THE HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTKLY 



Published By The 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. HacDougall, County Agent 

 Helen A. Harriman, Home Dem. Agent 

 C. H. Gould, Boys' and Girls' Club Leader 



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 FAUM BUREAU 

 Leslie R. Smith, President, Hadley. 

 W. D. Mandell, Treasurer, North- 

 ampton. 

 A. F. MacDougall, Secretary. 



Advisory Board 

 Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 

 Chas. R. Damon, Williamsburg 

 Perley E. Davis, Granby 

 C. E. Hodgkins, Northamptoo 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 Wm. N. Howard, Ware 

 E. B. Clapp, Easthampton 



MANURE WASTE 

 Ever eince Victor Hugo v/rote his 

 famous arraignment of Paris for 

 allowing the incalculable value In 

 its sewerage to run in wastage to the 

 sea, thoughtful writers have de- 

 claimed against the same and sim- 

 ilar practices in vogue almost every- 

 where. The situation, always seri- 

 ous, becomes highly critical when 

 commercial fertilizers are complete- 

 ly deficient in potash and all but 

 prohibitive in price. Let us see 

 what the real conditions are. 



Assistant Secretary Vrooman es- 

 timates that one half of the man- 

 ure available in this country is go- 

 ing to waste with an annual loss — 

 "the world's greatest single econo- 

 mic leak," — of $1,200,000,000. 

 But money in large figures no long- 

 er is able to impress the mind. Con- 

 sider it in terms of a single cow. A 

 reliable estimate of the value of the 

 manure of a single dairy cow for a 

 year is $18.75; and this was before 

 the war. It is the consensus of op- 

 inion that manure exposed to the 

 weather will lose half of its food 

 value in six months. This becomes 

 obvious when we stop to think that 

 more than one half of this food fer- 

 tilizer value is in the liquid. Un- 

 der improper conditions the man- 

 ure leaches rapidly and the result is 

 most harmful. 



The plant food may escape either 

 into the ground or into the air. It 



is desirable, therefore, to have a 

 tight floor beneath and perhaps a 

 root overhead to prevent !he seep- 

 a,ge downward. It is also desirable 

 to provide sufficient bedding to act 

 as absorbent for the urine. The 

 odor of ammonia meansthat nitrogen 

 is escaping in the air and it is some- 

 times worth while to mix manure 

 with substances which tend to 

 "fix" the nitrogen in the solid form. 

 For example, poultrymen some 

 times mix their hen manure with 

 kainit, or acid phosphate to retain 

 the nitrogen in this way. 



Too much on this subject can 

 hardly be said at this time. 



BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK 



Rosella Ice of Williamsburg, Ed- 

 ward Montague of Westhampton 

 and Stanley LeDuc of Chesterfield 

 were Hampshire county's represen- 

 tatives at the Prize Winners' Camp 

 at the Agricultural College last 

 July. 



Mr. Victor A. Rice, state pig club 

 leader, and Mr. Gould of the Bureau 

 visited most of the pig club mem- 

 bers of the county during the week 

 of July 23. On one trip to Goshen 

 they were accompanied by Mr. New- 

 hill, assistant club leader of the U. 

 S. D. A. at Washington. Both of 

 the visitors were pleased with the 

 work that Hampshire county boys 

 and girls are doing. 



The girls in the various towns 

 have been showing a lively inter- 

 est in canning with the result that 

 canning clubs have been organized 

 in the following towns: 



Town Leader 



Belchertown Miss Scott 



Hatfield Miss Lynch 



Middlefield Miss Graves 



Westhampton Miss Clapp 



Worthington Miss Bartlett 



Granby Miss Ferry 



Ware Miss Drummond 



Miss South worth 

 Plainfield Miss Hudson 



Huntington Miss Fiske 



All club members should be mak- 

 ing plans to exhibit their products 

 at the fairs in the fall. In order to 

 exhibit the member must have his 

 records up-to-date. There are good 

 premiums for the prize winners. 



The club workers wish to an- 

 nounce that products, scoring 90 

 per cent above in the estimate of a 

 competent judge, are subject to 4H 

 labels as a special distinction. 

 These labels in various forms may 

 he purchased at a reasonable price 

 by the clubs and should still furth- 

 er stimulate the doing of high class 

 work by the young people. 



THE HNANCIAL NEEDS OF THE 

 BUREAU 



The Farm Bureau is in need of 

 money. Closing the month of July 

 with a very small cash margin, it is 

 imperative that we realize our va- 

 rious assets in order to meet the ex- 

 penses of our increased operation. 

 .\ good share of the necessary funds 

 is forthcoming from the county ap- 

 propriation, the federal allowance, 

 and the state committee on public 

 safety. However, we need from $1- 

 000 to $1200 more. Fortunately 

 about $900 of this is due from our 

 town appropriations and member- 

 ship pledges in the county. 



The increased demands on the of- 

 fice were wholly to be expected, and 

 are indeed a matter for gratifica- 

 tion. The directors had already 

 decided that a boys' and girls' work- 

 er was essential to the proper de- 

 velopment of the Bureau's work, 

 and the pressure from governmen- 

 tal as well as local sources .soon 

 made plain the imperative need of 

 a home demonstration agent as 

 well. The past season has seen a 

 great increase in office running ex- 

 penses, particularly in the matter of 

 clerical help. This increase in staff 

 and equipment was justifiable and 

 indeed inevitable in the face of our 

 national needs, but it has made 

 more complex and difficult the fin- 

 ancial basis of our work. 



We have not yet received $290 

 of pledges from five of the towns 

 and $608 from individual mem- 

 bers. The time of the members of 

 the staff is too much in demand to 

 justify a personal canvas for this 

 money, and those who have pledged 

 it are urged to turn it in to the of- 

 fice or their town directors at once. 



Concluded from Page 1 

 ter for some hoiirs before cooking. 

 The absorption of water will cause 

 it to resume its natural size and 

 j.appearance. There will remain, 

 however, some diflerence in flavor 

 1 and color. 



I More complete information con- 

 ' cerning equipment and methods 

 ' may be found in Farmers' Bulletin 

 [Number 841, issued bv United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



Corn is reported at $4.60 a hun- 

 dred in Amherst. One of the local 

 buyers recently sent a receipted 

 bill for a bag of corn to our senior 

 senator in Washington with the 

 terse comment "Nero fiddled." Mr. 

 Lodge replied, explaining the diffi- 

 culties of a prompt and satisfactory 

 legislation. 



