4—Lancaster Farming, Friday, March 2, 1956
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly Newspaper
Established November 4, 1955
Published every Friday by
OCTORARO NEWSPAPERS
Quarryville, Pa. Phone 378
Lancaster Phone 4-3047)
Alfred C. Alspach .
Ernest J. Neill
C. Wallace Abel
Robert G. Campbell
Robert J. Wiggins
Subscription Rates: $2.00 Per Year
Three Years $5.00; 5c Per Copy
Application for Second Class Mailing Privileges Pending
PONDERING THE PLIGHT OF PORK
One of the most productive selling jobs in the meat
industry has been done by the pork producer, processor
and service agencies of the industry.
From the National Live Stock and Meat Board
comes word that pork was eaten at the rate of 66 lbs per
person in 1955- an 11 per cent increase over 1954. This is
still two per cent under the 1947-1949 average; but 18 per
cent more than the 1935-1939 Beef remained tops
in preference, with 81 lbs per capita consumed last year,
but beefs gam was but two per cent for the year, compared
to 11 per cent for pork. Consumption of all meats reached
161 lbs per capita in 1955.
Here is the per capita consumption of pork in re
cent years 1955 66 lbs, 1954 60 lbs, 1953 63 lbs,
1952 71 1-2 lbs, the 1947-1949 average 71 1-2 lbs, the
1935-1939 average 55 1-2 lbs. ~
Pork production decreased for two years starting
from postwar high in 1952 The 60 lbs per person in 1954
was the least per capita consumption in 16 years. As pro
duction increased sharply in 1955, per capita consumption
rose to 66 lbs.
There has been a selling job in pork. A greater sell
ing job is needed. Retail prices are at the lowest level since
1950, with the composite average retail price running some
13 cents a pound less than at the same time in 1954.
To what may this be attributed? The livestock and
meat industry is concentrating on giving consumers the
kind of pork products they desire through greater produc
tion of meat-itype hogs by growers, by the practice of pro
cessors and retailers of trimming more fat from pork cuts.
There’s a new look in pork, a new “lean trim look”
that may help lift the live market out of the doldrums that
have made it a most discouraging venture.
FOOD EXPENDITURES 1956
What’s the food outlook for 1956? According to the
USDA, the nation’s food supply will be about as large as
last year’s and prices at retail will be about the same. Ex
penditures for food per person likely be somewhat
higher than in 1955, resulting from a small increase in
overall food consumption per person and continued shifts
to more processed foods and more marketing services with
food.
An increase is forecast in consumption of beef,
pork, fluid milk and chicken meat, with small declines
likely for veal, lamb and mutton.
There’s no guarantee contained herein, but might
help serve you as a pattern for 1956 operations.
Uncle Sam has just taken stock of his holdings. And
he comes up with the title of the country’s biggest land
lord. Here are some of his holdings:
384,916 buildings, value Sl4 5 billion, covering 2 2
billion square feet of floor space;
$15.6 billion “structures and facilities,” like dams
and reactors
408 million acres of land, value $2.4 billion '
The Pentagon, covering 34 acres
This inventory covers 11,777 domestic “installa
tions” costing $32 5 billions. In 18-months total holdings
jumped $2 2 billion.
Figures may be incomplete, the General Services
Administration admits, but better inventory methods are
helping pin down figures.
Just an idea of where your tax dollar goes.
For ye'” , s medical science was concerned with
hereditary factors in humans, until it became a science of
its own. Today >he livestock industry has taken a similar
look, although the recognition has not been as deep. Selec
tion and development of proper breeding stock holds the
key to meat-type hogs Selection and development of proper
breeding stock produces the best milkers, the best beef
producers, the best broilers.
It’s a science that is coming down to the farm level
fast and applies equally well to the kingdom of plants.
STAFF
BIGGEST LANDLORD
INHERITANCE
Publisher
• Editor
. Business Manager
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
50 Years Ago
This Week on Lancaster Farms
(This Week In 1905)
By JACK KEICHARD
San Jose Scale
Controversy Ended
J D Herr, of the State De
partment of Agriculture,' an
nounced 50 years ago this week
that the proper treatment for
destroying the San Jose scale
had been established. The scale,
which had plagued orchard
owners throughout eastern Penn
sylvania ifor many years, was a
subject of heated controveTsy
between the exprerts, causing
much confusion in the--minds of
farmers in this section. Mr.
