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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1957-09-25, Page 3+ , Moving Sheep Rag ,Operation liNDAYSCTIOOL LESSON By Rev, R. gottlay Warren B.A., BM. :‘'eltentitth, rarlot in Action Nehemiah 2: 1148; 4;6; 13:1941 Memory Selection; Be strong silt ye people of the land, nat. th,1,,, Lord, and work' for I Psi with. you, 'Haggai a. It's easier to tear down than. to build, A block from Our home men have demolished 36 house* in three weeks. It will take tw4+ years to build a 15-storey build. ing in their place. But Nate-, miah, in his task of raising up the walls about Jerusalem ea- countered more than the ordin- ary problems, First he must rouse the people to undertake the work. The walls were a sor- ry sight and the gates were con- sumed with fire, Re squarel,y faced the desperate situation and, stxengthened by prayer, WI said. "Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we he no more a reproach." As he re- counted God's dealings with hint in bringing him back from Babylon, the people caught his vision and said, "Let us rise ur* and build." The neighbouring Samaritans tried to hinder, the work. They despised the workers and laugh- ed at them in scorn. Tobiah said, "Even that which they build, 11 a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall," They tried violence, conspiring to slay the Jews. They slandered the Jews charging that they were planning to rebel. They tried. intimidation, using a prophet to induce Nehemiah to take refuge and his men kept praying and working. The people had a mina to work, The wall was finished. in fifty-two day. Nehemiah's leave of absence expired after twelve years anti he returned to Persia; but soot secured permission from du? king to return to Jerusalem again. He found that certain sines had reappeared. The people harvested their crops on th4 Sabbath and the merchants -bought and sold. The tithes were not being given to the Le- vites and some of the men were marrying foreign women. Ne- hemiah went to work to correct these and other evils. We need godly leaders today like Nehemiah; men who work on the principle that righteous- ness exalteth a nation but sin Its reproach to any people; meta who will give leadership in leading the people back to God, about 15 .square. fret of growing spz;ce. All grov,-eN wov. 1)ty this pure spawn and get superior mushroom;, letver discards. and • fewer .pests. 4 O. • IP Another 'great advance from a lucky accident. In the mid-20'2 Lew",S Downing of Downington, Pa„ was inspecting his mushrooms in a stone barn which had served as a hosiptal for Washington's troops 'during the winter of Valley Forge. At that time all cultivated mush- rooms were of a creamy, light- brown color, and the whiter ones always sold better. Mr, Downing was startled by a clus, ter of snowy white buttons in one bed. When they were pick- ed, more white ones grew, L. F. Lambert, a breeder of mush-. room spawn, took some of them to his laboratory, propagated the spore, and obtained a, very prolific, true-breeding white strain, He placed the spawn on sale, and now 98 per cent of all American cultivated mushrooms, variously called Snow White, White King, and White queen, are descendants of this mutant which grew In the stone barn. sheepherder timed his journey so that he can cross those in the early morning when the still frozen crust will support the sheep. Later In the day the, ani- mals would break through and- wallow helplessly in the deep, wet snow. AS a rule, however, few sheep are lost on tbe drive to the mountains, for the herders know their job well, Once over the summit of the pass, green fields lie just ahead„ The sheep plunge happily down the slopes into lush meadows, Good shepherds and good sheep dogs work on the same principle —that the best way to, drive sheep is to direct them so that they think they are going where they Vent to go, Applying this idea, they are able to guide the sheep through many appetizing fields until they arrive at the ground allotted them by the for- est rangers, On public lands each flock must graze within a specified area. Hpon,entering the national forest the 'Sheep are counted and, according to grass condi- tions, assigned a certain amount of land. A fee of about nine cents a month for each ewe — lambs are admitted free — is assessed to help defray costs of national forest maintenance, A Percentage of the grazing fee also is returned to the state, which, of course, receives no taxes from federally owned land. The national forest system was established in 1905, but it was not until several years later that a standardized- government program emerged to control grazing in the federally owned forests. These years saw con- tinued much of the open-range warfare and bitter legislative debate that marked the West from the day the first sheep and cattle owners came in contact with one another, The Montana sheepherder, however, probably thinks little about this history. His concern lies with the $25,000 band of vir- tually helpless woolly critters cropping their way slowly down the mountain valley at his feet. For 24 hours of every day