A3o—Uncuttr Farming, Saturday, May 26,1984
Soil Stewardship Week opens tomorrow
WEST CHESTER - “The
Chester County Conservation
District is joining in the nationwide
celebration of Soil Stewardship
Week, which begins tomorrow and
continues through Sunday, June
3,” Harold R. Kulp, District
Chairman, Pottstown, reports.
Kulp encourages clergymen, lay
leaders, churches, civic and
educational organizations “to
obtain a sample packet of the
materials. Materials especially
prepared for clergymen to use in
preparation for the Soil Steward
ship Week observance are
available.” They should contact
the District office, 235 W. Market
St., West Chester, Pa. 19380, ph:
696-5126.
“Soil Stewardship Week has
become a special time to remind
all people that these gifts of the
Creator warrant their best in
creative conservation and con
siderate management,” he said.
“Not only farmers but owners of
all land should recognize their
obligations to use their property in
such a way as to not damage
another person’s property,
plained.
“The world as we know it could
not exist without a fruitful
agriculture. A regular harvest is a
critical matter. But nature, like
man, is erratic. There are times
when the winds and the rain seem
to conspire against a yield.
“When the rains cease and the
earth cracks, when storms and
pestilence wreak their havoc,
fields become barren and livestock
grow gaunt in search of grass. It is
then and times of prolonged
hardship, that the call goes out for
Divine intervention to ease the
suffering and restore the bounty of
the soil.”
That is what happened in France
more than 1,500 years ago in the
city of Vienne, and its surrounding
countryside. Bad weather, fires
and earthquakes had brought crop
failures and widesprewad hunger.
5 new research projects approved
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania Agricultural Research
Committee has approved five new
projects totaling $107,275 for the
1984-85 fiscal year, according to
State Agriculture Secretary
Penrose Hallowed.
Three of the five projects will be
conducted at Penn State. They
include:
Germplasm Enhancement of
the Cultivated Mushroom,
Agancus brunnescens, $11,564.
Economic Analysis of the
Pennsylvania Greenhouse In
dustry, $19,622.
Evaluation of Potato Storage
and Processing Quality, $24,788.
The remaining new projects are:
Effect of Protein
Degradability and Estrous
Detection on Dairy Reproduction,
to be conducted at the University
of Pennsylvania, $21,447.
A Novel Methodology for
Estrus Detection in Bovine, to be
done by the Monell Chemical
Senses Center, $29,854.
The ten-member committee also
approved funding for a continuing
project at Penn State University. A
Research/Educational Program
for Direct Marketers is to receive
additional support in the amount of
$35,812.
Total funding for 1984-85
research project is $310,000, ac
cording to Secretary Hallowell. He
ndted that funding for the five new
projects, approved at an ARC
meeting on May 8, is contingent
upon passage of a state budget
measure containing agricultural
research funding as proposed by
Governor Thornburgh.
Members of the Agricultural
Research Committee include
Secretary Hallowell, chairman;
Deputy Secretaries of Agriculture
The Bishop of Vienne, Saint
Mamertus, called for prayer and
penance on the three days
preceding Ascension Day.
Word of what happened in
Vienne spread throughout France
and then to other countries beyond
the Alps. The supplication filled a
need in the hearts and minds of the
people. As the years went by, the
practice of setting aside these
special days Rogation Days
was widely established on an
annual basis. By the end of the
eighth century the Church for
mally adopted the custom.
In the United States, a few
churches and their congregations
in the South began to set aside the
fifth Sunday after Easter as Soil
and Soul Sunday. This designation
was changed to Soil Stewardship
Sunday in 1946.
Recognizing possible conflicts
with Rural Life Sunday and other
events often observed on church
calendars, Soil Stewardship
Sunday was changed to a Soil
Stewardship Week. It was
scheduled to begin on the fifth
Sunday after Easter and con
tinuing through the sixth Sunday.
The change provided a helpful
latitude in church timing for the
observance.
“The Soil Stewardship Week
observance, by its very nature, is
one to be joined in by everyone who
shares a sense of personal
responsibility for the care of the
soil, water and the other vital
elements making up our en
vironment,” Kulp said.
The prime concern of the
Chester County Conservation
District and the. cooperating
clergymen and laymen, is to en
courage an ever-growing par
ticipation by Chester County
residents in this annual recognition
of the continuing importance of
each person having a good
stewardship in and on his
property,” Kulp concluded.
E. Chester Heim and J. Luther Ben Mader, Executive Director of
Snyder; Fred Wertz, Acting the Pennsylvania Harness Racing
Director of the Department’s Commission; Charles Trimmer,
Office of Planning and Research; Executive Director of the Penn-
5 spec’ ,a ' \ Myers All-American
4 p Sow t Air Sprayers
Carrots, conservation and caring
NEWMANSTOWN - Carrots,
conservation and caring do go
together on the Dan Hogeland
farm at Newmanstown. Last
Spring, Hogeland installed 6000
feet of cropland terraces to reduce
the runoff and erosion from his
carrot field.
The cropland terraces are wide
swales that go across the field
every 135 feet according to Karl
Hellerick, Soil Conservation
Service. The grade is only 4-6 in
ches for each 100 foot of length.
Thus, cropland terraces reduce the
length of slope and carry any
runoff slowly to a grassed
waterway outlet, reports
RD#3 3058 F,eetwood - Pa - 19522
An example of obviously poor soil stewardship and its effects on the land
Hellerick.
The entire cropland terrace is
farmed in vegetables. This year
another 3000 feet of cropland
terracres are being installed.
Hellerick reports that two other
vegetables growers - Harold Fry
and Earl Brandt - have installed
waterways this spring. Another
waterway is being designed for the
Abe Risser-Bob Marvel vegetable
operation. The waterways are to
be seeded to grass and it’s planned
to outlet the cropland terraces into
these well sodded outlets in 1986.
Vegetable growers have to get
into the field to harvest crops when
sylvania Horse Racing Com
mission; Senator Edward
Helfnck, Chairman of the Senate
Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee; Senator Patrick J.
Stapleton, Minority Chairman of
Dilute or Concentrated Applications. For
Orchard, Vineyard, Grove and Field Spraying.
Sales And Service By
EARL F. KEGERISE,
INC.
Phone 215-944-8532
they’re ripe regardless of the soil
conditions. This causes excessive
compaction, stated Hellerick.
Compaction reduces infiltration
and increases runoff.
In addition, seed beds are often
worked to a “fine” condition that
causes a crust to form with the
first heavy rainfall and thereby
prevents water from soaking into
the soil. This increased runoff
causes erosion.
Vegetable growers have an
intensely tilled crop that requires
excellent management to save the
soil and produce the food everyone
can enjoy, concluded Hellerick.
the Senate Committee;
Representative Samuel Morns,
Chairman of the House Agriculture
and Rural Affairs Committee; and
Representative Joseph V. Grieco,
Minority Chairman of the House
Committee.