VoL 20 No. 27 Alpheus Ruth, president of the Lehigh Valley Cooperative, owns a 280-acre dairy operation near Fleetwood in partnership with his He Sells Heifers , Not Crops , for Extra Cash by Dick Wanner Alpheus Ruth is perhaps best known as the president of the board of directors for the Lehigh Valley Cooperative. But this Berks County farmer is first and foremost a dairy man. And it was his dairy farm we talked mostly about as we sat in his kitchen on Tuesday af ternoon. It was a rare free day in Youths Receive s 4flo Scholarships Ten Lancaster County high school seniors were awarded $4OO scholarships from the Lancaster Farm and Home Center Foundation on Tuesday evening, May 10. The Farm and Home scholarships are awarded from earnings of an irrevocable trust established by the late Elmer Esben sbade, one of the foun dation’s founders. They are annually awarded to youth planning to enter the fields of home economics or agriculture at an institution of higher learning. For the first time this year, two of the recipients received the scholarships to attend nursing school. The scholarships are presented on the basis of need, scholastic achievement and leadership qualitites. All the winners have bear accepted by their chosen colleges. LiXQlsity* **• A son, Joseph. The busy dairyman also keeps busy as a member of the Berks County Planning Commission. the busy ~ life of Alpheus Ruth, between board meetings, waiting for his fields to dry. In addition to his Lehigh post, Ruth is a member of the Berks County > Planning Commission. The Ruth farm near Fleetwood occupies some 164 _ owned acres and another 115 acres of rented land. Alpheus and his son, Joseph, grow 140 acres of corn, 50 acres of Youth Awarded Susan Campbell, graduating from Penn Manor High School, is planning to study home economics at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The Pequea R 1 miss has been an active in sports throughout her high school years, participating on the field hockey team and being a manager of the basketball team. She was also a member of the National Honor Society and was ac tive in the Penn Willow 4-H Club for seven years, winning numerous awards for sewing. Susan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Campbell. Maureen Doyle, Elizabethtown R 4, is plan ning on majoring in home economics at Penn State. She has been the co-editor of the school yearbook '(Continued on Pact 16] Hie wiiiimviig wvwft«twww*> Uncaster Farming, Saturday, May 17, 1975 alfalfa hay and. another 12 acres of timothy hay for the heifers. “We feed all the crops to our cows,” Ruth said. “We don’t sell any cash crops at all. Our replacement animals come right from our (Continued on Pap 15] Dwight Martin enjoys working in the agribusiness field of agriculture. The Elizabethtown High School senior works for his father in their corn and small grain operation. Atglen Farmer Irked By School’s Oil Spill by Dick Wanner An oil spill on a branch of the Octorara Creek has created a problem for a Chester County dairy fanner and a major headache for the Octorara School District’s business manager. Last Saturday evening about 8:30, William Stoltzfus noticed that the water in the stream that runs through his Atgeln Rl farm was covered with a black substance. Stoltzfus and his brother, Nelson, are partners in the Willow Land Farm, which is just downstream form the Octorara Middle School. The blade slick on the stream turned out to be the result of a faulty oil burner in the Octorara Middle School. In This Issue FARM CALENDAR 10 Markets 2-6 Sale Register 68 Farmers Almanac 8 Classified Ads 25 Editorials 10 Homestead Notes 38 Home on the Range 43 Organic Living 47 Junior Cooking Edition 44 Sale Reports 71 Tractor pullers 14 York Farm Women 40 Youth Calendar 64 Farm Women Calendar 39 The burner was shut off shortly after the discovery, and Stoltzfus told Lancaster Farming that the school worked hard to get the mess cleaned up. “What gets me mad, though,” Stoltzfus siad, “is that the en vironmentalists are always picking on farmers, but here’s a school that has a drain from a furnace room emptying right into a stream.” The unfortunate incident was the result a series of mechanical failures in the furnace room. The oil burner pump started, but the burner failed to ignite. The automatic shutoff also failed, so the pump kept pouring oil into the com bustion chamber of the oil burner. Alter the furnace filled up. it leaked onto the floor of the furnace room and then into a floor drain. That floor drain empties directly into a storm sewer which empties into the stream. James Klinger, business manager for the Octorara School District, said that when the school was built, all the proper approvals were Elizabethtown FFA Agribusinessman by: Melissa Piper As with many FFA youths, Dwight Martin has already bad considerable experience in the field of agriculture. A senior at Elizabethtown High School, Dwight has taken both agricultural production projects and for the past two years has been quite in volved in the agribusiness field. When Dwight began his Annual Dairy Issue Is Set For June 7 Dairy farmers in the five-county Lancaster Fanning area produced $164.6 million worth of dairy products in 1974, or 26-percent of the total dairy production in the state. In all, Pennsylvania dairymen produced $622.5 million worth of milk and milk products in 1974. Here in the Southeast, Lancaster County dairymen had production valued at $71,960,000. Berks County had $29,063,000, Chester County posted $27,063,000, Lebanon County had $19,548,000 and York County dairy cows produced $16,266,000. On June 7, Lancaster Farming will recognize this dynamic dairy industry with our Annual Dairy Issue. We extend a special invitation to dairy groups and organizations, as well as individuals, to submit articles and news on dairying for the Dairy Issue. Advertisers are invited to make their own appeal to more than one-fourth of the Pennsylvania dairy market. To be sure you make the Dairy Issue, please submit all advertising and editorial material by Tuesday, June 3. Call us at 717-394-3047 or 717-626-2191. Or write to Lancaster Fanning, P.O. Box 266, lititz, PA 17543. $3.00 Per Year obtained from the planning commission, the board of health and every other required agency. “This drain' may have been ap proved or it might have been overlooked, but it was on the plans, ” Klinger told Lan caster Farming on Thursday afternoon. “We’re going to fix the problem. I can’t give (Continued on Page 22| Grangers Honor Mrs. McSparran Over 100 Grangers and guests gathered at the Fulton Grange Hall on Monday night to honor Mrs. Laura McSparran, Mrs. McSparran joined Fulton Grange in 1933, served as secretary for 23 years from 1952 to 1975, and still serves as secretary to the Lan caster County Pomona Grange. Lancaster Farming readers know Mrs. Mc- Sparran as a frequent (Continued on Page 18] FFA work, his family lived near the Manheim area on a small farm. As a member of the Manheim FFA Chapter, Dwight took projects in swine production and in small grains and crops. The youth also helped his father with their steers which combined, gave him a good background in agricultural production. (Continued on Page 13]
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