VOL 18 No. 20
Vernon Miller, East Petersburg, was one of the contestants
at Saturday night’s national tractor pull in Harrisburg. He
competed in the 7000 and 9000 pound modified classes,
driving a Cockshutt with twin 440 Dodge engines.
12,000 at Tractor
Pull in Harrisburg
Roaring thunder, spitting
lightning, straining almost to the
point of destruction (and
sometimes past it), tractors from
all over the country competed
last Friday and Saturday nights
at the Harrisburg Farm Show
Arena in the first annual Penn
sylvania Winter National Tractor
Pull.
Tractors were divided into
seven classes, from 5000 pound
stock to the 12,000 pound open
class. They battled both nights
for $10,500 in prize money before
some 12,000 paid spectators.
There were quite a few local
contestants at the meet, but most
This ruined tractor was one of the pieces of equipment
destroyed in the Foreman barn fire. Volunteers in the
background are standing where the barn used to be.
Periodicals Division
W 209 Pat too Library
Penna» St at® JWjhmrait yf
Tin ivar a i —I
Itaucaster Farming- Photo
of the prize money went to
midwesterners who’ve been
competing for many more years
than the local drivers
What is considered by many
the glamor event of tractor
pulling, the 12,000 pound open
class, was won by Jim Wood, an
Illinois driver Wood drove a
Cockshutt tractor with a Con
tintental air-cooled V-12 tank
engine. He pulled a load of about
17 tons down a 200-foot path to
beat out his closest rival, Ralph
Chamberlain Chamberlain pilots
a 1500 hp brute powered by an
Allison aircraft engine.
(Continued On Page 6)
Lancaster Farming: Photo
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 27, 1973
To Fight Contract Rtiling . . .
Legal Fund to Aid
Wolgemuths Begim
A state-wide legal defense fund
has been started to help a Mount
Joy feed company battle a
decision by the Pennsylvania
Sales Tax Bureau to levy a six
percent use tax on feed, fuel and
litter used in contract broiler
operations
Wolgemuth Brothers, the
company involved, has been
fighting the tax ruling since mid
-1972 The tax bureau contends
that the feed, fuel and litter
Wolgemuth supplies to its con
tract growers aren’t eligible for
the agricultural sales and use tax
exemptions, since the growers
don’t actually buy them. And
Wolgemuth Brothers aren’t
entitled to the exemption because
they aren’t actually engaged in
farming
Industry spokesmen say that
Wolgemuth’s standard contract
isn’t at all unusual in the in
dustry Apparently, the tax
bureau is using Wolgemuth as a
test case If the bureau is suc
cessful, then many observers feel
the state’s poultry industry will
be in big trouble. There’s also the
possibility that other contract
operations besides poultry would
be affected
At a special board of directors
meeting in Harrisburg last
Tuesday, the Pennsylvania
Poultry Federation voted to start
a fund to help the Wolgemuths
defray court costs of fighting the
tax bureau The minimum legal
*7 5,000 Lost
In Bam Fire
A massive clean up operation
was conducted last Saturday to
get rid of the debris from a barn
fire two days earlier on the farm
of Jay R Foreman, Lititz Rl
Foreman estimates his loss at
about $75,000, most of which is
covered by insurance
About 125 firemen from the
Brunnerville, Lititz and
Brickerville Fire Companies
battled the blaze, but the
structure was totally destroyed
from the foundation up. The
lower part of the barn was saved,
however
“We were fortunate, in a way,
that we saved the area under the
barn,” Foreman said. “We had
all our cows there, and all our
milking equipment We didn’t
lose any livestock at all, and we
had almost no damage to the
milking equipment ”
Foreman said he expects to be
milking at his farm again in
about a week. His cows are being
kept for the time being on the
farm of John Farrington, Lititz
R 2 All but six of the animals
were driven out of the barn
tees expected it the case reaches
the courts could total $25,000
At the meeting the board also
adopted a resolution saying that
there was a definite need to get a
court ruling on the Wolgemuth
case The resolution did not
however say whether or not the
federation agreed or disagreed
with the tax board's action
Kenneth Longacre, federation
“Property Taxes
Are Too Low”
“Property taxes in Lancaster
County are too low,” the Lan
caster Advertising Club was told
Wednesday night during their
regular monthly meeting at Tom
Paine’s Restaurant Speaking
was Dr Will Lyons, professor of
economics at Franklin & Mar
shall College
It is this newspaper’s happy
duty to report that people at the
meeting made no attempt to
assault Dr Lyons, either
physically or verbally Lyons
explained that he felt property
taxes at their current rates were
designed to attract “cut and sew ”
industries which use low paying
unskilled labor, therby driving
away industries which use highly
paid skilled labor
before the blaze started in ear
nest After firemen had been
working for nearly five hours, the
six cows were found alive and
unharmed in the lower barn
The fire destroyed a hammer
mill and two tractors in addition
to other pieces of large equip
ment
In addition to the barn and
equipment, there were tons of
straw, hay and other feed
destroyed This was a par
ticularly bad year to lose feed,
Foreman pointed out, because
the price of dairy feed now is
higher than it’s ever been
On Saturday, about 100 people
converged on the scene of the fire
to clean everything up Some 75
of the workers were members of
Young Farmer groups m the
Manheim and Ephrata areas
They removed smoldering hay
and straw from the floor of the
barn and spread it in the fields A
subfloor was put onto the burned
beams, and covered with plastic
sheeting so milking operations
could get underway as soon as
possible in the lower barn.
$2.00 Per Year
president said that anyone
w.shmg to make a donation to the
legal- defense tund could do so by
sending a check payable to the
Pennsylvania Poultry
Federation to the federation
office at 5807 Paxton Street
Harrisburg Pa ITU I All checks
should be marked tor the
“Agricultural Contract Sales Tax
Legal Fund
He cited tne example or an
optical company in BrooK.lv n
which was forced to move out of
the city by a government ouilcung
project Wonting tor the com
pany are skilled highly paid
engineers scientists and optical
techniques “The company of
ficers were considering Lan
caster and a place in
Massachusetts,” Lyons said
“They observed that the owner of
a given house in Lancaster might
pay s2ooa year in property taxes
For the same house in
Massachusetts,hennghtpay over
a thousand So they moved to
Massachusetts, because they felt
our tax base couldn’t support the
kind of schools and social ser
vices the company’s labor force’
would demand They felt their
people wouldn’t move to Lan
caster County as willingly as
they’d move to Massachusetts ”
While he felt that there were
other areas, besides taxes that
need improvement, Lyons did
say that Lancaster County has
had a long tradition ot success "1
would say that today the county is
one ot the richest areas in the
country In terms ot wealth, it’s
one ot the ten richest ”
He pointed out that the county
has a very blanced economy,
with an agricultural base and a
lot of high class industry such as
printing and machining He also
said there were two multipliers
which bring outside money into
(Continued on Page 7)
Farm Calendar
Saturday, Januan 27
930 a m Red Rose Club
Hereford steei call
distubution, New Holland
Sales Barn
Monday, Januai\ 29
730 pm Octoraia Young
Farmers meeting, Vo Ag
dept, Octorara H S
7 30 p m Red Rose Oft leers
Installation and Degree
recipients. New Holland High
School Vo-Ag room
7 45 p m Chester Countv Soils
Meeting, “Understanding Soil
(Continued On Page 7)