A2B—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 14,1982
Soil saving is a way of life for Lancaster’s Houseknecht
BY DONNA TOMMELLEO
MILLERSVILLE It takes any other individual in the
1,000 years for one inch of topsoil to county,” notes Amos Funk,
form under natural conditions. ■ Lancaster Conservation District
And it takes less than four years Vice Chairman,
for erosion to destroy that inch. Funk attributes Houseknecht’s
If erosion throughout the nation success in signing up hundreds of
were confined to one region, all of farmers for soil-saving practices
the topsoil from an area the size of to the conservationist’s sensible
Rhode Island would be gone in less approach to a problem,
than three months. “He made farmers realize what
The somber facts, provided by was needed,” Funks adds. “It will
“About 75 percent ■ of the world's
children will go hungry tonight
and every night of their life...”
the USDA, create the impetus for 1)6 perhaps impossible to replace
badly needed soil conservation h® l - Hopefully, his replacement
programs, nationwide. The bot- w*H grow -into the same type of
tom line is quite simple more man Abner is.”
erosion, less land, less food. But accolades aside,
“About 75 percent of the world’s Houseknecht sees his past
children will go hungry tonight and progress with county fanners
every night of their life,” states slipping in the name of economics,
former Lancaster County soil “More than one half of the
conservationist Abner contour strips I have helped to
Houseknecht. install are all gone,” says
The tragedy borne by the world's Houseknecht.
hungry has been the driving force Th® stnps disappeared much
that kept Houseknecht on the heels uk ® the Lancaster County hay
of Lancaster County fanners from c f°P> which over the years has
1987 until his recent retirement this f^ ven way to com, com and more
year. com.
SCS announces volunteer service
HARRISBURG - In these belt
tightening times when almost
every day brings new cuts in
programs and services, the Soil
Conservation Service is respon
ding to public need through a
volunteer program. /
“Thanks to the Agriculture and
Food Act of 1981, the Soil Con
servation Service now can accept
the volunteer services of any
person of any age or skill in helping
with soil and water conservation
programs,” says Peter C. Myers,
Chief of the USDA’s Soil Con
servation Service.
SCS volunteers are unpaid and
will definitely not displace any
USDA employee. According to
Graham T. Munkittrick, Slate
Conservationist in Pennsylvania,
volunteers can help with field
surveys and layout of conservation
practices, help train students for
soil and land judging contests and
help with conservation education
programs.
They can help construct outdoor
“Abner contributed more than
learning areas, help with public Eddie Albert who recorded radio
information campaigns or with spots to help promote the volunteer
routine paperwork. program
“Freeing SCS employees to Many skills are needed and
concentrate on priority work helps volunteers are permitted to per
js give the public more for each form a wide range of services on a
tax dollar," Munkittrick said. part-time basis.
“Since we announced the
program in mid-May,” Myers “With the help of volunteers, we
said, “the response has been ex- can be more responsive to far
cellent. More people are signing up mers, ranchers and other land
every day.” One of those volun- users, and do a better job for less
teere is a long-time friend of money in less tune,” Myers
resource conservation, actor says.
WTRC GROWING BCTTCR
In 1951, 66 percent of
County was in close-growing
crops, such as alfalfa and wheat.
Today, less than 30 percent of the
land offers these crops, which
cause far less erosion than corn.
“Hay is a hard thing to grow,”
says Houseknecht of the labor
intensive crop. “But com has been
so easy. You just plarfi it and
harvest.”
However, somewhere in between
the planting and harvesting of
corn, farmers disturb the soil
much more. Plowing, discing, and
for some, cultivating all take their
toll on the land. Lancaster County
now has more than 200,000 acres in
cornfields.
Abner points out that corn has
become' king because of its
profitability over hay.
If used correctly, no-till cropping
systems can slow down the erosion
rate, he says. But just having a no
till planter does not constitute good
practice.
“That’s only half. There is a lot
more,” he notes. Abner stresses
the importance of using rye or
another cover crop in the system,
killing it at the knee-high stage.
