Ask about our new FARMOWNER’S policy. It is
designed to give you the very broadest coverage
at the most reasonable cost. We believe it is the
finest policy you can buy. See our agent m your
area.
Nicholas J. Fantanarosa,
3532 E. Lincoln Hwy., Thorndale, Pa.
Robert 0. Hess,
R.D. 4, Manheim, Pa.
John D. Hill, Inc.,
Landisviife, Pa.
Edward M. Cahill,
l5O Country Hill Rd., Onaigsburg, Pa.
Mother Nature knows what to do
By LYNNHERSHEY
Delaware Cooperative
Extension Service
NEWARK, Del. - With the exception of mosquitoes,
i] ieSj ticks and cockroaches, our family is loony about
jffldlife. We take Albert Schweitzer’s‘reverence for life”
Jalosophy to a ridiculous extreme.
Ikj husband has been known to carry a spider carefully
outdoors and place it on a bush. The same husband also
buys bird seed in 100-pound sacks, and has spent more on
Old Guard
jffl[!]Offl®o Omsoaffame© (S®ddd[Podq^
"/ rumi of f'amers since J 8 96 *’
DISTRICT MANAGER
GEORGE HEATH
2618 Arcona Road Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055 697-5466
Contact your nearest Patz dealer
ALEXANDRIA
MAX ISENBERG
669-4027
BALLY
LONGACRE
ELECTRIC
845-2261
BELLEFONTE
LUCAS BARN
EQUIPMENT
814-383-2806
BELLEVILLE
MACLAY & SON
717-935-2101
a new feeder than on my Christmas present. (Then ne
worked for hours painstakingly redesigning the feeder to
more exacting bird standards.)
Last Summer I found a grandfatherly praying mantis in
the supermarket parking lot, looking in vain for a shrub. I
coaxed him into a small paper sack and carried him home
to happy release in our rose garden.
Son Dave once built an entire frog palace in the woods.
He called it Toad Hall. It had its own pools for splashing,
plants for shading, and rocks for sunning, with a never
ending supply of fresh tadpoles brought in daily from a
nearby stream. The frogs lived a very good life, and
naturally hung around all summer.
Dave also raised Monarch butterflies with great success
in one of my jumbo hatboxes. Our whole family skipped
meals, homework, and chores to hang over the hatboz,
breathlessly watching the miracle of each wet and
wrinkled butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
With nature-loving children in the house, it’s difficult to
discourage making pets of wildlife. This is the time of
when baby rabbits, squirrels and other wildlife offspring
are sometimes found by children. Often a youngster can’t
understand that the kindest thing to do is leave them
alone.
Jack Linehan, biologist with the U.S. Department of the
Interior, says adopting a wildlife baby is usually a tragic
experience and might be the worst thing you could do to
the little creature. People assume that a young animal
found alone is an orphan. But chances are the mother is
nearby, Jack says, and will tend to her young after
humans leave the area. Wildlife mothers must often leave
their offspring in order to find food.
It’s not true, Jack adds, that wildlife parents won’t care
for their young if the babies carry the scent of humans.
However, even brief handling of young wildlife may
intenrupt normal parental care and can result in their
death. He urges parents to teach children not to touch
wildlife babies, and to leave the area quietly and quickly.
If your child does bring a young animal home, Jack
advises you to take it back immediately to the same spot
where it was found. Don’t try to raise it, he urges. Wild
pets look cute, cuddly and helpless, but you will face many
problems if you try to rear them. In spite of your best
efforts, most will sicken and die. If they do survive, they
can become very unmanageable as adults, especially
during breeding season. Further, after being fed and
cared for by humans, pets released into the wild usually
CAMP HILL
LLOYD SULTZBAUGH
737-4554
FAST EARL
ZIMMERMAN
EQUIPMENT
445-6409
HAMBURG
SHARTLESVILLE
FARM SERVICE
215-488-1025
KIRKWOOD
LANDIS 4
ESBENSHADE
786-4158
LEBANON
MARVIN HORST
272-0871
iLISTERVILLE
SANER FARM
SVSTEMS
463-2606
MILLERSBURG
LANDIS
LABOR SAVERS
692-4647
MILTON
LANDIS FARMSTEAD
AUTOMATION
437-2375
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. June 18.1977—101
die because they have not learned how to fend for
themselves.
An appealing baby duckling once captivated our Dave
to the point where he brought it home “to protect it from
all the snapping turtles in the pond.” With great difficulty
we persuaded him that it needed its parents a lot more
than it needed our protection. So we all took the duckling
back and launched him on the pond. You never heard such
a commotion! Ma and Pa Duck shot off across the water
toward him like small, feathered speedboats, quacking in
raucous unison. The baby paddled in their direction as
fast as his tiny webbed feet could carry him, emitting a
staccato of happy soprano qucks.
Watching the touching reunion, Dave decided for
himself that it’s best to leave some things to Mother
Nature.
HARRISBURG - Based on
conditions May 1,
Pennsylvania’s 1977 winter
wheat crop is still forecast at
7.02 million bushels. This
would be a 26 per cent
reduction from last year and
the smallest crop of record,
according to the
Pennsylvania Crop
Reporting Service.
Pennsylvania’s peach crop
is now expected to total 95
million pounds. This is 14 per
cent below the 1976 crop.
U.S. winter wheat
production, forecast at 1,526
million bushels, is up three
per cent from the May 1,1977
forecast but is three per cent
below the 1976 production
mijle
FRED B. McGILLRAY
776-7312
PIPERSVILLF.
MOYER
FARM SERVICE
766-8675
THQMASVILIF
KENNETH L SPAHR
225-1064
EASTON. MD
WALTER i. HARMSEN
301-822-3085
Peaches and
wheat down
and eight per cent below the
record high 1975 production.
Peach production in the
U.S. is forecast at 2.9 billion
pounds, down three per cent
from last season’s total but
three per cent above the 1975
crop. Production of
clingstone peaches in
California is expected to
total 1.4 billion pounds, down
six per cent from the 1976
total crop and off four per
cent from 1975.
Spring potato production is
estimated at 22.3 million
hundredweight, two per cent
below the forecast of a
month earlier and ten per
cent less than the 24.8 million
hundredweight produced in
1976.
HARFRSTOWN. MD.
tri-state
FARM AUTOMATION
301-731-3698
FNNEDYVILLE. Ml
finder SERVICE CO
301-348-5263
IR. MD
TRI-COUNTY
FARM AUTOMATION
301-775-7356
STREET. MD
WALTER WEBSTER
452-8521