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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 1944-02-10, Page 6FAGE 6 ss. _ THE CLINTON NEWS -RECORD Spaniards 'Built Fleet to Get the American Riches In the days •when Spain was a great nation, very rich, her mari- time strength survived one of .the greatest of tests—bringing the gold and:`.;silver looted from the New world through waters largely, un- charted. How many of the treasure ships were sunk is unknown, but much of the gold and silver reached Spain. Between 1587 and 1600, for example, gold and silver to the value'of-$145,- 000,000 came into one Spahish port, Usually the treasure ships trav- eled in convoys, but surrounding them, watching for a straggler, hop- ing for good fortune,' was a swarm of enemy craft: French, English and, Dutch. A favorite hunting place was the sea around the Azores, The Spanish observed every pre- caution in the selection of their pi- lots and officers of their treasure armada. They had a pilot -major and a staff whose duty it was to train and examine these men not only as to their navigational ability —but they were also examined as to their financial status and .as to their morals. , Standard charts were issued—standard orders were issued covering -every possible. contingency. In particular; every effort was made to eliminate from the list those who indulged in the sin of blasphemy. A ' Accidents Take Big Toll In Home by Carelessness It is saddening to read the annual accident record for 1941 and find the appalling number of 31,500 deaths due to home accidents. Accidents are real enemies of the home and most of them are caused by thought- lessness and carelessness. Make your home a safe home by taking care of the danger spots which cause most accidents: ' Have you a step ladder in good repair? Are there handrails forall stairways with open sides? Do you have a• regular place for tools and toys when not in use? When using a sharp knife, do you always cut away from you? Are poisons and medicines clearly labeled and stored out of reach of children? Do members of your family care- fully read labels on medicine bottles before using? Are all home -canned vegetables and meats boiled for 15 minutes before using? Do you emp- ty large receptacles of water im- mediately after using them? Do you immediately wipe up water and grease spilled on the kitchen floor? Are the porch steps in good re- pair? Are you learning the habil of turning handles of cooking uten• nils toward the back of the stove? Is some member of your family qualified to give first aid? Import Mexican Labor Mexican . workers are being brought into the country through an arrangement between the govern- ments of the two nations. Overall national arrangements are made by the War Food administration. The Farm Security administration pro- vides and arranges for transports• tion and is responsible for workers' care while they are in this coun- try. The extension service arranges for, the placing of the men on farms. Each farmer using Mexican labor must maintain certain housing and living standards, which are inspect' ed by the farm security administra- tion. Standards required, are those afforded other farm workers and in keeping with customary practices. The importees are paid the pre- vailing farm wage in the. communi- ty in which they Work, according to the international agreement. Each •contract is for. 90 days, at the end of which the laborer is eligi- ble to enter into another contract or to return to Mexico, whichever he wishes. Hens Should Be Comfortable Laying hens • must be kept cool and comfortable during hot weather and supplied with plenty of clean fresh water to maintain egg produc- tion. Windows and ventilators on the back of the poultry house should be opened, and, also the ventilators at the ends of the house. Drinking water should be supplied to the flock at least two or three times daily. When the consumption of mash drops .sharply, the feeding of wet mash at noon each day is advised. The dry mash can be ' moistened with cool skimmilk, buttermilk, or cool water at the rate of three pounds of dry mash for each 100 birds. To keep egg production and profits up, the flock should be culled closely, sending all marketable birds to the market just as soon as they quit laying. This is not only good economy but it also helps to save feed, which is now critically scarce. Firm Raspberries for Canning Only fresh, firm raspberries should be considered for canning. After they have been carefully • washed, pack them into glass jars, alternat- ing berries and boiling red syrup until the jars are filled. Process either pints or 'quarts in a hot wa- ter bath for 20 minutes. To prepare the red syrup, use over -ripe or soft berries, adding one- half cup of water to one cup of ber- ries. Heat slowly to the boiling point and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. To each cup of juice, add one-half cup