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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1959-05-07, Page 7About Snow Fleas And Maple Sap Historically`, I have always -been a little ashamed of man. kind's unwillingness to believe in itself when the genius ap- pease. They laughed at Pen l''ranklin when he flew a kite, and now we can't exist without electricity. They didn't learn anything from t li a t, so they laughed at Robert Felten when he suggested a, steamboat, and then cheered when, the S. S, United States set a new record, So it has gone, and they laugi, at me every spring when come from the woods and say the snow fleas are back, In this day and age, when everybody knows that all the impossible things are not only possible but imminent, you'd 'think we'd be conditioned to ac- -cepting something as simple as a little old snow 'flea - but .such is not the case. People will read that we have bounced a CQ off Venus and,evill believe it - although no popular prof of the accompishment has been made available on the family level. "We have communicated with Venus!" they will say, and -then laugh when I report the snow fleas are back. The snow flea is some kied -of tiny insect that shows up along this time of year on the sunny sides of woodland snow- banks, cavorting in the maple sugar season, and is well known to the tender of. sap pails. I'm no bug authority, but my guess is the eggs are laid the season before under the scraggly bark -of the maple trees, The warm- ing March sun hits this bark and the eggs hatch by the un- counted millions. ;The bugs then leap out onto a convenient snowbank and seem to be in complete command. They are fairly frisky, and my guess is that they take advan- tage of the film of melting snow, the water, and that the immediate footing for them is nowhere near so cold as we would suppose. I, have no idea what becomes of them when the sun goes behind the hill, but nature must have the an- swer, for there are always more snow fleas the next year. When you come 'to strain the sap, they show up in clouds, and I have one big tree that takes four buckets and it al- ways produces my first snow fleas. It stands by itself in the open, where the sun hits it full. Then I will come up in the evening and say, "Well/ snow fleas broke out today!" Should report a seven- headed elk, or e three • eyed owl, perhaps a loping elephant herd, such news Would never be More dubiously reeeiverl. Snow fleise are real; they may he seen and scrutinized, But it is in the Mired of man to be, lieve there is no such thing as a snow flea. They are a figment of my woods lenesemehess, something I dreamed up while sitting' on a stump and hearing the sap drip-drip-drip, They are something 1 invented to pro- mote conversation, 'Were they playing musical instruments?' 1 am asked. "Have you run across a wale- pus-wallopus yet?" "We must organize an expedi- tion and go see these marvels!"' But then, authentication of the snow flea is not as easy as it might be. If I invite „all to come and see for themselves, the wind can come off chill and the sky can cloud over,' sand where fifty million snow fleas cavorted today, tomorrow will be empty and alone. I've tried it. The skeptics bundle up warm and hike -through the hip-deep snow, and lumber down into the sugar bush as if they. had a true inquisitive spirit, and they will ha-ha around and say, "All right, now show us a snow Elea!" The snow fleas don't happen to be around that day. They think this is funny, and say so. They sample my s y r u p, and keep saying, "Has anybody seen one yet?" and giggle a good deal. The next day, the sun coming up nicely and the wind having subsided, and the morning giv- ing every promise of mild, flut- tering weather, I will say, "Well, now if you'd wander up today, I'll perhaps be able to find you a snow flea or two!" But I won't catch them in that one again. They have call- ed my bluff. They say, "Ha, ha!' So I strain snow fleas out of, my sap all day, and see them cavorting about on every snow- bank, and 1 stoke up the fire and sit on my stump and lean back against my big old oak tree, and enjoy the wonderful- renascence. I hear the old granddaddy pa'tridge thumping his love song in yonder dell, and big fat spring crows come and talk to• me from hemlock tops, and a rabbit or two / will thump at me. The snow water' is gurgling off, and a gray squirrel comes and stands on his head arid drinks from one of my sap spiles. The woodsmoke is good. and the vents on the sugar house throw great billows of steam into the sky. As I open my sandwiches, I notice some snow fleas have jumped onto my boots and pants legs, and. I smile at 'them. They don't know it, but they are mythical char- acters, unreal and -fancied. I just wish Ben Franklin and Bob 'Fulton might -drop in one evening, between supper and bedtime and sit while I tell them the snow fleas were out today --, which they were. They were both laughed at in their time •like to 'know if they ever leaf ed `their