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4 —Lancaster Farming, Friday, July 13, 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
RAINMAKING AND RAINMAKERS
Much has been said about rainmaking and rain
makers. Whether the-weather man or the Weather Man
has been responsible, it is difficult to tell.
Pardon us for drawing on personal experiences or
contacts, but we’d like to quote from a letter written by
Harold H. Neill, brother, and lowa Flying Farmer who is
active on the board of the lowa-Missouri Weather Modifi
cation Operation, in an area where drought has taken
severe toll the past few years.
Noticed you covered the lAMO weather modi
fication operations and we are really believers in it
(cloud seeding from ground-based generators), at least
we have had plenty of rain since the operation started.
The operation is real interesting. I was a little
disturbed to find out that Spain is just six years ahead
of us with cloud seeding, so are the coffee growers in
South America.
The only thing bad about the operation is they
do have to have clouds. We jiad, rain June 19, that
followed the nice, black clouds' we have been having
all Spring without rain. I flew into Omaha, Neb,
talked to the Weather Bureau, and they told us there
would be no rain as there was no change in tempera
ture to make it rain. That was our trouble all Spring.
Regardless of what the weather men said, we got
two inches of rain in 24 hours. It seems to be work
ing that way since. Anyway we are getting the rain.
Corn looks the best, small gram not so hot, but the
USD A paid us to plow ours under, so we are not too
unhappy about crop prospects Alfalfa hay will make
a big crop, at least the first two cuttings. Have the
best garden we ever grew. Everything about two or
three weeks ahead of normal.
Good or bad, whether or not cloud seeding forces
Nature to wring moisture from the clouds, there’s an
optimistic note in his conclusion,
“It seems to be dry outside the cloud seeding op
erations ”
Everything this season seems to hinge on safety.
During the past few weeks, until dampened down by plea
sant, welcome showers, Lancaster County was becoming
very vulnerable to fire. The danger is not yet gone. Spring
means clean-up time, and burning’s in order if kept in
order. Many acres of fertile Lancaster County farms have
seared and scorched the past few weeks by brush fires or
grass fires that got out of control.
Take heed Use care.
Repeated warnings have been issued on the care farm
ers should exercise when operating farm equipment on
highways Not always is the farmer to blame.
Down m the southern end of the County a near-tragic
highway accident occured when several vehicles piled to
gether as one car struck another, pushing it into a tractor
anid hay-baler. Damage was extensive Fortunately, injuries
were slight
But it points out the need for continuous caution
much easier to be safe than sorry.
SAM HAS A FEW THINGS TO LEARN
You’d think that by now Uncle Sam would have learned
all the ms and outs of the farm price propping business. At least if
there is anything to the old saw about practice making perfect, it
is logical to assume that he would, rate a 'passing grade. But an
item in the news leads us to suspect that Sam is strictly a novice in
the propping game. His counterpart in Egypt, for instance, not only
pdfes the price of wheat, we learn, but manages to make a neat prof
in 'the process of buying farmers’ wheat at $2 a bushel and selling
to millers at $3 or more A dollar a bushel margin isn’t bad at all
(talk about your middlemen’) especially when stacked up against
the 44-cent a bushel loss that Sam suffered on price-propped wheat
he sold during the last half of 1955. (Omaha (Nebr.) Daily
STAFF
TIME TO THINK
It Has Happened
Publisher
. Editor
. Business Manager
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
50 Years Ago
This Week on Lancaster Farms
50 YEARS AGO (1906)
By JACK REICHARD
Fifty years ago this Week,
lightning made front page news
in Lancaster County ‘ and else
where Henry Matz, a young
farmer of Alleghneyville, near
Reading, Pa , was killed instantly
by a bolt of lightning while ly
ing on a bed at his home,-He
had just returned home from
the Reading Market and lay
down for a short rest, when the
lightning entered the room
through the side of a window
frame. Sallie, a sister, who was
descending the stairway, was
stunned. Mrs Sallie Messner, 80,
grandmother of the young man,
was seated in a chair In an ad
joining bedroom She was not
injured, but splinters from the
window frame were found on
her lap
O.n the southern Lancaster
farm of Wilson Wright, near
the lower Octararo Church,
four cows were killed by
lightning during a heavy
thunderstorm passing over
that section at noon.
