o. 26
Lin Slows
Irm Work
I County
H msylvania farmers are
B being plagued by too
■h ram, the Crop Report
of the State Ag-
Kture Dept, indicates to
■m its weekly crop and
■(her roundup.
Btermittent rains and
V weather during the past
■ir have stopped spraying
Hjfalfa fields for spittle
■ rotted vegetable .seeds
W'o ground, slowed growth
Hecent vegetable planting,
■ limited bee activity in
■ orchards.
Bi the other hand, the
were mostly light
Bgh and spaced so that
■ ground absorbed the wa
■ limiting erosion even on
Bntly planted oats and
■ fields Pastures have
Km rapidly because of the
■ome allalfa m the county
■ been harvested. Most of
■ cut was put into - silos,
H several crops, particular
fin the southern part of
■ county, have been made
R (Turn to page 14.)
WE • DAY
■WEATHER
I FORECAST
■Saturday - Wednesday
■ Temperatures foe the
Bxt five days will average
Bo to fire degrees Above
He normals of 5$ at night
H 77 in. the ' afternoon,
■trmer Saturday, cooler
Hmday and Monday, and
W tmer again Tuesday or
Wednesday. Scattered
Bowers again about Tues-
Bv may average V to Vi
Wh. During th past
B*ek .83 inch of t - fell
B the Lancaster i iher ,
B*teau. Total rain ng
B»y up to the 21 -as
854 inches. Norm' n-
B for the entire n
inches.
warm Cale
23—7 30 pm -
the executive board of
4 H leaders council in
W c count > agent’s office
H 1 Lancaster Post Of
■noe
p m , mee t in g Q f (h e
W™ Pf-nun 4-H club in
W e Penryn f ire hall.
K!r do pm. - meeting
RJ 1 ; Manor community
v u club m the Penn-Man-
W r High School
Wj Jr 00 am to 4 - 00
KmV ’ Hay drying demon-
Ku ! on M the farm of
KL H Oll Si,n s re y. one mi ie
Km. °7 H'titz on the Man-
R Ho.,d
Kim , P 11 Headline for ap-
W u «tx>n lor 4-H camp
Ki K ,7 ,;(J P m - Holstein
Kf p at the farm
Ks °p!' HeUenng, Lititz
■Rnm located along
Pu£~ 7 f ■ Rough
Hdu'n ’ 1 horse and pony
■lius cf 0 ' 1 * at Hie home of
Kilo p,2°' Jaiake r. Quarry
■vt p° 4° 700 pm -
Har-B-Que at the
Khjci-,.7 r p °ultry Center.
■ 10 take out only.
IMPROVISING TO GET THE JOB done is one of the
secrets of success on the Ressler Farm, Here Charles R ea
sier adjusts sweeps on the cultivator in preparation for the
first tomato cultivation. The home made sweeps are boiler
plates about ’/4”xB”xX4” welded to a pipe that just fits the
cultivator bracket. For the first cultivation the sweeps are
set so that they push clods and trash away from the row
to avoid covering the plants. During later cultivations, the
sweeps are reversed to pull soil in toward the row. Charles
said they work well for corn as well as tomatoes
—LF PHOTO
Milk Top Income Producer
Census Figures Show
Dairy products continue to
lead tiie parade of agricul
tural value, the census fig
ures released this week show
Of the $129 Vi million real
ized during 1959 by the
farmers of the Garden Spot
county, $23,290,000 came
from the sale of milk. Dairy
cows ranked second in value
chalking up an Income of
$22,425,000.
Eggs, even with the un
easy price picture for a good
Corn Demonstration Plot Planted;
Test Varieties and Populations
In spite of the—weather, ther differences can be tak
the 1960 Lancaster County en into consideration,
corn demonstrations are pi- (Turn to page 14)
anted on two farms in the
county __
Plot number one is on the
farm of Richard Hess, Stras
burg, and plot number two
is at Elizabethtown R 1 on
the farm of Leroy Kutt.
Harry Sloat, Associate Co
unty Agent has conducted
the demonstrations for 11
years. “And Dutch Bucher
(former Lancaster County
Agent) had them for about
that many years before that”
Sloat says.
