VOL. 10 NO. 6 AN EXTREME ILLUSTRATION OF POOR AND GOOD TOBACCO taken at the P.IS.U. Southeastern Field Research Laboratory. The hand on the left is made up of small, discolored, frosted and poorly cured leaves while the hand on the right consists of leaves of uniform length, quality and color (a rich, reddish-chest nut), that has been properly cured and stored. The leaves on the right were from the 1963 crop at the research station. L F Photo. Farm & Home Campaign Builds Steam As Launch Date Nears With the Farm and Home statement, the General Co- Foundation Campaign shaping Chairmen of the campaign up rapidly, the past few Weeks, have announced that the en particularly in the county hstment of volunteer canvas areas where the drive for sers. countywide, is building §375,000 will 'be conducted up favorably According to first, Campaign officials have Levi H. Brubaker and Law come up with an over-all sum- rence H Skromme, every dis mary of how the proposed tnct in the county, with the Farm and Home Center will exception of one small unit, help farmers The statement, has been in process of organ issued by the Campaign Steer- izing Several hundred names ing Committee, of which Noah of canvasseis have already W. Kreider, of Manheim R 2 been received at Campaign is chairman, presents a pretty Headquarters, located in the clear picture of how the Cen- Lancaster Poultry Association ter can help farm families, building, just north of the In addition to the special city _ _ scheduled to launch the eam- Eas*m I AiaiftnSkP paign with two “Kick-Off” Ral railfil vaicmiai hes The first( for volunteer January 11 Pennsylvania canvassers in the Northern Farm Show, 11-15 end °f the county, is scheduled Bpm Fulton Grange No. for Monday, January 25, at 66 meets. 730 p m in the Lititz Com- January 12 6:30 p.m. Hy- mumty Center. The other brid Seed Corn Banquet at M PU aTY tninn question of merging the Penn- v -' uril sylvania Farm Bureau with For nme straight years , Agway. since 1955, Paul D. Trimble The special stockholders 0 f Quarryville Ril has won meeting is scheduled for the champion or reserve champion Pa. Guernsey Breeders Ass’n honors in the Lancaster Coun sales pavilion was announced ty 4-H corn roundup, by Willis Z. Esbenshade, pres- He made this year number ident of the Lancaster Coun- io hy winning his sixth coun ty co-op. during the annual ty grand championship with a meeting this week at the Man- S i ng i e cross hybrid—Pioneer heim Township High School. 3131—which yielded 149 bush- About 4,300 common stock holders will be eligible -to vote on the proposed merger. Iln an election of directors, “stockholders elected Graybill G'ibble, Manheim 83, and re elected Samuel B. Heisey, Sheridan Rl; Paul M Herr, Quarryville Rl, and Melvin R. Stoltzfus, Ronks Rl, to three year board terms. Speaker for the meeting Reserve champion in this was Dr. Milford Heddleson, year’s county show was Ken- Pennsylvama State University ® etll 17-year-°ld son of „ , „ . , Mr. and Mrs. Elvin Hess, Jr, Extension Service agronomist. Qf Strasburg Rl . His topic was land use plan- Hess exhibited a sample of (Continued on Page 4) mng r £"k+'frii-klririrk-klrk'kirkl(itirklrieirk-kiririrklrir**-ir-irk+irtr-tr-irkir'ys * The annual FARM SHOW section will be ♦ ? found on pages 5 through 12 of this issue of * £ Lancaster Farming. The section includes feature J * stories about the show, a story on Lancaster * ■* County’s FFA Keystone Farmer Degree winners, ? * and the complete Farm Show schedule. We suggest $ i you lift the section out and take it to the Farm { 5 Show with you. Other regular features of Lan- * * caster Farming will be found in their regular M spots in the paper. J ■A * . * Improve Tobacco Returns Through Better Handling The grower of tobacco can not control the weather or the market, nor can he personal ly develop a better-producing plant However, some authori ties seem to feel that he can improve the methods in which he handles his tobacco befoie it is sold Henry B Engle, Research Agronomist at the Pennsyl vania State University South eastern Field Research Lab oratory, said that two varie ties developed by the Station since 1954 —Pennbel-69 and Pennleaf-1 have jumped yields per acre over the old standard varieties by 100-200 pounds or more These two locally developed varieties al so have a bred-in disease re sistance, Engle said. Pennbel -69 Is for all practical pur poses immune to tobacco mosaic, and highly resistant to wildfire disease Pennleaf-1 is resistant to wildfire One place in which growers err in handling these two varieties is topping too high Instead of leaving .16 leaves, as recommended, many will leave 20, Engle said. The plant will not do the same producing job on 20 leaves els per acre. Trimble, a 1962 graduate of Solanco High School, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Trimble of Chestnut Level. His county championship as sures his contention in the state competition at the Farm Show next week, where he has won southeastern district honors six times in the past. $2 Per Year that it will do on 16. Also, since these varieties are slow er maturing, they must be planted early enough to fit the growing season Another place that Engle felt the grower could improve his handling was by sizing and -onping his leaves after tr ti oi e cured Most growers no longer bother with this job, feeling that it is too time consuming And it is, Engle said, unless the farmer can expect a greater return for the extra work. Some buyers prefer tobacco that has been grouped by size with off color and damaged leaves re moved, Engle said, but others will not pay for this extra. It all depends on what the buyer wants. But, Engle point ed out, it appeared that the tendency toward free and easy stripping has gone right along with a general decline in price So what the farmer has saved on labor has been lost in price. He felt that the grower could benefit by estab lishing a reputation for a quality product, and thereby draw more competitive buy ing interest. However, he added that he expected little renewed emphasis on quality until some sort of grading standards were accepted by the industry; he didn’t feel that would come about until farmers accepted acreage con trols and price supports, and he could not anticipate any immediate change in the at titudes of Lancaster County farmers concerning price sup ports on tobacco. One tobacco buying firm in the area that works on mar (Continued on Page 4) Veg Growers Assn. Plan Form Show Activities At the Pennsylvania Farm Show next Wednesday the Pennsylvania Vegetable Grow ers Association plans a series of talks on the general topics of Marketing, and Bedding Plants. These meetings will take place in the Main Show Build ing Room F. Meetings will begin at 10 am, the group will break for lunch and then reconvene at 1 pm. Weather Forecast' Temperatures for the five day period Saturday through Wednesday are expected to average' above normal. Nor mal for the period would be a high of 39 and low of 24 degrees. It will be mild Saturday, cooler Sunday and Monday, mild Tuesday, then cooler again Wednesday. Precipitation for the period is expected to amount to 14 • % inch. This will occur as showers on Saturday, and again on Tuesday or Wednes day.