LIGTNING -
UPSETS STOVE
At Harrisburg, lightning struck
the flue connected with the
kitchen stove at the residence
of Moses Fischman, upsetting
the stove and scattering live
coals all over the room.
Mrs Ida Cezelser, a married
daughter, was fatally burned
and four others in the room
sustained painful injuries.
On that same July day, in
1906, lightning struck the
large flour and feed ware
house in Lancaster belonging
to J. J. Weh, completely de
stroying the building and con
tents. The fire department re
sponded but their efforts were
directed in preventing the
flames from spreading. A lot
of hay, feed, two wagons and
a dog were burned.
MILK CURDLES
DURING THUNDERSTORMS
When electricity was introduc
ed in the early 1900’s farmeis,
in general, were fearful it would
sour their milk In those days
it was a common thing for milk
to curdle during a thunderstorm,
which was considered a mysteri
ous phenomenon by most house
wives. “Why thunder souis
milk” was a' much debated sub
ject one half centry ago. And
the following explanation pub
lished in the New Orleans Times-
Democrat, explained nothing so
far as farmers were concernd.
“Milk, like most other sub
stances, contains millions of bac
teria. The milk bacteria that m
a'day or two, under natural con
ditions, would cause the fluid to
sour, are peculiarly susceptible
fo electricity. Electricity in
spirits and invigorates them, af
fecting them as alcohol, cocaine
or strong tea affects men. Under
the current’s influence, they
never fail to go to work with
amazing energy and instead of
taking a couple of days to- sour
the milk, they accomplish the
task completely in half an hour
It’s
“It is not the thunder in a
storm that sours milk; it is the
electricity in the air that dees
it With an electric battery it
is easy, on the same principle,
to sour the freshest milk. A
strong current excites the mi
crobes to supermicrobic exer
tions, and, in a few minutes
they do a job that under ordi
nary conditions would take them
a* couple of days,”
* * *
i ico r
•1
25 Years Ago
••* ' .
25 YEARS AGO (1931)
Twenty five years ago this
week, a number of accidents
were reported on Lancaster
farms John Olmsted, Coleram
Township, got kicked by a horse
while unhitching the animal
from a wagon. The horse, in at
tempting to kick a mule, struck
its owner instead, resulting in
painful bruises for Olmsted, and
a loud “he-haw” from the mule.
While harnessMig a mule at
his farm s near Elim, Edgar
' Peters received a directed
kick in the face from his ani
mal, resulting in a fracture of
the jaw and cheek bone, and
the loss of some teeth. Peters
was found in an unconscious
condition and was taken to
the Lancaster General Hos
pital.
Everett Kreider, son of Mr
and Mrs. Harry Kreider, Dru
more Center, suffered severe
bruises of a leg when he was
kicked by a mule on his father’s
farm
Background Sorlptorot John 4:33-42;!
Hebrews 2 9—5*14
Devotion*! Reading) John 3:14-21.
Savior of Meir
Lesson for July 15,1956
THE Bible does not say that Je
sus saves- men 'from hell It
does say that he saves men from
their sins. This is much more Im
portant; for suppose a man were
saved from hell but not from his
sins? Perverted by sin, such a man
would carry his own hell with him
even through the
gates of heaven.
Christ is the Sav
iour of men here
and now, not in
the future alone,
but In the living
present. In the
Bible the word
‘‘aave” means,
first of all, to res
cue. Christ as Dr. Foreman
Saviour comes to the rescue of
men who are chained and beaten,
men who are the victims of their
worst selves, bondsmen of the
devil. Your worst self hates your
best self. Left alone, your best self
has a very slim chance, if any.
You need to be rescued from your
self, and Christ is the rescuer
every man needs.
Siir»bearar
How does Christ rescue men?
