VOL. 13 NO. 42
A Visit With The
Burkhart Family
Such picking and singing you
never did hear as two Garden
Spot 4-H Community Club mem
bers gave this reporter Monday
afternoon. It was Rickey (age
12) and Rhonda (age 10) Burk
hart giving a free home demon
stration of what “Blue Grass”
music really it, while three-year
old Reger strummed the Uke,
imitating big brother and sister
and baby Ronald (10 mo) rhyth
midy clapping his hands. It all
took place in the walnut pan
elled family room of Mr. and
Mrs Harold Burkhart, 434 Stras
burg Pike.
Now, “Blue Grass” is not (for
those of us not correctly in
fmmed) Country and Western.
No fancy electric additions in
‘ Blue Grass” to spoil the good,
old-fashion five-stringed Banjo,
Guitar, Mandolin, and-.
Base Jlddle.-No sir! % V
It all started for the Burkfajrt
children whem'dad-boiightritiw**
stringed instruments and start
ed them taking lessons. Now,
several years and seven hours of .
practice per week later, Rickey
and Rhonda are heard at many
Solanco Opens
Tine Fair Season
Again Next Week
Fan time is here again with
the opening of the Solanco Fair
on Wednesday, September—lB,
and running through Friday the
22
Dairy cattle judging will be on'
open mg day and Baby Beef
judging. will -go on Thursday.
Friday is the Fat'hog and'Baby
Beef, Sale
Solanco is the first of, five
fairs-The others.are at Lampe
ter, September 25=27;' Epbrata,
September 25-28; New Holland)
October 2-5; and Manheim, Oc
tober 9-11.. - - -
A complete list-of the events
at Solanco next week may be
found in the Farm Calendar.
form Calendar
Tuesday,. September 17 f
10:00 sum. State DHIA Board
meets with Penn State Repre
sentatives", State College.-
8 00 p.m.—Farm and. Home
Foundation Directors meet,
Farm and Home Center. ‘
Wednesday, September 18
Sclanco Fair
1 00 pm.—Dairy Judging
7 30 pm.—Formal Fair Opening
8 00 pm. Talent contest and
crowning of the queen.
Thursday, September 19 -'
19352—NE8A Open House it
Headquarters - '
Solanco Fair ■'
1 00 pm.-Swine Judging
-(Continued on Page 13) ‘
church and farm meetings They
have appeared on radio, and TV,
both locally and in Knoxville,
Tennessee. The biggest thrill
came only last Saturday night
when they played to the esti
mated 40,000 people at the Long
Park amphitheatei.
They are to appear locally on
a special TV program honoring
National 4-H Week October 11. _
Poultry Director
Mr Burkhart and the chil
dren’s grandfather Roy M. Burk
hart, operate an 85,000 broiler
operation and turn out 4Vz flocks
per year A director of the Lan
(Continued on Page 6)
'“BLUE GRASS” MUSIC is played by
Rhonda and Rickey Burkhart; They are
Political Farm Planks Are Reported
The platforms of. the two major political parties contain
some similarities and many differences In the case of the agricul
tural-planks,;the differences-are readily apparent.
The-farm plank of the - Democrats’ platform is more specific
than that of the Republicans. It calls for “full parity” rather than
“fair" prices ” It endorses a “strategic fopd and feed reserve” plan,
which would cover • storable meat and other products” ks well as
grains and soybeans It singles out the need of rural electric co
operatives" for 'financing of “generating and distributing power ”
And it suggests “graduated open-end limitations of payments of
Republicans
During seven and a half years
o f Democrat- administrations
and Democrat Congresses the
farmer has been the forgotten
man in our nation’s economy.
