4—Lancaster Fanning, Friday, April 21, 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
Entered as Second-Class matter at the Post Office,
Quarryville, Pa , under Act of March 3, 1879
FARM BILL REACTION
Something'more than a tempest in a teapot has
boiled up since the Presidential veto of the farm bill, as
much a ruckus as the measure produced before it was
rejected. ,
Statewide, Pennsylvania reaction has, been for and
against. Here are some quotations
William L. Henning, state" secretary of agriculture:
“To me this (veto) looks like an election year move . . .
Apparently the President did hot like the farm bill with
amendments, but x I cannot understand why he immediately
raised price supports when Secretary (of Agriculture Ezra
Taft) Benson was pledged to flexible supports.”'
J. Collins McSparran, executive secretary, Penn
sylvania State Grange: “We are disappointed in the veto
for one reason. We feel the domestic parity program should
have been allowed to be tried on a domestic commodity.
Anything over that (domestic human consumption) would
be sold in any channel, for the going price. Neither rigid
price supports, nor flexible price supports help the Penn
sylvania farmer. What we need in the farm situation is a
complete change in.the approach to agricultural problems.”
C. M. Wilson, executive secretary, Pennsylvania
Farmers Association: “This bill as passed by Congress was
deterimental to Pennsylvania farmers. In fact it would
have worked to the direct disadvantage of most of the
state’s farm economy”
, Miles Horst, Republican State Committee Chair
man and former state secretary: “I think the farmers of
Pennsylvania are in accord with President Eisenhower in
his approach to this farm problem. We are a deficiency
producing state from the standpoint of feed material. That
farm bill, as vetoed, provided features that instead of re
lieving the situation we have today would have increased
the problem and made it more serious.”
Both President Eisenhower and Secretary Benson
placed themselves in a vulnerable position politically, and
are to be commended for their courage in taking that
chance. To compose a measure that would apply equally
to all farmers all over the country would be an immense
undertaking. '
Always the farm problem will be a political prob
lem, and like the old saying: There’s no business like show
business” it might be said “There’s no problem like the
farm problem.”
SOIL BANK ADVANCES
Now that the omnibus farm measure has been turn
ed down by the Depatment of Agriculture and by Presi
dential veto, work on the Soil Bank proposal has moved
ahead with‘an appropriation of $1,200,000,000.
But Secretary Benson says he has no authority to
spend the monies. Then there are prospects some Southern
crops, already planted, would need be plowed under for
farmers to benefit from the program.
This latest proposal must still meet another trip
through the Senate and be signed by the President before
it can become effective. But its success, both factions will
admit, depends wholly on proper administration.
Idled acres can fit well in the program of a 1,000-
acre Corn Belt farm or a 30,000-acre western wheat farm,
but with the average size of farms in Lancaster County far
under 100 acres, there’s little place for soil banking,
as proposed,.here.
ANOTHER PENDULUM SWING
The midwest is swinging more support to the Demo
crat party in hopes of solving a farm problem that is be
coming more acute. Early indications of this were indicat
ed in letters to Lancaster Farming, and the enthusiastic
cry of “Give ’em H—, Harry” has been heard again.
Midwestern farms are in a state of determined un
rest lowa farm incomes have dropped 50 per cent. Returns
on livestock for each $lOO worth of feed tumbled as much
As 32 per cent. Cash incomes on 148 farms slipped accord
ing to the following figures: 1953 $10,247; 1954
$8,269; 1955 $7,051 Gross value of crops per acre fell
to $57 last year, from $6B in 1954, $64 in 1953. ,
Cattle replacement costs are forecast higher this
year, adding to an outlook of further loss, an outlook of
further discontent.
STAFF
. Business Manager
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
50 Years Ago
This Week on Lancaster Farms
50 YEARS AGO (1906)
By JACK REICHARD
Families on Lancaster farms
were interested in the case of
Charles Musselman, farmer
near Coopersburg, Pa, whose
farmhouse was robbed while the
family was at work in the fields.
When one of the children re
turned to the house one of the
robbers fired at her. The girl
ran out of her home and called
to the family, and the tlheves
ran off with their loot.
