4— Lancaster Farming, Friday, Fdb. 15, 1957
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly Newspaper
Established November 4, 1955
Published every Friday by
OCTORARO NEWSPAPERS
Quarryville, Pa. Phone STerling 6-2132
Lancaster Phone Express 4-3047
Alfred C. Alspach
Robert E. Best
Robert G. Campbell
Robert J. Wiggins .
Subscription Rates: $2.00 Per Year
Three Years $5.00; 50 Per Copy
Entered as Second-Class matter at the Post Office,
Quarryville, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879
Solution to the Farm Problem
Back in the days when wheat was worthless, a wise
little grower noted that he could buy wheat cheaper than
he could produce it. Because he was a good fanner and
could raise about 3,200 bushels on his quarter section, he
went on the market that fall and bought what he antici
pated he would produce the following harvest. He didn’t
turn a clod on his 160 and was certain that he would have
3,200 bushels to sell, without losing.a drop of sweat, when
combines began to hum.
By harvest time, the price of wheat was up some
and a little nearer what it was worth. Thus, the wise little
farmer, although he worked not during the year and his
land rested, had as much wheat to sell as he would have
had, maybe more, had he planted his field the fall before.
Sometimes the solution to the farm problem seems
very simple. At the moment/',the government is burdened
with millions of bushels of wheat that isn’t worth one in
trinsic penny and will be disposed of sometimes at a total
loss, plus carrying charges.
Why not say to the quarter-section farmer, “Let
your land lie idle this wheat year and by next June the
government will give you 3,200 bushels from its surplus
stock. You can sell it on the open market for $2. a bushel
or more, with the understanding that, if the market is be
low that figure your government will buy it at $2,”
Who has lost anything? The farmer has $6,400
without working for it. If the price is above $2, the govern
ment doesn’t buy it. Moreover, if forced to buy the wheat
it will have' 3,200 bushels surplus in the stock pile not
additional bushels, but instead the same number that was
in the pile the previous year.
What’s wrong with the idea? You figure it out. We
just write the editorials and find it very difficult, in this
era of belabored planning, to present a simple point clearly.
It should be like crystal that the government cannot ac
cumulate surplusses and encourage their building and still
be on sound economic ground. But who dares to look at the
farm problem, except through smoked glasses?
Garber (Okla.) Free-Press
With Human Hands
When we think of the agricultural revolution, we
usually think of it in terras of a change from animal power
to mechanical power. But, as the head of one of the leading
farm equipment companies points out, there is more to it
faian that.
As recently as 100 years ago, he reminds us, the
prinipal source of power on farms was thq human being.
Animal power was used for plowing and some other tasks.
But crops of the day were largely planted and harvested by
human hands.
It was not until early in the present century that we
made a real conversion from human to animal power. And
the second great step in the agriculturaFrevolution the
conversion from animal power to mechanical power did
not get into full swing until the decade of the 19205, and
was not substantially completed until the 1940 s and 19505.
The fruits of this are seen in various forms. For one
thing, there has been a substantial reduction)in the number
of farms a drop of almost 20 per cent in the last 10
years alone. In those same 10 years the number of tractors
on our farms has jumped by 85 per cent. As a consequence,
the average farm has increased in acreage for the ob
vious reason that each farmer, with all this mechanical
power at his command, can do much more productive work,
and do it more easily, than in past days.
This trend has strengthened not weakened the
institution of the family farm. It is the mainstay of Ameri
can agriculture, and every sign indicates that it will remain
so. Industrial Kfeview
STAFF
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
BY JACK REICHARD
50 YEARS AGO (1907)
The Department of Agriculture
at Washington, D. C., as well as
tea merchants in the country,
were watching with great inter
est ithe progress of a tea' growing
experiment conducted at Whar
ton, Texas. The plants, which
were set out in 1904, were thriv
ing, averaging three and a half
feet in height and full of leaf
and bloom in 1907.
LARGEST BUCKWHEAT
MILL LOCATED IN N. Y.
Publisher
Editor
The largest buckwheat milling
plant in the world was located
at Cohocton N. Y., with a capa
city of turning out 1,000 barrels
of flour every 24 hours, a half
century ago. The most interest
ing feature of its operations was
the fact that the buckwheat hulls
furnished more fuel than was
needed to generate the steam
oower necessary to operate the
plant.
