SUSQ

Vol. 75 No. 15 - April 16, 1975
Get close to Mother Natu re
in your backyard garden
More people than ever
will be gardening this year.
Why?
One reason will be to
beat inflation, the rising
price of food especially.
Many local gardeners raise
enough of their own food
to last them through the
winter and into the next
growing season.
Along with the savings
to their pocketbooks, gar-
deners gain the satisfaction
of feeling self-sufficient by
earning their own food from
the soil.
Not only do they feel
self-sufficient, but if they
give some of their produce
to friends, they feel they
are benefiting others too.
But the main reason why
people garden is not entirely
clear. They do it because
they like to.
The gardeners who raise
flowers are not trying to
save money. They are try-
ing to create beauty around
them.
But all gardeners of flow-
ers and vegetables, like to
be near the soil. There isa
primitive and healthy feel-
ing that people get by re-
Susquehanna Times & The Mount Joy Bulletin
MARIETTA & MOUNT JOY, PA.
newing their contact with
the soil.
They are like the giant
Antaeus of Greek mytho-
logy, who lost his strength
when he was not in contact
with his Mother Earth. Her-
cules destroyed Antaeus by
holding him in the air and
keeping his feet off the
_ground.
A lot of us are like An-
taeus: too long away from
the soil we grow weak.
So every spring we have
to go into our gardens again,
and get in touch with Mo-
ther Earth.
The art of growing roses
by Lester G. Hostetter
Don’t think that exhibi-
tion roses are grown only by
master gardeners. Many
folks say, “After my first
blooms in June, ‘black-spot’
and mildew cause a deterior-
ation of my bushes for the
remainder of the season.”
With proper care, it is easy
to enjoy beautiful blooms
until late autumn.
When planning for a rose
garden, familiarize yourself
with the different types of
plants available. My bed of
one-hundred stalks is com-
prised of Hybrid Teas,
Grandifloras, and Floribund-
as. Excellent Teas for this
particular locale are dark
red Chrysler Imperial, or-
ange-red Tropicana, med-
ium-red Mister Lincoln, and
pink-blend First Prize. Har-
dy Grandifloras include med-
ium-pinks Queen Elizabeth,
Camelot, and Pink Parfait
along with John S. Arm-
strong, a dark red. Strong
Floribundas are dark red
Europeana, yellow Little
Darling, and orange-red Spar-
tan.
Most novice rosarians are
not aware of the Handbook
for Selecting Roses pub-
lished by the American Rose
Society which rates over
1,000 varieties on a scale
from one to ten. It is a
good practice not to pur-
chase a new variety until it
has been rated nationally.
Then, choose only those

Lester G. Hostetter
stalks rated between 7.5 and
9.5 to be assured of the
most disease-resistant, high-
quality specimens. Inci-
dentally, the “perfect” rose
with a rating of 10 has never
beendeveloped, even though
many prize-winners appear
flawless. These ratings are
compiled from random
samplings conducted by the
ARS among member rose
gardeners throughout the
nation.
What causes roses to “‘re-
(Continued on page 2)
12rs
7» «- ite
UEHANNA BULLETIN

Ten Cents

Haven't
heard of
ordinance
(46%)

Have heard of ordinance
(54%)
Attitude towarc ordinance:
Opposed
No
opinion
(20%;

People don’t know
about zoning law
In the telephone survey
conducted last Saturday the
Susquehanna Bulletin found
out that 46 per cent of the
people interviewed in Mount
Joy had not heard of the
proposed new zoning ordin-
ance.
Of the 54 per cent who
had heard of the proposed
new zoning ordinance, 24
per cent were opposed to it.
20 per cent had no opinion,
and 10 per cent favored it.
If the 46 per cent who
had never heard of it are
combined with the 20 per
cent who had heard of it
but had no opinion about it,
they make up a group of 66
per cent of the people inter-
viewed who were neither
for nor against the new pro-
posed ordinance.
Fifty names of Mount
Joy residents were selected
at random from the tele-
phone directory and were
interviewed in the survey.
The largest probable. error
of the obtained percentages
is about 5S per cent, which
means that the chances are
50-50 that the real error
could be above or below 5
per cent.
Even with such a small
sample, there can be little
doubt that the majority of
people in Mount Joy either
have not heard of the pro-
posed new zoning ordinance
or do not have an opinion
about it.
Opposition or support of
the proposed ordinance was
associated with place of re-
sidence. People living in
areas where there is only
one dwelling unit per lot
tended to oppose it. People
living in more densely popu-
lated areas either had no
opinion or favored it. But
some people who did not
feel personally threatened
by the proposed new ordin-
ance were sympathetic to
other people “who had sav-
ed and built a house in a
residential area and then
find out it won’t stay resi-
dential.”
One person was opposed
to any possibility of more
apartments or condomin-
iums in Mount Joy, because
of “the kind of people who
move into apartments. They
come and go, and don’t be-
come part of the commun-
ity. They are not good for
the community.”
Another person would
not trust politicians to pro-
tect the quality of residen-
tial areas.
One respondent said he
had lived in other communi-
ties that had been urban-
ized, that he had moved to
Mount Joy to get away from
apartment dwellers, and that
he was going to fight any
chance of more apartments
going up in his new home
town.
Someone said that park-
ing in Mount Joy was al-
ready a problem and that
the possibility of moreapart-
ments in town was unthink-
able.
If there is a need for
more homes, said one citi-
zen, build them in the sur-
rounding farmland, or build
more high apartment houses
in Lancaster city, which
needs revitalization.
One elderly man explod-
ed on the telephone. *“‘Lis-
ten!” he shouted. “I'm
old and I’m going to die
soon. Don’t bother me
with your fool questions.
Let the young people worry
about it.”
(continued on page 10)