AlD—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 23,1981
Stewardship, a question
of conscience, caring?
Although it may come as a
surprise to most farmers, next
week is a special one for those
folks who till the soil. Starting
tomorrow, Soil Stewardship
Week begins a celebration
of the preservation and
perpetuation of one of our
nation's most valuable
resources.
Conservation of the land is
not a new idea in the world of
agriculture. Conscientious
farmers have been practicing
it for years.
What's disturbing is how
some of today's big, 'modern'
farmers who have the latest
machinery, read all the im
portant periodicals from Wall
Street Journal to Lancaster
Farming, and attend every
workshop offered by Ex
tension, have failed to get the
message.
Along any country road in
any county, there are
examples of good stewards
and examples of the other
kind farmers who have
opened up fields from -
boundary to boundary and
planted acre upon acre of corn
with no thought to erosion
control. /
Admittedly, there are some
areas where this type of
farming is O.K. fields with
practically no slope. But, these
types of fields are usually
inundated with water and are
better left for bullfrogs and
marsh birds.
Planning for conservation
and erosion control takes time
and most times some capital.
It means farming fields across
the slope so water doesn’t
rush down rows planted up
and down over hills.
Realizing conservation
farming isn’t always easily
applied, the federal govern
ment has provided incentives
and technical assistance since
the great Dust Bowl of the
19305. Soil Conservation
NOW IS THE TIME
To Control Poultry House Pests If you have large fly populations
The build-up of fly populations is
becoming a serious problem in
many poultry houses. One reason
is the resistance that flies are
'showing to many of the materials
now being used.
We must accept the respon
sibility that flies should be con
trolled at the source. One of the
keys for control, is to use different
materials at specified intervals to
break the cycles. Keep in mind the
life cycle of the fly is about 13 days,
so as you are depopulating the
adults, eggs are continuing to
hatch until the cycle is broken.
Off the
Sounding
By Sheila Miller, Editor
Service staff and Agricultural
Stabilization and Con
servation Service personnel
provide engineering and
financial help, respectively.
Despite the fact these two
federal' agencies have in
vested billions of dollars in
conservation since their
beginnings over 50 years ago,
there still exists a-tremendous
erosion problem in this nation.
Each year, more than 6.4
billion tons of soil erode from
the nation's farm, urban, and
other nonfederal land reports
Norman A. Berg, Chief of the
USDA Soil Conservation
Service.
“In ihany areas, the rate of
erosion seriously threatens
long-term agricultural
productivity," he said. "We
have unacceptable erosion
rates on more than 140 million
acres of cropland.
"Erosion rates exceed
acceptable levels .on more
than 295 million acres of
cropland, pastureland, forest
land, and rangeland. Scien
tists consider erosioh
tolerable when eroded Jopsoit
can be replenished through
natural processes^.
"More than 6.4 million tons
of soil is lost from wind and
water erosion each year, and
more than 5 billion tons erode
from agricultural land," Berg
added. "In Pennsylvania, 51
million tons erode from
cropland annually, while 19
million tons erode wash from
streambanks, gullies, con
struction sites, roads and
roadsides
"Sediment, the greatest
single water pollutant by
volume, is an end product of
soil erosion," he concluded.
Although some farmers
would like to just ignore their
erosion problems ttnose
gullies get filled back in each
spring after plowing), “ there
are conservation groups arid
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
in the bird area, you may need to
use bait to reduce the adult
numbers. Residual wall sprays are
effective. Some newer materials
such as Ectiban and Atroban, are
showing results when applied to
the wall surface and posts in the pit
area. Rabon and Vhpona are-also
giving control in some cases
Lesser .mealworm and Hide
beetles are a problem in many
houses. The larvae stage of these
beetles will burrow into wood,
styrofoam or other solid material
causing weakened structures and
reduced insulation value Rabon.
Board
yeas and *nays 9
agencies that are keeping an
eagle-eye bn ag activities.
