—Lancaster Farming. Saturday. February 15.1969 4 From Where We Stand ... Land Does Not Breed What Rood is a supermarket if it sits on ground that should be used to raise the food to stock its shelves? This is a question we may be asking ourselves with increasing frequency as more and more of our best land is buried under concrete. A Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court warns of the evil of a tax system that drives farmers out of business in favor of the developer. He said this taxation system “is one of the causes of the eventual destruc tion of our ability to feed ourselves.... Soon we will be farming our rocky foothills and wondering what happened to our bottom land. No matter how much our country may someday wish we had more carrot patches and beanfields, the farmer cannot afford to save his land for future food production if the land is being taxed according to what it is worth for a shopping center.” It may be that one of the principal rea sons the farmer is receiving very little con sideration is that so few people any longer have the slightest notion of what it takes to put the food on our tables. One farmer to day under present modern agricultural practices feeds scores of people whose knowledge of food production ends at the checkout counter. Farmers and the land are an irreplaceable resource that must be encouraged and preserved, or our high rise developments are going to be mighty uncomfortable places to live. It has been estimated that you might expect to pay $3OOO to $6OOO in land taxes per year if the day comes when you are taxed on the basis of what your land is worth to sell it rather than what it is worth to farm it. We think all farmers should be concerned. Many urban people think you should be taxed at the industrial rate. Just over a year ago, Governor Ray mond Shafer appointed a committee to get the opinions and suggestions from farmers as to how agriculture land can be kept in food production. Members of this committee are coming to the New Holland Fire Hall next Friday, February 21 at 1 p.m. We think it is absolutely right that this committee should bring a meeting to Lan caster County since we are the Number 1 farm county in Pennsylvania. We also think, however, that every farmer in this county should attend this meeting (the committee assures Lancaster Farming it will be in formal) and either express himself as to ways local agriculture land can be preserv ed or simply by his presence show to the powers in Harrisburg that he wants farm land in Lancaster County to remain in a taxable position where it can continue to be farmed and need not be sold to pay the taxes Let us always keep in mind that un like animals, fish or even people, land does not reproduce it’s kind for future genera tions. The only vay to have it is to keep it. This we must do At least that's the way it looks from where we stand. Farm News This Week Attention To Details Gets Top Production On This Poultry-Dairy Farm Page Miller Announces Republican Break With Gov. Shafer On Tax Issue At Co. Extension Meet Page 1 Sugar Beet Acreage In Co. Is Uncertain Page 1 LANCASTER FARMING Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly P. 0. Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. 17543 Office: 22 E. Main St, Lititz, Pa. 17543 Phone: Lancaster 394-3047 or Lititz 626-2191 Everett R Newswanger, Editor Robert G. Campbell, Advertising Director Subscription price; $2 per year in Lancaster County; $3 elsewhere Established November 4,1955 Published every Saturday by Lancaster Farming, Lititz, Pa. Second Class Postage paid at Lititz, Pa. 17543 Member of Newspaper Farm Editors Assn. Old-Fashioned? An interesting little pamphlet, issued by one of the country's larger life insurance companies, tells the story of the flag of the United States. In describing the birth of the Stars and Stripes, it quotes George Washington: “We take the star from Heaven, the red from our Mother Country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.” According to the pamphlet, nearly a year passed after the signing of the De claration of Independence before anything was done relative to the establishment of a national flag. But on June 14, 1777, the American Congress adopted the following resolution: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” There is a story that the American flag was first flown on July 4, 1777, when it was hoisted by Captain John Paul Jones over the war vessel Ranger. In the years since then, the original thirteen stars have been added to many times as new states joined the Union. In commenting on this growth, the pamphlet says, “Now it waves majestically over forty-eight States, extending across the continent; and flies over islands of the Atlantic and Pacific, and other outlying possessions. More than one hundred and thirty million people owe it allegiance, a vast assemblage