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Leather industry in Canada
nada . being one bf the great .cat-
tle -raising countries of the world, it is
only natural that ,the leather industry
should occupy a position of much im-
portance in the industrial life of the
country, and it is interesting to note
that the value of production in 1922
shows a substantial increase over the
figures for the preceding twelve
months. The value of production of
the tanneries in 1922 was $24,291,884,
e tre'd with $22,905,528 in 1921.
eere totals are exclusive of the value
o£ hides and skins tanned for •cus-
tomers but include the amounts re-
ceived by the tanneries for custom
work.
An analysis of the production value
shows that, of the total, "sole" leather
amounted to $9,175,420. The output of
" per" leather totalled $10,497,813;
o harness leather, $1,845,131; of other
leather, $1,702,164; of wool, hair and
glue stock, $210,834, and of other pro-
ducts, $280,734.
Capital invested in the industry in
1922 amounted to $32,818,775, which
was apportioned as follows: Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick, $286,000;
Quebec, $4,554,426; Ontario, $27,852,-
404; and. Manitoba, Alberta and Bri-
tish Columbia, $125,885. aThere were
employed, during the period under re-
view, 3,854 persons, to whomsalaries
and Wages totalling $4,302,918 were
paid.
The number of establishments in
1922 was 116, which is a decrease com-
pared with 1921 but an increase of 16
tanneries compared with 1920. On-
tario and Quebec, with 39 and 65 tan-
neries respectively, may be said to be
the centre of this industry in Canada.
The livestock yards at Toronto and
Montreal annually handle hundreds of
thousands of livestock and provide an
abundant source of material for
plants in these provinces. The ra-
ma n:ng establish eats are spread
over the Dominion, Nova Scotia hav-
ing 3; New Brunswick, 2; Manitoba,
2; Alberta; 3; and Britisb. Columbia, 2.
The leather export situation during
1922 was very satisfactory. The value
of leather, unmanufactured, exported
from Canada during the calendar year
1922, was $5,091,384; an increase over
the previous year of over a milliou dol-
lars. The import situation also shows
an improvement, the 1922 figures
showing a decrease compared with the
previous year. Imports in 1922 total-
led $3,764,929. compared with $4,059,-
222
4,059;222 in 1921 and $8,467,528 in 1920.
Fine leathers formed the major share
of the imports, accounting for nearly
one-third of the total value.
He—"You wouldn't love me any
more if I had a million dollars, would
you?"
She—"N-n-n-o—I wouldn't love you
any More."
March Mornings.
March mornings! Each a brimming
cup •
That dancing Phoebes fllleth up—
A drink to start the blood to race
And prick the feet to trip apace.
March mornings! When the darting
sun
Leaps forth, a clear new course to run
Like nettled steed that feels the spur
And bounds with every pulse astir.
March mornings! When the boisterous
wind
Retorts the whistling Iad in kind,
And kicks' the fuzzy cloudlets high
Like footballs on a field of sky.
March mornings! Let them Dome
apace
To show old winter's run his race,
And that the world is all awing
And waiting for the call of spring!
—Maurice Morris.
Who bravely dares must sometimes
risk a fall.
—AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME
Va
The Useful Tin Roof.
"I'm flggering on putting a tin roof
on one bedroom of my -house," an-
nounced Gap Johnson of Rumpus
Ridge at the auction.
"Roof leak?" asked an acquaintance.
"Nope, not specially, But with a tin
roof I can hear it rain in the morning,
and won't have to get up till I feel like
it."
Bad English.
"You are an educated man," said the
Judge, "but this is a disgraceful crime
you have been -found guilty of. Have
you anything to say before sentence?"
"Only this, your Honor," replied the
pedant. "Whatever the sentence may 1
be, for heaven's sake don't end it with 1
a preposition."
Modern Ways.
Mr. Spendix-"Any installments due
to -day?"
Mrs. Spendix—"No, dear, I think
not."
Mr. S:pendtix "Any payments due on
the house, the radio, the furniture, the
rugs, or the books?"
Mrs. Spendix—"No."
Mr. Spendix—"Then I have ten dol-
lars we don't need. What do you say
we buy a new car?"
A Berlin newspaper man was re-
cently fined for quoting eggs at 150
billion marks apiece after the gov-
ernment had fixed the price at 130
billion marks. He explained that he
had had to pay the price he had nam-
ed, but the judge told him he was "at-
tempting to raise the price arti-
ficially."