Each year - the locations
are moved, but Sloat tries
to get locations in various
parts of the county so that
different soil types and wea-
SCD Offers Two
Scholarships
Two $l5O scholarships for
Penn State sophomores are
being offered by the Pennsyl
vania Association of Soil
Conservation District Direct
ors, according to Amos H.
Funk, chairman of the Lan
caster County Soil Conserva
tion District.
The awards' will be made
to two students majoring in
some phase of conservation,
such as agronomy, forestry
(Continued on Page 13)
Lancaster. Pa.. Saturday, May 21. 1960
portion of the year managed
to stay in third place by
bringing m a total of $17,-
837,000.
Other cattle, tobacco,
poultry and corn ranked af
ter the iSig three m that or
der.
The 1959 figures show that
total gross income for the
year was up more than $7
million compared to 1958.
The current total in gross
, (Turn to page 7)
PLANTING CORN BY HAND IS NOT completely for
gotten in Lancaster County Each year. Harry Sloat, associ
ate county agent, brings out the old “punch planters” and
puts in the county corn demonstration plots. Shown here
on the farm of Leroy Rutt, Elizabethtown Rl, Sloat is as
sisted by assistant county agent, Wmthrop Merriam. Thirty
two varieties of hybrid corn in six replicate plots were
planted on each of two farms The other site is at Strasburg
Rl on the farm of Richard Hess. —LF PHOTO
Row Crops Need Not
Destroy Soil Fertility
Editors note: This is the second in the series of articles
describing the farming operations of Charles A, Hessler
and his two sons. Hershey and Charles E.
Many people will argue that fertility on a farm can
not be maintained if large acreages of canning crops and
grains are grown. But Resslers of Rawlinsville and Pleas
ant Grove will show you two farms where the fertility
not only has been maintained, but has been improved each
year.
When the elder Charles course in 1943, the senior
Ressler moved to the Holt- Ressler was contracting size
wood R 2 farm in the middle able acreages of peas for
1930’s the land was eroded canning as well as tomatoes,
and not very productive. For several years the pea
Soil conservation practices
such as contour stripping,
sod waterways, more cover
crops, green manure crops
and close growing crops, and
the construction of a series
of contour terraces on the
fields above the farm build
ings soon stopped the run off
of water and made possible
the' building up of soil fertil
ity.'
Even before Hershey Res
sler, the older of the two
sons, had graduated from
Quarryville High School in
the vocational agriculture
PLANTING TWO ROWS OF TOMATOES at one trip
is Hershey Ressler (on the tractor) with the help of jfbur
migrant workers. The tractor carries two 50 gallon tanks
of water, enough to plant an acre, as well as extra plants.
The wide-set wheels on the tractor makes it possible to
cultivate the wide rows. Rows are six feet apart and plants
are spaced 22 inches on the row. An agitator in the water
tank keeps the starter fertilizer in solution during plant
ing*. —LF PH^TO
$2 Per Year
viner was located on the
farm at Rawlinsville.
During those early years
on the farm, the livestock
program was mainly steers
with a few hogs, mostly
feeders.
After Charles finished
school, three years after Her
shey, the boys began farming
in* earnest with their father.
Today the trio farms over
three hundred acres on the
two farms. The crop program
is still mainly canning crops
and grains and livestock pro
(Turn to page 16)
April Hatch
Shows Decline
From 1959
The combined batch of
egg and broiler type chicks
in Pennsylvania during Ap
ril was down 23 percent
from April 1959, the Penn
sylvania Crop Reporting ser
vice revealed this week'.
This was the smallest total
April hatch in the Keystone
state since 1941.
Broiler type production
comprising about 48 percent
of the total was down 16 per
cent from a year earlier
while egg type chicks were
down 28 per cent.
In the entire United Stales
the production of broiler
type chicks was off about
five per cent from Apul ’53
while production ol egg typo
chicks was down some 25
per cent. This constitutes the
smallest U. S hatch of egg
type birds since record keep
ing began in 1955.
Turning to eggs in incuba
tors on May first, the picture
is somewhat different. Broil
er type eggs set in the major
producing states were up 1 3
percent from the correspond
ing week last year.