A36-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 13, 2002
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ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
PENNSYLVANIA’S HEART
LANDS: 1860s-19605, Voi.
11, More Stories of Its Rural
People, by Susan Wert
Vogt. Desktop Editing Com
pany, 2002, 161 pp., $34.
ISBN 0-9708901-1-7
There is something special,
something dear, about rural liv
ing. Author Vogt captures that
belief in this book about Pennsyl
vania’s heartlands, the people,
events, and places in the Pennsyl
vania’s central and southeastern
sections.
Through a series of The Times
(Port Royal) newspaper columns
over the years, Vogt has assem
bled a great collection of reminis
cences, anecdotes, special places
and people she’s seen, along with
lots of color photos and maps of
the places she obviously holds
very dear to her heart.
Juniata County is especially
near and dear, with poems and
stories about the special place it
is.
(This reviewer recently re
turned from Atlantic City, N.J.,
and nothing compares to the
beautiful rural environment we
call home here in Pennsylvania.
When you are away for a time,
you certainly miss the pristine,
rolling hills; the dapper country
side; and the farms and friendly
folk that make up home.)
Included are tractor and
Crop Research To Highlight Penn State Field Day
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Penn State’s College of
Agricultural Sciences will reveal
the latest advances in farming at
its annual Crop Management
Field Day, Tuesday, July 23 at
the Russell E. Larson Agricultur
al Research Center at Rock
spring. Research into cultivation
techniques, new varieties and
pest management systems will be
presented by college faculty.
“This is an opportunity for
crop producers, ag industry folks,
and others to see some of the re
search under way at the research
farm,” said Gregory Roth, associ
Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) Pennsylvania’s corn and
oat stocks on June 1, totaled 25.2
million bushels and 2.0 million
bushels, respectively, according
to the Pennsylvania Agricultural
Statistics Service (PASS). At the
thresher shows, with color photos
of equipment that stir the heart
and mind. Readers will adore this
book.
To order, call (717) 566-5700
or, for mail orders, send a check
or money order for $34 payable
to Desktop Editing Company, 1
Scout Lane, RR3, Hummelstown,
PA 17036.
PORTRAIT OF A BURGER
AS A YOUNG CALF: The
Story Of One Man, Two
Cows, and the Feeding of a
Nation, by Peter Love
nheim. Crown Publishing/
Harmony/Random House,
2002, 269 pp., $23.00.
ISBN 0-609-60591-7
From the git-go, I am warning
potential publicity department
cover blurb-seekers: this book
gives the wrong message. I don’t
recommend this book. This book
is wrong, wrong, wrong. I dislike
this book, and I will tell you why.
Actually, I started out to like
PORTRAIT. Here was a man, a
nonfarmer, who wanted to know
what it was really like to raise a
bull calf from birth to slaughter.
To find out what really goes on at
a farm. To see the truth, and
nothing but the truth, for himself,
and to share that with the non
farming readers.
But my hopes were dashed
against the rocks.
ate professor of agronomy in the
crop and soil sciences depart
ment. “They also can interact
with Penn State crop specialists
from various departments.”
Research will be featured on
four one-hour tours running se
quentially from 9:30 a.m. until
3:30 p.m. Each tour will be con
ducted twice, and individuals will
have an opportunity to attend all
four tours.
The corn research tour will
demonstrate hybrid testing for
com silage, polymer com seed
coatings, twin row com planting
techniques, and strategies for
Corn Stocks On Farms Down 46 Percent
same time last year, com stocks
were 44.6 million bushels and
oats stocks totaled 2.5 million
bushels.
Corn stocks on farms totaled
21.0 million bushels, down 46
percent from the 39.0 million
Here was a book that could
have been shared with delight
even with the farm families who
want to know about the opera
tions of Lawnel Farms in western
New York State. Parts of this
book delve into personal biogra
phy, at times rendering true-life
stories about what farming is all
about.
And yet, in the end ... the end
can and should be skipped. Read
up to that point. I don’t agree
with what Lovenheim decides to
do. The message he may pass
onto the American public is hor
ribly wrong. Most farmers will
think it’s wrong.
In the end, Lovenheim advo
cates vegetarianism. We don’t
need meat, he insists, we can live
off soybeans. And look what hap
pened to Linda McCartney, the
deceased wife of the Beatles guy.
The same people who wear leath
er belts and shoes, I presume.
So I want to praise parts of this
book (again, parts, are you hear
ing me, blurb-takers?), and I can
dash this book, in the same re
view. Lovenheim could have had
us believing, he really
could... but no cigar. I don’t
agree with what he finally decid
es to do in the end. Wrong,
wrong, wrong. Horribly wrong.
HOMEBUILDING PITFALLS:
Insider’s Guide To Getting
The Quality New Home You
Deserve!, by Lawrence
Thomas. New Community
Press, 2002, 214 pp.,
$39.95. ISBN
0-9719550-9-3
Finally, a book I can recom
mend. HOMEBUILDING PIT
FALLS does just that take you
through some of the things you
need to know in building and
buying a house. This includes
watching for sales tricks and de
ceptions, making sure the builder
evaluating hail damage effects on
silage com.
The tillage, Bt, and white mold
tour will present research on zone
till com, Bt com hybrids and
their isolines, and white mold
and weed management in soy
beans.
