HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. Mn<'I>oui::ill. County Ascnt 

 Helen A. Hnn-iinnn, Home Ileni. Aceiit 

 C. H. Gould, Boys* and Girls' Club Leader 



Office First National Bank Buildings 



Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9. 1915. at the 

 Post Office at Northampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1879. 



Price, 50 cents a year 

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



Officers of the Farm Bureau 



Leslie R. Smith, President, Hadley 

 William D. Mandell, Treas., Northampton 

 Ernest S. Russell, Secretary, Hadley 



ADVISORY HOARD 



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 



What Good Are They? 



What good are they? This is a question 

 that the County Leader imagined many 

 people a.sk. That at least one of the 

 clubs has justified its existance is mani- 

 fest by the comments printed on page 4. 

 We present these few quotations with 

 the belief that they are more convincing 

 than any description that the County 

 Leader could depict, coming as they do 

 from parents whose children have been 

 engaged in the contest this last winter. 



Regarding the Boys' and Girls' Gardens 



The failure- of many boys and girls in 

 their garden work is due to a lack of 

 cooperation on the part of their parents, 

 and this in turn is due to lack of in- 

 formation about the work. This par- 

 ticularly is true of those who live on the 

 farms. 



A child is not going to take any real 

 interest in one row in the family garden 

 or a few plants here and a few more 

 somewhere else. He wants a piece of 

 land all his own to plan and plant and 

 care for all alone. And he wants some- 

 thing more than to call it his; he wants 

 free rein to do with it as he pleases. 

 The parent sometimes fails to get the 

 point of view. He does not see why 

 working in the family garden isn't the 

 same as caring for one's own and feed- 

 ing the farm stock isn't the same as be- 

 longing to the pig club. And by deny- 

 ing his children opportunities for re- 

 sponsibility, he fails to develop that 

 trait in them. Sometimes a boy makes 

 a failure of gardening clearly from his 

 own deficiencies, but most of those who 

 fail never really had a fair chance. 



Whenever the supervisor has been 

 able to visit with the parents a little he 

 has been happily surprised to see how 

 enthusiastic they become when they 

 understand what the project is. They 

 seem to be eager to put themselves out 

 to provide an opportunity for the chil- 

 dren, and it is seldom that their trust is 

 abused. We need the cooperation of the 

 parents above everything else, but it is 

 also essential that the parents get our 

 point of view. 



Management of a Sod Orchard 



While fertilizers will very often in- 

 crease the number of apples set and, by 

 making the trees more vigorous, im- 

 prove the size and quality of the fruit, 

 nevertheless the size of the apples as 

 well as tree growth is largely governed 

 by the moisture supply. Our eff'ort 

 then should be to hold in the soil as 

 much as possible of the spring rainfall. 

 Careful cultivation will probably do this 

 better than any other known method. 

 A very heavy mulch of rubbi.sh is neces- 

 sary to approximate the dust mulch ob- 

 tained by cultivation. 



It is perfectly plain then that the 

 system of taking a hay crop from the 

 orchard and "returning the equivalent" 

 in fertilizers is liable to be disappointing 

 and it usually is in the long run. The 

 trees may get all the plant food they 

 need but we fail to supply them with 

 water. If we could give to our orchards 

 the consideration which our corn fields 

 receive, the fruit stands would soon be 

 handling eastern-grown fruit. 



There are methods of sod manage- 

 ment that give satisfaction under favor- 

 able conditions and in every case they 

 are founded upon a system that builds 

 up a moisture-retaining mulch. The 

 grass is usually cut first in .June and 

 again in September and left where it 

 falls, except in the case of rather small 

 trees. When the grass is too short to 

 make a satisfactory mulch, it is fertil- 

 ized until it does make a good gi-owth. 

 Naturally the mulch obtained in one 

 season is a rather light one but by keep- 

 ing up the practice for several years we 

 are able to build a mulch that has turned 

 many a middle-western orchard from 

 failure to success. 



A great deal of our orchard land can- 

 not be conveniently cultivated and if 

 we must have sod orchards, let us adopt 

 the system that is making money for the 

 other fellow. 



— Massachusetts Aejri. College. 



County Notes 



O. C. Searle & Son of Southampton 

 have a five acre crop that will go far in 

 making a saving on the grain bill for 

 his dairy herd next winter. This is an 

 alfalfa field seeded in August, 1916, now 

 in its second season and with a first 

 cutting about ready to take oflr, .June 1. 

 Mr. Searle has had unusual success with 

 alfalfa due to his care in liming his land, 

 careful ijreparation of seed bed, inocula- 

 tion for alfalfa, and then leaving the 

 field so protected in the fall that the 

 danger from winter killing is reduced 

 to a minimum. Dairymen who have not 

 had success growing alfalfa will be well 

 paid by a visit to the Searle farm to see 

 and talk about this alfalfa field. 



Four Smith College girls recently set 

 out 3000 tomato plants for Hiram Bar- 

 rus of Hockanum. They also have been 

 cutting asparagus in Amherst. 



There is a shrewd boy of South Had- 

 ley who got his garden spaded by direct- 

 ing to that spot several groups of fish- 

 ermen in search of worms. 



1 like this little tragedy as told by C. 

 W. Nelson: 



"As I walked among the paths this 

 morning, plucking flowers, I found in 

 the yellow heart of a lady's slipper, a 

 little brown bee. My first impulse was 

 to shake him out of his honeyed abode, 

 but as I looked at his velvety body and 

 sunlit rainbow w'ings a feeling of foolish 

 tenderness surged over me.. Perhaps 

 there were baby bees at home that would 

 starve if papa bee did not bring back 

 honey, and how useful the little creature 

 was, carrying the pollen from flower to 

 flower! So I moved on, leaving him un- 

 molested. But even as I turned away, 

 thinking these pure, sweet thoughts, the 

 damned thing stung me!" 



Community Market 



On July l-3th, the Northampton Com- 

 munity Market will be open for the first 

 time. We wish to emphasize the im- 

 portance of the new market to producers 

 of food products in towns surrounding 

 Continued on column 3 



The Gov't, nitrate arrived May 9th. 



Northampton. This market represents 

 an opportunity never before open to 

 producers in this vicinity, for disposing 

 of all kinds of farm products. For the 

 information of producers we submit the 

 following working plan : 



Suitable tables will be provided for 

 the display of produce to be sold. A 

 charge of 50<-, payable in advance, will 

 be made for these tables. 



First come, first serve, so far as choice 

 of table is concerned, for the first market 

 day. Thereafter, permanent assign- 

 ments will be made by lot. 



The seller must agree to abide by the 

 rules of the market. Such rules will be 

 publicly posted on the premises. 



Each seller may name the price of his 

 own produce, and may accept orders for 

 Concluded on page i 



