AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 21, 1992
OPINION
Quotable Quotes
About Agriculture
- "Let the farmer forevermore be honored in his calling, for they
who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God."
—Thomas Jefferson
- "Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches
she can call her own."
- "The philosopher's stone of an American farmer is to do every
thing within his own family, to trouble his neighbors by borrowing as
little as possible, and to abstain from buying European commodities.
He that follows that golden rule and has a good wife is almost sure of
succeeding."
-J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur,
Thoughts of an American Farmer on
Various Rural Subjects, c. 1782
"The farmers are the founders of civilization and prosperity."
•Daniel Webster
- "No race can prosper until it learns that there is as much dignity
in tilling afield as in writing a poem.”
• "Drop a grain of California gold into the ground, and there it
will lie unchanged until the end of time;... drop a grain of our blessed
gold into the ground and lo! a mystery."
•Edward Everett,
address on agriculture, 1855. The reference is to wheat
- “You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the
gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and
fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your
cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and
the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."
•William Jennings Bryan,
Democratic National Convention, 1896
- "To plow is to pray to plant is to prophesy, and the harvest
answers and fulfills."
- “Whoever makes two cars of corn, or two blades of grass to grow
where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does
more essential service to his country than the whole race of politi
cians put together."
- "The farther we get away from the land, the greater our
insecurity."
-Henry Ford
- "A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with
sense of humus."
-E.B. White,
“The Practical Farmer,” 1944
- "Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and
you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.”
- “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything
he buys at retail, sells everything he sells at wholesale, and pays the
freight both Mays.”
Farm Calendar
Saturday, March 21
Pennsylvania 4-H Week
Woodlot and Wildlife Manage
ment Workshop, Circle G Inn,
Sixth Toastmasters’ Dauphin, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
caster Farm and Home Center, Cecil County Farm Bureau ban
-8:30 a.m. quet, Singcrly Fire Hall,
Eastern Showcase Holstein Sale, Elkton.
Fairhill Fairgrounds, Cecil Annual Forest Stewardship Land-
County, Md., 11 a.m. ,
Lancaster Farming
Established 19SS
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522
by
Lancaster Fanning, Inc.
A SMnrmn Entfprkm
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Newswanger Managing Editor
I*l W UmW Fvntn*
-Booker T. Washington
About Farming in Illinois
-Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Address, Peoria, 111., 1956
-John F. Kennedy
campaign address, Sioux Falls, S.D., 1960
' Bov, oncle: o
NAD THIS QC
FOR A LOT OF
WHAT IS THE
TO KEEPING
MACHINERY i
YEAR AFTER
V AFTER YEA
-Samuel Johnson
-Robert G. Ingersoll,
-Jonathan Swift
To Practice
Nutrient Management
While Harrisburg is working on
nutrient management legislation,
farmers need to start working on
their nutrient management plans
now.
By developing nutrient manage
ment plans now. you will give
yourself more time to implement
your plans.
If problem fields with nutrient
levels are identified now. you will
have additional time to develop a
plan to deal with these fields.
Changing crops grown, amount of
fertilizer and manure applied,
using a cover crop, and double
cropping fields are ways you may
use to reduce nutrient levels in
soils or take advantage of surplus
nutrients from animal manure.
Nutrient management plans do
not have to be very complicated
process. Applying die quantity of
nutrients needed to produce a crop
is the underlying principle of nutri
ent management
To accomplish this, you need to
soil test on a regular basis, know
the nutrient content of your man
ure and commercial fertilizer, and
the nutrient requirement of the
crops you are growing.
For more information on nutri
ent management, consult the
1991-1992 “Penn State Agronomy
Guide” available at your county
cooperative extension office.
To Improve
Barnyard Management
Barnyards are very busy places
on most farms. Over the years,
many farmers have increased the
number of livestock to remain pro
fitable. However, the size of the
barnyards often has not increased
with the number of livestock.
Unfortunately, this increased
livestock activity may cause water
quality and animal health prob
lems if not properly managed.
Jeff Stoltzfus, cooperative
extension project associate, offers
the following ideas on ways to
improve barnyards:
• Direct manure and runoff into
a manure storage area.
owners Workshop, Allen Hall,
Mansfield University. 9 a.m.-l
p.m.
(Turn to Page A3O)
• Direct clean water away from
the barnyard.