of sugar and bring 'back to the boiling point, Mixing this syrup with the fruit will aid in keeping the fruit from rising in the, jars. fish Industry .L ags in Rich 'So. American Waters Up to now, many of the Americas, with myriads of fish in their waters, have consumed chiefly imported' canned or salted fish. . Chile is an exs:rple. Its 2,830 miles of coast stretches from the tropics to` the Antarctic. Together with the adjoiningcoast of Peru, it constitutes, one of the most produc- tive fishing areas, in the world. Alba- core (a white meat tuna), sword- fish, bonito, sea bass, mackerel, her- ring and many other varieties of Commercial fish abound. And yet Chileans customarily have eaten much imported fish. But Chile illustrates what rapid progress can be made in fish devel- opment once a program is pushed. In 1942 Chilean production of canned fish amounted to 8,040,765 tins, near- ly double the 4,545,408 tins packed in 1940. Chilean canning companies believed that in 1943 they could tri- ple 1942's figure, provided the ex- port market would absorb the in- crease and ships were available. Venezuela could become a large fish producing country. This coun- try has a wide variety of species. There are no evident signs of de- pletion. Spanish mackerel consti- tute the largest poundage. Good quantities of red snappers, mullet, blue fish, herring and sharks also are brought in. Venezuela annually produces about 25,000,000 pounds of salt fish, 4,500,000 of canned, 30,000,- 000 of fresh. Lack of up-to-date fa- cilities for handling and processing and marketing the fish has slowed down the industry in Venezuela. Marines Use Imagination To Make Jungle Home Marines in the South Pacific, thou- sands of miles from home, take a part of the United States with them wherever they go. They cannot re- sist the temptation to tag everything they touch with familiar labels. One marine was home on furlough recently. When he returned to this South Sea island he brought with him a metal highway marker which proudly proclaimed "This is Wee- hawken." He erected it on a pole in front of his tent on the banks of a river near here. Nearby, six marines occupy a tent palace they have named ''Skeeter Bar." They have worked night and day on their property, giving it all of their liberty time for the past three months. Its marine tenants have used vines for a fence and have planted flow- ers along the walk. Burlingame re- cently built a barbecue pit in the yard and the boys frequently invite their friends in for a feed. They've built furniture from ,dis- carded boxes and native wood and have cut the bottom out of old bot- tles to make lamp shades for their candles. Microphotography Developed Although newly developed in its present superior form, the idea of microphotography was originated in 1870 during the siege of Paris, in the Franco-Prussian war. The French managed to get news out of the city by means of free balloons re- leased with cargoes of letters; hom- ing pigeons in the balloons brought in messages but necessarily of ex- tremely limited size. Then a French photographer, Da- gron, who had experimented with microphotography, before the siege, conceived the idea of printing the messages to be carried by pigeons on large sheets, then reducing them in size' photographically. More than 100,000 dispatches were sent in this manner. A strip of the original flim is now in the archives of the Li- brary of Congress together with nearly. 10,000,000 microfilm repro- ductions of valuable and irreplace- able books and documents. 'Chemically Discontented' Explosives mark man's closest ap- proach to sheer "black magic," fur- nishing in the form of innocent -look- ing black or brown powders, grains or jellies, the most powerful forces that he can deliberately apply. Explosives act as they do because they are "chemically discontented," The ingredients of which the so- called high explosives are made are normally gases. They are virtually rammed into solid and liquid forms like jacks -in -boxes. They are ready,. on the least excuse, to jump out into their gaseous forms again. The excuse, furnished by fuses or det- onators, is a sudden, powerful jolt. The hot gases into which each solid particle changes in a tiny fraction of a second occupy a vastly greater space than the particle did—more than 8,000 times as great in the case of nitroglycerine. Axis Must Feed Prisoners Under the Geneva convention, warring nations must feed prisoners of war the same ration given their iwn soldiers. Germany is a sign- ory to that pact and while Japan las never formally ratified it, it is relieved that the Nipponese govern- nent is making some effort to com- dy. The basic diet of the American ;oldier in German prison camps is argely potatoes, cabbage, fish,' an idefinite . amount of meat but no 'ts of any kind. While this ration implies with the convention agree- ent, it provides only for bare ex tence and the supplemental