LuuiUivG OVER THE TAPE containing ail tne -arm records furnished by John Geh
■nan of Barto, Montgomery County are standing, left to right James Becker, extension
farm management specialist at the Pennsylvania State University, Gehman, and Mrs
Gehman Seated in the foreground with back to camera is the operator of PENNSTAC,
the electronic computer constructed by the University Gehman’s farm records, including
all the resourses at his command, have been transferred to the tape by means of holes
punched in the tape. The “machine” considers all possible activities Gehman might
undertake with resourses at hand and, comes up with the combination of activities calcu
lated to bring the highest return. The machine handled more operations in less
than five minutes than a secretary at the University did with a manual calculator in eight
weeks ' L. F. Photo
Milk Records Misleading
Shaffer Tells Dairymen
The cow with the high in
dividual record may not al
ways be fhe most profitable
one m the dairy herd, Har
vey Shaffer, extension dairy
specialist told the approxi
mately 580 farmers and the
ir families at the Twilight
Meeting at the Southeastern
Pennsylvania Artificial Bre
eders Cooperative on Mon
day night
The cow with one big
record will often sell bet
ter in the ring than the real
money maker, Shaffer said.
One record is often very
misleading because there are
™any factors which do not
show up m a single lactat
ion record
Shaffer said that there is
s °me woik being done to
establish “Pounds of milk
Farm Calendar
J % 18 —630 pm - To
ma 'o variety demonstrat
lnr> at the farm of Henry
Hei=ev, Washington Boro
m Dr Roy Creech, who
re t»la(od Dr. Pollack at
llle Pcnna State Umv.
assist J O Dutt, ex
tension vegetable special
ist
®OO p m - Meeting of the
Count/ 4-n council exe
cutive committee at the
llo mc of Mary Alice Mo
-2455 Marietta Ave.
P m - Pcquea Valley
,A. meets in the high
school
® a m. - District
'D demonstration contest
Kutztown
arn - Soil Conservation
agencies meet
l Hie Clarence Garber
‘anr., Willow Street R 2, to
Pail the County Soil Con
erv ation field day.
"Turn to page 14)
per day of life” as the stan
dard in selecting dairy cat
tle. Even lifetime averages
are sometimes misleading,
Shaffer said since they do
not show the age of the cow
at-first calving, the interval
between calvings or the nura
her of lactations the cow
stayed in the herd.
“It takes about 2V& lac
tations for the average cow
to pay the farmer for rais
ing her ” Shaffer told the
out-door shirtsleeve crowd.
(Turn to page 5)
Solanco FFA
Elects Officers
Barry Smith, son of Mr
and Mrs Harry Smith, New
Providence Rl, was elected
president of the Solanco
Chapter of Future Farmers
of America at their meeting
in the vocational agriculture
building on Monday night
Smith, who will be a sen
ior at Solanco this fall, has
a farming program includ
ing several thousand broil
ers each year as well as
Held crops and guernsey cat
tle.
Other officers elected we
re James Herr, Quaryville
R 2, vice president; William
Maule, Quarryville R 2 sec
retary; Glenn Kunkel, New
Providence Rl, treasurer;
Harold Redcav, Quarryville
R 2, reporter; Donald Rcssler
New Providence Rl, sentin
el, and Richard Carnathan,
New Providence Rl, chap
lain.
Carnathan was also elect
ed as the Solanco chapter
representative to .the Lan
caster County Scoutdoorama
on July 23
Lancaster, Pa., Saturday, July 16, 1960
No Objections
To Changes
in Egg Grading
HARRISBURG With no
major objections being filed
by the July 10 deadline, pro
posed changes in Pennsyl
vania Official Standards for
Grading and Marketing of
Eggs will go into effect on
October 11, State Secretary
of Agriculture William L.
Henning announced today.
Mandatory dating of egg
receptacles and registration
of dating methods are eli
minated in the new stand
ards. Alternative terminolo
gy for marking egg cartons
containing eggs of edible
quality which are not segre
gated according to official
Pennsylvania grades and we
ights is allowed. The term
“unclassified” or other ter
minology acceptable to the
Department may be used
Consumer grade weight
tolearances are to be applied
to multi-dozen packages in
(Turn to page 15)
Tobacco Production To Be Cut
Recent Estimates Indicate
Production of Pennsylvan
ia seedleaf tobacco is now
expected to be 13 per cent
less than last vear, accord
ing to the official forecast
of the Pennsylvania Crop
Reporting Service this week.
