Vol. 17 No. 23
J. Clair Graybill is currently planting about 50 acres of potatoes on his farm near Manheim.
New Group Forming
Watershed Elects Directors
What is.involved in forming a
new organization. ’Much plan
ning, work, headaches,—and,
possibly even dreaming, goes
into of a new group.
Planning requires knowing the
areas involved and the needs,
research, talking with other
groups, technicians, and then the
actual job of involving area
citizens in the plan.
The Cocalico Watershed
Association is one such group
swinging into action. The
Watershed idea began this year
by the Cocalico Jaycees, the area
serving the Cocalico School
District area.
The Watershed Association
met in Denver Thursday night
with about 25 persons in at
tendance. Having met several
times previously, the meeting
Thursday night was geared to
electing directors,. who is turn
will set forth directives and form
committees to begin projects.
Henry Hackman, executive
secretary of the Lancaster
County Soil and Water Con
servation District, was at the
meeting to present the work of
the local Conservation District.
He also showed the slide
presentation prepared by he and
his wife entitled “America the
Beautiful.”
A report of the project com
mittee chairman was presented
on the “Adopt the Stream”
program. The committee hopes
to involve youth from groups
such as FFA, 4-H, Boy Scouts, to
help work on cleaning area
streams and to control erosion on
stream banks so the stream will
clean itself on silt, qs well as
yearly clean-up chores.
The first project for the
Watershed Association will be
building a waterjack dam on the
Lititz Cocalico Creek. The project
will begin the evening of June 6.
Materials will be needed to build
these devices, such as lumber,
rocks, and utility poles. In
terested persons are invited to
help with this project.
Eight directors were
Periodicals Division
W 209
Penna t SjjaJfc Un^gfgiily
unanimously elected bythe group
to serve the Watershed
Association. Those elected are:
' Marvin Benneteh, Denver RD2,
farmer and salesman; Charles A.
Prinz, Lititz RD2; Gary Christ,
Form Calendar
Saturday, April 29
Tri-County Relief Sale, Twin
Slope Farmers Market,
Morgantown.
55th Little International
Livestock Exposition, Penn
State University.
Monday, May 1
7 p.m. Tractor Pull business
meeting, Rough and Tumble
Gift Shop, Kinzer.
8 p.m. Lancaster County
Poultry Association board of
directors meeting, Farm and
Home Center. i
Tuesday, May 2
10 a.m. —■ Lancaster County
Farmers Association Ladies
Day Out, Farm and Home
Center.
7:30 p.m. Chester County
Extension sewing workshop,
West Chester Baptist Church.
8 p.m. Lancaster County
Farmers Association board
meeting, Farm and Home
Center.
Regional FFA Parliamentary
Procedure and Public
Speaking Contest, Lehigh
Valley Vo-Tech School.
Wednesday, May 3
6:15 p.m. Lancaster County
Bankers’ Association
Banquet, Host Town.
7:30 p.m. Lancaster County
Soil and Water Conservation
District meeting, Farm and
Home Center.
Thursday, May 4
-4:30 p.m. Lancaster County
Vocational Agriculture
Teachers Association
meeting, vo-ag department,
Elizabethtown High School.
1:30 p.m. FFA Leadership
Training Conference, Penn
Manor High School.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 29,1972
Schpeneck, chef; William
Wingenroth, Ephrata RDI,
salesman; G. Russell Drumm,
Denver RD2, landscaper;
Cunningham, Denver RDI,
engineer; John Reist, 1112
Pleasant View Drive, Ephrata,
Earth and Space Science teacher,
Cocalico High School, and Donald
Graybill, Stevens RDI, dairy
farmer.
The suggested duties of the
directors will be to name the
organization, adopt a con
stitution and by-laws, look into
the possibility of incorporation,
setting goals and objectives for
1972 and long-range plans, setting
dues and membership
requirements, meeting dates,
and set up committees.
Members and guests of Agway look on as
George Steele, Chairman of the Board of
Directors and Richard Goddard, Executive
Vice-President and chief operating officer
of Agway, cut the ribbon opening Agway’s
Agway Dedicates New Distribution Center At E-town
Agway’s new Elizabethtown
Distribution Center is another
example of Agway’s continuing
efforts to modernize and improve
its distribution system, Ronald N.
Goddard, the cooperative’s
executive vice president &
general manager said on Wed
Potatoes For
That potato chip you may be
eating could have been grown on
a Lancaster County farm. That
spud you are buttering up could
also have been grown in the
Garden Spot. The potato, you see
is not just grown in Maine or
Idaho but is also grown locally.
And they are sold for a profit.
A typical farm which raises
potatoes is found just east of
Manheim. It is owned by J Clair
Graybill. He is the third
generation of Graybills to
operate the picturesque farm just
off the Manheim Road. But he is
the first of his family to raise
potatoes for fun and profit.
“I’ve been growing potatoes for
some time now,” said Graybill
the other day as he sat in his
kitchen waiting for the soil to dry
out a bit so that he could finish his
planting. “I’m planting about
fifty acres this year. Forty of
those acres will be for chip
potatoes.” Chip potatoes, by the
way, are those potatoes used in
die making of potato chips.
“There are certain varieties of
potatoes that are better for chips
than others. Superiors and
Norchips are quite good and I’ll
be planting some of thoserßutT
the.,.local table
variety market so I’ll be planting
some Cobblers and Katahdins for
local stores. The weather has
been quite wet so I am running
late with my planting,” noted
Graybill, with on eye cast out the
window.
Potatoes are usually planted
the last week in March and on
In This Issue
Classified Ads 33,34,35
Guest Editorial io
Market Reports 2,3,4
Sale Register 29,30
Women’s News 22,23
nesday at the formal opening of
the facility.
Goddard was joined by Agway
Board Chairman George Steele,
Vice Chairman Henry Bibus,
Director Willis Z. Esbenshade of
Lancaster, Agway officials and
state, university, and extension
Fun & Profit
into April. There are some
varieties which are planted later
and planting can run into May.
Graybill tests his soil regularly
but after farming his land for
many years feels he knows what
fertilizers are best for the dif
ferent sections of land on his far.
He uses insecticides when he
plants and sprays approximately
five times thereafter. The corn
bore and the blight are among the
dangers to the potato “I did have
just a bit of blight last year,”
said Graybill. “But for the most
part I’ve been pretty free from it
over the years The wetter the
weather while the potatoes are
growing, the more problems
there are likely to be with the
blight.”
Harvesting the crop starts in
the middle of July and runs as
late as October for some of the
later varieties. Graybill uses a
harvester which runs the
potatoes in a wagon and bins and
grades them loose in the truck.
They are then ready for shipping
to potato chip manufacturers.
The table varieties are placed
loose in storage and then bagged
as needed.
""• averaging about 500
bushelsperScs«-over,the years.
Sometimes, however, I’ve' been
able to average 600-700 bushels
per acre depending on con
ditions,” said Graybiil.
What most housewives don’t
realize is that potatoes are selling
on a retail basis just about what
they were selling for twenty
years ago. And yet farmers costs
have increased greatly over the
years. “Basically, the potato
grower has to keep trying to
improve his yield and keep his
costs down. If he doesn’t, he
won’t make a profit,” cautions
Graybill. To prove his point
(Continued On Page 31)
new distribution center near
Elizabethtown. Willis Esbenshade of
Lancaster, fourth from the right, a member
of Agway Board of Directors, assisted in
the ceremony.
service leaders at opening day
activities.
Ribbon cutting ceremonies
were followed by tours of the
distribution center, where trucks
were being loaded for its first
shipment of goods which begins
Monday.
$2.00 Per Year