Vol. 11. No 37
Poultry Tour
Wednesday
In Delaware
Three Delaware poultry opera
tions, the Chrysler assembly plant
at Newark, Del., and the Univer
sity of Delaware are to be visited
Wednesday by Lancaster County
poultrymen on a tour sponsored
and arranged by the, county poul
try association.
The tounsts wil assemble at
7 45 a.m. at Mellinger’s Church
parking lot, Route 30, about three
miles east of Lancaster. They will
take Route 896 to Newark, arriv
ing there at about 9:50 a.m.
Tours of the assembly plant
■will begin at 10 a.m. and are ex
pected to be completed in tune
for a tour of the dairy and poul
try plants of the university from
11 30 to noon.
At noon a basket lunch will be
held>m the cafeteria room of the
agricultural building. Water and.
milk will be available.
At 1:30 p.m. the Fred Haas
farm on Route 13 south of St.
George, Del., will be visited. Haas
has 17,500 Beltsville White tur
key broilers in three houses In
addition he has 80 acres of to
matoes, 30 acres of asparagus and
20 acres of cucumbers, all under
irrigation.
The next stop will be at 2:30 at
the farm of Holt Pratt, east of
Middletown,'DelrThis is a breed
ing farm. There are, 3,500 breed
ing chickens vantress white
cockerels and white rock females.
Other items of interest are a
130,000 egg capacity incubator,
four bulk feed bins, trailer sys
tems for moving pullets to range
and a summer laying shelter.
The final stop will be at Gander
Poultry Farm, Townsend, Del..
This is a broiler operation with,
50,000 broilers being raised in
various types of houses
The tour committee, Richard
Kreider,- Mark Myer, Charles Nis
sley and Harry S. Sloat, urge all
interested poultry producers to
make the tour and to bring along
wives and friends.
Cattle on Feed
In Major States
Increase 8 Pet.
The Crop Reporting Board in a
report released a few days ago
estimates that 3,681,000 head of
cattle and calves were on feed for
market in 13 major feeding states
on July 1.
This is an increase of eight per
cent over the 3,397,000 head on
feed July 1, 1956.
The number placed on feed in
these states Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Minnesota, lowa, Mis
souri, South Dakota, Nebraska,
Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Arizona
and California during the
quarter of this year totaled 1,576,-
000 head, two per cent above the
corresponding quarter last year.
The current report shows that
the number of fed cattle market
ed from these 13 states during
Apnl-June 1957, at 2,297,000
head, was three per cent below
the marketings for the second
quarter of 1956.
July 1 marketing intentions of
cattle feeders indicated that of
the total 3,681,000 head on feed,
764.000 will be marketed in July,
916.000 will be marketed in Aug
ust, 964,000 will be marketed in
eptember and 1,037,000 will be
trketed after Oct. 1, 1957.
THE HOT DRY WEATHER of the past few
weeks pretty well stopped farming, so
Steven Hainley, R 2 Denver, took advantage
of the lull to do some fence row cleaning.
Hessian Fly Control by Systemic
Insecticide Proves Practical in Trials
COLUMBIA, Mo. Effective
control of Hessian fly in wheat
by a single application of chemi
cal insecticide mixed with the fer
tilizer at seeding time may soon
replace the current pratice of de
layed seeding.
Field-size tests at the Missouri
Experiment Station here in 1956
gave almost perfect control on
heavily infested land even though
the wheat was seeded on Sept.
6, a full month before he fly
free date in this area.
Economical control without de
layed seeding, as clearly indicated
by this experiment, offers advan
tages that will be readily appre
ciated by wheat growers. The Hes
sian fly is the wheat crop’s most
destructive insect pest over wide
areas of the United States, Can
ada, Europe, Asia and Africa.
So far as known to Missouri in
vestigator, Harry E. Brown, and
his department chairman, Philip
Stone, this is the first instance of
successful control of the fly by a
systemic insecticide; that is, a
chemical applied to the seedbed
so that its toxicity or killing effect
on the fly may be grown into the
plant 'tissue of the sprouting
wheat.
The work leading up to this dis
covery began in 1948, when two
chlorinated hydrocarbons, Toxa
phene and Chlordane, were used
m exploratory trials against the
fall generation of the fly on heav
ily infested stubble.
The chemicals were sprayed.
Results of the experiment showed
that the sprayed areas yielded
about 30 per cent of an expected
crop, while wheat on unsprayed
areas was a total failure.
Although these results were en
couraging, the same treatment
gave no protection at all against
the spring generation of the fly.
Moreover, later experiments indi-
Quarryville (Lancaster County) Pa.* Friday July 26, 1957
cated that control of the fly by
these chemicals required dosage
levels that were too costly. This
was found to be true also with sev
eral other “sprayed on” chemi
cals, and as a consequence, the
nvestlgators turned their atten
tion to systemic poisons
It was not until the early
months of 1956 that a longer act
ing systemic insecticide was
found and put to intensive tests
in both greenhouse and field ex
peuments. Thimet, in a 44 per
cent formulation on carbon, was
secured from the American Cyan
amid Co. and first tested in green
house comparisons.in March and
April. Though on a small scale,
these trials clearly revealed that
this chemical gave the plants a
long lasting toxicity at dosages
the grower can afford.
In field trials, wheat was seed
ed Sept. 6 in clean fields mnocu
lated with stubble from a heavily
infested field in another area. Thi
met was applied at four levels of
dosage; 200, 400, 800,-and 1,600
grams of actual insecticide an
acre. It was mixed with 12-12-12
fertilizer and applied at planting
with the grain drill fertilizer at
tachment. The fertilizer was ap
plied at a rate of 345 pounds an
acre.
The experimental area had,
been fallowed since June and had
plenty of moisture to sprout and
bring up the seedlings But Aug
ust, September and October were
drouth months, and the young
plants soon began to suffer from
lack of moisture. Irrigation, there
fore, was applied on Sept. 18-19
and again on Oct. 15-16 an
acre inch of water at each opera
tion.
Data on fly control was ob
tained during December by count
ing the number of maggots found
(Continued on page 13)
The chain saw makes quick work of this
tree which was shading out small grain
crops. (LF Photo)
Bulk Milk Handling
,May Save Dairies Millions
The switch from can to bulk
handling methods for milk may
mean a saving of from $5 million
to $l2 million a year to the dairy
industry, the Agricultural Market
ing Service says.
Economists forsee a saving of
about 2 to 5 cents a hundred
weight when the trend toward
conversion finally levels off, with
large savings possible in the cost
of receiving and cooling milk at
plants fully converted.
Now Is The Time...
PLAN FOR SUMMER SEEDINGS a reminder that the place
to start for a successful new seeding this summer is with a complete
soil test. Might save you considerable time and money. Soil test
kit cost $l.OO each and available at the County Extension Service
office.
TO SAVE LABOR IN TOBACCO the spraying of tobacco at
topping time for the prevention of growth of suckers worked well
last year. The material “MH-30” met with the apparent approval of
both growers and manufacturers. This spray should be applied at
topping time and not several days to a week later. Details of this
practice available on a leaflet from our Extension Office.
TO SALVAGE STUNTED CORN if recent drouth conditions
made corn shoot tassel before time, we would suggest that this
corn be made into silage in order to harvest the maximum amount
of feed nutrients. We know of no better place to use than as silagei
if the normal ear seems unlikely to develop.
TO PRACTICE CORN BORER CONTROL in recent weeks
many questions have been forwarded about the spraying of field com
for the control ot European Corn Borer. We continue to questioa
the benefits of spraying corn under average conditions With two
broods in this area, it will be difficult to get good control. We pre
fer to urge strict attention this fall and next spring in getting corn
fodder used or plowed down by late April. This will reduce thq
1958 population.
By MAX SMITH, County Agriculture Agent
$2 Per Year
‘Multi-Million’
Rain Tuesday
Ends Drouth
HARRISBURG Soaking rains
fell on most of Pennsylvania)
Tuesday to alleviate near existing
drouth conditions on Pennsyl
vania farm crops, the State De
partment of Agriculture said fol
lowing Federal-State surveys.
Described as a “multi-million
dollar rainfall,” the same condii
tions were reported from all areas
of the Commonwealth
Crops were expected to take an
upward turn with corn and vege
table crops and fruit to be “re
juvenated.” It was the first state*
wide rainfall reported by the U,
S Weather Bureau since July 13
when scattered amounts of ram
fell across most of the State.
Meanwhile , farmers during
the week ended Monday were
combining oats in most of thd
state while wheat was being har
\ested m northern areas. Corn,
tasseled in the north and its
growth/was reported good. Farm
ers in the southeast said crops
were hurt by hot and humid tem
peratures. Sweet corn in thisi
same area also was in poor con
dition Ears were reported smal
ler than average as high tempera
tures and drying winds depleted
moisture from-the soil.
The condition of pastures last
week was below average of ex
cessively high temperatures.
Some farmers in' the southeast
were reported using winter feed
supplies because of short pas
tures. The second cutting of hay
was said completed in southern,
counties and hay crops in north
ern countiese were in good condi
tion.
Early season varieties of
peaches are appearing on local
markets. Fruit sizes have been af
fected because of the prolonged
dry period. Rain on Tuesday was
expected to help production and
fruit sizes.