4—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 2, 1964
From Where We Stand...
Whatever Happened To May Day?
Whatever happened to May Day?
Our memories of those gay occa
sions is a bit dim, but we do recall fro
licking about a Maypole and crowning a
Queen of the May. There were flowers
and sunshine and pretty girls in bright
yellow dresses Spring had come and
everyone was happy
Young people in certain parts of
the country still celebrate May Day in
one fashion or another Maypoles with
colorful streamers may be seen on a
school playground here and there.
Flower-trimmed baskets filled with
candy are left, secretly, on doorsteps for
special boys and girls Sunday school
children bring cheerful news of spring
to hospital patients
But by and large May Day customs
have fallen from favor m our times.
From a historical point of view, the
lapse may be only temporary, for May
Day is a very old tradition A remnant
of ancient agricultural and fertility ritu
als, May Day has been celebrated
through the ages as the arrival of the
season of new vegetation Elaborate
festivities once included omens and ta
boos to insure good crops and happiness,
and homage rendered to leaf covered
branches and the spirit of spring
The ancient author, Chaucer, tells
us it was the custom in his England of
the Middle Ages for all people “to
fetch the flowers fresh” on the first May
morning Every town and village erect
ed a Maypole as high as the mast of a
100-ton ship People danced m rings
around the flower-wreathed Maypole
nearly the whole day
The merry festivities were dealt
a severe blow by the Puritans who, in
their campaign to take the joy out of
life, uprooted Maypoles and put a stop
to the reveling.
Festivities revived, however, in the
17th century after the Restoration. In
the 1890’s many countries adopted May
Day as the international labor day.
Regardless of the current status of
May Day customs, it does seem an
appropriate time to observe with awe
the plant world around us, a world of
life and. beauty and fragrance that re
news itself every spring and supplies
us with an unexhaustible supply of food,
clothing and shelter
For anyone who depends upon the
products of agriculture, and that ap
pears to include everyone, an occasion
like May Day should indeed be a time
for celebration.
At least that’s how it looks from
where we stand.
★ ★ ★ ★
Wheat Farmers Decision
Wheat farmers have another op
portunity to express their feelings on
government programs.
The May 1 to 15 sign-up period
nationally should reveal clearly just
how the farmer stands. The 1964 wheat
program is entirely voluntary; the only
pressures for signing up are financial.
Growers who have been clamoring
for less government in agriculture have
an opportunity to stand up and be count
ed It may cost several dollars, but the
farmer must decide if the net result
BUY BEST SEEDS
Farmers are often tempted to
liy to save a few dollars by
buying bargain” seed at a
cheapei price, says Geoige
Berggi en, extension agrono
mist, at The Pennsylvania Slate
Univeisity But, he adds, there
is no bettei investment in any
fanning progiam than quality
seed, and the use of the infor
mation on the seed tag is a
good place to begin ”
Giasslands occupy about
thiee times as much land in
the United Stakes as all culti
vated uops combined
would be satisfaction enough to make
up the difference.
Basically the wheat grower has two
choices. He can stay out of the program,
produce all the wheat he, wants to pro
duce and sell it wherever he can at
whatever price he can get Or he can
sign up for the program, grow within
his allotment and take advantage of
diversion payments, price support loans,
and marketing certificates.
A recent change m the bill allows
a grower to collect the price support if
he is within his allotment whether he
signs up in the program or not. How
ever, he is not eligible for the diversion
payments or the certificates.
Just how much, financially, would
a farmer stand to gam by participation?
He would be eligible to collect diversion
payments of 20 per cent of the county
support price of $1 50 per bushel on the
normal yield for his farm. This would
amount to about $8 00 to $l2 00 per
acre in Lancaster County Of course
diverted acres must be put to soil con
serving uses only
On wheat grown within the allot
ment, the farmer will be issued certifi
cates worth 70 cents a bushel on 45
per cent of the normal yield and certi
ficates worth 25 cents on another 45
per cent.
Compliance jwith the program may
mean destroying wheat planted last fall
when there was no wheat program.
Many farmers, however, planted with
in their previous allotments thinking
that a new program would be passed
before harvest time. For them com
pliance poses no great problem.
Those who planted beyond acreage
allotments will have to decide if it is
worth it to destroy wheat already planted
and qualify for the guaranteed prices
or take their chances of lower prices
on more acres
It should be interesting to see how
many farmers really meant what they
said last May.
At least that’s how it looks from
where we stand.
I am more powerful than combined
armies of the world.
I am more deadly than bullets, and
I have wrecked more homes than the
mightiest of siege guns
I steal in the United States alone
over $300,000,000 each year.
I spare no one, and find my victims
among the rich and poor alike, the
young and old, the strong and the weak;
widows and orphans know me.
I massacre thousands upon thou
sands of wage-earners in a year.
I lurk in unseen places and do most
of my work silently. You are warned
against me, but heed me not.
I am restless. I am everywhere;
in the home, on the street, in the factory,
at railroad crossings, and on the sea.
I bring sickness, degradation and
death and yet few seek to avoid me.
I destroy, crush and maim; I give
nothing but take all.
I am your worst enemy.
I am CARELESSNESS.
‘¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
Lancaster Farming Jack Owen, Editor
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Robert G. Campbell,
\\ cekly
P. 0 Box 1324
Lancaster, Penna Established November 4,
P O Box 26S - LiUtz, Pa. 1933. Published eyery Satur
day by Lancaster-Fai mmg, Lit-
OflK OS
22 E Mam St,
Litit? Pa
Phone - Lancaster
.PM-3047 or
LitiU
* ★ ★
Who Am I?
