—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 22, 1972
16
Sri..
Terrific Tillie Gibson,
guiding light of the 4-H
nutrition program for inner
city children.
Federal
Meat
(Continued From Page 1)
In an effort to fmd out what was
behind the takeover, Lancaster
Farming contacted a Washington
spokesman for the USDA’s
Animal and Plant Health Ser
vices Division
He said that his department
had started action because there
were deficiencies in the state’s
inspection service
He was asked if the well-known
animosity between Pennsylvania
Secretary of Agriculture Jim
McHale and U S Secretary Earl
Butz had anything to do with the
takeover “I’m not in the political
side of the department,” he said
“I’m a career officer with the
Animal Health Services. We’re
supposed to be the professionals,
as opposed to the politicians.
We’re the ones who started the
action to take over the state’s
meat inspection. As far as I’m
concerned, the political thing, the
name-calling and all that started
after we notified the state that we
felt their inspection procedures
were deficient ”
lune Milk Reported
June milk production in
Pennsylvania was 610 million
pounds, two per cent lower than
June production last year, and
seasonally lower than May’s
production.
Average production per cow
was 880 pounds for June, com
pared with 890 pounds in June a
year ago, and 950 pounds in May.
The seven per cent decline from
May to June is an average
seasonal decrease for the period.
The amount ot concentrates fed
per cow, as of July i, averaged
12 7 pounds, compared with 14.0
pounds on April i This question,
which used to be asked monthly,
is now asked quarterly at the first
of January, April, July, and
October
The number of milk cows in
Pennsylvania was 693,000 in
June, the same as a month ago,
but down 1 per cent from 702,000
m June 1971
U S milk production during
June is estimated at 11,021
million pounds, two per cent
more than a year earlier. Daily
average production for June is up
0 5 per cent from May compared
with no change between these
same months last year. June
output provided 1.76 pounds per
person daily for all uses, com
pared with 1.75 pounds last month
and June a Year ago. Total milk
production during the first 6
months of 1972 is two per cent
more than 1971.
Inner City Children
(Continued From Page 1)
families The focus of ENEP is on
nutrition education, but there are
many other 4-H projects.
Even crops “This is the only
group in the state that’s growing
vegetables, as far as I can tell,”
asays Mrs Gibson. “They’ve got
other ENEP programs - Pitt
sburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia
and other places - but I don’t
think anybody else has got hold of
some land to try something like
this ”
Twenty-six young people,
twenty-six garden plots, each a
veritable vegetable market
Corn, tomatoes, radishes, let
tuce, zucchini, squash, water
melon, collard, beans are all
doing quite well on the plot of
ground made available to the
group by Lloyd Weaver.
Both Weaver and Tillie Gibson
are members of the South
Christian St Mennomte Church
The church, in fact, is a big factor
in the success of the local ENEP
project.
Mrs Gibson says that her
seven volunteer leaders are all
from the church, and the work
would have been impossible
without their efforts All the
group’s meetings are held in the
basement of the church.
The young people named
themselves the Good Use Club,
after debating the merits of
What’s Cookin’ in the Kitchen as
a club moniker They meet once a
week. During the meetings, they
The official went on to say that
the deficiencies were due largely
to a manpower shortage in the
inspection force. Because the
inspectors alledgedly weren’t
able to visit plants often enough,
the USDA charged that some
plants were operating under
unsanitary conditions.
In Lancaster County, there
were no major deficiencies
reported by the inspectors during
the first week of inspection.
A check with several smaller
operators revealed no extreme
actions taken by the inspectors.
The proprietor of one two-man
shop said he was visited on
Monday by four different in
spectors, and none had any
complaints.
Another meat store owner said
that his inspector was flown in
from lowa, he was a perfect
gentleman, and he had no
problems at all. Another small
butcher said so far so good.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to
stay in business,” we were told
by another store owner. He has
four full-time butchers and some
part-time help. He was referring
not to equipment, but to
operating hours.
The federal meat inspectors
have the right to regulate hours
of operation. We were told by the
USDA's Washington office that
the reason for this is that an
unscrupulous processor can do
anything when he’s operating
while he knows he’s not going to
be inspected.
Meat inspectors stop working
at 3:30 p.m. If they feel com
pelled to stay in a plant after that
time, regulations say that they
may charge the plant a $9.36 per
hour overtime fee USDA
provides up to eight hours of free
inspection, after 3:30, in
dustry pays.
The smaller operators felt this
might be an unconscionable
burden. In a two-man shop, for
example, we were told by one
proprietor that the inspector
would be making more money
than the shop owner and it just
wouldn’t pay him to stay open. He
felt he might lose customers and
income because of this
regulation.
In a large plant, this fee hasn’t
much of an effect on cost,
because it is spread over a much
larger output.
go to the Weaver farm, near
Strasburg, to tend their gardens.
Because of rainy weather, they
weren’t able to get into the
gardens for several weeks at one
point Weeds grew nearly out of
control, and they faced a par
ticularly dreary task of weeding.
“One thing kids learn fast
about gardening,” Mrs Gibson
says. “They hate to weed.”
On the first nice Tuesday after
the rains, however, the Good Use
members found a contingent of
South Christian St. church
members waiting for them. They
all pitched in and the weeding
was done in short order.
“You might think we’d have a
lot of problems with a group of
kids from the inner city,” Mrs.
Gibson says “But we don’t. We
limit the ages from 13 to 19, and
we let the kids discipline them
selves. They do a pretty good job
<jf it, too. Last week they kicked a
boy clean out of the club for not
behaving.”
This fall the club hopes to move
onto canmng and preserving
their own produce, using the
cooking facilities in the church
basement.
“We’ve done a lot of things, and
we’re planning on doing even
more But it just wouldn’t have
been possible without the support
of the church members, the
Weavers, the volunteer leaders
and Amie Lueck. You know,
Anne’s here every Tuesday,
working right along with the kids
Field Day
(Continued From Page 1)
Carl Martin, Ephrata, took top
honors in the men’s division with
a score of 250, and Betty Kreider,
Lancaster, topped the ladies’
division with a score of 233.4.
Other winners, second through
fifth place, in the men’s division
were: David Longenecker,
Oxford; Robert Mummau, East
Petersburg; Glenn Hershey, New
Holland, and Linford Weaver,
Ephrata.
Contestants placing second
through fifth in the ladies’
division were: Linda Kreider,
Quarryvdle; Mrs. John Groff,.
Mt. Joy; Barbara Stauffer,
Ephrata, and Mrs. Albert E. Fry,
Manheim.
In the youth division, second
through fifth place winners were:
Randy Hess, Strasburg; Rick
Hess, Strasburg; Donald
Weaver, New Holland, and
Cheryl Bollinger, Lititz.
Featured speaker for the af-
Growing Vegetables
"Beautiful Arnie” Lueck passing watermelon slices to
fellow associate county agent, Jay Irwin, at last Tuesday’s
ENEP picnic on Lloyd Weaver’s farm near Strasburg.
and the volunteer leaders. The because they started calling him
kids like, him, too. I know ‘Beautiful Arnie’ ”.
Soybean
they’ve got 75 acres planted to
soybeans all double-cropped
“We figure soybeans would be
a good crop to follow barley, hay
and wheat,” Amos Rutt says.
“Last year we had a few acres
and we took about 30 bushel an
acre out of the field. We night’ve
had 40 bushels but we couldn’t get
all the beans.”
Ken Rutt explained that last
year’s crop had been planted by a
custom operator before the land
had been sufficiently worked.
“We should have disced the land
after it was plowed to smooth if
out a little more. Some of the
plants were growing out of the
bottom of the furrows. The beans
start growing a few inches from
the ground, and you just can't
combine them when they’re down
in the furrows.
ternoon was Ed Fry, from
Chestertown, Md. Fry is one of 16
national directors of the Holstein-
Freisian Association, and
operates 1200 acre farm in
Maryland.
County Agent Max Smith
talked to the groups about new
government safety regulations,
and about the need for larger
manure holding facilities on
dairy farms.
Acreage
“This year we worked the
ground,” he noted. “And we’ve
got our own combine, too ”
The Rutt’s are aiming for 50
bushels an acre, this year, and
they feel they’ve got a good
chance of hitting their target
“We’ve had a good start,” Ken
says, “plenty of water, and we
were able to get them in the
ground so we’ll be harvesting
around the middle of September,
in time to beat the frost. And we
know we’re going to get at least
$3.00 a bushel.”
How does one decide to double
crop with soybeans, rather than
with, say, 90nday com? One rule
of-thumb the Rutts have adopted
is this: If soybeans are selling for
at least double the price of corn,
then it pays to plant beans. Corn
these days is about $1.25 per
bushel, while soybeans are
bringing $3.00.
Labor and machinery costs for
soybeans and shelled com are
similar. Bean seed costs a bit
more, but the Rutts say this in
creased cost is more than made
up for by the savings in fertilizer.
They used 200 pounds of 0-25-25
per acre, which is about one
quarter to one-fifth of what
they’ve have used on corn.
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