lesson, and it they would laugh at me when I told them about my snow fleas, Such is mankind, Iealmost think they• would. -- By John Gould in The Christian Science 1VIoni- tor. A sculptor was putting the finishing touches, to' the statue of a military hero, for the local historical society 'when a friend visited him. "Why have you given the gen- eral such• a peculiar pose?" ask- ed the feiend, staring at the statue. "Well," said the sculptor, "it started ;as an equestrian statue, but the council . decided they couldn't afford a horse as well," a restaurant famous /or serving shell-fish filled a bucket with opened clams, set it on a shelf knee-high on the wall and went en with other work, When he Aweatt empty, at the bucket t It was decided, to call a ro, dent observer, The same Cancit- tions were repeated, The kitchen worker worked away with a full bucket of clams behind him while the watcher waited ter results, Presently a rat scout aPPearecl;" climbed the bucket and looked in, The rat returned to his hole and then out came a number of other rats, It was ninety feet from the hole to the bucket, hut they stationed themselves in line all the way, The first rat threw the clams out; the next caught them and with his forepaws passed them on along the line, Almost incredible happenings like- that confirm rats' extraordi- nary cleverness and adaptability. But if we record their skill, don't let's forget that the rat is the enemy in our midst and that the damage of all kinds done by rats amounts to at least millions of dollars a day, Woodwork, piping, electric ca- bles-the rat gnaws them all. Many apparently mysterious fires are caused by rats gnawing through electric wires, Rats will eat anything. And what they don't eat they'll de- stroy. Three valuable circus ele- phants had to be put out of their pain in the United States, Rats had gnawed into their feet. A Vienna florist complained that rats utterly demolished his bow- er show of 500 carnation plants! nail/500w sioN t3y Rev garelaer Warzcn DA., 8.D, 4 I • •41 "NI N401411 404 f.:0 evld. 3 Samuel .1304, 94Op 1.344 I 4 1 4 111 4 Memory batnMy WarSdeplleecttiloill im AjPete41:1;yt word faithfully, Jeremiah 23;28. Nathan the Prophet seems to have been chaplain at Pharaoh's court. When David expressed his desire to, build, a house for the Lord, Nathan .approved. But that' night God gave Nathan a mes- sage for David, It assured David that his kingdom would con, tinue but since he had been a man of war, the honour of build, ing a house for the Lord would be;beesn meervoeodfsorahn ugly blot blot on David's life. He committed adul- tery with Bathsheba while her husband, Uriah the Hittite, was at war, Then to cover his sin he planned the death of 'Miele. There is no excusing David. Though eastern despotic kings, being a law unto themselves, might do such ithings, David knew he was violating God's law. There is, this to be said for David, When charged with his sin by Nathan, he • did not try to defend himself. He said, "I have sinned." In the fifty-first Psam the 'genuineness of his re- pentance is seen, In no other place in the Bible has anyone he such detail exposed his sor- row for his sin, And he .was a king. His repentance is as fam- ous as his sin. God forgave David. Nevertheless, his exam- ple of sinning had an adverse effect on his ehidren. Amnon committeed fornication with his half-sister, Tamar, and. Absalom, full sister of Tamar slew Amnon in revenge. We reap what we sow, The findings of surveys in U.S.A. are frightening. To think of one of every four wives and. half the husbands being untrue to their mates is most alarming. Some High Sehools have non- virgin clubs where, in order to be a member, virginity has to e be violated. Some business firms maintain what is called "high class prostitution" for the sake of alluring, men who will place an order with their firm. And peo- ple seem so calloused that they are no longer appalled at what is happening. We like to think that Canada is not nearly so bad. But how much better are we? Who knows? Many are falling a prey to their own lusts. If repentance is as real as that of David, God will freely forgive and life can still be worthwhile. The • two greatest sins today are those which spring from the love of money and the violation of the sanctity of sex. 14 I I 4 I 4 4 4 • "A, S 0:44' WHERE DO'WE GO FROM HERE? - Two baby hooded seals seem down at the mouth after they Were placed" on .