HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



JUL 1 0191» 



^Ollti^ii 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



Vol. III. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., MAY. Iflls 



No. 5 



Profitable Now to Grow More Feed 



Feed Bills are Ruining the D.\iry 

 Industry — It will be only a matter of 

 time, and a short time at that, before 

 dairymen are forced out of business un- 

 less they turn to raising more corn, 

 clover and other crops of high feeding 

 value instead of such a large acreage of 

 hay of low feeding value. Conditions 

 have changed and it is no longer possible 

 to buy feeds at market prices and com- 

 pete successfully with dairymen of other 

 sections who grow a much larger portion 

 of the ration. 



Feed Prices Fell for Thirty Years 

 — During the thirty years following the 

 civil war, there was a tremendous ex- 

 pansion of North American agriculture, 

 both in total acreage, due to the develop- 

 ment of labor saving farm machinery. 

 Over-production of farm crops was re- 

 flected in declining prices of grains. 

 During the latter part of this era prices 

 were so low that Eastern dairymen 

 found it more profitable to buy large 

 amounts of concentrated feeding stuffs 

 than to go to the expense of growing 

 crops of high feeding value. A very 

 large percentage of the improved land 

 was allowed to lie in hay. That system 

 of farming still persists but has long 

 outlived its usefulness as the conditions 

 which brought it about have disap- 

 peared. There are no more cheap feeds 

 nor are there likely to be. 



Feed Prices have been Rising for 20 

 Years — Since 1897, consumption has 

 overtaken production, the tide of prices 

 has turned sharply upward and economi- 

 cal production of dairy products solely, 

 or even largely, on the basis of pur- 

 chased commercial feeds has become al- 

 most impossible. The increase in prices 

 since the outbreak of the war has been | 

 particularly rapid but has been offset in I 

 part by increases in the prices of dairy 

 products. Hay, which exceeds all other | 

 crops in acreage by a wide margin, has 

 not increased in price nearly so greatly 

 as the grains and concentrated feeding 

 stuffs and hence is relatively less profit- 

 able to grow than it was ten to twenty 

 years ago when the price of a ton of hay 

 would buy nearly a ton of grain. 



Advancing Feed Prices Force a Rad- 

 ical Change in Cropping System — The 

 time has come to cut down the acreage 

 Concluded on page 6 



EN ROUTE 



Corn 



For the past two months the matter 

 of testing seed corn has been put up to 

 the farmers from every angle. The 

 farmer who has planted untested seed 

 corn has run a grave chance of getting 

 a most disappointing stand of corn this 

 spring. Much low testing seed has been 

 found and discarded, which should re- 

 sult in better stands of corn throughout 

 the country. 



It is to be hoped that the agitation 

 over poor germinating seed has not ob- 

 scured the other factors that go to make 

 a profitable corn crop. Even a perfect 

 stand will not make the greatest possible 

 yield if cultivation is not done at the 

 right time and in the right way. A 

 weedy corn field means that the crop will 

 be short, and made up largely of nubbins. 

 The use of a spiked tooth harrow or a 

 weeder on the coi'n field when the corn 

 is small, kills many weeds when they 

 are just coming up and are easy to root 

 out and saves more expensive row culti- 

 vation later on. Later cultivations 

 when the corn roots have spread out 



TO WORTHINGTON EXTENSION SCHOOL 



The Plum Curculio 



The plum curculio is a gray-brown, 

 hard shelled insect about a quarter of an 

 inch long and equipped with a long 

 snout. It is responsible for the common 

 white worms in peaches, plums and 

 cherries, while apples and pears are 

 scarred and gnarled by the feeding and 

 egg laying punctures of the adults. 



The beetles pass the winter under 

 grass, leaves, or rubbish in the orchard, 

 or in neighboring woodlands. For this 

 reason they are most prevalent in sod 

 orchards and in orchards that border on 

 uncultivated tracts of land. They ap- 

 pear early in spring and feed on the 

 leaves until the fruit is set, when they 

 commence to lay eggs in the newly set 

 fruits. The egg-laying punctures are 

 marked by a crescent shaped cut and are 

 easily recognized. The feeding punc- 

 tures are round holes eaten through the 

 skin of the fruit. The eggs hatch into 

 the familiar white worm so common in 

 our stone fruits. The worms seldom ap- 

 pear in apples or pears because the rapid 



should be shallow so as to disturb these ^'^^^^^ °^ ^^^^ y°"ng fruit crushes the 



roots as little as possible. Indications 

 are that an increa.sed acreage of corn 

 has been planted in the County this 

 year, but timely and proper cultivations 

 must follow if we are to get the abun- 

 dant harvest that this country needs for 

 feed for both the people and the live- 

 stock on our farms. 



Tool sheds haven't risen in price near- 

 ly so fast as farm machinery. 



egg. They may develop, however, in 

 fallen fruits and probably in the slower 

 growing apples. The larvae become full 

 grown about mid.'iummer, pupate in the 

 ground, and the new crop of beetles 

 feeds on the fruit the rest of the sum- 

 mer. 



Injured plums and peaches usually 

 fall to the ground. If they remain on 

 the tree they ripen prematurely and rot 

 Concluded on page 6 



