AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 15, 1992 OPINION Just As Important As Electing A President Lots of discussion has gone into the proposed state nutrient management law specifically House Bill 496, which passed the Democratic-majority House on June 10,1991, and has since been under consideration by the Republican-ruled state Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. Since no action has been taken by the Senate ag committee on the proposal, some have accused the committee of stalling on the legislation for political posturing. On first glance, it would seem that holding the bill in commit tee since June would be prima facia evidence of political postur ing. But there is no real motive to do so. Gov. Casey has nothing to gain or lose with nutrient management. The House Democrats are not at odds with House Republicans (except one) over the issue. All farm organizations and environmental groups have had their representatives testify before either the governor’s select committee on nutrient management and/or the House Agricul ture and Rural Affairs Committee that they support the intent of the legislation. The reason those on the Senate committee have not brought the House proposal foward for work is because they want to hear more about the issue before they sign off on it and make recom mendations to other senators. Those representatives can hardly be blamed for wanting to know more about what they sign their name to and eventually promote. Also, thanks to the economy, the presidential election year, the political redistricting, Gov. Casey’s give-then-take budget ing, and a slew of other considerations before the state’s legisla tive bodies, as a whole, the Senate’s priority for considering nutrient management legislation has slipped. It’s understandable. But not acceptable. Since almost every one agrees this is something we need, let’s get the work done to make it happen. We also support the intent behind the proposal, but as it stands, wording of the bill needs some revision to fully support the intent of those who drafted it. The agricultural community must ensure that any proposal coming out committee is well crafted and intelligently considered. But given the broad support of this legislation, we believe it is important to get to work on it now. Just as important as electing a president. Farm Calendar /^/ . w 75th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show Potato Growers banquet, Sheraton Inn East, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Holstein Associa tion Wyoming/Lackawanna annual meeting, Methodist Church, Meshoppen, 7 p.m. Pennsylvania Shorthorn and Polled Shorthorn Association, Garden Gate Restaurant, near 13udeHFairgrounds^H^um Moiidin, l'fl)ruar\ 17 Presidents Daj New Holland Vegetable Day, Summit Valley Elementary School, 9 a.m.-3:15 p.m. Forage Crop Establishment Tele- Lancaster Fanning Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stmnrmn Enlerprm* Robert G. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newswanger Managing Editor CapyrifM IMI ky Lancaster Fvmtnf conference, Penn State Schuy lkill Haven Conference Center, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Chester Co. Crops Day, Guthries ville Fire Hall, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ABC District 3 meeting, Camp Hebron, 7 p.m. ABC District 5 meeting, Hoffman Building, Solanco Fairgrounds. 7 p.m. ABC District 10 meeting. Silver Leaf Restaurant, Connellsville, 10:30 a.m. ABC District 12 meeting, Red wood Restaurant, Summerhill, 7:30 p.m. ABC District 15 meeting. Cooperative Extension Office, Mercer, 11:45 a.m. To Test Home Water Supplies If your home water supply is from a well or spring, you should test your water annually for con form bacterial contamination. Although most coliform bacter ia do not cause illness, they are easy to test for and are used to indi cate the possibility of disease caus ing microorganisms being present in the water supply, such as sal monella and hepatitis. If your water test reveals conta mination, there are three treatment methods available to you. These are chlorination, ultraviolet disin fection. and iodine disinfection. Shock chlorination of the well may be sufficient to solve the prob lem. Also, continuous chlorination could be installed. Ultraviolet dis infection kills the organisms by exposing them to ultraviolet light lodine disinfection is an effective method of disinfecting water sup plies but there is concern about the health effect of drinking iodized water for long periods of time. Therefore this method is not recommended for home use. To Practice Safe Sliding When snow falls, both children and adults look forward to many hours of sledding and toboggan ing. But winter fun may be dangerous. According to the U.S. Consum er Product Safety Commission, more than 50,000 people receive emergency room treatment annu ally for injuries related to sleds, snow discs, and toboggans. There are a number of causes for these accidents. Old sleds with mechanical or structural problems may be at fault. These old sleds may splinter, break, or the steering mechanism may fail. ABC District 16 meeting, Center ville U.M. Church, 