Editorial
Budgets and extension
News stones over the past few weeks have explained how the
Gramm-Rudman tax cuts would affect Agricultural Extension
Services. And the news has certainly been bad.
At first, the extension programs were going to be cut entirely.
Even now, wholesale reductions in staff and services are being
c(iscussed, with 4-H and family living programs a prime target.
In an era of budgetary limitation, the extension services can
hardly expect to be viewed as a sacred cow. Cuts will be made,
and new realities will have to be recognized.
But extension services have proved their worth year after
year, in the help, advice, counseling and personal services they
provide to farmers and rural residents alike. Cutting many of
these programs now, in one of agriculture’s lowest moments,
would truly be short-sighted.
.Perhaps states can and should assume a greater burden.
After all, federal funds guarantee an adequate food supply
through purchase of surplus commodities and other programs
to maintain prices. Shouldn’t the states assume greater
responsibility for the aid and development of the agricultural
businesses within their borders?
Decisions about what programs to fund and how to fund
them are political decisions, decisions that will be made in the
heat of the coming political campaign.
Farmers have every right to participate in that process,
making suggestions about what programs could be cut. . . and
which ones have proved their worth. And they have a
responsibility to their industry to fight for the programs they
think are absolutely essential. __
NOW IS THE TIME
To Practice Safety Around Liquid
Manure Pits
Many manure pits will be
cleaned out at this time of year for
field application. This by-product
of the livestock and dairy business
is very useful as fertilizer.
However, the pit can be a safety
hazard because of poisonous and
explosive gases.
When the mixture is agitated in
order to be removed, these gases
are more plentiful and much more
dangerous. Good vejitilation above
the pit is very important. Also,
anyone who goes down in the
empty pit should be wearing a gas
mask. These gases are dangerous
and can be fatal to both humans
and animals. We urge all farmers
to caution their employees of this
potential danger.
To Control Wild Garlic
We may like onions on our
hamburgers and in other foods, but
very few of us like onion-flavored
milk. This can easily happen on
dairy farms where wild garlic
plants are allowed to grow. Many
pastures are infested with wild
garlic.
One of the best times to start
control measures on this weed is
early spring when the young plants
are 4 to 8 inches high. An ap
plication of 2,4 D will knock them
down. Follow the label for direc- Saturday, March 15
tions. When this is applied around NE Regional Christmas Tree
the middle to latter part of March, Grower’s Meeting, 8:15 a.m. to
little damage is done to any 4 p.m., Luzerne County Corn
legume in the area. If garlic plants munity College, Nanticoke.
are allowed to mature each year, p a . Ayrshire Breeders Annual
the pasture area will become so Meeting, Grantville Holiday
contaminated that dairy cows inn, 10:30 a.m.; contact Milt
cannot utilize the grass. Brubaker, 717-626-5788.
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
To Care For Horses
Many horses and ponies are
neglected this time of year. When
they are kept in a stable for long
periods of time...such as during the
winter...they can get out of con
dition. And they may develop some
bad habits. But you can avoid this
by following good management
practices.
Your horses are natural athletes
and need a daily workout to keep
their muscles, feet and legs in good
condition. Twenty to twenty-five
minutes on the end of a long line is
one of the best ways. Just let the
horse run circles around you. This
keeps him from getting fat and
developing weak feet and legs.
Don’t feed moldy, dusty or dirty
hay or grain to horses; this could
result in respiratory problems.
Free choice of clean water, salt
and minerals should be provided.
Good care now will help bring good
performance during the rest of the
year.
To Control Mice In Orchards
Now that the winter is almost
Farm Calendar r^l
A 10-Uncaster Farming, Saturday, March 15,1986
Background Scripture:
Devotional Reading:
A few months ago I was
privileged to hear a lecture on
cosmology by Dr. Robert Jastrow,
now of Dartmouth College but
internationally known for his work
in the space exploration program
of NASA. Speaking to the Isthmus
Institute, an organization that
explores the convergences of
science and religion, Dr. Jastrow
fascinated us by reminding us that
the balance of forces and elements
in the creation of this universe is so
intricate and finely-tuned that a
seemingly significant change in
that balance would have created a
gone, our fruit growers should take
a look at the newly-exposed grass
sod in their orchards. If there are
runways at the surface of the
grass, it is a good sign that there
are plenty of mice in the orchard
even though a mouse baiting
program may have been followed
last fall.
The mice have used up their
stockpiles of stored food and are
now looking for a fresh supply. At
this time of the year they will move
quickly onto bark and roots of fruit
trees.
Fruit growers should re-bait
their orchards as soon as possible
if there are fresh mouse signs.
For growers who put out bait
stations in the orchanl last fall, it
will be a simple matter of
replenishing the rodenticide
treated bait under all of the
stations. You must remember that
the mice are hungry and can do a
lot of damage to fruit trees bet
ween now and the time that other
plants start to grow in the spring.
Lancaster 4-H Woolies
Meeting, Lancaster Farm and
Home Center, 7:30 p.m.
Sullivan County 4-H Leader Din-
ner, Forksville.
York Sheep Management Meeting,
4-H Center, Bair Station, 7:30
p.m.
COUNTING GOD’S
SLOWNESS
March 16.1986
2 Peter.
2 Peter 1:3-11
Monday, March 17
universe quite different from the
one in which we live.
