IJl 



HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



\o]. III. 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS., OCTOBER, 191S 



No. 10 



Ag;ricultural Deferments Defined 



From correspondence reaching the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture it is evident tliat much confusion 

 exists in the minds of many agriculiural 

 workers as to deferment on occupational 

 grounds. With the thought that you 

 may aid in a clearer understanding of 

 this matter by giving it proper publicity, 

 I am calling your attention to a few 

 features of the deferment regulations. 



Deferment may be granted to three 

 groups of agricultural workers : 



(1) Necessary skilled farm labor 

 in necessary agricultural enter- 

 prise. 



(2) Necessary assistant, associate, 

 or hired manager of necessary 

 agricultural enterprise. 



(3) Necessary sole managing, con- 

 trolling, or directing head of 

 ntjcessary agricultural enter- 

 prise. 



The chief questions arising in connec- 

 tion with the first group (deferred Class 

 II) are whether the enterprise is "neces- 

 sary" and whether the laborers are 

 "necessary" and "skilled." The regula- 

 tions of the War Department are that 

 a particular enterprise is necessary only 

 when it is shown "that it is producing 

 an appreciable amount of agricultural 

 produce over and above what is neces- 

 sary for the maintenance of those living 

 on the place." As applied to farm la- 

 borer the word "necessary" means that 

 he is "actually and completely engaged" 

 in agriculture, that his removal "would 

 result in direct, substantial, material 

 loss and detriment to the effectiveness of 

 the agricultural enterpri.se" and that an 

 available supply of persons competent 

 to take his place does not exist. The 

 Board gives consideration to the labor- 

 er's length of service, his study, training, 

 experience, "the extent and value of his 

 qualifications for the capacity in which 

 he is engaged" and "the actual condi- 

 tions which his is engaged" and "the 

 actual conditions which would result 

 from his removal." 



The word "skilled" as applied to farm 

 laborer is perhaps the most difficult to 

 interpret. In the new regulations he is 

 said to be "skilled" when he is "especial- 

 ly fitted for the work in which he is en- 

 gaged." This is the only definition giv- 

 Concluded on page "i 



Boosting One Man's Work is Tractor's 



Chief Advantage 



« 

 The advantage of the tractor, like that 



of most other improved farm machinery, 

 lies not so much in reducing the cost of 

 performing a unit of work as in the fact 

 that it permits one man to do consider- 

 ably more work in a given time, accord- 

 ing to Farmers' Bulletin 96.3 of the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture which is a report of the experiences 

 of over 600 farm-tractor owners on rep- 

 resentative corn-belt farms in Illinois 

 collected during 1917 and the spring of 

 1918. 



This has been true of practically all 

 improved farm machines, the bulletin 

 explains. Even the grain binder, gen- 

 erally considered as one of the greatest 

 agricultural inventions of the century, 

 which has increased about eightfold the 

 acreage one man could handle, has not 

 resulted in decreasing materially the 

 cost of producing grain. 



don't expect cost reduction 

 Men who hope to reduce greatly the 

 cost of farming operations by the pur- 

 chase of a tractor should bear these 

 facts in mind, the Federal specialists 

 point out. -Judging by the experience of 

 tractor users, it is not safe to expect any 

 material reduction in the cost of farm 

 operations per acre through the use of 

 the tractor, but it is safe to expect to be 

 able to increase the crop acreage to a 

 very considerable extent, and, at the 

 same time, the amount of crops which 

 one man can raise. 



Furthermore, it should be remembered 

 that the cost of doing the work with a 

 tractor in most cases can not be directly 

 compared with the cost of doing it with 

 horses, since on farms where tractors 

 are used a number of horses generally 

 are- retained, and any comparison, there- 

 fore, must be made between the cost of 

 operating the farm with horses alone 

 and the cost of operating wath the trac- 

 tor and a cei-tain number of horses. 



Is Phoma Disease in Soil? 



W. L. DORAN, MASS. PLANT PATHOLOGIST 



Fusarium wilt is not, and never has 

 been serious, as compared with other po- 

 tato diseases in Massachusetts. Fus- 

 arium wilt is a disease found commonly 

 in the south, but not here. According 

 to the present knowledge of plant path- 

 ologist, seed treatment with formalde- 

 hyde or corrosive sublimate for the con- 

 trol of common scab and rhizoctonia has 

 no effect whatever upon fusarium. 



Most of the potatoes which have suc- 

 cumbed to the new wilt disease this 

 season have been found to bear the 

 fungus phoma. Other than this, very 

 little information is as yet available con- 

 cerning the disease. In our natural 

 eagerness to apply control measures for 

 plant diseases, we have sometimes gone 

 ahead too fast only to retrace our steps 

 and begin over again as we should have 

 started, that is, with more careful ob- 

 servation and experiment. I believe it is 

 a serious mistake for e.xtension work or 

 remedial legislation to go ahead faster 

 than experimental study. 



In the New England Homestead 

 August 10 it is advocated that state and 

 national authorities should at once 

 quarantine potatoes from infected fields. 

 Such a quarantine takes it for granted 

 that this new disease is transmitted on 

 the seed. Perhaps it is, but let us first 

 devote our energies to proving or dis- 

 proving this theory. Would it be worth 

 while to establish this expensive quaran- 

 tine if the disease-producing organism is 

 already in the soil ready to attack any 

 potatoes when they become sufficiently 

 weakened by drouth, insect attack or in- 

 sufficient plant food? 



Marketing of Local Wheat 



There are two methods for disposing 

 of the wheat which was grown in New 

 England this Fall. The first is sale or 

 custom grinding at a local mill ; the 

 other is sale in car lots to the Food Ad- 

 Concluded on page 7 



Potash and the Crops 



Robert S. Bradley, chairman of the 

 board of directors of the American Agri- 

 cultural Corporation, says there is no 

 better illustration of the influence of 

 German propaganda than the exaggerat- 

 ed opinion held by the American pub- 

 lic as to the value of potash as a fertil- 

 izer. "For many years before the war," 

 he says, "the German Potash Syndicate 

 expended millions of dollars in this 

 country in booming the potash ci'eed un- 

 til our farmer's became obsessed with 

 Concluded on page ti 



