*2o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 22,1984
365-lb. pumpkin, 20-Ib. cabbage, 81-Ib. melon
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
YORK Ten lucky gardeners
picked up $25 checks as the York
Fair wound down last weekend,
winners in the fair’s first hor
ticulture record-setting varieties
contest. Although the entries we’re
most impressive, none topped the
world records to win the offered
$l,OOO prize.
All but one winner was grown in
York County. A Chester countain,
H. Roland Leslie of Coatesville,
lugged a 365 pound pumpkin to the
fairgrounds to win the giant
pumpkin category, and handily
outweighed any other entry - of any
variety - in the spacious Hor
ticulture Hall.
In contrast was another special
rosette winner, a 1.66-pound pear
from the backyard orchard of
James Wilson of Glen Rock R 2.
“This is only the second year the
tree has fruited,” commented
Wilson, of the five-year-old Stark
Bros. Jumbo Pear variety, which
still has two more impressive, but
a trifle smaller, fruits on the tree.
Last year’s single pear borne by
the tree weighed a pound and a
half.
Wilson sprayed the spur pear on
the same schedule as the rest of his
collection of various fruiting trees,
about every two weeks. He utilized
mostly a combination of Sevin and
Captan, with the occasional ad
dition of Furban for controlling
black rot.
When a friend sent Tom Doll,
Red Lion R 4, three watermelon
seed last spring, the midwesterner
had no way of knowing the 50-cent
per-seed gift would grow into a $25
prize, whopping 81-pounder.
Doll planted the three seeds
individual peat pots and two
eventually developed into fledging
plants. According to Mrs. Doll,
they took the plants to their son’s
garden at Loganville, where they
were put in the ground under black
plastic mulch.
Such vigorous growth vined out
Twin wins dominate
YORK A capsule rundown on
the open class hog results at the
York Fair takes on the overtures of
double talk.
Selected grand champion
barrow over all breeds was the
purebred Duroc exhibited by Jim
and Gus Parlett of Airville, and
bred by the Roger Bankert family
of Hanover, a Duroc purebred
operation.
Reserve grand barrow overall,
on the other hand, was shown by
Greg Bankert and bred by the
Parlett’s from their purebred
Chester White lines. Earlier, the
same hog had taken champion
market barrow for young Bankert
in the 4-H judging, along with his
claiming 4-H Duroc honors, and
master fitting and showmanship
awards.
Bankert says champion hogs
need to be “looked at every day.”
In addition, he favors running his
top pick for daily exercise, and
Greg and his winner regularly
jogged a quarter-mile for winning
show-ring fitness. Ground com and
supplement comprise the diet of
these hogs, along with “extra
added ingredients” which top hog
growers will only hint about.
Also in the top winners’ circle
was hogman John Strawbndge of
Stewartstown, showing the
champion pair overall, a class
winning set of Hampshires.
Strawbndge took home top
awards in both Yorkshire and
Hampshire open shows, while the
Bankert family won numerous
Duroc breed awards, and Parletts
picked up a host of ribbons in both'
Spotted and Chester White com
petition. J.B.
the the family first believed it
would be a case of all stalk and no
fruit, but eventually they began
finding miniature melons hidden
under the lush leaves.
At first melon taken off weighed
55 pounds, and although the color
was a sort of pale pink, the flavor
was tasty and the flesh a sandy
texture. Three more melons still
await sampling, in addition to the
prize winner.
Encouraged by numerous
friends to enter the monster melon
in the fair, Mrs. Doll now muses, “I
wonder how many hands might
have rubbed over that melon
during the fair’s nine days?”.
“When we eat sauerkraut, I’ll
remember that head of cabbage,”
says the grower of the giant 19.75
pound cabbage, Dean Becker of
Spring Grove. Actually, the eight
quarts of sauerkraut were made
from a companion plant head that
topped the scale at over 20 pounds,
but split. To avoid the same fate
with his entry, Becker picked it a
couple of weeks prior to the fair
and held the cabbage under
refrigeration. By the time the fair
had expired so had the winning
cabbage.
Growing supersize entries for
the fair’s horticulture exhibits has
become a sort of family endeavor
for the Beckers, and a few years
ago, their son was the exhibitor of
a very large pumpkin.
“We try something new every
year for novelty,” adds Becker.
“Now we’re ready to try it again in
1985.”
Becker raised the winning
cabbage plants from seed of a
crossed variety, Hybrid 0 S Cross.
Although he does make sure that
abundant fertilizer is available for
his garden crops, and keeps watch
on any insect problems, the winner
is quick to credit the summer’s wet
weather for boosting his cabbage
crop.
Other winners in the York fair
records class are:
Cantaloupe -11 pounds, Cynthia
Parlett as champion overall at York Fair,
Greg and Beth Innerst at York Fair
Giant pumpkin of H. Roland Leslie, Coatesville, at just over 365 lbs. handily beat all
comers at York Fair. Glen Rock hobby fruit grower Jim Wilson compares his winning
pear with one of more normal size.
Shearer, Spring Grove R 4.
Gourd - 17.85 pounds, William
Black, Dallastown.
Potato - 2.75 pounds, Alfred
York FFA’ers win big at fair
YORK York County FFA
members kept busy in the show
ring at the York Fair, claiming
honors for several chapters taking
part from across the county.
Sheep and beef competition
opened the FFA contests during
the first half of the fair. John
Eaton, Jr., of the Red Lion
chapter, snagged grand and
reserve championships in both
Dorset and Suffolk sheep breed
shows, then finished off by
claiming the master showman
award. Hampshire awards went to
Dover chapter’s Daryl Reedy and
Ed Keeny of Red Lion won all the
rosettes in the market lamb
category. Judge for the sheep show
was J.G. Warfield of Marriotsville,
Md.
In the beef showring, Penn
State’s professor emeritus Her
man Purdy picked Jim Eisenhour
of Dover for the beef breeding and
master fitting honors, with
hog show
ly entry of
ippe
r
Miller,
Dover.
Tomato - 2 pounds, 3 oz., Ada
Trone, Spring Grove R 3.
Church Road,
Kohlers
classmate Deborah Hoffman the
market steer winner.
During the second half of the
fair, dairy and hog contests came
into the spotlight, with John Morris
of Maryland making the dairy
selections while Dennis Grumbine
of Lebanon worked the swine
shows.
Brown Swiss winnings split
among several entries. Grand and
junior champion was the senior
calf entry of Lisa Kilgore of Red
Lion, edging out her sister Kelly’s
reserve junior and reserve grand
senior yearling. Senior champion
was the junior two-year-old shown
by James Anderson, Jr., of Ken
nard-Dale.
C.E. Hubbard 111, Red Land
chapter, took the Holstein
champion ribbons with his three
year-old. Reserve senior and
grand was the two-year-old shown
by Loretta Cooper of Kennard
Dale. Kennard Dale’s Jon Hash
exhibited the junior champion and
classmate Randy Gross the
reserve heifer with their junior and
senior calves. Kelly Kilgore
earned the champion fitter title
There she is, Miss...
YORK That perennially
favorite 4-H dairy event, calf
dressing, wrapped up the 4-H
activities at the York Fair last
Thursday evening, with five teams
turning out for the costuming fun.
Junior teams paraded into the
ring first, to garb their sometimes
reluctant heifer calves in a variety
of get-ups. Judge Michael Sleeper,
of Atlantic Breeders, had the
difficult task of selecting winners.
Awarded the blue ribbon in the
junior category were Janelle
Boyer and Angie Lang, who
fastened fake horns on the head of
their heifer for the title role in the
entry, dubbed “The Devil went
down to Georgia.”
In contrast came the red ribbon
winners, Alyson Duncan and Amy
Shoemaker, portraying a wedding
party. A bovine Miss America,
Myers gets FFA award
YORK Julie Myers, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Dale Myers, Sr. of
R 1 Wellsville, was chosen as York
County’s Outstanding FFA
Member of 1984 at the York Fair.
She received an expense paid
trip to the National FFA Con
vention and American Royal
Livestock Show which are to be
held in Kansas City, Mo., the week
of Nov. 5.
Myers is a senior at the Northern
York High School where she is an
honor student and reporter of their
local FFA chapter and is currently
Apple - 1.34 pounds,
Sechrist, Red Lion R 2.
Squash - 120.5 pounds, Russell
Becker, Spring Grove R 2.
while Loretta Cooper was chosen
top showman.
Ron Wilson of Kennard Dale beat
out the competition to win the
Yorkshire breeding class with his
junior yearling sow, while also
picking up the reserve spot with a
January sow.
Veteran junior hogman Gus
Parlett from Red Lion walked off
with grand and reserve in both the
Spotted Poland and Chester White
shows, while Red Lion’s Michele
Steam and Melissa Peters split the
champion and reserve spots in
Duroc classes.
Greg and Beth Innerst garnered
still more championships for the
Red Lion chapter when their en
tries took all the awards in the
Berkshire breed category. Innerst
also got the nod as champion fitter
over the hog show, with Jeff Stern
of Dover named the champion
showman.
With livestock competition
behind them, several FFA
members climbed onto tractors to
maneuver rigs through a course
(Turn to Page A 33)
entered by Tim Warner and Rich
Bupp, placed third.
Senior first place went to Patty
Bupp and Lesley King, dressed as
Indians with their calf in a card
board canoe. Bndgette Boyer and
Angie Lange, in keeping with the
news of the week, had a second
Miss American entry.
Commodity dressups followed,
with youngsters publicizing their
favorite farm commodity. Out
fitted in a dairy theme, little Chad
and Amy Tunmer won the junior
division, and 4-H sheep exhibitor
Mehssa Trostle was successful in
the senior class wearing her all
wool coordinated outfit and leading
one of her project lambs.
The evening’s fun events
wrapped up with a hilarious - if
messy - ice cream eating contest.
- J.B.
serving as vice-president of the
York County FFA. She attended
the Pennsylvania FFA Convention
this past summer as a delegate
representing York County. In 1982
and 1983 she also attended the state
convention and participated in the
state livestock judging contests
and received gold and bronze
awards respectively. In 1982 Myers
was a member of the livestock
judging team representing Penn
sylvania at the Eastern States
Exposition in Springfield, Mass,
which placed 2nd overall.
Russ