The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-04-12

II the Monthly News Letter sent
| out by County Agent \. ". Sweeton
to the members of the. Wndham
| County Agricultural association The
| following is stated under the heading
Plans for Spring Work:
"A number OF people in each town
! have expressed the desire to have soil
| samples taken and tested for lime re-
| quiremelt. As soon as the reads are
| in shape for automobiles the agent
viii visit these men and take the r
/ samples and make a report to them
| within a few days. Your town direc-
/ tor will be notified sometime ahead
! and anyone wishing soil samples tax
| en- at this time should notify him or
write directly to your county gent.
| Miss Bessie NJ. Thayer, home
| economies specialist of the Vermont
! extension service, will be in the oun-
! ty on May 10, Il, IS and 10, TO DIS
| cuss topics Of interest to women. APP
| pointments have already been made
| for meetings in West Brattleboro.
| Brattleboro and Wardsboro. At these
meetings the ladies will have their
! choice between q discussion on the
| Principles of Ford Selection and a
/ demonstration of SeasJnable Dishes
! for the Spring Menus. This work is
! given by the Vermont extension agri-
| cultural service. We shall be glad to
hear from anyone in regard to hold
ing one of these meetings in their
community.
There is much pruning that must
be done if Windham county is to live
up to the reputation which it gained
1t the New England fruit show last
o tober. This viii have to be done
IN the next few weeks if it is to bene-
tit US this season. Would not prun-
ing demonstration or a conference on
the latest developments in pruning
and spraying help toward getting
more of this done in your community 7
These pruning demonstrations and
conferences will be in order dur ny
April and We shall be glad TO hear
from anyone in regard to holding one.
Plans for the 1916 crop demonstra-
tons are under way. This season
there will be work with soy beans,
corn varieties, alfalfa, apples and linn
ing. There will be fifteen or twenty
plots of SOY beans to show the me-
thods of growing this crop to improve
our silage. There Will be several
tests of corn varieties to show the rel
alive value of the early maturing
kinds for silage. There viii be some
twenty fields where the value of lime
in the growing of clover will be
shown. There will be one or two
pruning and spraying demonstration,
to show the results of these opera
tons. Plans for the alfalfa work vii
appear in another number of the New
Letter.
The News Letter contains also III
rections for planting and harvesting
soy beans and much other informa
ton concerning that crop, with thi
introduction:
among the troubles of the Wind
! ham county dairyman are the graiI
I bill and the fertilizer bill. If thes,
! could be cut down and the value o.
! the product kept up it would NEAR
/ much to the profit side of the account
The value OF the legume crops to d.
{ this trick, and give us home grown
protein and soil fertility at the sam,
| time has not been appreciated. ",
should grow more clover, more Cana
dian peas, more alfalfa, and we shout,
get acquainted with the SOY bean, +,
new le@ume which seems to do wei
/ here IN southern Vermont.
The SOY bean is 4 native of JapaI
/ and China and It Is now being grown
! IL many parts Of the United States
This crop is not sensitive to soil acid
ity, it Will stand a light frost, an(
will do well where corn thrives. IT.
rank growth and its high protein con
tent make it especially adapted to cut
ting into the siIo with corn. TIL S nj
trogen- gathering plant makes very
heavy growth of root nodules, which
contribute much to the store of sol
fertility.
Among a variety of other things
the News Letter gives the following
information:
"The Association as organized il
1913 with a membership of four hun
dred Since then a county agent ha
been maintained with a desk in th,
town clerk office, Brattleboro, ant
an automobile to travel about tn
county.
''The expenses of thiS work are
| paid by Joint contributions from tn
| | Z. S. department of agriculture, tn
| Vermont state college, and Windhan
/. county, together with the annual fe
of one dollar paid by the member
of the association To hold these az
= preparations for Windham county tn
law requires that there shall be
strong county organization with a
q least two hundred paid up members.
County agents being supporte
I partly by public money may be Gale
\ upon by any taxpayer in the count,
I However, the agents are hired by an
1 responsible to the county associatio
! and the state authorities.
/ "Some of the things that paid-u
! member may expect are:
l 81. The privilege to vote in IL
] annual meeting, thus having a say
] the selection of officers, the choosir
I of the agent and in all the affairs
/ the county work.
I 60 A copy of the News Letter,
sued monthly, containing reports
the work of their county agent and
q the important agricultural devele