In a news release sent out
May 4 by the National Wildlife
Federation entitled- “New
Health Threat, Chemical
Contaminants in Drinking
Water: ‘Environmental Horror
Story of the 'Bos?V’ Eckhardt
C. Beck, a former En
vironmental Protection
Agency official, explained;
“Industrial discharges,
agricultural and urban runoff
and accidental spills combine
to make many of our rivers
and streams a lethal soup of
organic chemicals "
NWF calls for total en
forcement of the Clean Water
Act of 1972 which says toxic
discharges into the nation's
waters must be eliminated or
greatly reduced by July 1,
1984. They urge consumers
and other environmental
groups to band together to
fight for water that is free of
contaminants.
Still think nobody notices
that topsoil washed into the
road ditch by the thunder
gusher last night? What about
that murky water seeping
across the barnyard lot and
into the ‘insignificant, little
stream? Can’t understand
that herbicide trail in the
wheat field next to last year's
corn? Why is the best ground
always at the bottom of the
hill?
„ Let’s face it, 1984 is only
three years away and there’s
so much to be done. It’s time
farmers shoulder the yoke of
stewardship instead of using it
as a crutch to be picked up
only when lame excuses for
farming without conservation
leave them sticking in the
mud.
applied to the pit walls and posts, is
effective.
Be sure to follow the directions
on the label and do not spray the
birds or contaminate the feed or
water.
To Be Alert For Gypsy Moth
All indications point to a heavy
build-up of Gypsy Moth in many
areas this year. The small gypsy
moth worms have started to ap
pear and will be eating foliage on
all types of trees. We suggest the
homeowners get prepared to
protect their favorite trees
because they will defoliate them
(Turn to Page Al 2)
ONE OFFERING ONLY
, May 24,1981
Background Scripture:
Hebrews 8 through 9.'
Devotional Reading:.
Ephesians 1:15-23.
One of the prevailing religious
ideas in antiquity was that „of
sacrifice. In order for the gods or
god to be appeased, his wor
shippers had to give him some gift.
Invariably, the gift was always
more efficacious if it was
something valuable which the
worshipper would not normally
want to give up.
This concept was important in
Judiasm and the primary purpose
of the temple in' Jerusalem was to
serve as the place where sacrifice
could be made to God. Sacrifice
was .-given in exchange for help
from the God, salvation from
danger, healing from disease, and
forgiveness of sin. The worshipper
alone was not sufficient; he needed
to bring an offering to God.
Throughout his lifetime, the
worshipper would make many
offerings, because it was believed
that no single offering could ever
satisfy God for more than the
moment:
But When Christ Appeared
The writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews addresses himself to this
very concept when he speaks of
Christ as the great High Priest.
For with Christ, the old sacrificial N
system was no longer to continue.
Things could not go on as they had
HAV HAWS
Sure I practice soil stewardship, but I found it
gives my corn more incentive to grow taller.
before “But when Christ ap
peared as a higlfpriesf.'.."” (9:11)'.
_ The Holy Place would no longer be
a “place”. The' blood of sacrifice
would no longer be that of
sacrificial animals. The sacrifice,
in fact, would forever be Christ
himself. No longer would the
worshipper look for an animal of
sacrifice that was pure and un
blemished, for Christ “offered
himself, without blemish to God,”
to purify us from our sms.
Today the sacrificial system has
little appeal or interest. It is ut
terly foreign to us and the little we
know about is simply a by-product
of our understanding of the
religious scene m which Jesus
practiced his ministry. Con
sequently, the writer of Hebrews
with his concern to interpret the
meaning of Christ to a people
steeped in the sacrificial system
seems to have nothing to say to us.
As It Is Appointed
Yet, no matter how foreign the
sacrificial system may appear to
us, many of us are nevertheless
affected by a sacrificial type of
religious psychology. Even though
we realize how crude was the
motivation behind the ancient
system, in our own way we may
still attempt to bargain and trade
with God. Without verbalizing it as
a sacrificial motivation, we live as
though some kinds of self-denial
earn us ment with God, favor,
forgiveness, or special help. For
many people on a Sunday morning
the offering is not an opportunity to,
praise God, but something akin to
“an apple a day” that “keeps the
doctoraway. ,r
For us, then, as* well as for the
first century Christian church, the
writer of Hebrews says: “And just
as it is appointed for men to die
once...so Christ, having been of
fered once to bear the sms of
many" is the sufficient offering for
all our encounters with God.
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