—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 11, 1963
4
From Where We Stand..
Don’t Wait Till
Onje of the oldest of old sayings
goes, “You never miss the water till
the well runs dry.”
Another old saying goes, “Don’t
holler till you’re hurt.”
We asked a dairyman the other day,
“What is going to happen to the dairy
situation with all the added cows farm
ers are putting on?”
His answer was, “Maybe the Good
Lord will take care of that for us, if we
don’t get some rain pretty soon.”
Drought is a constant topic of con
versation this spring since the dry spell
Lancaster County experienced last sum
mer, and while conditions can not yet
be called a drought, soil moisture is
well below normal for this time of year,
and farmers are beginning to feel the
constant, gnawing thought that 1963
may bring another dry season.
Pastures are not growing as they
should at this time of year. Spring plant
ed crops are slow m germinating and not
making good growth where they have
come up.
While we have not heard any wide
spread reports of dry wells, many farm
ers are beginning to wonder what will
happen to their water supplies when the
normally dry season comes.
All too often we do not fully ap
preciate what a bountiful supply of
water we have in this part of the coun
try until a season like 1962 comes along.
In very few years do we see our crops
wither and dry for lack of moisture
a condition that is a normal occurance
in many areas.
We know the situation could change
very rapidly, and we do not mean to
“holler before we are hurt”, but the time
a bad situation is before it
gets desperate. When a crop is dead, it is
too late to irrigate. Most agriculture en
gineers tell us that it is too late
to irrigate when serious drought
The,jtime to irrigate is before the crop
stops growing.
We believe many pastures in the
county could benefit from an application
of water now. If you have an irrigation
system, don’t wait until the grass begins
to turn brown before you begin to water
it. Good growth now will make the
grass more able to stand the dry, hot
months later in the summer.
Don’t holler before you’re hurt, is
good advice, but there is no use in gett
ing hurt if you don’t have to.
At least that's how it looks from
where we stand.
Letters To
Farmer Favors
Wheat Program
Dear Sir;
In some recent letters to the
editor I have observed a good
deal of fiction, -which I believe
to be politically inspired, con
cerning the impending wheat
referendum May 21 To set the
record straight I submit this
letter based on factual, docu
mentary information.
Pact . . . The agricultural
adj. act ot 19 3S was a good
approach to the wheat problem
ot that time It increased tann
income through a critical
period at a reasonable cost
However, it became inade
quate, it did not provide tor
increased yields over the years,
it was not flexible. The only
limit on production was the
55 million acre maximum allot
ment. It had no provision to
avoid the shifting of acres
taken out of wheat into feed
grams, etc. With no substan
tial modifications until 1962
wheat costs rose greatly with
much of the total wheat re
turns going to warehouse
operators.
Counting export costa the
■>>? -I'll* U p •*' n ’
Sometimes we think of her as a
field hand. Sometimes she is the extra
hand in the milking barn, and sometimes
she is the only one who does the milk
ing,
She is the cook, homemaker, wash
erwoman, scrub lady, upstairs maid,
counselor and taxi driver for the chil
dren. She is the one who lends a hand
when the extra tractor ought to be in
-the corn field, and she is the one who
lends a word of encouragement when
the note is due and crops don’t look too
good.
She is dietician and meal planner,
veterinarian to sick calves, gardner and
horticulturist, and general handywoman
around the farm.
But farm children put it all into
one word and call her, “mother.”
It seems a shame that we have to
have a special day set aside to remind
us to appreciate someone as important
as mothers. Every day of the year should
be “Mothers Day”.
But we suppose, on most farms,
every day is Mothers Day. At least
many of us would find the day’s beginn
ing pretty hectic without a mother there
to organize the day’s activities and get
the whole family started on the many
activities that families find themselves
in today.
So, even though we appreciate
mother every day of the year, it is fitt
ing and proper that we set aside this one
day to pay special tribute to her for her
help and guidance.
