AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 1, 2000
OPINION
You Want To Get Mules
Fuel prices have come down a bit. But not enough to reduce the
pain in the bottom line of farmers who must get ready to prepare
the ground and plant crops this spring. This takes a lot of fuel if
you farm with tractors.
But the fuel suppliers whoever they may be, friend or foe, care
not about fuel prices and what they do to the American economy.
We nearly fell off our editor’s chair in mid-March when the first
paragraph of an Associated Press article by Mark Babineck
caught our attention. The article appeared in our local town
paper.
Datelined Huston (heart of oil country, we guess), the para
graph said, “Despite wallet-shrinking prices at gas stations na
tionwide, history suggests the current record price per gallon is
not unusually high when adjusted for inflation.”
This statement is true according to the rest of the article. But
oh-my, how everyone must view the record LOW prices farmers
get for their grains, milk and meat. The farm-gate prices for com
modities not only have no room for inflation to be built in; they
also have no room for the advancement of time since the 1980’s.
Can you picture the outcry of the oil interests if farmers were
somehow able to force fuel prices back down to the $.30 to $.60
per gallon some of us old-timers remember. We haven’t seen the
line-up of cars at gas stations this time around. The oil companies
are smarter now. They keep only enough fuel in the pipeline to
make sure all the cars (and tractors) can run, but not enough to
create a surplus that would help bring prices down.
When we beg our enemies, “please send us more oil,” they say
they will increase production to make us feel good. But when you
see the figures, the increase they promise is still way below the
consumption levels of the U.S. economy. Why would they in
crease production when they have us “over a barrel?” That would
be an oil barrel, of course.
Anyway, the whole doggone mess is enough to make you go out
and get a team of mules.
Delaware Valley College Green
and Gold Spring Spectacular,
Equestrian Center at Dela
ware Valley College, Doyles
town, noon.
Maryland Cooperative Exten
sion On-Farm Processing: Al
ternative Income
Opportunities For Milk Pro
cessors Workshop, Frederick,
Pa.
Family Farm Appreciation Cel
ebration “Hoedown,” Ham
burg Field House, Hamburg, 7
p.m.
Annual Wye Angus Sale/3rd
Annual MBEP Central Bull
Test Sale, Wye Research and
nomic Education Task Force,
PDA Office, Harrisburg, 9:45
Solanco Young Farmers Time
Management, Solanco High
School, 7:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania Poultry Sales and
Service Conference, Grant
ville Holiday Inn, thru April
5.
Beef Management Short Course,
Eisenhour Farm, Wellsviile, 7
p.m.; South Branch Farm,
Seven Valleys, April 11 at 7
p.m.; Boss’s Steak and Sea
House, West York, April 18,
6:30 p.m.; and York extension
office. April 25,7 p.m.
Pa. Dairy Princess Southeast
♦ Farm Calendar ♦
Meeting, Weaver’s Banquet
Facility, Adamstown, 9:30
a.m.
Luzerne County Nutrient Man
agement/Farm Tour, departs
from Luzerne County Com-
munity College, 10 a.m.-2:30
p.m.
Beef Production Meeting, Ap
palachian Environ Center,
Frostburg Md., 6:30 p.m.
York County Holstein Barn
Meeting, Meadow Valley
Farm, Spring Grove, 7 p.m.-9
p.m.
Fundamentals of Marketing,
Lancaster Center at Green-
field Corporate Center, 8
a.m.-5 p.m.
ith .nnuai itate
Holstein Show, Timonium
Fairgrounds, 9:30 a.m.
Farm'Safety Day Camp, Heidel
Hollow Farm, Germansville,
8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
East Central Pa. Two-Cylinder
Club Inc., Ron Boyer Farm,
Hereford, 9 a.m., raindute
April IS.
A Morning In The Viney »rd,
Naylor Wine Cellars, Stcw
artstown, 10 a.m.-noon.
Antique Tractor Pull and ShoA
To Benefit Cecil County
Farm Museum, Carson/Jack-
son Farm, Rising Sun, Md., 9
i^rnTßaindateApril^j^^^
National Garden Week, thru
Keystone Farm Credit Annual
Meeting, Yoder’s Restaurant,
New Holland, and April 11,
Holiday Inn and Conference
Want to pick up a shovel?
Planning on digging a ditch?
Planning to build a building?
Save yourself some trouble. Pick
up the phone first and make one
call at least three days in advance
of the scheduled work.
By making that one call to
contact the Utility Location and
Coordination Council (ULCC),
you can save time, money and
maybe your life. The ULCC has a
uniform color code that alerts
contractors and excavators to
utilities in the work area. The
council will give you the green
light to dig that posthole, put in
the new swimming pool, excavate
for an addition or move earth for
any project. Call before you dig.
It is the law. In Pennsylvania call
1-800-242-1776.
To Learn Infrared Aerial
Aerial photography is a new
tool to provide information for
managing crops, according to
Leon Ressler, Lancaster County
Agricultural Environmental
Extension Agent. This can
provide information on soil
variability, where diseases and
insect pests are concentrated or
where drainage problems exist.
Color infrared photography is a
technique that provides this kind
of information for improving crop
management. With infrared
photography green vegetation
appears red. The healthier and
more vigorous the growth, the
darker the red will be. Sparse
vegetation or weak growth will
appear as a light red or pink color.
Bare soil typically appears as
white in the photos. Looking at
the color differences in a color
infrared image enables one to
evaluate the vigor of the crop.
' C > -*i
Photography to Locate Wells
During the summer of 1999 the
Lancaster County Geographic
Information System Department
Center. Fogt.-.
South Branch Farm, Seven
Valievs. 7 p.m. _
elation Marketing Conference
and Trade Show, Kansas City
Marriott Downtown, Kansas
City, Mo., thru April 14.
Financial Planning For Retire
ment, Farm and Home
Center, Lancaster, 7 p.m.-9
p.m., also April 19.
Mano^FF^^Ba^^^^^Penn
Manor High School, 6:30 p.m.
Cumberland Valley FFA Ban
quet, Cumberland Valley
High School, 7 p.m.
Chester-Delaware County Farm
To Call Before You Dig
Photography
To Use Infrared
'elsville. 6:15
anquet,
(Turn to Page A3B)
flew three flights of the entire
county to collect color infrared
images, reports Leon Ressler,
Lancaster County Agricultural
Environmental Extension Agent.
Due to the severe drought stress
the photos revealed information
about the underlying geology
across the county. Some of the
images showed clear evidence of
water bearing fractures in the
bedrock under the soil surface.
Over these fractures the crop
condition was more vigorous
reflecting the moisture coming
from the fracture in the bedrock.
Folds in the bedrock are also
obvious in some of the images.
These photos provide a new tool
for locating wells. If you are
interested m drilling a well,
viewing the images to look for
PREACHING OR
MEDDLING
April 2,2000
Background Scripture:
1 Corinthians 6:12 through
7:16
Devotional Reading:
1 Corinthians 7:25-35
I’m sure that some of the
Corinthians, when they read
this portion of Paul’s letter,
decided that he had progressed
from preaching to meddling. It
appears that some of them
assumed that sexual practices
were outside the province and
concern of the Christian faith.
What I do with my body, they
reasoned, does not affect my
spirit.
They had written him on a
number of problems that were
dividing the church: marriage
(7:1), food offered to idols (8:1),
spiritual gifts (12:1), the contri
bution to the saints (16:1), and
the role of Apollos (16:12). So,
Paul says, “Now concerning the
matters about which you wrote”
(7:1). He is responding to specif
ic Corinthian problems.
Christ is Coming!
Secondly, Paul is convinced
that the return of Christ is
immanent, coloring much of the
advice that he gives for it is
based upon what will keep them
spiritual ready for Christ’s
return. We need to remember too
that he distinguishes between
those teachings that have come
to him from the Lord and those
which come strictly from him
(7:10,12).
Some of what Paul is teach
ing here, then, is dependent
upon the situation- “To the
unmarried and the widows I say
that it is well for them to remain
single as I do. But if they cannot
exercise self control, they should
marry.” If he didn’t believe that
“the form of this world is passing
away,” it is doubtful that he
would have given this because it
is at variance with the teaching
of the Old Testament: “It is not
good that the man should be
alone” (Gen. 2:18) and rabbis
considered that marriage was an
unqualified duty for a man.
Paul’s “It is not well for a man to
touch a woman” (7:1) is not for
all time. So, in this period just
prior to Christ’s return, he
taught that it is best for people
to remain as they are, unless the
sexual impulse made marriage a
better choice.
Some of his teachings, howev-
water bearing fractures on your
property would be a good first
step. While identifying the
fractures on the images does not
guarantee a strong well, it does
increase the probability of finding
water. With the high cost of
drilling a well any steps you can
take to improve the likelihood of
a good well are worth the effort.
If you are interested in more
information on how to use these
images for locating your well,
contact Penn State Cooperative
Extension in Lancaster County at
717-394-6851. The images are
available only for Lancaster
County at this time.
Feather Prof.'s Footnote: "If
you are not riding the wave of
change, you will find yourself
beneath it."
er, were not dependent upon the
immanent return of Christ and
are still authoritative for us.
Paul’s teaches that acts of the
physical body do affect the
human spirit, both negatively
and positively. Along with con
temporary Jews and the Old
Testament, he believed that a
person was not divided into
three separate entities as the
Greeks believed. The person was
a mind-body-spirit, all one being
and essence. So these are not
separate and what affects one
aspect of our self affects all oth
ers. “Do you not know,” Paul
asks, “that he who joins himself
to a prostitute becomes one body
with her?” (6:16). These are not
just physical acts, they are spiri
tual realities as well.
Depths of Intimacy
Furthermore, “Do you not
know that you body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit...?” (6:19).
Casual sex does not “go away”
because it is over so soon, but
because it reaches the depths of
intimacy, the effects of that inti
macy remain with us and our
sexual partners. Rather than
condemning sex, he speaks
forcefully for it vlthin the inti
mate bonds of marriage. “The
husband should give to his wife
her conjugal rights, and likewise
the wife to her husband...Do not
refuse one another except per
haps by agreement for a season,
that you may devote yourselves
to prayer”(7:3-5)- mutual con
sent.
Paul gives us two principles
to help us. First, “‘All things are
lawful for me,’ but not all things
are helpful”-helpful to me, to
you, to others and society at
large. Sex outside the bonds of
marriage may seem right and
good to two people, but in the
long run it breaks down people
and society.
The second principle is also
vital: “‘All things are lawful for
me,’ but I will not be enslaved by
anything.” (7:12). If I give in to
this temptation, am I likely to
become enslaved by it? The
answer all too often is ‘YES!’
Alcohol, drugs, food and sex are
able to enslave us so easily that
we are no longer in a position to
enjoy freedom, because we have
lost the ability to choose.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Steinman Enterprise
William J. Burgess General Manager
Everett R. Newswanger Editor
Copyright 2000 by Lancaster Farming