4 —Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 11, 1959 EDITORIAL Before us is a release from the Gov ernor's office in. Har.isburg concerning proposed legislation "... in connection •with a four-point program to advance 4h© * marketing of Pennsylvania farm products." Basic purpose of this proposed legis lation appears to be the promotion of farm products produced within Pennsyl vania probably in regard to Pennsyl vania consumers since other slates are likely to be somewhat skeptical of any sizable campaigns to push "Key stone Fprm Goods" in ther urban areas. Especially since it appears most of the surrounding states are thinking along these same lines—telling their city dwel lers to 'buy New York, or New Jersey, or Maiylaiid, or Delaware farm products; Because they are Juicier, fresher, richer, riper, more flavorful, -better for you and •cost less. . The actual size of the consumer dol lar being what it is, more than likely the •cost of "home grown" foods wll carry more weight, -when compared with "for eign" commodities, than the other items of sale appeal mentioned above. Which brings us down to the one point we wish to toss into the political clambake. 'Just how much difference is there agoing to be between perishable farm pro ducts arriving at the Philadelphia Food Distributing Center from 20 different states ten years from now; What degree of freshness or stale mess will producers m Lancaster County jhay© for a sales talk in, competition with rfoods trucked almost a thousand miles— OVERNIGHT? ' The buyer is going to make little dis tinction - between eggs laid in Lancaster Obunty on Monday evening and eggs laid in Wisconsin on Monday morn rag. Yet he will haye his choice and promo tion or no promotion that buyer is going to reflect the housewife's demand. Quite frankly, we doubt, if very many Philadelphia housewives are go ing to show great concern about whether Tier eggs bear a "Penna. Dutch" or "Land O' Lakes" stamp. She'll buy one of each the first few times she has a choice. Then she'll start buying the one that offers the most quality at the lowest cost. Again quite,frankly, we doubt if she iinds any great quality difference. Which means the final choice will be on cost. Which means the man who delivers those eggs, or milk, or-butter, or potatoes, or broilers,' or beans will be cutting his ■costs to the bone. Without regard to where he starts rom, his purpose will be to show the largest possible profit. He'll use bigger trucks and the shortest routes; with the best drivers he can find. Those The stork and agricultural scientists are engaged in a life and death race in which the scientists are ahead, but in which the' stork is gain ing. That, in ja. nutshell, is what is back of all of the argumen ts in Washington over appro priat’on of more than a hun dred million dollars a year for continued agricultural re search . Why, some are asking, sh ould we spend huge sums to find ways to increase crop yields, or make hens lay mo re eggs, or make cows give more milk, and then spend more billions to get rid of the surpluses Those who are betting on the stork to win in the long run counter with figures to show that while crop output per acre is increasing by on ly 1% a year, the population is increasing by 1.7% a yr. Land Is Limited Even with the addition of two new states, Alaska and Hawaii, we have only about 350 million acres of cropland THIS WEEK —ln Washiugton With Clinton Davidson STORK VS SCIENTISTS on which to produce food for 175 million people at present That exactly is two acres per person. We are diverting approxi mately two mi lion acres of ■"hat cropland to' loads, new hous ng developments and factory sites annually, and at the same time adding some three million persons to be fed each year. Population experts say that “under extreme pressure” we perhaps cou'd add no mo re than 100 million acres to our cropland total, through i't c.il on, drai iage and the dean ,g of forests That wo uld take care of the popula tion increase for only about 33 \cars. They argue that by about the year 2,000 the United States will either have to gr ow more food per acre or provide a diet of more grains and less meal, milk and eggs On The Other Hand The research scientists, however, argue that there" is no reason to