Dehydration of Canadian Fruit
In the past year a great step forward.
has been taken in demonstrating to
fruit growers how dehydration can
save for use inuch of tlfeefruit that, at
certain seasons, gluts tlbe market or is
wasted, says the Naturhi Resources
Intelligence Service of the Department
of the Interior.
Realizing the need for some immedi-
ate action to be taken to assist the
marketing of the increasing amount
of fresh fruit, the Department of Ag-
riculture appointed a committee from
its various branches which had to do
with the fruit industry. It was in-
structed to gather information and re-
port. The committee was composed
of E. S. Archibald, director of Experi-
mental Farms (chairman) ; Geo. le,
Maclntosh, fruit commissioner; C. S.
McGillivray, chief canning inspector;
Health of Animals Branch (Secretary)
Dr. F. T. Shutt, director chemical la-
boratory division, and W. T. Macoun,
Dominion horticulturist.
As, a result of its interim report, the
estimates of the Department of Agri-
culture for 1923 contained an item of
$10,500 "for experiments in debydra-
tion of fruits and vegetables." During
the year three experimental plants
were erected, namely, a small model '
laboratory plant at the experimental
farm, Ottawa, operated under the di-
rect supervision of Dr. Shutt and Mt.
Macoun, a semi -commercial plant at
Penticton,• B.C., and a medium sized
commercial plant at Grimsby, Ontario.
The two latter were erected and oper-
ated under the supervision of C. S.
McGillivray.
It is known that dehydration pro.'
cusses vary in efficacy according to the
climate in which they are used, and
the system adopted by the Canadian
government is the result of a personal
visit to California and Oregon, during
which every assistance towards a com-
plete survey of the conditions was will-
ingly given, and especially by Profess -1
or A. W. Christie, of the Agricultural'
Experiment Station of the University
of California.
Hundreds of evaporating processes
have been tried in the United States
and elsewhere, but the most satisfac-
tory are re -circulating processes, with
the application of warm moisture to
the air current, and the electric vac -1
uum. The excellent results claimed
for the latter system, and extending
to fish and meat, are at present, how-
Mssing A
Always the first victim—and always
the ultimate victor—that is the farmer
of Bible lands.
For more than 4,000 years conquer-
ors and empires have been sweeping
to and fro over these oiliest of inhabit-
ed parts of the earth; and before every
invasion the farmer has been the ear-
liest to suffer the destruction wrought
by imperialism. Yet to -day it is only
thefarmer who pursues his way.•in the
unchanged fashion of ages ago; the
very names and times of some of the
once victorioua empires are a matter
of dispute among bookworms.
Anew I have lately been traveling
over this oldest part of the Old World,
and mostly off the beaten tracks. For
3 i 3tration, I am just back from a
journey throughout the length and
breadth ef•Phoenicia, which lies along
the eastern shore of the • Mediterran-
ean, from Gaza, whose city gates Sam-
son stole, to Antioch, that once splen-
did pity, where•the disciples of Jesus
were first called Christians. Also I
have within recent months seen both
theewell-known and the little-known
Paeans od Greece. I have traversed
the Balkans and Turkey and sojourned
in Egypt. I have also been through
Araltia•' and Mesopotamia into Bagdad
dnd Babylon, and have crisscrossed
the Caucasus and wandered amidst the
twine of Western Persia.
Only a fragment of these journeys
to indicated by the simple statement
that I have gone from the Garden of
Eden down into the Tigris -Euphrates
Walley and to the island of Patmos,
where Saint John saw the end of all
things. I mention this background, not
that the reader may share the bumps
the bugs that I have endured in
AS behalf, but only to accredit the one
big observation I desire to make con-
g, agriculture in Bible lands,
ming - and farm folk have sur -
'Timed and overcome the ages. They
are still plowing and sowing and reap-
ing o ,id, the ruins o1 hundreds of for -
,gotten titles which in their day of
.nide deemed themselves permanent
and all-powerful. It is curious how the
books seem to have missed this point
et the triumph of the farmer. It struck
me first upon leaving the buried tem-
ples of Sakkara, in Egypt. . On the.
wall, of one of the tombs I saw a clearre, in colors, painted thousands
Of years ago, of an Egyptian farmer
viewing. In a little while, after leav-
ing Sakkara, I saw a living farmer
might have •pos•ed for this very
portrait, so similar were the features.
Dyeasties had risen and fallen and
been forgotten, but the type of ordin
Ary. man had persaated t iroughout-the
ages, Not only 'that, but the living
nano ' hitched to the plow of the ljv-
usg. man, were no different from those
That had trodden the samofields in
past centuries, as pictured on the
*ells of the .tomb. "Still snore baton -
biting, the the plow itself was the same
Form of sharpened wooden beam that
NO been portrayed in colora at least.
