B
110-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 19, 2003
Susquehanna Princess Welcomes June Baby
Friday the 13th was not an unlucky day for Bill and Abbey Jones. This was the day
their fifth baby was born, a beautiful little girl Krista Vicky Jones. Susquehanna County
Dairy Princess Shana Mack visited the Jones’ to recognize a “June is Dairy Month”
baby. Shana took them their evening meal and a ‘got milk’ outfit and bottle for the baby,
along with cow erasers and coloring books for her brother and sisters. Krista’s brother
and sisters are Luke, 8; Mackenzie, 6; Keri, 5; and Peyton, 2.
Beefman Begins Tour At Beef Expo
WESTMORELAND, N.Y. He wrote the following words: them there next winter. How
Beefinan, the official mascot of Dear New York Beef Pro- exciting!
New York Beef Industiy du Anyway, I never saw so
7 had a terri^c time in ***"*■ Why it rained and
This summer Beefinan will Maine! Those girls I met really rained But / stayed inside be
visit four states to help spread the like me - A lot °f ’ em aren>t cause all the people were inside
good word about beef. from Maine. They’re from the mulling around the cattle and
has been maintaining a travel Technical College in Massa- talking, so why should Ibe out
journal to document his visits. chusetts and they want to visit getting wet? My hat’s so big it
kept me pretty dry except that it
seemed to catch the rain falling
off the bam roof.
Lots of folks wanted their
picture taken with me. / really
muscled up for them. / was re
ally handsome. They don’t see
many cowpokes like me up
north, I guess.
That lady from the Maine
Beef Council is pretty nice too.
She made sure nobody punched
me. There were a couple of
little guys who challenged me
to box with them, but I coyly
acted surprised The little dev-
* KornerW
Us!
Hey, guess what! I went to
my first cattle auction. Wow,
that guy up front talks real
fast. He was rattling away and
people kept waving at him, so I
guess he was doing a good job.
Then there were these other
guys outside the ring. They
were pointing at people and
yelling something like u Ya-ep!
Ya-ep!” Does anyone know
what that means?
/ had fun visiting the Maine-
New England Beef Expo. It’s a
great event. But, / was glad to
come home. Traveling makes a
cowboy tired.
P.S. If the youngin’s want to
visit me, they should visit my
page on the New York Beef
Council Website at www.nybee
forg.
Small Seeds Appear
In Seedless Watermelon
COLUMBUS, Ohio You
can rest assured that your
sighting of seeds in a seedless
watermelon is normal. Al
though you are seeing little
white dots, this case is not
enough to label you fruity!
The little white seeds most
consumers find when splitting
open a watermelon are empty
skins from young seeds and
are soft and edible. Seedless
watermelons are usually less
messy to eat than seeded wa
termelons.
The small, white seeds are
the work of scientists who
have developed a way to raise
a “mule” watermelon fruit
that cannot reproduce. The
plants of seedless watermelon
are pollinated and produce
fruit, but the seeds inside the
watermelon are infertile.
Because the seeds are infer
tile, the melon adapts. The
inner, red fruit is often firmer
than a seeded watermelon be
cause it does not soften to
cushion developing seeds. This
usually results in a little longer
shelf life.
The seedless watermelon’s
seeds have three chromo
somes, instead of the normal
two chromosomes. When the
chromosomes in the seeds
begin to split and multiply, the
extra chromosome throws the
process off, leaving the seeds
Sincerely,
Beefman
infertile. So, while it looks like
a seed, it would not grow if
planted.
Scientists achieved the seed
less melon this way: The seeds
planted for seedless watermel
on are modified by the chemi
cal colchicine to have four
chromosomes. These seeds are
then pollinated by a normal
seed with two chromosomes.
The resulting fruit has seeds
that receive two chromosomes
from one parent and one chro
mosome from another, hence
three chromosomes and infer
tility.
The four-chromosome seeds
for seedless watermelon some
times cost 20 times the price of
regular watermelon seed. They
also have low germination
rates, Which is one of the big
gest problems for growers. But
with the right temperatures
and growing conditions, seed
less watermelon can be grown.