Periodicals Division
VOL 18 No. 7
LANCASTER FARMING Conference Call . . .
Referendum Pros, Cons
Sometime next week, all Pennsylvania
dairymen will be asked in a referendum
ballot whether or not they favor an ad
vertising and promotion program for milk.
This program would be funded through a
five-cent checkoff from every hundred
pounds of milK produced by every
dairyman in the state.
Ballots will be due in Harrisburg by
January 26. If, as they did three years ago,
a majority of the dairymen voting reject the
checkoff program, the idea will be dropped.
If the balloting favors a checkoff, it is ex
pected to become effective around the first
of April.
Producers making advertising con
tributions under any federal order
program will be exempt from paying into
the proposed state program. They will,
Miles Fry is shown admiring one of the thousands of hybrid
poplar trees growing on his Ephrata R 3 farm. For his work in
agriculture and with young people, Fry will receive an
Honorary Keystone Farmer degree on January 10 during
ceremonies at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
LCFA Told , . .
“Farmers Need
Tax Solutions”
“For Pennsylvania farming to
survive, we will have to solve the
problem of farmland tax
assessment,” E. Chester Heim
told a group of some 100 Lan
caster County Farmers
Association members on Tuesday
night at the Witmer Fire Hall.
Heim is legislative director of
the Pennsylvania Farmers
Association, of which the LCFA is
a part. He was speaking at the
county organization’s mem
bership drive kickoff banquet.
“We’ll have to sell the idea of
reevaluating land assessments to
people who aren’t landowners,”
Heim continued. “We’ll have to
point out that if tax problems
force farmers to sell out, the
people in the towns and the cities
will suffer just as much as the
farmers. Those who will suffer
the most are the people who
depend on the farmer for their
jobs.
“We must be progressive and
aggressive in getting tax laws
changed.”
Heim went on to talk about the
history and the future of the PFA.
“There was a time,” he said,
when the farmer didn’t know
what he was against until it was
too late to be against it. That’s
(Continued On Page 20)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 6,1973
however, be eligible to vote in the
referendum. A deduction of 5 cents per
hundredweight would be collected by the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to
finance a promotion program if approved.
The detailed use of money collected would
be in the hands of an advisory committee of
dairymen selected by cooperatives and
independent dairy farmers. The money
would be collected by the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture and turned over
to the advisory committee.
This referendum differs from the usual
vote by dairy farmers in that cooperatives
may vote its entire membership as a bloc.
However, each dairyman will receive a
ballot. If the co-op member wishes to cast
his ballot individually, it will be deducted
from the total votes cast by his
Miles Fry Believes
In Hybrid Poplars
Miles Fry is an innovator, a
forward thinker, at an age when
many men seek refuge in the
past. At 75, Miles Fry has
retained the curiosity and the
sense of wonder that made him
one of Lancaster County’s most
noted agricultural pioneers. He
has retained, too, an active in
terest in young people and he
works with them and for them.
For these reasons and others,
Fry will be one of the persons
accepting Honorary Keystone
Farmer degrees in ceremonies
January 10 at the Pennsylvania
Farm Show.
Fry is the world’s largest
grower of hybrid poplars, and one
of the first farmers to seriously
cultivate crown vetch. The
father-son partnership of Miles
and Morton Fry are presently
Farm Calendar
Monday,January 8
Fulton Grange 66 meeting,
Oakryn; Round-table
Discussion, “Farming
Today” moderated by W.
Harold Graybeal.
57th annual Pennsylvania State
Farm Show, Harrisburg,
January 8 -12.
Wednesday, January 10
7 p.m. - Garden Spot Young
Farmer Welding course, vo
ag department, Garden Spot
High School.
Pennsylvania Poultry Federation
annual banquet, Penn Harris
Motor Inn, Camp Hill.
National Turkey Federation
meeting, Sheraton-Dallas
Hotel, Dallas, Texas.
Thursday, January 11
USDA Ornamentals Open House
for Growers, Beltsville, Md.,
January 11 -12.
Friday, January 12
7 p.m. - Pennsylvania Egg
Marketing meeting, Holiday
Inn, Ephrata
cooperative. The individual vote will take
precedent over the organizational ballot.
Mandatory checkoff programs, quite
naturally, stir up a lot of controversy. In
order to find out what both sides were
saying, LANCASTER FARMING arranged a
conference call to include spokesmen both
for and against a checkoff, and a
knowledgeable neutral observer. The
conference call was arranged with the
considerable help of assistant Lancaster
County agent N. Alan Bair.
Arden Tewksbury, Meshoppen, Pa., a
member of the Eastern Milk Producers
Coop and head of the Dairymen’s Freedom
Committee, represented the opposition.
Representing the pro side of the argument
farming over 300 acres of
Ephrata R 3 land. Hybrid poplars
■are growing unbelievably fast
on about 50 Fry acres, crown
vetch accounts for another 70,
hay is grown on 150 acres and 100
acres are planted to corn. The
Frys are also feeding 100 head of
steers.
Much of the land on which they
farm has been in the Fry family
for eight generations and the
area around the farm is known as
Frysville. Many of the farm
buildings predate the American
(Continued On Page 14)
James Kreider
Master Farmer
A Lancaster County dairyman,
who at age 15 was named the
county’s champion tomato picker
and last year had a herd
production of over 1,600,000
pounds of milk, has been named a
Master Farmer for 1972.
James G. Kreider, 42, of Route
1, Quarryville, is one of six
Commonwealth farmers selected
to receive the coveted award
sponsored by the Pennsylvania
Farmer magazine, Harrisburg,
and the Cooperative Extension
Service of The Pennsylvania
State University.
Formal award presentations
will be made January 9 at a
Master Farmer luncheon in
Harrisburg. Kreider will be in
ducted into the Pennsylvania
Master Farmer’s Association
whose membership consists of all
former award winners. The
program was established in 1927.
“We grow 222 acres of corn but
the money makers are the cows,”
Kreider said, “Production this
past year averaged 12,949 pounds
(ContinuedOn Page 27)
Farm
Show
Issue!
Schedule Appears
On Pages 7& 8
In This Issue
Markets 2-4
Classified "328 & C
Editorial 10
DHIA 42
Women’s 46
Keystone
Farmers 34
Farm Show 7-8
of milk and 455 pounds of fat
Milk production costs amounted
to $4.48 per hundred-weight
(ContinuedOn Page 17)
$2.00 Per Year