4—Lancaster Farming, Friday, May 10, 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
Auctions Show Growth
Auction selling and buying of livestock has had a
rapid development in recent years. Today, there are about
2,400 livestock auctions in the United States. They range in
volume of sales from a few dozen animals at a session to
literally tens of thousands in a year at a single location.
The auctioneer, valued for his experience and abil
ity, is in many ways as colorful counterpart' at the
tobacco market. With a chant intelligible only to the ini
tiated, he sells the stock rapidly on signals from the com
petitive bidders as the animals are displayed in the ring.
Estimates are that nowadays more cattle and salves,
nearly as many sheep and lambs, and about two-thirds as
many hogs go through auctions as are sold at terminal
markets. States * having the most livestock auctions are
lowa, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska, in
that general order.
By the end of next month, more than 500 livestock
auctions will be displaying notices that they are subject
to the Packers and Stockyards Act This Act, administered
by Agricultural Marketing Service, is a Federal statute
which places responsibility for regulating the livestock
marketing and meat packing industries with tht Secretary
of Agriculture. Its primary objective is to assure livestock
producers of open, competitive markets, free from unfair
trade practices.
Increased Congressional appropriations have made
it possible to post 200 auction markets during the current
year. This speed-up is part of a 3-year program aimed at
including all markets eligible for such action.
Most of the auctions covered this year are in Texas,
Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and lowa. If the
program is continued, nearly a third 1 of all livestock auc
tions in the U. S. should be displaying official Government
posting notices by the end of next year.
But not every auction market is eligible for posting
under the P & S Act. Many are below the minimum size
requirement. To come under the Act, the pen space of the
market must be at least 20,000 square feet in size, ex
clusive of runs, alleys, or passageways.
It must also be operated for compensation or profit
as a public market. It must be involved in interstate com
merce—that is, livestock offered for sale has been brought
into the State, or livestock is sold for out-of-State shipment.
All scales used in weighing the livestock must be
tested twice a year by a competent scale-testing agency in
accordance with P & S Act regulations. .The auction must
be registered and bonded, and a schedule of tariffs or
charges filed with USDA. Reasonable services and facilities
for yarding, handling, and selling livestock must be pro
vided for the charges assessed
After a market has been posted under the P & S Act
all persons doing business as market agencies, dealers, or
commission men must be registered and bonded. All must
keep adequate records of their transactions and render true
accountings to their principals. Accountings to consignor
must include a description of the livestock, the species,
weight, price per pound, total value, name of buyer, and
the yardage, commission, and feed charges. Buyers on a
commission basis must make a similar accounting, besides
stating the amount of the commission. Accounting require
ments also apply to dealers who buy or sell for their own
account. '
Currently, more and more auction market operators
are seeking “posting” under the P & S Act. This procedure
consists of actually posting at the yards three notices that
the stockyards meet all requirements.
In common usage, the word “posted” means' to
“keep off.” Not so when a livestock market is posted under
the P & S Act. Posting of a livestock market is notification
to all concerned that the market is a good place to do busi
ness, where produers, sellers, and buyers alike will get
a fair shake.
-■—
STAFF
Publisher
Editor
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
BY JACK REICHARD
50 YEARS AGO (1907)
Pennsylvania fishermen went
about their daily tasks with a
song m their heart and broad
smiles on itheir face, 50 years ago
this week, when it was announc
ed thaVall restrictions on the use
of fishing rods had been remov
ed.
State Fish Commissioner Wil
liam E. Meehan, issued special
instructions to all fish wardens
that fishermen were allowed to
use as many rods as they pleased,
m accordance to an act passed by
the legislature and signed by
Governor Stewart. Prior* to the
new law only one rod was per
mitted.
* *
According to the Weather
Bureau, April, 1907, was one of
the most unusual months on re
cord in the history of the bureau
, On the second day of the
rrtonth the thermometer dropped
to 22 degrees, freezing over
ponds and streams at many
places in- Lancaster County. The
high during the month was re
corded April 25, when an official
reading ,of 75 degrees was noted.
There were three snows and one
thunderstorm recorded that
month.
Noted .Weather Prophet Died
Elias Hartz, well known
throughout eastern Pennsylvania
as the “Reading Goose-Bone
Weather Prophet”, died m the
Friends’ Asylum, Philadelphia,
at the age of 92
Hartz always contended that
the goosebone was the instru
ment provided by nature for the
foretelling of -weather, and tried
to get the Weather Bureau to ac
cept it as standard. He was an
unofficial weather forecaster for
60 years and his'predictions us
ually proved accurate
Retired Man Had
Strange Love Affair
Dutchmen in Germany were
amused over the queer love affair
of one of their retired merchants
living in the Muhlenstrasse. He
had a grown up daughter who
kept house for him, and when
she went on a visit to relatives
she left a vacancy in the home
and heart of the father.
One evening a knock came on
the door and an attractive young
woman asked for his daughter.
The father explained she was
away
The visitor was disappointed
.almost to tears. She was an old
school friend she said and was
-visiting Berlin. She wanted to
see her chum of all things-
The retired man grasped the
chance for a little companion
ship. He asked the young lady to
come in and rest. Then he made
tea for her.
She accepted an invitation to
(accompany him to a vaudeville
theatre. He found her good hum
ored and amusing that he was
deeply smitten before he left
her at the door of a house where
she said she was staying.
When he returned to his own
abode and opened the door, he
found the whole place ransacked
with everything valuable gone,
including. SlOO that had been
locked in a bureau drawer.
Police were notified and round
ed up a young man, an associate
of the young woman who, with
another young man confessed to
the robbery and were arrested.
When the woman was arrested,
the elderly merchant offered to
irefram from prosecuting her if
she would marry him. She re
plied that she would agree to the
marriage if he would let all
three go free. This he refused to
do. The girl then decided to
stand trial and go to prison
rather than marry him.
25 Years Ago
Elias H. Wissler died at the
home of his brother, David H.
Wissler,. West Quarryville, at the
iage of 66. He was a fisherman
and renter of row boats on the
lower Susquehanna, and better
known by fishermen in Lan-
Week
;er Farming
caster, Lebanon and Berks coun
ties as the “Hermit of Wissler’s
Hollow.”
Wisslcr, who never married
an dlived alone in a cabin built
and lived alone in a cabin built
also collected Indian relics in
the area, accumulating a good
size collection of darts, axes and
other stone implements through
the years. He was- one of the
last to dip shad with bow net out
of the Susquehanna prior to the
construction of the Conowingo
dam. '
h *■ «k
S. D. Farm Boy Wins Top Award
An essay, neatly written in
bold handwriting, won for Vance
Beckwith, 11, a South Dakota
farm lad first award in a contest
sponsored by the Dakota Central
Telephone Company, on “Why is
telephone service so valuable to
the farmer 7 ” Beckwith’s paper
was selected from 2,200 enterics.
His essay, given here in part,
stated -
“Thinking back over things
that have happened in our home,
I feel that a telephone is not a
luxury, but a necessity.
“We believe that a life has
been saved in our family because
were able to summon a doctor
quickly.
“When our hogs got cholera,
we telephoned the'county agent
•and he 'came out and vaccinated
them. This saved us a forty mile
Background Scripture; Genesis 12; 18
—l7; 22
Demotion*! Reading; P»»lm 105'1-15.
Friend of God
Lesson (or May 12, 1957
'/COUNTED a saint by three reli
v-1 gions, Abraham is unique
among the great men of the world.
The Mohammedan name for him
Is simply “The Friend,” meaning
Friend of God. His greatness ts
not in anything that is especially
admired and paid highly for in
America, so that his reputation
among us is
not what he de
serves. He was
not a noted busi-
ness man, execu
tive, or popular
novelist;, no oil
was ever discov
ered on his prop
erty. However,
he might be in
troduced to an ® r- Foreman
American audience as a success
ful cattleman Even 'small boys
might be interested to know that
he was extra good as a deputy
sheriff. But these facts were mot
the main point about him.
Faith That Works i
The big fact about Abraham was
his religious gemjus. To some per
sons God seems very dim. Even
Abraham’s father .worshipped
“other gods’ k —we have no- idea
how many. But Abraham, out of
an idolatrous home, came forth a
man for whom God was his closest
and most real Friend. To use the
Bible word, Abraham was a man
of faith. In one book of the New
Testament (Romans) Paul says
that Abraham was “justified"—
that is, God looked with approval
on him—for his faith.
