—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday. December 5. 1959 4 FROM WHERE WE STAND - Secretary Benson Praises Farmers Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Ben&cn today made public a letter writ ten by him recently to ttie presidents of nearly 100 leading farm and non-farm nationwide organizations urging that they help focus public attention on the "debt of gratitfade which all Americans owe to their neighbors on farms and ranches." Text of the letter follows; "My recent trade development and good will trip to Europe left me more than ever impressed with the fact that the Am erican people owe a special debt of gra titude to our farmers and ranchers. Their efficiency and productiveness are basic to our national progress and high stand ard of living. "Each farm worker in the United Stales produces, on the average, enough food and fiber for about 25 persons. In contrast, a farm worker in the Soviet Union produces enough for only six or seven persons. Never have so few pro duced so much for so many as our farm ers have done in recent years. "The productivity of our farmers and ranchers has not only supplied abundant quantities of food to consumers and raw materials to industry; it has also released manpower for the needs of the total Davidson Secretary of Agriculture mer at the time of World War Ezra Benson returned recent- I, and it is only about one iy from a first-hand survey of third the current U. S. output farming and farm living con- per worker, drtions inside Russia. His au- Consider that in this coun '.hontative comments and try we are attempting to re comparisons with American strain farm production, while agriculture probably are the j n Russia there is a great ef most reliable that are avail- £ o rt to expand production, able from behind the Iron and you see that the Russians Curtain. have a long, long way to go The Secretary traveled to catch up with us ' t a through farming areas, stop- * There is, Benson noted, pmg often to talk with Rus- S a P between their pro sian farm people. He also ductivity and ours a still talked with Russian agricul- Wlc * er between their tiiral officials. Prom his ob- marketing and ours and a servations we get a good tremendous chasm between comparison between U. S. their farm standards of liv ■aftd USSR farming. in g and ours. “You have read,” lie said, A “Compared with a typical “that the Soviet Union has American farm, life on a So made, and is making, great ™ et fa ™ 13 alm f st Primitive strides toward a more effic- have about one million lent agriculture. This is true, tractors all owned by the “Yet, according to Soviet ha Y e nearly five sources some 50 million per- milll °n, owned by individ sohs were working in agri- uals culture in 1956—43 per cest Hand Labor vs. Power of their total labor force. “Few Soviet farms have The Soviet Union, in other electricity, compared with words, has several times as 96 per cent of ours, and with many people actively engag- electricity in the U. S. have ed in agriculture as we have, come running water, radios, yet our total production ex- television, refrigerators, deep ceeds theirs by a wide marg- freezers, vacuum cleaners m.” and a whole multitude of F6riy Years Behind labor-saving devices un- Khrushchev has boasted known on the average Rus from time to time that Soviet sian farm agricultural production will “Many families on Soviet soon eaual, and then surpass farms live in wooden cabins, that of the United Stales even mud huts. They get to Russian farm output per town about as often as farm worker is about equal to that ers m this country used to GO of the average American far- or 75 years ago. “Our farm families drive modern cars on hard-surfaced highways. The Soviet farm family rides in horse-drawn carts over roads to match We have more telephones on farms in this country than can be found in all of Russia city and farm combined. “After a first hand look at agriculture under contrasting Lancaster Farming Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly P O Box 1524 T monster, Penna. Oftxes: 52 Xoi ih Duke St. Bancaster, Penna. 1 anca°ter Phone 4-W47 .Tack Owen, IMilor Robc-t g Campbell Advertising forms of government and in Dir. rtnr k Business jihn iger three Communist countries,” EetnMished n«ember 4 iPG Benson said, “I’m all the towtir t arming ipnca’trr pa more convinced of the super- Ground corn cobs are good Entered as 2nd civs matter at ionty of our - agricultural * eed f° r beef catt’e during Pa under Art or Mar system of privately owned *be winter if the cobs are jnv p q1 ' entrv at Tr "' rl, f arm iy farms, the profit mo- supplemented with three and Subscription Bates- j 2 per vear; tive, competitive markets, a half pounds of supplement Oree years f 5. Single copy Pries and f ree dom for the farmer P° r cow dai! 3 r 6 Cent- _____ Pubisn- dGC uC Wnat IIG Wants to ere' A^nci-itmn. National Editor, grow and market ful we should be, and how UI Association “How fortunate we are to determined to keep our coun live in this land, how grate- try free and strong.” THIS WEEK —ln Washington With Clinton Davidson Farming In Russia economy, which has given America the highest standard of living in all history. . "The accomplishments of American, agriculture thus give striking evidence of the value of free enterprise, individual in itiative, and creative achievements. Four fifth of our agriculture is free of govern ment controls. Our surplus problems are limited to a very few commodities—com modities for which agriculture has not had full freedom to make necessary ad justments. I have complete confidence that our farm people, given necessary freedom, will continue to do a great job. "It seems appropriate to me that ad ditional public attention be focused on this debt of gratitude which all Americans owe to their neighbors on farms and ranches. Having farmed for many years and worked with agriculture all my life, I have always had a keen appreciation of the excellent job farmers do. I have tried to express this feeling at every op portunity and I can pleased about the good work being done by many groups to publicize these facts. I hope all of us who are deeply interested in this will make every effort to remind the general public about agriculture's fundamental contribution to our Amencan way of life." Oats Winterkill In January Say PSU Researchers Winter oats kills in Jan uary in Pennsylvania and not in March as often assumed, according to the latest ex periments b y Robert P. Pfeifer of the Agricultural Experiment Station, the Pennsylvania State Univer sity. Dr. Pfeifer and associates have found that the major portion of the winter-kill of oats occurs when the soil temperature falls below 22 degrees Fahrenheit. This is usually between January 1 and February 6. Their dis covery has held true during the past two years of field studies and special cold chamber tests. “Only the deep-freeze ef fect of frozen soil on oat seedlings makes them look ajive,” Dr. Pfeifer explains “Under these conditions dead seedlings will look alive un til frost leaves the ground in March or later,” he adds. The Penn State research ers are now using their soil temperature discovery to de termine winter hardiness of the different oat varieties. By freezing seedlings in artifical cold chambers, they can de terming winter kill for any one varietl. This method of determin ing winter hardiness can also be used with winter wheat and barley, Dr. Pfeifer points out. We can now pre dict winterkill of winter grain well oefore the Spring planting season, he adds. Tests indicate that cold hardiness of the more frost res stant oat varieties is di rectly related to earliness of planting. Winter injury in creases with late plantings Seeding? made on September 10 had 48 per cent winter injury When planted Sep tember 21 the winter injury rose to 52 per cent. Winter injury sharply increased to 88 per cent when the planting date was October 2. “ In future experiments we want to find out what hap pens in hardy oat varieties to cause them to build up resis tance to freezing tempera tures,” Dr Pfeifer states. Bibl* Material; .Acts 9 10-31. Derftttaast Bend toe'- Colossiane 3.12-17. New Convert Lesson for December 6, 1959 FIFTEEN thousand, nine hun dred eigthy-two persons decided ior Chtist when Billy Graham was down m New Zealand last "spring.’’