become concern ed over the possibility of a , drivers will be expensive—they already are. So will the trucks. When he arrives at Philadelphia, or New York at the end of each trip,wheth er it be 100 or 1,000 miles, he'll find the competition for the buyers dollar just a little rougher. When his truck gets back home, he'll try to send it out with food that cost just a httle less than the previous load—at the farm. it'won't matter whether the farm is m Lancaster County, Pennsylvania or Neb raska. Farmers in both places and about 3,500 other rural counties will find the money spent promoting the x mdiv-dual state's farm products oyer other stages' was effective only to the extent it sold all. t We’re very much in favor of market promotion for farm products. The Nation al Dairy Assn, has a very good ' cam paign going at present. They are simply - trying to sell mlk and milk p.bducls. -"No artificial flavoring for their mi lk and no artificial boundaries on where it iS p.d—- diiced or sold. They are not claiming superior qualities for milk produced by - one farmer over that of another. If -it" comes from a Holstein, or Guernsey, 'or Jersey, or Hereford—they couldn't care less. If it is good milk, that is what counts and they want to sell alLof it they can. ‘The situation Is "only too obvious. .If • Eastern farm©:s and Western fanners start-to cutting each other's throats they-11 succeed in cutting each other’s throats. The city'housewife will benefit as fanners undersell each other—right Into bankruptcy. sNTlL—food production is concentrated m tile hands of.a few coip- _ orate farm units; then everyone will -"pay the piper." _ Why not spend our money, - state, federal and private, in eliminaing pho ney political barriers between farmers. Let Eastern,-Western,,Southern and Nor thern farmers join forces in seeing that every one who can'do a good job oHocd production will have a chance to sell his product at a-fair-price. Why shouldn't each c&mmodity group have' the chance to see that quali ty products frdfa dll parts of the country reach the market; where they return a quality pnce to the farmer. ’ It -would appear far- better to have organized nfarketmg, administered by farmers for farmers,' than the compound ing of today's chaos into unrestrained price slashing. . Eventually ,tt»g country will need the full ‘productive capacity of every family farm in every state. Ths time is not far away. Let's devote our efforts to maintain ing those fa-ms as near peak level as possible, without regard to artifical poht cal boundaries and concepts. , food shortage. They contend ' we can, tnrougli reseat ch, ex pand our .food production to feed as many as a toil Jon peo ple in this country. We are eating more and .better food today, because of research,-than ever before. Twenty-five years ago it took seven pounds of feed to grow a two-pound broiler. Today it takes only about three lbs. of feed We are also producing more milk, pork and beef per pound of feed, and we are growing more corn, wheat and other crops per acre And the sc’entists point out, we are not fanning now nearly as we 1 as we know how. County'* Weekly r O Box 1534 T onoaster. Penn*. Offices: S 3 Vnrlh Duke St Lancaster. Penn* Phone Lancaster Express 4-3047 n? ■ tfeffrew. Editor. BoUerf O Campbell Advertising Director .t - Business nirer F»tviished November 4 'ass Lancaster “very Sat'T''*' by T^am'' «3t-"r ParminK 1 , TAnrnctn pa Kntrrrit a« 2nd class at Lan'-' for Pa under Act '* Mar. iy-- mmnonal ent'-v i* ■ > v> >nt Jov Pa Subscription Rates: $2 per year; three years S 5. Single copy Price “> ents _ Mem l ' Pa Newspapoi '■ bish ers A=s 'Ciatlon, National •' 'for. fa' a<- rotation « (Turn to page 5) Lancaster Farming Own of some people p. said of Saul. He J* and shoulders taij, was a head sn J Good brains, o i>„ high cards m tk Some people are quiet, mousy,, 1 If-to originality force of chaiactjf of decision; a forth, to all problems-J! the makings of a J Saul started out '.We read of him j army was besi e J Jahosh, and thi« a t, “treaty” by putting eye of every man £ HAS a word for a wLm\°i r ' A school where men from the when nmta are studytag to be oommis v didnotweep a t stoned officers: the “Officers’ Ma- nf ~,5 ««.. School." Not every dieted ““ * f dm ‘ U l d '. “ Iy “f“ tribe, with th, ' at 14 “ Jabeah,ready toj to take to be an officer, and that oxeQ made y m S "Phf»bi tmt " l4 may have !» _ ' A MMhit Patriot ’ who Tiia: Above all, the Bible Material: I Samuel 8-11. Devotional Beading: I Samuel 12 19-24. Officer Material Lesson for April 12,1959 btrtw.bo «s xans'^fa^y. - ’fiai. tewwreiI.' 