4.000 rears before, and that is still the
prevalitag agricultural - implement
Wrote,out Ae!a. Archaeologiete may
es Leave
Untouched Farmer of Bible Lands
squabble about the exact date of Tut-
enhamun's reign, but there can be no
question about the reign of the plow.
Occasionally, in Anatolia, I noticed a
modern steel plow in use; but, true to
tradition, the farmer was guiding it
with one hand.
Past and Present.
Contrast is perhaps the dominant
note of these realms of greatest his-
toric antiquity. Over against the
ruins of Marathus, which lies in the
great plain north of the present Tri-
poli, in Syria, I found a perfect picture
of the living present amidst the dead
past—or perhaps I should say of the
living pant amidst the dead present.
What changes Marathus has seen!
All the splendors of the East once
vaunted themselves in her streets;
and hot-blooded men, who are now but
names in books such as Sennacherib
and Alexander and Saint Paul, trod
these streets in the flesh. Proud Ro-
man- youths rode in the gilded char-
iots that made these deep ruts in the
rock; and even in their day the stone
dwellings were a curiosity to be visit-
ed and discussed. What sort of edged
tools did these prehistoric people use
for their elaborate and extensive rock
cutting? How did they dress and live?
The only living thing that my com-
panion and I found in Marathus, ex-
cept the lizards and the grasshoppers,
was a huge snake.
Now for the oontrast. Around these
beguiling ruins, and as heedless of
them as of the waves that lap the
shore of the neighboring Mediterran-
ean, the Bedouin families are encamp-
ed in reed huts harvesting the grain.
They are .of the same type as the
farmers who used to go forth from
Marathus, for now, as then, In the
East the farmers do not live on the
land but in villages and towns. In
harvest time these Arab helpers come
from the East, as they have been com-
ing for ages, bringing their simple
trooZs with them. What one seesto-
day may be recorded as personal
glimpses of pre -Christian farming.
The home life of these farmers,
which is spent either in the black
goat's hair tents of the roving Beres tin
or in mud villages, has been change-
lessly primitive. The reed shack,
which is at once bedroom, dining room,
nursery and :living room --there is no
use for a bathroom!—of a large.i'amily,
often with more than one wife, could
easily be placed in the kitchen of the
average Canadian farmhouse.
In the wheat field, which has been
plowed with a crooked stick and is not
fertilized or cultivated at all, the grain
is eparea and low, and often only in
little patches. Bible lands are for the.
most part stony. ground. The reaping
is done by hand sickles, made by a
neighbor of emithy ,'sill, Four bits of
bamboo aro worn over the knuckles of
the left hand of the reaper to facilitate
grasping the stalks of grain. Men.
women and children wield the sickle
I have more than once seen a Ruth
following the reapers to glean the
stalks their hands :have missed. The
grata is bound into email sheaves and
t'ixese are stacked on their sides.. Be.
Dame lit no rainfNl is the Holy.
By. William T. Ellis
Land during the summer, there need
be no haste.
An Age -Old Threshing Scene.
Threshing is as wasteful as it is
primitive. On a bit of relatively hard
earth the grain and straw are thrown
down, and animals are hitched to a
sled that has a hundred or more bits
of flint embedded in its under side.
Then, far weary hours on end, the
sled is driven round and round over
the grain, the feet of the animals—
they may be donkeys, horses, cows or
oxen; I never have seen camels so
employed, probably because of the
cushion tires which they wear for feet
—aiding in the separation of grain
from husk. It is usually the children's
work to ride the threshing sled, and
one may see whole families crowded
on a single sled.
Of course by this simple process of
threshing apparently older than the
practice of beating with a flail, which
is in vogue farther south—much grain
sinks into the ground and is otherwise
lost. When the work is done the straw
is stacked or carried away on the
backs of camels er donkeys—the orig-
inal hay wagon. Processions of these
straw -laded camels, usually led by a
man on a donkey, are one of the com-
monest sights of this season in the
Holy Land. Chopped straw is the or-
dinary fodder for stock in the Near
East; it is the nearest approach to suc-
cess of the famous experiment of feed-
ing a horse on sawdust.
When the straw has been removed
from the threshing floor the wheat is
ready for the winnowing. This is done
by the old-fashioned method of tossing
wheat and chaff into the air with a
three -pronged wooden pitchfork, so
that the chaff blows away and the
wheat falls to the ground.
In the midst of 'these busy harvest
scenes, I saw "two women grinding at
a mill," sitting in the doorway of one
of the reed shacks. Few scenes in
Bible lands better illustrate the primi-
tive scale of life than this. It tells
first of all, that the women are the
workers. This is no country for the
feminist. There is no kind of work,
exoept fighting, that the women do
not carry on; the favorite vocation of
the men seems to be sitting in the
shade, talking or playing games.
Feminine labor is bound to be cheap
in a land where extra workers are
secured by the simple process of mar-
rying them. So the time and strength
of two women may be spared for the
dreary drudgery of grinding up a few
handfuls of grain in a heavy stone mill
which they Iaboriously turn. The
meagre measure of the Eastern peas-
ant's life is illustrated also by the
pitiful smallness of the store of wheat
that serves the family for food, sup-
plemented by cheese and an occasion-
al dish of mutton. The variety of an
ordinary Canadian's fare would seem
untold luxury to these people.
Though the monuments of old Mara -
thus have had their boastful inscrip-
tions obliterated by the gnawing tooth
of time, the simple contentment of the
unsung farmer folk, who have persist-
ed throughout the passing of all em-
pires and civilizations, is revealed by
the smiling faces of both adults and
children. A child -like happiness seems
to mark these primitive peoples. They
do not know that their lot is hard, for
they have experienced no other. Their
wants are few and easily satisfied.
Wealth is ordinarily rated in terms of
flocks and herds and donkeys and
camels. Now and then the insidious
West has invaded the Arab farmer's
home. I saw a family moving consist-
ing of two camel's loads of goods, in-
cluding tents and tools; and on the
top of one camel's burden proudly
rode an American sewing machine of
the hand -operated type, whioh is the
only kind used in the East, where peo-
ple sat on the floor. As usual, the man
of the family rode and the women
walked behind.
France has brought good roads and
safe to Syria and has forbidden the
general carrying of arms, so these
Arab farmers work without wearing
guns and pistols and knives and clubs,
as they used to do. But the new high-
way that runs along the coast has
brought its own troubles, in the form
of demon -possessed automobiles which
fly past, scaring chdldren and animals.
A remarkable'y'iew ie shown of. `Devil's Head Canyon, near Bankhead,
Alberta. Can you pick out, the rock, formation from which the cut gets its
name, ?,- :
AL
The lordly camel loses somewhat of
his air of scorn when a car approaohes
—the Arabs say the camel is so
haughty because he alone knows the
hundreth name of Allah; every pious
Moslem can recite the ninety-nine
beautiful names of God, but the hun
dredth is the camel's secret—and the
stolid little donkey, who has carried
the civilization of half a dozen mil
lenniums on his back, grows panicky
as the automobile draws near.
The Sheep and Their Gentle Shepherd.
Tlie tails of the sheep are huge
lumps of woolly fat, as broad as the
sheep themselves and as long as they
are wide. In the centre of this big
tail grows out a smaller tail of regula-
tion slims and sometimes of a different
color. Black sheep are a common
reality hereabouts, though the prevail-
ing color is white, even as that of the
capering goats is black.
ever, beyond the reach of commercial,
economy; In all cases a regulating
method of heat content' is essential,
and still mare so the practical expert.
iencs of ,e ere,tprs who by touch and
1 sight can teleto a niceity* the''line that
separates correct dehydration from
cooking. Two men. owned 490 acres
of fruit orchard in California; the one
' saved $100;000' -by knowledge and
personal attention, the other lost $80,-
000 by lack of .care.
The •d?enticipe • plant,was bought in
California, and, with certain modifica
tions to suit the climate, was set up
and successfully operated last year.
At the end of the season a lire des-
troyed
es-troyed most of the Government .dehy-
drated fruit, but the plant was saved.
The little fruit that was saved will
provide samples for the British Em-
pire Exhibition. There is little doubt
that these will weather the critical at.
tention of the hundreds of wholesale
buyers who will be sure to examine
such products with unbiased commer-
cial acumen.
ritish Columbia growers have eag.
erly co-operated in the work. They
know full• well that distant markets
are to be their salvation, and realize
that, though thein. acreage had in-
creased tenfold in the lake few years,
the present market is but little larger.
The Ontario growers, having a large
population within easy range, are na-
turally less anxious, but are by no
means blind to the importance of de-
hydration.
Co-operative packing and marketing,
as proved by the California Fruit
Growers Association, is essential to
continual success. In British Colum-
bia 98 per cent. of the fruit growers
hold together and in Ontario progress
on these lies is in evidence. It may
be noted that there Is no antagonism
between canners and dehydrators, as
the market for the one product does
not interfere with the other.
So far the Department of Agricul-
ture has not had time to develop its
special domestic dehydrator, nor to
handle other fruit than apples, pears,
peaches and plums, but the loganber-
ry, raspberry, cranberry, etc., will
have their turn. If the housewife
realizes the value of having spinach,
and other fresh vegetables from her
home garden for winter use, an excel-
lent type of domestic dehydrator is
now on the market, while the Depart-
ment of Agriculture is likely to pro-
duce a model at a price less than the
patented article .
In preparation for the growing in-
dustry of dehydrated fruit, and indeed
for the marketing at good prices of
any fruit to be eaten fresh or canned,
orchardists are strongly advised to
plant the best varieties only, and even
to face a temporary loss in making
fire wood of the many inferior trees.
. It is well known that when first-class
greengages enter the market they find
few buyers, because the housewives
_ have already filled their shelves with
a poor sort of yellowish plum, which
is dumped on the market earlier and
at such a low price that it brings no
profit to the grower.
Sheep in the East are shepherded,
not herded. A Christian's thoughts
grow tender as he watches the flocks
and their gentle -eyed shepherds; for
here before his eyes is the complete
picture which was so familiar to Jesus
that it found words in his Good Shep-
herd parables, Again and again I have
watched the procedure as we drove
rapidly toward a flock of sheep that
filled the highway, the shepherd, in
head roll and long camel's hair cloak
and carrying a staff, walking in front
of them. At the blowing of our rau-
cous horn does he leap frantically
about, beating his creatures this way
and that in heedless terror as do the
donkey drivers? No, for he is a good
shepherd, and the sheep know his
voice and they follow him. So he
walks quietly off the road to one side,
sometimes not even looking back, and
his sheep crowd closely after him. The
strange sounds behind them merely
drive the sheep to keep closer to their
shepherd. Lo, in a minute the road is
clear, the sheep are safe, and the shep-
herd greets the noisy car with a kindly
smile of curious interest,
As In Abraham's Day.
So it was in the time of Christ. So
it was in the time of David. So it was
in the time of Abraham. So it was
the unmeasured ages that stretch back
beyond the beginning of written his-
tory. The farmer and his fields and
lio•cks continue unchanged, preserving
the ageless traditions and overcoming
the world of pomp and power. If these
simple farm folk on the plains of Ma-
rathus, looking out on the Mediterran-
ean toward the lovely and storied lit-
tle island of Arvad, with its springs of
fresh water rising up in the salt sea,
were cursed with the sophisticated
mind of the cynic, they might •sneer at
the multiform ruins of Phoenicia and
Greece and Rome and Assyria and Per-
sia:• and Egypt that surroundthem, and
cry, "Behold the dead! Yet we live,
unchanged and undefeatable, a symbol
of the eternal triumph of the plain peo-
ple who toil with Nature and depend
upon Nature alone tar sustenance. The
ages are powerless against us; our
children play about theempty tombs
of .the kings who :once,ruied the world
and proclaimed themselves imnp,rtal,"`
"A Thing of Beauty."
Below are the opening lines of
"Endymion," a poem written by John
Keats when he was twenty-two. It
was severely criticized in the "guar.
terly Review," and when the poet died
at the age of twenty-five Bryon wrote:
Who kIled John Keats?
"I," gals the 'Quarterly,'
So savage and tartarly,
" 'Twas one of my feats."
As a matter of fact, he died in Rome
of consumption, telling his friend Sev-
ern to place on his tombstone: "Here
Ilea one whose name was writ in
water.'" It has proved to be carved so
deep and large on the rock of litera-
ture that it can never be erased.
A thing of beauty Is a joy forever;
Its Ioveliness increases: it will never
Pass into nothingness; but will keep
A bower quet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and
quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are wa
hing
A flowerywreatband to bind us to the earth,'
• Spite of despondence, et the inhuman,]
dearth
Of noble natures; of the 'gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er -darkened,
ways
Made for our Searching; yes, In spite
of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the
pall
From our dark spirits, Such the sung
the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a
shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daff o-
dils
With the green world they live in; and
clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert
make
'Gainet the hot season; the mid -forest
brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair muck.
rose blooms;
And such too is the grandeur of the
dooms
We have imagined for the mighty
dead;
.All lovely tales that we have heard or
read;
An endless i'rnntain of immortal drink.
Pouring unto us from the heaveu'sj
brink.
In losing fortune, many a lucky el�
has found himself,
The'blast that blows loudest is soot(
aver
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