4—Lancaster Farming, Friday, June 28, 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 t Is Wheat Support Necessary? The wheat referndum last week was approved just as everyone knew it would be. Farmers in Lancaster County showed their discouragement in being outvoted year after year by almost boycotting the polls. They knew that the wheat producers in the Great Plains would out vote them by favoring the price supports almost 100 per cent. And why shouldn’t the big producers favor the supports? Wheat producers have been getting almost two-thirds of all the money spent in price supports. It is the best crop insurance they have ever had. - In a trip through the Great Plains states last- year, we saw some of the''effects of the current government price support and acreage control programs in the major wheat producing areas. The farmers have found that there is a lot of wafer under the dry sandy soils of Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. They also have found that they can, for about $lO,OOO in equipment, bring that water to the surface and that water will allow them to grow as much wheat on a section that they used to grow on three sections. So what has been the net result? Wheat production has dropped very little despite all the controls. Corn producers on the fringes of the Plains are finding that grain sorghum is moving in on their market in the feeder cattle areas. And in the Eastern United States, grain importers those farmers who can not grow enough grain on their own farm —pay prices for wheat that are well over production costs. Especially are they over the cost of production in the Great Plains in a dry land operation.'The ground is plowed once with a disc plow and then planted. The next time the land is gone over is at harvest. There are, no fences, few buildings and no costs for fertilizer. Equipment cost even is low for the size of the operation. The equipment is large and rugged, thus giving a long life per unit and of course giving the economy found in the purchase of a large unit as compared to a small unit. Compare this to the high land cost in Lancaster County and the tremendous investment per farm in buildings and machinery. Here the diversification of farming demands the machinery budget be chopped into smaller pieces, thus forcing the farmer to buy the most low priced unit avail able. Here the land must be prepared and tended carefully to prevent erosion, and fertilizer must be applied liberally to insure a high enough yield to make it worth'while to plant a field to wheat. So lets take a look at what might happen if the price supports were _pulled out from under wheat. First of all; the price would drop to about the world market level which is about $1.35 a bushel. Can a profit be made at this figure? Canadian farmers have been doing it for the last several years with about the same land and equipment costs that prevail in the United States. The effect here in Lancaster County would be that it would be so unprofitable to raise wheat that the acreage would drop to almost nothing, insofar as grain produc tion is concerned. But at the same time, demand for wheat as a feed grain would increase thus giving the market a boot upward Admittedly there would be a period of violent readjust ment and seeming chaos while the adjustment is being made, but many economists say that is what is going to have to happen. Even some highly placed officials on Washington have voiced the opinion that a free wheat market is going to have to be developed. The Congress is becoming more and more,aware that the farm population is only about seven per cent of the population of the country as a whole. The Congress is also extremely budget minded this year. So with the agricul tural program up for some changes soon, we can expect some revolutionary thinking on the part of Congress. From some of the smoke signals trickling from the District of Columbia, wheat supports just might be one of the changes. STAFF Advertising Director Circulation Director BY JACK REICHARD J 5 YcafS AgO 50 YEARS AGO (1907) A writer on child development in the farm home, a half century ago, put it this way “There is a time for education and development with boys and girls an the home, just as there is-a proper time for the-cultiva tion of the crops in the field. Ne glect or pestponment in either case entails a loss that is sel dom made good.” The writer pointed out it was not reasonable to expect that*, if youngsters were allowed to act like little heathens in the home they would “conduct themselves like models of etiquette when they were out in company or when there are guests in the home.” t * * NEW RULING BRINGS DISTILLERY COMPLAINTS Back in 1907 the distillers of the nation iwere caught short of the “real stuff” following a rul ing by Secretary Wilson of the US. Department of Agriculture, who ordered all whiskey prod ucts be labeled according to their contents Secretary Wilson point ed out that if a whiskey was pure, it could be labeled as such, but if it was blended with common alcohol or other adulterants it must bear a label accordingly. The distillers declared the decis ion, which really was an enforce ment of common honesty, would drive them out of business OIL DISCOVERED IN LANCASTER COUNTY Publisher ~ .Editor On the Lancaster farm of Clay ton Bowman, near the Black Horse Hotel, one mile southeast of Remholds, kerosena oil had been discovered It wa's declared that tests were made and the oil found of good quality Promoters were considering forming a stock company to develop the well t * * " Back in June, 1907, officials of a western municipality decid ed to do something about hobos who applied to the authorities for assistance. The city fathers enacted an ordinance compelling all applicants to dig up dandeli ons in the public parks and streets in return for food and lodging The officials reported the new ruling had caused most hobos to sidetrack the city. * T » CIGARETTE LAW ENACTED An act making it illegal to sell, give, or cause to be given, cigarettes or cigarette paper to' minors had been signed and made law, 50 years ago. Each violation of the law was punish able by a fine from $lOO to $3OO. - I. One of the many commendable benefactors of Andrew Carnegie, tha steel magnet, was the plac > mg of $40,000 at the disposal of Luther Burbank, the American [ “plant wizard,” so that while . conducting his many experiments ' he would not be vexed in making | a living ' it * * MARRIED IN HASTE Fifty years ago this week the 1 village of Calvert, Cecil County, ■ Maryland, made news involving a bogus Lord Stanley who won i the heart of pretty Miss Irene Clayton, two weeks after they • met In order that he would come ; into possession'of a large fortune , it Weis only necessary that he get married, he explained, and ac cordingly Miss Clayton accompa nied him to a parish in Oxford, Pa, where the