AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Novambar 18,1995
OPINION
Farmers Due Respect
An appropriate tie between the nationally-recognized Farm-
City Week activities and Thanksgiving Day brings to mind the
fact that everyone should be thankful for the important link
between between farm and city families. This event runs from
Friday, November 17 until the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Farm-City Week provides us with an opportunity to share the
message that we are all interdependent on one another,” Pennsyl
vania Ag Secretary, Charles Brosius said. “Farms and cities are a
team, working together to provide our nation with the safest,
freshest, most affordable food supply in the world.”
Without farmers, there would be no food on urban tables. And
without urban residents, farm families would have no markets for
their products.
In addition to the dependence on the fanner for food, many
people’s employment depends on the fanner’s output. One far
mer produces enough food and fiber for 129 people. But to get
this food to so many consumers, jobs for people in mariceting,
transportation, processing, wholesaling and retailing are created.
These jobs of distribution are created both by the farmer as his
production moves out to the consumer and again as the farm
imput products, services, and machinery move back from the
uiban factories to be bought by the farmer. Nearly 20 percent of
the total workforce owe their jobs to the farmer.
It’s time to tell people that both their food and their paycheck
depend on one source—the farmer. It’s time to give the farmer
due respect And Farm-City Week to Thanksgiving Day is a good
time to do this.
S;i(unl,i\. Nom’Milht IX
Pa. State Beekeepers meeting.
Buser Farm, York County, 1
zations legislative meeting,
Harrisburg.
Vegetable Production School,
Carroll County Ag Center,
Westminster, Md.. thru Nov.
21.
Penn State Income Tax Institute,
Country Table Restaurant,
annual banquet and meeting,
Hoffman Building, Solanco
Fairgrounds, 7 p.m.
Lancaster County Ag Industry
banquet, Lancaster Host
Resort, 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m,
dinner.
Southwest Pa. Hay Auction, West
moreland Fairgrounds, 11 a.m.
Penn State Income Tax Institute,
Embers Convention Center,
Ind.n, No\cinl)ir 24
S.iturdiu. Noutiilh'i 25
NmcmluT 1( i
ant, Bi
o.m.
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♦Farm Calendar*
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\N t diu sdax. Nou-ihlkt 29
Designing Modem Milking Cen
ter, National Conference, Hyatt
Regency, Rochester. N.Y., thru
Dec. 1.
Agway regional annual meeting,
Sheraton Liverpool.
Penn State Income Tax Institute,
Ramada Inn, Wilkes-Barre,
_ thm Nov. 30.
Editor:
One of the things that I always
enjoyed about my early ride to
school in the morning was seeing
the beautiful sunrise above the
mountains. The sky was aglow
with the colon of pink, orange,
yellow, and purple, which illumin
ated the rippled clouds.
There was a certain spot along
my route where at the top of a
small hill I could look across the
wide, rolling fields and have a per
fect view of it
Then one day I noticed that
those fields -were no longer fields.
They had become construction
sites for town houses that were to
be built there.
As the months passed, the town
houses gradually jutted upward
until suddenly my beautiful sun
rise was no longer visible. They
had been built immediately off the
road at the very spot on {he hill
where I had gazed at the sunrise,
but now my view was completely
blocked by them.
a.m.'
mV <’
s
To Salute
American Farmers
Nov. 17-23 is Farm-City Week.
This is the week we recognize
the inter relation between farm and
city.
As Secretary Brosius states.
“Without farms, cities would have
no food. Without cities and towns,
farmers would have no markets
and processing facilities for their
products.”
Today, one fanner produces
enough food and fiber for 129 peo
ple. With $3.73 billion in annual
cash receipts, Pennsylvania agri
culture generates an additional $4O
billion in related economic activity
each year.
Fanners create jobs for 2Q per
cent of Pennsylvania residents.
Our food is inexpensive compared
to food grown in other countries.
Americans spend 11 percent of
disposable income on food, less
than amount spent on health care.
We are able to achieve this through
cooperation between farms and
cities.
As we celebrate Farm-City
Week, remember American agri
culture is the envy of the world and
we have a lot to be thankful for.
To Price
Corn Silage
According to Glenn Shirk,
extension dairy agent, there are
many ways for determining the
It seems that development is
taking the place of farmland all
over Lancaster County. This is
something that 1 do not agree with.
One of the biggest attractions of
Lancaster County is its farmland
and scenery, the very thing we’re
taking away with development
I think farmland should be pre
served because if it isn’t develop
ers will keep taking it over and
then we will end up with little or
none left.
Lancaster County just wouldn’t
be (he same without a lot of farm
land and countryside. This would
also mean very little land for ani
mals to graze. I can’t imagine
driving through the country with
out seeing our traditional Holstein
cows chewing their cuds in the
meadows.
If developers keep building
here, it really wouldn’t benefit us
much. It would make the area
much more crowded and less en
joyable.
(Turn to Pag* *27)
value of com silage.
One way is to look at the value
of some other feeds that you might
feed if you did not have com
silage.
Two such feeds might be ear
com and gtass hay. One ton of com
silage (by matter has about the
same feed value as a half ton of ear
com plus a half ton of grass hay.
If a half ton of ear com is worth
$4O and a half ton of grass hay is
worth $4O, then their combined
worth is $BO. That would be the
value of one ton of com silage dry
matter.
However, one ton of 70 percent
moisture silage contains only 30
percent dry matter and is worth
only 30 percent of that value or
about $24. This is a base to start
from.
In addition to moisture, prices
need to be adjusted for three
things: 1. quality (grain content,
length of chop. mold, nitrate
levels, etc.); 2. transportation, if
distance is a factor; and 3. harvest
ing costs, if you are buying it out of
the field
To Study
Computer Purchase
Buying a computer and its soft
ware may be a stressful and eye
opening experience, especially for
- *x*-jfr/"
DY LAWRENCE W. ALTHOUSE
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DISTURBERS OF THE
PEACE
November 19,1995
Disturbers
Of The Peace
November 19, 1995
Background Scripture:
Acts 15:36 through 16:40
Devotional Reading:
Acts 15:36 through 16:5
I like peace and quiet as much,
if not more, as the next person.
Like most people, I tend to equate
it with all that is good and desir
able and, given the choice. I’d
choose it every time.
But, although peace and quiet
arc generally to be desired, there
are times when it is good for the
peace to be disturbed. We tend to
hibernate rather than grow in the
midst of tranquility. So, some
times it is only when our peace is
disturbed that we recognize that
there are needs to be filled,
wrongs to be righted, changes to
be made.
We often make the mistake of
assuming that the church is most
true to its calling when it avoids
disturbing the peace of either its
members or the community. Actu
ally, if the church never chal
lenges us. never disturbs our deep
sense of self-satisfaction, can it
really be the church?
Ist Church Eden
I’m not suggesting that the
church should diink of ways to
disturb either its members or the
community at large. But, unless
your congregation is composed of
perfect Christians and your com
munity is without any reproach,
just presenting the claims of the
gospel will disturb the peace froth
time to time. If we never disturb
the private and public tranquility, 1
don’t see how we can be faithful
followers of Jesus Christ, who dis
turbed the peace almost every
where he went
This was also true of the apos
des. Like Jesus, wherever they
went they met both positive and
negative responses. When Paul
and Silas arrived in Macedonia,
I’m sure they had no intention of
stirring up opposition there. But,
the first-time buyer, according to
Alan S track, extension farm man
agement agent
Becoming familiar with compu
ter jargon takes time. Take time to
understand the terminology. Next
identify the prime and secondary
uses yon foresee, such as account
ing. word processing, electronic
spreadsheet, or enterprise
management
Next select' the software,
regardless of brand or operating
system, that will meet your needs.
Many vendors of software have
demonstration disks that will allow
you to run the program to see if it
will meet your needs before you
buy it Talk to other farmers who
are using computers for
recommendations.
Finally, select the computer that
will run the selected software and
allow expanded uses.
Now is an excellent time to buy
a computer as prices are continu
ing to decline for many models
which are not quite “state of the
art,” but will be extremely func
tional, especially for the novice
computer user.
Feather Prof.'s Footnote: "The
effort we make to achieve our
goah magnifies the joy of reaching
them."
as they went about the city, they
were followed and nettled by a
disturbed slave girl who was being
exploited by her owners. Finally,
“Paul was annoyed, and turned
and said to the spirit, ‘I charge you
in the name of Jesus Christ to
come out of her’” (16:18).
Great! Paul healed this poor
girl! But her owners didn’t think it
was so great. Perhaps, up to that
moment they had been quite toler
ant of these two foreign missiona
ries. But now their preaching had
touched them where they were
most sensitive: their pocketbooks.
So, we can understand why they
dragged Paul and Silas to the
magistrates and cried, “These men
were Jews and they are disturbing
our city” (Jews were forbidden to
make converts of Romans). “They
advocate customs which it is not
lawful for us Romans to accept or
practice” (16:20,21).
Touching A
Sore Spot
Just how much Paul and Silas
had disturbed the peace is indi
cated by the reaction of the
Romans; ‘The crowd joined in
attacking them, and the magis
trates tore the garments off them
and gave orders to beat them with
tods. And when they had inflicted
many blows upon them, they
threw them into prison...”
That’s still not an unusual reac
tion when today the gospel
impinges upon someone’s mater
ial wealth or profit Nothing I
know will bring a faster, more cer
tain negative reaction. People may
be all for morality and righteous
ness, so long as it doesn’t adverse
ly affect profit on the bottom line.
Sometimes even. I’m ashamed to
admit churches.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
takes just a reverse attitude: it is
all for profit so long as it doesn’t
affect God’s bottom line. When
that happens, we cannot help but
be disturbers of the peace.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
PQblished Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
IE. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Panning, Inc.
A Stokman Entmprioo
Roberta Campbell General Manager
Evtntt R. NfwawwiQtr PtlHirf
Copyright 1905 by Lancottor Forming