount of practical work will be re^ 

 quired of each member. The fallowing 

 towns have been selected for imme- 

 diate organization: Hatfield, East- 

 hampton. Ware. Worthington. Enfield. 

 Williamsburg, Hadley and Northamp- 

 ton. 



MARKETING 

 The question of marketing is ris- 

 ing again. General farmers locat- 

 ed some distance from the markets 

 have always sold their produce at 

 disadvantage. Every one knows of 

 instances of a glutted local market 

 in one. place, and a scarcity with 

 resultant high prices in another 

 not far away. Taken the country 

 as the whole, there is no such thing 

 as over-production; but inadequate 

 distribution is very common. 



It is obvious why the individual 

 farmer must market his stuff at a 

 disadvantage. His market is large- 

 ly determined by his location and 

 he seldom has proper facility for 

 storage. The chances are that most 

 of his neighbors are growing the 

 same crops. The result is that all 

 of them, maturing their crops at the 

 same time, turn in the produce to- 

 gether. The public cannot handle 

 so much produce at one time, and 

 prices drop tremendously or else the 

 middlemen provide the storage and 

 pay the producers on the basis of 

 the reduced rate. A farmer is sel- 

 dom in a position to barter for 

 good prices anyway. When he brings 

 a load of produce to town, the deal- 

 ers know he cannot afford to carry 

 it out again and buy it at practical- 

 ly their own price. When he sends • 

 i; in to a wholesaler on a commis- 

 sion basis, he is completely at the 

 mercy of the buyer. As mentioned 

 before, he frequently has not pro- 

 vision for storage at all, and even 

 if he had, he is not in a position to 

 rush the produce to market when 

 it will bring the highest price. 



Moreover the produce of individ- 

 ual farmers as now marketed is not 

 offered in such form as to justify 

 top-notch prices. Naturally there 

 is no uniformity in either quality 

 or container. There is no reason 

 why individual farmers could ba 

 expected to grade their produce 

 uniformly. They do not have the 

 same conceptions of quality, and 

 even if they had, some are more 

 conscientious than others. One or 

 two men who dump all kinds of stu8 

 into a barrel under an attractive 

 top layer will injure all the other 

 farmers in the community. The 



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