7:30 p.m. Master Food Handler Workshop, Penn State University, thru Feb. 21. Bradford Co. DAiry Day, Troy Middle School, Troy, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Agricultural Business Manage ment Series, Corry Higher Edu- (Turn to Page A3l) Injuries often occur when sleds collide with other sleds, stationary objects or moving cars. Parents and children should keep safety in mind when heading to the snowy hillsides. Children should learn how to roll off their sleds to avoid colli sions. Also, children should stay out of streets and traffic intersec tions when playing in the snow. When purchasing a sled look for sturdy construction, easy steering mechanism, secure handholds, and avoid sleds with sharp jagged edges or protruding rivets. To Rotate Alfalfa Alfalfa growers have known that seeding alfalfa in old-alfalfa sod and grass sod is often very unsuccessful. A field experiment conducted in Illinois looked at the negative affects the previous crop ON HAVING IT ALL February 16, 1992 Background Scripture: Phil ippians 2:1-11. Devotional Reading: John 13:1-17. There are certain passages in the Bible, any one of which if taken seriously. I believe, could save the world. One of these is the ancient Christian hymn contained in Phil ippians 2:1-11. The fractious state of affairs in our communities, institutions (including the church), nations and world could be healed if we could get people everywhere to heed and live by these words: “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the inter ests of others.” In other words, my diagnosis of the world’s ills is gal loping self-interest. It is the key to public corruption, community decay, and international strife. Without it, there could be no drug problem. Aids epidemic, mushrooming crime, or ecolodical disasters. In short, there is nothing wrong in our world today that the universal adoption of the “mind of Christ” could not solve and heal. GIVING VS. GETTING Great! So why don’t we get cracking on this? The reason peo ple are not lining up in droves to attain “the mind of Christ” is that, from the world’s point of view at least, it is not very appealing to us. To be sure, we’d love and adore the results, but the way of getting them explicit in these words is a turn-off for great majorities both outside and inside the churches. This is the age of “Me First.” The operative adverbs today are "my” and “mine.” So the implications of self-sacrifice Are something that most of us don’t want to even con- A had on alfalfa seeding. Autotoxicity (the effect alfalfa has on alfalfa) and allelopathy (the effect grasses or other plants have on alfalfa) effects on new seeding of alfalfa- were evaluated. Thirty days after planting, the alfalfa seeding populations in plots seeded back to alfalfa had only 1/3 the number of plants as the control area. Seedling height in those plots was 48 per cent of the control height. The only grass sod that affected alfalfa seeding numbers was Ken tucky Bluegrass. The only grass which affected seedling height was orchardgrass. Reed canarygrass, tall fescue, timothy and smooth bromegrass had no effect on alfalfa plant populations or height Feather Profs Footnote: "If you see people without a smile give them one of yours." sitter. We want to “have it all” today and self-denial is not the way to get it If you doubt that just look at what Paul characterizes as “the mind of Christ”:... who... did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant... and humbled himself and became obe dient unto death, even death on a cross” (6-8). Don’t let that out —it would play havoc with our church membership efforts. People join churches because of what they can get, not what they can give. Let’s not scare them away with all this self-denial stuff! Self-denial has a pretty bad image in our society. The mercan tile message is just the opposite: Don’t deny yourself something you really want! You owe it to yourself! Don’t wait; get it today! WINNING VS. LOSING When we look more closely at Paul’s letterin the church at Philip pi, however, we realize that society has this idea of self-denial all wrong. Nowhere is this more evi dent than in the example of Christ: ”... he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” —that’s the part that seems so unattractive to us, but there’s more: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bes towed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should b0w...” (2:9,10)! So, by being obedient, by hum bling himself, by taking the form of a servant, and submitting to the cross Jesus did not lose anything; he gained. The glory that God has bestowed upon him could never have been his had he not been will ing to be “obedient unto death.” And what was true for Jesus Christ is true for us as well; ultimately self-denial is not a way of losing, but of winning. Taking the form of a servant is not self-denial so much as it is self-affirmation the self we save here being the true self— the mind of Christ not the false self, the ego. The only way we can really have it all is to be willing to give it all away. Try it! f USUALLY IT WA3 > ( bacon e es^e»y 9
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers