Solar grain dryer makes a “bushel” * JACKSON COUNTY, Ohio “I bought it all at the local cash and carry hardware,” said Chuck Harley, a farmer here trying to beat the high cost of energy by building his own solar grain dryer. “The total cost was just a mite under the $6OO I had estimated,” he said. “Since I spent a bit more than $6OO last year for the propane gas I used to dry my com, I figure this dryer will soon DETWEILER SILOS Increase Your Present Silo Capacity By Extending Your Silo Dollars per ton an extension costs less than a new silo. We can ex tend most brands of concrete stave silos. New Silos and Extensions Tear Down and Rebuild Silo Repairs Jamesway Equipment - Write or Call RD#2 Box 267 D Newville, PA 17241 PHONE 717-776-7533 or 717-776-3288 First one from ASCS funds pay for itself.” The dryer is an amazingly simple triangular structure with a 12x24 foot collector surface. On any sunny or cloudy-bright day the sun heats the air in the collector. An electric fan draws the warm air off through a duct into the bottom of a gram storage bin. The air rises through the gram and leaves through the bm’s top, taking moisture with it Harley is a full-time employee of the Goodyear Atomic plant in neighboring Pike County, With his weekends, evenings and other free time he also operates a 150-acre farm in this Appalachian foothill region of southern Ohio. He grows com, soybeans, wheat and hay on a farm reclaimed from an old peach and apple orchard with the help of erpsion control and conservation loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Last February, a month when farmers get out their pencils to figure cost and profit possibilities of the commg crop season, Harley was worried about in creasing operating ex penses, especially for fuel. Leafing through a farm magazine, he saw an article about a small portable solar grain dryer that seemed to him both practical and possible. He sent away for the plans. After talking it over with friends and other fanners, Harley decided he could build the dryer himself if he could find the money He estimated the cost of materials at around $6OO Fortunately for him, the Jackson County office of the department’s Agricultural Stabilization and Con servation Service announced about that time it was making farm facility loans for solar gram dryers. When he learned that, Harley lost no time making out a loan application While Harley became the first farmer in the United States to use a department farm facility loan to build a solar grain dryer, the loans have been available for years to help farmers build on-farm storage facilities and obtain needed gram drying and handling equipment. It has been only since June 1979 that solar drying units have been eligible and encouraged for such loans nationwide, through county ASCS offices using depart ment approved plans. Loans are also available for commercially con structed solar grain drying systems and for multiple use solar systems both commercial and homebuilt provided one of the in tended uses is gram drying. Harley built the dryer out of plywood, greenhouse-type clear fiberglass sheets, 2x4 inch studs, hardware cloth and black paint for the solar ray collector. He also needed metal framing and supports and miscellaneous nuts, bolts, hinges and electric wiring for the fan, which runs off house current. He hooked the dryer up to his 5000-bushel gram bin. Harley built the dryer on skids so he can use it at other buildings. Although Harley’s solar dryer is designed primarily for crop drying, it can help heat brooding houses and other livestock shelters or farm machine shops and Tiachinery sheds. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 5,1980—E23 If you have a garden you’re one of 33 million BURLINGTON, Vt. - This year 33 million American households - two million more than in 1979 - grew some of their own food m home or community gardens. Americans are returning to the pleasure - and treasure - of a garden in their own back yards as inflation and energy worries eat away at family incomes and make energy-expensive leisure activities less at tractive. Results of the 1979 National Gardening Survey conducted by the Gallup Organization were released in the fall issue of Gardens For All. Forty-two percent of America’s 78 million households had food gar dens, making gardening one of the most popular productive leisure activities m America. Survey results indicate food gardening is more popular than 22 other common activities, in cluding fishing, golf, tennis, jogging, photography...even taking vacation trips. According to the survey 1979 may be a benchmark year because it marks the end of a gradual decline m food gardening that began m 1975, when a high of 49 percent of the households had vegetable gardens. Last year, 41 percent or 31 million of the households gardened. Gardens For All sponsors the National Gardening Survey each year. It is the only complete survey on gardening available. A free summary of the 1979 survey findings is available from Gardens For All, The National Association for Gardening, Dept. 92000, 180 Flynn Avenue, Burlington, Vermont 05401. Here are some of the other findings from the survey: The total retail value of produce from U.S gardens was $l3 billion. The median garden size was 595 square feet, down from 620 last year because new gardeners tend to start small. The average cost per garden was $l9. The average dollar yield per garden was $386 The total net saving per garden was $367. Economy, pleasure and taste are the three mam reasons for gardening’s popularity among gar deners. Three out of four gar deners preserve some of the harvest, and freezing is the most popular method.
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