By whatever name you call her
mother, mama, mommy, or just plain
“Mom,” she deserves the best this Sun
day. Why not give her a day off. Let her
do just what she pleases for the whole
day.
And do you know what that will
be?
It will be just the same things she
has been doing every Sunday for most
of her life. She will be doing it because
it is what she wants to do.
And that is why children put all
their love, hopes, dreams, aspirations,
and pleasant memories in that one word,
Mother.
At least that’s how it looks from
where we stand.
The Editor
program in 1953 totaled $194
million or 8% ot the value of
■wheat produced that year. By
1961 the cost was up to 1.4
billion dollars or 61% of tann
ers gross income tor wheat.
To meet demand we need 600
million bu. for home use We
export 600 million bu. which is
heavily subsidized Thus we
had the 1962 emergency wheat
program. While it was of ne
cessity more restrictive (pro
duction reduced 10% per year)
than the old piogram, it was a
big step in the right direction.
Farm returns were increased,
storage costs reduced and con
gressional support gained for
all tarm programs These are
factual results of a sound
wheat program.
This 1962 wheat program
provided several long overdue
basic changes in the wheat
law. A very important one
was that on a yearly basis, the
Secretary of Agriculture would
call all interested farm groups
and cooperatives together,
they were provided an oppor
tunity to compromise their dif
ferences and write the yearly
program.
The 1964 proposed program
was evolved in this way and
all interested national farm
The Crop Dies
★ ★ ★ ★
Her Special Day
groups participated except
Farm Bureau Federation. To
me this lack o£ a constructive
approach by F. B. F and its
aftilate Penna Farmers Ass’n ,
is proot of a very low regard
for the economic interest of
farmers This means politics at
(Continued on Page 5)
Lancaster Forming
Lancaster County’s Own Farm
Weekly
P. O Box 1524
Lancaster, Penn*.
P. O. Box 266 - Lititz, Pa,
Offices;
22 E. Main St,‘
Lititz, Pa.
Phone - Lancaster
BXpress 4-3047 or
Lititz MA 6-2191
Jack Owen. Editor
Robert 6. Campbell,
Advertising Director
Established November 4,
1955. Published every Satur
lay by Lancaster-Farmlng, Lit
itz, Pa,
Entered as 2nd class matter
at Lititz Pa. under Act of Mar.
8, 1879.
-
Worship At Home
Bible Material: Psalms 78; 128.
Deratlona! Basdlng: Psalm S9:l-t,
15-18, 30-34.
J\ MAN sat down some yean
ago to write a book about th«
Kingdom of God. Where is it? was
his question. He believed that the
Kingdom comes wherever God’s
will is done, so that we cannot say
it is all here or all there. God’s
will may nevei
be fully done on
earth, but it is
done more in some
places and by
some people than
in other places and
by other- people,
In all the institu
tions of society,
where is the will
of God best done?
To put it another way, what in
stitution of society is most like
heaven?
Where religion begins
It is no surprise to be told that
this author argued that the place
most like heaven on this earth is
the home. Not the church, but the
home. (International relations, he
thought, are the area farthest
from the will of God. This is no
surprise either; but that is an
other story.) The home, in fact,
is where religion begins. If you
wanted to get rid of religion, as
the communists do, the place to
attack is not the church but the
home. Keep people from having
a normal home life and religion
will dry out at the roots. The home
is where we first hear the name of
God; it is where we first learn to
pray; there we hear the Bible
read, there we are taught what
forgiveness means, there we learn
Christian habits and feel the first
stirrings of Christian ambition and
ideals. Modern Christian teachers
of young people do not think of
the home, as maybe our parents
did, as a force for good which is
a great help to school and church;
it is the other way around. School
and church—including church
school—are aids to the home.
To be better than one’s father
and mother is an ambition most
people would say is impossible.
