BELTSVILLE FREEBIES

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BARC STRIPPED?

If Dr. Batra's horned bees captured your interest, or if you're concerned as to whether Dr. Robert Schroder's work on natural controls for the Colorado potato beetle will continue unimpeded, or if you want to make sure that Howard Kerr's innovative (and enormously important) small farm program will retain access to scientific personnel of all disciplines, it's time to make your wishes known! According to Science magazine, a major shift in administration policy on public lands may threaten the continued existence of this nation's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Maryland. It seems that the sale of at least some of Beltsville's "surplus" acreage is being contemplated by the General Services Administration as a device to reduce the national debt . . . a highly questionable means to a rather improbable goal. While the immediate threat is to just past of the center, many people are of the opinion that GSA will chip away at the facility until BARC's very existence is no longer justified.
Of course, if the widely respected center is to be turned into acres of suburban condominiums (BARC is currently one of the few greenbelt areas in the suburbs north of Washington, D.C.), it would take years to reestablish elsewhere the experiments already in progress at BARC. Worse yet, the invaluable cross fertilization of scientific disciplines now occurring would be lost altogether. And it's practically a certainty that the programs for small and organic growers would "fall between the cracks" with Beltsville's demise.
BARC's preservation is vital to all of us, since we all benefit from the basic research conducted there. To help preserve the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, write to your Representative, suggesting support of Rep. Steny Hoyer's bill (HR 1688) . . . to your Senators, in support of S 423, which was introduced by Senators Mathias and Sarbanes . . . and to the General Services Administration's Federal Property Resources Service (Dept. TMEN, 18th and F Streets N.W., Washington, D.C. 20405), requesting that none of Beltsville's land be declared surplus.

WHO DO?ZOODOO!

One of the most unusual (as well as catchily named) soil amendments I've run across is being test-marketed by the Bronx Frontier Development Corporation, a community development group in New York's poverty-shocked South Bronx. ZooDoo is a wholly organic soil-enricher made from composted leaves, straw bedding, and (ready for this?) manure from herbivores at the famous Bronx Zoo. Jack Flanagan, president of Bronx Frontier (he quit his police officer's job in New York's 41st Precinct-"Fort Apache"-to help the community by starting a gardening program), claims that the compost is terrific fertilizer. If you'd like to put an elephant in your eggplant, information on availability (so far, just in the New York area . . . including Blooming dales!) of the product and details about the composting program can be obtained from The Bronx Frontier Development Corporation, Dept. TMEN, 1080 Leggett Avenue, The Bronx, New York 10474.

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