«CORN TALK
MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 9, 1999
Corn Can
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
PARADISE (Lancaster Co.)
Sometimes com has a lot
more uses than you can
imagine.
You know the standard uses
corn flakes, beverage
sweetener, alternative combus
tion fuel, and others.
But there are more uses than
you might have read about
and that includes, of all things,
entertainment farming.
Why not make a show out of
the front five acres? That’s
exactly what Cherry-Crest
Farm, operated by Jack and
Donna Coleman in Paradise,
did. This year marked the
fourth time in a row that the
Coleman’s put up the “World’s
Largest Attended Maze,” in
which every year a new
“theme” for the com maze is
selected.
The maze, taking up five
acres, was planted in the shape
of the Keystone State itself,
complete with the four cities
making up the comers (Phi
ladelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, and
Scranton- Wilkes Barre). In the
center is the shape of the liber
ty Bell, along with ribbons
along the com row “paths" of
the maze painted a different
color to represent a section of
the maze (yellow for the liber
ty Bell, green for the state out
line, red the Paradise Star, and
white the stars of the major
cities).
The “Land of Liberty” theme
proved especially attractive for
area tourists. Each day during
Jeff Stoltzfue, Eastern Lancaster County (ELANCO) School District Adult
Farmer Program adviser, center, spoke to about 60 farmer and agrMndustry
representativea in June during the third annual ELANCO Adult Farmer Prog
ram Spring Meeting at the Eugene Martin Farm aouth of New Holland. See
story psg* 3. Photo by Andy Andrews
Be Used For ‘Entertainment’ Farming, Too
the season the maze averaged
about 1,200-I,soovisitors. Last
year about 50,000 visitors
showed up to tour the maze, in
the shape of Noah’s Ark. The
first year the maze was laid out
in the shape of a locomotive
and the second year, a horse and
buggy.
At the top of the maze, north
of the “gameboard," was an
America flag made up of
14,000 petunias. According to
Coleman, the one-third acre
flag was planted the third week
of May this year, contracted
with Good Harvest, Strasburg.
The com maze itself, which
opened July 2, was planted with
Pioneer 32K62, a Bt hybrid,
full season variety. The com
May S in 30-inch
tows- The piaze theme outline
was gridded out and, when the
com was less than eight inches
tall, a crew worked a hoe to
shape. A few aerial photo
graphs were taken before the
final shape could be finished.
The drought emergency this
year had an effect on some of
the tourists, but luckily, accord
ing to Coleman, enough rain
had fallen. In mid-July, two
irrigations were needed to keep
the com stalks from turning
brown and brittle.
The maze employs about 15,
mostly youth, from around the
region. The Colemans also care
for 60 cows on their dairy, in
addition to 50,000 broilers
under contract with Tyson.
The maze is open Sept. 3
through Sept. 18 Friday and
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(Turn to Pag* 12)
The maze included an extensive petting zoo, mini-mazes, hay rides, food,
refreshments, gift shop, and weekly special events. This year the Pennsylva
nia Master Corn Growers Association and Penn State Extension Service also
had a corn products stand at the maze. From left, Jack Coleman and right, Del
Voight, Lebanon County extension agent, at the stand. Photo by Andy Andrews
AN END TO A VERY
LONGYEAR
I’m sure the 1999 growing
season had as many days and
hours as previous seasons,
but for many of us it sure
seemed like a longer than
normal year.
For many, Mother Nature
threw a few curveballs that
resulted in some dreadful
NSYLVANIA MASTER
GROWERS ASSOCIATION
etween The Rows
Dr. Greg Roth
Agrpnomy Associate Professor
com crops being produced
around the state.
Fortunately, this kind of
season is a rare occurrence
that we hope does not reoccur
for the remainder of your
careers.
I thought I might be good
to revisit a few of the issues
we ran into this summer and
(Turn to P«fl» 4)