through a lonely summer, dur- ing which he may see no other hunians but the camp tender who brings his supplies and the ranger who checks his location, the health and safety of the sheep are his complete respon- sibility. More often than not the flock is in good hands and com- pletes its mountain vacation in excellent condition. September no doubt arrives all too soon for the sheep, as it does for all summertime excur- sionists. Even that early in the fall a threat of heavy snow de- velops in the northern Rockies. By then the sheep again are on the move repeating once more the age-old story, for they must be out of the forest before Sept. 15, All the same dangers exist along the trail as on the way up. But the return to the plains goes more easily. The lambs are stronger and have the experi- ence of the previous trip. The route is mostly downhill instead of up, and the sun no longer' beats down with an exhausting midday heat. Cool breezes sweep across the mountain ranges from the north,' heralding the approach of an- other winter. The sheep, their herders, and the dogs hurry down the slopes, hoping to re- capture a few days of summer on the plains below. OH, ALL THOSE STEAKS 1 -- Bearer of a regal name to go with his massive bulk,. Bellevue Bardoliermere, 26, poses proudly for Gene Moore, after being named the Grand Champion Angus Bull at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. One of the oldest stories in the world is relived early each July in the rugged Rocky Mountains of Montana, From their winter pastures on the vast plains that stretches eastward below the mountains hundreds Of thousands of sheep are herd- ed up and over the 10,000-foot passesof the front range to reach the summer grazing lands but lie beyond, As the hot sun of early sum- mer dries the plains the rich, grasses of the high mountain meadows are just reaching Mat- urity. Then it is that, the rangers who control grazing in the nat- ional forests admit livestock to feast upon government-owned land. From prehistoric times this an- nual migration of sheep from lowlands to highlands has been going on all over the world—in Spain, Persi a, Switzerland, Greenland; indeed, • any place where there are sheep and mountains. The sheep fatten on the rich mountain diet, and their valuable wool coats grow heavy in the cool air. The winter and spring pastureland below is rested and given a chance to produce new growth, Climbing up the valley of the Boulder River each year from the ranches around Big Timber, Mont., are about 60,000 head of sheep. Their destination is Gal- latin National Forest, which ad- joins the north side of 'Yellow- stone National Park. Moving at the rate of five to ten miles a day, depending on the type of terrain covered and the number of veterans of previous summers in the band, many of the sheep take more than a week to com- plete the journey. Sheep from more distant ranches may have to travel almost 100 miles. The first part of the journey is made along public roads. Here the main problem of the sheep- herders arid their hard-working assistants, the sheep dogs, is to keep each flock moving at a proper pace so that 'it does not become intermingled with others ahead or behind, The sheep are dabbed with colored paint for identification purposes. But se- parating two mixed bands of a thousand or more animals each, with or without painted brands, is a trying task even for the calmest of the traditionally pa- tient shepherds, writes William A. Bardsley in "The Christian Science Monitor." rood also is a problemh for the sheep passing along the narrow, fenced-in right of way of, the highway, especially for those flocks toward the end of the long train. By the time the last groups arrive most of the meager roadside grass is gone. Some ranchers now transport their sheep by truck as far as possible into the mountains. As the gentle foothills are passed and the climb over Boul- der-Hellroaring Divide begins, the difficulties of the sheep- herder and his band increase. No longer do marauding Indians, ravenous wolves, and land-hun- gry cattlemen have to be con- tended with. Nevertheless, the, road soon degenerates into a steep mountain pass, presenting many pitfalls to the timid, deli- :ate sheep. Dangerous, rock-strewn 'noun- lain streams, swollen by the !rigid waters of mountain Snows, must be forded. Sharp canyon walls drop off beside the trail. Many injured sheep must be h.eated by the herders, and some a must then be carried on pack aorses. Coyotes, bobcats, and an oc- casional' bear lurk near the trail ascending the rocky, evergreen- covered slopes. Nothing pleases them more than to prey upon the flock either on the trail or at night. Near the top of the pass deep snoavfields are encountered. The money would get the business — which might not make every- one happy but would leave no one with any excuses. — Ft. Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram. A Woolly Solution The difficulty inherent in the effort of the American Govern- ment to be all things to all men is neatly illustrated in the mud- dle that has developed in the, international wool market. A mantis or so ago President Eisenhower set a tariff quota on U.S. imports of woven wool cloths. It provides that if such imports go above 14 million pounds in 1957, the tariff will automatically rise to 45 per cent from the present 25 per cent. The 14 million pounds is sup- posed to represent 5 per cent of the average U.S. domestic out- put from 1954 to 1956. The idea was to help the do- mestic industry protect itself against the British woolen mills, without making restrictions so severe as to get the British mad at us or to upset the interests of Japan and Australia. As it Is, everyone, including the do- mestic industry, seems to be up- set. The. British and the Japanese both say they can not compete with Ameircan mechanization in the average wool fabric, so they specialize in only the finer grades, which amount to a mi- nor part of the U.S. market. But the American makers of the fine fabrics say the threat is bigger than it seems. The Japanese say they are apt to be caught in the effort to catch the British. And if they should have to curtail their shipments of wool fabrics to the United States, then they'll have to reduce their purchase of wool from Australia. It doesn't seem to have oc- curred to anyone that, if there were no restrictions of any kind, the mills that could produce and deliver the best fabrics for the The incredible growth of the mushroom raising industry is the subject of a highly interest- ing article by Harland Manches- ter in "The Christian Science Monitor. The following excerpts are taken from that article. * * a Kennett Square, P.A., a town famous for its fine stone houses and magnificent gardens, is the capital of one of the oddest in- dustries in the United States — mushroom -growing, Draw a circle with a radius of 25 miles from the center of town and you will cover the source of about half the mushrooms served on American tables. In this area the once rare and exotic delica- cy reserved for the feasts of monarchs has been coaxed into lush growth to feed the tiaillions. * 4' 4: Take any route out of Ken- nett Square and you will find long rows of low, barracklike cinder-block buildings emitting pungent, earthy odors, These are the famous "mushroom houses" where, by a process that lies simewhere between science and art, about 550 Chester County families and 'companies grow the mysterious 'fungus. The mushroom turns ordinary farm- ing upside down. The growing houses are dark, for mushrooms have no chlorophyll 'and sun- light is .bad for them. Instead of in 1893 Mr. Sharpless shipped 66 baskets to New York, Far- mers began growing them in unused barns; then Mr, Hicks designed and built the first Pennsylvania mushroom house, which has served as a pattern for the entire industry. After a slow start, the indus- try has boomed from a United States crop of 20 million pounds in 1930 to the current annual total of about 75 million pounds. Mushroom culture has spread to Delaware, Maryland, California, New York, Illinois, and a few other states, and is backed by an investment of 50 million dol- lars by 900 growers, Of these, 550 are in the Kennett Square area where the business started, * Many factors have contribu- ted to the mushroom boom. Most important is the improvement of the spawn or "seed." Once spawn of uncertain origin was sold in bricks containing seeds and alien organisms which might foul up an entire crop. Good strains were jealously guarded by families, 'and new- comers ran great risks. Then natural scientists at the De- partment of Agriculture devel- oped a method of breeding se- lected spores. In a dozen im- maculate laboratories, like that of the Mushroom Growers' Co- operative Association, spores are taken from sturdy, well-shaped fruit and propagated for future crops. The spores are micro- scopic black specks on the knifelike gills seen beneath the cap of the fully mature mush- room. These gills are not seen on market mushrooms, which are nicked before the "flower" opens to expose them. A few of the spores are placed in a bot- tle of pure nutrient, and in a few weeks they send forth a mass of fuzzy white threads called spawn runners. The ma- terial is subdivided and used to seed more bottles of sterilized grain, and the process is re.- pealed again and again. In this, way one prize mushroom can sire millions ,of quart bottles of spawn, and one bottle will seed. Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking Smart soy: VINTAGE RETREAT — When it comes to a motel with a motif that's original in taste, "Cask Villa" takes the cake. Built of wine casks more than 100 years ago, the dwellings each have a bedroom and a screened porch in front for sitting space. rm behaving like green plants, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air and give off waste oxygen, mushrooms act like ani- mals, breathing oxygen and ex- haling carbon dioxide. So the successful grower has a "white," not a "green thumb"; he hasn't the occupational :tan of the field farmer, and instead of a straw hat he wears a miner's, lamp on his head, , a s These growers scoff at the phrase "like a mushroom over- night," for months of prepara- tion and weeks of growing take place before the pickers go to work. Each "house" is filled with long rows of multiple- decker wooden beds filled with rich compost in which the mushroom spawn is planted, Be- fore planting, heat is turned on and the compost thoroughly pasteurized to kill competing fungus growths and insect lar- vae. Then the spawn, bred in la- boratories under sterile condi- tions, is spread on the com- post. It germinates for about three weeks, as threadlike strands interlace the compost; then the bed is covered with an inch of topsoil, which has been sterilized by steam. The beds are frequently wa- tered, and in 10 days to two weeks the first white "buttons" poke through, then surge -up- ward with a tremendous vital force. There have been many reports of mushrooms forcing their way through pavements. Growing mushrooms are 90 per tent water, and scientists liken their upward drive to that of the hydraulic lift used to raise cars in service stations. About 10 days after they appear the first.mushrooms, which are real- ly the flower `of the plant, are ready for picking, 4: * The most important element in mushroom production is the exact composition of the com- post. Growers say that the in- dustry is now based squarely on the pari-mutuel betting system, for horse manure is the main ingredient, and the race tracks and breeding farms are the chief remaining source of the valu- able fertilizer. A subsidiary of the huge Brandywine Mush- room Corporation hauls it to its supply yards with a fleet of trailer trucks, and recently had an inventory of more than 20;- 000 tons, worth well over $300,- 000, all destined to mushroom growing. Machines turn and aerate the compost, which is rolled on steel trucks into the growing houses to fill the beds. * + Cultivated mushrooms have been raised' since about 1700, Before that wild mushrooms were eaten as early as 1000 13:C., when Egypt's Pharaohs attrib- uted their sudden overnight ap- pearance to magic and mono- polized the delicacies for royal tables. Boman epicures (ailed them "food for the gods," be- lieved they gave strength to warriors, and served them on festive occasions. During, the reign tif Louis XIV Paris gar- deners learned to grow themn . i caves and cellars, and the Bris tish grew thetas in the dark spaces beneath the raised benches in greenhouses. In the early 1800's three Quaker gardeners in Chester County,• Pa., William St,vayne„,, Harry Hicks, and Williams Sharpless, imported spawn arid copied the English method, arid 4sistver eisew Humane Slaughter The humane slaughter bill reached only the House of Rep- resentatives calendar during the session just closed. But since the same Congress will recon- vene next year it has this much of a •start' toward debate by the HouSe and possible considera- tion by the Senate. A cross section of editorial comment, besides a great vol- ume of congressional mail, shows that this measure is one of exceptionally widespread public appeal, It should get prominent attention in 1958, "We cannot continue to pose as civilized people if we con- tinue to condone some of the inhumane methods that are used in slaughtering defenseless ani- mals," said the Texarkana (Tex- as) Gazette. Another Texas paper, the San Angelo Standard, observed: "If it happened to a dog, almost any witness would call the police. But the process is fully as ter- rifying and painful to a hog as it would be to a dog," The Youngstown (Ohio) Vin- dicator pointed out that the usu- al slaughtering method involves "considerable danger to the Worker," Labor's baby referred to sup- port for the bill-as "one of Ame- rica's most amazing lobbies.," in- eluding members of both poli- tical parties? residents of every state, adherents of every re- - in short, "animal lov- ers," Said the Sart yransisco Ex- aminer: "Brutality always bru- talizes him who employs it." The Boston Herald: "The tol- eration of the poleax is ad' evi- cleric° of a deeper social bill than mere inefficiency." The Wash- ington Post held the Poage bill "Would , introduce civilization into our packing houses." The Miami (Florida) Herald sunimed it tint "Americans don't Want Their food animals to suf- fer needlessly," .— Prom The Christian Science Monitor. Johnny was a bright pupil, but this question had-him stumped. It read: "State the number of tons of coal shipped out' of the United States in any given year," Johnny scratched his head and squirmed, and then his face lit up. He licked the end of his. pencil and wrote:: "1492—none," CROSSWORD PUZZLE 1, Step 85. Allow 8. Castitti 38. Devour 2. Breed spread 40. ankle 10. Prevaricator 42, Laughing 11, Nobleman 44, ltothrin roar] 19. UnWise 45, nods+ er ti I r , 21, juice of a tree church 23. Jewel 46, Itpto pOem - 25, Wolframite 47, Diminutive of ' 26. Wing Abraham a • 27, Short sleep 42, Baking. 28. TiLi3 chamber r." 80 trtur dozen 60. Beside 31. Golf g a lget rt.:Winn l';',i 'l2. Completion 04. Duido'S note r ACiTOSS .novvN Dexterity L Lofty lots, 4 P 05'8. feet Hatveet. 8 Oliver Croitt. 3, (l ive Welt . 13 :'holier 4 '(lac is. Skin 5.ClI0die41 14 Itterlley 6 Air in Motion 1 5. Crony 1 G. Frog geniis. 11. 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