JUL 10,91 



HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



Coiiti^i 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



Vol. III. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., JUNE, 1918 



No. 6 



Shortage of Bags May Prove Serious 

 to Farmers 



Information has been received to the 

 effect that the government has taken 

 over a great deal of the available ma- 

 terial for making burlap bags .so that 

 there will in all probability, be a serious 

 shortage of bags. 



Farmers should order their fertilizer 

 for fall use as early as possible because, 

 in addition to the bag shortage, the 

 fertilizer supply may be limited and 

 transportation difficulties will make de- 

 liveries uncertain. The greatest delay 

 is apt to occur with orders for less than 

 car lots unless they are placed early 

 enough so that they may be grouped 

 with others to the same destination. In 

 fact, it may be necessary to ship much 

 of the fall supply in bulk which will add 

 materially to the inconvenience of hand- 

 ling. 



Farmers should carefully save all of 

 the bags that they now have since new 

 ones can only be purchased at greatly 

 advanced prices. The United States 

 Food Administration and bag manufac- 

 turers, importers etc., have agreed that 

 the present price should be 25<- f. o. b. 

 tidewater. The price is expected to be 

 raised to 28f or 30(5 soon. Everyone is 

 therefore urged to buy of all the bags 

 that will be needed for the present 

 harvest at once. — Mass. Agr. College. 



Cover Crops 



The time is approaching rapidly when 

 the orchardist should have his plans for 

 orchard cover crops perfected, and be 

 ready to carry them out. If he is going 

 to need to buy seed he ought to do so at 

 once as seed is already scarce and high, 

 and getting more so every day. 



Under these conditions it is certainly 

 wise to choose the cheapest crops that 

 will be at all satisfactory and to use even 

 these as sparingly as possible. I wish 

 therefore, to urge on the orchard owners 

 of the state, as I have done on several 

 former occasions, the possibility of util- 

 izing weeds in orchai-ds for cover crop 

 purposes. 



The functions of a cover crop that we 

 regard as of the greatest importance 

 are, roughly in the order of their im- 

 portance: 1. Preventing washing of the 

 Concluded on page 7 



Fight the Blight 



The time for potato blight to appear 

 is at hand. 



Early blight appears in late .June or 

 early July and is indicated by grayish 

 brown spots in the lower leaves, each 

 surrounded with faint, concentric mark- 

 ings like a target spot. Later, the leaf 

 becomes dried with the part nearer the 

 stalk turning a sickly yellow. This 

 blight never absolutely ruins the crop, 

 but will materially decrease the yield. 

 The so-called flea-beetle, seen in .June 

 and July, is quite often responsible for 

 the entrance of the blight spores. Late 

 blight is the blight which is accompanied 

 by rot of the tuber, the rot being caused 

 by the same organism. The develop- 

 ment of the late blight is largely de- 

 pendent upon muggy weather conditions. 

 Above 78 degrees F. and below .50 de- 

 grees F. germination of the spores does 

 not take place. In sunny weather, the 

 trouble seldom develops. On hill farms, 

 with good air drainage, we find there is 

 less damage than on the low lands. The 

 problem of this disease is one of pre- 

 vention i-ather than of cure. If blight 

 once gets started on a field there is no 

 cure. The best thing that can be done 

 under these conditions is to leave the 

 field alone until ten days after the vines 

 are dead. Early digging of the tubers 

 would not save the crop because the 

 spores of the disease may infect these 

 tubers and cause rotting in storage. 



TREATMENT 



The standard treatment for both early 

 and late blight is Bordeaux mixture, 

 using the formula: 4 lbs. quick lime, 

 4 lbs. copper sulphate (blue vitrei) to 

 50 gal. of water. The lime must be 

 g'ood quality and diluted in about 25 

 gallons of water, the copper sulphate 

 also diluted, before the two are mixed to- 

 gether to make the Bordeaux. This 

 material is toxic to the spores of the 

 blight and if during the growing season 

 the stems and foliage of the potato be 

 kept covered at all times with this pro- 

 tective coating neither disease can de- 

 velop. The following points regarding 

 the use of this spray are worth remem- 

 bering: 1, the Bordeaux must be proper- 

 ly prepared. 2, The finer the spray and 

 the greater the pressure at which it is 

 Concluded on page T 



Qovernment Regulations for Handling 

 Wool Clip for 1918 



The war industries Board has fixed 

 the prices of the 1918 clip of wool as 

 established by valuation committees and 

 approved by the Government as those 

 established on July SO, 1917, at Atlantic 

 seaport markets. These values are fig- 

 ured on scoured basis. 



RIGHTS OF THE GOVERNMENT 



The Government shall have a prior 

 light to acquire all of the 1918 wool clip, 

 of any portion thereof which it may re- 

 quire, at the prices fixed by the War 

 Industries Board. The remainder will 

 be subject to allocation for civilian pur- 

 poses under the direction of the War 

 Industries Board. 



COMPENSATION OF GROWER AND DEALER 



Approved dealers shall be entitled to 

 a gross profit in no case to exceed li 

 cents per pound on the total season's 

 business, this profit to cover all expenses 

 fi'om gi'ower to loading wool on board 

 cars. 



The grower shall receive fair prices 

 for his wool based on the Atlantic Sea- 

 board price as established on July SO, 

 1917, less the profit to the dealer, as 

 .stated above, and less freight to sea- 

 board, moisture, shrinkage, and interest. 



In no case shall this be construed to 

 mean that there shall be more than 11^ 

 cents gross profits made from time wool 

 leaves growers' hands until it arrives at 

 the distributing center. 



POOLING BY GROWERS IS ADVISED 



Growers who desire to do so will be 

 allowed to pool their clips in quantities 

 of not less than minimum carloads of 

 16,000 pounds and consign the wools so 

 pooled as one account to any approved 

 dealer in any approved distributing 

 center. Growers are urged to adopt 

 this latter course through county agents 

 or others, thus eliminating the profits 

 of one middle man. 



DISTRIBUTING CENTERS 



The only exception is that clips of 

 under 1000 pounds may be sold by the 

 owner. In buying these small clips, the 

 buyer must recognize that he is entitled 

 to only a small profit, which must not 

 exceed 2 cents per pound. Growers, if 

 they desire for any reason to consign 

 Concluded on page 6 



