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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1954-12-15, Page 7TIIL.; FAIZI"t FRONT Joktamea ' This year, the Canadian Farm Loan Board, a federalgovern- ment agency engaged in mak- ing long term mortgage loans to farmers, issued its 25th an- nual report, In its 25 years of operation, the Canadian Farm Loan Board has lent $91,548,- 192 to some, 39,415 Canadian farmers. During the past year,- a total of $7,818,750 was approved for .loans, an increase' of approximately $2,000,000 over the previous year. • a * During the year ending March 31, 1954, 2,091 first' mortgage loans and 581 second mortgage loans were approved. The average loan made was $3;740. One out of every five loans made in 1954 was for over $6,000. • * e Farm Loan Board loans are available only to farmers ac- tually farming the land offer- ed as security and are made for such purposes as purchasing livestock and farm implements; paying debts; assisting in the purchase of farm land; making farm improvements; etc, Far- mers may borrow up to $10,000 on first mortgage at an interest rate of 5 per cent' repayable 'over a period of 25 years or up to $12,000 on combined first and second mortgages. * 4 4 Many rapid growing strains of fowl have been introduced to most parts of Canada in recent years. Strains which grow rapidly and produce meat econ- omically may not be the most •economical producers of eggs, It becomes of increasing im- portance, therefore, to know the relative performance of the various strains both as to egg production and rate of growth, * 4 • Egg production and growth records are now available from five purebred strains tested, at the Experimental Station at Fredericton; le B,, reports Leon- ard Griesbacii•: ` Growth records have also been - obtained on eight crosses Involving these strains. Of the five purebred strains tested, four were bred. with meat production the pri- mary object, one was a strain of a general purpose breed which had been selected for years with. egg production as the primary object. • • 1. Following are some of the interesting results obtained: (1) The general purpose strain grew reasonably well but defin Rely slower than the top meat producing strains. (2) The av- erage weight at 12 weeks of all crossbreds tested, was 434 ounces higher than the average of all purebreds tested. Sdme crosses weighed no more than their heaviest parents but oth- ers were considerably heavier than either parent, (3) Birds vs Upsidedown to Preyent Peeking WA, of the general purpose strain which survived to 500 days of age produced more eggs than survivors 'df the meat strains. (4) One of the strains which had ,,the highest survivor egg. production, had the lowest egg production index to 500 days based , on the average produc- tion of all birds housed, The low production index was due to high mortality in the laying pens, (5) One pen of cross- breds, the parents of which were only mediocre egg pro- ducers, produced more eggs and had a lower mortality than any purebred strain tested. a e * These results emprasize the importance of obtaining 'infer- /nation - on strains or crosses used for commercialegg or meat production. The ability to lay well and/or to grow rap- idly combined with high 'vital- ity and resistance -to disease are of primary importance in the economical production of poul- try products. Tamed Savage Cow Bronco Buster Style Too many townspeople still regard the agricultural worker, as an unskilled, ignorant chap with straw in his hair — the "Hodge" and the "Giles" of in- numerable jokes. He's not. He has to know his job inside out, which needs in- telligence plus years of experi- ence. This applies -especially to men like George Vowels. He's a head cowman, sturdy, self- reliant and level-headed. Now forty-five, George be- came interested in cows as a bay at school. After lessons were over — and sometimes be- fore breakfast — he would give a hand with the milking, a job not so easy as it looks. "To do it properly," he says, "you must enderstend the moods of the cows. They're all different — and just like human beings they need humouring. If they think you're a novice they won't co-operate." He recalls one cow which resolutely refused to part with her milk. She didn't like the newcomer who was trying to do the job. Yet when Vowels took over the animal meekly submit- ted. Grandpa's Trick "Yes," reflects George, "it's a mistake to think that cows are' kind of milk - producing ma- chines, You can get really fond of thein." His remarks are typical .of all good cowmen. To George, cows are the great interest in life. He regards them almost as a sacred trust, and to minister to their needs puts in all sorts of hours. When a calf is due he barely sleeps or eats until it's safely delivered. Bulls? "Tricky," he admits, But, he has his own methods of dealing with these uncertain - tempered and sometimes savage brutes.' One morning he found halfa dozen men vainly at- tempting to move -a bull from one stall to another, It was paw- ing the ground,l.its eyes red with mingled fury and be- wilderment. The men were scared stiff, and,themassive but magnificent creature knew it. George strolled up and spoke to it gently — and' it behaved like • a lamb, . "But," he ! warns, "I , 1 tits e e • "ROULETTE"—A black and silver Acetate taffeta_ gown that is all swirling movement. The fabric stripes ore diagonally pleated in the sculptured bodice with the new long line and draped to sheath -like skirt with flowing side swept fullness. wouldn't advise a novice to try the same game!" What gives him this uncom- mon power over bulls? "A trick my grandfather taught me; he confides. "And one his father taught him before that." But he won't divulge the secret - or rather,he can't. It depends on mutual sympathy between man and animal, and a total ab- sence of fear; Suppose you are charged by a bull? The worst thing you can do is to turn tail and run, unless, of course, you are with- in reasonable distance of a gate and safety. Instead," advocates Vowels, "stand still and face it. When it's almost on top of you give it a sharp tap on the nose and leap aside. The bull will blun- der on and give you a good chance of getting away," All very simple -- if you possess the necessary courage and an exceptionally cool head. Like all rugged' individualists, George makes caustic remarks about .officials. They arrive, NEW LINERI An impression of the new Cunard liner iveenla as she will appear as she leaves Liverpool June 30 on her maiden voyage to Quebec and Montreal. The 22,000 -ton vessel' is a sister-vesalel of the Sa if ia, thethfire -frthreedr new this n��er5 ordered far the Canadian "one after the other," full of criticisms and impracticable suggestions. "But," he adds dri- ly, I've never known them to get their boots really dirty. They just poke their heads inside the nettus door and that's that Nettus? Here's a link with pre -Norman England. It's a cor- ruption of meat -house, and neat is the old Anglo - Saxon word for cattle. Rationing Not Needed Vowels also has a word or two to say about milk -rationing. "It wasn't necessary," he as- serts. A statement with which many farmers agree. Every ef- fort was made to increase sup- plies, and when this succeeded much of the extra was. wasted. Why? Bureaucracy again. A dairyman was allowed to give his customers only their bare ration. Offered more, he had to refuse, wasn't allowed to sell it, even give.it away. Theoretically, there was a way out. The pro- ducer could fill up the approp- riate form, and eventually ob- tain permission to dispose of the surplus. "But," recalls George with a shrug, "by the time that was done the milk had gone sour." For most of his life George Vowles has milked by hand. But recently machine -milkers have been installed. He doesn't like them, "They make things easier for me and the other men," he admits, "but I always think they can transmit disease from one animal to another. Hand -milking — and being scrupulously clean — is the safer way." Neither does he believe in pasteurization. "Kills the good germs as well as the bad," he avers. . Wild Rodeo Act Has he had any narrow es- capes in dealing with cows and bulls? Apart from being kicked out of a stall and having a .toe crushed, he recalls , only one. It happened When George was a lad and a bit impetuous. Hear- ing frantic shouts he hurried to the scene, and found his em- ployer pinned against the wall of a stall by a savage coW. Ap- parently, she thought he had designs oh her calf —. the One occasion, Incidentally, when la normally docile creature may become angry. What followed suggests the Wild West rather than an Eng-. lisle farmyard. The stall was narrow, and George couldn't squeeze by the cow to help. SO he leapt on to the animal's back and seized her by the ears. Slowly, she backed out— and then made a wild' dash for the adjoining meadow.. "It was like a rodeo act,' laughs Vowles. Eventually, he slipped off and fell pretty heavily. "But direct- ly this happened," he relates, "the cow stopped. Then she came and stood over me with a kind of inquiring look. All her anger had gone, and it seemed the; she was apologizing for any damage done." Hard Work — Likes It What is a cowman's job real: ly like? It's hard, sometimes dirty, and the hours are long. "Folk sometimes tell me I'm a fool to work seven days a week," laughs George. "But — 'I enjoy it. It's my life." He is absolutely sincere in saying this. George Vowels real. ly believes that his occupation is one which satisfies both mental- ly and physically. Talk about the drift froln the land and he has a ready answer, "There's no real drift as you call it," he re- torts contemptuously. "Those who look for soft 'jobs in the towns are the type the coun- try can do without. They have no sense of responsibility, no interest in' anything but their own pleasures." From this you will realize that George Vowles has no am- bition to follow their example. 