15 BILLION YEARS
Dr. Jastrow said that, “if the
strength of the nuclear force is
decreased by about one percent,
nuclear reactions would take place
so slowly in the universe that none
of the elements on which life
depends—carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen, and so on-could be for
med in the 15 billion years’ since
creation. So, the slightest change
in the-balance of forces would have
resulted in a universe wftkotrtuiylH*
wtotoMvw. And it is difficult to
conceive of that delicate balance As I write these lines, tb
coming into being by accident or problems facing the world todn
without a Creator. seem overwhelming: violent
The other idea with which Dr. terrorism, crime, corruption, the
Jastrow boggled my mind was to nuclear arms race and so forth
remind me that, if the creation But this is my 56th year and Ic«
took place 15 billion years ago-as recall that each year of my brief
science generally assumes-the spsn has had its share of alarm
time span of human life on this snd crises and I can hardly
earth is but a flyspeck in the total remember what it was 10,20,30,«
expanse of time science creation y ears ago that seemed so earth
and our civilization, our own era threatening,
and lifetime are utterly invisible The God who created thij
on the universe’s timeline. Thus, universe 15 billion years ago still u
when the writer of 2 Peter says, in charge of where creation has
“with the Lord one day is as a been and where it is going. And if
thousand years, and a thousand he seems slow, the problem is with
years as one day” (3:8), he is our sense of time, not his.
probably even Understanding the Bjsed on copyrighted outlines produced by the
difference between time as we see on R ' h ,* ,nd usM b »
it and as God views it. Suburban Press * ommunity and
Small Fruit Seminar, Warrendale
Sheraton Inn, 8:30 a.m.
Bucks County Milking School, 9:30
a.m. to 3 p.m., Delaware Valley
College, Doylestown; continues
through March 18.
Potter, McKean and Cameron
Counties calf and heifer
management workshop, 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m., Calvary Baptist
Church Youth Center,
Coudersport; continues through
March 18.
Tuesday, March 18
Crop Management Meeting, 7:30
p.m., Blue Ball.
Pesticide handling and safety, 10
a.m. to noon, Jefferson
Fireball, Jefferson, 1:30 to 3:30
p.m., Dover High School.
Wednesday, March 19
Future of Pa. Ag Conference,
Holiday Inn, Harrisburg;
continues tomorrow.
Thursday, March 20
Pequea Valley FFA banquet, 6:45
p.m., Plain and Fancy Farms.
Holstein Investment Opportunities
Inc. Merchandising .Workshop,
8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Bird-In-
Hand Motel, Bird-In-Hand.
Manheim Young Farmers,
Hempfield Church of Brethren,
East Petersburg, 6:45 p.m.
Mercer County Pork Meeting,
Mercer Extension Center, -
Denver, 7 p.m.
Friday, March 21
Crops Day, Berks County Ag
Center.
Lancaster County Conservation
District Banquet, Brickerville
Fireball, 7 p.m.
Red and White Dairy Cattle
Association Show, Guernsey
Sales Pavilion.
Club
Saturday, March 22
Montgomery County Dairy
Princess Pageant and Mon
tgomery Holstein Club’s Annual
AS SOME COUNT IT
So, it may seem such a very
time since God gave us his pi
of “new heavens and a new t
in which righteousness dwel
(3:13), but that is only becuse o
sense of time is so short term win
viewed to the broad expanse of ft,
universe. It is because of this, the?
that he can say to us. “The LordJ
not slow about his promise as sonui
count slowness...” (3:9). That’stS
problem right there! -not that ftS
is slow, but that we “count tinr
strictly from our very limju|
human perspective. ,
Banquet, Towamencin Fireball,
7 p.m.
Red and White Dairy Cattle
Association’s Sale, Guernsey
Sales Pavilion.
Brown Swiss Canton meeting,
Cloister Restaurant.
Tuesday, March 25
Safe Drinking Water Clinic, York
County 4-H Center, Bair, 1 to J
p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.
Wednesday l JHarch 26
'Berks Conservation Disti
Meeting, Agricultural Cent
Bern Township, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 27
“Pennsylvania on Parade”
and Show; continues
March 29.
Pesticide training nag
p.m. to 9:30 p.iaj|
tension meeting rood
Acres
Friday, Match l!>
Performance Test Bull Sale.
Saturday, March 29
Adams County Beef Ball, Sherati
Inn, Gettysburg.
Pa. Holstein Spring Show, 8:1
a.m., Farm Show Compta
Harrisburg.
Antique Show and Sale, Mi
flinburg Area High School,
a.m. to 5 p.m., $1 admission.
Ag Preserve Boar
issues report
LANCASTER - The first i
nual Report of the Lancast
County Agricultural Preset
Board has been published and’
available in limited quantities. 1
local effort to save Lancast
County farmland is explained
detail in the report. Progress mu
in preserving one of the are!
most important resources,
prime agricultural lands,
highlighted.
Thd publication conta
numerous photographs of
County’s productive countrys
and recognizes individual U
downers and townships hav|
made commitfnents. to presi
vation. . ,
Readers will find the 1985 AnW
Report an insightful overview 0
unique venture undertaken
landowners, government offlo
and community leaders to pr<w
one of the most fertile region!
the world.
Copies of the publication
available upon request throw
Agricultural Preserve Boaw
299-8355 or P.O. Box 3480,
caster. Pennsylvania 17603.