2 New Turfgrasses Developed at Penn State Seed is now available for two common diseases affecting ~ The new ryegrass is recom new turfgrasses developed at Kentucky Bluegrass—stripe mended for establishing quality Pennsylvania State University, smut, rust, and leaf spot. Penn- turf grass that will persist under The one is Pennstar Kentucky star has been under study at heavy traffic. This includes seed Bluegrass, which turf scientists Penn State and at other leading mixtures 'or planting athletic believe may be one of the brat all- universities since 1950. fields, gold courses, cemeteries, round turfgrass varieties public grounds and parks, sod available in the United States. farms, and home lawns. The other is Pennfine Peren nial Ryegrass, the most fine leafed perennial ryegrass on the market and difficult to tell from Kentucky Bluegrass. Both varieties are available from commercial seed com panies. They were developed and released by the Experiment Station at Penn State. Field trials at Penn State found Pennstar Kentucky Bluegrass highly resistant to all three of the This new Kentucky Bluegrass has survived extended drought. Pennstar required only the moderate management typical of most bluegrasses. It is adapted to a wide variety of growing con ditions and does well from California to the East Coast. It needs only moderate to low fertility. Both Pennstar Kentucky Bluegrass and Pennfine Perennial Ryegrass were developed by Dr. Joseph M. Duich, professor of turf grass science. Aiding with the breeding, development and in troduction of Pennfine were Dr. Herbert Cole Jr, professor of plant pathology, and Dr. A. Thomas Perkins, former assistant professor in agronomy. Two DES Violations Are The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported finding diethylstilbestrol (DES) in two animal liver samples since a mandatory certification program for the growth promoting hormone went into effect January 8. Samples of muscle tissue from both animals were negative for DES. One liver sample, containing 3.3 parts per billion of DES was from a lamb grown by Brant George of Kanosh, Utah, and slaughtered January 27 in Ogden, Utah. The other liver sample, containing 4.15 parts per billion of DES, was from a steer produced by Pamel Green, of Layton, Utah, and slaughtered February 1 in Gooding, Idaho. The certification program gives a producer three options. He may certify that the animals were not fed DES or were with drawn from DES seven days prior to slaughter. Alternatively, the grower may have the animals held at the slaughter plant seven days prior to slaughter, or he may have the animals amHßiQiis PT-7, PT-10, SP-320 WINDROWERS Before you buy-compare the simplicity HESSTON Equipment. MILLER'S REPAIRS R. D. 1, Bird-in-Hand, Pa. Phone 717-656-7926 Gibbons Road Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 11,1972 Pennfine Perennial Ryegrass is described as having “ryegrass toughness with bluegrass beauty.” Turf experts rate it outstanding for mowability, texture, disease resistance, and compatibility with Kentucky Bluegrass. slaughtered and retained pending the outcome of testing for DES. In both cases, the producers had certified that the animals were taken off feed containing DES seven days before slaughter. Each incident has been reported to the Food and Drug Administration for possible legal action against the producers. The Farm Labor The majority of farms that rely heavily on seasonal labor hire their workers directly rather than through contractors, ac cording to a report issued recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA’s Economic Research Service recently studied the methods used to'obtain seasonal workers, the number of seasonal workers per farm, and hours of such labor per farm by type of farm and production region. The study looked into the two practices of hiring seasonal Reported FDA has jurisdiction over ad ditives to animal feed. A preliminary investigation of the sheep incident indicates DES was still in the feed during the period when the sheep should have been withdrawn from DES. If so, officials observed that illegal feeding practices and a false certificate are both in volved. They said the steer in cident is still under investigation. Study Made labor—direct hiring and con tracting. Under direct hiring, the farmer does the firing, super vising, and paying of his workers. Contract labor is provided by labor contractors, crew leaders, and custom machine operators to plant, cultivate, harvest, and haul crops. The percentage of farmers hiring any labor varies from 58 per cent of the Nation’s livestock farmers to 84 per cent of the fruit and nut growers. The heavy labor users— producers of vegetables, fruits, tobacco, and “other field crops” (potatoes, sugarcane, broom corn, and sugar beets) hired most of their workers directly. In contrast, cash gram and livestock farmers, who hired seasonal labor, obtained labor by contracting for custom services. Combine crews comprised the bulk of the contract workers on cash grain farms. Most of the farmers in the Northern and Southern Plains, Mountain and Lake State Regions used contract labor. In the Southeast, except for the fruit and vegetable farmers, much of the seasonal labor was employed directly by the farm operator. Size of farm also affected hiring practices: Less than a third of the vegetable farms with under $5,000 in sales used con tract workers, in contrast to 50 per cent of the largest farms. Use of contract labor also increased with size of tobacco farms. However, on cash grain and livestock farms, importance of contracting decreased as size and sales increased. A copy of “Direct and Contract Hiring of Seasonal Farm Labor,” SB 478, is available free on postcard (please include zipcode) or telephone (388-7255) request from the Office of Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture, ashnington, D.C. 20250. FREE Subscribers to Lancaster V: Farming will receive one x & advertisement Free each £ month in our Mail Box Market Subscribers using $: the Mail Box Market will be $: :$ governed by the following S; :S rules: :$ Limit your advertisement S to 25 words; All ad- $ •S vertisements must be in our $ hands by Thursday noon or j: same will be held over for ft-next week’s paper; No :$ business advertisements accepted 31
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers