HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. l>Ia(-I>oiit;;ill, C'<iuiity Agent 

 Helen A. Harriinan, Home Deiii. A::«'iit 

 C. H. Gonld. Boys' iilid Girls' Clnl) Leailer 



Office First National Banlv Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9, 1915. at the 

 Post Office at Northampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1879. 



Price, .50 cents a year 

 $1 a year, including membership in Fai-m Bureau 



Officers of the Farm Bureau 



Leslie R. Smith, President, Hadley 

 William D. Mandell, Treas. , Northampton 

 Ernest S. Russell, Secretary, Hadley 



ADVISOKY I$O.VRI> 



Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 

 Charles R. Damon, Williamsburg 

 Perley E. Davis, Granby 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 William N. Howard, Ware 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 



The "Extra" not the " Surplus" 



"Raise all you can, and can the sur- 

 plus," was the slogan for 1917. This 

 will not hold for 1918. A "surplus" is 

 that which remains when a use or need 

 is satisfied. Under present stringencies, 

 it is mere folly to claim that there is or 

 will be an excess of food. There will be 

 no such thing as "surplus." 



We must turn our attention to the 

 "e.xtra." It will be the extra row of 

 beans; the extra acre of potatoes; the 

 extra hog, that will determine whether 

 we eat or do not eat. The shortage of 

 sugar awakens a conception of what a 

 real shortage in staple products would 

 mean. We either have sugar or we do 

 not have it. If we have it, we are care- 

 ful of it. 



And this bring us to a consideration 

 of "conservation." Conservation in 1918 

 means preserving the produce from the 

 extra row; curing the meat from the 

 extra hog, not canning what's left from 

 our garden after we've eaten all we want. 

 And it will not be a question of whether 

 it's cheaper to can beans yourself or buy 

 them at the corner grocei-y store. It's a 

 question of being able to get beans at 

 all. The extra row will supply you 

 whether the corner grocer has them or 

 not. 



St. Lawrence County Farm Bureau, 

 New York, reports 400 to 500 lbs. 16% 

 acid phosphate, per acre on "paint 

 brush" pasture had the effect of replac- 

 ing- the paint brush with native white 

 clover. No grass seed was sown. This 

 is an experiment worth trying on some 

 farms. 



The Boys and Qirls 



In our efforts this year we must not 

 forget the young people. Their work in 

 this campaign, and the training they re- 

 ceive is molding minds that will better 

 grasp the meaning of a crisis and the 

 necessity of concerted action, should a 

 similar emergency occur when their gen- 

 eration is in command. They take up 

 with new ideas. It will be difficult for 

 the most conservative communities to es- 

 cape the propelling force of the young- 

 sters if well organized and instructed. 

 And besides, there is no good reason why 

 a farmer's son should not have the bene- 

 fit of every possible, intimate and whole- 

 some relation to the father's work and 

 business. War or no war, this is what 

 club work seeks to give him. 



"No man knows when the war will 

 end. Against the sort of foe we face no 

 man can guess how long the war must 

 be waged. There is only one thing that 

 we do know to a certainty, and that 

 thing is that the war will be won, no 

 matter how long it takes, nor how much 

 it costs in treasure and blood. And we 

 know, too, that to win that war, armies 

 on the fair fields of France aVe but as 

 chaff before the wind, except as they are 

 supported by other armies as large, as 

 heroic, as devoted to their country and 

 their country's flag, and as ready to 

 undergo sufferings and sacrifices, in the 

 furrows and foundries at home." 



Hon. Carl Vrooman, Ass't. Sec. Agri. 



Under present world conditions, our 

 farmers need a better grasp of the tre- 

 mendous meaning of totals. An agricul- 

 tural expert says, "If every tillable acre 

 in his county could be made to produce 

 just one bushel more we should need 13,- 

 500 trains of 50 cars each to transport 

 it to market." The man with a few 

 acres is not apt to regard his own margin 

 of increase of great value. To be sure, 

 an additional bushel per acre is equiva- 

 lent to a quart or less in the back-yard 

 garden, yet increased production of these 

 small "extras" should be possible for 

 farmers of broad acres and small gardens 

 alike. The world needs more food, and 

 yet more. 



White Qrubs Coming in 1918 



Large flights of May beetles, well 

 known as the parents of the white grubs, 

 destructive cereal and forage insects, 

 occurred in .June, 1917, throughout 

 Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, 

 and parts of other States. These flights 

 mean, says a report of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, that throughout the area 

 affected the white grubs will be destruc- 

 tively abundant in 1918, which will be 

 the second year in the life of the result- 

 ant progeny. — [/. S. D. A. 



Annual Meeting 



The Farm Bureau held its annual 

 meeting Saturday, Jan. 5. About eighty- 

 five members, representing 16 towns; 

 were present. 



The morning session opened with Presi- 

 dent Smith, presiding, and was taken up 

 with officers' and agents' reports and the- 

 election of officers. In the afternoon,^ 

 the audience listened to Senator George 

 H. Ellis, of the State Committee on Food 

 Production, outline the policies of the 

 Committee for 1918, and later discussed 

 with him the immediate needs for the 

 county this season. Miss Laura Corn- 

 stock, State Home Demonstration Agent, 

 very thoroughly outlined the necessity of 

 conservation. 



The essential fact of the meeting im- 

 pressed upon the members present was 

 the growth and increased demand for 

 Farm Bureau work. 



treasurer's report 



Receipts, $8,701 58 



Am't due from different sources, 477 88 