Herr’s announcement was made
after inspecting a grove of fruit
trees sprayed at the Home of
Friendless Children; Lancaster,
m the fall of 1905. He reported
finding every one of the 26 trees
sprayed a complete success,
stating that 95 to 98 per cent of
the scale had been destroyed by
a single application, proving the
treatment was the proper one
for destroying the scale, thus
bringing the controversy to an
end.
Roundup Stolen
Cattle in York County
Fifty years ago this week, a
tenant farmer on the farm owned
by Mrs Wise, Springfield Twp.,
was arrested on a charge of
Voice Of
Lancaster Farms
and farm friends
(Readers are invited to write
comments on Lancaster Fann
ing, about current events, or
other topics. Letters should be
brief, and must be signed.
Names will be withheld if re
quested. Editor;.
From the Mid-West
Adams County, lowa—Weather
is cold and dry. It was such a
dry snow we didn’t get enough
moisture on our ponds to help.
Supposed to rain—we are pray
ing. We hauled our first load of
water yesterday. Do hope we get
rain, at least we’ll have a crop
if we can’t get a good price for
our stuff. We’re going to need
all the help we can. You don’t
know how things have tightened
up in this county.
I feel sorry for Secretary Ben
son. Every time he speaks he gets
himself in deeper. If he would
just come out and see for him
self firsthand, what conditions
are like. He turned more than
several good Republicans to Dem
ocrats
If we don’t have a "crop this
year and still no prices—-brother'
My son raised 100 head of hogs,
didn’t make enough to break
even. We also gave our hogs
away, likewise our calves. Don’t
think for one minute that the
small farmer isn’t dying out.
Doubt if the son will stay with
farming long. There are so many
others like him. You should ride
along the road and see the empty
houses or the houses that are
iust rented to people who work
in town, five within a radius of
two miles from us
lowa’s Senator Martin said we
should have a factory in the
County so the farmer could aug
ment his income with factory
work. I wish he could spend a
little time on the farm. All the
farmers who had that little work
to do have been gone a long
time. Enough said, excepting
that Secretary Benson does not
know what is happening to the
farmers here and in other coun
ties Why won’t he try to find
out’—A Reader.
(Editor’s Note - The writer of
the letter above resides in the
Countv recently th« scene of
Edward R Murrow’s “See It Now
—The Farm Problem, a Crisis
of Abundance” television ’pro
gram This area has been dry
several years. One inch of rain
would do more good there than
one million dollars in government
aid, the resident believe. EJN ).
stealing six cows and a calf from
the Wise farm. Moving to a
farm in- Lancaster County that
week, he had included 'Mrs.
Wise’s herd along with his own
belongings After being driven
more than 25 miles over mud
roads, the .cattle were recovered
at WnghtsviUe.
New Salem Farmer
Critically Injured
A M Gladfelter, New Salem,
Pa, prominent farmer" and Dem
ocratic leader, was critically in
jured while adjusting a belt on
a threshing machine at his farm-
A farmhand said .Gladfelter had
slipped and was drawn into' the
machine, suffering a fractured
skull and severely lacerated legs.
One of his legs was immediately
amputated by surgeons, and the
man not expected to live.
25 Years Ago
$5 Million Farm Aid
Appropriated by Congress
The 71st Congress, adjourning
March 4, 1931, set a peace-time
record in appropriations, passing
the $lO billion mark. The new
appropriation allotments were
chiefly earmarked for relieving
distress resulting from the na
tion’s general business decline,
the unprecendented drouth and
the long' depression in agricul
ture. Many GOP leaders felt
Buokcroimi Scripture: Luke 19:28-*
SO. 47.
Devotional Rcadln*; Revelation 21:22
—22:5.
Christ and the City
Lesson for March 4, 1958
CENSUS takers have,long been
dividing us Americans - into
“Rural” and “Urban.” The fact is,
wherever we may live, if we are
not in a city we are in many ways
affected by cities. The magazines
md papers we read are often pub
lished in cities. Most of the things
a farmer uses—tractors, combines,
fertilizer, tools, came from cities,
Our clothes were
made in cities, our
■aws were made
there. Your casket
itiay have already
oeen made in some
city. There is *
state m America
which has just one
large city. A for-
mer resident of
that state told the Dr. Foreman
writer that very few small towns
there amounted to anything, be
cause all the young people in the
state who had any ambition struck
out for that big city as soon as they
could. One way or another, we are
all becoming “urban” pietty fast.
