The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, April 03, 1952, Page 2, Image 2
PAGE 2.—Thurs.. Apr. 3. 1952. Editorial m Business Offices: 122 South Fourth Street CaKROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher Established in 1880—Published Each Thursday Entered the poatoffice at O’Neill, Holt county, Nebraska, as sec ond-class mail matter under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. This newspaper is a member of the Nebraska Press Association, National Editorial Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50 per year; elsewhere In the United States, $3 per year; abroad, rates provided on request. All subscriptions are strictly paid-in-advance. Whan You and I Were Young ... 200 Acres Beets Will Be Raised 50 Years Ago Miss Mollie Hanley, who has been teaching the Benson school, has closed a six months term in that district . . . William Hobin son, the crack chicken hunter of the South Fork, accidentally dis charged a Winchester shotgun and tore off half of his left hand . . . Officers ot the Norfolk sugar factory were in O’Neill and made arrangements with the irrigation company to put out 200 acres of beets on the irrigated lands south of the Elkhorn river . . . Mrs. S. Smith enjoyed a visit from her daughter, Mrs- Walrath (nee Coi la intley), oi Atkinson. Miss Ne vada Hall accompanied Mrs. Wal rath. 25 Years Ago Work is progressing rapidly on the bridge across the Niobrara river . . . Miss Margaret Sullivan accompanied her father, Super visor John Sullivan, to Omaha . .. Mrs. R. H. Murray was called to Sioux City by the serious ill ness of her daughter, Mrs. Dean Streeter. . . Harry Haffner went to Omaha on business . . . T. V. Golden went down to his ranch at Ewing . . . Miss Roberta Arbuthnot returned to her studies at the state universi ty. 10 Years Ago C. E. Lundgren and Kerman Rahn made a business trip to Yankton, S. D. . . . Mr. and Mrs. Paul Shierk went to St. Charles, S. D., to visit Mrs. Shierk’s moth er, Mfs- Marie Petranek . . . Alex Cleary, of Atkinson, has accept ed a position at the J. C. Penney Store . . . About 100 of Holt coun ty’s young manhood leaves Fri day for induction in the army. 1 Year Ago The J. M. McDonald company store completed an interior dec oration project . . . O’Neill fire men were summoned at 3:05 p m. to a grass fire at the Pete Peter sen place in West O’Neill ... A sign of spring: Charlie Cay wood, goes fishing. ..DANCE.. AT O’NEILL American Legion Auditorium SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH MUSIC BY ACES OF RHYTHM ORCHESTRA Admission: Adults 75c, Students 50c S dson's Op iting... * * ★ SNO-CREME DRIVE-IN West O’Neill SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH ★ ★ ★ FREE CONES for Kids and Adults LIMIT: One Per Person Open Daily Noon to 11 P.M. Sundays 10 A.M. to 11 P.M. STUART HARTIGAN, Owner ' O @ 1951 Narrative Report of the Holt County Soil Conservation District Practice 1951 Todate Tree planting-' 214 acres 1,109 acres Woodland management - 167 acres 2,180 acres Seeding of range_ 604 acres 4,487 acres Seeding of permanent hay_ 205 acres 1,670 acres Rotation of hay and pasture_911 acres 8,529 acres Range properly stocked_7,156 acres 62,577 acres Range improvement-9,207 acres 23,701 acres Strip croping_ 777 acres 11,018 acres Stubble mulching_1,903 acres 24,484 acres Approved crop rotations — -3,230 acres 10,685 acres Farm and Ranch Ponds---26 (Number) 63 (Number) No. Acres No. Acres Basic conservation plans- 27 13,584 363 224,369 Applications received -- 98 104,873 566 440,729 Active applications on file - 184 198,010 Cooperation with Other Agencies— The U.S. Soil Conservation Service has worked hand in glove with the local district activities. The local staff has done an efficient job of getting sound conservation practices on the land and has made a sincere effort to put first things first. However, with a work load nearly double what they are able to accomplish not all of the needs can be filled. We as a board feel that the local office would be in a better position if two additional full time professional em ployees could be added to the staff. , V/UUperauUil witil uic caicu&iuu aci vitu Held UCCU guuu. xii the preparation of news releases, and special meetings or tours the activities of the two agencies have been good. However, more must be done in the future. Both the extension service and the local dis trict must make more definite strides to work with groups interest ed in doing conservation, and must in general increase the conser vation education activities. The fish and game commission has supplied fish for a number of farmers’ and ranchers’ farm ponds this year and the wildlife area plantings have continued. The county supervisors continue to provide good office space at a cost possibly below the cost of light, heat and janitor service. Some of the county supervisors attended the drainage meeting held at Stuart last November, and it appears that they will be willing to cooperate on drainage problems where they are involved. The directive of the secretary of agriculture to coordinate the activities of the various branches of the department of agriculture was given the test last year. This year it may work better because of the experience gained and being able to set up the machinery dur ing the winter months. However, it does not appear to be the an swer to efficient spending of the tax money. It is our belief that payments should at least be limited to only a few of the most im portant permanent practices. Government spending is continually growing with no apparent end in sight. It may be of small consequence to the national budget, but it seems a good move to make a start in the reduction of federal expenditures. Perhaps if farmers and ranchers and their organiza tions will unite in an effort to reduce these expenditures we will have made a start in the right direction. Surely to see that