A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 27, 1995
Farm Sideli
MORGANTOWN (Berks Co.)
Fifty years ago a limestone
quarry was located on the Stoltzfus
family dairy farm in Morgantown.
The quarry, which was a source of
lime for local farmers, is now
crossed .by the Pennsylvania
Turnpike.
The farm quarry was not unusual
for the countryside around Morgan
town. “In this territory there’s an old
limestone kiln on practically every
farm,” Stoltzfus says.
In the 19305, when the Civilian
Conservation Corps began spread
ing lime on fields, farmers saw that
where the lime was applied more
thickly, clover grew better. “Farmers
soon realized that for every dollar
they, spent on lime, they could get ten
dollars back in clover,” remembers
C. U., as he is known.
Much of the limestone produced
in the early part of this century was
used for road stone. In fact, Stoltzfus
recalls, four to five miles of Route 10
north of Morgantown got its stone
from the quarry on his father’s farm.
Gradually, as farmers realized
lime’s importance in neutralizing
soil acidity and enhancing the uptake
of potash and other soil nutrients,
more and more lime was applied to
local fields.
Stoltzfus explains that raw lime
stone today is ground to produce
lime fine enough for use on farm
fields. When he was a youth, howev
er, a usable product was created by
burning limestone in kilns. Burned
lime was hauled into the field where
it was to be applied, then allowed to
“slack” over a period of a couple of
months. It was then spread over the
field by hand.
“We blasted the limestone out of
the quarry with dynamite. We used
the ‘light-and-run’ technique. We
would watch for cars, then set it off.
It wasn’t very sophisticated, but it
did the job.”
By the late 19305, Stoltzfus had
crushing equipment capable of pro
ducing a couple of tons per hour.
That’s when he began developing
machines for spreading the lime.
Technical Challenges
Stoltzfus built his first spreader to
allow him to spread lime on his
neighbors’ fields. Since he didn’t
know how to weld, he had a local
Mennonite welder help him. The
original spreader had a spinner-type
mechanism to broadcast the lime,
which worked quite well. But other
technical problems needed more
work. “At first we broke a lot of
transmission gears,” said C.U. “At
one time we bought all the 4-speed
transmissions from all the junk yards
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In the 19405, C. U. Stortzfus began building equipment to spread the Mme taken from
this quarry on the family farm.
ne Turns Into Half Century Manufacturing Business
Not every invention was a success. The booms on this exper
imental spreader from the 1950 s were tubes which shot lime out
in the area.”
Another challenge was the auger.
Stock augers were too large for C.
U.’s spreaders. At first he worked on
the spreaders at night as a sideline
and in the winter. But when he final
ly figured out how to make his own
auger fabrications, he became fully
involved in the spreader manufactur
ing business.
C. U. Stoltzfus and Ruth Weiler
were married in June 1945, the same
year the first spreader whs built for
resale, rather than for his own use.
With Ruth’s experience in book
keeping, they formed a team that
continues today, under the oversight
of the next generation.
Spreaders Catch On, Evolve
For selling, nothing worked bet
ter than taking a spreader into a
farmer’s field. Once farmers saw
what the spreader could do and how
well it was built, it generally came
down to settling on a fair price. “We
sold our first spreader to a neighbor
who watched us spread with it. Then
we sold one to a farmer from York
County who had heard about it,”
recalls Stoltzfus. “He came to see the
spreader work, then we had a little
lunch, and he drove the spreader
home.”
Several spreader innovations fol
lowed. Dust was such a problem
with early models that C. U. patent
ed a spreader with a canvas cover to
contain it. His wife Ruth recalls one
of the first times she saw C. U. “He
was rumbling down the road in his
spreader with dust flying every
where.”
Liirie spreaders in the early years
were meant for custom spreading,
meaning that they were mounted on
trucks, allowing custom applicators
to move quickly from farm to farm.
To save trips to the field, C. U.
designed a tender to haul along
behind truck-mounted spreaders,
saving time and keeping costs down.
This concept led to another innova
tive idea- a pull-type spreader that a
farmer could use with his own trac
tor. This put lime and fertilizer
spreading capabilities into the hands
of farmers who wanted to be able to
control the timing of applications
without waiting for custom applica
tors to get to them.
Though the designs were effec
tive, the entire manufacturing
process was more practical than
highly disciplined. “We didn’t have
any working drawings,” said Stoltz
fus. “We used the ‘hands-on’ build
ing method. We just built them and
they worked.” Though today’s man
ufacturing methods are more con
trolled, some things haven’t changed
in decades. Speaking of the first pull
type spreaders, Stoltzfiis said “The
way we made it first is the way we
make it today.”
In the mid-1960’s C U. designed
a truck mounted boom-type spread
er. It allowed for more even applica
tion of dry lime, and was better at
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the sides. It proved too dusty.
years v marriage
and working together building agricultural spreading equip
ment
keeping dust down. It was a unique
enough design to qualify for another
patent. Today this design is also used
to spread dry chemical and seed mix
tures.
Success From
Solving Others’ Problems
Another problem farmers faced
was spreading “wet” lime. Delivered
and dumped in mounds for economy
purposes, often it was rained on and
became very tough to spread. The
Stoltzfus Wet Lime Spreader was
designed to handle this difficult
material. “The secret to this machine
is in the correct width and draw of
the apron chain,” said Stoltzfus.
Farmers soon found, especially in
upstate New York, that the spreader
paid for itself within the fust year
because of the economy of spreading
stockpiled lime.
Stoltzfus almost built himself out
of business. Hie spreaders operate so
reliably and are so durable that many
are still in use after IS, 20, even 30
years. “We took a 15 year-old
spreader back in trade that had had
no maintenance. It still works well,”
C. U. reports. “After a while, when
everyone has one that wants one, and
they don’t break down, you have to
come up with some other ideas to
keep things going.”
/ ’
New Ways of Looking
at Things
C. U.’s health problems in the
1980’s led to hiring C. U. and Ruth’s
son-in-law, Gary Lake, as General
Manager of the company. He intro
duced some changes in the compa
ny’s direction. Today Stoltzfus
makes spreaders for specialized mar
kets such as orchards, vegetable
farms and highway maintenance
use. Also, the company has become
a dealership for other lines of ag
chemical handling and application
equipment.
C. U. has seen many farming
practice changes over 50 years “We
farmed with horses until we got our
first tractor in the 19305,” he said.
“We harvested com by hand, where
today you have 12-row combines.
We used to use a lot of calcium phos
phate and manure, but there were
very few pesticides. The ones we did
have were pretty dangerous, like
arsenate of lead. In the 1960 s and
’7os pesticides were applied in much
heavier applications than today.
There’s a new sensitivity to caring
for the land and keeping chemical
use to a minimum. In some ways it’s
like going back to the ways we used
to do things,” Stoltzfus said.
After SO years in the spreader
business, C. U. continues to look to
tlie future. Today he works on
research and development projects.
The latest spreader innovation is an
all-purpose spreader called the CU
56i, after its inventor. It combines
(Turn to Pago A 34)