—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. February 25. 1967 4 From Where We Stand... Improve Form Meetings When any area has as many farm meetings as Lancaster County does in a year's time, some are bound to be less than satisfactory. Wc arc not singling out any parti cular group or organization for criti cism, but we’ve been concerned in re cent weeks over the poor “quality” of content and presentation at several farmer meetings. It used to be that, with field work out of the way, farmers had a lot of time on their hands over the long winter, and could even afford the luxury of wasting a little of it. This is consider ably less true today as farmers have increased the size of poultry and live stock operations, and have otherwise taken some of the seasonality out of their work schedules The demand on a farmer’s time these days is terrific, and it is impoitant to his business suc cess that he make the best use of that time. Educational meetings sponsored by the extension service, by farm groups, and by private firms are important in helping the farmer keep up to-date in this changing world. But when he ad justs his busy schedule to include a meeting from which he feels he will gam valuable information, and then goes away from that meeting empty handed, he has, in a sense, been cheated of his most precious commodity TIME. We have helped with the planning and presentation of enough meetings to know that it is considerably easier to criticize others than to do the job well oneself So our point in this editorial is not criticism alone, but a plea to the planners and sponsors of farmer meet ings to examine this subject in advance. First of all, they might ask them selves two questions: “What is the pur pose of the proposed meeting?” and “is it a necessary meeting?” A meeting may have one of several functions —1) to inform, 2) to enter tain, 3) to instruct; or, 4i to socialize It could conceivably combine any two of these functions, but, by all means, it should make known to the interested public beforehand just what its purpose is This can generally be accomplished with an appropriate title and a brief description of the meeting’s content, circulated in advance Equally as impor tant, the content of the meeting should stick with the announced theme and Letter To The Editor . (Note: The following let ter was i eceived this week from Ken Martin who went to Honduras, Central Ameri ca, about a year ago to h£lp establish a credit union un der the auspices of the Men nonite Voluntary Service. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Martin of Denver El, Ken may be best remem bered around the county for his outstanding efforts in the Future Farmers of America, which climaxcFl with his be ing named State FFA presi dent in 1.064.) No Snow Shovels In C»A. ? Martin Reports Dj i' Ti if-i’di, Cii eclin'fi liom Guiii'M the s'i unpin:; capi'al of the C nib bean Gn. raja is one ol Ih.eo jclanJa wln'h comprise the Buy J-linJ, oh the noithein coc-t of Honduras, it is totaled about thrty miles fiom the m (inland The island is appioximately nine miles long and two and purpose, not merely use the title as a point of departure. HUMOR another pet peeve! How many highly-touted speakers have you heard introduced with “Mr. So-and-So will now tell you how to make a million dollars raising tail-less cats for mousers in rocking chair factories”, and Mr. So and-So gets up and runs through a rou tine of stale jokes pilfered from old Reader’s Digest magazines for the next forty-five minutes? And you leave the meeting no closer to knowing how to make the million dollars than when you went in. Don’t misunderstand: we deeply ap preciate good humor. It can be used to great advantage by a speaker to illus trate important points, and to lighten an otherwise serious subject. But it should reinforce the subject discussed, not de tract from it; also, a speaker has, to know his audience to know what brand of humor they will enjoy and what brand will simply offend them. LENGTH another common meet ing culprit. We’re thinking, in this case, of length of speeches and length of total meeting. While there have been many good speakers in the county this, past season, we have also had our share of long-winded ones who took an hour or more to deliver 15-minute talks, simply because they hadn’t properly organized either their material or themselves. The mam factor accounting for ex cess meeting length is probably trying to crowd too much into the event. Some organizational annual meetings seem to be guilty of this Of course ? that’s strict ly the business of that particular or ganization Its members are aware of the condition since they generally at tend the function each year The pur pose of such a meeting is often social as well as to transact annual business matters. But, even so, we’ve seen few of these affairs which couldn’t have been improved by a bit more careful culling on the part of the organizers. The general meeting season will soon make way for the rush of spring time chores, and the farmer will probab ly forget the good and the bad meet ings he attended during the winter. But there will be another season, come next winter, and, hopefully, those who put on farmer educational meetings will continue to strive for improvement in quality, not quantity. Probably the only one who will truly benefit from the up grading of meetings will be the farmer but isn’t that the whole point, after all? one'half miles wide To the get about 170 inches of ram south of the island lie four- fall a yeai, the majority be teen small cays (low island or tween Octobei and February, leef) The town of Guanaja There is no electricity in town is centeied around two of other than that piovided by these cays which aie about a small generators which some half male fiom the main is- mei chants have for then land Appi oximately 2400 of stores Oui sheets are nairow Guanaja’s 4,000 people live in three to five-foot boardwalks this town It’s interesting to watch a The islandeis aie of Eng- stranger walk around town at hsh descent and speak English night, oi, even moieso a lady although ‘hey aie goveined by in high heels Very seldom Spanish Honduras Most of the anyone goes ovei boaid, some people heie aie bi-lingual times a dog or an intoxicated Yeais ago the islands were man undei British mle and the old- .Ralph Nafziger and I aie ei folks still love to talk about serving 2S-month teims undei the Eutish wai ships and Eng- Mennomte Voluntary Seivice, lish pnates that would stop Salunga We aie living on the heie Seveial things have been second flooi of a home ovuiecl dug fiom the island so pei- by an old widow whom Imps I should go tieasinc we quickie stalled (o mil hunting Columbus landed on ‘Gummy’ On the fuel ».