Rev. J H. Royer performed the ceremony. Later developments proved the man was a fraud, and he was told to take off for more friendly parts. “Lady” Stanley, too, was com pletely upset “Come back wh-an you have that $20,000 dowry ready” were her paring words. Week ter Farming Interesting sidelights on the manners and customs ot by-gone days are found m old newspap ers and advertisements. The fol lowing-public sale'announcement was .published at Versailles, Ky., in 1849: “Having sold my farm, and as I am leaving for Oregon Terri tory by oxen team, I will sell all my personal property except two oxen teams ( Ben and 'Buck, and Lou and Jerry), consisting of the following; “Two milk- cows, one grey mare and colt, one pair of. oxen, one yoke, one baby yoke and two ox carts, *bne iron plow with wood mould board, 800 feet of weatherboards, 1,500 fence rails, 160-gallon soap kettle, 85 sugar troughs, 10 gallons maple syrup, one 40-gatlon copper still, two spinning" wheels, 30 pounds tal low, one large loom, 300 poles, 100 split hoops, 100 empty bar rels, four sides leather, 12 wood en pitchforks, half interest in tan yard, one rifle with bullet moulds and powder horn, soft soap, ba con, hams, lard, molasses, six head of fox hounds, all soft mouthed but one Background Scripture; Genesis 41:53 —5O 26 Devotional Reading: I Corinthians 13. What Is Greatness Lesson for June 30, 1957 -*«'T'HE habitual vision of great ness” has been called the secret of the ancient Greeks, one of the world’s most wonderful people. Many would say that the ancient Hebrews were even more wonderful; and they too had their ‘‘habitual vision of greatness.” 'in our Old Testament are stories of great men, for whom even today little children are named. These great men and women too are of different- kinds, you might say only one of a kind Joseph was the kind of great man Americans ®r love to honor He was an immigrant, for one thing, a poor boy, with 1 nothing but the clothes he wore, when he first crossed the border of Egypt. He was a man who rose, through all the layers of society,! against very gieat odds. He was. the “big executive” type, and im-| mensely rich besides. Now it is not true that such men are always; hailed and honored. Sometimes they are no more loved-than Gen eral Bullrhoose. But when such men do give their fellow-citizens a lift of pude, it is because of that something Extra which we call greatness. The High Scui Every truly great man or woman, has some qualities or gifts which are unique in him, and are partly brought out by his own special circumstances. The greatness of an 1 Abraham Lincoln, for instance, is' not that of a Dwight L Moody, andj neither of these is quite like Helen; Killer. But there are some features to be found in all persons who de- 1 serve the we>d “great” Joseph in Egypt is a good example of these., First of all is what can be called: the High Soul. His house of life is' open to the sky. He is guided by. his faith in God. To such a man,, faith is not a thing to be or talked about It is something tc| be lived, and lived by. Every single “Also six Negro slaves, two men, two boys and two mulatto wenches, all together in one par ty, as I will not separata them. “Sale will begin at 8 a.m. Plen ty to eat and drink.” • » • BANANAS FOR EVERYBODY IN U.S.A. “If the bananas imported into the United' States in 1931 were evenly distributed, every man, woman and child living in the country would have received sev eral dozen each,” stated a bul letin issued by the National Geo graphic Society in 1932. There were more than 55,000,000 stems of bananas delivered at Ameri can ports in 1931, the largest fruit import into the country, according to the report. In Delta, Colo., they were man ufacturing cheese by the hund redweight. There thieves broke into a cheese factory and made off with 300 pounds of the prod uct. While fishing off Fairhayen, Mass., Patrick Healey caught a 12-pound cod inside of which he found a solitaire diamond set in a gold ring. Harry Rhutz, of Cedar Rapids, la., plowing in a field that morn ing, turned up a gold watch which his father had lost 20 years before. When she refused to go to jail for contempt of court, Mrs. Margaret Fraley of Kingwood, W Va., was picked up in the arms of the sheriff and politely 'but expediously carried to a cell. important step in Joseph’s life Is connected by his biographer with God; and Joseph himself shows that he was conscious of God’s guidance. Even that decisive mo ment when he was being sold to Midianite slave-traders,—a mo ment which just then he would hardly have connected with God—, he later saw was an act of God. “It was not you who sent me heie, but God,” said he to his brothers later. What will God think of this? was not an afterthought with him, but it entered into his decisions beforehand. The Open Mind Great men have their prejudices, no doubt; what human being is entirely free of them? But a great man is capable of living above his prejudices. He can revise his opin ions. Neither the man who is for ever changing his mind, nor the man who can never change it, is ( likely to achieve greatness. When ' Joseph’s first son was born, he called him by anamqwhich. means “making-to-forgetf” “God,” said he, "has made me forget... all my father’s house.” Joseph at that time, and for years before and. after that time, had no communi- 1 cation with his home back in Pal-' estme. To be sure, his family could neither read nor write; but Joseph could easily have sent a message telling them he was alive and do ing very well indeed. On the cen tral y, he seems to have been quite content to be cut off from home. Very likely he thought the less he had to do with his rascally broth ers, the better. But when the famine time came, he got ac quainted with his brothers again; discovered in one of them, at least, a noble spirit; and he so- far re vised his attitude that he invited the whole family into Egypt near him. The Wide Heart foreman Joseph’s tieatment of his broth ers showed more than a willing-' ness to reconsider his prejudices. • He had' a heart willing to foi get the past, willing to return good foir evil To men who had been as mean to him as they could possibly, be, he was as good and generous as he could possibly be. Most of us think we are mighty virtuous if m leturn for a dirty deal we do just a tiny grudging act of kind ness. That is better than vengeance and mean dealing in return; but 1 the great man is far above meas-i unng what he gives by what has| been given him. True greatness includes more than justice; it in cludes forgiveness and mercy. Voltaire used to say about God, “He will forgive—that’s his busi ness.” (Butl on outlines copyrighted by the Division of Christian Education, Na tional Council of the Churches of Christ In the USA. Released by Commnnlt/i Press Service.) * * • • «
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers