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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1950-6-14, Page 7An Annual fiflaihr By Rlaluard Bin Mitchum Last year we appointed Barney Bridges chairman of our annual falx iu litu'nereet, ()Id Jake Fleteher had been chairman for 15 years and there were those who disapproved of ousting hilts in favor of young Barney. Cyrus Gill, the town's leading and richest cities, voiced the senti- ments of the majority. "Jake ran a good enough fair, but Jake's get- ting old and his ways are out of date. We gotta keep up with the tines out here in Burncrest like everywhere , else. Barney Bridges is young and Inas modern ideas." This was true enough. Barney promised to zip up the fair. The first thing he planned to do was modernize the horse racing event. Heretofore we'd just had races that were run for the honor of the thing, trotters, with folks snaking side bets. Barney's idea was to import some famous promoter and stake the betting open. "It's a heck 'of a lot worse to have a lot of undercover betting going on with no system to it than it will be to have open betting with everyone being given a chance to throw in his dime's worth," Every one but Jake Fletcher agreed, "The only trouble with that is," he allowed, "this professional promoter jigger you're going to im- port ain't known to none of us. 11 he's a slicker, look outl" "Pshawl" declared Barney toler- antly. "The man 1 have in mind has been in the business for years. He wouldn't dare try nothin' funny." "Dunno about that," said Jake. "You got to figure that every last man of us is endowed with crimi- nal instincts. Oh, we're honest enough on the surface. That's be- cause we're smart. But you give us a chance to pull a fast one an' we'll jump at it—if we're sure we can get away with it." Anyway Barney imported this chap Dana Easton. Dana Easton had promoted everything from prize Every one but Jake Fletcher agreed. Be allowed, "If he's a 'dicker, look out." fights to steamboat races. When we put the proposition tip to. him he said he'd sure be glad to promote the horse racing angle at our Fair. Pair" The day of the Fair arrived and it seemed that most of the money was bet on a mare named Charley Colevvdh Charlie had won plenty of races in past years and it looked Tike he was going to win again. I sat in the grandstand and watch- ed the sulkies line up. They made a pretty sight. The band was play- ing, the,sutt shining and every was happy and feeling festive. Dana Easton had proven his showman- ship by decorating the track and grounds and issuing silk skirts and .eaps to the drive . He .had also hired the band and installed a loud- speaker system. Then the race started, Around the track they went, six of thou. llurnside's best, stretching out their necks, in perfect stride. Homing Pigeon led up to the half, then Jasper Bush's horse tante abreast of hint, then Hector Dryson came abreast of then, thew Fergus Cross came abreast of :;item. It looked like a neck and neck affair, which struck me as being strange. Then suddenly 1 slopped yelling and just stared. Coming down the stretch th, four lead horses had slowed down . and by tripes, 15 yards from thefinish tape, they' all stopped! It wasn't until late that night that 1 got ell the details. Dana Easton had bribed. Charlie Colcwell and Jasper Bush to- pull their •horses so }lector Dryson could win. 1te„tor was a long shot And would have paid pieety. But it didn't work that way Whys Because ,lake Fletcher had figured what Dana Hooton was up to and Intel sccrctlt and individually bribed the other four niece to hold in lheir horses. \Vith all o -ix drivers bribed the race simply came to a standstill and nobody finished. ” ‘Nhich," Jake Vleteher pointed ort, 'just proves lily contention that every man's • it crook if he thinks he can get away with Valuable ]Products From Fish Waste Of the fourteen million tons of fish taken yearly from the sea, less than fifty, per cent is used as food. Front salvaged waste and from fish not fit for human consumption, many valuable products are ob- ta!ned. Every year large quantities of phosphorus and potash are washed from the land into tete rivers and sea. Fortunately touch of it is recovered front the fish. The fish waste which contains these minerals is turned into fertilizers, These are usually free from unpleasant odour and rot quickly, stimulating bac- terial action. Also, they yield up plant foods during the whole of the season. An increasing quantity of fish waste is being turned into meal to feed live -stock. This steal is made after the fish oil has been extracted by heat and pressure. It contains approximately fifty per cent protein plus a minute quantity of mineral salts. Most fish, especially herrings, are rich in oil. The importance of this oil has increased considerably since imporved methods have been de- vised to remove the fishy taste and smell. A few of the products in which it is used are paints, var- nishes, soap and margarine. Print- ing ink and lubricant manufacturers also use it. A valuable medicinal oil which contains vitamins A and D is ob- tained from the livers of cod and halibut. This was a mystery to scientists for some time, because the ultra -violet rays of the sun which produces these vitamins could not reach deep-sea fish. But it was discovered that the capelin (small fish) on which the cost and halibut feed contains these vitamins, The capelin gets its vita- mins front the microscopic animal and vegetable life which lives on the surface of the ocean, and is constantly exposed to the sun's rays. The method of extracting oil from the livers is by steam (teat, • which ruptures the cells. For the best results this trust be done while the livers are still fresh; oil ob- tained from stale livers is of indus- trial use only. When Norway was invaded fish- ing became restricted, and Allied stocks of oil were seriously reduced, It became necessary to find an al - tentative source of supply. This was discovered in sharks' livers, which previously had been used only as fertilizers. Up to one- tenth of a shark's weight may be liver, and the quality of the ex- tracted oil is many times richer than cod, A San Francisco wholesale fish dealer was responsible for this new discovery, which resulted in a fan- tastic increase in the price of these livers. It soared from $8 to $1200 a ton, The shark, which had hither- to been considered nothing but a nuisance by fishermen, became the 01051 popular prey. Apart from oil, there are various by-products extracted from sharks, including leather, prepared from their skins, and walking sticks, •made from their backbones, e Fish -glue is another valuable pro- duct. It is obtained from fish heads, offal and bones, and ways have been discovered to mask the odour and destroy the bacterial content. JUDGMENT RESERVED Malty distinguished Churchmen have been famous for dry wit. This story of Archbishop Frederick Temple, is a good example. A woman told hitn how her aunt missed a boat on which she had booked a passage. The boat sank, and most of those on board were drowned. "Wasn't it providential," she finished„ "that my aunt missed the boat?" The Archbishop replied: "I don't know your aunt," Cars are not killers by themselves .. you can really trust an automobile these days. Mechanically, they are a pretty safe proposition. But you can't always trust the Ivan or woman at the wheel. Most of the traffic accidents this vacation season — by a tremendous margin — will be due to HUMAN FAILURE ... not to anything going wrong with the car itself. ,Drivers will fall asleep. 'They will pass on hills and curves. They will take their eyes off the road for just a little instant. They will do other foolish things, forgetting that the impact of a collision at 60 miles per hour is precisely the same as driving a car off the roof of a fourteen story building. We feel it will be helpful and in the public interest as the summer driving season begins to list a few time tested reminders, which, if followed, may save a good many lives this year — perhaps your own. 1. Don't drive when tired or sleepy. Pull off the road and take a nap. 2, Reduce speed after dark. Reduce speed drastically in fog, storm or wet weather. 3. Turn on lights at sunset. Dusk is a dangerous time to drive without lights. Dim your lights when approaching oncoming traffic. Keep all lamps, windshield and rear window clean. 4. Check tire pressure frequently on long drives, especially in hot weather. 5. Never take a chance. 6. Don't drive after drinking. You may not feel those "two beers" but your reaction time is dangerously slowed. 7. Always take it for granted that the driver in the "other car" is stark raving crazy— and drive accordingly. 8. Caution your teen-agers to drive carefully. 9. Urge your high schools to teach a "safe driving" course, if they are not already doing ao. SAVE LIFE - E C EF. „t Abraham. Maybe Lived In A 2 -Storey "Modern" Brick House "For sale," might read an ad- vertisement in any modern news- paper in the Middle East, "Desir- able two-storey brick residence, built around spacious courtyard. Twelve rooms. Lavatory and ser- vants' quarters on the ground floor. Owner and his family moving to another state," writes Thomas L. Leishman in The Christian Science Monitor. There is nothing particularly un- usual about this advertisement ex- cept one thing. It describes accu- rately the type of house which stood in street after street of Ur, 3n southern Babylonia, nearly 4,000 years ago when Abraham lived there. Properly translated into the Sumerian dialect, it might have been used by Abraham's father Terah, when he was about to move with his flintily to Haran, in Meso- potamia. For centuries upon centuries, the very site of Ur was unknown. Now we know more of Abraham's home town than most of us know of many parts of our own country. It was a great city with a popula- tion of at least a quarter of a million, The excavations of Sir Leonard Woolley have brought to light indisputable evidence of schools, temples, libraries — large and prosperous homes. One of the reasons for long delay in identifying Ur was the fact that the Book of Joshua suggests that it lay "011 the other side of the flood" (literally "the River") when viewed from the standpoint of Palestine, There was no need to name "the River," which in those days meant the Euphrates just as surely as in American folk song "Old Man River" is. the Mississippi. The ruins of Ur are now some 11 utiles to the west of the Euphrates, but aerial photographs clearly show that at some time in the distant past the river had changed its course to where it now flows. In the patriarch's day, Ur was indeed "beyond the River," but so close to it as to be almost on its banks. The River was the main highway of the Ur known to Abraham (or Abram, as he then was called). Ships plied between the city and the Persian Gulf 100 miles distant. These, or connecting vessels, must have sailed tTte Indian Ocean, for antazonite beads unearthed at Ur could have come only from the Nilgiri hills in southern India. Lapis lazuli had been brought overland from the far-off Pamir Mountains on the borders of China and tine Soviet Union, just north of Afghan- istan. Among the.discovcries at Ur was a bill of lading dating from about 2040 B.C., not long before the time of Abraham. It lists the cargo of a ship which had just completed a two years' voyage, and which had brought with it ivory and alabaster, copper ore and gold. Statues and beautifully wrought gold and silver ornaments, also found nearby, attest the artistic ability of tine patriarch's fellow - townsmen. One of these, a delicate golden representation of a ram caught in a thicket; provides a striking reminder of the Bible pas- sage which tells how Abraham all but sacrificed his sou Isaac, What first attracted explorers to the site of what later proved to be Ur, was a great mound in what is now largely desert, due to the river's change of course, Here and there, even before the digging began, ancient brick walls pro- truded. As the digging went for- ward, at last the outlines of a great building began to appear,, and clay tablets cleverly hidden for safe- keeping in the courses of masonry positively identified the city. From then out its story gradually Was pieced together bythe scholar's, This great building was the .Zig- gurat -the sanctuary of the Moon god, chief deity of Ur, If, as the 131blc assures its, Abraham's father•. Tera' "served other gods," if seems clear that outstanding among them was Normal', the spoon god of Ur, although numerous other deities also were worshipped there. The filing of receipts, reports, papers of all kinds, is an important part of the work of any efficient business office of our own day. The businessmen of Ur were equally meticulous, in spite of the fact that their records consisted not of paper but of bulky clay writing tablets. Quantities of such tablets have been recovered at Ur, faithfully set- ting down both what had been received and what had been with- drawn from the stores of goods on hand Startlingly modern are the rec- ords of a factory at Ur where T00111011 were employed to spin wool and weave it into cloth. Monthly and quarterly balance sheets were unearthed, together with details of costs, lists of employees, and of the pay which each received. Strange as it may appear, many of these records were found in the local temples. This would indicate that the priests of Abraham's day demanded tax money of the people, and did busines on behalf of the "gods" whom they were supposed to represent. Education was by no means neg- lected at Ur. Indeed, the ruins of a single elementary school yielded as many as 2,000 clay tablets. Many of these have been deciphered, and they give us some idea of what was studied by the children of the day. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, of course, had their place. There is also evidence -that the older pupils went on to wrestle with square and cube roots and with geometry. Perhaps Abraham himself was among theme WHEN a man's car stalled near Phtiladctphia, a stranger helpfully stopped and helped push, The stranger thea suggested he take the wheel and work the starter 'while the motorist pushed. When the motor started the stranger made off with the car. New tStarup—This design was chosen for Germany's new 20 - pfennig postage stamp in com- petition at 1+rankfort. Depict- ing a man raising itis arms to a • dove of peace, it won first prize for Prof. Johannes t,'dnitl- fart. TllHAIN FRONT 012ussvel Back in the days when we used to sing that ancient ditty "HOW'RE YOU GONNA KEEP THEM ON THE FARM AIfER THEY'VE SEEN " PA1IEE" it seemed to be a question that had no satisfactory answer, And even today there are plenty of chronic head -shakers and viewers -with- alarm who --while constantly de- ploring the tendency of country boys and girls to flock citywards —end up by saying, "Guess there isn't much anybody can do about it" * * * Well, they're wrong. There are people who are trying to show young people that farming, done in a modern manner, can be a career that has no equals for real satis- faction and happiness. One of these is the SALADA TEA COMPANY that recently sponsored a sight- seeing trip for the four boys who constituted the two top winning teams in the Salada event at last year's International Plowing Matches, * * * Herewith I am publishing pic- tures of the four young chaps, also one of A. G. Skinner, the Ontario Agricultural Representative at Ca- yuga, who planned the trip and personally conducted it. And to give you an idea of what an interesting journey it must have been, I am also lifting several sections from the "play-by-play" reports the tra- vellers sent hack. * * * COSHOCTON, OHIO "From there we went to the Hydrological Station located hear Coshocton, This station consists of a farm of 1,000 acres maintained by. the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S.D.A. and was established for the purpose of studying water control problems from the smallest farm field to entire drainage basins. "It was a privilege to meet Mr. L. L. Harrold, Project Supervisor, and to have hint discuss a number of the projects with the boys dur- ing the visit to the Hydrological A, Gordon Skinner Cayuga Station. Mr. Harrold is a scientist who impresses one as being capable of applying science to practical agriculture, It was quite evident that no information of a definite nature will be forthcoming from that station until it