Vol. 19 No. 23
Richard Qodshalk, president of A. H. Hoffman
Seeds, Inc., stands before a mountainous pile of his
favorite product The local seed company celebrates
its 75th year of business this year.
Local Seed Firm
Observes 75th Yr.
One of Lancaster County’s
oldest agribusiness firms
celebrates its 75th an
niversary this year. A. H.
Hoffman Seeds came into
being in 1899 when its
founder. Amos Hoffman,
began selling Harvest King,
a wheat variety, to his
friends and nieghbors
around Landisville.
From a small beginning -
Hoffman’s first store of seed
came from 10 acres he’d
planted himself - the com
pany has grown to the point
where it now employs some
50 full-time people and over
400 farmer salesmen. These
Fairfield lOOF Hall where Fulton Grange met April 1874 - July 1951
salesmen cover a 13-state
area in the Northeast, from
Richmond to Maine. The
company has the franchise
for Funk’s Hybrid com in
this area, and seed com now
accounts for the bulk of the
company’s Sales volume.
The primary distribution
point for Hoffman products
is still in Landisville, and
sales are heaviest in a 100-
mile circle around Lancaster
County. In the company’s
early years, the bulk of the
selling job was done by a
seed catalog, rather than
farmer salesmen. This
[Continued on Page 8]
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. April 20, 1974
Lehi Loses Court
Suit, Axes Allison
Dairymen in Federal Milk
Marketing Order 4 won a
court battle Thursday af
ternoon which will add at
least 20-cents and perhaps
40-cents to the hun
dredweight price of Class 2
milk going into manufac
tured products other than
butter and milk powder. The
decision by a federal judge in
Washington coincided
almost to the hour with the
firing of Richard Allison,
president and general
manager of Lehi Valley
Farmers Cooperative,
headquartered in Allentown.
Allison’s ouster and the
court decision weren’t
directly related, but both
incidents capped a series of
events which could mean
hard times ahead for the
Lehi Coop. Andrew Mangum
took over as acting president
and general manager
Thursday afternoon with a
terse announcement from
the board of directors saying
that Allison’s employment
had been terminated
because of “policy dif
ferences”.
In This Issue
Markets 2-4
Sale Register 52
Fanners Almanac 6
Classified Ads 26
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 34
Home on the Range 38
Organic Living 14
Thoughts in Passing 33
Leb. Co. Dairy Princess I 40
E-town FFA 40
Phoebe Ruth Honored 46
4-H News 43
Pa. Holstein Show 24
REAP Funds 16
Lehi officials weren’t
talking much to the press
this week, and according to
at least one person who
attended their annual
meeting on Thursday, they
weren’t saying much to their
own members, either. “I
came back from that
meeting knowing less that I
did before I went,” one Lehi
member complained.
The milk price boost was
ordered effective from April
through July of this year by
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Where Class 2
milk prices had been based
either on the Minnesota-
Wisconsin price series or the
so-called “butter powder
snubber” formula, the price
will now be based solely on
the M-W series. That means
all manufacturing milk,
except for that going into
butter and powder, will be
based on the average price
paid by processing plants in
Minnesota and Wisconsin for
manufacturing grade milk.
Consumer demands for
cheese had driven the M-W
price up, while massive
FARM
TRENDS
MILK: MARCH OUTPUT BELOW YEAR AGO
U.S. milk production, estimated at 9.933 billion (9
billion, 993 million) lbs. during March, up sharply (14
pet.) from February, but still 3 pet. below that of
March 1973.
Reason for the cutback: Lower cow numbers. While
output per cow, at 887 lbs. for the month, was up 1 lb.
Fulton Grange No. 66 . . .
A Century of Service
Over a century of com
munity service will be
commemorated on Satur
day, May 4, when Fulton
Grange No. 66 celebrates its
100th anniversary. Since
1874, the Grangers have been
an important factor in the
rural life of Southern Lan
caster County.
Fulton Grange had its
genesis in casual con
servation on the porch of
Penn Hill Friends Meeting
House. These conversations
led eventually to the first
meeting, on January 2, 1874.
At that meeting, 29 charter
members were registered,
and they named James G.
McSparran their first
Grange Master. Also at that
imports of powder and butter
had held the butter powder
price down. In February,
therefore, manufacturing
milk priced on the butter
powder basis was selling for
as much as $1.19 per hun
dredweight lower than the
M-W price. And manufac
turing plants outside of
Minnesota and Wisconsin
were permitted to pay either
the M-W price or the butter
powder price, whichever
was lower.
In February, dairy
cooperatives in the East and
Midwest requested an
emergency hearing with
market administrators.
They were granted the
hearing, presented their
amendments and voted most
of their memberships in
favor of dropping the butter
powder snubber formula.
The change was approved by
USDA and became effective
April 1.
Lehi directors, though,
took the decision to court,
seeking an injunction
against the price increase.
The move astonished some
[Continued on Pace 22]
meeting, the group decided
on the name Fulton Grange,
in honor of famed inventor
Robert Fulton who was bom
near Wakefield.
From its inception, ac
cording to an official 100th
anniversary history, the
Grange has been not just a
farm business organization
but a force for all the things
that improve the lives of
those who till the soil.
They’ve supported good
education, good roads,
parcel posl and rural mail
delivery, a bridge over the
Susquehanna River at
Holtwood and, of course,
sensible legislation m both
Harrisburg and Washington.
Early discussions were
by Dick
Wanner
'.52.00 Per Year
dairy farmers, but
knowledgeable sources
within the dairy industry
[Continued on Page 22|
Green Dragon
Sets March of
Dimes Auction
The annual public sale and
auction to benefit the Lan
caster County March of
Dimes has been scheduled
for Tuesday, April 23, at the
Green Dragon Farmers
Market and Auction, Rl. 222
north of Ephrata.
The sale will begin at 6
p.m. in the heated cow bam,
with seats available.
Donations will be accepted
until the time of sale, ac
cording to John E. Martin,
chairman, who is assisted by
Adam H. Zimmerman as co
chairman.
Articles to be offered will
include quilts, household
items, furniture, livestock,
cakes, pies, poultry,
clothing, canned goods,
tools, farm machinery,
smoked meats, candy and
other merchandise “too
numerous to mention,” as
the auctioneers say.
The full complement of
auctioneers on duty will
include H.H. Leid, Benjamin
Weaver,!. Glenn Horst,
Chester Long, John E.
Martin, William Wentling,
John H. Fry, Vaid E. Martin,
Randal Kline and Nevin
Martin.
All proceeds will go to the
county organization for
polio, birth defects and
cancer research.
centered on group purchases
through the Keystone
Grange Exchange. Fulton
Grange joined that group in
1916 so members could get
good prices on such things as
coal, bran, cottonseed meal
and fertilizer. These were
delivered in carload lots at
the Peach Bottom station.
Also bought in smaller lots
were buckwheat flour,
sugar, salt, seeds and many
other kitchen articles.
As time permitted, the
Grangers devoted them
selves to important topics of
the day. They opposed the
sale of colored oleo, in those
early years. They wanted to
know how to improve public
I Continued on Page 20]