Read it Again: Week of Feb. 21, 2002.

80 years ago this week.

Farmers now have a chance to get market news and data by radiophone. Reports will be given out at stated hours through the Washington D.C. wireless station of the post office department. The market news service is designed to update listeners within a 600-mile radius of Washington. For several months, “farm boys have been receiving the concert programs sent out by the Westinghouse wireless station in Pittsburgh, and the market service will add greatly to the utility of the apparatus already installed.”

50 years ago this week.

The last in a series of rural gatherings in regard to the new Ohio Turnpike was held in Canfield Thursday evening. It would not be natural if farmers directly affected by the turnpike did not feel some resentment. Some, of course, will be more inconvenienced than others. And even to those not directly affected, the turnpike still might be termed “offensive to the eye.”

However, its construction this fall is definitely assured, so individuals or groups are powerless to prevent this happening from occurring. All farmers should therefore strive toward a like object – to be paid an equitable sum for land taken and damage incurred. The farmer should not make the mistake of holding land for too high a price, as one Mahoning County farmer reportedly is doing. On learning that the turnpike will cut across a corner of his farm, this landowner has proclaimed he will settle for nothing less than $35,000. This request is both unreasonable and absurd, as the farmer likely will realize when the court awards him honest dollar value for his land.

25 years ago this week.

Raymond and Don Rupert of Rupert Dairy Farm, New Waterford, Ohio, started using a carousel milking parlor, the first of its kind in eastern Ohio. The farm also had the first milking parlor in the area in 1938, which was also the first such milking parlor built by a farmer in the United States. The concept of the milking parlor was pioneered in the 1920s by Oscar Erf, and Ohio State University dairy professor, and Willis Rupert, present head of the family. The pair designed a parlor where the milker stood in the pit and attached milkers through the wall at a comfortable working level.