Advertising Director
uz, Pa,
Entered as 2nd class matter
at Lftftz, Pa. under Act of
-Maich S, 1579
m~Zm&' Ks
1 i '
N ] Sunday Sckool L«n«nt •*
E
The Right To Work
Lesson for May 3, 1964
Background Scripture: Luke 12 13-34,
16:1-13; X Thessnlomans 4.9-12.
Devotional Beading: Pialmi 127*1,2,
128:1-4.
EVERY WRITER knows that
what he writes may never
be read. Between the time these
lines are being written, and are
printed in May, it is quite possible
that nuclear war lasting an hour
or so only, will have wiped most
of the people off
this earth. To pre
vent such a war
is of course man
kind’s present
major problem.
But even suppos
ing—as we must,
otherwise all writ
ing would come
to a stop that
Dr. Foreman May will come as
usual, and even supposing that
no war of any kind comes any
more, will that be the end of our
problems? Of couise not. Over
shadowed by the terror of the
Bomb, older than that peril and
no less real for not being played
up by the newspapers, are many
other problems calling urgently
for attention. One of these is
the problem of work.
“Work with your hands’*
In. the waters along the reefs
and in the open sea around
a small island there were lob
sters and many lands of fish.
Every man on that island was
a. fisherman, and all of them
prospered. Commercial fishing is
hard work, but these men were
not afraid of it. So winter and
summer they were out there,
never more than an inch or so
from death, but earning cheer
fully a'good living for their fam
ilies. Now there was one .excep
tion, a man who did not go out
fishing unless the weather was
just right to suit him, a poor
fisherman who made his situation
worse by spending much of the
little income he had on drink His
neighbors did not sympathize
Now Is The Time . . .
Growers who were able to get tier
new seeding of alfalfa sowed during the p<
month without any nurse crop, should sprr
for weed control. Without the nurse crop t
weeds will be more severe and may til
over. We suggest that the field be spn
with one quart of 2,4-DB when the w(
are two inches high; do not make the i
take of waiting until the weeds are 4 tc
inches high it will be too late for go l
control.
To Prevent Tobacco Seedbed Dise*#**
A regular spray schedule to prevent vnl«
fire and blue mold in the seedbed is W*
than to try and stop the disease after it
present. The combination spray using Streptomicin and Fermi
every week to 10 days after the plants are the size of a di® e
recommended. A mimeograph sheet on tobacco bed spraying
available from our Extension Office
To Aim for Quality Forage To Control Rose Discs***
MAX SMITH
'Livestock producers should
make every effort to harvest a
maximum amount of quality
hay and silage this year There
is no greater asset to both
daily men and beef cattle pro
ducers than a barn and silos
full of top quality hay and sil
age when winter comes This
takes planning and good man
agement 'Be sure that the foi
age is cut at the proper stage
of maturity, this would be at
heading time for the grasses
and Bom bud to early bloom
stage foi the legumes Don’t
let yom foiage upen in the
held
with him. They saw it every j,.
hard work is rewarded, la/i nt ;
brings poverty. This was m t j
depression, and the men of
island could not see any point,
the then new schemes for Iw'p,
the unemployed. They
that being unemployed v. as
man’s own fault and helping hi
would just encourage him to
lazier still.
<
Amw problem
The woild has changed \
face a different pioblem tonay jj
used to be the question: How do
you get a lazy man to do hij
share of the community’s verb
Now the question often is He
can you provide jobs enough
that eveiy man will have
chance to work? A wealthy
was telling with some pude %
two wonderful machines whit
his coal-mining company hn
recently put into operation. Stand
ing in a quiet air-conditioned
room, two highly trained radar
men could guide machines, deep
in the earth, in digging out the
coal. Those two men with then
electronically operated machine’
could turn out more coal tlup
men could before those macluni
were installed. Four men out i
the 28 miners were kept on tt
payroll; twenty-four were ike
What can we del
There is no serious problem
unemployment in a fisherman
island. There is a serious proh.
lem of unemployment m America
with its machine civilization. The
Bible teachings about work cm
be obeyed in one situation, they
cannot in the other. This is j
problem to which the churches
have paid very little attention,
partly because they don’t knv
what to say about it, partly 1
cause many churches are made
largely from management end
rather than of working men
(How many unemployed persor
are in your congregation’) This
writer does not know the answer
But at least it is time to suggest
that from a Christian standpoint,
there is something radically
wrong with a state of things such
that able and willing workeis ire
denied the right to work, many
of them for the rest of their
lives. The next time you eat i
meal, give a thought to those wh»
can never earn a meal of their
own.
. (Based on outlmei copyrighted by tb*
Division of Christian Education, hatioml
Council of the Churches of Christ m the
V, S. A. Released by Community f<ts>
Service.)
BY MAX SMITH
To Spray New Alfalfa Seedings
Hybnd Tea Roses aie V{l
popular around most horn#'
i egular spray schedule is -
ed to prevent such leaf dis ea *
as black spot As scon as a
new leaves are Vi-inch Jong, 1
suggest that the plants
sprayed weekly with elt
Maneb 80% wettable P c
(IV2 tablespoons per ga’lon
with the same amount of*
pet 75% wettable P 3 "'
Spray both top and bottom
sm faces as well as the ste® 1
Reform only yourself. f° r
doing that you do evei-® lfl ’
Michel de MoJtaigne