by Joe Parzych
The experimental White Coal Farm was owned by the Turners Falls Company. This corporation was founded by Alvah Crocker, who also founded Turners Falls, a village in the town of Montague, MA. Crocker used the term “White Coal” in reference to cheap water power produced by the power canal by the Turners Falls Dam. It may also have referred to the pumping of irrigation water using the flow of water through a penstock to power a water ram.
Crocker saw opportunities at every turn. A shaker and a mover, he began working in a paper mill in Fitchburg as a young man, and soon bought the mill, eventually buying several others, as well. He became president of the Boston & Fitchburg Rail Road, was active in politics as both a representative and a senator at state and federal levels. He not only founded the Turners Falls Company in 1868, and the village of Turners Falls, Continue reading
Category Archives: New England Farm Weekly
Grazing livestock
by Katie Navarra
Grazing livestock have the potential to maximize or exceed their daily intake requirements ultimately leading to increased production than if fed stored forages.
“Well-managed pastures are generally higher in quality than any other forage,” Karen Hoffman, Resource Conversationalist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, said. Livestock allowed to graze consume the plant when it is in the vegetative stage of growth before it sends out a seed head.
“The plant will be lower in fiber, which means it is more easily digested by the animal, with the help of bacteria in the rumen of the animals that have one,” she added. Pastures also tend to be higher in protein and energy than other forages due to the stage of plant growth. Furthermore, Continue reading
What happens when Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean patent expires?
by Steve Wagner
“The world’s most widely adopted biotech trait, Roundup Ready® soybeans, is set to go off patent soon in the U.S. — the last applicable Monsanto-owned patent is expected to expire in 2014.” In cutting-to-the-chase fashion, the Monsanto press release’s first line explains it very clearly. Other things Monsanto wants you to know are bullet-pointed below:
• Monsanto is amending all Roundup Ready soybean trait licenses to extend through the final patent expiration. As a result, the last crop year for which Monsanto will collect royalties on the technology is 2014.
• Licensees have no obligation to destroy or return seed due to expiration of the Roundup Ready soybean trait licenses.
• Monsanto will not use variety patents against U.S. farmers who save varieties containing the Roundup Ready trait for planting on their own Continue reading
Happy plants
by Laura Rodley
Happy plants, one hundred and sixty varieties, both medicinal and cooking herbs, flowers and vegetables. That’s what Lauren Caprio and Danielle Smith of Bear Root Herb Farm sell to their customers at their roadside stand in front of their Florence home on Sundays and on Tuesdays at the Tuesday Northampton Market.
On a particularly blustery Tuesday, they were one of 30 farmers selling their wares at the Tuesday Northampton Market, covered by moveable canvas tents with a thunderstorm beckoning. Even so, customers dart through the raindrops to buy their plants. “Last year, it rained seven Tuesdays in a row,” said Caprio.
Smith commented, “I’m obsessed with plants in general. I want to grow every single plant, which is not practical.” In February, they started Continue reading
