Alo—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, October 8,1983
Ostrich ag;
hen farming
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
Another Farm Fairy Tale as told by Grand
mother Heidi many years ago.
Once upon a time, an ostrich and a hen
wanted to go into farming.
The big, strong ostrich looked down at the
hen and thought:
"I got it all over this little hen. She's never
going to be able to keep up with me. ”
And, the little hen looked up at the ostrich
and thought:
“What am I doing? I'm never going to be
able to compete with this big bird.”
Now, the time they picked to go into
agriculture wasn’t exactly the best no matter
who you may be. Government was cutting
back on its ag support: an ill-timed crop
reduction program was put into effect; foreign
birds were causing all kinds of problems and
the weather went sour - just to name a few of
the problems.
The hen and ostrich went about starting to
NOW IS THE TIME
Cool Apples
Keep longer
This is apple picking season and
whether you grow apples or just
like to eat them, here’s some in
formation on how to store them.
Remember that cool apples will
keep longer. Ideally, they should
be stored at 33° Farenheit at 90%
humidity and in dim light or
darkness. Since most people can’t
provide these perfect conditions,
the next best thing is a family-type
refrigerator. Just put the apples in
a plastic bag, then close the bag
loosely or punch a few small holes
in it so the air can circulate.
Now as to picking, it’s a good
practice to store the fruit in shade
as it’s picked, then allow it to stand
in the orchard overnight to cool.
Then, place the apples in storage
early in the morning before the
temperature rises too much'.
If you leave apples in a packing
shed or in piles under the trees for
one week, you’ll shorten their
storage life by about five weeks. So
keep apples cool, maintain good
Or/5 /5 7 HERE SOMETHING WRONG- \NIIN YOUR COMBINE? >
I'Ve NOTICED ThRT EVERYT/ME YOU GET TO IRE TOP OP THIS
- HILL, YOU STOP POP ABOUT
~ ft HftLF HOUR
sf
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
air circulation during storage and
your apples should keep a long
time.
That cute rabbit you saw playing in
your yard this summer may be
back this winter to eat your land
scape plants. In winter when food
is scarce...rabbits will eat the bark
from small trees and shrubs...and
if the rabbits are hungry enough
and plentiful enough they can kill a
plant.
You can protect your trees in one
of two ways. Wrap the trunks and
low hanging branches with wire
mesh or hardware cloth. The wire
barrier should be at least 2 feet
high to prevent rabbits from
reaching over it.
You can also use commercial
rabbit repellents, however, you
may have to reapply the repellent
during the winter.
Rabbits are fond of small fruit
trees, crab apples, dogwood, and
pine. They also like forsythia
bushes, pyracantha and
~ -
farm in different ways.
The hen constantly moved about, scratching
and pecking away here and there. If the
scratching and pecking was too tough in one
spot, the hen moved elsewhere and tried
something different. She constantly checked
with others in the flock and beyond. She just
didn't sit back and cackle away, but asked
questions, checked with others and adapted to
changing conditions.
The ostrich tried its own type of farming. It
stuck strictly to the old, traditional ways,
sticking its head in the sand and letting its
colorful plumage flutter in the breeze. It was
big, colorful and quite impressive-looking, but
also extremely impractical for the times.
Grandmother Heidi would always end the
fairy tale with the questions of which farmer
you’d rather be - the ostrich or the hen.
It seems that her question is now more
appropriate than ever.
Ostrich agriculture is being practiced by
those who think it’s business as usual. “Let
me alone and just let me farm," they think.
But it is not business as usual in farming and
likely never will be again. The rules have
changed drastically and more and more those
outside agriculture are setting the rules.
A lot of farmers face some tough, hard
decisions and the longer they play ostrich, the
fewer will be their alternatives. It's time to get
those heads out of the sand and start scrat
ching and pecking around to check out those
alternatives and what may need to be changed
to survive.
The first step is admitting that it’s not
business as usual and accepting that some
long-held traditions and practices may need to
be changed.
And, what happened to the ostrich?
It stuck to tradition and business as usual
And its business went the same way of its
flashy, colorful plumage. When's the last time
you saw ostrich plumes as fashion ac
cessories?
Winter Protection
From Rabbits
honeysuckle...but this doesn’t
mean your other landscape plants
are safe...a rabbit’s taste is
anything but consistent.
To Salute 4-H
National 4-H Week runs through
this week - October 2-8. I wish to
commend the over 3,000 4-H
members, volunteer leaders and
professional youth workers for
their accomplishments and service
to Lancaster County.
Through 4-H projects and ac
tivities, youth from all social and
economic backgrounds, both rural
and urban, demonstrate that they
can make a difference in food
production, conservation of our
national resources, improve
economic understanding, and in
the formulation of future career
decisions. As a result of the fine
exchange programs, 4-H also
contributes to international un
derstanding and increased world
food production. Four-H provides
an important pathway to the future
for many youth.