has been thor- oughly proven to be sound and practical. "Methods of preparation of the soil for cropping in relation to water conservation were discussed and were of intense interest to these boys who were experts it, their own right as plowmen, The ques- tion was raised as to whether plow- ing was the proper method to fol- low if the highest percentage of water was to be kept for crop growing purposes, It was suggested that perhaps our methods of plow- ing should be revised so that a deeper furrow of probably ten inches would be turned not over but on its edge. The theory was that this would tend to. mix the organic natter more thoroughiy with the entire depth and also pro- tide openings of slits for tilt mois- ture to get down and be retained in the soil, "The Lysimitcrs proved to be highly interesting equipment for the measuring of runoff, percolation and evapo-transpiration. It has been discovered that the corn crop uses one inelt of water in 5 days dur- ing the month of May and one inch in 3 days during July." * * OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 'During, the morning we had the opportunity of visiting much of the Department of Agriculture at the Ohio State University, including the Administration Building (Townshend Hall), the various barns and,rlass roosts, greenhouses, Agricultural Engineering. While most of the livestock was out or pasture we did see the $25,000.00 Angus bull of which they are very proud. It seems this bull has only been beaten once in the shote -ring and then by a brother or hall - brother. It would appear that a (rood deal of meat work rs being done here. At least that was one subject that was eunpltasiaed as far as t+r were concerned, Much of that is with hogs and it 'valid ap- pear that they are trying to get a hog with less fat and more of the !nigher priced cute We, in Ontario achieved that years ago. however•, they are of the opinion that much of the trouble is witlt the feed they are using. Corn is naturally a conuton feed and this tends to produce fat. "We have discovered that the horse business in the state is fast going the same way it is in Oa- tario except that it has gone farther, fiery few heavy horses are stow being kept at the University; they are mostly, riding horses and horse riding is one of the subjects taught la physical education. In our dis- Earl Becher Cayuga Robert Nixon Hagersville cession with Mr. Blubaugh on ?,fonday we learned that there were not more than about three teams of horses in his country and in some of the surrounding countries there suer no horses at all." * KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE "During the afternoon we were taken out to see one of the Test Demonstration Farms. This is ono of many such farms that have been selected to act as demonstrations of what can be accomplished through the following of approved farm practices. It would appear that the secret of ttse luscious pasture that we saw both on the University farm and out at the Demonstration farm was the heavy fertilization treatment that it was given: Some of the fields had received as touch as the equivalent of 270 lbs. of Ps0° or in the neighborhod of 500 lbs. of 47% Pe05, Other fertilizers evidently had also been applied at similarly heavy rates. It was also quite apparent that it was paying dividends to make such heavy ap- plications, In the case of the co- operator at the demonstration farm the yield of corn had been increased front around 16 bushels per acre to 100 bushels per acre through in- creased fertilization and the ap- plication of sound farm practices such as the maintenance of a high organic spatter level and conserva- tion of soil moisture. Incidentally this demonstration farm of just 99 acres is maintaining a herd of I9 Hereford cows and 13 calves and last year the co-operator had some hay to sell and his only feed pur- chase was 100 bushels of corn. Formerly this was a truck garden- ing farm and much of the soil was being washed away, Under the new system the gullies ate being filled up, the earth is staying where it belongs, the farmer is having to work a lot less, and his farm is in s much greater and better state of fertility. In 1949 Isis cash balance at the end of the year was greater than his whole income when he was in the truck gardening game. He has bought the farm, paid for it and also has paid for his livestock and equipment. The equipment includes a combine and a pick-up baler. He is also maintaining a fair standard of living. Only S% of his land has been plowed this year. The entire balance is in hay, pasture, and over - winter crops such as wheat and barley. "Much of what we saw today Eugene Timbers Norman Watsost Milliken Woodbridge 'night not be applicable to Ontario conditions but the importance of good pasture of highly nutritious grasses and clovers is certainly be- ing emphasized in our minds, One other thing that has been heavily underscored during our whole trip so far has been the importance of keeping as much 'of our land an possible tinder sod .and to maintain our roll in such a high state of fer.. tility that fewer an fewer acres are required, to produce tine geeing that we need to maintain our live- stock, 1 regret that space limita,,ons will not permit use to quote at greater length from thesr interesting re- ports, However, 1 brink there is enough here to prove that tate Sala-. da Tea folks should be cnngratn- lafed for their efforts to provide a satisfactory answer to that old intestine 1t0'tV RE 'roll (;0N-