Prof, George A. Van flora
Penn State University ,
4 ArriiCby BXrte*
University Park, Pa.
Vol. 20 No. 13
Tractors and other farm equipment stretched
almost as far as the eye could see on Tuesday and
Wenger’s Farm Machinery sale in
Myerstown. This year's sale again attracted buyers
One Lady, 50,000 Chickens
by Dick Wanner indicator needle, she’d
My grandmother used to suggest that I play with
keep a few chickens - something else. Usually I
sometimes they were Rhode went for the treadle on the
Island Reds and sometimes sewing machine. For
they were Plymouths or tunately, I don’t think I ever
Barred Rock - and she used ‘caused my grandmother to
to keep all the egg money, spend any of her egg money
too. She had a scale to size on a new scale or a sewing
the eggs, and whenever 1 machine - although I did
started to fiddle with the break a butter churn once,
scale’s platform, or bend the But all that, as they say,
Linda Stuber
Area Youth Serves Honduran Natives
For an increasing number
of young adults in today’s
world, service and a respect
for their fellow man has led
them to volunteer projects
throughout numerous
countries of the world.
One such young person is
Linda Stuber, a native of
Lancaster County who is
serving as a medical
volunteer in the Pinalejo
Medical Clinic, Pinalejo
Honduras.
Linda graduated from
Ephrata Area High School in
1967 and following her'
graduation from Goldey
Beacom Jr. College, worked
as a secretary for an in
dustry in the County.
Although Linda was
happy m her work, she felt
as if she needed to help other
people in a way that she
could best use her skills. As a
member of Swamp United
Church of Christ, Linda
applied to the church’s
volunteer headquarters and
was soon on her way to
Honduras to serve as an
administrative personnel in
the Pinalejo Clinic.
The clinic is located in
Pinalejo, a village of ap
proximately 2000 people and
is inland hours from the
mam city of San Pedro Sula.
Linda’s job requires
bookkeeping along with all
of the administration work
and typing. The center also
has on staff one doctor, 1
nurse-midwife and 2 trained
native girls who assist with
the patients.
Along with the medical
attention given to the
patients, Linda explained
that the clinic also trams
young women who return to
their own villages and care
for the people.
“We tram young girls who
have been selected by their
village people, in every
aspect of health diagnosis
and care.”
“When they have finished
their training, they are sent
[Continued on Page 20|
Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas
Lancaster Farming. Saturday, February 8, 1975
from as far west as Colorado. Carl Wenger, a
partner in the firm, sales to be in the $l3
million range, a hefty boost over last year's figure.
(See story oh page 12.)
was a long time ago. Things
have changed. I no longer
ride the trolley from
Ephrata to Akron to visit my
grandmother. And there are
very few grading scales left,
or treadle sewmg machmes,
and the chickens aren’t red
or gray, and no little kids
throw cracked com up in the
air, m their grandmother’s
(Continued on Page IS)
Linda Stuber, Stevens RDI, holds a brightly
decorated water pot, one of her favorite pieces o<
native work. Linda is presently serving as a volunteer
at the Pinalejo Medical Clinic in Honduras
In This Issue
FARM CALENDAR 10
Markets 2-6
Sale Register 58
Farmers Almanac 8
Classified Ads 25
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 38
Home on the Range 41
Organic Livmg 45
Junior Cooking Edition 40
Sales Reports 67
Farm Women Calendar 41
Dairy Conference 57
Ephrata Young Farmers 11
Hamburger
Sale Set by
AreaNFO
In a move to get higher
prices for their cull cows,
National Farmers
Organization members in
Dauphin and Perry Counties
hope to sell some 12,000
pounds of lean hamburger on
Monday off the backs of
trucks in the parking lot of a
shopping center just outside
Harrisburg.
According to Gerald
Charles, Perry County’s
NFO publicity chairman, the
Harrisburg sale will mark
the beginning of a nation
wide NFO campaign to raise
beef prices. Charles expects
that there will be close to
1000 similar sales throughout
the country m the next few
weeks. Charles is a young
dairy farmer from Liver
pool.
This sale will be the second
m which area NFO members
will be retailing farm
products directly to con
sumers The first sale was
How Not To Beet
High Sugar Price
Could this be the year to
plant sugar beets in
Southeastern Pennsylvania?
The climate’s right, the soil
is excellent, and the price of
sugar, although it’s dipped
somewhat, is still at a near
historic high.
There’s no doubt that
farmers here can grow sugar
beets. “We can grow ab
solutely beautiful beets,” we
were told by James Eakin,
chairman of Penn State’s
extension agronomy
department. The question is
not one of ability, it’s of
advisability. Should farmers
here grow sugar beets 7
“No,” says Eakin, who is
very sensitive about the
subject of sugar beets. It is,
in fact, one of his least
favorite subjects, ranking
right down there with Penn
State’s 1973 Sugar Bowl loss
to Oklahoma. About ten
years ago, Eakin was one of
the prime movers behind an
attempt to start a sugar beet
industry in Pennsylvania
Growers were lined up, a
processing plant was
available (even though it
was m Maine), a quota was
obtained, and details were
worked out so that skilled
52.00 Per Year
conducted during the Penn
sylvania Farm Show, when
the organization sold some
30,000 pounds of cheese off
the back of a truck parked
behind the main arena. They
were selling five-pound
blocks of cheese for $1 a
pound, when they ran afoul
of some Bureau of Weights
and Measures regulations.
The problem was
straightened out after a few
hours, and cheese sales
resumed with accurately
weighed packages. Some of
the packages had beer ..
derweight, but some bad
been overweight, Charles
noted.
Charles said they were
very careful to check all the
regulations required for
Monday’s sale. The cows
were slaughtered last
Tuesday in a federally
inspected packing house, the
J V. Taylor Co. in
I Continued on Page 23|
Mexican-American laborers
would be available for the
exactmg chore of thinning
the crop.
But then the bottom
dropped out of the sugar
market, and the firm that
owned the processing plant
went bankrupt. Without a
processing plant, let it be
noted, there is just no sugar
beet industry. Farmers who
had planted a crop, most of
them in Berks and Bucks
Counties, lost money.
Everyone connected with the
effort swore off sugar beets
forever, including Eakin.
“I worked harder on the
sugar beet project than on
any other project I’ve ever
done,” Eafcin told Lancaster
Farming. “And I’m still
sorry we got pushed out of
the beet market. But I’m not
about to encourage anybody
to grow sugar beets.
“This sugar market can
correct itself very quickly.
We’ve always had sugar
coming out our ears, and
that could happen again. If
we make peace with Cuba,
beet growers will be in big
trouble. Beets can’t compete
with cane in terms of yield or
(Continued on Page 17(