10—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 24,1971
On Making Field Days Pay
Field day season is here.
It can be a valuable time, IF you’re
willing to work at it.
Specialists at DeKalb Agßesearch, Inc.
offer the following pointers to help you gain
maximum benefit from field days:
GO EARLY. There may be exhibits or
displays that will be easier to see ahead of
the crowd. You’ll have a chance to talk to
some of the speakers beforehand if you
have some specific questions. There may be
an opportunity to register to receive later
information. If maps or- condensed tour
presentations are handed out, look through
the material ahead of time.
If there is a wagon-train, try to sit near
the middle you’ll see more and probably
hear better. If it’s a walking tour, situate
yourself near the speaker at each stop.
TAKE NOTES and PICTURES. Don’t
try to take down everything that’s said, but
get the essentials. Ask for clarification or
Soil- Rediscovered Waste System
' The soil is a key element in producing
feed for livestock and food for people.
This is well understood and farmers
have continually increased their knowledge
of how to make the soil produce more.
But now scientists are increasingly
looking at the soil as a major resource in
disposing of our growing volumes of waste
products. The soil has an amazing capacity
for recycling many of the troublesome
wastes from animals, humans and plants,
scientists are discovering.
Actually, farmers have known this all
along. Wastes from animals produced on
farms have for centuries been disposed of
on farm land, thereby eliminating the waste
problem and at the same time enriching the
soil for further production.
This process can be taken for granted,
except that both the development of cities
and greater concentrations of livestock on
farms have multiplied the waste problem.
There’s more waste from farms and even
greater new wastes from the metropolitan
areas and the volume of these wastes in
both directions have been multiplying at an
alarming rate. The question is what to do
with them at a cost people can afford.
After all the many alternatives are con
sidered, it may be found that the original
method, simply returning the waste to the
soil, is still the best and most economical
method.
A study at Penn State University called
“The Living Filter” is now in its ninth
year. Penn State reports that while it’s still
too early to tell how beneficial the system
may be, the living filter has drawn thou
sands of visitors and inquiries from all 50
states and many foreign countries.
Basically, The Living Filter is a 75 acre
research project involving spreading urban
sewage on land at the rate of 50 to 100 inches
a year, utilizing the waste matter in the
sewage for plant growth, allowing the soil
to filter the water clean, with the pure wa
ter seeping down to help replenish the un
derground water system.
If this type of system can be made eco
nomical, it is evident that there can be
benefits from several directions. A trouble
some waste product has been eliminated.
Instead of polluting streams and rivers, the
waste is constructively used on land to
produce vegetation or crops. At the same
time, underground water systems which
have been suffering from overuse can get
at least some benefits.
In the past two years, The Living Filter
LANCASTER FARMING
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly
P. O. Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. 17543
Office: 22 E. Main St., Lititz, Pa. 17543
Phone: Lancaster 394-3047 or Lititz 626-2191
Robert G. Campbell, Advertising Directoi
Zane Wilson, Managing Editor
Subscription price: $2 per year in Lancaster
County: S 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.
Pa. Newspaper Publishers Association, and
National Newspaper Association
more detail. Most speakers welcome ques
tions because that’s the way they know
whether they’re getting ideas across. If you
carry a camera, snap pictures of charts,
graphs, field signs, and plot contrasts that
will help you recall a point that was made.
THINK, THINK, THINK. Keep asking
yourself “What’s the main point this man is
making?” “Does this fit in with what I al
ready know?” “How does this apply to my
operation?” “What changes would this re
quire at home?” “Will it pay?”
DON’T HURRY AWAY. Seek out the
speakers that you want more information
from. Visit with others present farmers,
university, company people, etc.
FOLLOW THROUGH. ,When you get
home, check through handout material you
received. Review your notes and pictures.
Clean out the most valuable facts and ideas.
Work at field day attending and you’ll
find field days working for you.
research has included rejuvenation of strip
mine spoil banks. The research shows that
in unsprayed spoil areas, absolutely nothing
grew, not even weeds. But in the sewage
sprayed areas, a thick jungle of grasses and
legumes sprang up and eight inch tree seed
lings are now over five foot tall in two
years.
While the results of the research are
exciting for cities and mining areas, we
think that the value of the research extends
to farmers as well. For instance, it definite
ly supports the validity of the old practice
of spreading waste products on land. It
shows'that the soil can handle wastes with
out contaminating the underground water
system.
But the Penn State research, like re
search in general in the whole area of
wastes and recycling, is in its infancy.
Much more needs to be known about types
and volumes of wastes that can be handled
in this manner, and about how different
types of soils react to waste,
R. M. Davis, state conservationist for
the U. S. Soil Conservation Service in Penn
sylvania, notes that there are over 1,000 dif
ferent kinds of soil in Pennsylvania and
that they vary widely in their ability to
handle waste. While deep, well drained soils
work best, he noted that soils under land
with fractured limestone or gravel could
contaminate the ground water. Shallow and
wet soils should be avoided wherever pos
sible because they are limited in their capa
city to absorb wastes, he said.
' He noted that a great deal of Pennsyl
vania’s 14 millions tons of animal wastes
annually and 700,000 tons of fruit and vege
table processing wastes annually are re
cycled in the soil.
A program to identify and evaluate
soils in Pennsylvania is being carried out by
Pennsylvania State University, U. S. Soil
Conservation Service, and the State Soil and
Water Commission. This study should help
pinpoint soils which are capable of handling
- - wastes.
But we think that farmers and farm
organizations should continue to be alert
to and opposed to laws and regulations
which would substantially restrict use of
land for spreading wastes.
