HARRISBURG - Five days were rated suitable for fieldwork around the state for the week ending May 10. Farmers were busy planting com, potatoes, oats and soybeans and finishing their spring plowing. Other activities included repairing fences, hauling manure, spreading fertilizer, caring for their livestock and maintaining their machinery. The topsoil moisture levels were rated adequate by 86 percent of the reporters around the state ac cording to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service. Farmers in the northern region rated topsoil moisture as 79 per cent adequate, 7 percent short and KENCLUGSTON VERNON SEIBEL 665-6775 665-2782 CRAFT-BILT CONSTRUCTION INC. FARM-HOME BUILDING R.DJ2 MANHEIM, PA PH: 665-4372 BUILDING &REMODELIN DAIRY SWINE POLE BUILDINGS BEEF STORAGE ,pi yers are available in many models: from a small 27 Gal. Tank 3 pt. Hitch up to a 540 Gal. Trailer with many models in between. To Meet Your Spraying Needs... See These Authorized Dealers For Detafc ■ Demons! 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Peach trees were 7 percent in the pink stage and 93 percent in full bloom or past, about the same as FOR RESIDENTAL Pennsylvania Dealer FRANK A. FILLIPPO, INC. - WANTED - DISABLED & CRIPPLED COWS, BULLS & STEERS Competitive Prices Paid Slaughtered under government inspection Call: Frank Fillippo - Residence - 215-666-0725 Elam Ginder - 717-367-3824 C.L. King - 717-786-7229 The Camion Air Sprayer A 3 point hitch 110 or 160 gal. air sprayer, ideal for vegetables, blueberries, cranberries, grapes, Christmas trees, nurseries and other crops. Also Available And Brand New - A 400 Gallon Trailer Unit ALL UNITS HAVE: • Hydraulic Controlled Swivel Head That Can Be Moved In Any Direction From Tractor Seat • “Controlled” 280 MPH Air Velocity Ensures Excellent Coverage Up To 150 F eet • Dependable Piston-Diaphragm Pump • Jet and Mechanical Agitation • Disengageable Fan Maryland Dealers Plantings Lag last year. Cherries were 6 percent in the pink stage and 94 percent full bloom or past, compared to 2 percent pink and 98 percent full bloom or past for the same week last year. By May 10 apples were 4 percent pre-pink, 25 percent pink and 71 percent full bloom or past, compared to last year’s 8 percent pre-pink, 10 percent pink and 82 percent full bloom or past. Thirty-three percent of the state’s corn crop was planted compared to 40 percent last year and the five-year average of 28 percent. The northern region farmers had 31 percent planted, the central region was 25 percent planted and the southern region Behind Last Year had 35 percent of the corn crop planted. The oats crop was 87 percent planted by week’s end, compared to 91 percent last year and the five year average of 78 percent. The northern region was 79 percent planted, while the central region was 85 percent and the southern region was 99 percent planted. Sixty-seven percent of the potato crop was planted, compared to 66 percent last year and 55 percent for the five-year average. Only twenty-four percent of the state’s soybean crop is planted, about the same as last year’s 25 percent. The tobacco planting is com plete, sightly ahead of last year’s 98 percent and the five-year average of 99 percent. Scientists Get To WASHINGTON - Genetic engineering hasn’t been practical for soybeans because laboratory grown soybean cells refuse to produce roots and shoots. Now U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists are getting roots-with help from a microbe. When plant cells are grown in a laboratory so scientists can splice in new beneficial genes, the cells’ own genes for root and shoot development somehow “turn off.” “Without roots and shoots you Available. New Jersey Dealers S.F. Shaffer Co., Inc Cinnaminson, N.J. 609-829-2020 Of Soybean Problem r w All-Plant LIQUID PLANT FOOD 9-18-9 PLUS OTHERS' • Contains 100% white ortho phosphoric acid. 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The amount of feed being obtained from pastures was rated 13 percent above average, 76 percent average and 11 percent below average. 4 Root ’ obviously have no plant, and if you can’t get a plant back, there’s no point in genetically engineering cells,” plant physiologist Lowell D. Owens of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service said today. For some plants-like alfalfa, tobacco and petunias-scientists can just add synthetic hormones and roots and shoots develop. With the soybean this doesn’t work. So, Owens and geneticist Ann C. Smigocki used Agnbacfrium tumfaehm*, a soil microbe that forms tumors on plants, to transfer its own root-forming gene into soybean cells. These cells then produced roots for more than two years. This microbe is no stranger to gene transfer. In nature, it forms plant tumors by inserting genes for both root and shoot formation at the same time. The scientists inactivated the gene for shoot development in A. tmaafachas and got what they wanted: only the rooting gene went to work. They tried doing the reverse to get shoots-inactivating the bac terium’s root gene-hut it didn’t work in soybeans. They are ex ploring other ways to get shoots in soybean at the agency’s Tissue Culture and Molecular Biology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. Dig Demand Requires More Distributors!