• Use rain gutters to direct roof
runoff away from barnyards.
• Terraces up slope of the budd
ings direct water around
barnyards.
• If water needs to leave the bar
nyard area, allow it to pass through
a grass filter strip before it reaches
a stream, road ditch, or other
waterway.
Barnyards are often the most
visible part of any farm. A well
managed barnyard will go a long
way toward improving the image
of farmers with their urban
neighbors.
To Understand
The Five C’s
Of Credit
Alan Strode, extension farm
management agent, reminds us the
Hr LAWR t N C f W ALTHOU'jt
f miyi
Sffi
Background Scripture:
Mark 7:24-37.
Devotional Reading:
Amos 5:4-15
The story of Jesus and the Syro
phoenician woman in Mark 5 is a
troubling one. The problem is how
to understand Jesus’ sharp rejec
tion of the woman and her request
for him to heal her daughter who
was “possessed by an unclean
spirit” Let the children first
be fed, for it is not right to take
the children’s bread and throw
it to the dogs” (7:27). It is bad
enough that Jesus turned down
her humanitarian request, but
we cannot help but be shocked
when he likens the woman and
her daughter in “rings”!
What is the explanation? Scho
lars offer several. One explanation
is that Jesus really meant what he
said, that he did not want to minis
ter to the gentiles and that he
shared the common Jewish per
ception that non-Jews were
“dogs” by comparison. This
explanation has the weight of the
obvious, for it is precisely what
Mark tells us that Jesus said.
Another explanation is that Jesus
would not have responded like
this not if the picture that we
have of him in the rest of the New
Testament is at all accurate but
these words attributed to him by
Mark represent the prejudice
against gentiles that existed in the
very ca'rlicst church.
TO MIMIC & MOCK
The third alternative which
is the only one that is comfortable
to me is that Jesus used these
words to mimic and mock the
popular sentiments of the day, per
haps even the prevailing senti
ments of his apostles, or that he
used these words to engage the
woman in a purposeful dialogue.
In a sense, he could be halting her,
to sec just how much faith could
be mustered by this gentile.
amount of debt you may carry
depends on your credit worthiness.
Lenders use the five C’s of cre
dit to determine this worthiness.
The five C’s are:
1. Character your personal
characteristics and past history
with debt repayment
2. Conditions of the loan. Is a
necessity, need, or want?
3. Repayment Capacity
includes cash flow projection, col
lateral, and present market
conditions.
4. Capital your net worth or
difference between your assets and
your debts.
5. Collateral How much of
your collateral or assets are you
willing to pledge to this debt?
Feather Profs Footnote: "Get
ting up after you have fallen down
strengthens you muscles."
Her response to his refusal
would tell him a lot about her.
There are several passages in the
gospels in which this playful, bad
gering style of Jesus is evident and
I believe that is what is involved in
this incident.
And what did Jesus learn
through this interchange? That
gentiles can be just as persistent
and ingenious in responding to the
promises of the gospel. Jesus has
made several efforts to demons
trate to his followers that even
believing Samaritans could be
closer to the kingdom than them
selves if they failed to respond in
faith. This woman, a Syrian
woman from the Phoenician
wasn’t even a Samaritan, but a
pagan Greek. Although she had
not the benefit of the Jewish faith,
her love for her baby and her per
sonal belief in Jesus made the
difference.
There are limes when we need
to do just what she did: to stub
bornly persist with Jesus when the
answer we’re getting doesn’t seem
to be the answer we should be get
ting. Whether or not she realized
that Jesus was jousting with her,
she persists without bitterness:
“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs
under the table cat the children’s
crumbs” (7:28).
A TIME FOR HONESTY
I don’t know how this woman
knew that Jesus was more com
passionate than he appeared to be
at this moment. I know because,
when I read of Jesus in the rest of
the gospels. I see a Jesus who
would not turn her away and who
would never regard her and her
child as “dogs.” So, if from our
reading of the New Testament and
sharing with other Christian peo
ple tells us that the answer we
seem to be getting from Jesus is
not congruent with what we know
of him, it is time for us to be hon
est and say, “Wait a minute, Jesus,
surely that is not what you mean to
say to me!”
If we do, Jesus will not be
angered by our persistence, nor
insulted at our honesty. If any
thing, he is likely to say to us as he
did to the woman; “For this saying
you may go your way...” and that
which we were seeking will be
found.