this money is spent where it will do the most good and bring back the largest return is in the interest of every American citizen. District Equipment— In the early months of 1951 a 167D Clipper cleaner was purchased and put into operation. It was too late to get a big run of grain cleaning, but all of the grass seed harvested the prt/vious summer and fall was cleaned. Some custom work on alfalfa, sweet clover and brome grass was accomplished. , During the spring months five men (three with trucks) were hired. Two crews of two men 4ach operated the tree planters and one man with a truck took care of grass seeding. During the summer the combine was operated—first on small grain, later on crested wheat and vetch, and then on to the native grasses, sand lovegrass, switchgrass and Indian grass. Although the prospects for a large big bluestem crop looked good, it did not ma ture and none was harvested ucginmng oepiemuer 1, r. >5. oinwu was uueu as a j.u.1.1-tune employee, serving as equipment manager. In this way someone Lj always available to operate the cleaner. He will also be able to take a considerable load of seed and tree handling off of the local staff, keep machinery in good repair and in many ways better the quality and efficiency of the district’s operations. It has been the aim of this district to make equipment available to cooperators that it is not profitable for individuals to own. For example, the two tree planters planted over 200,000 trees on more than 75 cooperators’ farms or ranches. Grass seeding equipment is not available on many ranches, so the drill and seeder treader is used exclusively to aid the grass seeding program. Realizing that generally speaking each year enough grass seed was produced, but not harvested, in Holt county to more than supply local needs, the district purchased a combine in 1950. Then came the problem of cleaning. The decision rested on a large mill so that custom cleaning could help pay the cost of the mill and encourage the planting of more uniform, weed-free grain, grass and legume seed. The advantage of seeding clean seed is many fold. Seeding is much less of a problem where there is no trash to contend with. The rate of seeding can be determined more accurately. Where fertiliz ers are used for increasing the yield, it is sheer folly to plant weed infested seed. For more profit and pleasure cleaning is certainly a worthwhile investment. Did the government finance the purchase of this machinery? No, not one cent of tax money was used. The district is purely a lo cal, countywide organization. It receives no federal or state ap propriations—it levies no taxes. The only federal funds used are for the local staff—their equipment, pickups, survey instruments, office supplies, etc. All this is provided by the U'.S. Soil Conservation Ser vile in cooperation with the local district. In fact, the Holt Soil Con servation District and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service are two disinctly separate organizations. Yet, because they work so closely together, they are spoken of and thought of as one and the same thing by a large majority of the people. Oh yes, the equipment—where did the money come from? From a growing business—your Soil Conservation District. From the sale of trees and seed and the rental of equipment. “Will the Holt district expand to all phases of equipment for conservation farming?” Def initely not! Especially where private contractors are filling the need. Terracing equipment, dam building and, in most cases, drain age equipment is available from private contractor sources. In near ly every case the contractors are very willing to cooperate with the local technicians in getting the job done right. These contractors knew long ago that quality work meant larger demand for their work. ’ Publicity— The district is indebted to a lot of people for helping promote the work of conservation farming and ranching. This report will be carried in the third annual soil conservation edition of“The Fron tier. In each edition The Frontier has featured the annual report and carried a large amount of material on conservation in the area, Also, every newspaper in the county has cooperated wholehearted ly in the frequent articles prepared by the local staff and the coun ty agent. Countywide coverage of the stories concerning the devel opment of the conservation program has done much to acquaint the townspeople as well as rural folk with the great need for conserv | ing the soil and what is being done about it. Operations Program— The tree planting program reached an all-time high for Holt county with over 200,000 trees planted. Of these 109,000 w'ere pur chased from a private nursery, 44,450 from U.S. Soil Conservation nurseries, 23,700 from Clarke-McNarv, 5,100 from the game com mission and 10,000 cottonwoods were gathered locally. No records were broken on the seeding program, but consider ing the wet spring it was more than expected. More farm and ranch ponds were built than in the last year, but not as many as would have been had it not been so wet. Con tractors were kept busy by road repair work much of the time, which resulted in less dam building. There was much interest in drainage and some projects were completed. However, most of them involving a number of landown i ers were unable to reach an agreement s0 that proper easements | could be drawn up and the jobs completed. Considerable technical, time was spent on drainage where the projects were not completed. Zone technicians spent three days in the county looking over drain age problems. The fourth day was spent by holding a public meet ing in Stuart. beverai more grass increase plots were seeded this year. Such grasses as intermediate wheat, sand lovegrass, switchgrass and Indian grass were seeded for seed producing purposes. Two cooperators, M. G. French, of Page, and Jim Allyn, of Stuart, harvested their old stands