Los Banos Rotary Club History
Castellucci Takes Over As Rotary Club President

Louis Castellucci, local distributor of Seaside Oil Co. products, took over the title and duties of Rotary Club president at the close of the club's luncheon meeting Tuesday noon, accepting the gavel from retiring president M. D. Wheat, manager of the Los Banos division of the P.G.&E. Castellucci will serve for a term of one year, ending with the last meeting in June, 1951.

As Wheat ended his term he took the opportunity to express his appreciation to the other club officers and members for the excellent cooperation and good will extended his during the year, and especially to program chairman. William Rasnoff and his committee for their faithful arrangement of programs during his term in office. In his closing moments Wheat also took occasion to enrich the treasury considerably with a series of rapid-fire presentations of imaginary and real offenses against numerous and divers of the membership, and assessment of fines and penalties in accordance with his whims and wishes.
Castellucci, in accepting the gavel, complimented Wheat for his excellent administration, and briefly called upon the members to participate actively and willingly in Rotary affairs through the coming year.

Castellucci announced a forum meeting of his entire board of directors and committee heads to be held that evening at the Canal Farm Inn, at which time he led a group conference on plane and program for the year. Castellucci said that all committee heads and members would be named at the next regular meeting. He also announced that because of the Fourth of July holiday the regular meeting next week would be cancelled.

Also on the program at the meeting this week was Kenneth Anderson, who spoke briefly of the new chopped hay baler he is building in partnership with Van Towt of the city. Anderson said the new machine offers many advantages over the present method of handling hay and he is confident that it will virtually revolutionize the hay business.

In operation, Anderson explained the machine, which is a self-contained unit pulled by a wheel tractor, picks the alfalfa hay up from the windrow, chops it and delivers it in tightly compressed bales 12x12x24 inches.

He stated that this method of handling preserves nearly all of the vitamin-rich leaves, retains more carotene, and delivers a compressed bale that is more compact, requiring less trucking and storage space. Turkey growers in the Modesto-Stockton district, he said, are enthused with the new product and are eagerly placing orders for such of this year's crop as an be handled by the new machine.

He said that one machine has been completed and is now working in the field on a 24-hour basis. Construction has started on several more, and orders are being accepted for later delivery. He added that a new attachment has been added to the machine this week wherein small bits of wire and metal picked up in the field and going through the chopper are caught on a set of electromagnets and prevented from going on through into the bale, where they might prove injurious to a cow or other animal that might swallow them while eating the hay.

Anderson answered a number of questions fired at him by interested listeners, among which was the statement that no definite price has yet been determined. He stated, however, that the cost would be materially less than the combined cost of regular hay equipment performing the same job.

June 27, 1950

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