—Loncuatcr Farming. Saturday, September 5.1970 4 Plant Genetics By now, many or moat local farmers know that tin* Southern Corn Blight appears to have centered primarily in a few vane tios of corn with common characteristics that apparently make them particularly prone to the blight. In the future, it now appears almost certain that work in the seed corn industry will be toward replacing these susceptible varieties as fast as possible with resistant varieties. While being concerned about adopting a resistant variety, particularly if they have corn with the blight this year, farmers should not be hasty to condemn seed firms vhich have the non-resistant varieties. It should be remembered that almost no one in this area had ever heard of South ern Leaf Blight until a few weeks ago. It is a new blight strain. It caught e\ervone by surprise. On Overcoming the Blight Farmers in the next several weeks should stay \ ery alert to the economic im ohcations of the Southern Corn Blight. If any one farm crop could be called a aasic or staple crop, it is corn. At this point, :he fall-out from the changed corn situation as a result of the corn blight has, or soon a ill, hit just about every type of tarm oper . tion. While the overall impact, we believe. Was been detrimental to farming, it should not be assumed that all farmers are sharing equally in the loss or even that all farmers are suffering As usual when there is a shortage of a product, the farmer who is lucky enough to have a bumper crop or a large quantity of the product m storage will actually benefit, perhaps substantially The price of corn is very high for this time of year and the indications are that the prices will stay higher than usual for some time to come, barring unexpected good news about the amount of crop loss T 'rom the blight. Impact Is Une\en The impact of the higher corn prices .vill be faiorable for farmers who ha\e corn to sell or who ha\e enough on hand chat they don't ha\e to buy it The farmers Aith corn will reap the benefit of the higher prices directly through sales of corn or through a competitu e ad\ antage mer raimers who hate to buy the highei-pnced corn. Suffering directly from the new high corn prices will be all those farmeis. prob ably the majority of farmers, who hate to ouy corn dnectly or indirectly in feed Because com is such a basic element m feed, the expected corn shortage has Drought on concern about an oterall na tional feed shoitage This has dragged up the price of neaily all the giams that go into feeds Awareness of this new feed situation a ill be \itally impoitant for those farmeis —such as broiler and egg, swine and beef producers who buy large quantities of feed For most such producers, commercial feed is the primary cost of production Any substantial increase in feed costs is im mediately reflected in m erall operating cost increases. Such operating cost increases mean the LANCASTER FARMING Lancaster County’s Own Faim Weekly P 0 Box 266 - Lititz Pa 17543 Office 22 E Mam St. Lititz, Pa 17543 Phone Lancastei 394-3047 oi Lititz 626 2191 Robert G Campbell. Adveitising Dnector Zane Wilson Managing Editoi Subscnption mice S 2 per jeai in Lancaster Countv S 3 elsewheie Established Novembei 4, 1955 Pub'ishcd eveiv Satindav bv Lancaster Famine Lititz Pa Secora Class Postage paid at Lititz P? 17543 Membei of V'wsiv'pei Faim Editois Ass" Pa Newspapet Pubhshcis Association ard National Newspaper Association -A New Look The work of the various seed firms in breeding more vigorous hybrid corn var ieties over the past many years have helped make the large present-day corn yields possible. Along the way, many desirable plant characteristics have been bred into the corn and undesirable traits, as well as diseases, crossed out. When something new like the present blight comes along it can catch the corn breeders temporarily by surprise, but now they’re already working hard to breed this new threat to corn out of existence. They will succeed. Meantime, the corn breeders need our patience and encouragement. Ultimately, the blight may help to make us all a little more aware of the im portance of plant genetics in determining the success of our farm operations. farmer can no longer make the same profit on last year's prices. If prices don't go uo accordingly, the producer's profits could be squeezed severeh. Will prices of farm products go up? Generally, probablv yes But it is highly uncertain if the price increases will off-set cost increases. The impact in this direction may be very irregular. With some products, prices may go up faster than costs, while in other areas costs maj go up faster. It is impor tant that the individual farmer be alert to how the situation develops in relation to his own operation so as to be better pre pared to make the right moves to maximize profits or minimize losses. (It should be noted that proposals hav e been made by the railroads to increase freight rates Some local farm authorities have indicated such increases could exert considerable additional upward pressure on feed prices.) Just How Serious? The big unanswered question for etery one is just how serious the corn blight really Most repoits indicate a national loss not exceeding 5 to 10 per cent. While this would amount to a huge amount of corn — neatly a quarter to a half billion bushels —it would nut be an insurmountable loss. As Max Smith, Lancaster County agricul tural agent, told some farmers this week. " A lot of farmers lose more than that each year (from \anous diseases, insects and poor management practices) and neter e\ en know it ” County extension officials also said they believe the county crop suffered much areater losses during the past drought than is indicated so far from the blight. It was noted, however, that additional blight losses could occur this month, partic ularly to the later