of certified switchgrass. A grass variety plot was established on the R> an estate. It is located on the south side of highway 20, six miles west of the Danceland corner. Plots of every kind of grass seed available were planted last spring. The county agent assisted with the establishment of the plot and started some fertilizer checks on it. Additional fertilization will be made from year to year. Recognition Programs— Forty-three cooperators were entered in the Sioux City per manent agriculture contest. Joe Wagman, of Atkinson; Frank Beel aert, of Page, and E. J. Revell, of Star, wer selected to represent the district in area competition. Wagman and Beelaert attended the banquet in Sioux City the last of November. Also in 1951 the Holt district won the Omaha World-Herald’s award for the second time. In a new type of contest initiated by the World-Herald in 1950, only districts that have won previous awards were eligible. Competition was based on progress of the district. Al though t.iis reflects supervisor activity, the large part of the credit goes to the cooperators of the district and the many organizations and individuals who have helped promote the local program. A banquet was held at the American Legion club in O’Neill on November 22 to celebrate the winning of the award. All of the pres ent supervisors and their families as wrtl as all of the past super visors and their families were present. W. W. Derrick was the fea tured speaker of the evening. The World-Herald reprsentative, E. T. McClanahan presented the chairman of the board with a bronze plaque. The district did not receive a $500 award as was erroneous ly stated in a local paper and in a World-Herald release. lhe district is deeply appreciative of the award and wishes to | take this opportunity to thank the World-Herald. Their program | of recognition am districts in Nebraska and southwestern Iowa has meant much more than the monetary value of their awards. It has created a spirit of competitiveness among districts and has been an outstanding means of telling the story of conservation to countless numbers of people in the midwest. May we say thanks for a job well done to you, the people of Holt coun ty, for helping the district win the award, and to the World-Herald for promoting so effectively a worthwhile venture? Four supervisors attended the annual state conference in Lin colnn during December. The other member had made arrangements to go but because of illness was compelled to make a last minute change of plans. Technical Service— With all the publicity that has been given “complete” soil con servation plans a large majority of people contacting the techni cians for the first time do so for one particular problem, such as tree planting, grass seeding, drainage, dams, terraces, fertility problems, etc. Most of them are surprised to find that for the most effective use of any conservation practice it must be joined with all practices applicable to their particular units and their ways of operation. How ever, after complete plans are developed a majority realize the im portance of the completeness of the program and strive to put it into operation. Generally they find that many of the established practices exemplify their good management and fit perfectly in their overall plans of complete and sound soil and water conserva tion. We, as supervisors of the local district, sincerely believe in the district program as a democratic means of uniting to combat the forces cf erosion and apply the needed conservation measures to make an even greater and more productive American agriculture. Financial Statement— Cash balance on hqpd_ 253.76 Equipment and real estate_ 5,505.07 Materials - 1,821.84 Bills receivable_' 200.16 Total/assets of district_ 7,780.83 Bills payable- 455.01 Net worth of district_ 7,325.82 Total receipts for year_ 11,850.50 Total expenditures for year_14,215.56 Golden Keys Boys TO Erect Birdhouse — The Golden Keys club met on 1 Friday, March 28. Jerry Schaaf called the meeting to order. Roll call was answered with our fav orite newspaper. Next week we will answer it with out favorite ; Indians. Donna Perry gave a book re port. Kathleen Grothe will give j one next week. The girls popped some popcorn this week. The boys are going to make a birdhouse. “Voice of The Frontier” WJAG . . . thrice weekly, 9:45 a.m. It’s Spring House CleaningTime! Springtime means a general session of painting and pol ishing throughout our state. Homes are scrubbed inside and out. Yards, gardens and fences are prepared for summer enjoyment. Spring housecleaning is a good American custom which en hances the appearance of our neighborhoods. Housecleaning is not confin ed to homes, either. Your tavernman does a Spring clean-up, paint-up job, too! He takes pride in his place of business. Encouraged by the brewing industry, your tavernman endeavors to operate a neat, attractive place where you can relax in clean, whole some surroundings. This clean-up, paint-up, maintenance drive is fur ther evidence of the contin uing educational program carried on by the brewing industry. NEBRASKA DIVISION United States Brewers Foundation TlO^I^rs^NaPIJRanl^JtMje^^incolii 1 Pardon Me but did you say, over 12,000,000* dollars? ■“ ■■■" ■ ' — Yes, Sir! In fad, approximated 12,939,000* dollars or, nearly thirteen million* dollars in bonds have been retired by your Consumers Public Power District in the relatively short period of its existence! Your Consumers Public Power District is constantly retiring its debt with funds derived solely from earnings! 1 hese earnings come from the sale of electric power on rates that are among the loirest in the nation! Your Consumers Public Power District, a taxpaving, seldsupporting organization, receives not one cent in benefits from either Federal. State or Local taxes! includes Funds Reserved for Bond Retirement Serving Nebraska Electrically — Economically!