Alo—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 7,1981 Lancaster Farming says... What’s more difficult to find than a cow that will produce 20,000 pounds, a lamb that’ll reach 100 pounds in 90 days, or a field yielding 175 bushels of corn per acre 7 The answer is a good hired hand We can find little sympathy for the farmer who ic looking for new help every six or r, ne months On an operation like that, the problem rests with management and not the hired labor Even on the best of farms there is a wide difference between what the help receives in pay and what they deserve It is to farming's shame that the worst treated workers often are those who aren’t hired outsiders, but rather are members of the operator’s family It’s no secret that farm operators realize less return than other small businessmen And farm labor likewise receives less income But IS GOD FAIR? March 8,1981 Background Scripture: Matthew 20 Devotional Reading: Leviticus 20 22-26 How would you feel if your employer were to pay you the same amount as he paid •y-v f NOW IS ' THE TIME SS V\S V. s By Max Smjth Lancaster Countv Agricultui St - Phone 71/-St' i' TO USE WOO- . burning stoves am. . u. popular at this time in order to save fuel costs The ashes from wood are useful as a soil con ditioner, and to some extent, as a fertilizer These ashes will be alkaline, rather than acid, and therefore, should not be used near acid-loving plants such as azaleas, hollies, or rhododendrons In addition, folks growing pototoes should not use wood ashes on that soil. However, for most other crops on the farm or in the garden, wood ashes will provide some potash and will help break down a heavy, clay type soil These ashes should be applied and worked into the topsoil before any planting is done xxx TO FILE INCOME TAX REPORT EARLY... Why wait until April 15th to file your income tax report 9 One good answer might be for the person who has money to pay - put it off as long as possible. However, there are several good reasons to file early, many folks already have sent in there is a limit to how little a hired hand and family can receive and still survive In some cases it seems the hand must be a better money manager than the boss Worse yet, the figures for pay on Pennsylvania’s thriving farms are poorer than for the nation as a whole The Crop Reporting Service this week put farm wage rates, for all methods of pay converted to an hourly rate, at $3 73 That’s less than $7500 per year, less than an average secretary makes sitting in an air conditioned office The national farm wage average was $4 12, up 43 cents from 1980 But even when it comes to wage increases, Pennsylvania farm em ployers were stingy Hired hands received an average 18 cents per hour increase over the last year That’s a six percent boost in times of 12 percent inflation a teilow employee doing the same task but for con siderably fewer hours ; I’m sure you’d be outraged at the employer's unfairness 1 would That’s what makes Jesus’ parable of the workers m the vineyard (Matthew 20 1-16) so difficult for us The householder in this parable seems utterly unjust not to mention unwise in the way he treats his workers He hires workers at 8a m, 11 a.m ,Ipm, and 3pm Yet he pays them all the same wage l It is not hard to un derstand their angry response These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal Mil, parable, tor the employer failure for him to keep his and the God of the universe agreement with them, but in do not stand on the same that they resented someone level What the workers in else getting what they did the parable receive is not and for considerably fewer really a wage, but something hours Yes, they begrudged more something that goes the householder s generosity considerably beyond what and so would most of us —as they deserve What God secretly we may sometimes "pays them, therefore, is begrudge the grace of God not a wage, but grace. All of freely given to those whom the workers would be due we would judge as being considerably less than they unworthy of the same were paid if they received salvation promised us only what they were worth HAV HAWS BY CURT HARLER, EDITOR next to impossible for some farmers to get and keep good help 7 The answer on some operations has been to put the children to work without compensation Some ob servers, pointing to agriculture’s exemption from child labor laws, claim this common practice is one step above slavery for one’s own offspring While that is going too far in most cases, the results show up in a child’s attitude toward farming Is it any wonder, then, that so many of our young people flee the burden of hard - work long hours, and low pay for more attractive jobs 7 The laborer is worthy of his hire There can be no pride in U S agriculture’s record as a food producer until the farm community learns to take care of its own members rather than have them suffer to the benefit of American’s cheap food policy Beyond Fairness It is not a matter, then, of God or the householder being •fair’ but of being gracious to all workers/children None of us deserves the grace of God Therefore, none of us has the right to begrudge that same grace being given to others. We are j not able to judge as to whom < should God bless and whom..- he should condemn Nothing is more self condemning than for the person who is the beneficiary of God’s grace to begrudge that same grace to someone else God is not • fair’ (not by our stan dards, anyway), God is love