composed of nearly every race in the world, but all united by one bond of loyalty and devotion to the Flag which symbolizes Liberty.” Yes, the figures are a little out of date! The pamphlet was written more than forty years ago. In these days of strife and de famation of the flag, it is a wonder that we do not see the story of the American flag in print more often or is it too old fashioned? Catch The Thieves The head of a firm specializing in man agement engineering and investigation states, “Crime in the streets is being over shadowed by white collar thieves m busi ness, not just in dollars and cents, but in the number of participants too.” It is pointed out that white collar employees steal more than $5 million in cash and merchandise alone from their employers every working day more than a billion dollars a year. Many of these “thieves” can be found with in the ranks of supervisory and executive personnel In addition to outright theft, this authority on employee ethics states that “ .even larger sums go down the drain as a result of malingering on the job, falsi fication of labor vouchers, improper disposi tion of scrap and damaged material. . .” All these losses are finally reflected in high er price tags on everything we buy. From the standpoint of helping streng then the moral standards of our society, not to mention the cost of the things we buy, everyone of us has a stake in helping in whatever way we can to halt the rising tide of thievery in the nation’s business enter prises. Local Weather Forecast (From the U. S. Weather Bureau at the Harrisburg State Airport) The five-day forecast for the period Saturday through next Wednesday calls for temperatures to average below normal with daytime highs in the upper 30’s and overnight lows in the low 20’s. Generally cold throughout the period. Normal high-low is 42-24. Precipitation may total one-fourth inch or less as snow showers Tuesday or Wednes day, mostly over the north portions. THE SECOND DUTY Leuon for February 16,1969 sends them forth oidy after thejr ?XTi c. ‘nlh'ion, 517 M have completed a certain amount l i o> of training and preparation with . , . him. They have apent many daya As a boy Ine ve rwaa Buc c eBa-jj gtenln g t 0 preac hing and ful in building model airplanea. witnessing his miracles. My problem was 1 „ talking privately with him, wanted to start building them pra yiug a nd worshipping with without taking the time to read jjjjn. ara not finished in the instructions which, at a jjj eir {ota i p repara tion, but they glance, seemed too long and In- are now rea( jy to go forth for volved. Conse- first « s0 i 0 " mission, quently, I fin ished few of them Duty close at hand and those I fin- often we lack that kind of ished were some- pa tience. We become discouraged thing less than we canno t reap the fruits of what was in- that which comes only after much tended by the practice, perseverance, and dis manufacturer. cipline. Shortly after writer . This desire'Thomas Carlyle died, two friends iMinniw for shortcuts is met on a foggy London street. Kev. Aitnouse common t o "So Carlyle a dead,” said one. many of us. We want to cross "Yes,” replied the other, "he la home plate before we have gone, but he did me a very good touched first base. We all would turn once.” "Did you ever see the finished product, but few him or hear him?” his friend of us are willing to take the pre- wanted to know. "No,” replied liminary steps the product re- the other, ”but once when I was quires. We desire to be powerful, younger I became utterly di«- effective disciples of Jesus Christ, couraged and did not care -yet we shun the necessary first whether I or &ed. One steps that must be taken along oriMr^l the way to that goal. We all would Hhraiw^here like to be graduates of the school development neare#t w h ic h thou knowesf Piminn for shortcuts to be a duty. The second duty passion Tor snoncuis a lr ea dy become clearer. That A number of years a B° a sentence was a flash of lighning young stranger came to my study m dar]c soul .« door. He told me that he had All of us would do well to heed recently received a call into a dmonition, "Do the duty Christian ministry. He nearest thee , .In spoken to his pastor and the of- B tead of looking for more at ficial body of his church, but tractive advanced steps, let us when he learned that his denomi- take the first step before us and nation required four years of col- trust God in his own good -time lege and three years of seminary, an d way to provide the second, he decided that he would have to in living the Christian life as in look elsewhere "I still believe building model airplanes, there God wants me to be a preacher,” a re important first steps that he told me, "but I can’t see going must be taken before we can pass through all that education when on to those that lie beyond. I’m ready to begin now. As be