'Tut me in an office or factory," he comments fervently, "and I'd fade away and die!" An excellent reason for re- maining onthe farm. Baffling Mystery Of Lincoln's Killer After the North had defeated the South in the American Civil War,President Lincoln sat in a box at Ford's Theatre, Wash- ington, on April 14th, 1865, wathcing the play "Our Ameri- can Cousin." A well-known actor, John Wilkes Booth, entered the un- guarded door and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Then, leaping to the stage, crying: "Sic semper tryrannis (Ever thus to tyrants)!" he caught his foot in the flags draping the box, break- ing a legbone, and escaped by the stagedoor where his horse was waiting. Twelve days later he Was cornered on Garrett's farm, Virginia, and shot dead -- ac- cording to history. Asleep On His Beat But was he? That is one Of fourteen mysteries, of history tackled by Rupert Furneaux in hisabsorbing book, "Fact, Fake or Fable?" A legend ' quickly grew up that the roan 'shot by Federal soldiers. and. secret ser- vice was not Booth: After 1900 the exhibition of a mummy, stated to be his, and the publi- cation of certain books brought the riddle into prominence. Booth, a Southern sympa- thizer, had been planning to kidnap Lincoln for some months. Was the changed plan due to the sudden end of the war? May it have been fostered. by those in Lincoln's cabinet who wanted him removed? Was Booth -the tool of Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War? Was his es- cape connived at? Furneaux presents these vital arguments: John Parker, the White House policeman deputed to guard the box, had gone for a drink when the murder occurred, yet he was neither reprimanded nor dismissed. Four years later, within a week of Stanton's re- signation from the Secretary- ship, be was dismissed for sleep- ing on his beat. It had been announced that the victorious Northern Gener- al, Grant, would accompany Lincoln as "hero of the hour" to the theatre, but he suddenly withdrew and left Washington that afternoon to "visit his chil- dren." Within fifteen minutes of the murder all telegraph lines round Washington, except one oper- ated by the War Department, were out of action for two hours. The wires on, the main batteries •• had been crossed, Name Kept Secret Although Booth's identity was at once known, his name and description were not sent out in the war secretary's des- patches until five hours after the murder. The Washington papers were not allowed to print his name In the morning editions. Within one -and -a -half hours of the murder thousands of sol- diers had been mobilized to guard all eseape routes except the obvious one to the south, which Booth took, Although his direction was known by mid- night to pursuit was organized till seven hours later. Owing to his leg injury Booth was eventually forced to seek shelter, with a companion, Her- old, at the house of 1i Dr. Mudd, Who reported the Visit of two sttwepees, ' 'hh 'huh howewsr, was not folic/wed up 'until April 18th, by which time Acoth was biding 1n the Potomac swamps, Shots /it Farmhouse When news was wired to Washington that two man an- swering the description of Booth and Herold had crossed the Potomac during the night of April 22nd, Col, Baker, head Of the secret service, seemed to know exactly where to look for them. The cavalry under Baker and Col. Conder, directed to the shed ''non Garrett's farm, found the door locked. One of the Garrett sons returned to the farmhouse for the key, and those within were ordered to surrender. Out, came Herold, denying that the other man inside was Booth. While Baker talked with him at the door, and Conder was at the back setting fire to the shed, a shot was heard, and the man inside was found wounded in the head. Conder said he had shot him- self, but Sergeant Corbett claimed that he had fired the shot through a crack, and was afterwards credited. with Booth's death, though at the time he was standing thirty feet from the shed and could hardly have seen the man inside, Conder said the man remind- ed him, of Edwin Booth, and subsequently soldiers in the party said he was not Booth. Evidently there was another door, unnoticed through which the real Booth could have es- caped into the woods. "I Won't Ten" Nothing could be more baf- fling than the conflicting evid- ence Furneaux quotes in detail. But 1n 1908 Gen. O'Beirne, who as Provost Marshal had first giv- en news of •Booth's Potomac crossing, said this to Izola For- rester, Booth's grand -daughter: "I can tell