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AlQ—UwcMtor Faming, Satwday, May 29,1992
Memorial Day or “hayday”?
Memorial Day christens the long-awaited
summer season with picnics, swimming pool
parties, and parades.
But for most farm kids, Memorial Day
memories aren’t filled with these kinds of fun.
Instead, our hard-working parents convinced
us that a day spent making hay was the best
possible way to observe this national holiday.
While all our other school friends were busy
enjoying themselves at the park or in the pool,
we ‘lucky’ few who lived on farms were equally
busy raking, stacking, and sweating.
Somehow, we never were the envy of our
peers.
Occassionally, the innate salesmanship
ability that seems to cone to farm kids had a
way of working in our favor, though. With only
slight exageration, we’d broadcast the great
muscle-building, weight losing benefits of
spending the day in a sweltering hay mow.
Sometimes we'd be so convincing, we’d sell
the “townies" into a day on the farm for
physical fitness, of course. Unfortunately,
these types of sales usually worked only once.
After one day on the farm, most town kids
never wanted to come back for a second bout
with "hayrobics.”
The constant struggle to find helping hands
was usually fruitless, however. Speaking from
experience, about the only kids who were
“conned” into blistered hands and aching
backs thanks to overweight hale bales were
the ones who woke up every morning in the
farmer’s house.
Some good things did come out of those
holidays spent haying. For instance, we farm
kids kicked off the summer season with great
tans a little uneven though, thanks to T
shirts and longs pants that were the armor
needed to protect limbs from the prickling hay
stems and occassional poison ivy leaves.
We also learned the basics of assembly-line
manufacturing. One kid on the wagon, one at
the elevator, and one in the hay mow was the
ideal. But occassionally we learned how to
improvise and “cut costs" by eliminating the
elevator person. That allowed two people in
the mow one to pitch bales and the other to
stack and helped the wagon person to
develop better aim and timing, accuracy
needed to drop hay bales into the narrow
mouth of an elevator
By the end of the day, as we neared
exhaustion, it was always a time for
NOW IS THE TIME
To Fertilize Alfalfa
Alfalfa is an important crop in
our livestock program and every
effort should be taken to maintain
a healthy stand. This would include
top-dressing, at least once a year,
with phosphorus-potash fertilizer
to replenish the roots with these
two major elements.
A very good tune to make this
application is after the removal of
the first cutting. A well fertilized
stand of alfalfa can withstand
insects and other abuses much
better than one lacking fer
tilization.
Keep in mind that the first
cutting of alfalfa removes about
one-half of the tonnage produced
on an acre for the year, so a lot of
Off the
Sounding
By Sheila Miller, Editor
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
plant food is used up in the first
cutting.
To Check Corn Fields
(or Weed Control
Much of the corn that was
planted during the first two weeks
of May is now showing weed
problems. The conditions were
excellent for planting, warm and
dry, so a lot of the herbicides that
were applied were not activiated in
the dry soil. Then the rams started
during the last part of May,
bringing the corn and the weeds
along.
At this time, we suggest you take
a walk through your corn fields to
determine if the weeds are being
controlled or not. If weeds are
actively growing, then consider
celebration when we saw Dad heading in the
farm lane pulling the last wagon behind the
baler. That was a signal that our work detail
was almost over and there might still be time
to take a swim or play some volleyball. How
great that water would feel on tired, aching
muscles after the initial pain that is felt when
scratched arms and legs are emersed.
But, nine times out of ten, just as we were
climbing down out of the mountain of hay for
the day, black, ominous clouds would roll
across the horizon and put the final damper on
our holiday spirits. Dodging raindrops in a
mad dash to the house, we would have to
forget about our chance to play until all the
house windows were battened down.
While most folks wish for bright, sunny
holidays, there were times when we all had the
fleeting naughtiness to wish for a "harmless”
drizzle. The damp weather might "rain on
everybody else's parade," but it also would
put an end to the day's haymaking efforts
without ruining the crop. Then we could watch
the twirling batons instead of the spinning
rake teeth, and hear the beat of the drum
instead of the pounding of the baler.
For all our complaining about Memorial Days
on the farm itchy, sweaty, sun-stroke
holidays most of us farm kids wouldn’t trade
them for the any other way of life. It's just one
of the dues we pay for the enumerous joys that
life on the farm brings, not only on holidays but
everyday.