Belief
"Abraham believed God,” it is
said No living man now knows
how God spoke to Abraham Long
•go Saint Augustine debated, but
did not decide, the question wheth-'
er God spoke in tones that the ear
could catch, or in a voice audible
only In the soul. The point is that
when Abraham knew it for God’s
direction, or God’s promise, he be
lieved that what God said was
true. God made some pretty un-
trip. - Hv’
‘ ‘The Post Office phones when
our/- baby chicks arrive and wo
get them before they are chilled.
“Mother has sold gobblers and
cockerels, and Daddy has sdld
breeding stock by phone.”
Senator Borah Called
For Economy
Twenty-five years ago this
week Senator Borah, Rep.,
Idaho, called upon the nations
of the earth to do something to
relieve citizens of taxation, and
to “avoid further loaning of
funds beyond the ability- of the
people ito pay.” He stated there
could he no constructive purpose
in raising taxation, nor in add
ing to the availability of.funds
for borrowing so long as the
“purchasing power of more than
half of the human family has
been almost completely destroy
ed.” , ,
Senator Borah declared that
75 per cent of the budget of all
nations, in 1932, were the results
of war, past or anticipated.
Back in 1932 Mrs. Phenie Own
ly‘ Mayor of Broken Arrow,
Okla., had lost patience with,
citizens who didn’t pay for water
supplied by the municipality, a ]
gave notice as follows: “Some
that owe us give big parties, but
can’t or won’t pay their water
bills. You’d better pay, or you
won’t be able to wash your dishes
after the next party”.
That same week the public
health service department at
Washington declared that the
nation’s influenza cases should
an increase of 3,000 over the pre
vious week, marking a record
high of nearly 10,000 cases.
likely promises to him: that he
would have a son at all was very
unlikely; that this son’s descend
ants would be more numerous than
the stars was equally unlikely; that
they would live in and own the
countryside where Abraham was-a
landless nomad was still more iiP
probable; but most incredible of
all was that through Abraham’s
descendants the whole earth should
be blessed. Yet we are told that
Abraham believed all these things;
and indeed they all came true.
Obidienci
1 It is one thing to believe that
I what God says is true; it is an
other thing to set about living by
that truth. Many a person wjiJ
stand up for the proposition that tne
Bible is the inspired Word of God.
but simply won’t act and live in ac
cordance with what the Bible plain
ly teaches. Such '‘faith’’ as James
said is “vain" but Abraham’s
faith was not vain. He took God at
his word; when God said “Go,” he
'went, and he went all the way.
“Whate’er my God ordains is
right” is a song Abraham could
well have sung. .
Patience
Abraham’s faith was shown also
by his patience. Most of us are like
small children, whose clocks show
only two times, NOW and NEVER.
If Father has promised a ride, or
Mother a lollipop, the child wants
it right this minute. If it’s not to be
had, tears fall and wails arise. If I
can’t have it now, I’ll 'pever get it!
So we pray and expect an answer as
if It were by return malL We can’t
trust God to time his blessing *
Abraham knew better. He was will
ing to- wait. Indeed some of the
promises Cod' made to him he
never lived to see. But he did not
think that God had cheated him.
Sacrifice
The story of Abraham’s sacrifice
(or near-sacrifice) of Isaac shows
the endless lengths to which Abra
ham’s faith would go. Psychologi
cally and morally impossible for a
sane American today, the act J
child-sacrifice was not so impossi
ble for Abraham, living as he did
among people for whom human
sacrifices were all too common. But
it is impossible to exaggerate the
meaning of this sacrifice to Abra
'ham. It meant cutting off, so far
as he could see, all the promises of
God. Indeed it may well have
seemed to him that God had
changed his mind and was taking
back all he had promised for -V
future. All this added to the deep
love Abraham had for this child
of faith, the child for whom he had
waited* so many years, made the
act'seem especially terrible. But
Abraham’s faith went the last mile.
(Baud on outline* oopyrlfhtod by
Division of Christian Ednoatlon.Na
tlonal Connell of th# Chnrch** of Christ
. In tho D, S. A. BoUaaod by Community
mu Sorrloo.)