The Eible-suggests, and the church
echoes, many answers. Let us look
at three. Christ rescues men by
taking their sins on himself. As a
modern Christian writer (Hordern)
puts it, he “took the rap” for man
kind, As St. Paul put it, “He who
knew no sin was made to be sin,
for us . . In a long-ago battle
for Swiss Independence, the story
is that one of the front-line sol-*
diers seized as many of the ene
my’s spears as ha could gather in
his arms, and forced himself on
them, thus making by his death a
gap through which his fellow-sol-,
diers poured to victory. In North
Carolina, when the United States
government was about to punish
the Cherokee Indians for an al
leged crime, their chief Junaluska
offered to give hit own life it the
government would let his people
go. So be was killed, and bis peo
ple went free. These are imperfect
Illustrations of what Jesus Christ
• nr
r*
A barn on the Lancaster
farm owned by Tobias Shcnfc
and occupied by his son,
Amos, near ,Colemanville, was
destroyed by a fire caused by
spontaneous combustion, re*
suiting from overheated crops.
Area neighbors responded to
the alarm sounded by Mrs.
Shenk on the farm bell and
succeeded in saving nearby
buildings. *
The contents, consisting of
the season crops and all farm
implements were burned. No
livestock were in the barn
when the tire started.
COW GIVES BIRTH
TO FOUR CALVES
At the Lancaster ■ farm of
Benjamin Garber, occupied by
John Gaul, dairyman, near Mt.
Joy, a cow gave birth to four
fully developed calves State
dairy experts said it was a rare
occurrence for a cow to give
birth to two pairs of twins at
the same time.
VISTA, Calif Just three
days after Rickie Hill, 13, traded
a crippled homing pigeon to
Dale Auvil, 13, for a parakeet,
the pigeon arrived back at
Rickie’s from the three-milke
hike.
The House passed the Admini
stration’s defense appropriation
bill unanimously It was for $33,-
635,066,000, or a half-billion dol
lars less than President Eisen
hower requested.
did as sin-bearer, as self-giving
Sacrifice. He “tasted death for
every one " That does not have t®
be dona twice.
Example
Another way In which Christ
saves Is by just being himself.
Once there was a school-room inj
which the small boys and girl*
seemed to learn a courtesy, a gra-j
ciousness of manner, which chil
dren in other rooms did not learn.,
Some one who wondered how th«
teacher did it. and who knew how
hard ibis to teach some children,
even the ABC’s or of
asked one of the boys how that
teacher did it. “She don’t teach u*
at all," the small boy said. “Sha}
just walks aiound, and we feel aa
polite as anything." A well-known
“Spiritual” sings, "I want - to bar
like Jesus, in my heart ” Jesusf
saves* men from their sins by s®
inspiring them that they know
there is nothing better than to ba!
like Him If you aie learning td
play the piano, you don’t learn
best by listening to poor pianos
poorly played You learn by listen
ing to a master-pianist, a real art
ist. Now there is easy way of
misunderstanding this matter of
Jesus saving us by his example:
it is to suppose that we must every,
day compare him with ourselves,
keeping (so to speak) a chart on!
which our “spiritual progress” 1«
charted every day—2o% like Jesus
in 1955, 23% in 1956, and so on.,
That is absolutely the wrong wajrj
to do it; all you become Is a Phari
see. The right way* is to keep our
mind fixed on Christ, so to lov®
him in sincere earnest, that wa
shall grow more and more like
him, one may say-almost without!
knowing it. True saints are noil
self-conscious.
Unseen Guest
Once Jesus Invited himself to
dinner at the house of a very)
shady character named
After dinner Jesus said, "Salvaa
tion Has come to this house,” and
we know that Zacchaeus began toi
be a different man from that after
noon. In the last book of the New
'Testament a picture is drawn of
Christ standing outside a closed
door. “If any one hears my voio«
and opens the door, I will coma
in . . So Christ saves men by
being their permanent unseen,
Guest, by being the Inner Compan
ion whose very presence is a sav-i
'ing power. Christ is Saviour, not
alone by what he does for men,!
but by what he does in men. Being'
"saved” is more than knowing or
believing; being saved is becom-i
ing, by his invitation, host to the'
Lord of all ’
(Bassd on ontlloss copyrlthtsd br tad
Division of Christian Education, Na
tional Council of tlio Churches or Christ
In ths U. 8. a. Bstsassd by Ocntssonltr,
Brass Ssrrlts.)
A LOYAL PIGEON