M2— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Ptctmber 3,1983 agricultural preservation As winter approaches and daylight hours shorten, we are able to enjoy to the comforts of those evening hours spent at home with the family. This gives us the opportunity to turn our thoughts from the day to day tasks of cropping to more weighty issues facing the farming community, such as farmland preservation, soil conservation and farm legislation. This is the time of year that farm organizations meet to develop policy priorities for the coming year. Focusing on the concerns and injustices confronting farmers, they make the commitment to change them for a better farming future. In this light, the Pennsylvania Farmers Association at its annual meeting recently cited such priorities as passage of a bottle bill, that will save thousands if not millions in natural resources, and will help protect the beauty of the countryside and health of livestock. In Delaware a bottle bill has been in effect for nearly one year. Members of the Delaware Farm Bureau, in their policy resolutions gave thanks to legislators who worked to pass the bottle bill, and pledged continued support of the bill. Another DFB priority is farmland preservation in Delaware. Two very honorable resolutions. This year in Pennsylvania and Maryland farmland preservation and soil conservation have taken on increased importance, too. And the farming community is making progress; by speaking loud and clearly to government representatives of its desire for that better farming future. But as Amos Funk, well known farmland preservation advocate, queried, ‘‘What is the use in diligently working to save topsoil, if the farm is lost to development?” And what is the purpose of overall agricultural preservation if it can be forever devastated by nuclear war? Nuclear war is a thought most of us choose to ignore, because really what can we as in dividuals do when it comes to matters of national or world defense. But farmers are known for their political activism, for speaking out for what they believe. And most farmers around the world believe deeply in the con tinuation of the family farm, and the prosperity of the agricultural sector that feeds all of humanity. From the Chinese rice paddy, to the grape arbors of Europe, to the American cornbelt, the hope is the same. Nonetheless the threat of a nuclear holocaust is very real, whether we choose to face it or not. There presently exists the capability of destroying the world many times over with nuclear weapons. Everything that we have worked hard for, every living thing we so cherish, could be destroyed. And yet the United States Defense Department continues to spend millions to build these weapons, even at the expense of social and, yes, agricultural programs. Defense and nuclear experts predict total devastion of agriculture in the event of a nuclear war. All animal and plant life would be destroyed, if not by the initial blast, by the nuclear winter that would follow. When policy development time rolls around, farm organizations might consider expressing their views of nuclear disarmament - the ultimate necessity for agricultural preser vation. Worldwide BY IRISH WILLIAMS No-till conference draws near TIMONIUM, Md. - The 10th annual Mid-Atlantiq No-Till Conference is set for Dec. 14 at the Maryland State fairground in Timonium, MD. Departing the traditional format involving an all-day schedule of speakers, this year’s educational program in Exhibition Hall will feature formal presentations only in the forenoon. After lunch in the fairground’s 4- H and Home and Arts building, participants may return to Exhibition Hall to hear the speakers answer questions raised by their morning presentations. The rest of the afternoon may then be spent corralling speakers for answers to individual questions, or visiting back in the 4-H and Home Arts building with 52 commercial exhibitors who have reserved space for information booths and equipment displays. Sponsoring organizations in clude the Cooperative Extension Service at landgrant universities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia. Financial and program support is provided by interested agribusiness firms. Registration for the daylong event will get under way in Exhibition Hall on the Timonium fairground at 8 a.m. The morning program will begin in the same location at 9:30 a.m. Early arrivals will have the opportunity to visit commercial exhibits in the fairground’s 4-H and Home Arts Building before the formal education activities get started. Free coffee and doughnuts will be served. General chairman of the plan ning committee for this year’s Mid-Atlantic No-Till conference is Robert L. Jones of Westminister, Md, the University of Maryland Extension director in Carroll county. Conrad reports that $3 lunch and admission tickets are now available from most county Ex tension offices in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia. They should be purchased in advance, not later than Monday. More than 1,500 farmers and agribusinessmen from the six state area are expected to attend. The Maryland state fairground, site of this year’s no-till con ference, is located in the 2200 block of York road in Timonium, north of Farm Calendar (Continued from Page A 10) Thursday, Dec. 8 Commercial vegetable session of 1963 Peninsula Horticultural Society from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, Salisbury, Md. Farm financial management workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the York 4-H Center. Friday, Dec. 9 Winter Forage Meeting, Md. and Del. Forage Council, at the Hartly Fireball, Hartly, Del. Baltimore. If coming from the north on highway 1-63, turn off at exit 17A and make a right on York road. Proceed two-thirds of a mile and make another right-hand turn at the fairground’s north gate near the 4-H and Home Arts Building. Now is the Time (Continued from Page A 10) To Control Weed* In Alfalfa Have you been bothered with some of the winter time weeds such as duckweed or Shepherds purse in your alfalfa stands? If so, now would be a good time to apply a herbicide to knock out these weeds. Too many alfalfa growers wait until they see a heavy growth of these weeds and then think of spraying. All weeds are easier to kill when small and before they choke out the alfalfa plants. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is excellent for applying herbicides to alfalfa stands. The material to use will vary with the age of the stand and whether or not any grass is there as a companion crop. We suggest that growers refer to the Agronomy Guide, or to their local pesticide dealer for suggestions relating to materials. The important thing is to do the spraying while the weeds are small. \
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