V0L.27N0.43 Although this tractor cab stands idle for a moment, before the day ended visitors like Sam Martin, left and 'Kevin Stoops of Waynesboro, Franklin Co. examined, asked Lancaster 4-H hog champ moves just down the road BY DICKANGLESTEIN LANCASTER The Lancaster 4-H hog grand championship literally moved down the road less than a mile on Thursday. The 1982 championship belongs to 14-year-old Deanna Myer, daughter of Marlin and Marcella Myer, of R 5 Manheixn, who showed her 210-pound lightweight to the top of the 138-hog roundup at the Lancaster Stockyards. Last year, the champion honors were dominated by Liz and Chris Chapman, also of R 5 Manheim. And to keep the honors entirely in the neighborhood, the. Myer Duroc came out of the Dutch Grand champion of Lancaster 4-H Roundup, exhibited by 14-year-old Deanne Myer, R 5 Manheim, goes to top bidder John Wagner, White Oak Mill, for $3.17/lb. Four Sections Valley Farms stock, which can claim a junior show sweep this year. The recent FFA grand champ also was a John Chapman- Mark Nestleroth product, as were the 4-H champions the previous two years. “We were surprised,” Marlin Myer commented. “Surprised? I was shocked,” exclaimed Deanne. The youthful exhibitor moved to the top center of the show ring in just four years of 4-H competition. Her best previous showing was a reserve in the lightweight class last year. She’s a member of the (Turn to Page ASS) Uncaster Farming, Saturday, August 28,1982 and learned about equipment, crops and much more as the 1982 Ag Progress Days turned Central Pennsylvania into a mammoth outdoor classroom. MILLERSVILLE - If Lancaster County Conservation District directors Amos Funk and Aaron Stauffer had as much control over cropland use as it seemed they had over Wednesday’s weather, the garden-spot county of Penn sylvania would not be losing the phenomenal amounts of soil to erosion it has been experiencing over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, unlike the thunderstorm that vanished minutes before the county’s Last Acre ceremony was scheduled to begin celebrating the com pletion of a BVa-year cooperative soil mapping effort the soil erosion problem in Lancaster County is continuing to increase in intensity as more farmers are breaking sod for corn ground. "Farmers are creating problems faster than they can be solved,” remarked Funk. Because of erosion and continually deeper plowing, Funk pointed out that the county’s soils have lost 10-20 inches of depth since 1945. Back then the average topsoil boasted almost a yard of fertile ground. Statistics verifying Funk’s concerns about too much ground being turned by the plow were announced Wednesday by Lan caster Co ity Extension Agent Jay Irwin. reported 1981 figures for corn pianted in the county exceeded last year’s totals by 3,600 acres. And 1980 corn acres topped 1979’s by 12,000 acres, (see related story, page AI7J When it comes to soil loss, however, the measure of land is in inches not acres each year bringing fewer inches ot soil for Regional Pa. Holstein Championship Shows inside on page A 24, plus lots of dsiiy and livestock show throughout this issue Lancaster maps last acre BY SHEILA MILLER Ag Progress feeds the knowledge-hungry BY DONNA TOMMELLEO HOCK SF RINGS - Last year, % percent of Ag Progress Days visitors surveyed said they’d return, explained AFD director J.D. Harrington. They kept their word. They also brought back a few thousand more friends. On Tuesday, a record breaking opening-day crowd of 25,000 visited Rock Springs, the permanent site of the three day event. The record turn-out continued, despite early morning rams and heavy winds on Wednesday. By Thursday, the crowd supassed the 80,000 mark, inking another Ag Progress Days into the record books. A slow economy had little effect on the army of commercial exhibitors, which also enjoyed farmer’s with unprotected cropland. The "yardstick” for comparing Lancaster County’s sods from the turn of the century untd today is possible due to the cooperative efforts of the U.S. Dept, of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service, fenn Slate, and the Pennsylvania Conservation Commission. The first sod survey During Lancaster’s Last Acre ceremony, held Wednesday at Miltersvilie, District directors Aaron Stauffer, left, and Amos Funk pointed out the increasing problem of erosion in the state’s garden spot. Since 1945, unprotected soils have lost a foot of depth as farmers’ plows sliced deeper into the fertile ground. This startling fact was brought into focus by the newlv completed soil survey. $7.50 per year record numbers. Harrington notea commercial exhibits were up 5.5 percent from last year, totaling 260 in all. Combined with the educational exhibits, more than 300 exhibits, from cat care to combining, blanketed the land. "We can handle more,” assured Harrington. “But we’ve got to tighten up as we get bigger.” Violated rules and regulations, such as selling over-the-counter during AFD, can mean expulsion of a commercial exhibit. However, any exhibitor, promoting ag related products, is welcome, Harrington added. This year’s theme. •Agriculture: the Growing Business,” was evident throughout the event. DeKaib and Pfizer grew last (Turn to Page A3O) for the county was published in 1916, with an updated survey being completed m 1940 and again in 1959. At a cost of about $1 per acre, 605,500 acres of land were mapped in detail in Lancaster County since 1976 with each sod and its particular characteristics being identified and charted by teams of (Turn to Page Al 6)
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