The fertility and soil quality
tour will highlight studies on
pop-up and alternative starter
fertilizers for com on high phos
phorus soils, as well as nutrient
cycling and crop rotations and
soil biological activity.
The weed management tour
will focus on predicting weed
bushels in 2001. Oat stocks, at 1.6
million bushels, were down 20
percent from the 2001 inventory
of 2.0 million bushels.
Off-farm grain stocks were:
corn 4.2 million bushels, down
25 percent from 2001; oats 428
thousand bushels, down seven
follows the plans and contract,
and all the things that could go
wrong in between.
Consult this book before you
build.
To order, contact New Com
munity Press, 2692 Madison
Road N-l, Number 263, Cincin
nati, Ohio 45208, or e-mail New-
FARM ANIMALS, Your
Guide To Raising Livestock,
by Jeanie Peck-Whiting.
Fox Mountain Publishing,
2002, 312 pp., $18.95.
ISBN 0-9716174-0-6
This straight-up, easygoing ap
proach to learning how to raise
livestock on the farm is a great
tool for the young or beginning
farmer and those who want to
raise livestock on a small scale,
such as for youth shows.
FARM ANIMALS shows us
why “you don’t have to own a lot
of animals to have fun,” as noted
on page 39. “If I were going to
recommend anything, it would be
for you to start slow. Buy one or
two animals, see how that goes. If
it’s enjoyable and it brings you
pleasure or income, then build on
it.”
The book notes that Jeanie was
born and raised in a farm envi
ronment. “She learned early on
to respect and provide the best
care for all animals,” the book
notes on page 271. “It has always
been her belief that if you take
care in the handling and manage
ment of your animals, you will be
repaid three times over by the en
joyment the animals will bring
you.”
The book delves into the basics
of caring for chickens, ducks,
rabbits, goats, pigs, and cows. It
even has scary farmyard stories,
including the mean sow, the sows
trampling accidentally on their
young, pigs getting out of hand
emergence with GDDs, spatial
weed management, herbicide
screening, and glyphosate and
weed shifts.
The Larson Agricultural Re
search Center is located at Rock
spring, nine miles southwest of
State College on Rt. 45. The field
day is open to the public; regis
tration will be $lO and includes
lunch. Attendees can reserve a
space by calling (814) 865-2543
or by sending e-mail to
lacB@psu.edu. The day offers a
total of four credits toward Certi
fied Crop Advisor (CCA) certifi
cation programs for professional
agronomists.
percent; barley 310 thousand
bushels, down 23 percent; wheat
3.9 million bushels, down 36
percent from 6.1 million bushels
in 2001; soybeans 1.2 million
bushels, up 10 percent from 1.1
million bushels in 2001.
(did you know that pigs can eat
human beings whole, skin, bones,
clothes, and all?), and other
strange facts. She even shares her
favorite recipes.
Contact Fox Mountain Pub
lishing, Book Orders Dept., P.O.
Box 1516, Tonasket, WA 98855,
or on the Web at wwwibxmtn
publishing.com.
RETRO RIDE, Advertising
Art of the American Auto
mobile, by Tony Swan. Col
lectors Press, 2002, 176
pp., $39.95. ISBN
1 -888054-62-X
Want to go back in time? Just
peruse this huge, colorful, slick,
coffee table-sized book literally
jammed with four-color repro
ductions of old car ads.
We’re talking old car ads, dat
ing back to about 1923, and how
the major car companies ap
proached cars in the beginning as
luxury items for the wealthy and
famous, to a family vehicle full of
fun and the latest technology
through the ’sos, on into the jet
setting cars of the early ’6os.
The book sometimes shows
that the more things change, in
terms of how auto advertisers
think, the more they stay the
same
Order from Collectors Press,
Inc., P.O. Box 230986, Portland,
OR 97281, or on the Web at
www.collectorspress.com.
Manure
Application
Field Days
Slated
FLEETWOOD (Berks Co.)
Three manure application field
days sponsored by Penn State and
the Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture are scheduled the
week of July 29.
The first is scheduled for Tues
day, July 30 and is specifically
geared for commercial and pri
vate manure applicators. The sec
ond and third days are open to all
interested parties and are on July
31 and August 1. The first two
events will be held at Greater Vi
sion Farm in Fleetwood, Berks
Co. The third day will be held at
the Buser Farm in Yorkana, York
Co.
The dates will be highlighted by
demonstrations and hands-on ac
tivities. The agenda includes a
phosphorus-index exercise, a soil
compaction exercise, a manure
application rate exercise, a soil pit
demonstration, hand-held GPS
exercise, GPS on field equipment
demonstration and a variable rate
application demonstration.
Speakers include local manure
haulers, representatives from
Penn State Dairy and Animal Sci
ence and Agronomy departments;
cooperative extension agents;
USDA-NRCS representatives;
and USDA Ag Research Farm
representative.
Five continuing education cred
its for certified nutrient manage
ment specialists will be available
for those who attend the meeting.
A fee of $lO to cover lunch ex
penses will be collected during
registration. Participants are
asked to bring a calculator. If you
have questions, need directions or
would like to pre-register please
contact Robb Meinen at (814)
865-2987, or rmeinen@das.psu.e
du.