<>, the noith osene slove Lile in a sea town suie dif and keiosene lefngeiaioi We leis iiom tiiai in the ‘Gaiden aie quite pioucl ol some of Spot ’ The ma]only oi file the Honduun dishes we pio houses aie bmlt on stilts and duce stand above the watei Being 0m diet sme 1S dlffe , e nt ught at sea level, it gets tei- flom “ H om’s Pennsylvania i ibly hat, but we have a sea breeze almost everj night. We *■ (Continued on Page 8)' ‘ Little and Much Lesson for February 26, 1967 Background Scripture * Dovolionol flooding f* i be* - ' Manv of iis delight ourselves in thinking of all the wondeilul things we would do if our cir cumstances in life were different. If we had some outstanding pro fession, how hard wewouldwork. If we were rich, how generous we would be. if we had more time, how r help ful we would be to others. It is a cove nient frame o f mind, for while we occupy our selves with thoughts of what Key. Althimse we would do, we are freed fiom thinking about what we can do. As Dag Ham marskjold has put it ' The great commandment is so much easier than the ordinary even day one — and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter. When Great Task Comes It is also \erv deceptive, for if we do not do what we can do now, we are not likely to do well w hen the great task comes There is a close relationship between the great and the small tasks. ' Pie w'ho is faithful in a verv little is faithful also an much, said Jesus Gilbert Stuait, an English architect, has received recogni tion for two piojects One ol these w'as a great cathedral. The other w ; as a new' telephone booth Both of them, it is said, bear the marks of true genius. Perhaps we find this difficult to understand. We would expect a man of genius to use his full capacities in designing something so important as a cathedial But why snould he have imested so much talent in the design ol something sc prosaic as a telephone booth? Now Is The Time ... By Max Smith, Lancaster County Agent To Eliminate Cattle Lice Efficiency of production and gain re quires some attention to animal comfoit Ani mals that are heavily infested with lice are not comfortable and will not make the best use of feed At this time of the year special attention should be given to be certain ani mals are not loaded with lice Either sprays dusts, or nibbing cables may be used to eradicate the pest Two treatments at 14 to 16 day intei vals are required when adminis tering hand tieatment To broadcast Legumes Forage producers who are planum? to establish a new stand of alialfa or clover in existing winter gram by way of the bioad- SMITH oast method should be plan- The range will be from 25 to nxng to make this seeding by 60 pounds of actual nitrogen the fust 10 days in March Re- per acie with the smaller sealch and e ;pei lence both le- amounts in wheat to be under veal that , eiy spung seedmgs seeded to legumes When veg aie moie rccssful than later etative giowth begins in the allemip'ts on hioadcasting - , ~ , if the .. sine method of , ng th ° mUog ' ell should he hand sc- k to be used a PP lied then 1h /ci must wait a i il Ihe giound a. enuiomenl • Wheat 1' W . i ! it c PO Cn\ 2P.G - LUU.7, Pa 1754.? 3 Oi lua 21 i: Mul s, wiie.it and D , i.un/, u iv.n Phono Lim 047 or ' 0 tonsicisi i.itita 1.21.-2111 i 1 anovl the P nn Timmon- i .utor I .i Mi mt. rs K ol| oi tf. i_ai.ii.bi 11, Advertising ..ii nut u- Duei tor Hi pel acie Will Subscription price $2 per tear la Lantastei OoiiiUj $3 elsewhere to 1 eillllty and Established November 4, 1955. , . , Published everj Saturday by )l a legume seed- ■> Lancaster Farming, LiUtz, p*, • • ric in trie 5 wriekf/ ; *** 1.1 n in |\ in «l| 1 r! W ’top'll <’ niia'.'!. gen 'I VMIJr ■ whet 1 ' in" Test of Small Tasks Isn't this whut Jesus meant? 1 Faithful dlscipleship is required in the small tasks as well as in the great ones, if you do second rate work in the telephone booth sized Jobs, you are not likely to do any differently with those of more importance. "If you have not been faithful in the unright eous mammon,’’ asks Jesus,"who will entrust to you the true riches?” (Lake 16:11 HSV) (!od tests us in the small tasks; if we perform them faithfully, he may entrust to us something greater. We must also keep in mind that what seems impoitant in out judgment may not be so im portant in God’s scale of values, or vice-versa. So said Jesus: " . . . what is exalted among men is an abomination ui the sight of God." The important task of \our lifetime, as God sees it, may be the seemingly small task that is before you now, not some imaginary great thing in thflj futuie, J God’s Competitor "*****! Probably there 5s no portion of our lues in which this is more true than in our stewardship o£ God’s gifts, particularly of money. We may comfort our-< selves with the thought of hovf charitable we would be if we were wealthy, yet miss completely what we could do with what we already ha\e Why should God give u* more i f we manage so poorly what we have? i To many people, the steward* ship of monev is one of the un* important areas of Christian dis* cipleship Yet if we take seriously the teachings of Jesus, it cannot be a small thing to God. The way we handle our money says muclj about the rest of our discipleship* for money is often one of God’s greatest competitors. "You can* not serve God and mammon, 1 * he warned. I There are many telephon# booth-sized areas in our lives that need cathedral-sized efforts. Thai great tasks may seem more ro* mantic, more exciting, morQ rewarding. Yet, as Fenelon put it. "It is, however, only by fidelity in little things that a true ant| constant love to God can be dis-i tmguished from a passing ferv¥# of spirit.” 1 (tesed an auHlnfts cejoyrlfhted by tfia Otvtstan t af Christian Education, Natianal Caunci) af th# I Churches af Christ m the U, S, A. Rd««»ad by t Community Press Service) ____ J Go To Church Sunday IAHCASIEK FARMING Lancaster county's Own Par'na Wielcly 1 i e aftei 1