HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



A. F. 3I:n'I)4ma:all. County AK«'nt 

 Helen A. Hni'i'iiiian, Home Deiii. AK<'»t 

 C. H. Gould. Boys' aud Girls' Club Leader 



Office First National Bank Building 



Northampton, Mass. 



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

 Post Office at Nortbampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8. 18T9. 



Price. 50 cents a year 



$1 a year, Inchidintr memliership in Farm Bui-eau 



Officers of the Trustees 



Leslie R. Smith, President 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Vice-President 

 William D. Mandell, Treasurer 

 Charles H. Gould, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Leslie R. Smith, Hadley 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Warren M. King-, Northampton 

 J. A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 William N. Howard, Ware 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 



County Agents Overcome Difficulties 



Human-interest stories come to the 

 Department of Agriculture each day 

 from its workers throughout the country. 



Such items, not generally used in Gov- 

 ernment reports, nor regarded as the 

 equal of statistical records, nevertheless 

 help interpret tabular statements, says 

 the department. They enable the staff 

 members in Wa.shington to read between 

 the lines of formal reports. Even pro- 

 saic expense accounts may carry an ex- 

 planation that tells volumes about the 

 agents' work. Those who check the ac- 

 counts are supposed to have an eye sole- 

 ly for question of compliance with fiscal 

 regulations, and are likely to disallow ex- 

 pense items not strictly in accord with 

 established precedent. When they get 

 a bill from a woman home demonstra- 

 tion agent for a high ferriage where no 

 ferry exists, or are asked to pay for a 

 railway handcar, they must know the 

 reason. 



FERRIAGE BY HAND 



The reasons may come in some such 

 form as this: 



"Regarding the item for ferriage I ' 

 submit the following facts: The train' 

 which was to have taken me to the junc- 

 tion point, from which I could have had 

 train service to the little town where a 

 canning demonstration was to be held, 

 was several hours late. 



"I had been told by telephone that 200 

 farm women would be present, many of 

 them coming from long distances, and in 

 all sorts of vehicles, including ox carts; 



others even on foot. I felt that I could 

 not disappoint this crowd, and tried to 

 arrange for a boat to take me the 4 miles 

 acioss the tide arm of Blank River in- 

 stead of the 28 miles I would have had 

 to travel around by rail if the train had 

 been on time. Finally a very small boat 

 was found. 



"But the tide was out; there was more 

 than a quarter of a mile of mud flats, 

 with mud a foot deep between dry land 

 and the boat. Two men carried me this 

 distance, and then all three of us had to 

 get in a boat barely capable of carrying 

 two, because there was another mud flat 

 equally extensive on the other side, and 

 I had to be carried out on that side. 



"When you consider that it was a very 

 hot day, with no breeze — else oui' boat 

 would have been swamped — and that I 

 weigh 200 pounds, I think that the dol- 

 lar for ferriage is a reasonable charge. 

 I made the engagement, and the way the 

 audience responded to the demonstration 

 persuades me the money was well spent." 



BORROWED A HANDCAR 



The explanation on the handcar was 

 more laconic. It came from a man 

 agent who was to explain the county 

 demonstration work to an isolated com- 

 munity back in the mountains. There 

 were other men in the party at the start, 

 a general program having been arranged 

 to include demonstrations by specialists 

 from the State college of agriculture. 

 The report was about as follows: 



"Promised to hold meeting at Dry 

 Forks; cloudburst took out railroad in 

 valley this side. No trains running. 

 Never missed an engagement yet, and 

 too early to begin missing them now. 

 Seed-corn man and I took handcar, went 

 as far as we could, pushing car on foot 

 where water was deep. Finally had to 

 swim for it had abandoned car, which 

 was washed down stream when embank- 

 ment gave way later. No rain on other 

 side of mountain, and rousing meeting. 

 Lots of good accomplished ; work started 

 with a vim. Handcar cheap at the 

 price." 



BETTER THAN A HOTEL BED 



An Arizona county agent has convert- 

 ed his automobile into a 24-hour-a-day 

 convenience. During his waking hours 

 he keeps the machine busy in traveling 

 among his farmer clientele; at night he 

 can use the car for sleeping quarters. 

 He has hinged the lean back of the front 

 .seat so that it can be let down to com- 

 plete a comfortable cot with the front 

 and back seats. His ingenuity enables 

 him to cover a larger territory with a 

 minimum of back travel to his home or 

 to other stopping points, while it saves 

 him money in the way of hotel bills. 

 Moreover it makes him independent of 

 difficulties due to poor hotel accommo- 

 dations, or due to no accommodations at 

 all. 



Those Wejterners 



BUSINESS MEN SING AND SHOCK WHEAT 



Sixty business men of Worland, Wyo.,^ 

 and the marching song "Where Do We 

 Go From Here, Boys," are held respon- 

 sible for the expeditious shocking of 200 

 acres of wheat near Worland in one re- 

 cent evening. In the afternoon a farm- 

 er asked the county agent to furnish 20 

 volunteers. The county agent called on 

 the Alfalfa Club, which had promised to 

 help out any farmer behind in his work, 

 and 60 men responded. The farmer's 

 100 acres seemed no job at all to the en- 

 thusiastic sixty, so they began singing 

 the song. When they fini.shed singing 

 two other farmers found their wheat had 

 been shocked, and that town help had 

 piled more grain in the balance against 

 the Kaiser. 



WOMEN REGULATE COOKING FOR THRASH- 

 ERS 



At a recent town.ship meeting conduct- 

 ed by the home demonstration agent in 

 Marion County, Iowa, women from all 

 parts of the township took up the need 

 for simplifying the cooking for thrash- 

 ers. It was decided that they served too 

 great a variety of foods especially 

 sweets, and that as many of the thrash- 

 ers in that section could go home tO' 

 supper too much was made of the even- 

 ing meal. A committee composed of one 

 woman from each school district drew^ 

 up an agreement which was taken to all 

 farmers' wives in the county. It recom- 

 mended less elaborate cooking and less 

 variety, and stipulated that the thrashers 

 should go home to supper whenever pos- 

 sible, thus saving waste in preparation 

 and strength of the women, each of 

 whom must serve dinner for some 30 

 men during thrashing time. 



Garden Waste for Poultry 



It is incumbent upon every one to see 

 that waste garden stuff is used for ani- 

 mals. Poultrymen should learn the 

 whereabouts of such material in their 

 neighborhood and should not be con- 

 sidered immodest in asking for it. On 

 the other hand, people who do not keep 

 poultry should offer such material to 

 those who do. 



There will be found at this time of the 

 year in most gardens more or less green 

 or succulent material such as unde- 

 veloped cabbages, kalo, Swiss chard, 

 mangles, unused sweet corn, small po- 

 tatoes and turnips, beets and carrots 

 either over-grown or too woody for 

 household use. They can either be fed 

 now or preserved for winter use. Cab- 

 bages, kale, etc. may be left growing in 

 the garden and fed as needed until freez- 

 ing weather comes, at which time they 

 should be pulled and placed on the north 

 side of a building and covered with a 

 small amount of straw, hay, weeds or 

 other waste just before snow comes. 



