4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 9, 1963
From Where We Stand...
“Silent Spring” Without Pesticides
Miss Rachel Carson’s impassioned
plea for a ban on all agricultural chemi
cals notwithstanding, the farmers of
America will be using more chemical
pest control during the coming year.
Now we do not believe in the in
discriminate use of powerful poisons by
irresponsible persons, but we do not
believe life in the United States as we
know it could exist for very long with
out the chemicals now used to control
plant and animal pests.
We all know that America is by
far the best fed and best clothed nation
on the earth. We have become better
fed and better clothed in spite of the fact
that population has climbed at pheno
minal rates and land has consistently,
gone out of agricultural production.
Of course we know some of the
increased production per- acre and per
animal has come about through the use
of better seed and livestock, and through
the use of more fertilizers, but much of
the increase in volume and most of the
improvement in quality of farm pro
ducts is the direct result of pest control
through chemical sprays.
’ We realize, and would be the first
to admit, that some of the chemicals
used to kill bugs and weeds could kill
people and animals, but so could com
mon table salt kill people if they used
enough of it in the wrong way.
Each year more powerful and more
deadly poisons are being discovered or
developed, and hand in hand with these
developments goes higher and higher
'quality food products.
The time is long past when the
housewife will be satisfied with a peck
of apples with worms in only a third of
them If the modern housewife finds
one worm in the entire peck, she is likely
to take her business elsewhere. ’lf the
housewife has to trim away a few leaves
of a cabbage head, she is unhappy with
the grocer who buys such inferior
merchandise.
And we doubt if Miss Carson her
self would long continue to purchase the
scabby, misshapen potatoes which were
common on the market just a few short
years ago.
But it is not only in quality that
the American farmer excells. How long,
do you suppose, would the milk supplies
in this country keep abreast of the grow
ing population if farmers could not pro
tect their alfalfa fields from the ravages
of weevils and spittle bugs? How long
could grain farmers hope to keep a sup
ply of corn on hand for the meat ani
mals for the nation without the aid of
labor saving herbicides? And how could
the farmers of the nation hope to keep
a wholesome supply of milk, eggs and
meat on the nation’s tables without the
help of the wonder drugs which have
done so much to maintain the high
degree of health in the farm herds and
flocks?
We agree that some education is
needed in the use of all farm chemicals.
• Egg Promotion
(Continued from Page 1)
opeiating plants at least twice
a month under the quality-con
ijol piogicim The progiam is a
benefit to both the consumer
and the nidiketer, he said, but
nioie consumer education is
needed to make the housewife
31)01 e quality conscious
February and March are fine Some local farmers continue
times to prune most shade and to be reluctant to accept strip
fruit trees When the tree is farming or contour strips as a
■dormant the sap is still down means of holding water and
_ . ... . . „ , and less loss of nutrients will topsoil. The spring of the year
p n Pot Established November 4,
, ’ , _ ...r result; without leaves the is one of the good times to es-
Lancaster, Penna. 1955. Published every Satur- °
P. O. Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. layby Lancaster-Farmlng, Lit- sha P e of shade trees is easier itablish strips in sod ground or
Offices: j tz to determine. Thinning of both in stalk ground. On sloping or
~, 22 E. Main St. _ fruit and shade trees is a good hilly ground greater crop yields
Lititz, Pa. Entered as 2nd class matter
Zerbe said there are fewei Phone . Lancast er Lititz Pa under Act of Mar practlce to P ermit the entrance will he obtained when both
laying ■ hens on Pennsylvania,., EXuresa. 4-3047 ;or, „'„..pf .moresunshine to the fruit water and soil fertility are kept *
Shoher Zerbe, aiea icpiesen
fative tor the teed company an
nounced that his firm is plann
ing to air thiee short films on
qualitc eggs ovei six television
stations beginning February 9
The films will be shown a to
tal of 149 times in the si\ cit-
We know that some farmers believe in
the theory that if a little bit does some
good, a lot will do a lot of good. We
know that some chemicals have been
misused, but we tremble to think what
would happen to the food supply of
this nation and the world if all chemicals
were suddently removed.
With modern testing programs, the
danger to consumers is so small that it
hardly shows up at all in comparison
to the harm that could be done through
the use of food not protected by some
pesticides.
At any rate, new chemicals will
be on the market this year, and the farm
ers of the nation will continue tg use
them to the advantage of all the con
sumers of the nation.
At least that’s how it looks from
where we stand. ' ' ,
Communicators who have suffered
confusion in the “numbers game” for
many years now have good reason to
wonder about some of the new ideas
coming out of research designed to
learn how to communicate effectively
with people and not merely “reach”
a certain number of people.
Advertisers and publicity men alike
have often been convinced that success
ful communications efforts on behalf of
a product, service, or idea depend upon
the quantity of people reached. Hence
the mass media “numbers game” has
been a hectic “rat race,” because every
medium of communication, it seems,
has a different way-of measuring au
dience to prove that it reaches the right
audience for you.
Television has assumed great im
portance to communicators as a. result
of this “numbers game” because a net
work evening show can* produce an
audience in the multi-millions.-
an increasing- number of communicators
are finding that the size of the audi
ence may be quite meaningless. Some of
these multi-million people audiences
may not include the best prospects for
an advertising communication. It could
even be that television’s most successful
communications ventures, for the me
dium itself as well as for advertisers or
publicity efforts, might be some of the
shows which have difficulty staying on
the air because they do not attract
millions of viewers. The big audience
shows may succeed primarily in lulling
viewers into such a state of mental
lethargy no message gets through. Af
ter all, most people watch most tele
vision for its entertainment and re
laxation values.
