HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. MacDousrall, County Agent 

 Helen A. Haiiiman, Home Deni. Asont 

 C. H. Gould, Hoys' anil Girls' Club Leader 



Office First National Bank Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 

 Entered as second class matter Nov. 9, 1015. at the 

 Post Office at Nortbampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1879. 



Price, 50 cents a year 

 $1 a year, including membership in Farm Bureau 



Officers of the Farm Bureau 



Leslie R. Smith, President, Hadley 



W. D. Mandell, Treasurer, Northampton 



A. F. MacDougall, Secretary 



ADVI.SOKY BOARD 



Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 



Chas. R. Damon, Williamsburg 



Perley E. Davis, Granby 



C. E. Hodgkins, Northampton 



Warren M. King, Northampton 



Wm. N. Howard, Ware 



E. B. Clapp, Easthampton 



While Congress was discussing the 

 propriety of making H. C. Hoover the 

 sole arbiter of the food supply of the 

 United States, I reminded myself that 

 the idea is not new, a very trustworthy 

 man named Joseph having performed a 

 similar service for Egypt several thou- 

 sand years ago. He acted both as col- 

 lector and distributor of food for a series 

 of years, and that without a breath of 

 scandal attaching to his name. To be 

 sure, government was much less compli- 

 cated in Joseph's day than it is in our 

 time. He had no Congress to deal with 

 and hold him up at every turn. What 

 Pharaoh said went, and that was the end 

 of the matter so far as Joseph's instruc- 

 tions were concerned. A tolerably clear 

 account of the transaction has come down 

 to us and there is no intimation of graft 

 during the seven fat years, or in the 

 lean period of equal duration. More- 

 over, in spite of the fact that Joseph was 

 greatly handicapped because there were 

 neither railways nor auto trucks to facili- 

 tate distribution, none went supperless to 

 bed, from which fact we must conclude 

 that as a national food administrator, 

 Joseph was an unqualified success and 

 well deserved the ecomiums showered 

 upon him. The story, besides being in- 

 teresting, reminds us that there is noth- 

 ing new under the sun. 



— Jacob Biggie. 



The Hotel Biltmore of New York City 

 reports the saving of 1927 pounds meat 

 on a "meatless Tuesday," and five barrels 

 of wheat flour on a "wheatless Wednes- 

 day." The Biltmore has substituted rye, 

 potato, barley and rice flours for wheat 

 in bread and pastry. 



County News 



Representatives of the Farm Bureau 

 are on the programs of a great many of 

 our Granges for the coming winter. One 

 of the prime objects of the Farm Bureau 

 is to co-operate with and assist existing 

 organizations in the county. 



Two-day Extension School.?, with a 

 program furnished by the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College and the Farm 

 Bureau, have already been held in the 

 towns of Southampton, Huntington and 

 Prescott. Arrangements have been com- 

 pleted for schools in Cummington and 

 Worthington. Williamsburg is planning 

 on a five-day school. Extension Schools 

 are one of the best means for the farmer 

 and his family to get in close touch with 

 the teaching of our State Agricultural 

 College. 



Two Holstein bull calves from some of 

 the highest producing stock at the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College have re- 

 cently been purchased by Fred H. Burr, 

 Worthington, and Homer Granger, Ches- 

 terfield. 



Two groups of women, one in North- 

 ampton and one in South Hadley have 

 made plans for organization to take up 

 the study of foods and meat substitutes. 

 More women should plan to devote some 

 time to the study of foods. 



Alder Wood 



The State Forester has received from 

 the American Powder Mills at Maynard 

 enquiries for peeled alder wood, for 

 which they are offering $18.75 per cord, 

 delivered on the cars. A year ago their 

 price was $12.50. The cutting and peel- 

 ing of this wood is a rather tedious job, 

 but at the price offered should yield a 

 good return, especially as the stumpage 

 value of alder is practically nil. In the 

 winter time it is necessary to peel the 

 sticks by means of a spoke shave. In 

 the summer the bark can be loosened by 

 beating with a wooden spud, and then 

 peeled off by hand. The bark itself has 

 a market, for it is used as a basis of 

 certain dyestuffs, and brings $.35 per ton. 

 Of course the costs of production will 

 vary greatly with distance from railroad 

 and from the mill, but one can count on 

 a chopping cost of not less than $2, peel- 

 ing $4, hauling and loading $.3-$5, and 

 freight $3 per cord. It will be useless 

 to operate less than a carload of this 

 wood, or an amount of ten or twelve 

 cords. 



Alder wood grows practically every- 

 where in Massachusetts, but reaches its 

 optimum development in the western 

 counties. It is used to produce the char- 

 coal which is an important part of black 

 gunpowder. Hence the present demand. 



Continued from page 1 

 FOREST UTILIZATION 



Special conditions sometimes call for 

 an effort not specifically provided for by- 

 law, and such is the work of this branch. 

 Owing to the depredations of the gypsy 

 moth, a great deal of the oak timber in 

 the eastern part of the State has been 

 killed or partially so, and the normal 

 market for this material was overflowed, 

 with the result that much valuable wood 

 was going to waste because there was no 

 profitable outlet for it. Furthermore, it 

 has been scientifically demonstrated that 

 oak woodland, which has not yet been 

 seriously infested, can be in part pro- 

 tected by the removal of the trees most 

 susceptible to the gypsy moth. The con- 

 ditions that have come to pass in the oak 

 woodlands of the eastern part of the 

 State are also present in the chestnut 

 stands of the central and western sec- 

 tions, because of the effects of the bark 

 disease. For the purpose of finding a 

 market for the unmarketable material, 

 and to assist the owner in placing this 

 material on the market, this branch of 

 the work was organized. The utiliza- 

 tion branch not only finds the market 

 for the private owner, but supervises the 

 operating of the woodlot, placing the 

 contracts for cutting, milling, etc., and 

 selling the product. The owner, of 

 course, pays all the costs except the 

 supervision. Although this branch is at 

 present chiefly interested in oak and 

 chestnut and their products, the market 

 information which it gathers extends to 

 all species of wood and classes of pro- 

 duct. The advantage to the Common- 

 wealth of this work is that material 

 which would likely go to waste is placed 

 upon the market, and that woodlot 

 owners, receiving a better price for their 

 product than they were accustomed to re- 

 ceive, are encouraged to think better of 

 forestry as a woodland investment than 

 they otherwise would. 



The forester in charge of this branch 

 has two assistants, one in the field and 

 one in the office, besides several field 

 foremen who take charge of the cutting 

 and logging operations on the estates 

 under its care. 



FOREST FIRE BRANCH 



The work of fighting forest fires in 

 each town is in the hands of a local 

 forest warden, who is appointed by the 

 mayor or selectmen, with the approval of 

 the State Forester. The local wardens 

 act under the general supervision of the 

 State Fire Warden and his district depu- 

 ties. This supervision diff'ers from that 

 in the moth work, because the law does 

 not convey to the State Forester the 

 same measure of control over the local 

 moth superintendent. The entire ex- 

 pense of fire-fighting is borne by the 

 towns, except in the case of railroad 



Continued on page 6 



