Al2—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, January 21,1984
PFA calls for hunting
CAMP HILL - The Penn
sylvania Fanners’ Association had
called upon the Pennsylvania
Game Commission to delay the
start of small game seasons and to
extend antlerless deer and bear
seasons this year to alleviate
farmers’ crop damage by game
animals.
In recent testimony presented by
PFA’s Associate Administrator
Charles Mohn, the statewide
general farm organization urged
the changes be made as,” . . .an
expression of gratitude by the
sportsmen for the farmers making
their land available to them to
enjoy their recreation.”
Mohn told the commission. “We
feel the farmers are asked to put
up with the sportsmen for too long
a period of time.” PFA recom
mends small game season be
delayed two weeks until Nov. 3 and
rabbit and pheasant hunting be set
back one week until Nov. 10.
Mohn also said PF-A believes an
overabundance of deer continues
to cause crop damage problems for
farmers. Accordingly, PFA is
recommending that this year’s
antlerless deer season be extended
to three days instead of two. PFA
also called for both the antlered
and antlerless deer seasons to be
delayed one week until Dec. 3 and
Dec. 17, respectively.
Mohn said, “Recent studies
indicated the ag community
season changes
contributed better than $3O million
annually to support the deer herd.
Since this study, prices advanced
and it could be in excess of $35
million at the present time - more
than the license fees that the
sportsmen contribute to the
commission. The farmer feels he is
receiving little or no consideration
for his contribution to the main
tenance of the herd. I think we all
agree that killing, deer for crop
damage is not the answer. We need
OUR READERS WRITE,
ORGANIC FARMING
IS A WINNER
Dear Editor:
The current domination of
chemical farming methods on
American agriculture is causing
many serious problems. All life on
this earth is interrelated and the
poisons that are sprayed on insects
and weeds will also hurt wildlife,
livestock and people. The in
creasing addition of toxic, man
made substances into our en
vironment has to be the cause of
why the U.S. population continues
to get vastly increasing numbers of
cases of cancer, leukemia, birth
defects and liver ailments. .
A major culprit is no-till far
ming. It creates an unhealthy
environment for crops and, as a
result, huge ever-increasing
amounts of herbicides and in
secticides must be dumped on the
soil to try to stop the legions of
invading weeds and insect pests.
No-till is being promoted as a soil
conservation tool, but nothing
could be further from the truth.
Poisoning the soil, stripping
everything off the land and not
planting cover crops cannot be
conserving the soil. And greater
amounts of energy are used to
Hamilton Bank supports
Agricultural Education.
On January 25th, Hamilton Bank will once again help to support the
annual York County Corn Day at the York County 4-H Center near Bair.
AND OTHER OPINIONS
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to control the herd by giving the
sportsmen a longer season
resulting in more deer harvested.”
Mohn said farmers are also
suffering considerable bear
damage and recommended that
bear season be extended to three
days. He added that statewide crop
damage due to elk herds does not
seem significant at present. PFA is
recommending that the com
mission fence in the elk herd on
public lands.
manufacture the no-till chemicals
than are us<*d in conventional
cropping. These chemicals are so
deadly that hunters complain that
they can’t find any game to hunt in
the farm areas.
One reason we are having
trouble exporting grain to foreign
countries is that they know our
grain has low nutritive value and is
contaminated with chemicals.
Livestock and poultry today are
raised in crowded factory farms.
Farm Calendar
(Continued from Page A 10)
Guernsey special sale, 12:30 p.m., School.
Guernsey Sales Bam, Lan- Del. Assn, of Nurserymen, 8:30
caster. a.m. - 4 p.m., Sheraton Inn,
Lancaster Farm and Home
Foundation annual dinner
meeting, 6:30 p.m., Farm and
Home Center.
Cecil County no-till breakfast, 7:45
a.m., Schaefers Canal House,
Chesapeake City, Md.
Adams County milk marketing
workshop, 7:30 p.m., vo-ag
room. Bermusian Springs High
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jt jy— V;
The swine and poultry are
crammed into cages and never see
the light of day. Because of this
heavy concentration of animals,
diseases run rampant and the
livestock must be pumped full of
drugs and antibiotics. They are
also loaded with hormones and all
kinds of chemicals to produce.
Modern farming is truly filthy.
You can’t take a pleasant country
ride anymore because the air
reeks with the stench of powerful
agricultural chemicals and
chemicalized manures.
I know that these methods of
farming are wrong and that none
of this insanity and destruction is
necessary. My family has been in
farming for over 100 years, so I
know a lot about agriculture. To
prove that there is an alternative
way to farm and that naturally
grown crops are of top quality, we
entered some of our organically
grown produce in the 1984 Pa.
Farm Show.
Despite this past summer’s
fierce heat and drought, we won
ribbons in a wide vareity of
categories. Absolutely no
pesticides, herbicides, hormones,
etc. were used to grow them. We
won first in turnips (second
year in a row), other type squash
and root parsley, third prize in
shelled field com (60.2 lbs. bushel
test weight), onions, sweet
potatoes and medium wool, fourth
in Indian com (stalks over 10 feet
tall and only watered once), oat
hay, late cutting grass hay (tested
19.3 percent protein), face and
sugar pie pumpkins, dry beans and
medium wool, and fifth in first
Dover.
Friday, Jan. 27
Vegetable Production meeting, 9
a.m., Penn State Fruit
Research Lab. Biglerville.
Saturday, Jan. 28
York County 4-H beef banquet, 7
p.m., Seven Valleys.
N.J. dairy goat luncheon, Ryland
Inn.
I! t} i
cutting grass. In last year’s show
we won first prize in turnips and
wool, second in face and fourth in
neck pumpkins. Let no one say that
organic farming doesn’t work.
In addition to organic crops
having high quality and nutrition,
the non-use of expensive ag
chemicals cuts their production
cost down greatly. There is a large
demand from the public for clean
food and it is growing all the time.
When you spray, you are poisoning
yourself, your family, animals, our
society and future generations.
Reduce your dependence on
chemicals, give nature a chance to
help you and you’ll receive a
bounty of rich harvests, good
health and the pride that comes
from raising wholesome food.
James Smith
Shippensburg
I Now is
I the Time
(Continued from Page A 10)
Alfalfa sod can add as much as
75 pounds of nitrogen per acre.
That is one advantage to having
legumes in the crop rotation.
A complete soil test will reveal
the needs of each field. Then the
needs can be met by using farm
manures, legume sods, or com
mercial fertilizer. Careful han
dling and storage of manure will
preserve many of these valuable
fertilizer elements.
To Provide Supplemental Heat
This is the time of year when
many pigs and lambs are being
bom into cold quarters. If the
newborn animal becomes chilled
that firsf hour, it will be in trouble.
Many digestive and respiratory
problems can develop.
We urge producers to provide
heat lamps, or some other source
of heat, for these animals the first
few days. Modem farrowing bams
already have supplemental heat,
units that provide the proper
temperature to get little pigs off to
a good start. However, many sheep
bams are too cold for little lambs.
The placing of a heat lamp over
the small pen in which the ewe and
lamb are kept for the first few days
will be helpful. Be careful that the
heat lamp is well attached and out
of the reach of animals.
* *
SS6
HAMILTON BANK
'£Hl f/j