* W 1
WEALTHY FARMER
KILLS FOUR
Thomas Baldwin, 68, a wealthy
farmer and former merchant of
Colfax, 111.,' shot and killed Mr.
and Mrs. Charles Kennedy. Mrs.
Sim Eisman and her daughter,
Cora- Baldwin, who was under
bond, charged with criminal as
sault on Cora Eisman, fourteen,
had settled with the girl’s father
for a sum of money, but was lat
er arrested and blamed the Ken
nedys and Mrs. Eisman for the
prosecution.
Baldwin narrowly escaped
lynching at the hands of angry
area farmers. He surrendered to
a deputy sheriff at Arrowsmith,
was driven Mmedly to Saybrook
and taken by tram to Blooming
ton, where he was placed m pri
son.
BIG COLONY
FOR MEXICO
Five thousand families of
European immigrants were
brought to the northern section
of the state of Nuevo Leon to
form the nucleus of a gigantic
colonization project. Two million
acres of land had been secured
upon which the colonists were
to establish themselves.
An Indiana horse raised
bought a pure bred Percheron
mare for $3OO at a neighbor’s
sale, raised three colts from her
for which he received $1,250.
In 1907 he had a fourth colt
from the mare, eight months old,
for which he refused on offer of
$5OO, indicating there was money
in pure breds a half century ago.
$ * ♦
FOREST NURSERIES
ARE EXTENDED
Fifty years ago this week, the
U. S Department of Agriculture
announced plans for the exten
sion of forest nurseries on the
ranges of the central- western
“A forest garden on every
ranch” was the slogan adopted.
The government was to supply
such trees that were considered
suitable to the soil and climate of
each community, and ranch own
ers were depended upon to do
the rest. It was believed that
withm a few years the trees
would be large enough to be
transplanted to various areas on
the ranges to furnish shade and
t’mber for the future.
25 Years Ago
John A. McSparran, State Sev
retary of Agriculture, spoke at a
meeting of group five of the
Pennsylvania Bankers’ Associa
tion in Harrisburg. McSparran
t made a plea for fair treatment
is Week
ster Farming
for farmers. He said that minor
farm products staples could be
given some protection by the
tariff but that none could be
given the major staples, in 1932.
He said farmers in general
were willing to make no re
quests for any government as
sistance, if business will agree
that the government should take
its hands off business. “Agricul
ture cannot be expected to con
tinue to exist if the burdens of
taxation are to be piled on real
estate and the burdens of the
tariff on the public, of which
the farmer is the largest con
sumer” he asserted.
*He stated business had over
stepped itself in imagining that
prosperity can be continued “by
overtaxing one class .of people
for the benefit of another”.
Twenty-five years ago this
week, members of Lancaster
County Farm Women’s Society
No. 3, of Brphrata, went on rec
ord as opposed to the adoption
of daylight saving time.
Elsewhere in Lancaster County
that week the Octoraro Farmers’
Club met in session at the James
Hastings Green Meadows Stock
Farm
* ♦ *
On the Lancaster farm of Miss
Ella V Townsend, near New
Background Scripture: Matthew 13
Devotional Beading: Matthew 13.24*
30, 38—43.
Truth Is Alive
i ~i i _
Lesson for February 17, 1957
HOW do you explain advanced
mathematics to children who
don’t know what 2x2 means’
( Jesus had an equally hard time
'trymg to explain what he meant
by the Kingdom of God. (By the
way, comparison of passages
will show that Kingdom of “God”
and-of “heaven”
same thing.)
nearly every
thing he said
it has
about
'been persistent-
ly misunder
stood by some
body or other.
Harder than ex-
plained a totally
new' idea is
transforming an ® r - Foreman
old one, and Jesus had this more
difficult task; for many of his
contemporaries, both friends
and enemies, thought they knew
what “Kingdom of God” meant,
already, and they did not want
to be told.
