A patch of sunshine amidst clouds of drought .
John Hershey prepares to bring in tobacco.
Soofe-a-md-doh
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
LANCASTER - A patch of
sunshine was shining
through the dark clouds of
drought in Lancaster County
this week.
In most areas of the county
typical farm scenes
depicted:
-Parched-brown corn
fields, dried leaves and
stalks rustling noisily in the
Autumn wind, or others
already chopped to stubble.
--Soybean fields,
prematurely yellowed.
-Hayfields, struggling
unsuccessfully to yield
If you look closely, you'll see a couple of bees at
work on sunflower.
****** M v
another cutting before frost
heralds the end of another
season.
But along Landis Valley
Road, it was quite another
scene. A crop, not exactly
indigenous to this land of
tobacco and corn, was in full
bloom and providing a
bright, golden sight that
contrasted sharply with the
prevalent drought-spawned
rural panorama.
Yes, it was truly a patch of
welcome sunshine in the
form of about an acre of
blossoming sunflowers -
something more expected to
It's a sea of sunflowers along the Landis Valley Road in Lancaster County.
be seen in the distant dry
regions of North Dakota or
Minnesota.
The sunflowers are being
grown by the John B. Her
shey family, 2151 Landis
Valley Road, as a double
cropping experiment
following wheat.
About an acre stands next
to their home and another
two acres in the Delp Road
area off the Manheim Pike in
another section of Manheim
Township.
“Until I made up my mind
whether to try the sun
flowers, I lost a couple of
weeks in getting them in,”
Hershey explains.
“I want to see if they’ll
mature and what kind of a
yield can be achieved. If the
weather holds off and a
killing frost doesn’t come too
early, I should get an idea of
how they’ll do as a second
crop. Then, I’ll have a better
idea of what to do next
year.”
Ruth Hershey describes
her husband as a “book
farmer,” who does a lot of
reading about his second
occupation. John works for
the township road depart
ment operating a grader.
The Hersheys farm about
160 acres, all but three
rented from some 11
landlords. They grow com,
soybeans, wheat, tobacco,
strawberries, sweet com
and, this year, the sunflower
experiment.
John read about sun
flowers in the Farm Journal
and decided to give them a
try after harvesting wheat.
But a bit of indecision
delayed their planting until
the last of July, putting them
a few weeks behind
schedule.
Since sunflowers are not
exactly a common Lan
caster County crop, the
Hersheys had a bit of a mild
hassle getting them in.
“It took me about two
hours to convince our seed
people that we were still
serious about puting them in.
Then, we had to get some
plates for the com planter.
They were just hanging on
the wall of our supplier."
Ruth Hershey is the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Clarence Zeager, who once
farmed in the area of the
Alcoa plant along the
(Turn to Page Dl9)
s .<*
Hershey children
in sunflowers include John, 14;
-Anita shows size of sunflowers growing next to her family’s home.
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w x 1
David, 12;
and Anita, 6.
Jim, 10;
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to