" A good many interesting reports on
communications research appeared dur
ing 1962, and to help us get off to a
flying start in 1963 it might be worth
while to review at least several of these
reports. Public Relation Tips For
Dairymen.
snme 1940 Per capita consum- eggs could tie
ption is down, but people are Pennsylvania,
becoming moie quality consc- The purpose of the programs
ious He pointed out that there is two fold to increase per
are 50 million people living m capita consumption and to sell
the area from Long Island to certified (quality) eggs, he
the Carolines, and most of their said.
Lancaster Farming Jack Owen. Editor
Robert G. Campbell,
Lancaster County’s Own Farm , AdTer tising Director
★ ★ ★ ★
The Right Audience
•4
Lesson for February 10, 1963
Bible Material: Mark (S 1-SS.
Devotional Beading: 11 Corinthians
2:W through 3.3.
OUBTLESS God could have
made a universe where He
did not need help of any kind.
Whatever He wanted to do, would
be done, and by Him alone. Per
haps, for anything we know to the.
'ntrary. He has exactly that kind
of universe run
ning somewhere
at this moment
But not this one.
For His own rea
sons, and for our
great good, God.
constructed this
universe in such
a way that if God
does not get help
Dr. Foreman i D doing things,
.they will not be done. Not that
God requires help in everything.
If He had any help in creating
this universe in the first place, we
cannot imagine who could have
been His assistant or His blue
print man. God had all the blue
prints of the universe in His mind
from before the beginning. But—
once begun, while God still re
serves the right to act at His own
discretion without help of any one,
the universe—or our part of it at
least—does not run itself.
Helping the ignorant
Let it be-repeated: this is for
our good. It is a wonderful privi
lege to share in anything God
does. It is a marvelous act on His
part that He should let any one
of us be responsible even for a
tiny part of the vast realms of'
God. But how can we know what
God’s work is? How do we know
.when we are helping Him? There
is one thing, of which we may be
sure: God is always working
against evil. He is opposed to evil
in every form. So when thq Son.
of God lived and toiled in Gali
lee, He too was battling against
evil wherever He found it. One of
the forms of evil is ignorance,
error. Not knowing, or thinking
that one’s thoughts are true when
they are not,—this is dangerous.
So one of the great activities of
Jesus was teaching, and he did
not try to teach all alone. He
Now Is The Time . . .
To Buy Quality Seeds
Spring is approaching rapidly and all
farmers and gardners will be anxious t»
stai t \v orking the soil. Many seed pur
chases will be made in the next few months
and growers are urged to demand quality, purity, and certi
fied seed if possible in order to get what you want. Unknown
varieties and unknown sources of seed present an unknown
result.
MAX M. SMITH
produced
■>■>4
Helping God
BY MAX SMITH
All kinds of farm machinery should be
protected trom the weather in older to pie
vent rust, working parts should be greased
in order to keep rust away from these
wearing areas. Even machinery that is stor
ed should be checked for broken or, worn
parts that need replacing; your farm ma« r
chinery service man will be able to give
you quicker service now aot the day you
want to use it.
To Prune Trees
trusted certain fishermen enough
to send them out two by two, to.
teach people He would never livs,
long enough to see. And in helping'
Jesus, the disciples were helping
God.
Helping the hungry
Another form of evil is pain, and
this has many forms, as we alb
know. When first chloroform wad
used to help women m childbirth,
many preachers protested. It was*
not right, they said, to try to make
child-bearing bearable. But minis
ters know better now. Ail of us
are aware that much pain in the
world cannot be cured. We know
there are limits to what can bo
done. But when a Christian today,
sees a hungry child or a suffering
man or woman, he dare not, say
to himself, as our ancestors might
have said, “Too bad, but the pain
and hunger are sent by God. and
we need not try to do anything to
stop it.” On the contrary, Chris-,
tians are more alert now than,
they used to be, to the claims of
the suffering and the hungry and
homeless. Every person you can
help, in fact, is a living invitation
from God, to be His helper in
bringing good to pass in the place
of evil.
This is a real world
Sometimes, we long for an easier
world to live in. What we want,,
we think, is a sort of fairy-tale,
world. In the old stories, which,
perhaps you read when you were
young, you remember there often
was a Fairy Godmother. When
she arrived, she took over. AH'
you did was sit back, watch her’
wave her magic wand, and enjoy
what she conjured up out of 610*
moonlight and spider webs. Why
doesn’t God do like that? is our
complaint. He doesn’t do like that
because He is real and not a
make-believe fairy. He doesn’t-do
like that because He wants chil
dren, not dolls; sons and dajugh-,
ters, not robots. He doesn’t do like
that because He wanted a uni
verse in which He would have
helpers. On the hills of Galjlee-
Jesus fed the great multitude with
bread. No one then knew how He, 1
did it; but they knew-how thaty
bread got from Jesus, to. the hun-A
gry crowds; the disciples carried
it. Jesus did what they could not
do; He did not do,-what they c.ould
do. God is like that. AH over the
world the battle goes , on, good
against evil, comfort against pain,
health against disease, truth
against falsehood, wisdomagainst
folly. It’s God’s fight; are yod
in it?
(Baud on ontltnea copyrighted by
the Dlrlilon of Christian EdieslloA
National Connell of tha Churches si
Christ In this TI.S.A. Released hi!
Community line Service.)
To Protect Machinery
To Plan For Erosion Control