HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 

 BOYS' AND GIRLS' WORK 



CHAULKS H. GOILI), Leader 



How I Made My Crop of Corn 



BY ROGER JOHXSON, HADLEY 



my fourth year in the 



This is my fourth year in the Corn 

 Club. The first two years that I was in 

 the Corn Club I raised and cared for the 

 crop as my father did, but was not satis- 

 fied with the crops, which were a little 

 over fifty bushel to the acre or with the 

 profits which were only a few dollars. 



Last year, I raised the corn the way I 

 wanted to. The chief thing I did differ- 

 ently, was to put one-thii'd of a ton of 

 commercial fertilizer on my acre, besides 

 the five two-horse loads of manure that 

 my father put on each acre. I harvest- 

 ed eighty-four bushels of corn from my 

 acre and the profit was $82, but part of 

 the increase in profit was due to the 

 higher price of corn. 



Because of my large crop we had more 

 corn than we needed on the farm. We 

 sold some corn for seed at $4.00 a bushel, 

 part we shelled and sold at $3.34 a hun- 

 dred, and part of the corn we shelled, 

 ground, sifted and sold for household 

 use, in paper bags, four pounds for a 

 quarter. 



This spring I bought one-third of a 

 ton of unmixed fertilizer from A. W. 

 Higgins of Westfield. The analysis was 

 six per cent niti-ogen and nine and three- 

 tenths per cent of phosphoric acid. In- 

 cluding the cost of mixing, the fertilizer 

 cost $13.40. 



The seed I used was some that we 

 raised on the farm last year and tested 

 about ninety-eight percent. We have 

 raised the eight row, yellow flint corn on 

 our farm for a long time and selected 

 the seed each year so that it is very good 

 now. 



May 21, I put four two-horse loads of 

 manure on my acre, and in the next four 

 days ploughed, harrowed and planted 

 the corn. The soil is a sandy loam and 

 easily prepared. I ploughed seven inches 

 deep and harrowed twice with a disk 

 harrow and once with a wheel, smooth- 

 ing harrow. I planted the corn on May 

 26, with a one-horse planter in rows 

 three feet apart. 



During the summer I cultivated the 

 corn tvrice, hoeing the corn after each 

 cultivation. There were few weeds on 

 my acre but the ground would not have 

 retained the moisture very well if I had 

 not cultivated and hoed the corn. 



The corn was damaged a little by a 

 wind and rain storm on July 21. Sep- 

 tember 10 a frost killed the upper half 

 of the stalks but did not injure the ears 

 hardly any. 



I cut the corn on September 21 and 

 22. The bundles, I tied with string and 

 put eight bundles in a stack. 



Concluded on page 5 



CORN AND HOGS 



The Story of My Pig 



BY MAHY E. WHITE, HADLEY 



This spring everyone was doing his 

 'bit.' Some of the young men of the 

 j town had enlisted, the farmers were 

 I planting more vegetables, and people in 

 the cities ploughed their back yards 

 ' and planted them. I wanted to do some- 

 thing to help. I didn't know just what 

 to do. My father suggested that I join 

 the Pig Club. 



I had never raised one before but I 

 thought I would try to, and to do my 

 ' best at it. 



I I went to Sunderland with Mr. Gould 

 of the Hampshire County Farm Bureau 

 ' and selected a pig at Mr. Hubbard's 

 farm. This was the fifteenth of May. 



I paid cash for it so as to save interest 

 on the money. The pig cost me seven 

 ( dollars. 



It is a Chester White pig and not 

 registered. I selected this pig because 

 Mr. Gould advised me to. 



I named my pig 'Benjamin' because 

 that is the name of the biggest man in 

 our village. 



Benjamin weighed thirty pounds June 

 ' 1st. 



I gave him plenty of fresh water and 

 plenty of grass. 



I fed him milk, Red Dog Middlings 

 and Hominy meal. 



He was always hungry and was veiy 

 tame. 



One day I put him out to pasture but 

 the sun was too hot for him and he near- ' 

 ly got a sun stroke. 



I brought him out of the sun and by 

 night he was feeling all right once more. 



I had lots of visitors to see Benjamin, 

 including Professor Rice, the state pig 

 club leader. Mi-. Gould and Mr. Burke. 

 They gave me advice and instructions 

 which I followed as closely as possible. 



I fed him in a V shaped trough three 

 times a day. 



It cost me twenty-three dollars to 

 raise Benjamin, that includes the seven i 

 dollars that I paid for him and my time, j 



With pork valued at twenty cents a 

 pound he is now worth $50.20. That is 

 a gain of $29.20. 



I enjoyed my summers work and next 

 year I intended to raise two pigs and to 

 try harder than ever. 



At present Benjamin is at the Eastern 

 States Exposition at Springfield and I 

 am very proud of him. He weighs two 

 hundred and seventy-one pounds and he 

 has taken the first prize. 



Club members never travel over the 

 road to fame on a pass. 



How I Made My Crop of Corn 



BY JOHN DEVINE, HADLEY. 



There is no need of my saying how I 

 became interested in club contests, for I 

 have been a consistent winner in this 

 work during the last four years, win- 

 ning two firsts, a second, a third and a 

 fourth prize. I enjoy this kind of work 

 very much because it not only makes one 

 think but it also gives one a fair knowl- 

 edge of how to figure accounts in a more 

 accurate way. 



This is the fifth year that I have taken 

 an acre of corn for my club plat. In 

 the preparation of the soil this year, I 

 plowed my acre in the spring, to a depth 

 of eight inches, next I harrowed and 

 sowed one-half ton of Berkshire Fertil- 

 izer broadcast, harrowing it in with a 

 smooth harrow. This last operation not 

 only smoothed the surface but also made 

 a fine mulch. 



In a day or so I mai'ked off my field 

 in squares three and one-half feet apart, 

 and on May 30th, I planted my seed in 

 the hills. This method made it possible 

 to cultivate my crop both ways and thus 

 keep the soil in a better condition. 

 Furthermore, I believe that doing the 

 labor with horses is a large saving. 



For about a week and a half the seed 

 lay hidden in the soil taking in such 

 foods as it needed for its journey 

 through the season. Then the little 

 spears of corn began to break through 

 the ground and as a reward for my care- 

 ful preparation of the soil it came up 

 very well. It grew rapidly for the first 

 month or so, when it began to suffer for 

 want of rain. It just happened that 

 rain came before the dry weather had 

 destroyed my crop. 



During the summer I cultivated my 

 corn four times, once crossways. This 

 was to keep the ground loose on top and 

 thus enable it to retain the moisture 

 when it would otherwise have become 

 baked down, allowing the sun and warm 

 breezes to dry the ground out. This is 

 the principal way that I saved my crop 

 during the dry spell. 



The corn was damaged to some extent 

 on July 21st by a wind and hail storm. 

 On September 10th, Jack Frost killed 

 the tops of the stalks of my corn but did 

 not get the ears as my corn was the tall 

 kind. 



Before cutting my corn I picked off 

 two bushel of the very best ears for seed 

 and strung them up and stored them in 

 the shop for next season. 



I harvested my crop and allowed it to 

 stand stacked up in the lot for about 

 three weeks, which gave it a good chance 

 to dry out. I husked the corn from the 

 stack in the field and carried it to the 

 Concluded on ]>age 5 