maturing corn and par ticularly if the weather is rainy and humid. Farmers hate been adtised to keep a close watch on their corn crop and, if the blight seems to be doing major damage to try to hanest it for corn silage at the earliest possible time. Some Good Crops More than 25 per cent of the Lancaster County corn crop is harvested as silage and the silage harvest is already underway. Many farmers apparently will be able to complete the silage harvest with little or no blight loss. (See Max Smith’s column for advice on using silage preservative.) And happilv, reports indicate that the wet season has produced some outstanding corn crops on record-high acreage plant ings, indicating that perhaps in Lancaster County, at least most farmers should still be optimistic, de=mue negative repors about the blight and trte legitimate concern about it. Nationallv, the teoeial government has more than enough gram in storage to make up a 5 to 10 per cent loss. A loss of this level apparently would mean highei gram (Continued on Page 10) NOW IS THE TIME... By ltk«x Smith Lancaster County Agent To Practice Safety one seems to be more severe In Corn Hanesting and is causing moie rapid drying •Corn is one of the major farm of the plant, and in some cases v rops and has grown in impor- the rotting of part of the ear. tame in the past decade In all At the present time there is no cases mechanical equipment evidence of any hazard to an plays a very important part in imals from corn infested with this process and all growers are either disease If weather con urgd to stiess safety to all work- ditions favor (wet and humid) trs The corn picker has injur- the additional development of e such as Kylage or Sodium and urge all farm workeis to be Meta-bisulphite will help the fermentation processes, keep irjrt: j! To Ensile Infcted Corn It seems that the local corn :rop is infected with both the Ye-To*’ Leaf Blight and the Soatnern Leaf Blight the latter THE PEACEMAKER lesson for September 6,1970 Background Scripture; Gen«s*s 2 6j Mat* thew 5 9, James 4 1 3 Devotional Reading. Romans 12 14 21. WANTED: Peacemakers like Isaac. REWARD: Blessed are the peace makers for they shall he called the sons of God. If God were in the habit of cla r ted advertisements in this nev spaper, the one above might well be a mong them. The world ceitainly needs peacemak ers like Isaac to day. What’s so spe cial about Isaac? « Let's review Rev. Althouse )a t we know about him. He v.as the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob and Esau. A famine was using in the land and God mstiuctcd him to live in the valley of Ge bar. The people who lived there, the Philhstincs, welcomed him at first, but when Isaac became quite prosperous, they forced him to leave. Another well! The eosf of honor So Isaac moved out into a more barren area and dug a well. As f ll committed to their “uncondi soon as the well was dug, the ~ onal sulrender ” excluded both Phillistines decided it was on Ger many and Russia from the their property. So Isaac dug ? eac , e at Versailles and a another well and this one was tre , aty ' vas Slgned that lasted also claimed by others. But Isaac only *T;? nty ? ears when Hitler moved on and dug another well uset * “J 1S un treaty as the and no one bothered him about , m l ans , 1°. rally a bitter Germany this one. behind him. George Kennan, for- The situation I’ve just de- mer amba ssador to Russia, tell* scribed had all the makings of us: “ A stable Postwar arrange a war. Isaac’s Philhstme neigh- ment •• • had b een rendered im bors were jealous and envious of P° ssible before the war ever his prosperity. They became c ? n , le to an end .•• by the prm greedy, coveting something for cip , e of unconditional sunend which they had not labored. And cr ' T , this is still the source of so much Isaac, however, dug three wells hostility and tension in the world and gave up the first two because today, the seeds from which are be , dld not feel tbe y were worth spawned great and bloody con- “Sbtmg over Thai’s what made flicts. bun a peacemaker. ISUaC WaS a peacemaker. He (Based on outlines copyrighted by lb# worked miracles in human re* 2 ms '°, n chrjstion Education, National lationships. What was his secret? sT'a! 1 Prlw He was no diplomatic genius, so s,,v,c * 1 down mold development in the silo, and i educe the danger of poisonous gases These mater ials have been recommended for grass silage in the past. diplomacy is rot the answer. He had no gicat army, so no one was afraid of his military might. What then made him a man of peace? Saving “face”, losing peace The key, I believe, is in the fact that, unlike most men, Isaac was not handicapped by an-in flexible pride. He was not a coward and would not back down upon his pi maples. Had the Phil listmes tried to take away his right to worship God they would have learned that quickly enough. But he was a man who could compromise on non-essentials. Hp would fight, but what he fought for had to be woith fighting for. He would not fight for the sake of his piide. How many wars have begun and continued simply because na tions have taken stands on tri vial matteis and then felt com pelled to light for the sake of “saving face ’? A case in point is the jear 1917, the most costly year in the Fust World War. After both sides had lost some 900,000 casualties in the carnage of the Battle of the Somme, Ger many and the Central Powers put out peace feelers for a nego tiated peace. Bntam and France, however, weie committed to a policy of * unconditional surren der” and, instead of responding to the Geiman peace eflorts, a green light was gnen to British Geneial Haig for the Flanders campaign. In fhe months, Haig sacuficed 400,000 British troops in an inflexible plan that at best gained an ad\ ance of 9,000 yards. By then, a negotiated peace was impossible!