Just recently we received a letter from two
young students who would like to experience
life on the farm an American farm. The two
students are in their third year at an
agricultural college in France. They write
“Between the third and fourth year, we
have the possibility of taking a sabbatical year.
During this year, we decide to discover the
states and especially the U.S. agriculture. So
we would like to work m an American farm or
in an associated business during several
weeks.”
Perhaps they wouldn't mind helping with
the haying next Memorial Daj. Heaven knows,
we all could use some extra hands around the
farm. They could improve their English, and
we could learn French.
If you’d be interested in giving two students
a taste of U.S. farm life, why not drop a line to
Mr Picard, G. and Mr. Aubry, J.F., 24 Rue
Aug-Fonteneau, 49044, Angers Cedex,
France.
spraying witn a herbicide.
Depending on the kind of weed
involved, broadleaf or grass
weeds, use Bladex or Atrazme plus
oil or surfactant or Banvel or
Basagram.
Post-emergence weed control
herbicides must be safe to use on
corn and be applied according to
precautions on the label.
The tick season is here. These
pests may be on almost any dog or
person that walks through un
cultivated fields or woody areas
from May to September.
Ticks await their victims on low
growing shrubs and on tall grass.
Board
To Be Aware of Ticks
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COMING SOON
May 30,1982
Background Scripture:
Revelation 21 through 22
Devotional Reading:
Matthew 11:25-30.
There is a sobering warning at
the end of John's Revelation
(22: 18,19) that no one should miss:
I want everyone who hears the
words of the prophecy of this book;
if anyone adds to them, God will
add to him the plagues described in
this book, and if anyone takes
away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God will take away
his share In the tree of life and in
the holy city, which are described
in this book.
It is a warning, not only to those
who would literally take away or
add words, but those who would
use words to make the prophecy
say something that John’s angel
did not intend.
ALL THINGS NEW
But that leaves us with a
tremendous problem, doesn’t it?
For the Book of Revelation is the
most difficult to understand of all
the books of the Bible. It literally
begs us for interpretation. What is
meant by the vision of “a new
heaven and a new earth”? Where
shall we find the “new”
Jerusalem? Here on earth or in
heaven? And where is it that “God
will wipe away every tear from
their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be
Farm Calendar
Saturday, May 29
York County Dairy Princess
program, 4-H Center, near
Bair.
High-tensil electric fence
workshop, 10 a.m.3 p.m., farm
of Don and Carol Good, 2533
HAV HAWS
Km M<t 1 fk
‘‘Leroy? Durned if I know. He was here a minute ago.”
mourning nor crying nor pain any
more...” and when will "the for
mer things have passed away?”
Furthermore, through John’s
Revelation Christ promises us,
“Behold, I am coming soon.” But
how soon is soon? For almost 2,000
years Christians have been
predicting that the Second Coming
was right around the corner. But
here we are in the year of 1962 and
“I am coming soon” cannot mean
what some of Christ’s followers
thought it meant. Do these words
still have something to say to us?
I must confess that I have
trouble with much of the Book of
Revelation. John’s visions confuse
me in the same manner that my
dreams confuse me sometimes.
The pictures are fleeting, ever
changing and the symbolism could
mean many things. Yet, like my
dreams, the visions of John can
convey a message even if I don’t
understand the complex pictures
themselves.
COME, LORD JESUS
I really do not have to know the
location of the “new heaven” and
“new earth.” 1 do not have to
understand the symbolism of the
timetable for the fulfillment of
God’s plan. 1 do not have to
recognize all the beasts and figures
in Revelation—or any. All of these
details lure like trees in a vast
forest and I must not miss the
forest for the trees. I do not know
when, how or where all these
things shall come to pass, but I can
continue to hold fast to my
disciplestup in Christ in a darkened
world convinced that the world is
still in God’s hands and will
eventually become what he
created it to be.
“Coming soon” may mean
tomorrow or millennia from now.
It matters not so long as 1 know
Who is coming and what He means
tome.
Broadenbaugh Kd., White Hall,
Md.
Bradford County Dairy Festival,
Towanda, parade at 11 a.m.,
milking contest at 1 p.m., dairy
princess pageant at 8:15 a.m.,
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