Enthusiasm Is Fragile /
The largest city Jesus ever saw
brought tears to his eyes, and no
wonder Some of the things he saw
are true of cities and of urban civi
lization today. They are true of our
American way of life, 20th-century
style. One was the swiftly rising,
and as swiftly falling, enthusiasm
of the crowds There they came
with joyful shouts of welcome on
Palm Sunday morning; and by Fri
day morning some of the same mob
would be screaming, "Crucify
him!” City people take quickly to
new ideas and new heroes and
quickly drop them. They will strew
tons of ticker-tape and torn-up tele
phone books (for lack of palm
branches) on some returning heio,
out in six months’ time won’t be
able to remember his name. Ex
plain it as you like, the fact is that
urban enthusiasms are fragile.
That goes for most of us. What we
live for in our urban America is
mostly excitement We live from
headline to headline, from thrill to
farmers in general were bearing
more than the full burnt of the
1931 price decline, and support
ed backers of the Federal Farm
Board and its recommendation
of $5OO million in. new funds to
'aid farmers through cooperative
effort, for stability and prosper
ity in the agriculture industry.
A revision of the tariff, with
large increases in the protection
of agriculture products, also was
backed by the powerful GOP
House in the 71st Congressional
session
Lancaster Farmers
Hear Poultry Expert
C. 0. Dossm, State College
poultry extension specialist, pre
sented an illustrated talk at a
meeting of poultry raisers, at
the Little Britain High School,
in southern Lancaster County.
Dossm spoke on the subject
“Starting and Rearing Chicks. ’
His talk also covered disease
control He said “Your profit
or loss in poultry depends large
ly on starting good chicks right
and growing strong, healthy pul
lets”
Leghorn “Pullet
Laid 327 Eggs
Ben W Jacobs, Green county,
won top place in the 1930’record
of performance work conducted
by the bureau of markets, Penn
sylvania Department of Agricul
ture, with his white Leghorn
pullet _ laying 327 eggs The
bureau reported 890 birds out
of 4,600 entered in the work,
laid more than 200 eggs as pul
lets or 180 eggs as hens during
the year The work mcluded
seven flocks m nine counties.
thrill. Advertise their best te
stir us up. They • -of “exciting”
new colors, exciting new fashions,
even (believe it oi not) exciting
new toothpaste. The advertisers
know that if we can really be per
suaded that a thing is exciting,
we’ll buy it! We would rather lis
ten to a new idea than a true one.
That’s city fever.
Mass Man
In the -days of Davy Crockett,
whose ghost, we trust, will have
been laid to rest before these Imes
meet the public eye—m the days of
Davy C. and of DanT Boone, nearly
all Americans were living in the
country, as we would call it today.
Even the cities were small. Those
were the days of rugged individual
ism. When a neighbor came within
60 miles of Daniel Boone, he thought
the woods were getting too crowd
ed, so the legend has it—and moved
on. Nowadays In our more urban
era, we have come to the time ol
“Mass Man” as philosophers call
him. The city Is the Land of Fol
low-my-Leader. It is the dwelling
place of the Joiners. Mr Boone did
not belong to many societies; but
where is the man today who is hap
py without belonging to enough
clubs and societies to keep him but
every night’. Mass Man is a rather
sad spectacle Jesus wept over him
there jn Jerusalem. The people of
that city were like sheep, doing,
saying, even thinking what their
Scribes and Pharisees told them to.
The men of Jerusalem would not
look for themselves, they “knew*
not the time of their visitation ”
They did not know when God was
knocking at their door If Christ
came to America today, would
Mass Man recognize him? Or
would he be under suspicion be
cause he would not fit the universal
pattern?
Qen of Robbers
The city over which Jesus wept
was the site of a magnificent Tem
ple, built as a place of worship.
But when Jesus visited it, he found
a cattle-market going on in the
very middle of it. What should
have been worship had turned to
money-making. So it is too often
with an urban civilization. Built
on busmess, on the market-place,
it tends to turn everything into ft
market-place. Art is commercial
ized; so is education, so are ath
letics, politics, sometimes religion.
If the reader thinks this is exag
gerated, let him look a round during
this month and see some every
day examples of how religion it
commercialized In America. We
are approaching the joyful Chris
tian festival of Easter. How many
thousands of people In our land
are planning to make money out
of it?
(Bated -n outline- copyrighted by the
Division of Christian Education, Na
tional Connell of tho Chnrohet of Chrltt
In tho IT. S. A. Roloaatd by C-mmualtf
Proas Sorvloo.) ,