—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. May 24, 1975
10
Farm Commentary
Dr. Samuel B. Guss, the Penn State
veterinarian we quote at the end of
our page one story, announced this
week that a recently announced
USDA regulation should help to
protect Pennsylvania dairymen from
brucellosis.
The new regulation, Guss said,
requires that all cattle moved in
terstate must be tested and found
negative for brucellosis unless they
originate from certified brucellosis
free herds.
All cattle found to have brucellosis
after a blood test must be branded on
A group of vegetable farmers in
Delaware have just spent some
$45,000 for 30 small metal boxes,
about the size of TV sets, which they
hope will help them avert drought
conditions which last year wiped out
much of the state’s vegetable crop.
“The rainmakers could mean the
difference between 35 bushels and
140 bushels,” said Charles H. West, a
wealthy Frederica vegetable farmer
who has tried for years to interest his
neighbors in the arcane science of
weather modification, better known
as rainmaking.
For a long time nobody paid much
attention to West’s claims that
modern cloud-seeding methods
might increase rainfall from 20
percent to 35 percent during the hot,
dry season, which usually lasts from
mid-June to the end of August in this
area.
Last summer, though, the farmers
of the Delmarva Peninsula suffered a
crippling drought that wiped out 60
percent of the corn crop and almost
as much of the soybeans and
vegetables.
Record High
Tobacco Receipts
Americans spent a record $14,.45
billion on tobacco products last year,
most of it $13.27 billion or more
than 90 pet. of the total on cigarettes.
This, according to the Annual Report
on Tobacco Statistics, 1974 issued
recently by USDA’s Agricultural
Marketing Service last week.
Despite the record total spent (the
previous high was $13.5 billion in
1973), per capita use of all tobacco
products by persons 18 years of age
and older was (at 9.34 lbs.) the
lowest since 1940.
Per capita use of cigarettes, at
4,150 cigarettes, was the highest
since 1968, but the tobacco used in
those cigarettes (at 7.80 lbs.) was the
lowest since 1970. Use of smoking
tobacco (at .88 lbs.) equalled that of
by Dick Wanner
New
Law
Brucellosis
Explained
Let it rain,
let it rain . ..
the left /ar with the letter "S". These
animals may only be moved interstate
to slaughter or to a quarantined feed
lot. Their presence anywhere else
poses a real hazard for Pennsylvania
cattle. Guss warned farmers that
such cattle have been moved into
Pennsylvania livestock markets and
farms illegally. Under no cir
cumstances should they be bought,
and the seller who offers them should
be reported immediately to the
Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture.
Suddenly West’s notions about
cloud seeding seemed attractive, and
this year 225 area farmers have
pitched in $45,000 to pay for the
services of Irving P. Knck Associates
of Palm Springs, a leading rainmaking
firm.
State Agriculture Secretary M.
Martin Isaacs says that it will be the
first rainmaking venture ever un
dertaken by farmers on the East
Coast.
West said that, based on results in
some of the western states, farmers
in Delaware and Maryland could
expect an additional two inches or
more of ram during the dry season.
That would be enough to save a dying
drop.
Many of the area's wealthiest
farmers are participating, including
Isaacs and several- of Delaware’s
state legislators.
In all, the participating growers
own more than 90,000 acres in
Delaware’s Kent and Sussex
Counties and in Wicomico County in
Maryland.
1973 and was the lowest on record,
but use of chewing tobacco (at 1.13
lbs.) was the highest since 1961.
In the matter of State tax rates,
Americans paid from 2 cents per pack
(in North Carolina) to 21 cents (in
Connecticut). Receipts from State
all tobacco products totaled
$3.25 billion, up from $3.1 billion in
1973.
Cash receipts to farmers for
tobacco totaled $2,077 billion ($2
billion, 77 million), up 32 pet. from a
year earlier and record high. They
accounted for nearly 32 pet. of ail
cash receipts to farmers in North
Carolina, nearly 30 pet. to those in
Kentucky
EDIFACE
COMPLEX
Lenon (or May 2S, 1175
Background Scripture:
Isaiah 31:1-3; Jeremiah
1-15; 26; Micah 6: 6-6,
Devotional Reading:
Mathew 6:1-8.
The ancient Egyptians had
The Greeks of old had it.
The Romans and Jews had
it too.
... not to mention many
Christians!
What?
The Ediface Complex!
Deceptive Words
This complex is seduc
tively dangerous to all
religions, for it manages to
divert our attention from the
core of the religion (usually
an invisible, intangible
essence) to something very
visible and very tangible: a
building, a religious ediface.
With the Jews, of course,
the “ediface complex” was
centered on the temple at
Jerusalem. To use the term
“complex” does not mean
that there was anything
necessarily wrong with the
ediface. In fact, the cen
tralization of worship in the
Jerusalem temple was a
very unifying force in the
nation of Israel. It was a
constant, impressive, and
very visible reminder of the
presence and power of God.
There was nothing wrong
with the theology of temple
worship.
But what was wrong is
what always goes wrong
when the “ediface complex”
infiltrates a religion: the
importance of the ediface is
distorted way out of
proportion. That point is
reached when unwittingly
the ediface becomes a
subsitute for God himself,
when people look to the
building instead of the
spiritual reality the building
is supposed to represent.
