•ool<s cm 3 magazines of interest to Eancaster farming readers ANDY ANDREWS Editor A FARM HERITAGE ALBUM, by Cynthia Bom bach Helzel. Purlin Press, 2000, 123 pp., $19.95. ISBN 0-9702380-0-2 71 7arm Jleriiaye 7{hum Cynthia Helzel notes in her in troduction to A FARM HERI TAGE ALBUM that she wrote this book because though she couldn’t save the farm, she could possibly save some fond farm memories. She chronicles the rapid changes in farming in western Pennsylvania during the first half of the past century. The book is subtitled “Fifty Years of West moreland County Farming Histo ry Told Through the Photo graphs and Stories of Those Who Lived Them.” I found it easy to enjoy the au thor’s book, written in an easy going, anecdotal style. She re counts the many ways in which farmers could only reluctantly give up their beloved teams of horses for tractors. Helzel traces the evolution of those clumsy beasts (the tractors, that is), from mere engines to provide good belt-running power to full-scale replacements of workhorses. About a dozen different fami lies supplied photos to complete the album. Helzel points out, in her epilogue on page 111, what it takes to be a good farmer. In the • Business Cards • Sale Cards words of Dr. Boggs, “Good health. And it takes a lot of work, a lot of ingenuity. I mean, the farmer’s the most resourceful man in the world. He can doctor his own cattle. He can fix his own tractors, he can use baling wire and a little ingenuity to keep any thing going. He has to do this to survive! To be what he is! And when he can’t do that, he goes by the wayside.” The epilogue itself is packed with enough insight into what has evolved in farming today, not only for Westmoreland County but also for the entire country. Helzel points to a possible up dated edition of this book. You can order from her at Purlin Press, RD 1 Box 377, Millersdale Rd., Greensburg, PA 15601, (724) 853-9794. The album costs $19.95 plus $3 shipping and handling. Pennsylvania residents must add 6 percent sales tax on the total. u.. . it takes a lot of work, a lot of in genuity. I mean, the farmer’s the most resourceful man in the world. He can doctor his own cattle. He can fix his own tractors, he can use baling wire and a little in genuity to keep anything going. He has to do this to survive! To be what he is! And when he can’t do that, he goes by the wayside. 5 5 CHILDREN OF THE DE PRESSION, ed. by Kathleen Thompson and Hilary Mac Austin. Indiana University Press, 2001, 215 pp., $35. ISBN 0-253-34031-4 CHILDREN OF THE DE PRESSION runs the gamut of emotions, if you look at the pho tos closely enough, of children from all walks of life, from fill in come levels, from every part of the country, caught up in the most tumultuous period in U.S. history the Great Depression. It’s a sad book, infinitely sad, but also, in small ways, almost gleeful. A good example is the photo of the farm boy in tattered overalls, shielding his face while looking low, caught up in a dust storm in Cimarron County, Okla., in April 1936. There is an account by Melt White, that speaks of the “spring of 1935” when “the wind blew 27 days and nights without quittin,’ and I remember that’s why my mother just I thought she was going to go crazy because it was just it was you got desperate, because if the wind blew durin’ the day or durin’ the night and let up, you got some relief. But just day and night, 24 hours, one 24-hour after the other, it just Restoration At County Historical Society NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster Co.) Steve Porter will discuss “Cemetery Restoration” at the general meeting of Grave Con cern, Inc., at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27, at the Lancaster County Historical So ciety, 230 North President Ave nue, Lancaster. Porter heads Keystone Cemetery Services, Inc., New Holland. The public is invited to the meeting. Grave Concern President Ste ven Stuart will also briefly review recent activities of the organiza tion and plans for the year. There will be opportunity for questions as well as an open discussion of practices and procedures of graveyard preservation, restora tion and maintenance. Different methods and approaches will beaked. Porter has operated Key stone Cemetery Services for Dr. Boggs Open Meeting On Cemetery STEEL BALE BOXES Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 23, 2002-811 but it’s 27 days and nights in the spring of 1935, it didn’t let up.” The book is full of accounts of migratory Oklahoma family, of families scraping by in the Hoo vervilles, of a country tom apart. But it is also full slum children at play in Washington, D.C. in No vember 1935. Or kids having fun in a homemade swimming pool for steelworkers’ children in Pittsburgh in July 1938. CHILDREN has sharecropper families, gypsies, migrant work ers, Native American families, and others who had been uproot ed as a result of the Depression. There is a particularly telling photo of a family near Water town, N.Y., in August 1941, pho tographed at the Pine Camp mili tary area. They are about to move to a 240-acre dairy farm in South Rutland, N.Y., obtained through the New York Defense Relocation Corporation, accord ing to the authors. You can tell they are a little pensive, but there’s some glee ready to burst, because you can tell they are moving onto a better life. This book is heartbreaking. At the same time, it is truly a mar velous work of art, with excep tional photos on every page. AGRICULTURAL CHEMI CALS: BOOK 11, HERBI CIDES, 2002 Revision, by W.T. Thomson. Thomson Publications, 2001, 338 pp., $24.95. ISBN 0-913702-40-4 From 2,4-D and all its trade names, right up to Zytron, a het erocyclic nitrogen derivative, this book is a handy catalog, with index by name, of all herbicides. more than five years, after work ing with several leading land scapers and cemetery care-takers in Lancaster County. Keystone specializes in monument restora tion, cleaning and vandalism re pair and foundation installation. He learned cemetery care under the tutelage of this father, who was superintendent of the 78-acre Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Subsequently, after graduating from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science Extension Program Offered On Retirement Planning SCRANTON (Lack awanna Co.) When it comes to retirement, a little bit can make a big The book provides the chemi cal diagram, type, origin, toxicity, formulations, uses, important weeds controlled, rates, applica tion, precautions, and additional information on a very wide vari ety of herbicides. This book is an excellent refer ence source for many compounds used regularly in the field. Order from Thomson Publica tions, P.O. Box 9335, Fresno, CA 93791, (559) 266-2964. They also have a Website, www.ag book.com. ALTERNATIVE TRAVEL DIRECTORY, from the edit ors of Transitions Abroad Magazine, 7th Ed., revised and expanded. Transitions Abroad Publishing, 2002, 260 pp., $19.95. ISBN 1-886732-10-8 For those who want to be a traveler rather than a mere tour ist, ALTERNATIVE TRAVEL DIRECTORY could be for you. (A tourist tends to bring the home along with him or her; a traveler, on the other hand, leaves the trappings behind and immerses him or herself in the culture of the country visited.) The guidebook provides a wealth of information, including the Internet, about tour pro grams, hostels, agencies, and full course immersion-type programs for the serious traveler. Websites are included for whatever interest and for those who want to make their own travel plans. There are also many addresses and phone numbers of contacts to help guide a person in the right kind of travel plan. It’s a real resource ! (now Philadelphia University), he became superintendent himself, overseeing between 500 and 1,000 interments a year. Grave Concern, Inc., a recog nized non-profit organization, promotes the preservation, resto ration and maintenance of histor ic burial plots within Lancaster County. It facilitates the gather ing and exchange of information through regular educational, his tory, and technical assistance programs. difference. Saving just $1 a day now could mean an extra $21,000 when you retire. If you saved that dollar each day for 20 years and put it in a retirement account earning 10 percent per year, you would have an extra $21,000 in your account. That’s enough to add $l9O per month to your retirement in come over a 25-year retirement period. If you want to get serious about saving for retirement, plan to attend Penn State Co operative Extension’s workshop, “Top 10 Reasons to Plan Your Retirement,” Thurs day, April 18, from 7-9 p.m. at the Penn State Worthington Scranton Campus in the Dawson Building, Room 10. The cost of the pro gram is $5 which in cludes materials and refreshments. For more information or to make reservations, call Penn State Coop erative Extension at (570) 963-6842 by April 11.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers