The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1953-12-17
County Family
Is Regional
.FFBL Winner
Award Announced at Regional
Roundup at MOrgantOwn
Last Friday

Mr.. and Mrs. Lenwood Bittinger
of Mt. Lake Park, have been de-
clared the outstanding farmers in
the Upper Monongahela Valley
Region II under the Farming for
Better Living Program.
The district is composed of Mon
ongalia, Preston, Marion and Tay-
lor counties in West Virginia, and
Garrett county in Maryland.
The Bittingers received the
award at the regional dinner in
Morgantown, w. Va, last Friday
which was attended by local mem
bers of the FFBL council. The
Bittingers were the Garrett county
winners in 1850 and subsequently
became eligible for the regional
award. They now will become eli
gible for the sweepstakes winner
next year.
Herman NJ. Bowers, assistant
director of agriculture extension
for West Virginia university, pre-
scented the award and praised them
for what they have been doing for
farm improvement.
In the roundup program book
let it was explained that the Bit
fingers, whose farm is outstanding
because of its green fields, neat
fences and trim buildings, operate
a 30-cOw Jersey herd on two farms
totaling 264 acres. The herd aver
age was 6,581 pounds per COW dur
ing the past year. The dairy in
come is supplemented by egg sales
from a 500 head flock of hens. A
new enterprise, cauliflower, was
tried this year. The yield was $50
crates from one acre of the crop,
which was one of the best records
in the county this year.
In speaking about the family as
individuals, he said Betty, their
15-year-old daughter, has taken the
county honors with her dairy
heifer All project. The other
daughter, Carolyn, is nine. The en-
tire family is active in all church,
community and county affairs. Mr..
Bittinger is active in the Farm
Bureau, and in the Dairy Herd
Improvement Association"
Improvements during the past
year included the painting of the
barn, the installation of two barn
ventilating fans, barn rewriting, the
installation of an irrigation system
for the cauliflower and pastures,
and the installing of an oil burn
ing furnace in the home.
A large farm pond near the
buildings provides abundant water
for irrigation and fire protection.
Boating and fishing arc popular on
this pond. Liberal applications of
lime, fertilizer and manurcs have
brought the production of the land
on this farm to a high level.
The Bittingcrs alse were praised
by the various officials and were
presented with a certificate to
show they were the regions best
farmers and received $50 bond as
prize.
Special Recognition
Special recognition was also Civ
en- Garrett county at the roundup
dinner for its record of 100 per-
cent completion of project book
lets. Each farm family enrolled in
the program at the start of the
year completed its booklet AS a
reward Garrett county received a
check in the amount of $25 which
will be turned over to the county
All club fund Garrett was the
only one in the fivc-county region
to have 100 percent completion.
! The county award was made by
Robert II. Black, acting assistant
dean, College of Agriculture, w.
V. U.
Mr., and Mrs. Harry w. Hummcl,
of New Germany section, also were
recognized as the 1858 county Win
ncrs. They were named county
winners several weeks ago at the
FFBL banquet at Southern High
school.
/ Rev. J. P. DcBardi, pastor of
Drummond Chapel Church, Nor
gantown, gave the principal adj
dress on The Philosophy Of Rural
Life and stressed three points, the
Importance Of the home, impor-
] tancc of the soil and importance of
/ the atom.
Among those attending from this
county were Mr.. and Mrs. Clark
Schlossnagle, Mr.. and Mrs. Guy
Stanton, Mr.. and Mrs. Lenwood
Bittinger, Mr.. and Mrs. Hubert A.
Friend, Mr. and Mrs. Ross Grove,
Mr.. and Mrs. Harry w. Hummel,
j. Thomas Cain, Mrs. Kermit Glot-
felty, Mrs. George Hanst, B, Beesor
Snyder and John II. Carter.