NOPE. I STOP CRUSE THE
TR£ PRO/0 RECEPT/ON /S
SO GOOD UP HERE ON THIS
BETTER
TO LOVE
October 9,1983
Background Scripture: Hosea
11:1-4,8; 14:4-7; 1 John 4:8,9.
Devotional Reading: John 3:18-
26.
Behind the wry joke, I could
sense a bundle of pain. The man, a
friend of many years, had just told
me that his daughter had given
birth to a baby out of wedlock. The
father of the child, a college drop
out who manages to escape em
ployment by getting the daughter
to solicit funds from her parents,
has also managed to turn the girl
against her parents (although not
their monetary support), rup
turing a once-close, warm
relationship. “Do you think,” he
concluded, "they’U ever invent
birth control pills that are
retroactive?” We both chuckled. It
was better than crying.
THEY DIDN'T KNOW
Of course, he didn’t really mean
that he wished his child had never
been bom. But he couldn’t help
wondering, if only for a moment,
whether he would have risked all
that love if he had known the hurt
and disappointment that were
later to go with it. Don't many of us
wonder that from time to time? To
love is to make ourselves
vulnerable to pain.
And that is true, not only on the
human level, but on the divine
level as well. Nowhere is this more
poignantly expressed than in the
porphecy of Hosea, Chapter 11:
Farm Calendar /^|V
Saturday, Oct. 8
International Trotting and Pacing
Pony Sale, Farm Show Corn-
Sunday, Oct. 9
Red Rose Alliance Walk-a-Thon, 1
p.m., Rea & Derick parking lot,
New Holland.
Tuesday, Oct. 11
Lebanon County Holstein Club
banquet, 7 p.m., Zoar’s Social
Hall, Mt. Zion.
Wednesday, Oct. 12
NEMA annual meeting, Hershey
Hotel, continues through
Friday.
Dairylea Co-op annual meeting.
Hotel Syracuse, N.Y., continues
tomorrow.
Bradford Lamb Pool, 9-11 a.m.,
Wyalusing Sales Bam.
Northeast DHIA Directors, 10:30
a.m., Pink Apple, Tunkhan
nock.
To Sow A
Fall Cover Crop
Our concern for soil con
servation should include a cover
crop following tobacco, com or
other row crops. This is an ex
cellent practice and we encourage
all farmers to keep their land
covered with some vegetation
during the winter months. The
cover crop could be any winter
grain crop or domestic ryegrass
and field broomegrass. Then next
spring the growth can be pastured
early and then plowed down or
used in a no-till grain operation.
Cover crops not only add organic
matter but help to hold the topsoil
during the winter months. They
are well worth the investment.
When Israel was a child, I loved
hun, and out of Egypt 1 called my
son. The more 1 called them, the
more they went from me; they
kept sacrificing to the Baals and
burning incense to idols. Yet it was
1 who taught Ephraim to walk. 1
took them up in my arms; but they
did not know 1 healed them. (11.1-
3).
God’s love is expressed for us
here in terms that any of us can
understand and appreciate. No
matter how tender the love, the
capacity for hurt is always
present. We can place ourselves
within Hosea’s words: ”1 led them
with cords of compassion, with the
bands of love, and 1 became to
them as one who eases the yoke on
their jaws, and 1 bent down to them
and fed them" (1I:4J. The more
tender the love, the greater the
potential for pam.
WITHOUT LOVE
Many people conclude,
therefore, that the only thing to do
u> to insulate themselves from
love. If they do not make them
selves vulnerable through love,
they will protect themselves from
pain. So they steel themselves to
feel nothing, neither love nor pain.
Yet, as must be obvious, that is
no answer to the problem of love.
For, if we insulate ourselves from
love to protect ourselves from
pain, we will also insulate our
selves from God. One cannot "play
it safe” and still experience love.
For, as the writer of 1 John tells us
so simply: "He who does not love
does not know God; for God is
love.” We can never be secure
without God and, witnoul running
the risk of loving, we cannot know
God.
It is like that old saying: "Better
to have loved and lost, than never
having loved at all.” Except that
when we love - as God loves us - we
do really lose.
Thursday, Oct. 13
Pa. Veterinary Medical Assn. 101st
annual meeting. Seven Springs
Mountain Resort, continues
through Sunday.
Pa. 57th renewal of the Pa. State
Guernsey Sale, Sales Pavilion.
Friday, Oct. 4
Penn National Horse Show, Farm
Show Complex, continues
through next week.
Second annual State Grange Dairy
Sale, Mel Kolb Sale Bam,
Lancaster.
Saturday, Oct 15
Second Annual Keystone Autumn
Classic Pa. Shorthorn Breeders
Assn., Brad Eisiminger Farm,
Waynesburg.
East Coast Farm Toy Show, 9 a.m.
- 3 p.m., Harvest Drive
Restaurant.
=We
amebscx
ON THE GROW
AFT*