“By keeping some kind of cover
on the ground we can control 80
percent of soil erosion,” explains
Houseknecht.
Although soil-conservation
practices are something many
folks are familiar with in the last 50
or 60 years, Houseknecht explains
that terraces and contours date
back before Christ.
Evidence of contour farming
dating back to 4,000 B.C. was found
in the Phillipines on rice paddies in
the mountains.
In parts of hilly Europe, modern
farmers employ conservation
practices because of the scarcity of
good land. Southern France sports
terraces believed to have been
built by the Phoenicians about
2,500 years ago.
For Houseknecht, his love and
knowledge of the land, which
began as a boy, became useful
tools during the great depression.
Growing up in rural Sullivan
County, Houseknecht admits that
part of his interest was spawned by
others.
“My mother would know every
weed, tree and bush in the county,”
he says. In addition, his high school
principal placed a major emphasis
on biology and botany.
As the country began digging
itself out of the Great Depression,
the Civilian Conservation Corps
began. The high unemployment
LJ
rates of today paralleled the local, state and federal citations
conditions in the early 1930 s and for his work, takes great care with
the New Deal’s CCC provided work his own three-acres of land in
for many. - Millersville.
Houseknecht worked on the CCC While his wife Ruth tends the
for four years, side by side with many varieties of flowers that
World War I veterans and young surround their Atglen Stone bouse,
men just out of high school. Within Abner manages their huge garden,
those four years, the corps worked “There’s enough garden there
on woodland improvement, built for four people,” he says. In ad-
“If any shall fail in this stewardship
of the land, thy fruitful fields
shall become sterile stony, ground
and wasting gullies... 9 *
fire and truck trails and managed
woodland inventory, which in
cluded more than 10,000 acres of
forest.
In 1937, he arrived in southern
Lancaster County to assist in a
demonstrations! farm “to show
fanners what could be done.”.
What he saw was a great deal of
sheet erosion and large gullies.
“There were gullies big enough
to sit a car in,” he recalls.
A year later, the Lancaster
County Conservation District was
formed and strips and contours
began appearing'on county farms.
“Most of the farmers we have
worked with have been at the
request of the farmers,” Abner
says. “Spring and fall were really
busy, but it was up to the fanner
when he wanted to do it. We’d lay
out the work but insist the fanner
would be right there with us.”
Some farmers, Abner recalls,
were soil conservation zealots
from the start
Houseknecht arrived at a farm,
several years ago, which had gone
to seed by its previous owner.
“The farm looked like a jungle,”
he notes. The new owner, a
dairyman, was so anxious to begin
conservation practices that he did
everything at his own expense.
Whether or not fanners thought
they needed to improve their land,
was usually decided after a hard
rain, remembers Houseknecht.
“After a heavy rain, the phone
would be ringing all morning,” he
says.
The caretaker of Lancaster
County, who has received several
dition, the Houseknecht home
includes several trees, which seem
to come alive with personality
when Aimer, an avowed “tree
nut,” speaks of them.
One particular tree is a distant
relative to the California Red
woods. An oriental tree, whose
gnarled trunk narrows like a
pyramid from the base up, arrived
as a handful of seeds from a friend,
several years ago.
Several Pin Oak, standing tall
and strong throughout the yard,
were no more than an inch in
diameter when Aimer moved them
from their forest home about 30
years ago.
As he moves among his trees,
garden and as he moved around
the county, Houseknecht is
reminded of an “eleventh com
mandment” offered by W.C.
Lowdermilk, former SCS assistant
chief:
“Thou shalt inherit the Holy
Earth as a faithful steward,
conserving its resources and
productivity from generation to
generation. Thou shalt safeguard
thy fields from soil erosion, thy
living waters from drying up, thy
forests from desolation, and
protect thy bills from overgrazing
by thy herds, that thy decendants
may have abundance forever.
If any shall fail in this steward
ship of the land thy fruitful fields
shall become sterile stony ground y
and wasting gullies, and thy I
descendants shall decrease and
live in poverty or perish from off
the face of the earth.”