The forecast predicts a
crop of 46,500,000 pounds for
1960 as compared to the
53,475,000 pounds last year
in spite of the very strong
demand for recent crops and
a 31 5 cents per pound aver
age price last year, and gro
wers intentions in March to
increase acreage.
March intentions showed
Lancaster county farmers pi
Ag Reporters Get Look
At Linear Programming
Linear Programming is one of the newer terms to be get
ting a large share of the new-term spotlight in agricultural
circles recently. But just what is Linear Programming?
This was one of the ques- the program
tions in the minds of many
of the members of the Penn-
sylvania Agricultural Re-
Reporters Association this
week as they held their last
summer conference on the
campus of the Pennsylvania
State University and were
introduced to the work m
the field of Linear Program
ming as carried on by the
Agricultural Economics de
partment at the University.
“Simply explained, Linear
Programming is a method
by which a farmer can set
goals, begin with his re
sources, and plot a route
t trough alternative plans to
s't'aci those goa.s, - ’ R James
Becker, extension farm man
ig .nent specialist told the
gre> n.
Linear Programming, or
Antivity Analysis as Beeler
prefers to call the program,
is just that, but the expla
nation is so over-simplified
that it tells very little about
SCD Makes Plans To Revive
County Plowing
July 29 has been selected
as the date for the revival
of the Lancaster County
Plowing contest, according
to Henry Givler, secretary
treasurer of the county Soil
Conservation District.
The program will be a re
vival of the now defunct co
unty contest last held in con
junction with the Mount
Joy Farm Show.
Sponsored by the county
Soil Conservation District
4-H'ers Present
Demonstrations
Lancaster county will he
represented by 16 4-H club
members in the first district
demonstration contest at the
Kutztowa Fairgrounds on
July 19.
Winners in the competi
tion at Kutztown will own
the right to enter the State
contests at State College
next month.
The Garden Spot county
will have teams of two in
eight different contests. They
will include the following:
Dairy demonstration, James
Brubaker, Lititz R 1 and
(Turn to page 6)
aiming to increase 1959 ac
reage of 31,000 acrcas to
32,000 this year Although
some late planting is still
going on, it is now estimated
that only 30,000 acres will
be planted
The weather has been ag
ainst this year’s crop m so
me way all season Wet gro
und m April delayed seed
ing some beds Drought dur
ing the last week of April
reduced germination m some
seedbeds Wet conditions in
May encouraged seedling dis
eases and slowed growth.
Delayed corn planting inter
(Turn to page 6)
$2 Per Year
Robert Best, former editor
of Lancaster Farming and
president of PARA mtioduc
ed Robert F. Hutton, Agri
cultural Experiment Station
researcher, who explained
the basis of Linear Program
ming.
Hutton told the Para mem
beis that researchers must
first learn from the farmer
what he has sot his goal.
“Tins is sometime 3 the first
.‘tumbliig block in the pro
gram,” he said. Some farm
a. e looking tar the maxi
mum capital return from the
farming operat’ a while
oth:rf might be /ookmg for
the least labor requirement
♦ o rrc duce a predetermined
income.
After the goal has been
determined, the resources
must be listed. “The list
would include such things
as land, labor, buildings,
capital, livestock, and mar
(Tum to page ?)
Contest
Directors, the contest this
year will feature only level
land plowing on the R. S.
Royer farm at Ephrata R 2.
Rain date for the contest is
August 2 at 10 am.
In other business at its
regular meeting on Monday
night, the SCD appointed
Henry Givler secrctary-trcas
urer to fill the unexpired
term of Wayne Rentschlor,
who has accepted a position
of teacher of vocational ag
riculture at Kutztown High
School.
Givler, the representative
to the SCD board of direct
ors from the county FFA
and association of vocation
al agriculture teachers, is
at present teaching in the
Pequea Valley High School
and advisor of the FFA
chapter at the school.
County- Commissioner, Ri
chard Witmer, presented a
letter of commendation to
Rentschlcr for his part in
promoting 1 conservation in
the Garden Spot County.
The directors expressed their
appreciation for the service
rendered by Rcntschler as
secretary-treasurer during
the years the district has
functioned and presented a
(Turn to page llj
FIVE - DAY
WEATHER
FORECAST
Saturday - Wednesday
Temperatures during the
next five days will aver
age about four degrees be
low the normals of 66 at
night and 37 in the after
noon. A little warmer Sat
urday with cooling Sunday
and warming again about
Wednesday is expected.
Rainfall will average less
than J i inch in the few
scattered showers likely on
Saturday. The 2 ! i inches
of rain on Thursday bro
ught the July total to 3.6
inches. The normal total
for July is 4.37 inches.