Tractors are used for more than plowing during the annual Plow Day. Here John Gouge provides a hayride for enthusiastic passengers by using a John Deere 430. WEST GROVE (Chester Co.) Sons, fathers, grandfathers and daughters had fun plowing with old tractors during the annual Plow Days held at the Gouge Farm recently. Deere H during Plow Day held on the Ooe,. <a, m in QUESTION—Myra Byers, 2420 Lemar Rd., Mer cersburg, PA 17236-9616, is looking for a crochet pattern for a wall hanging that spells “Home Sweet Home." QUESTION Fred Appel, 814 Country Lane, Paradise, PA 17562, would like to contact someone who has cockscomb seed to sell. It should be the small crested type, not plumes. QUESTION Anna Zimmerman, Box 2351, R. 2, Fleetwood, PA 19522, is looking for the following books: “Lift My Lamp,” by Anna Balmer Myers; “White Mother” by Jessie Bennett Sams; and “Treasurers in an Oatmeal Box,” which is a story about a retarded boy. QUESTION Anna Newswanger, 185 S. Pool Forge Rd., Narvon, PA 17555, would like to know if anyone will sell her a book, “Memoirs of Chur chtown,* by Levi B. Yoder 1831-1906. QUESTION Cheryl Lawrence, Ephrata, would like a source to purchase Cornish Ware. QUESTION—A reader is looking for an oversized tm scoop for a small candy scales. She has all the weights but needs a 10-14-inch scoop to make the scales complete. ANSWER A reader wanted to know an appro priate charge to rent out a 4,000 square foot barn. Another reader sent in ideas to change the use of the bam. She suggests converting the barn for use for laying hens because some people like barnyard eggs. Feed with good alfalfa to produce a dark yoke. Plow Days Bring Back Memories “You can see old tractors at a lot of different places, but we old timers like to hear them,” John Gouge said of the reason for hold ing the annual event on his farm. “It used to be that at night you You Ask, You Answer (Continued from Pago BIS) could hear tractors on fields miles away. But today, you can only hear stereo noise from cars racing up and down the road,” Gouge said. He misses the calming effect of the putt, putt of tractors. So do She writes that years back, they put chickens in their tobacco barn. They put windows in the south side, used the cellar to cool eggs, and the stripping room to dean and grade eggs. Put chicken fence or tobacco rails with loose straw over itfor a ceiling. Floor boards should be tight or dirt goes in cellar. ANSWER Lucinda Martin asked why all their spring frogs will disappearing from the pond. Another Luanda Martin, New Holland, said that tiny spring peepers look for fishless ponds to safekeep their eggs and their minuscule selves from hungry predators. Karen Mull, Elizabethtown, writes that she planted bullrushes in pots and set tall plants at different spots where she placed tadpoles. Now she has lots of frogs and toads because they like to hide in tall weeds rather than be in the open. She has also noticed that frogs like the sound of running water and collect near er to the sound of water. ANSWER A reader wanted to purchase a scales weighing 30-50 pounds, the kind that are no longer legal for trade and not the hanging or the elec tronic style. A reader writes that he has a Country Store scale made by Sanitary Scale Co., Chicago, IL. It has a marble platform to place items to be weighed. If interested, call him at (717) 334-1279. ANSWER A reader wanted to know where Quincyville, Pa., is located. Thanks to Amos, M., who writes that he could not locate this town in DeLorme’s Pa. Atlas, but there is a town named Quincy located in Franklin County, between Chambersburg and Waynesboro. Could this possibly be the place. Ida’s Notebook Ida Risser Pictures! They seem to play an important part in my life. I only take a few films each year, but I always have some 50 to mark each time. Our youngest daughter often has six or seven films at a time to be developed. My mother had a camera in 1910 and took pictures in her community which I prize. She even printed some herself with a kit that she purchased. Some of her pictures have been used in recently published books. And, one of my great uncle’s pictures, of him on a binder, was printed in a large calendar. I’ve been privileged to contribute to publi cations. The camel-back trunk that sits in the diningroom has thou sands of big and little pictures. Each year our children posed for Christmas cards and those 20 other members of the Watcrlou Boys Two-cyclinder Club of Southeastern Inc. Gouge and members bought their fiivorite tractors to «g«in experience the thrill of heating the sound and mancuring the old trac tors across the field. They plowed 24 acres with 23 tractors within a four-hour time period. n4-H HAPPENINGS This show is open to any youth between the ages of 8-19 years. It will offer walk-trot, open, jumping, and fun classes throughout the day. Each class is $5 per class or $2O per five classes. All entrants are required to wear a hard hat ii> all classes. Release forms and rabies certificate are required before entry into the show. This show is offered as a learning experience for the youth of the area. It will be an informal show—appropriate rid ing boots and hard hats are required. No T-shirts are allowed; not, but not formal dress required. Entrants will receive help and encouragement throughout the event. Ribbons and awards will be given in each class. There are age restrictions on certain classes and restrictions throughout divisions in the show. This allows all exhibitors an opportunity to participate and learn. For more information con cerning this show, call (610) 837- 7294. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 24, 1999-817 some are special. Other pictures in the trunk are very old photos of homesteads. On these pic tures not only a house and barn are shown but also the nine members of the family. Some men are standing at the barn doors while the women lean against the white-washed fence. My great uncle took many pictures of Lancaster houses, of building roads and also of mark ers along the Mason and Dixon line. Stone mile markers were also an interest of his and showed the mileage between towns and cities. So, today when I receive pho tos, I mark them with names and dates. Then they are put on six piles to be mailed to our chil dren. Hopefully they will be put in albums and stored for future generations to enjoy. “The city boys only plow two inchcs deep, but the old-timers plow 10-inches deep,** Gouge said. For this reason, it will be necessary “to straighten” the ground with a chisel plow. The oldest tractor at the Plow Days was a 1935 John Deere B on steel. The newest tractor allowed was a 1960 John Deere 730. Open Youth Schooling Horse Show Backtrackers 4-H Horse and Pony Club of Northampton County is sponsoring an Open Youth Schooling Horse Show Saturday, June 5 at the Northampton County 4-H Center, Nazareth, starting at 9 a.m.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers