New York Farm Bureau

offers scholarships

ALBANY -- New York Farm Bureau is encouraging high-school seniors who have been involved with agriculture and plan on continuing studies in this field to apply for the New York Farm Bureau Agricultural Youth Scholarship sponsored by the New York Farm Bureau Promotion and Education Committee. Scholarship awards are $1,500 for first place, $1,200 for second and $1,000 for third place. The first-place winner will be invited to present their essay at the annual Spring Conference.

Students applying must have a family Farm Bureau membership or a student Farm Bureau membership (a membership application may be included with scholarship enclosures). Students are required to submit a brief essay answering the question, "If you had the power to change something in your community or on your farm, what would you change and why?"

At the district level, a personal interview and essay presentation may be scheduled at the discretion of the district representative. The county winner will be the applicant scoring the highest for each county. The district winner will be overall highest county winner. District-level winners will have two weeks from the time they are notified to update any part of their applications. The final applications must be sent to New York Farm Bureau, Albany, N.Y., and postmarked within two weeks of the date of notification for the student to be eligible. The state competition is based upon the application and attachments.

County Farm Bureaus are urged to use the talents of these young people for county events such as Earth Day and Ag Day celebrations, special events, county annual meetings and rural-urban dinners.

The application submission deadline is Nov. 21, 2008. To nominate someone for the scholarship or to request an application, call 1-800-342-4143 or visit www.nyfb.org.

4-H camp to hold barbecue fundraiser

MALONE -- 4-H Camp Overlook will be hosting a chicken-barbecue fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 20. Proceeds from the event, which runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and includes a chicken barbecue with all the fixings, will help finance ongoing construction of the camp's Great Hall.

Unlimited access to camp recreation including canoeing, kayaking, basketball and volleyball are included in the admission contribution. The admission for the event is $15 for teens and adults, $10 for children (12 and under) or $40 for an entire family.

For more information, call the Camp Overlook office at 483-4769.

More high-tunnel workshops set for September

PLATTSBURGH -- A series of high-tunnel production workshops has proven so successful that four more free workshops are planned for Sept. 15 and 21. The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has provided funding for the workshops that feature speakers from Cornell University as well as the host growers sharing their experiences with using the unheated growing structures to produce vegetables, fruit and flowers.

Locally, sessions will be held at 11 a.m. at Bonesteel's Garden Center, Route 11, west of Malone; from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Campbell's Greenhouse, Cringle Road, Saranac; and from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Rehobeth Homestead, 66 Jabez Allen Road, Peru.

They will feature Cornell University high-tunnel specialist H. Christian Wien, a professor of horticulture at Cornell University Wien will answer questions on high-tunnel design and construction and wind and temperature management.