The cost-price squeeze has
steadily worsened, driving more
than four and a, half million
people from the farms, many to
already congested urban areas
-'OVER 800,000 i n.d-iv id u,a-l
farm units’hare gone out of ex
istence ■
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 14.1968
Wheat Program
Offers Six
Options In ’69
A meeting to discuss with farm
ei s the 1969 Wheat Program was
held Thursday evening at the
Farm and Home Center by the
local Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service John
Kimball, ASCS Fieldman, ex
plained the piogram to a room
full of about 50 farmers
The national wheat allotment
for 1969 has been established at
516 million acres For 1968 it
was 59 3 million acres The re
duction has been made neces
sary by another bumoer crop
produced thioughout most of the
world in 1963
This reduction in allotment
makes necessary a diversion pro
(Cortinued on Page 10)
During the eight year,s of the
Eisenhower administration, the
i farm parity ratio averaged 85
! Under Democrat rule, the parity
i ratio has consistently been un
: der 80 and averaged only 74 for
"all of 1967 It has now fallen to
r 73 '
’ ACTIONS by the administra
tion, in line with its apparent
cheap food policy, have held
down prices received by farm
ers
1 Government _ payments to
< (Continued on Page 9)
~ v *■ a ~ „
Agricultural Missionary Reports
Hondurans Are Starving
by Garland E. Gingerich
Penn Manor Vo-Ag Teacher
Those that I remember the
most are the children Twenty
eight month-old twins, Raphaels
and Roseta are examples Each
weighs less than 12 pounds and
even at 28 months of age cannot
creep across the floor with their
own strength Most of the chil
dren of Honduras are thin
armed and thick bellied from a
combination of a poor diet and
a heavy infestation of worms.
Faces of children who are too
listless to hold up their heads
continue to haunt my conscience
constantly even invading my
sleep in bold and imploring vis
ions
These are memories our fam-
son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Burkhart, 434
Strasburg Pike.
extremely large corporate farms that participate in government'
programs ”
The Republican farm plank would “encourage” farmers to
deveioo ineir oargaming position, white the Democratic plank
promises extension of “protective legislation for bargaining” to
farmers.
" The Republican plank proposes to reorganize CCC so-the
Corporation “will no longer compete with the marketings of
farmers ”
Here are the texts of the two farm planks-as adopted at the
recent national conventions of the two parties.
Twice in this century the Re
publican party has brought
disaster to the American farm
er—in the thirties and in the fif
ties Each time the American
farmer’s prosperity was restor
ed by the Democratic Party, but
the job is not yet completed.
Farmers must continue to be
heard in the councils of govern
ment where decisions affecting
- agriculture are taken. The prod
uctivity of our farmers—already
Democrats
$2 00 Per Year
ily has brought back with us af-
ter having had the opportunity
to seive for one year in Hon
duras, Central America as a vol
unteer, agricultural missionary
Having read much about the
needs for education in the de
veloping nations during the past
several years we did become
more and more concerned about
what can be done and what
needs to be done to alleviate
starvation and suffering Be
cause of this concern we con
tacted the Director of Agricul
tural Missions, Inc, the agricul
tural arm of ITie National Coun
cil of Churches Agricultural
Missions invited us to participate
in a joint effort ot the Mennon-
ite Church, The United Church
ot Christ, and the Moravian
Church in Honduras, C A In
1965 these three churches had
cooperatively initiated a joint
agricultural-community develop
ment effoi t in 90 villages in Hon
duias I was asked to help co
ordinate and begin educational
pi ograms in vegetable gardening
(Continued on Page 5)
Local FFA Boys
At Exposition
Four Lancaster County FFA
Youths were scheduled to rep
resent the local area at the
Eastern States Exposition at
Springfield, Mass today. They
are- Nelson Newcomer, Public
Speaking, Leßoy Eshleman,
Dairy Cattle Judging: Claude
Miller, Jr, Poultry Judging, ali
from Penn Manor High School
and David Hartmg, Dairy Pro
ducts Judging from Ephrata
High School
They will be competing
against FFA members from
West Virginia, Virginia, Mary
land, Delaware, -New Jersey,
New York, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, Massachusetts, Vermont,
(Continued on Page 6T
the world’s most productive—
must continue to rise, making
American agncultuie moie
competitive abroad and more
prosperous at home.
A STRONG AGRICULTURE
requires fair income to farmers
for an expanding output Fami
ly farmers must be protected
from the squeeze between ris
ing production costs and low
prices for their products Farm
income should grow with pro
ductivity just as industrial*
(Continued on Page 9),