PAGE SIX
3,000-Acre Sterling Farm &imermt
Wins Battle Over Erosion
Sordoni Believes Research Can Solve
Farmers’ Problems, Assure Profit
An experiment which may hold the solution to many of the prob-
lems facing farmers who have to till Pennsylvania’s hilly fields for a liv-
ing is being attempted for the first time this season at Sterling Farm,
Harvey's Lake. This great farm with its 3,000 acres of rolling land, 30
miles of roads, modern barns, machine shops, hundreds of farm animals
and 35 skilled farm hands is being put solidly behind the idea that.farm-
ing can be profitable. It is being run to prove one man’s honest con-
viction that farmers can make money if they will adapt their methods
to their land and not try to adapt
their land to conventional methods
of farming.
“Sterling Farm is being run for
profit—not for fun” those are the
words of its owner, A. J. Sordoni.
“It is being run to prove that bus-
iness methods and attention to the
little details are as important on
a farm as in any other business’ —
and when A. J. Sordoni says that
and backs it with his enthusiasm
and his energy skeptics disappear.
This experiment is being carried
out in the field of stock feeding, |
using grass ensilage instead of corn.
Hundreds of acres are being de-
voted to grass, more are being pre-
through piles of top soil that had
been washed down to the road side.
“There's a problem,” he said,
“how in Hell can a man make a
living on a farm when all of his good
soil washes into the creek. I want
these local boys, alone or in groups,
to visit Sterling Farm at anytime.
I want them to see what we are do-
ing. I want them to see what they
should do with their farms.
Lime Costs $5,000
It is eight and one-half miles
around the biggest pasture on Ster-
ling Farm. Until a few years ago
much of the land was devoted to
quarters during the innoculation pe-
|ercise out in the open.
The Glass Barn
| The glass cow barn has probably
| excited more popular interest than
pared and still more will be pre-
pared as wood lots are cleared to
make way for grass and still more
scrub timbers and brush, much of it
was rough and covered with stone
apparently unfitted for grass—but
grass. As the grass is matured, | today it's growing it—not just
three to four times a year, it is cut grass, but good grass. Last year
by modern mowers that stack it in|lime alone cost Sterling Farm
piles. A fleet of four trucks and $5,000.
green hayloaders gather it almost Many of the fields are subdivided
as fast as it is down and take it with electric fences and on top of
to silos where it is put through | the rise. back of the cow ‘barns
" chopping machines, mixed with mo- (stands the corral where 175 white-
lasses, and blown into storage. As
a milk producer and cow feed this
ensilage is unexcelled. It imparts
a golden yellow to the milk, winter
or summer. But its greatest merit
rests perhaps in what it means to
Pennsylvania farmers who year aft-
er year have watched their fertiliz-
ers, lime, seed and top soil washed
off their hillside fields by heavy
rains, those men who have watch-
ed their dollars and their existence
carried away in swollen streams
and their best fields gutted with a
thousand rivulets.
New Jersey Discovery
This method of stock feeding all
came about through experiments
carried on by the U. S. Department
of Agriculture in cooperation with
State Experimental stations. “A
few years ago,” says Mr. Sordoni,
“the New Jersey Experimental sta-
tion carried out a remarkable ex-
periment.” Three fields of equal
size on a four percent grade were
planted, one with corn parallel to
the grade; another with corn at
right angles to the grade and a
third with grass. Measurements
showed that 100 tons of top soil
washed off the field with corn in
right angle rows, but only one-
tenth of one ton was washed off
the field of grass. Where 10 tons
of fertilizer is required to grow an
equal acreage of corn only four to
five tons is required to grow grass!
—and best of all the grass makes
better feed.
We watched the progress of this
| experiment last Friday at Sterling
Farm as we drove through great
fields of grass with Andrew Sor-
doni in his open car that goes up
hill and down gully wherever there
*s work to be done. We marveled
.t the enthusiasm and conviction
~ of this man attired only in shorts
and a pair of moccasins as he hurl-
ed his sun-reddened body out of
the car to wade waist deep through
fields of alfalfa and stand beside
isolated clumps that reached his
shoulders. “You can tell them,” he
said, “that you saw alfalfa four
feet high. When this grass is cut
we'll let these clumps stand, and
save the seed for future plantings.
We're going to get more grass and
better grass every year.”
Again as we passed a field on a
neighboring farm that had been
gutted by heavy rains, he leaped
out of the car to run his hands
ROCK GARDENS
and POOLS
Visit our nursery and
inspect our choice
stock of shrubs and
ornamental trees...
We build garden
walls broken
stone walks and do
general landscape
work.
Jey
Special prices on Annuals
HUNTSVILLE
NURSERY
PHONE: DALLAS 51-R-10
ee ES,
faced Herefords were sold this
spring. The entire herd has been
sold but they will be grown again
on Sterling Farm as soon as every-
thing is in readiness.
As we bounced over these fields
in the open car with the sun beat-
ing down on our heads we learned
something of Senator Sordoni’s
philosophy at first hand. Once he
stopped the car to thank a man
who worked the night before until
sundown, without being asked, to
get seed in a field that was late in
season.
|
{
{
t
|
planting because of the backward |
Again we stopped to give, given two, innoculations to prevent
candy to a youngster carrying wa- | disease and are kept
Ee
| any other building on the farm.
We This low stone building, 206 feet |
watched a groundhog as it darted | jong with sides of glass brick bears
across our path while the Senator little resemblance to the conven-
hailed him as an old acquaintance, | tional cow barn, probably because |
and the police dog attempting to!jt has no hay loft. It is 38 feet wide |
snooze on the hot, leather cushions|and only 10 feet high at the eaves. |
of the back seat didn’t even sniff. |Its interior is as spic ‘and span as
“You know,” said the Senator, any well-kept school room. Above
“a lot of my friends think I'm crazy |its metal ceiling is a four-inch
farming, but I like it. I grew up on | thickness of rock wool and an 18-
the land. I don’t know anything | inch dead air space covered by a
I ever started that wasn’t without | metal roof over which there is a
ter to his father in a field.
THE POST, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1940
non-producers go to the butcher no
matter how pretty they look.
Destroys Apple Trees
It is the opinion of Senator Sor-
doni that the salvation of local
farmers who must make their living
on hilly farms, lies in the improve-
ment of their herds and in devoting
their entire farms to the growth of
grass ensilage. Let the specialists
raise the other crops. In keeping
with this theory he has destroyed
all of the apple orchards on the
farm, putting into action his belief
that the man who is making his
living from apple raising should be
allowed to have the market without
the competition of the man who
raises apples only as a side line. He
urges all who are not in the apple
business for a living to destroy all
their apple trees except those re-
tained for personal use.
opposition . . . and I'm going to! one-inch thickness of Celotex and a
make farming pay. We don’t do a | built-up roof. On both sides of the
thing on this farm without first| ceiling at nine-foot intervals are
getting Jim Hutchison’s O. K. He | fresh air intakes. Four thermo-
is doing a great job for the farmer. statically controlled ventilators keep
If more farmers would consult their the temperature within a few de-
County Agent they would be run-|grees of constant.
ning better farms than they are| (op cach side of the barn facing
now. He twisted the wheel and {he glass walls are stanchions for
turned the car into the driveway 30 cows, 60 in all. Between each
past the cow barn to a long, low |gtanchion is a drinking cup for two
building where he wanted to show | cows, brimming full of piped spring
what is being done with pigs. | water. The floor on which the
New Brand Of Pigs | cows stand is of corked brick. Twice
Sterling Farm produces about 200 | each day the barn is scrubbed and
pigs a year. Most of this stock 20 litter fills the long, clean drops.
came originally from the famous! Each cow is washed, not once daily,
DuPont farm in Delaware. Until Put as frequently as needed and
recently Poland China hogs were | coats glisten from constant atten-
bred exclusively with resultant fair- | tion. Automatic milking has given
sized litters. But because this line| Way to hand milking, which in the
is closely bred the Senator feels’ Opinion of Mr. Sordoni, is better for
that improvements can be made. the cows and for profit. The men
Recently he purchased a Durock 0 charge of the milking wash their
boar, son of the Grand Champion of | hands every time they milk a cow
the United States in 1938. : ]
years of age the grand champion | they discard every time they wash.
weighed 1,100 pounds. Now Po-| The daily output of each cow is
land China brood sows are being Weighed. So is the feed she is given.
crossed with Durock and the result-|Any cow that fails to produce is | served two
ant litters range from 12 to 14 | promptly removed from the herd
lively spotted youngsters. “They (2nd sold to the butcher. Senator
look like leopards, but aren't they | Sordoni will not permit an unprof-
dandies?” the Senator asked. |itable cow to be sold to any local
In each brood pen the litter is | farmer.
clean and for the most part the pig| “If she’s a headache to me, she’s
house is as odorless as many cow- a headache to the other fellow.
barns. Brood pens are surrounded | We want to help the local man im-
with low board shelters to prevent | prove the quality of his dairy.” The
the sows from rolling on their! Senator plans to keep improving his
young at birth. There is very low) own herd by careful ‘breeding and
mortality at Sterling Farm from selection of the calves raised on the
brood sows rolling on their young— | farm. Producing cows and calves
At two —and use a new paper towel which |
| Probably the most famous ani-
|mal at Sterling Farm is the junior
| bull, a registered Guernsey of the
famous Langwater strain, which is
| “the best strain in the world.” The
| grandfather of this bull sold for
| $25,000 when he was two years old
(and 16 of his ancestors sold for
|$190,000. But much as Senator
| Sordoni admires this animal he has
|an affectionate pat for View Klein-
{ert as he walks down the long row
|of cows, for it is she who produces
126 quarts of milk a day. All of
| these top stock registered Guern-
|seys have. a placard over their
| stanchions giving their name, date
|of birth and the names of their
dam and sire.
| As we left the cow barn the Sen-
| ator opened a gate, which like all
|gates on the farm is held open or
| closed by a special little pin that
| plugs into a slot in the wall.
“I designed it myself. It's a little
| thing,” he smiled, “but it’s the lit-
[tle things that need attention in
| farming.” We noticed that the gate
purposes when opened.
It opened one gateway and closed
another. There are many things
like that gate on Sterling Farm,
and it may be that Farmer Sor-
doni, like the gate, will close the
spillways of farm erosion and open
the gateway to farm profits for all
Pennsylvania farmers through his
experiments with grass feedings at
Sterling Farm.
PBnother New Home!
a tragedy that many farmers still ,in excess of the number required
accept as inevitable. Young pigs are |for the herd will be sold to local |
farmers and others interested in |
| raising their herd standards. But!
in special
vo
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