•exhiibition at Coney Island, The infants, though only three weeks old, weigh 1.90 pounds each and are described- as "ferocious." THE FARM FROM Turkey eggs set in the first three months of this year point to a potential production in- crease of 10 million pounds of turkey meat over the same per- iod 'one year Ago. Canada Department of Agri- culture officials- say that from the fleet of the year to 'March 21, egg settitegs totalled 8.6 mil- lion. * * * Included in this figure are-in- creases of 1,4 million - a 28 per , cent rise -' for mature weight turkeys, and 803,000 - or 72 per cent - for broiler weights. .0n the basis of a 50 per cent hatch and a mortality rate of five per cent, production would run close to 10 million pounds mord, than for the first quarter last year. The industry entered 1959 with a staggering 18 million pounds in storage, compared with 12.5 million pounds the previous years lelarketings for the first quar- ter amounted to 7.3 million pounds, 78 per cent higher than for the same period in"1958 when -the total was 4:1 million. Sale of turkeys at Easter - heaviest in Canadia's history - helped to ease the situation. Most of the light and medium weights birds were cleaned •out of storage during the phenome- nal holiday sales. But the heavy stocks and the upswing in marketings have combined to sharply reduce prices. Officials say they have dropped an 'average of 10 cents a pound since the beginning of the .year. Many turkey producers are viewing the production boom with- alarm and are wondering where it is leading them. A normal population increase will take care of about 2.5'mil- lion pounds, ' and better men, chandising-, practices, promotion, 'and year around marketing will increase per capita consumption. Also spurring sales is the cora; • paratively new idea of half or quarter turkeys. This fills the bill for the housewife who wants turkey = but not 20 pounds of it atone time. a a * The agriculture department and the. ,Poultry Products In- stitute are ca-operating to in- troduce this new merchandising approach on a national scale. It has already become popular in Toronto and Montreal. a, * * While the increase so far this year has been startling the pic- ture is far from complete: Last year 2.1 million poults were produced during the first three months and 5.4 million in the second quarter. The balance • Of the year was much lighter, ending up with, a total of 9.2- mil lion. - ' If the. trend follows last year, the big push is yet to come, An Upward trend has been shown in the sale of prepared stock and poultry feeds in dan- ada. Last year, accordiA'g to the Canada DePartirient of Agtietile three shipments, of concentrated feed totaled 437,546 tons and completed feeda totalled 2,506,- 704 trine, * This represented a 26 per cent increase in each category over 1957. ContribUthig factors includes 1, A growing awareness on the part Of the producer of the value of.balaticed feede, 2. inatetteed numbers o titre- stock and poultry, 3. A strong educational pro, gram sponsored by feed dealers • and others. • * • The current •boom in the chicken broiler industry, for example, has added impetus to the feed sales. Broilers, receive completed feeds, and last year there were about 62.6' million raised in Canada, * * * In 1957, there was a 5.5 per cent increase over the previous year. And, in 1956, a 17 per cent boost was shown over the year before. 'Total shipments in the years 1952 through 1955 had in- creased • annually by a small amount. "Stuffed" Dragon Started Moving The owner of a store In Port Moresby, New Guinea, had a shock when he received a letter from a Japanese 'importing firm recently, asking him to send them samples of natural dragon's blood. "If you are in a position to export this article please state your best price and send a sample or two by parcel post,", said the curious request. "If quality and quantity are suitable we will place 'an order at once." The store owner thought at first that the letter might be a hoax, but investigation showed that it was quite genuine. Regretfully he informed the Japanese firm that he had nei- ther dragons nor -dragon's blood for sale. It's possible that the firm were referring to the most dragon- like of living reptiles, the giant lizards of Komodo, an island in Indonesia. Natives often, call them dragons.' They were first discovered on Komodo in 1912, when five speciments were kill- . ed, some of which were over nine -feet long. Two eight-foot-long specimens were obtained for the London Zoo from Komodo before the war. In the capture of these "dragons" special traps were built, baited with dead pigs and so arranged that a lizard, on seizing the food, was hoisted in the air by a noose-attached to a sapling. In captivity these creatures may become very tame. About thirty years ago, for instance, the presence of a living eight- foot-long "dragon" at the Zoo- logical Society's scientific meet- ing caused excitement among Fellows who had arrived expect- ing to study a stuffed or pickled specimen. The "dragon," which was ex- hibited by the Society's curator of reptiles, was not kept in a cage but was allowed to walk about. .41 Hungry Rats Ate Flower Show Scientists are busy testing the amazing intelligence of rats. Every day new facts about rats' uncanny cuteness are coming to light. Rats, they have learned, have organizing capacity at least as good as that of the ant or the bee. Rats, tests show, can even reason things out. And, in. the words of one scientist, rat is often a "me- chanical genius." One of the latest discoveries is that rats have a hitherto unsus- pected "bump" of curiosity. Rats can swim, climb and tun- nel. They know at once when food is slightly tainted - and won't touch it. Rats are thieves. but cleverer than many human thieves. They are too wise to quarrel when their plunder has to be divided. One day a kitchen worker in DEMONSTRATION A "White God" paper elephant towers over women Buddhists demon- strating in the streets of Taipei, Formosa,, in' support of Tibetan anti-Communist rebels. Some 10,000 persons took part in the• demonstration held on the' 2,503rd- birthday of Buddha. Strange Incidents Caused By -Mice Mice have caused three strange incidents in East Anglia recently. At one Methodist church, playing the church's $2000 organ became almost impossible. When struck, several of the keys, stayed down. Dampness was-suspected. But al- though the organ was warmed, the ivories remained' immovable. Then someone suggeSted mice. Poison was put down, and three;, Mice were caught inside the ore. gan. Two village mechanics then disniantled the organ and found that invading mice had gnawed no fewer -thanetwenty4we plun- gers. , At St. Mary's- Church, Homers,- field, Norfolk, a notice placed on the main door reads: "Please Make elite this door is shut when you leave the church. If „mice come in they, will cause great damage and expense." Mice have already left their mark there. Recently coinpleted organ repairs; costing $120 were due Mainly to mice 'gnawing holes in the pipes. There was no doubt About it, for. several pipes bear unmistakable evidence of tiny teeth marks. A mouse, no less tritveleothe but more beneficial, has visited a Leisten woman. To her horror, it got into het bed around. night. Because of this, she ap- pealed at the 'local valuation court against the,aeseestrient on her. bengaloW. She had tried in vain, it seemed, to make the place thetted-jstoof, Convinced of her- arginnehte, the tenet redUted her rates by $10. MacGregor and MacPherson decided teeleeeterie teetotalers, but MacGregor thought it would be best if they.. kept one bottle Of. whiskey in the etiPbOard teed oli ilitieeee After three. days- MacPherson could beat it no longer and said: 4"11,IacGregor ah'in not Vette .vy "TOO 'Wee, Matt'herson, Ali was Vette sick Sneed' all day yesterday" „Obey the traffic ;sigh's ,,,, they are ,Placed there tor V SAFETY. • "What's the difference be- tween the death-rate at the time of Christopher Columbus and that of to-day?" a professor ask- ed a student. "It's just the- same, sir," was the reply. "One per person." Upsidedown to Prevent' Peeking- ally a A 3 V 3 0 N H N 1 H V 1 H 3 a a 1 V 0 H 3 0 1111 2 N V§1 V 5 V V 0 5 11 n A 3 1 a d 5 0 3 3 O 5 11 d N 0 A S V 3 A n11 13 V 31 1 I el V 11VH 34,3 3501 3 N N J. LAWBREAKER In Calgiari, Sardinia, Mario Mamellie went to the city hall for a new identity card, was told that he had been officially dead for 19 Years and was breaking the law by remaining alive. 0 a a '1 5 N a 5 .L 3 M 1 'FOUR FEET ABOVE FLOOD - Carol McBride, left, and Jean .Hammond •stilt, along througiv spring floodwaters at Rockford. "Now you say he's, really broke, but all him other wive! got theirs." ISSUE 19 - I959 10. For Mr that 36. indefinite 11. Plaster amount support 37. Chaste 16. Trim 38. Taper 18. Btirden, 40, Ektortioner 22. Minute animal 42. Languished 23, Disprove 43. Roguish 24. German 44. London weight d strict 25. Edged tool 48. Tribe 27. And not47. Fowl 29. EitelarriatiOn 49, S op tip 30. Pedal part, 50. Wages , 35, 4‘ttnek 53, .Fxr,Intnntion CROSSWORD PUZZLE `8: note ofthe scale 9: Arabian Utopia 8. Great Lake 9. Limy! ling , ACROSS L Fall to-keep 6. Wild animal Corrider 12: Seed covering 13. Scottish explorer, Optteal part. .16, Fording 1.7rDenite woods 19. Avalanche 20. 21. Lots:Aide- • 23. Card ..tiequencee 34, Loiter . 26, Color Sielathese 2tti• Salatharider 31. Draft animal • 12,'T.efinIS Shed 33: Moth' 84 Supper 1111,Cenfth reniedti, - 38. 3linglislt' • letter . EL Drariothini • 41. Perot,! rock ' 43i•Adlittle country 46: Large: feria' 48, Bellowed' 50;301 61. Flake 82: Sunken •retire ;14rDaSh''. .• • lei:Skated ' 564 Month • ' Lair*. DOWN '..,. hetes -L Of the rhetith'• ss -11:itallt4tOr Stint 4. Slurov.er. 4. Work u n1 t.• 4 S 6 7 9 4.• • ettf8 2eee eto: le 11 1 2 3 13 14 12 17 Is 20 19 21 e.• %• 29 3 , 28 24 25 26 27 31 32' 33 38 36 34 31 3 Fea 46 4 f V'eg.;1 4 3/ 42 W4seesee• 43 44 45 SECURE FUTURE tot KISSING - "kisiing bug" (Rhocihtua prolixui),, 'Safari bICSOCI:., South riglitj has little to Nite,,fit4 titomit radiation TWO. :Atomic Energy Of Canadd ibtaniiiist be, SY', Boldwin, left, and t h1,-"Salthottett, report, that the bug. can Withstand 200 to 300 iirtiet the aniount. of r adiation sufficient to kill al'• "Bugi liksi these *ould be gOOd COnetiddiet to ,inherit Shit earth after an atOthit ',A•kit*si -di, Bald-win too,. Tha- '131-61ottitts, are tikpiiiiiiiihtitio‘ with this linedi at thetlit `Rivera dntario. 41 49 eeeeeso :ese. 52 53' 54 51 57 • • AtiSivei" .eISek,Vfifee• op pate'