HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. I'\ Ma€-I>oxig::ill. County Agreut 

 Helen A. Hai-riniaii, Home Oeiii. A;;eiit 

 C. H. Gould. Boys' and Girls" t'lub Leader 



Office First National Bank Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 



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

 Post Oifice at Nortbamptou, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1.S79. 



Price. 50 cents a year 

 $1 a year, including membership in Farm Bui'eau 



Officers of the Farm Bureau 



Leslie R. Smith, President, Hadley 

 William D. Mandell, Treas., Northampton 

 Ernest S. Russell, Secretary, Hadley 



.4DVISOKY BO.VKIJ 



Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 

 Charles R. Damon, Williamsburg 

 Perley E. Davis, Granby 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Warren iVI. King, Northampton 

 William N. Howard, Ware 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 



Soy Beans with Corn for Silage 



Soy beans are used with corn more 

 often than any other crops to increase 

 the feeding value of silage. With the 

 high prices for grain that will undoubt- 

 edly continue for some time, the use of 

 this crop to help make the farm inde- 

 pendent of the live stock feeding problem 

 next winter is well worthy of considera- 

 tion. 



The medium growing varieties have 

 been found to be best adapted to our 

 conditions for silage growing. They 

 may be planted separately or in the row 

 with corn, the latter method being more 

 generally used in this state. When 

 drilled in with corn a bushel of the seed 

 will be sufficient to plant about two acres. 



The Farm Bureau has ordered 10 

 bushels of green medium soy beans from 

 the Agricultural College which will be 

 sold to anyone in Hampshire County for 

 $7.00 a bushel. 



Handling Spring Wheat 



The culture of spring wheat should 

 give trouble to no farmer in this section, 

 accustomed as he generally is to spring 

 oats. The land should be prepared as 

 for oats and seeded as early as possible. 

 Early sowing is the best guarantee of a 

 crop. It is best to sow wheat with a drill 

 where one is to be had, but it can be sown 

 broadcast and hairowed in. The same 

 amount of seed per acre as of winter 

 wheat, or a little more, should be sown. 

 Six or seven pecks per acre is usually 

 enough. Small patches of wheat sown 

 by farmers generally in this northeast- 

 ern section of the country will doubtless 

 add greatly to our wheat supply. 

 Threshers will be supplied by the state. 



Pasture and Silage 



The sales agents of several silo man- 

 ufacturers doing business in the state, re- 

 port a very dull market for their equip- 

 ment, some of them advising that they 

 have not made a single sale in the past 

 sixty days. This is a situation that 

 should be changed, not altogether for the 

 good of the sales agent, but more for 

 that of the herd owner because silage 

 will be more valuable than ever next 

 winter. Experimental data has shown 

 the saving in grain that can be made by 

 the use of silage, and general herd work 

 has proved the value of these experi- 

 ments, yet we find a good many herd 

 owners who have not as yet realized that 

 they can hardly afford to stay in the 

 dairy business without the use of silage 

 as feed for their cattle. With bought 

 feed conditions as they have been this 

 past winter, a silo will go far toward 

 paying for itself in a single season. 

 The greater use of silage and the grow- 

 ing of more nutritious silage crops are 

 two agricultural practices that will be 

 unusually sound as long as the war and 

 resulting high grain prices continue. 



Although the grass season is approach- 

 ing there is no indication as yet of the 

 decline of what in the past were called 

 "grass prices" for grains. This will un- 

 doubtedly lead to the feeding of less 

 grain to live stock on pasture this com- 

 ing season. With good pastures such a 

 feeding system will pay. Where pas- 

 tui-es are limited in either area or quali- 

 ty, it will be well for the herd owner to 

 consider some form of supplemental 

 feeding. For this purpose a summer 

 silo is desirable or soiling crops may be 

 used to advantage. Oats, or oats and 

 peas, millet and corn are considered the 

 more valuable crops for soiling purposes. 

 Provision should be made this spring to 

 provide some means of carrying the 

 herd through the short pasture season. 

 Animals are more easily and economical- 

 ly kept in condition and in good milk 

 flow than they are built up after they 

 have once felt the effect of feed shortage. 

 W. F. Turner. 



Pruning Peach Trees in 1918 



The extraordinarily severe cold of the 

 past winter has doubtless killed prac- 

 tically all the flower buds in most of the 

 peach orchards of the state. We may 

 expect also that there will be more or 

 less injury to the wood especially in 

 orchards located where particularly low 

 temperatures prevailed. 



The bearing habit of the peach is such 

 that the bearing wood is each year 

 further away from the trunk of the tree. 

 It is desirable in years of crop failure to 

 seize the opportunity to cut back the 

 trees and renew the bearing wood nearer 

 the main trunk. In what manner and 

 Concluded on page 6 



The Control of Plant Lice 



Plant lice are very generally present 

 in the orchards of Massachusetts. They 

 are most commonly found in the lower 

 and more dense parts of the tree, and 

 prefer particularly the young, tender, 

 growing twigs. The winter is passed in 

 the egg stage and the tiny, jet-black 

 eggs, about the size of a pinhead, may be 

 found at this season on twigs of last 

 year's growth and to a lesser extent on 

 the larger branches. 



When the buds begin to swell in the 

 latter part of April the eggs hatch and 

 the tiny insects make their way to the 

 g-reen tips of the opening buds. These 

 aphis are all females and give birth to 

 live young. Their numbers increase 

 with great rapidity, but we do not usual- 

 ly notice them until the leaves begin to 

 curl soon after the petals fall. Their 

 work during May and June is especially 

 destructive, for the trees need all their 

 vigor to develop the growing apples. If 

 conditions favor the rapid increase of 

 this pest, the leaves become curled and 

 the fruit is checked in its development. 

 The usual "June drop" fails to occur and 

 the apples on infested branches do not 

 increase in size, but cling tightly to the 

 twigs, forming the familiar "cluster 

 apples." Fruits that escape the earlier 

 attacks may later become knotted and 

 deformed. 



In seasons favorable for their develop- 

 ment the control of plant lice is by no 

 means easy. Since they feed by sucking 

 juices from beneath the surface of the 

 leaf, poison sprays are useless. The 

 only alternative in a contact insecticide 

 that will burn the insect or smother it, 

 and Black Leaf 40 or som.e other tobac- 

 co decoction will be found most efficient. 

 If spraying is neglected until the dam- 

 age is apparent, the insects will be in- 

 side the cuiied-up leaves and the most 

 careful application will not reach them. 

 The most effective spray is that applied 

 just after the buds break in the spring 

 when the green tips of the leaves are 

 showing. Experiments at the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College and else- 

 where show that the dormant spray may 

 be safely deferred until this time, mak- 

 ing it impossible to desti-oy the aphids 

 with the winter strength lime sulfur. 

 For later applications, when dormant 

 strength lime cannot be used. Black Leaf 

 40, 2 of a pint to 100 gallons of water, is 

 very effective. Three to five pounds of 

 dissolved soap should be added to act as 

 a spreader. 



When a pre-blossom spray is applied 

 for scab. Black Leaf 40 may be added to 

 considerable advantage. The soap is 

 then unnecessary. The addition of Black 

 Leaf 40 to the codling moth spray, just 

 after the petals fall, will undoubtedly 

 kill a great many aphids. 



R. A. Van Meter. 



