Read it Again: Week of April 4, 2002

80 years ago this week. Members of the Dairymen’s Cooperative Sales agreed not to hold one day’s milk production at home, following a meeting with producers, distributors and the public. A plan was worked out to enable the distributors to use the entire supply of milk. Dealers and producers agreed to a price of $1.70 per hundred pounds at the plants, and local shippers will receive 22 cents a gallon on the basis of 3.5 milk.

The Ohio horticulture at the state experiment station is recommending good varieties of vegetables for garden production, including tomatoes like Earliana and Bonny Best for early season, and Beauty, a midseason variety, and Matchless, Greater Baltimore and Stone. Of sweet corn varieties, Early Malcolm is the earliest white; Golden Bantam and Golden Sugar are early and mid-season yellow; Stowell’s Evergreen is good for main crops.

50 years ago this week. Kenneth Hood, extension agricultural economist of Pennsylvania State College said the No. 1 requirement of success in farming is having the right kind of wife. He said that “family cooperation, interest and understanding” are primary requirements for success in farming. The value of the farmer’s wife was placed above all the other success requirements he listed. Others included good crops and livestock, agricultural experience, agricultural education, above average yields, good marketing practices, use of marketing and economic information, cooperation with neighbors and a desire to farm.

25 years ago this week. The Food and Drug Administration has suspended marketing approval for beverage containers made from the plastic acrylonitrile. Coca-Cola has test marketed soft drinks in acrylonitrile plastic bottles, and Musselman Fruit Products has sold fruit juices in containers of the same plastic. In a related action, the FDA proposed to lower the maximum amount of acrylonitrile permitted from leaching into the product from margarine tubs, vegetable oil bottles, food wraps and other packaging made from the plastic.

David and Cheryl Hall of Negley in eastern Columbiana County sold their land and buildings at auction for $202,000. A total of 273 acres was involved, but much of it was rough wooded land not suitable for crops. On the whole lot, the price was around $740 an acre. Two parcels along Route 170 had bids averaging $1,560 an acre; the 73-acre tract including a historic old brick dwelling had an offer of $1,010 an acre. The buyer of the entire property was Ed Susany of North Lima.