Until projects such as The Living Filter
can give much more conclusive answers on
capability of soil to handle wastes, restric
tions on use of soil for waste may be much
more harmful than helpful in solving the
waste problem.
Our experiences is that farmers who
have recognizable waste problems are gen
erally anxious to solve them. But they gen
erally can’t find any acceptable alternative
to what they are now doing.
It should be noted that the research is
increasingly showing that where wastes and
fertilizers are running off the land to con
taminate water sytsems, the problem is
often a conservation problem instead of a
waste problem. This is true because eroding
soil carries wastes with it. If soil erosion is
stopped, waste runoff is also usually stop
ped, reports state.
Until more precise knowledge is avail
able on how much waste can be put on parti
cular ground and the techniques that are
necessary to make it successful, farmers
should restricted on waste recycling,.
NOW IS
THE TIME..
By Max Smith
Lancaster County Agent
To Renovate Strawberry -
Plante
Growers who are planning to
retain their strawberry beds
for another season should do
some thinning and fertilizing.
In most cases the plants are too
thick and will not bear well
next year unless thinned. The
use of a cultivator or hand hoe
will take out about half of the
plants and leave an open space
between the rows. The tops of
remaining plants may be mow
ed off above the crowns. Follow
with a complete fertilizer and
then weekly irrigation, if rains
are insufficient. All of this
should be done by early August
in order to permit time for new
runner plants.
To Cook Garbage Fed To Swine
We are informed of the dan
ger of another highly conta
gious and usually fatal-disease
of swine getting into the United
States; it is known as African
Swine Fever and has been dia
gnosed in Cuba. The symptoms
resemble severe hog cholera
and there are not any success
ful treatments for curing the
disease. Local swine producers
are urged to maintain closed
herds and cook all garbage fed
to hogs.
- To Learn Of Land Values
It may not always be the best
decision to accept that first
seemingly good offer for farm
land; land use competition is
increasing in' most rural areas
for- industrial,' business, and
MAKE A HOUSE
A HOME
Lesson for July 25,1971
■ackgiound Scripture: Genesis 1 26-31,
2 lt-25, Song of Solomon 2 t-14,
Moloch! 215, 16, Mark 10 2-12
Devotional Reading: Genesis 24 52-67
A severe housing shortage near
a military base forced a young
army doctor, his wife, and three
children to live in the cramped
quarters of a local hotel. Some
one remarked to the doctor’s six
fold daughter,
isn’t it too bad
>u don’t have a
»me?” “Oh, we
ive a home,” she
splied quickly,
b just don’t have
house to put it
different
Rev. Althouse use
these two terms, “house” and
“home,” as if they meant the
'same thing. Of course they do
not. You may buy a house, but
you can only build a home and
that with which you “build” it is
not wood, stone, or brick.
The British writer, Gilbert K.
Chesterton, once said that he
would sometime like to enter his
home in a totally different man
ner than usual. He spoke of set
ting a ladder by his house and en
tering like a burglar in the night
through an upper window. He
was simply saying that sometimes
we are so close to our homes that
we could well profit by seeing
them from a new and different
perspective. We become so ac
customed to the daily routines
and. procedures,, so-oblivious .to.
residential purposes in addition
to farming;-A prospective buy
er may intend to buy the land
for farming purposes and then
change .his mind when prices
for other uses are higher. Farm
ers who haven’t checked real
estate values recently should
consult with a qualified real
estate expert before making a
land deal. Land values are
changing. A closing thought
good' agricultural land should
stay in agricultural production.
Livestock
The hot weather management
of livestock is very important for
efficient production and perfor
mance. Livestock housed in open
buildings or out in pastures with
plenty of shade and water will
do a pretty good job of keeping
comfortable. However those that
are housed in tight barns or in
fattening pens / may need some
special'attention. Cross ventila
tion is very important; electric
fans that will draw the air
through the barn or push air odt
over the livestock will he'p with
the animals’ comfort. Hogs will
suffer'most from extreme high
temperatures and high humidity;
in addition to the movement of'
air, a mist or fogging spray is
very helpful. This spray of water
is being used successfully in
many hog operations. Special
management in hot weather is
very much in order.
the unique qualities of those who
share it with us, that our appre
ciation becomes jaded and stale.
Often we must see our homes
through the eyes of someone who
has no home, no family, no com
panionship, no opportunity for
this kind of intimate fellowship.
Too often we measure our homes
and families against some unreal
istic ideal that leads us to be dis
satisfied because they are not per
fect. If only we realized what we
do have in our family fellowship,
how much more grateful and ap
preciative we might be.
Help and companionship
-Sometime we need also to see
the family in the perspective of
what God intended it to be. The
concept of the family finds its
origin, not in sociological con
venience (as some have main
tained), but in God’s observation
that “It is not good that the man
should be alone” (Genesis 2:18).
Mankind has been fashioned by
God in such a way that families
are necessary to meet the need of
companionship. Men were not
created to live alone.
Furthermore, families are nec
essary because men need others
to help them. “I will make him a
helper fit for him” (218 b). Chil
dren need parents (even less
than-perfect parents); parents
need children (even less-than-per
fect children); the family is God’s
gift to men to fulfill these needs.
Not every one is blessed with a
natural homer There are people
without mates, couples without
children, children without par
ents, brothers and sisters. If our
houses are truly to become homes,
we must learn to push wider our
family circles so that everyone
has a family of some kind.
(Based on outlines copyrighted by the
Division of Christian Education, National
Council of the Churches of Christ m the USA.
Released by Community Press Service.)
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