—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 31,1964 4 From Where We Stand... Conservation The Key To The Future Nations and civilizations have etch ed their records on the face of the earth for 7000 years. Like the “Picture of Dorian Gray" the land can not lie; it reflects all of man’s greed, lust, abuse, exploitation and mismanagement since the beginning of time. The practice of raising our food supply from the soil could be self destructive. As we cleared and cultivat ed sloping lands in the early days of America, we exposed our soils to ac celerated erosion by water and wind. Unfortunately, most of our crop pro duction comes from sloping land, since there is not enough flat alluvial land to support our needs. The practice of migration is nearly as old as time. As the immediate land was worn out, the people moved on to virgin lands. Today this is no longer possible, and at the rate that soil scientists tell us that soil is created about an inch every thousand years we can’t wait for that. So we have to stay with the land we have, and we have to fight the ra vages of Nature with the tools we have. They are very good tools actually They are knowledge, money, and machines. And not the least of these is know ledge. It is perhaps strange that man’s pow er to destroy his world with unleashed nuclear energy comes at about the same time as his knowledge of how to save the surface of that world through conservation. Strange, but encouraging. Economists and statisticians tell us that by the year 2000 the population of the world will double. Whether or not this comes to pass, we know popula tions are increasing through the bene fits of medicine and nutrition. And we know that it’s going to take a lot more food and water to feed the com ing generations than we now have at our disposal. Perhaps the key word here is WATER. Water is a precious commodity that is measured, sold, used, and too often, wasted. We haven’t seen any figures to support this claim, but we would guess that no other people in the world take water for granted the way we do in America. Can you imagine the complete panic that would ensue if water were suddenly not available? If every tap in the country suddenly went dry? This could possibly happen at some future date, horrible as it may seem. We are a society built around water. Water is more precious than gold (and that is not a political pun). While soil conservation works pri marily to save our soils they are able to do so largely by their knowledge of how to control and distribute the avail able water supply; to obtain the maxi mum use of water with the least loss of soil. Other conservation efforts are also along the lines of water preservation. Control of forest insects and diseases, preventing forest fires, reforestation without trees our watershed areas would be completely at the mercy of the ele ments, and we would be living from ram to rain. In Lancaster County we know the value of Conservation, we see it at work all around us. But perhaps we aren’t always aware of its implications for fifture generations. Conservation can never end. It can only be hoped that as new knowledge is gained, and public awareness of the problem lends mass support, that Conservation will be equal to the tremendous challenge that lies ahead. What Do YOU Think? Can Farm Youth Afford To Be High School "Dropouts"? Farm youth today are faced with a great challenge. They are living in what is probably one of the most dyna mic periods in our history. The popula tion explosion is resulting in heavy “fall-out” in the rural and suburban areas, and driving the price of land higher. Industry is expanding but be coming more automated, resulting in fewer unskilled jobs. Agriculture is changing on all fronts. One of the changes is to fewer farms and farmers. This means that many boys in the future will not be able to drop out of school when their 16th birthday rolls around and go to work on the home farm. It means they are going to have to complete high school, and very pro bably go on with some advanced school ing. That is, they are if they want a fair share of this increasingly-technical world we live in. Perhaps this picture is not as black as some of our boys think it is. Many of them may think right now that what they want to do in fact, all they want to do is farm Many of them will. But they all should realize that there are many other opportunities available; opportunities that will keep them close to the farming life that they love. The area we’re talking about is called “agribusiness.” Today, farming is just one phase of agriculture. It’s a phase that employs 8-10 percent of our population. The other phase, agribusiness, employs about 30 percent of the population. While opportunities for a young man in farming may be decreasing, opportuni ties in agribusiness are on the increase. These opportunities involve vary ing amounts of education and technical training. Some require four years of college or more, such as Technical ser vices veterinarians, foresters, farm management councelors, credit advis ers; Research nutritionists, chemists; Conservation soil, water, forest, park, etc.; Education extension, teaching The two-year technical schools and the community colleges that are on the increase might answer the educational needs of many of the boys, and girls, who want to work in the agricultural field. The demand for students with training beyond high school is high among companies associated with pro cessing and marketing farm products, as well as businesses providing supplies and services to farmers, we are told. And these companies need people with farm backgrounds. At a time when more than one third of the nation’s youth are not completing high school, and at a time when more than 2 million young people are entering the labor market each year many of these with no skills at all it seems to us that our farm youth should be considering all the education of which they are mentally and financially capable. People that should know tell us that in 1963 agricultural colleges in the United States could not begin to meet the demand for graduates. It has been said that there are 15,000 jobs avail able each year in agribusiness, and that the total number of ag graduates in the country each year is only 8000- 9000. Each