HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. MaoDousall, County Agont 

 Helen A. Harriman, Home I)eiu. AKeiit 

 O. H. Gould. Boys' and Girls' Club Leader 



Office First National Bank Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 

 Entered as sficond class matter Nov. Si, 1015, at the 

 Post Office at Nortbamptou, 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 

 William D. Mandell, Treas., Northampton 

 Ernest S. Russell, Secretary, Hadley 



ADVISORY BOARD 



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 



Hogs and Corn 



"Here is a mistake that many are 

 making in their figuring on the hog and 

 corn situation. A man will write: 'I 

 fed my hogs on corn that I could have 

 sold for $1.50 a bushel and then sold the 

 hogs for $14 a hundred. If I had sold 

 my corn I would have got $19.50, be- 

 cause, according to the 13 to 1 ratio, 

 there were 13 bushels of corn in each 100 

 pounds of hog, and 13 times $1.50 equals 

 $19.50. Therefore, I am losing $5.50 on 

 every hundred pounds of hogs I sell, and 

 ■work and risk thrown in.' Now, this 

 man is not merely making one mistake in 

 his reckoning. He is making a whole 

 row of them. 



"In the first place, the finding of the 

 committee of hog experts did not say and 

 did not mean that it takes 13 bushels of 

 corn to make 100 pounds of hog. The 13 

 to 1 ratio in reality offers a price which 

 puts a substantial premium on hogs over 

 the amount of corn necessary to grow 

 them under average conditions. 



"An average of six feeding trials at 

 the Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Indi- 

 ana Experiment Stations (reported in 

 Purdue University Extension Bulletin 

 No. 39) gives the amount of corn re- 

 quired to make 100 pounds of pork as 

 586.2 pounds, or slightly les.s than 10.5 

 bushels. This is for corn, fed alone, un- 

 der dry lot conditions. Here is a pre- 

 mium of 2.5 bushels to pay for the feed- 

 ing and the risks. Besides, fertility is 

 maintained by feeding the corn on the 

 farm. 



A PREMIUM ON WISE FEEDING 



"In addition to this, the farmer who 

 lets his hogs follow cattle and turns in- 



Have You Earned Your Right to Criticise? 



We Have Heard in a general way that food will win the war. Unfortu- 

 nately we Americans do not realize what this means until we get the pinch some- 

 where. The heatless days in this cold weather have brought the subject home to 

 us in a forceful manner. If we could only realize what food cards mean! Per- 

 haps we had bsttsr go on food cards right away, not because we have to, per- 

 haps, but because we ought to. We ought to put ourselves on exactly the same 

 footing with our friends in France and England. 



The Time to Prevent a food shortage is before food gets short. An extra 

 cold winter, a deplorable seed corn situation, to say nothing of a discontented 

 countryside, bring us the lesson we all need. If we fuss and fumble through 

 1918 as we have the first three years of the war, the shadow of many of our pot- 

 bellied friends will grow less. 



Perhaps after it is too late we will undertake to put our acres under martial 

 law instead of doing it now when we have the opportunity. We, none of us, have 

 any right to squeal. The people in the open country are so much better off than 

 people of like fortunes in the towns and cities. The man who is on a salary 

 which cannot be raised is the man who is getting scared. Evei-y farmer is get- 

 ting at least his three meals a day and he cannot understand the pinch of hunger. 



Every American farmer and every American community must undertake 

 to raise all that it can for itself and support another community of like size some- 

 where else. Does this seem to be sounding brass and tinkling cymbal? Do you 

 realize it yourself? Do you know what you are going to do? Are you going to 

 lay around as you always have done, "watchfully waiting," or are you going to 

 farm as well as you know how? 



What is the Reason you are not going to raise more food in 1918 than you 

 have ever done before? 



Is it money? Is it labor? Is it seeds? It is high time that your community 

 should be organized to look after these things. 



Our old lazy plan of "every-man-for-him-self-and-to-hell-with-the-rest" must 

 be changed. We must realize that we belong to the community and that every 

 man-jack of us has a duty to perform for that community. It may be necessary 

 for every man to be registered according to his ability to do something. It may 

 be necessary to give every man a stunt which he must accomplish under penalty. 

 Our weakness lies in our inability to concentrate. Whenever there is a flood, a 

 fire, explosion or other catastrophe, the true American character rises to the 

 surface, but as soon as the exigency has passed we all go to sleep again. We 

 need an Iroquois theater fire before we use asbestos curtains. Perhaps it is 

 necessary for us to get a few jolts from this war before we appreciate that every 

 man has a public service to perform. 



Do You Know What Your Public Service Is? Are you going to do just as 

 little as you can to get by? Are you going to wait to be compelled to do your 

 duty? This is an instance where every farm bureau, every commercial club and 

 every other kind of organization must hold, meetings to face the situation to 

 parcel out the jobs and to hold every man responsible. 



If food will win the war, our farmers must raise food. If our farmers can- 

 not do it alone, everybody must raise food. It is just as important to raise food 

 under military authority as it is to make cannons, shot and shell. It is no differ- 

 ent, and the man who does not do his best to raise more food because he thinks 

 he is not going to get as much as he should for it is the meanest kind of a slacker. 

 Every acre must give its full quota. What has been done in your community? 



Nothing? 



Well, it is not too late. "The County Agent." 



to pork anything on his farm which 

 would otherwise have gone to waste is 

 .getting part of his hogs' weight as a 

 gift. He can produce another large per- 

 centage of each 100 pounds by various 

 forage crops, many of which at the same 

 time improve his soil. By the amount 

 the farmer can manage to grow his hogs 

 on other and cheaper things than corn 

 he can increase his profits over the 

 normal corn-fed premium. 



"Thus, instead of 13 bushels, it takes 

 acording to actual experiment, less than 

 lOJ to make 100 pounds of pork, and by 

 using skillful hog-raising methods thi.s 

 amount may be cut down a good deal 

 lower yet." — Swine World. 



The reason sugar is scarce is because 

 Mr. Hoover told France she could have 

 some, and she got it. 



The Allies tell us they need 75,000,000 

 bushels of wheat. They will get it, and 

 flour will be scarce. 



Y'ou will get all the sugar and flour 

 you want, for after all, when you under- 

 ! stand the real reason for conservation, 

 you won't want much. Take pains to 

 know the reason for conservation and 

 production. Go to your town Food Sup- 

 ply Meeting and learn these facts. 