Some one has suggested that we|
Now Is The Time . . .
tnents and help provide needed forage during
dry weather. Rye should he ensiled just after
MAX M. SMITH heading out while the other small grains
such as wheat, barley, or oats, make the best
silage -when cut in the flowering to milk stage. No wilting is
necessary and some cereal grain chop should be added ,as a
preservative and to increase the teed value
To Plan For Supplemental
Livestock and dairymen are
urged to consider some extra
forage crops this summer to
make more summer pasture. If
the dry -weather continues, cr
ops such as sudan grass will
come in very handy later this
summer. The recommended
variety of Sudan grass is Piper
and it may ibe seeded during
late May and early June at the
rate of 30 to 35 pounds per
acre. This forage will provide
excellent grazing during the
months, . ,
Lesson lor May 12,1963
BY MAX SMITH
The European Corn Borer decreases the
yield of many fields of corn but as yet we do
not have a practical spray to eliminate this
insect. One method ot keeping down the in
festation is for all corn growers to get their
old corn stalks plowed down by the middle
of May. All growers are urged to do this
without further delay.
To .Make Grass Silage From Small Grains
Any type of small grain may be made
into silage to harvest maximum feed nu-
Pasture
f - r'
( i m
cannot be more devoted to God,
more fully given up to-His will
and service, than were the best
Christians of centuries ago; ini
short, that there afe'no persons
in our present world .who are more
saintly than some of our fore*
bears. What can be true of this
generation, however, is that there
can be, and in places is, a clearer
knowledge of what devotion M
God’s will demands. To put it,an*
other way: in our hearts’ devotion
we cannot hope to measure up td
our forefathers; but in the ways
in which that devotion may be
turned to practical purposes, we
may go beyond them.
Now the writer of Psalm 78 c«r*
tainly believed that it is in the
home that we learn to be better
(more obedient to God) than those
who went before us. How can this
be? It can be, because in each
home there .is something greater
and better even than the parents:
tlie law of God, or as we would
say, the Bible. All the advice of
father and mother is subject to
error and sin; but God’s word
can be taught by parents to chil
dren, and there is no advice better
than is given by the Holy Spirit.
The home is a school
Each God-fearing home is S
link in a long chain, a part of a
great School of Goodness. The
Psalmist of old thought of the par
ents as teachers, and he is still
right. How does the home teach?i
In three ways. First by the Word
of God, as was just now said. Th#
habit of using the Bible, of study
ing it, if not learned at home will
not be learned elsewhere. But the
good home teaches not by words
alone, but by example. Many of
us define a Christian by describ
ing the sort of people our parents
were. Religion on two feet is reli
gion we can understand. You can
argue about theology and theo
ries; but a genuine Christian is
his own argument. If we are
Christians because our fathers
were, that is the way God planned
it. But the teaching of the home
is more than Bible study and-good
example. The home is a place
where we learn to do by doing.
The many situations that tesS our
tempers, the many occasions to
get into a quarrel or to settle
things peacefully, the many op
portunities to be generous, the dis
appointments and sorrows, as well
as the joys and accomplishments,
which we experience in a good
home, are all part of the training
God offers us in the use and mean
ing of life.
(Btiil on outlines sopyrlrhtsd by
ths Division of Christian Education,
Nations! Connell of tho Chnrobet of
Christ in ths XT. S. A. Rslssasd by
Community Press StrTlss.)
To Plow Coni Stalks Down
To Be Careful
With Fertilizer
With the greater use of high
er strength -fertilizer it is, very
important to keep the, fertil
izer separate fonj seeds or from
the plant roots. With the ,corn
planter the best ,place tp put
the fertilizer is 2 inches fo the
side and 2 inches deeper" than
the kernels. With seeding of
special crops such at soybeans
or sudan grass,, the fertilizer
prior to the actual seeding of
should be. drilled into the soil
the grain; both nitrogen and
potash fertilizers will decrease
germination and burn' the
young sprout.
/