VOL 26 No.* §>
Farmers win multiflora rose concessions
BY CURT HAULER
HUNTINGDON - A group
of Huntingdon County far
mers may have ac
complished in one day what
farm organizations,
lawmakers, secretaries of
agriculture, and the rest of
the state’s farmers couldn’t
do in 25 years.
They obtained a com
mitment from the Penn
sylvania Game Commission
not to oppose declaring
Multiflora rose a noxious
weed. They also won con
cessions on autumn olive.
Farmers to hold meeting
on area bridge conditions
QUARRYVILLE - Irate
farmers and farm
businessmen have grown
tired of talking about the
horrid condition of roads and
bridges m Lancaster County
This Monday they plan to
do something about it.
A meeting has been set for
December 22 at 7:30 p.m. at
the Refton Fire Hall, along
Route 222 at Refton, to see
what can be done about the
Droblem.
Gibson E. Armstrong,
Pennsylvania State
Representative from the
100th District, will be among
those attending. Armstrong
lives at R 1 Refton.
In addition, officials of the
Pennsylvania Department of
Also discuss autumn olive
Multiflora rose, promoted
since the early 1950 s as an
ideal game cover and as a
living fencerow, has turned
into a nightmare for many
Pennsylvania farmers.
The Commission says
multiflora makes an ex
cellent game cover. But
farmers complain it gets so
dense a rabbit couldn’t run
through it. Added to that are
problems with birds who
spread the woody plant
through their droppings.
The Huntingdon County
group actually had plenty of
Transportation have agreed
to attend the meeting, to
hear about the problem first
hand, and to offer what
suggestions or answers they
can.
Of special interest to the
group meeting Monday is the
railroad bndge on Route 372
at the East end of
Quarryville.
The bndge is posted with
an 11 ton weight limit, far too
low to handle much of the
truck traftic passing along
the main road through
Quarryville.
In recent weeks, a milk
hauler has been slapped with
a $3900 fine for overweight
and a fanner was fined in
Lancaster Farminj, Saturday, December 20,1950
help from farm groups,
politicians, the ag depart
ment, and others when it
came to Harrisburg to sound
off on multiflora rose.
They organized a bus trip
to the Capitol and brought
their state representative
Samuel E. Hayes, Jr., R 1
Tyrone. Hayes, well in
formed by his constituants,
took over the questioning.
It didn’t hurt that Hayes
was House Majority Whip
and moves up to Majority
leader January 1.
He obtained from Penn
excess of $lOOO for the same
thing.
“This is a thorn in the side
of agricultural businessmen
and farmers,” says Ken
Herr, a farm machinery
dealer who, along with
others, must plan a way
around weight limits posted
on bridges along roads which
the Department of Tran
sportation maintains can not
support more weight.
Problems with bridges
have occurred in several
other areas of Lancaster
County, including some
posted spans in the
Elizabehtown-Maytown
area.
(Turn to Page A 36)
Talks AMPI, not local co-ops
AMPI president
visits Eastern farmers
BY JANE BRESEE
Staff Correspondent
EAST TOWANDA - The
President of the largest
dairy co-op m the United
States came East Tuesday to
make contact with dairymen
in Pennsylvania.
Irvin J. Elkin, president of
Associated Milk Producers,
Inc , promised dairymen m
the troubled northeast
Pennsylvania dairy market,
“AMPI will continue in the
future to be the most ef
fective and largest dairy
cooperative m the United
States.” '
Ellon’s four-stop speSfcmg
trip, included a dinner
meeting at the Country Club
m East Towanda Tuesday.
His visit, sponsored by
Keystone Harvestore, adds
another chapter to reports
first made in Lancaster
Fanning m October that
syivania Game Commission
Executive Director Glenn L.
Bowers an agreement that
the Commission would go
along with having ruultiflora
declared noxious.
Hayes also obtained a
(Turn to Page A 23)
Lancaster farmers elect
ASC representatives
LANCASTER Farmers
recently selected
representatives in their
respective communities to
serve as committeemen for
the Lancaster County
Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service
during the ASC elections.
These community com
mitteemen inform farmers
about ASCS programs,
remind neighbors of signups,
referendums, and deadlines,
provide information about
local conditions including
disasters, and assist in local
problem cases when
requested. The length of
term for community com
mitteemen is one year
The community com
mitteemen when elected
serve as a delegate to the
county convention to select
the county committee which
serve a three year term
David McMichael, Lan
caster, R 6, was reelected to
serve another term on three
member county committee.
AMPI and Northeast Dairy
Cooperative Federation, Inc.
had begun talks which could
lead either to a joint venture
between the two or to the
eventual merger of the co
ops.
When asked by a radio
station reporter if AMPI
wanted to get control of
Eastern Milk Producers’
Milk, Elkin replied, “I don’t
want to go into specifics.”
And he didn’t.
But the speech-making
trip did give Elkin the
chance to address the nor
theast Pennsylvania dairy
farmers.
Elkin climaxed his lengthy
speech by saying that AMPI
will continue to increase it’s
share of the dairy market.
“It must grow or die,” he
said.
Twelve mergers were
made this year making an
additional 4000 new mem
bers. The mergers were
approved by the Justice
Department while at the
same time 3000 farm
members were lost because
they went out of business.
“We will continue to work
for improved income for all
dairy farmers in our
country”, Elkin said. “For
there is one poll and one
market the Umted States
consumer.”
He had previously served to
fill the unexpired term
vacated by Vincent Hoover,
New Providence.
Paul Kline, BrunnerviUe
Road, Lititz, and Leßoy
Welk, Quarryville, R 4, will
contmue to serve their
unexpired terms as
Chairman and Vice
Chairman respectively.
The County Committee, is
responsible for ad-
In this issue
SECTION A: Editorials, 10; Farm Credit amend
ments, 15; Perry junior Holstein, 17; Bradford ex
tension awards, 19; Gold mine in Holstein breeding, 34.
SECTION B: 5.5 tons sod loss per acre, 2; Centre
County DHIA, 4; Liming boosts nutrients, 8.
SECTION C: Homestead notes, 2; Joyce Bupp’s
column, 5; Home on Range, 6; Christmas for children,
10, Sheila’s shorts, 14; Farm talk, 15; Adams DHIA,
23, Cheapest sheep programs, 28; Tobacco outlook, 32;
Energy councd honors dairies, 34.
SECTION D: Grange oppor.es proposal, 2; Beef
outlook, 6; Dairy business, 8; Lebanon DHIA, 9; Bird
damage, 18; CNI proposal, 20; Mifflin DHIA, 24;
Spotlighting changes, 28.
$7.50 Per Year
Irvin J. Elkin
Elkin was bom and reared
on a dairy farm near Amery,
Wisconsin which he now
operates in partnership with
his son, Brian. He milks
about 40 holstein cows and
farms 200 acres of com,
alfalfa and small grain.
He started his association
with dairy cooperatives as a
member of the Turtle Lake
cooperative’s creamery and
was on the board of directors
when it joined with 60 other
cooperatives to form AMPI
in 1969. In 1974, he was
elected president of the
AMPI Cooperative Board
and spends one-half to three
quarters of his time working
in that position. He was
(Turn to Page A 24)
ministering the assigned
ASCS programs, and see
that the day to day
operations are earned out
effectively, efficiently and
impartially. Their task is
similar to that of a board of
directors of a cooperative or
other organization.
Ray Brubaker, County
Executive Director of ASCS
(Turn to Page A3B)