AlO-La«eutor Farming, Saturday, Fabraary 21,1957 OPINION The Vo-ag Teacher That Did It For Me Today through next Saturday is National FFA week, and we salute the more than 420,000 Future Fanners of America members across the nation in 8,200 chapters. And while we sometimes throw these big numbers around, we need to realize that each of these members is an individual person, boy or girl, who has individual talents, personalities and aspirations. But each of these chapters provides the framework for the development and ad vancement of each of these talents, personalities and aspirations. Beside the classroom and shop instruction, you often find the vo ag teacher out on the farm or in the home of the individual student to check on a project or provide a bit of council. Maybe more than any other teacher in our school system, the vo-ag teacher becomes in volved in the problems and the triumphs of his students because of the nature of the work. The theme for the week is ‘ ‘FFA -Leaders For The New Fields of Agriculture”. And if this theme is to become a reality, the individual vo-ag teacher will largely be responsible. In any discussion of FFA, we must of course include the pres sures on the program and on the individual instructors. With the reduced emphasis on vo-ag at the 1 Farm Calendar Saturday, February 21 York County 4-H Alumni Night, 4-H Center, 7:30 p.m. Cumberland Valley Cooperative Annual Meeting, Shippensburg Senior High School. Luncheon, 11:30 a.m., business meeting, 1 p.m. Monday, February 23 Pa. Game Bird Conference, Keller Building, Penn State Univer sity; continues through tomorrow. Cumberland Cooperative Sheep and Wool Growers Annual Meeting, S. Middleton Fireball, Boiling Spring, 7 p.m. Fayette County Agronomy Day, Pesticide Update, Fairgrounds. N.J. Vegetable Meeting, Hope Grange. Call Warren Co. 475- 8000 Extension 657 for details. Tuesday, February 24 W. Pa. Turf Conference and Trade Show, Pittsburgh Expo Mart/Marriott Hotel, Monroeville. Berks County Cattlemen’s Association meeting, Berks Ag Center, 7:30 p.m. Vegetable Producers meeting, Shippensburg Valley Bank, Shippensburg, 9 a.m. THANK 9 FOR HELPING M£ WITH o - MIL-KINCr OTIS. o\ 0° IT? o Oq with legume bacteria before seeding. To Mend Pasture Fences Pastures can provide cattle a lot of good nutritious forage, and they offer cattle a place to get fresh air, exercise and sunlight. Before too long, we will be turning our cattle out to pasture, but let’s not turn them out too soon. It’s best to let the sod develop and the ground firm up. Spend the time now to fix fences and pick up trash and debris before the grass gets too tall and before you’re tied down with spring field work. It might also be helpful to section off the pasture in order to make best use of the grass. For example, wet areas and flat areas may be fenced off from other areas. This will enable you to keep cows out of wet areas until the ground firms up, and could help prevent the development of foot problems. During the early spring flush of pasture growth, you could keep cattle out of the flat area; save it for hay, and feed it to the cows later in the summer. To Store Supplies Safely Many farmers have purchased and accepted early deliveries of seeds, fertilizer and other supplies. Proper storage of these items is important. I have seen bags of fertilizer stored too close to a barn door, or to an open window; THE FIRST AND THE LAST February 22,1987 Background Scripture: Revelation 1. Devotional Reading: Revelation 21:1-4. Some twenty years ago I was part of a team of American churchmen who were visiting congregations of the German Evangelische Kirke (Protestant Church) in Bavaria. One night, I was assigned to stay with a family in Nuremburg and I remembered that, as I got into bed, I was feeling considerable anxiety about several things related to the tour. In the middle of the night, I was awakened - or so I thought - by the awareness that someone was in the darkness of my room. He was standing at the foot of my bed and suddenly my bed began to vibrate as if he were shaking it with great power. As this was happening, I realized that the “person” was Christ. I didn’t dare look directly at him, but I heard him say in a commanding voice, “Fear not!” The vibrations stopped and I realized I was once again alone. ADREAM? “Was I dreaming?” I asked myself. “No, it was no dream,” I told myself. “It was all too real -1 felt the bed shake and I heard the voice.” Or did I? Perhaps it was a dream, but it didn’t “feel” like a dream. (Later, I was to learn that very often in the Bible, the writers use the same word for either a SO X'V£ GOTTEN U 58.0 -10 BEING KICKED A ROUND , 0 O O O the same with farm seeds. ExtrJ moisture on these materials, * under them on a damp floor, cn cause problems. * Also, it is very important to Iqm seeds away from chemical weal killers. These herbicides reduce, or kill, the the seeds. Children, pets mg livestock should not have stored seeds or farm chemicak All of these materials becooi more expensive each year. K) only good management to sfte them carefully. To Prepare For Dormant Sprays Many types of trees are infestq) with various kinds of scale inseck, These pests attach themselves to the bark and twigs and shrubs ant suck strength from the plant. 000 of the best treatments is to apply ( dormant spray oil before the bud( start to open. The date of the spray will vary with the weather. However, on many fruit trees ant shrubbery this will be late February and early March. Tin spray should be applied before ft buds open. In addition, a spray during May or June while the in sect is in the crawler stage k strongly suggested; materials for this spray can be Malathion or Sevin. Scale insects should be controlled the way is to use i dormant spray. Th« Cooperative Extension Service is an * firmabve action, equal opportunity education institution ‘ ‘vision’ ’ or a “ night dream. ’’) That was a long time ago that I had my dream or my vision (take your pick), but I remember i vividly and I recall that it gave® the confidence to rise above tj; challenges that had been mald| me feel anxious. In the midst of fears, God had somehow reassu me that he was in charge, not o of my life, but of all life. God’s messages of reassurai may come to us in many, mi different ways, but we all hi times in our lives when we m them. We need to know ti although everything seems to falling apart, God is holding i world together and me along « it. “Fear not!” is the messagek sends us in tunes such as these. Vt may not always hear that message or recognize it if we hear it, but I am convinced he sends it. This is what the Book oi Revelation was in the early days of the Christian Church - a message from God saying to the church in the middle of persecution: “Fear not! I’m in charge!” That was exactly what the early Christians had to hear, because, from whit they could see with their eyes, powerful men and nations, not God, were in charge of the world But the visions of John were given him to promise them that beyond what they could see with their physical eyes, there were realities that can be seen only in dreams and visions. ALPHA AND OMEGA John saw a vision in which he first heard a voice speaking to him and then saw a person “like a son of man.” John says, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, ‘Fear not, I tun the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17,18). There are many times in life when we need to be reassured that Christ is, as John wrote, “Alpha and Omega,” “the first and the last.” We need to know that he is both before and after everything in life. Before adverstities come, he is on the scene, determining the course of history. And after our anxieties have come and gone, Christ will still be here and at the end of time itself. He is, in every human situation, both the first word and the last word. Prim cipalities and powers may hold sway for a while, but, in the long run, it is Christ who has the world in his hands. O O o o