Later that day a man
passed the farm and the girl
recognized him as the thief
who had fired at her. A
chase followed and after
about a mile across fields
the man was cornered in
the barn of a neighbor. The
infuriated father and neigh
bors got a rope and threa
tened to hang the intruder,
who got down on his knees,
begging and praying not to
be lynched.
Publisher
.. Editor
After some deliberation the
prisoner was turned over to the
authorities and placed in the
Coopersburg lockup Later he
was removed to the Allentown
3 ail for trial.
Pennsylvania Gold
Rush Or 1906
The belief that South Moun
tain contained gold, silver and
other precious metals, sent
prices of farm land in Cumber
land County_ skyward 50 years
ago, attracting dozens of capita
lists from 'Harrisburg, Philadel
phia and New York to the re
gion. Among prospectors in
specting lands in the Dillsburg
area was Thomas A. Edison. Im
mediately after his visit the
Hedges farms, .which had been
advertised for sale a few weeks
before at $5,000, were sold for
$50,000.
The largest purchaser of *
land in the Huntsdale sec
tion was James M- Cameron,
Harrisburg, who hail more
than 50 deeds recorded, ac- 1
cording to a news dispatch.
A. P. Zeigler, who had pur
chased 160 acres from County
Commissioner Harmon, of Mount
Holly Springs, at $7OO an acre,
offered $2,500 an acre.
Farmers who had struggled
for years to wrest a living from
the soil suddenly found them
selves agriculturalists without
farms, but with large bank ac
counts. A number of other farm
ers refused to sell while pros
pectors daily scoured the moun
tain for “pay dirt”, which never
materialized
** > t
California farmers in the
Woodbridge area, along the Mok
lelum Kiver, were highly pleased
with the outcome in their sec
tion resulting from the 1906
earthquake. The bed of the riv
er there had dropped 12 feet,
providing a deeper channel for
flood runoffs, greatly reducing
the danger of flooding their
lands.
Mrs Joseph L. Garrett, West
Fallowfield, was found dead in
a field on her husband’s Penn
sylvania farm. Wien the men re
turned to the house for dinner
that day, they found Mrs. Gar
rett had made no preparation
for the meal and immediately
went in search of her. Her body
was found in a field, where she
had gone to feed the turkeys.
J* * w
Fattened Oysters
On Corn
Down along the Chesapeake
Bay, in Maryland, they were fat
tening oysters on corn, just as
Lancaster farmers were fatten
ing their hogs. The oysters were
placed in cool cellars, wet down
with salt water and cornmeal
sprinkled over the piles, which
it was stated they greedily de
voured.
V A »
The New Holland Machine
Works in Lancaster County
did a $120,000 business in
1905, turning out 1,000 feed
mills, 400 wood saws and
299 gasoline engines. A
dividend of six per cent was
'declared by the company
that year.
25 Years Ago
The discovery of irregulari
ties at several plants buying
milk from farmers on the but
terfat basis, prompted the De
partment of Agriculture to in
augurate a check-up on the
method of testing in milk plants
throughout the State
There were over 1300 milk
plants and receiving stations in
Pennsylvania, in 1931, and most
of them paid for milk and
cream on the bufterfat basis.
State officials staged a great
m3ustice could be done the dairy
industry by incorrect tests. The
small fraction of one per cent of
under-reading meant a loss of
8 to 10 cents per 100 pounds of
milk produced.
The Department ruled that
where money was taken from
farmers through under-reading
tests, it would have to be paid
Church Must Grow
Lesson for April 29, 1956
A CLUB can close its member
ship list at any time. It can
decide not to accept any more new
members for six years, or sixty.
But if a church decides to do the
same, it is not a church any more,
only a club. A church that is for
good reasons not growing may be
a true church of Christ; but a
church that does not want to grow
is certainly no
church that Christ
would recognize.
“GO,” Jesus said.
into all the world.
A church that has
no Go about it, a
church whose ho-
rizon is limited by
its own parking
lot, a church with
out an outreach, Dr. Foreman
is a parody on a true chUrch. It
is not the real thing.
Hurdles and Handicaps
The early Christian church was
surely the real thing. It was a
going, and_ therefore a growing,
church. But it could have had,
if it wanted, all the mouldy ex
cuses which lazy churches offer
nowdfeys to explain why they don’t
reach out. For example, the early
Christians could have said, “We
can’t reach out, we haven’t any
money.” But they managed to get
around, or at any .rate some of
them did. They could have com
plained, “We have a shortage of
ministers.” Well, they did, but
they had no shortage of laymen.
By the time the distinguished
apostles got down to Samaria they
found an enthusiastic layman
Philip had been there already and
got a work started. The church
could have said, “We can’t afford
to send missionaries all the way to
Africa.” They couldn’t, to be sure.
But what they could do was to
make a Christian of an African in
their own country, trusting that
he would take the gospel back to
his own people. (And he did, the
tradition tells us.) A track man
does not complain about seeing
hurdles in front of him; he jumps
over- them. A good golfer does
, '
< <>•
1 h
Background Scripture: Acts B‘4-40,
Devotional Reading: Luke 10.1-9.
back. Plant owners prosecuted
on a - second offense lost their
license.
* H
State Secretary of Agri
culture. John A. McSparran,
called the attention of farm
ers to the importance of
growing alfalfa, cow-peas
and soy beans, during 1931,
to grind and substitute for
"some of the high-priced pro
tein feeds commonly pur
chased.
H *
Twenty-five years ago this
week, the Lancaster County
Drouth Committee, comprised o£
Leslie Bolton, Holtwood KD 1;
C A Raezer, Ephrata, and Al
bert Risser, Bambridge, sat at
the Lancaster postoffice build
irig to receive applications for
loans for the purchase of seed,
fertilizers, feed and tractor fuel.
A chattel mortgage was security
for loans.
=, i
Lancaster Farm Women
Society No. 11 met with
Mrs. Abner Musser, Buck,
“the Biggest Little Town in
U-S.A.”, Thursday after-
April 30, 1931. ''
<• *»
According to a 1931 bulletin,
issued by farm crop specialists
at State College, sweet clover,
seeded alone early in the spring
on good land adapted to it,
should make good grazing after
mid-summer.
Seeded m grain, sweet clover
need most of the first year s
growth to make sufficient root,
it was stated
not “go home mad” because ho
has to play with a handicap
against him. He takes it as a com
pliment and a challenge. So the
early church took their hurdles
and handicaps as challenges. -
Laymen and Clergy
When you see a present-day
church vath no outreach, one of
the reasons may be that the
people leave all the outreaching
to the minister. He is supposed:
to be interested m missions, sure,|
that’s his business. But the people
—well, we have a hard enough!
time raising money with our ba-|
zaar just for the preacher’s salary,,
you can’t expect us to thinki
about missions! In fact, one has
seen churches where the only
really “active member” was the
preacher. .Now the early Chris
tians talked no such nonsense.
They did hot have the hard-and
fast division into “laity” and
“clergy” that churches today have,
even if they use other words like
“member” and “preacher,” or
“pew holder” and “pulpit orator.”
The Apostles, it is tiue, were men 1
set apart. But the outreach of the
early church was mostly done by
people who weie not Apostles.
And so far as we hear in the book
of Acts, the Apostles did not dress
differently from any one else.'
They did not claim exemption
from taxation, they did not claim
reduced rates at stores or when
traveling. They were not given
titles like Reverend or Doctor,—
everybody called them just Paul
or Peter or whatever, without so
much as a “Mr.” in fiont of their
names. They worked at outreach,
yes, but the point is, they were not
looked on as professional out
reachers while the “laymen” were
professional sit-backers! ,
Multitudes and Lonely Man
The early church reached out
in two ways. They went where
the crowds were, and also they
went to far lonely places. We
hear about crowds in Jerusalem
and Samaria and elsewhere. We
also have the story of Philip
going down to a desert road
where hxs only congregation was
one lonely puzzled foreigner. The
going church today, the outreach
mg church, the New Testament
kind of church, also will be reach
ing out to the multitudes, and to
the lonely man. It will be pending
missionaries into gieat cities, in
our land and overseas, working
among overcrowded tenements
and swarming streets. It will be
reaching out to cowhands on the
open ranges, to lighthouse keep
ers’ families along the seacoast,
to little villages on the edge of
the Arctic and under the dripping
tropical rainforests.
(Bated on outline copyrighted Of the
Division of Christian Education* Na
tional Council of the Churches of Christ
In the U, S. A. Released hf CommnnUr
Meiitorvitt.) J
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