Whenever the people of
Israel were threatened, says
the prophet Jeremiah, they
tended to look to the
magnificent temple of
Solomon as their security;
“This is the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord"
(Jeremiah 7:4). Nothing
could be more deceptive
than these words that reek of
the “ediface complex.” They
are indicative of a false
sense of security.
The Shiloh example
The prophet invited the
smug people of Israel to
remember the example God
set for them at Shiloh, the
first centralized site of
Jewish sacrificial worship.
This sanctuary in the
Samaritan mountains was
destroyed by God because
the people who worshipped
there were blithely immoral.
No sanctuary is safe or
secure simply because it is a
place of worship.
So it could happen even to
the beautiful temple of
Solomon in Jerusalem. What
angered God was the moral
behavior of the people who
worshipped in that temple.
These people did not see any
connection between their
worship of God and their
moral behavior. They had
eyes only for the ediface, not
that which lay behind it.
* NOW IS
fir
iA
To Apply For
Pesticide Certification
Application forms are
available at our Extension
Office to secure the Pesticide
Correspondence Course
from Penn State to meet
spray applicator
requirements. This ap
plication is to be used to
order the information for the
Correspondence Course
booklet that will produce the
various lessons and tests for
spray certification. The form
may be used for private
applicators as well as for
licensed Commercial Ap
plicators. The present
requirements suggest that
all applicators be certified or
licensed by October of 1976.
The information obtained
through this correspondence
course should be very helpful
in a practical manner in
addition to qualifying a
person to do spray work.
To Spray
Alfalfa Stubble
We are aware of some
alfalfa weevil infection in
various parts of the county.
With the recent hot weather
the plants have matured
rather quickly, therefore, it
is suggested that the alfalfa
crop be cut in the bud to
early blossom stage and
followed by the spraying of
the stubble; if this is not
done, the weevil worms may
feed upon the young shoots
and prevent a good second
growth. Growers may refer
to the 1975 Agronomy Guide
for the various materials to
use in spraying for alfalfa
weevil.
To Control Weed
Development
The control of weeds is
everyone’s job and
especially the owners of land
not being farmed or
cultivated. Weed restrictions
in some areas compel the
control of weeds to keep
them from going to seed. The
owners of vacant lots and
real estate developers should
give special attention to the
mowing of the areas in order
to keep the respect of others
in the community. Pasture
fields should be mowed
every 4 to 6 weeks for the
rest of the summer and the
first mowing is due at this
time. The pasture mowing
will not only stop weed seed
development but encourage
the new growth of the forage
grasses. Don’t be guilty of
broadcasting weed seeds to
other land in the area.
Jeremiah was not the only
one to understand this: it
was a constant theme of
many of the prophets of
Israel. The Prophet Micah,
for example, put it this way:
“With what shall I come
before the Lord ... Shall I
come before him with burnt
offerings?” (Micah 6:6).
And his plain answer was
that none of these rituals
within the ediface itself were
what God really wanted:
“He has showed you, 0
man, what is good; and what
does the Lord require you
but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?”
THE TIME... I
Max Smith
County Agr. Agent
Telephone :i!H-«KSI
To Recognize Proper
Stage of Maturity
The mowing of forage
crops if already underway
and warmer weather is
bringing faster maturity.
Grasses have already
headed out and should be cut
for either hay or silage.
Research work reveals the
peak of feeding value in any
of the grasses is at the
heading stage of maturity;
when the plant is allowed to
blossom or mature, the feed
value decreases. Alfalfa and
clover are at their peak of
feed value in the bud to early
blossom stages. Small grains
to be used for silage pur
poses should be cut in the
blossom to early milk stage
of maturity. As a rule, the
older the crop gets after the
above stages of maturity the
less will be the feed nutrients
and higher will be the fiber
content. Growers are urged
to use the stage of maturity
as the time to cut their crops
hoping that weather con
ditions will permit the crop
to be stored.
Farm
Calendar
Saturday, May 24
Pa. Sheep Field Day in
Susquehanna County!
Lebanon Valley Expo Corp.
Square dance at the
Lebanon Fairgrounds
8:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 27
Meeting of the Lancaster
County Extension
Association Board of
Directors at the Farm
and Home Center 8:00
p.m.
Tuesday, Junes
Lancaster County Manure
Management demon
stration starting at the
farm of Jay Garber,
Lancaster R 6 at 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 4
Lancaster County Con
servation District
meeting at the Farm and
Home Center 7:30 p.m.
Lancaster County
Vocational Agricultural
Teachers organization
meeting at Brownstown
4:15 p.m.
Saturday, June?
Entries for the
Elizabethtown Young
Farmers Corn Contest
should be into the vo-ag
department by June 15.
What it Takes
to Produce Milk
The average cow gives
about 350 pounds of milk a
week. According to Ex
tension specialists at The
Pennsylvania State
University, that means a
cow must eat 315 pounds of
silage, 105 pounds of hay, 118
pounds of grain, 14 ounces of
salt, 14 ounces of food sub
stance labeled “general”
and she must have 175
gallons of water. All of this is
eaten by one cow every
week.