A Definition
We can venture a definition''-of
the Kingdom of Gpd to which most
persons will agree: The state of
things in which God’s will is wholly
done by all men in all things
Many persons will agree to that
definition; but it leaves several
questions unanswered. One of these
questions is dealt with in the
parables chosen for this week’s
study. It is this: How does the
Kingdom grow, or spread, or come’
This is an especially important
question if we understand that it
is a part of God’s plan to use hn
servants—meaning and including
ourselves tod—to help bring th(
Kingdom to pass, to bring it ou
of the world of hope into the worl
of fact and experience Mos
churches sing the hymn: “Rise uj
O men of God!” They do not sin
the parody on it which begin
“Sit_ down, O men of God, yo
cannot do a 'thing!”
Not by Forco \
But suppose we do rise up t
work for the Kingdom, what sb-
Texas, thieves, entered the poul
try house and stole eleven chic
kens. On the night of Feb. 4,
1932, the robbers returned and
carried off 44 more chickens. The
door was locked and entrance
was gained thr6ugh a window
from which the thieves cut a
wire mesh.
which Miss Townsend was meim
The Fulton Detective Assn., W
ber, was investigating.
* ♦ *
SCHOOL GIRLS LIMITED
TO 3 YEARLY BATHS
■The average school girl of to
day, who is scrubbed, fed and
sent off each day with a pile of
books under her arm is probably
healthier and happier than the
young scions of ribbility why
were placed in private institu
tions of learning years ago.
From a catalog issued in the
Eighteenth century by a school
for the daughters of nobility ait
Sit, Cyr, France, we get the fol
lowing information:
“Pupils are i entitled to have
one set of underclothing, one
pair of stockings, and tw«|p
handkerchiefs per month;
Towels: Pupils, one every week;
nuns, one every two weeks.
Footbaths: Pupils, one a month;
nuns, only by special authoriza
tion of the superior. Complete
baths: Three a year (May, June,
and July). Pupils unable to take
their baths on the appointed day
must wait until the following
month”.
N So in America , today, even
children of city slums are not
as rigidly cut off from the com
forts of cleanliness as were the
daughters of bygone kings.
iwe do?
Good men have long ashed thenw
•elves that question... and some*
times given wrong saawers. Soma
have thought that the reign of GoJp
eould be forced on men. So w#
have had the Crusaders, the Inquisi
tion, the New England "theocra
cies”, Calvin In Geneva and Crom
well in England—all working on
the same theory: You can force
people to do God’s will. This earth
can become like heaven if your
police force is good enough.
Not by Machines
But that never has worked It
can’t work, because the Kingdon®
of God is not that sort of thing.
So, other good but mistaken men
have supposed that the way the
Kingdom spreads abroad is by a
copying system of some kind, let
us say by a vast mimeographing
machine, Some particular person,
or period, or institution, is taken
as the absolute pattern, and peo
ple ,are encouraged to imitate it
to the last detail For example;
the early Christian church, as de%
scribed in the book of Acts, ia
taken by 'some people as the pic
ture of the ideal church, and all
churches (it is said) should be as
nearly exact copies of it as is
possible. Or the social and polit
ical organization set forth in the
laws of Moses are taken to de
scribe the ideal state, and we to
day should imitate that if we want
to get the perfect society Or some
ancient saint is taken as the exac{|
model of every one who wants to
be a good person. But these no
tions are all off center No world
and no institution and hcl age or
system in the past perfect
even for that day; and when you!
take something that was imperfect
yesterday and try to make it fit
today, the result is more imperfect
then ever
The Kingdom Is a Living Thing
Jesus’ parables show how th™
Kingdom of God really spreads
and grows. He called it once a
kingdom of truth; and truth is a
Living thing. Truth cannot be forced
upon people. Mere copying of
truth is mechanical and may even
be meaningless Truth grows the
way a plant does, the way yeast
does In dough; silently, steadily,
by the sheer power of the life that
is in it. But since the Kingdom o*
God is made up of people, sincJP
the truth of Christ is not one to be
read about but one to be lived out.
the Kingdom of God, the world
of his heart’s desire, comes into
being by the personal touch of life
on life. Truth spreads from pole
to pole only as it spreads from!
soul to souL ' ■ J
(Ban! on ontilnos oopjrrlfhtefl by 8m
Division * t Chlrstian Education, KM
Uonal Connell ol tho Churches sf Christ ,
in tho D. S . A, Boisssil by C— naihr.