1 .' - of,.whißh.*ucce*s canbo made. Next - also. He had shorn ( -rwesMprxtady-concerns his failure; he placed the interest) • this -week's thought, is given to •as a whole above tt> ' wfaat ooald'-have been his success, any one tribe or city, | He held a good-hand, we may say, versely the fate ot but he played It badly. - - was the concern of i u .. . .. ' try could use more n Hm4 anl Should*!? stripe today, men wh Look over the cards ,he held. Washington can set First, he had what everyone no- limits trf their owni tlccd the first moment they looked -as mtt«ena of the Am at him: he stood out in any crowd, -We need men who ■# head and shoulders above the rest, different to the trot He would have sat tall in the eaddle parts of ouf land, wt (only no one around there rode the tragedy or the gin horseback); he stood tall on the is the tragedy or the ground. He was strong enough to We don’t need mi butcher and cut up a yoke of oxen and brag about ho» by himself, and in a fight he had love their country Si proved himself a lion. Men have and Phogbound are been successes In life without ex- us; but jioli tics with! traordinary strength; but for a -of making money leader of men, a store of extra muck work. Patnoti! power and energy is important, to be shouted about; I Some investigator found that ex- that shines best In i ecutives in business are on an Said at the beginnlui average, taller and heavier-than toonelf-effacing. The the men lower down the ladder, geek him, and thiti The executive needs the extra was king only bscis power for the extra drive. But of demanded him and ( course a giant can be a fool. You the prophet destined) cannot predict how much of a leader a man will be merely by tf*c"w measuring the distance from his National Connell »t th rdhiv-rut to hi*i Tiaalc Chrilt tin the t. 6 t .mnu 7u mS i. Community Vnu 4 When they molded hurt, the molder broke the mold,” it is said Now Is The Time ... Max Smh.. TO CONTROL YOUR DOG—AII dog owners i sible for their dog regardless of where he is, < roams the community is of little value to the* may do considerable damage. Your dog is su& killed if caught in the act of injuring any other property regardless of the license. Keep your <■ control and teach him to be of some value. TO TOPDRESS HAY AND PASTURE CROPS' crops were not treated last fall with phosphorus * early April is a good time to make the county pasture fields, especially old bluegrass & give good response to an application of 400 P oi acre of a 5-10-10 this month. During the past sei® m many pastures the areas near manure dropp* easily be noticed by their more rank growth these pastures will pay big dividends to apphe 3 complete fertilizer. Plenty of good pasture fro sl til October is a vital asset to all livestock men Parm TO PLOW DOWN COEN FERTILIZER — one of our deep rooted crops it is important to ft tilizers, (especially nitrogen) down near the ro ® plant. The best method of doing this is to,pi° ff fertilizer; applications may be made anytime d month preceding plowing; if a clover crop is fertilizer will give more rank growth to plow d ° tilizers such as 10-10-10 at the rale of 500 or straight nitrogen fertilizers that will furnish ‘ 100 pounds per acre of actual nitrogen are retf Nitrogen fertilizers are very important where lowing corn, or another row crop, in the rotate” 1 looking for a man country, the whole ii , of 'lsrael. Saul by Gilead had proved i pensoit He -not onlj a sacrifice for h« I . he had the ability to BY MAX SMITH TO SHEAR SHEEP—For the profit from your flock'the sheep i sheared during March and April, tice of allowing the fleece on ft until May or June is to be discern leece will be just as heavy now ewes will milk better and be beB ;rs because they will he more «! ne weather similar to the small old weather or rains will drive helter more promptly if they on jvhieh in turn wiU~t>e better for lambs. * ( -v
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers