The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-06-29

United States Department of Agriculture
cooperating Mr.. Sweeton, by his expert
advice and assistance, has saved the farm
lers of the county thousands of dollars and
incidentally has been of general benefit to
the whole county. He began his work
April %, 1913, but no comprehensive re-
port Of the purposes and results of his eff
forts ever has been made The Reformer
takes pleasure in presenting to its read
ers herewith Mr.. Sweeton's report cover
ing the past two years, which is here made
public for the first time:
Members of the Windham County Agri-
cultural Association:
After two years of work spread over the
790 square miles of Windham county, it
seems advisable to stop and see what has
been undertaken and what has been ac-
fcomplished. Many farms have been visited
and many farmers interviewed in an effort
| to get a line on some of the farm problems
which the county association could help
in solving. The opinions and suggestions
received have varied considerably, but
without exception all trace back to the one
| great obiect-to make the farm pay better
| More paint on the buildings, better
churches, better education, are possible
when a man has little spare money in
his pocket Without it most of these are
! impossible
| Thus far all the work which has been
undertaken, whether it be pruning, spray
| ing cow testing, or home mixing of fer
tilizer has been aimed at the one object
| of making the farms pay better. This
work has been divided into three main
/ lines-apples, cows, and hay. We have
/ been advocating pruning and spraying to
improve the quality of the apple crop. We
/ have advocated better feeding, individual
records and the wedding out of low produ-
GERS, to improve the dairy profits. We
| have advocated more lime before seeding
and the application of available fertilizer
early each spring to increase the hay
yield. Other lines of work taken up are
alfalfa, lining, home mixing of chemi-
Gals, boys and girls club work, co-opera-
tive buying of lime and chemicals, the
raising Of seed potatoes, agricultural auto
lmobile tours, etc
/ APPLES. Scattered throughout the
county are thousands of bearing apple
trees which should be producing one of
our best cash crops. If these trees were
: properly pruned and sprayed the value of
sands of dollars. As a step toward the
: better care of these trees, 40 pruning
2 demonstrations and IA spraying demon.
: stratons have been held in different parts
? of the county. These have been small
Ineighborhood meetings and have been held
: wherever a few farmers would get together
: in nearby orchard. At these demonstra
> tions several trees were actually pruned
or sprayed before the crowd, with ques
: tions, discussions, and explanations along
q through the operations. At some meet
0 ings very interesting discussions have de
: veloped.
: The county association purchased bar
rel pump and outfit which was used a
the spraying demonstrations, the owner o
the orchard supplying the materials anC
lpart of the labor. Where convenient
trees which had been treated at som'
pruning demonstration were sprayed a
9 this time, and thus for the first time il
many communities there were a few tree
which had been both pruned and sprayed
e These served as demonstration trees,
a and the fruit showed considerable improve
i lment.