— Lancaster farming. Saturday, June 10,1974
42
Fay looks over her planter of flowers.
KIRKWOOD - Many companies and industries have
undisclosed business connections which are known as
silent partners. Their input is substantial, but their in
volvement is not dramatically projected for public at
tention.
Probably the most frequent use of a silent partner is the
family farm. For generations, farmers have had a strong
help-mate, hired-hand, advisor, bookkeeper, and com
panion in the forms of their wives. Fulfilling a number of
roles simultaneously, effectively and without fanfare is
the task and life’s work of many farmers’ wives. One
example of the farmer’s wife who does whatever-needs to
be done is Mrs. A. Dale Herr.
First in the job description Fay Herr fulfills is mother to
Tammy and Dale, Jr. Tammy is 12 years old and will be
entering seventh grade at Swift Middle School in the
Solanco School District next Fall. Dale, Jr. is eight years
old and will be a third grader at Bart-Colerain Elemen
tary School. Being a mother means trips to pee-wee
baseball games, overseeing swimming pool guests this
Summer and learning crafts along with her daughter
Tammy.
Last November Tammy was selected Citizen of the
Month for the Swift Middle School and was given the
opportunity to enter a special crafts class in macrame.
She, in turn, taught her mother how to tie the twine and
yam to create decorative as well as useful plant hangers.
The newly learned craft was a natural skill for Fay who is
well acquainted with crocheting afghans and a very useful
craft which she uses to accent the many plants she enjoys
growing. One particularly striking hanging plant among
the many Fay has hung on her long front porch for the
Summer months if a florishing prayer plant. It is housed
in a shining black ceramic pot hung by a white twine
macrame hanger with wooden beads worked into the
tying pattern.
Although she says prayer plants are very easy to start
as are several other varieties of houseplants she cares for,
Fay’s favorite is the more difficult fern. In the two west
windows in her kitchen, Fay says she starts her plants
best with a mixture of peat moss and garden soil and
plenty of attention to watering.
In the Summer, when things are too busy for much
pampering of houseplants. Fay hangs a lot of them or' the
front porch and also plants several dozen petunias and
begonias in assorted containers which rest in front of the
large stone home. One special time-saving technique Fay
uses with the outdoor flowers is to place a layer of peat
moss on top of the planter soil to retain the moisture and
subdue weed growth.
While being a mother and a tender of delicate plants,
Fay is also a caretaker of the extensive lawn which
spreads itself around the buildings, silos, lanes, flower
beds and up and down sloping banks at Heir-Hope Farm.
Fay explains that it takes a full day to get all the lawn
mowed even with the use of a riding mower.
With the addition of a totally new milking and housing
set-up last Fall, the lawn has also expanded. Mrs. Hen
explained that the farm they live on has been owned by the
Herr family for around 50 years. Abram R. and Anna F.
Herr, Dale’s parents, owned it for 43 years. In addition to
the home farm situated at the intersection of old route 472
(now Bartville Road) and pumping Station Road in
southern Lancaster County near Quarryville, the Herrs
own two other farms nearby. The total acreage is 4%
acres and the crops grown on this land include 200 acres of
com, 120 acres of bay for haylage, 24 acres of wheat, 15
acres of barley and 26 acres of tobacco -15 acres of which
are raised on the halves with Amish neighbors.
Although Fay does not feel very confident with the
By SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Correspondent
Fay Herr fills many roles
at Herr-Hope farm
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One of the jobs Mrs. Herr fills is that of writing
down cow identifications and times she notices
planting and raising gets into full swing. She explained
that the plants are pulled in the morning then placed into
the soil by hand with a tobacco planter. The planter is
tractor-pulled. Two people sit behind it and when they
hear a “click” it means they must drop the plant into the
hole made by the planter before the water is added to the
hole. A shoe pulls the dirt around the newly positioned
plant. The Herrs use a two-row planter and Fay is often
one of the two people handling the plants.
With rows 40 inches apart and plants spaced three feet
apart, it takes several days to plant all the 26 acres even
with the Amish planting their own.
After the plants have started to grow, the fields must be
cultivated and hoed between plants. Once again Fay mans
the hand cultivators which she pulls together then pushes
apart in and out down the rows of tobacco plants.
In addition to the hand work of planting and cultivating,
there is the chore of topping the tobacco plants or
breaking off the flower stalk by hand. Pay says this step
makes black hands. Usually by the middle of August, the
strenuous task of cutting, spearing and hanging the
tobacco plants in the tobacco curing sheds begins.
Although Fay generally does not help with this more
muscular work she pitches in when stripping the tobacco
in the Winter before it is baled and finally sold in Lan
caster.
At one tune the Herrs used to raise their own tobacco
plants but now they buy them and Mrs. Herr salvaged the
old tobacco bed soil, rich with peat moss, to mulch her
flowers.
The tobacco and yard work keep Fay busy during the
Summer, but two jobs she also does all year long are
helping with the milldng and keeping all the records of the
diversified farm operation which includes payrolls for
several fulltime employees.
Fay Herr checks a prayer plant in a hanger before placing it in the hook on the
front porch for the Summer. She and her daughter make macrame hangers, and
she enjoys houseplants.
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dairy animal in heat. With these records
herdsmen follow up with insemination.
milking cows. With the addition of a 150-stall free-sta
bam and a herringbone double-six parlor, the operate
now handles 173 cows with 150 milking this week. The hei
is on DHIA and Fay helps during the two milkings whf
testing is being done each month and also milks ew
other weekend and when their herdsmen, Galen Mai
and Robert Smith, have days off or vacations.
The Herrs raise their replacements and have al
purchased bred heifers and milking cows recently
complete their herd expansion. Galen Martin inseminat
the cows, and it is everybody’s job to spot and write do'
cows in heat.
Fay helps with the milking and tobacco, but the recot
keeping is all her territory. She spends considerable ti
sending out the checks, recording expenses and incomt
making out the payrolls for four fulltime men and keepi
records for Farm Management Business Analysis St
vice. She has to have the books in order and complet*
quarterly for that service. And she is quick to give crt
to that service for the computation of income taxes eat
year.
“They do it better than I ever could. In this day it is *
to imagine someone would try to figure his own incoi
tax by himself,” she added.
Dale Herr is presently involved in a number of activity
such as serving as vice-president for Colerain Town?
Planning Commission, director for Octorara Watersl
Association and Lancaster County Pennsylvania Farmi
Association, vice-president and delegate for District
Quarryville Local for Inter-state Milk Producers
president of a Sunday evening bowling league.
Fay Herr, like many other farmer’s wives, is the qui*'
partner who prefers the challenges of the family and •
farm to speaking out in public. She, like other su l
partners, finds plenty to do on the farm and goes about i
many jobs as they come from week to week, season
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