of these opportunities might not be what the graduate wants nor where he wants to work, but the point is there are a lot of jobs for trained people m agriculture. The opportunitites increase as an individual’s training and education increase. Before our farm youth drop out of high school let them ask themselves one question “can they afford it?” I THE _ / hmim/ SPEAKS *»rr »ir«^a^«g;g«qaayj^ar ■ ■ * / lnl*m«li«Ml Unli«m \fo„ ' ' ' Sund«y Scliml L«nt»» | / y, ■ 3<ra« > x Lli li N Truth About Money Lesson for November 1, 1964 Barkrreund Scripture: I Timothy C Devotional Reading: Pio\eib« * 10*21. IF YOU add up the people in the world who are rich and the people who want to be rich, you will :ust about have the sum total of the people in this world. Even those who want to be rich don’t always hope to be rich, but that is another story. Now the Bi ble’s attitude to money meaning God’s attitude to it—is surprising to the average Ameucan. Be cause the aveiage Ameucan will say Yes with enthusi- Dr. Foreman asm to three oidi nary questions about money. Is money a good thing? Is it all right to want all the money I can get? If I get rich will I be happy? Thosi who want to be rich Suppose some one tells you he has an ambition to make big money. You would be likely to say, “Fine, I hope you make it. More power to you'” But in the Letter to Timothy we read what Saint Paul has to say to his-young preacher-friend about what to say and preach to people about money. Paul has no illusions about wealth. He had seen wealthy men and was not im pressed. He has some pretty hard things to say about wealth. Per haps he knew that* Jesus had said, “You cannot serve God and Mammon” (meaning w’ealth) Paul says money is a temptation and a trap. He even says that money, or rather the love of it, is the “root ‘of all evils.” He doesn’t mean that every wrong act and sin is done for the sake of money. Anybody knows that would be an exaggeration. But if you want to see how right Paul was, just look over a newspaper and see if money doesn’t figure Now Is The Time ... A senes of dairy clinic meetings will start on November 2nd and 3rd for Lancas ter County dairymen. Similar meetings will be held each week, one for the southern end and one for the northern part of the county, for four consecutive weeks. These meetings are going to be very worthwhile and we urge all dairymen to attend the four sessions in their part of the county. Our Ex tension Specialists from Penn State Univer sity will be in charge. Don’t miss them! To Make Dairy Barns Safer Winter herd management includes a clean, sanitary barn safe for both humans and the cows. We have in mind the use of super- MAX SMITH phosphate or some commercial barn snow on the floor of the dairy barn, this not only keeps the floor from being slippery but adds to the appearance and sanitation of the barn If superphosphate is used, it will reenforce the manure and make it better for gi eater crop yields. To Graze Livestock Cautiously To Spray for Legume Weeds Many livestock producers are Late October or November giazmg the final cutting of al- is a good time to spray al falfa or clover, this is a good falfa or clover fields for a way to make use of this fall number of winter-time weeds, growth of forage, however, Th control of wintercress care should be exercised by flower not permitting the animals to . "raze the fora"e while frozen hay fields may be obtamed “1 326 “ e t° ra " e f r\ lle , lr ° zen spraying with MCP before or while white with frost. Con- 8 weathe r. The control sumption at these times will f chickweed with one of the expose the animals to bloat- „ ~ in" severely It is suggested Dimtro sprays before cold s “ ver eiy. it is suggesiea weather amves , or the use of hat the animals be permitted Chloro ipc wh to graze the area only when t below 50 de P s dry and after a feeding of Sfheip protee better luS “. * y "* tte such .ty hay next summer, as hay or silage. J In a majority of tha crime stories. Those who srs rich You can bear members of Tim* othy’s congregation the first Sun* day after he got his letter from Paul. Maybe the first Sunday, surely some time Timothy would talk along lines that Paul’s cor respondence had suggested. He would be preaching away about the dangers of wealth, how we can bring nothing into the world and take nothing out,—saying that the love of money is a soul destroying thing, and so on. You could almost hear some man thinking: “What’s this got to do with me? I made my pile before these missionaries converted me. I can’t see that wanting money or having it ever hurt me. Am I a sinner just because I’m rich?” Timothy’s answer to that question (if it was ever put to him in so many words) might have been to point out what Paul said about contentment, for one thing. The happiest people you know are not often the richest people you know. This doesn’t mean that poverty is the best state for ev erybody. It does mean that if we look to our bank accounts for happiness, that is not the light place to look. The conversion of monoy Is a man ever converted until his money is converted? That is something that can be debated. But how do we convert money? Money is just a thing, and things can’t have faith, hope or love. True; but in the strict meaning of the word “convert,” meaning to change, money can be turned into something else. Money can be and is a tool, an instrument. It can be used to crush other men, it can be used to build up pride and selfishness; it can be a dag ger to stab the soul to death. On the other hand, money used as a gift from God, carefully used in stewardship, not as if we owned it apart from God, such money (or possessions of any sort, for that matter) can be converted into good deeds. The question for Christians to ask is not, What would I do with a million dol lars? The question is, What do I do with the money I have? It is just as easy to be selfish with a dollar as with a million dollars. And it is just as possible to be generous with your few posses sions as it would if you were a millionaire. E M (Based on oufhnea copjnthted bv (he Demon of Christian Education, National Council of th« Churchca of Christ in the U. S. A, Released by Community Presa Semce.) BY MAX SMITH To Attend Dairy Clinics
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers