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FRIDAY,
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 arc 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’ Thai'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 Ma/.e," m
which every year a new
“theme’' for the com nwuc 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, Enc, 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 tffe major
cities) r
The “Land of Liberty" theme
proved especially attractive for
area tourists Each day during
Jeff Stoltzfue, Eastern Laneaeter County (EtANCO) School District Adult
Farmer Program adviser, center, spoke to about 60 farmer and agri-industry
representatives In June during the third annual ELANCO Adult Farmer Prog
ram Spring Meeting at the Eugene Martin Farm south of New Holland. See
story page 3 Photo by Andy Andrews
999
ORNISLK
Lhe season the maze avenged
about 1,200-1,500 visitors Last
year about 50,000 visitors
showed up to tour the maze, m
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 ol
14.000 petunias According to
Coleman, the one third acre
llag 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
was planted May 5 in 30-inch
* >w> The maze (heme outline
was gndded out and, when the
com was less than eight inches
tall, a crew worked a hoc to
shape A few acnal photo*
graphs were taken before (he
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 ram
had fallen In mid-July, (wo
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 ma/c is open Scpl 1
through Sept 18 Friday and
(Turn to P«0« 12)
. COMMERCIAL
reports
. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
• MORE EFFECTIVE
• CROPS CONFERENCE PREV
• farm feature
INSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
k, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 9, 1999
gi. —jp, and weekly spec.,
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
PENNSYLVANIA MASTER
lORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Between The Rows .
Dr. Greg Roth £ ' J
Penn Stale Agronomy As»oc»«te Proteesor XUS&&.JNS&
AN END TO AVERY
LONG YEAR
Im sure the 1999 growing
season had as many days and
hours as previous seasons
but for man\ of us it sure
seemed like a longer than
normal \ear
For man> Mother Nature
threw a few curveballs that
r( suited in some dreadful
hybrid
corn being product d
around the stat*
Fortunately, this kind of
season is a rare occurrence
that we hope does not reoccur
for the remainder of vour
careers
1 thought 1 might be good
to revisit a few of the issues
we ran into this summer and
(Turn to Fago 4)