you something .. . you will never find on any rec- ord. There were three men In that barn and one of them es- caped. Don't ask me who it was, because I won't tell...." Miss Forrester claimed that Booth had married secretly, in 1859, Izola Martha Mills. A daughter was born who became Miss Forrester's mother, and Booth was in touch with his family long after the, assassina- tion in 1885 — in San Diego, San Fransisco and other places. He was a member of a secret Con- federate society, the Knights of the Golden Circle, who organ- ized his escape. New Life From California he went t0 Asia. An ex -Confederate soldier declared in 1873 that he had met Booth, whom he had known, and his wife in the Pacific Caro- line Islands, and Booth asked him not to reveal his secret for a year, saying, "I have lost my identity and I have a new and original existence," disclosing that he bad not left Washing- ton for thirty days after the murder, and had been in Africa, 'nnrkey, Rome, China. Se who was the man shot in the shed and eventually buried in the Booth family grave? Fur- neaux admits it is all a puz- zling mystery, like the supposed execution of Napolean's Marshal Ney, the Casket Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, the Tiahuanaco Stones in the Andes, the Proto- cols of Zion, and other enigmas in this intriguing book, BAD MANNER$ Mother and son paused out- side the office of a Philadelphia advertising dentist. There was an elaborate showcase reveal- ing the lafest in dentures and bridge -work. "Mom," said the boy, "If I ever have to get false teeth I want that set in the corner." "Hush Willie," she cautioned, "how many times must I tell you not to pick your teeth in public." BY Rev, R, Barclay Warren., Praise for God's Gift Psalm 148:1.3, 11.13; MattheW I:18.20. Memory Selection: 0 come, ler Ise worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 85:6. Praise to God reaches a grand climax as we near year's end. That God in the person of His Son should take flesh is the marvel of history. Millions of people around the world will wonder at this event again this Chrlstmas. Belford E, Luccock wrote a stimulating article on The Christmas Baby Grew Up. Here it is in part. 'Part of the eternal appeal of the Christmas story lie in the fact that it Is the story of a baby. Yet in that fact also lies a dan- ger. F o r multitudes of people gladly make a sentimental re- sponse to the infant Christ, but they shrink from making a mor- al response to the Man. Christ Jesus. They miss the chief point in the Christmas story, which is that the Baby grew up into the Son of Man and the Son of God, who made a devastating challenge to a world of greed, of cruelty, and bard power. "A baby makes no ethical de.. mends On life. It compels no deep disturbance of life. We can sing Christmas carols without letting Jesus come into our lives to ar- range them in the discipleship of Him who calls us to take up a cross and follow Him. "So .there is need for stress on the truth that the Baby at Bethlehem grew u p. He grew up into the Teacher, who se words are the only sure four dation for the world's life. He grew up into the Prophet, who brought an unyielding challenge to the dark powers of this world. He grew up into the Redeemer, who was lifted up on a cross and draws all men unto Him. When Jesus is not dealt with as the Master who claims undivided al- legiance, the high meaning -'of Christmas is gone." May our thoughts center around Jesus Christ this season. May we think of Him not only as a Baby but as our Saviour. Genuine pull -Cat — Kareen Mui. queen, 4, squints gleefully as "Skippy" forgets his cat- show manners, and pulls her hair dur- ing an all -breed tabby show at Jones Me moriol Children's Center, CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Burn alightly L Taxi 9. Scheme 11. Debauohee 12, Tropical bird 14. Cover the Inside 10. Parent's stater 10 Iravbrlto 17, Eternities 15 White moat Mi. W'its-tailed kite 12. Turmeric 23, Little girl 24. Sabra 28, — firma 82. Harem room 88, Masculine nickname 95. Strike 89. (r etatpoiat 42. Clamor 44.11y 45. Calm 48, Rented lo c8. River (S]p]r,) 55. Eroding fabric, 10. Colder( dolor 57, French Departnient 58. Short jacket 55. Large knife 60, shuns- point 41. Repose DOWN 1.0rnstnaean 8. eriod of (Inc S. Old Primo Meeeure 4. Make slower 5. Army officer Q. mist 7. blmintohee S. _glid rntity 0. W anima{ 42 is 48 10. English princess 11, Snug home 19. Ocean 81. Ignited 24. Put on 25. Mountain in Croce 80. Doleful 97. Novel 59, Greek R 80, Edge 81, Consumed 34, Regrot orreedingly 11111 19 '5 87. Think 88, Japanese measure 40. Shelter 41, Mouth of a volcano 45 Audacity 41. Hangs dont. 40. Ireland 47. Ven 19. Glut 80. Pipib 5041.0 51. Rollew. 54. Gaolia torn, of John z 25 25 el 36 37 38 46 E,.‘;31‘;\;.. 51 98( 59 &naive, Elsewhere on his Page