CB-lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 21, 1993
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
DILLSBURG (York Co.)
When Rolls Lehman installed his
first farm conservation measures,
the move stirred some skepticism
among his neighbors.
It was nearly 50 years ago that
the northern Yoik County farmer
began converting from the block
style fields, then common, to
planting in strips. Since then, the
kinds of practices he instituted on
die rich, rolling farmground near
Dillsburg have become recogniz
ed as backbone programs of soil
conservation.
Recently, Rolla and his wife,
Esther were recognized for their
half-decade of dedication to pre
serving the soil when they were
named winners of the Pennsylva
nia Chesapeake Bay Clean Water
Farm Award. The York County
Conservation District nominated
the Lehmans for the honor, award
ed by the Pennsylvania Associa
tion of Conservation Districts, in
conjunction with the Pennsylvania
Bay Education office.
‘The District felt Rolla should
be recognized for his outstanding
work over the years. He’s been a
sort of conservation torchbearer in
the community.” said Yoik Coun
ty Conservation District manager
Mark Kimmcl. “Rolla always says
and shows by example his belief
that ‘conservation doesn’t cost, it
pays’.”
The Lehmans’ award was pre
sented during the state Associa
tion of Conservation Districts’
July executive council meeting in
Altoona. Also honored as regional
winners for their soil conservation
efforts were Mark and Sue Mapes,
Mifflinburg, and Karen and Ran
dy Hunstman, Martinsburg.
Rolla and Esther Lehman review a pamphlet explaining
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Clagett Farm, which
they toured recently as regional winners of the Clean Water
Award.
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A sod waterway runs above the first contoured com strip to slow runoff on one of
the Lehmans’ steeper slopes.
Lehmans Win Regional Conservation Award
For having been selected as
clean water award winners, Rolla
and Esther were hosted recently
on a tour of the Clagett Farm in
Upper Marlboro. Md. The
285-acre Clagett Farm is owned
and operated by the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation as a educational
showcase for sustainable agricul
ture practices. They were also giv
en a bay tour on an oyster-dredg
ing skipjack.
In 1991, the county district
named him its conservation farm
er of the year. He was also select
ed a Goodyear Award winner, a
national conservation award spon
sored by the Goodyear company
and the National Association of
Conservation Districts.
Rolla’s interest in soil-saving
agriculture techniques was spur
red by a government program set
up to train veterans returning
home from service in World War
11.
“My brother came back from
service and decided he wanted to
farm. The government had a pro
gram to provide schooling for ve
terans, and the one for agriculture
education was held one night each
week at Dillsburg High School,”
Rolla said. “I attended a lot of
those meetings with him and it
was there that the seed of conser
vation was planted in my mind.”
Planting in strips and contours,
use of sod waterways, and instal
lation of tile drainage were in their
infancy as agriculture practices.
Rolla initially planted just part of
the couple’s 97-acre farm in sim
ple strip, which he laid off himself
since no technical assistance was
then available.
“The only thing I would have
done differently, looking back is
to have gone to contour strips right
One of the Lehmans' underground tile drainflelds feeds crystal-clear water to the
park-like backyard pond of a neighbor's adjoining property. Esther and Rolla admire
the waterfall setting from the picturesque bridge.
away,” he said.
In the ensuing years, nearly two
miles of tile drainage have been
installed in the fields to handle the
plentiful “winter springs” scatter
ed across the Lehmans’ acreage. A
sod waterway slows runoff on one
of the steeper slopes.
Much of the tile installed in the
early 1950 s was put in with the
help of Thomasville farmer Albert
Bentz. Bentz owned a specialized
piece of equipment which operat
ed from a Fold tractor and both cut
a trench and laid the clay tile pipe.
“Most of the tiling is still the
original clay,” said Lehman. “On
ly on occasion has a section need
ed replacement with plastic.”
One of the tiled drain fields
empties at the edge of the farm
property and is used by adjoining
neighbors as a partial feeder
source for their attractive, back
yard pond. The water draining out
from beneath the contours of hay
and com, even after fairly abund
ant summer rains, is crystal clear.
An early user of minimum till
age, Lehman first tried the new
practice to renovate a section of
pasture. Some IS or more years
before minimum tillage became
popular, he borrowed an early
type chisel plow, a piece of equip
ment that originated in the Mid
west.
‘This farm has lots of ironstone
and was always hard on plows,”
he said. Lehman was so pleased
with the results that he later pur
chased his own chisel plow.
“For a full 10 years, we never
put a moldbooard in the ground,”
Lehman said. “Now, we do use a
The Lehmans check the growth of the Acer Rubin ma
ples recently planted along their road frontage. Behind the
new trees Is the area of fields Rolla first put into alternating
strip crops nearly a half-century ago.
plow to turn the ground to start al
falfa, maybe three to eight acres a
year. It can cut the roots of the
mulberry bushes that take root in
the fields better than minimum
tillage.”
Rolla and Esther moved on to
his home farm just a few months
after their marriage. His father
purchased the farm in 1922, four
years before Rolla was bom. The
couple raised five children, all of
whom have gone onto careers
other than agriculture.
Even before Lehman began im
plementing conservation mea
sures, the farm had another early
innovation.
“We had running water in the
house,” he said of his childhood.
“It was gravity flowed to the
house and bam. We still have a
spring in the basement.”
For some years, Lehman con
tinued the five-year crop rotation
used by Ilfs father, planting two
years of com, then oats, wheat,
and hay of timothy-clover mix.
“But I could never raise good
oats,” he said of the crop’s diffi
culty in the heavy soil that can
rarely be worked in the early, cool'
weather favored by the grain crop.
As the couple’s dairy herd grew,
Lehman eliminated the oats and
later the wheat, concentrating on
herd feed of com and hay.
While the Lehmans never look
ed back once they started adopting
conservation improvements. Mo
ther Nature once handed them a
rather dramatic setback. In 1972,
when Hurricane Agnes dumped
some IS inches of rain across the
region, they had just finished in
stalling a new section of tile drain
age. With the soil still loose and
not settled, the three-day down
pour completely washed out the
completed work.
“A neighbor told me I was cra
zy,” he said. "But we got a dozer
and high-lift back in and repaired
the damage. TTiese conservation
measures are some of the best
things I’ve ever done.”
It was for Lehman’s lifelong
commitment to conservation and
ongoing implementation of prac
tices that earned him the District’s
recommendation for the state
award. Lehman served the York
County Conservation District as a
director from 1957-1981. In that
time, he has seen consistent strides
being made in the move to con
serve the nation’s soils.
“Nutrient management has
probably been the biggest change
in that period of time,” he said.
“Minimum tillage is another.”
On nutrient management, Leh
man believes that the philosophy
has come somewhat “full circle.”
He relates that when he was grow
ing up, stackpiling manure until it
could be spread at optimum times,
spring and fall planting, was a
common practice.
“Then the dairy regulations
made it necessary for us to move
manure out every day, to not hold
it Now, we’re going back to the
concept I grew up with.”
Two years ago, the Lehmans
took an additional improvement
step on their land of grading and
(Turn to Page C 9)