—Lancaster
Arming, Saturday. Jan 1 IQ -7 ?
54
My
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For the first holiday in my life, I
felt like a Scrooge or the Gnnch
that stole Christmas. Relatives and
friends were jumping around
screaming, “It’s snowing, it’s
snowing,” and there I stood in the
midst of all the merriment, biting
my lip and rueing the slip-up I’d
made earlier in the day when I’d
caught myself absent-mindedly
humming ‘‘White Christmas.” Well,
maybe I had been dreaming of a
White Christmas with every
Christmas card I wrote, (which I
happened to have finished writing
on Christmas Eve), but there were
several stipulations which I had
forgotten to mention as I hummed
along. First of all, the snow had to
stay off the roads and walkways,
and couldn’t turn black with age as
cars sprayed exhaust fumes all
over it.
But, when the first real snow of
the season started coming down
on Christmas night, I knew I
couldn’t have my way
have been only too glad to hold the
bag while the Gnnch stole all the
toys from the Whos in Whoville
who had asked for the snow.
Then, Sunday morning arrived,
and my family put the topper on
the cake by awakening me in the
wee hours of the morning, saying,
"It's so pretty outside, wouldn’t
you like to go see it 7 ” “Hardly,” I
thought. But, I got up anyway and
pulled out my camera just in case
I'd need it, and went for what I
thought would be a short walk
It only took three steps away
from the house for me to com
pletely transform to a snow lover
Early in the summer I had found a
peace and solitude by getting up
early and going outside to watch
the morning arrive, but I’d never
quite experienced such a total
peace as I did that morning The
snow formed a womb around the
farmland and buildings and added
a whole new dimension of beauty
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to the spidery, ghostlike trees in
the field as the sun glinted off the
layer of white on the branches.
The first thing I thought of was
my father coming in from the barn
in, previous years with the water
pipes frozen and the cattle
bawling, and the milk truck not
being able to reach the farm in the
days when we still used cans and a
cooler. But, most of all, I had
visions of the rural roads staying
shut for days as they often do when
the roadmen are busy cleaning
heavier traversed areas.
How was I going to get to work?
And, if I did, how was I going to get
to the farms and do stories?
Needless to say, at that moment, I
completely understood the
psychology of Scrooge, and would
I had taken a roll of color film
before I realized that all my pic
tures would simply be white and
that the film or the camera could
never, capture the beauty I was
experiencing at the moment.
At the same time, I was again
reaffirmed in the belief that far
mers have some of the greatest
opportunities of all working in
dividuals to experience the
awesomeness of nature as they do
Snow creates hardships from time
to time, but the beauty of the new
fallen snow is a sight that is hard to
surpass. City and town dwellers
are lucky to catch a fleeting
glimpse of a layer of new fallen
snow on the ground before a
merchant sweeps the sidewalk or a
city snow plow hurriedly makes
way for the bustling traffic
So, regardless of the problems of
being snowed m and having
trouble with the water pipes, I still
think living on a farm adds to the
appreciation of the winter season
♦ -
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Hog ID opinions mixed
HARRISBURG - Swine
exhibitors at the Keystone
International Livestock
Exposition held 'here at the
Farm Show Building this
month werelasked to com
ment on the desirability of a
national identification
program for all hogs for the
purposes of disease control.
AIL slaughter pigs could be
tagged or injected with an
identifying capsule under the
neck skin.
A national system that
would enable traceback
from slaughter animals to
the farm of origin would be
good for the hog industry in
die long run, said Doug
Weller, a hog producer from
Dwight, 111. Elimination of
some of the disease
problems would mean more
efficiency and therefore
more profit.
Mark Stebr, co-owner and
assistant manager of the
Brooks End Farm, in
Beavertown, Pa., also
thought that' a national
program would be valuable
enough to pay for at the
slaughter-house, as long as
packers do not take ad
vantage of producers by
condemning carcasses, then
using them. Stehr went on to
say that government in
tervention is becoming a
problem in the swine in
dustry, however.
“A national identification
program would be a
tremendous asset, but the
bookkeeping would be in
comprehensible,’* said an
Extension agent from' Penn
State. “Thousands of pigs
are killed every day - there
are over 9,000 hog breeders
in Pennsylvania,;’ her
continued, “and the
paperwork involved would
make the system awkward
and ineffective.”
Clyde McConaughey, of
Smicksburg, Pa., also felt
that the program would be
good but too costly, and
would result in more ad
ministrative tangles in
return for too little progress
in disease control. He said
that if the old vonttol
program had been effective,
we would have eliminated
some of the current disease
problems. “Before we in
stitute a new program, we
should junk many of the old
ones,” he said.
“A national identification
system would be nice, but
you could never get it'to
work," according to W. F.
Ruoss from Lancaster.
Cooperation between
government sources is
critical, since “identification
without control is useless.”
Several producers said
that they thought a national
program would make too
much information available
to the wrong people. In their
opinion, government knows
enough about existing farm
operations now.
John Strawbridge, of
Strawbridge and McCleary,
m Stewartstown, Pa., felt
that too many rules already
exist, and over-regulation
especially hurts the small
packer and producer. A
national identification
system would simply cost
the producer more money.
It would mean extra work
and greater costs,” said Rob
McKissick, of Slippery Rock,
Pa. “There’s enough going
against the hog industry as it
is. We don’t need anything
more.”
Preston Bankert, from
York agreed that a national
identification program
would be “too much work for
cidence of disease in hogs is
too low, in Bankert’s opinion,
to justify the expense on
every hog. "
Swine men at the Keystone
International, for the most
part, thought a national
identification program
would be beneficial in
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not be worth the fk
effort and time it,
require. Few produce
confidence that the fe
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ficiently cany out m
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