food. ackage attempts to supply to some :,tent lacking elements. Adjustments Made to Fit Women to War' Industry,, The necessity of fittiag women to, wartime jobs, and fitting the •s to ng jpb women, has rought to the factory progress both in production meth- ods and working conditions that may prove a c boon in peacetime as well as now.:Ir A study reveals that most of the changes manufacturers have had to make are good for men as well as. women and that changes necessary to fit women to plants were less drastic than feared. Moreover, the psychological adjustments that have been necessary on the part of the employer, employee and public of- ten have outweighed in importance the mechanical changes and job simplifications that wererequired. The distinction between "man's work" and "woman's work" has faded in many industries. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many jobs that did not necessarily re- quire male strength were tradition- ally barred to women. Now some of these are completely manned by womanpower. Many of the changes that wartime needs have highlighted were changes that intelligent employers were making anyway. A drill and tool concern in Chicago, making twist drills, built its plant and de- signed its machinery with the ex- press purpose of hiring women. Work benches were built lower to serve women's shorter stature or platforms were provided to accom- modate the worker to towering ma- chinery. Chickens' Feathers Can Change Their Color Maybe a leopard can't change the pattern of his spots, but a chicken can change the color of her feathers —merely through a new diet. This phenomenon was made known re- cently at the Pennsylvania State college, where laboratory chickens —and turkeys—were fed certain ra- tions that caused dark -feathered birds to develop white plumage, ac- cording to Dr. R. V. Boucher, asso- ciate professor of agricultural and biological chemistry. The strange deficiency does not seem to be caused by any of the recognized vitamins, Dr. Boucher reports, although its exact cause is still unknown. The condition may be prevented and cured by feeding dried brewer's yeast under certain conditions. The yeast should be fed at the rate of 5 per cent of the mash, should contain at least 45 per cent protein, and should not be irradiated. It takes about two to three weeks for the white growth to develop aft- er the birds are put on the "white feather" ration. This condition may be brought about any time during feather growth. So far the lack of pigment has been observed only in poultry confined in houses and has not been found in birds that have access tc good pasture. Johnstown Flood In May in 1889 a heavy rain fell for days along the Atlantic sea- board. The downpour in the Cone- maugh valley in western Pennsyl- vania caused the water, held ,in check by the dam across South Fork, a branch of the Conemaugh river, to rise inch by inch toward the breastworks of the dam. On May 31 the dam gave way, unleashing 20 million tons of water. Carrying trees and bridges, houses, railroad ties and industrial machin- ery before it, the flood raced down the narrow valley. Less than an hour later the city of Johnstown, 12 miles below, lay in ruins. A warning that the dam burst rang through the valley too Iate for more than 2,000 of its inhabitants, mostly women and children, who perished. By the time the flood- water was stilled it was 30 feet deep in the valley andthe property dam- age was estimated as high as 10 million dollars, Apple Tree Needs Care Prune the apple tree. All dead and dying limbs should be cut off first. Water sprouts or succulent growth and weak limbs in the cen- ter of the tree should be removed to let the light among the branches. Cuts should be made smoothly with sharp tools. Cultivate the sod beneath the tree and fertilize. The ground should be broken and stirred before the tree blossoms, but may be done a few weeks later if necessary. Clean cul- tivation is not recommended and complete destruction of the sod is not desirable. Spray when the time comes, It is usually much more satisfactory to hire the services ok. a commercial spray rig than to try to do it yourself. Although unsprayed fruit usually does not keep so well as the sprayed fruit, it often proves satisfactory for home consumption. Sought Spice Islands Likeother parts of South Amer- ica, La Plata river in Uruguay was discovered by explorers trying to find the illusive spice islands. In 1516 Juan Diaz De Solis happened upon its Wide mouth: Later Magellan saw it. Sebastian Cabot, son of the English discoverer, was its first real explorer. He traveled up its wide, muddy bay, and saw Indians wear- ing silver ornaments. Surely this was a sign that the country was rich in silver. In this belief, he promptly named the waterway Rio La Plata -which means the Silver River. Unearth Religious` 'Mecca' Of La Venta in Mexico The ever -.searching picks and shovels of archeologists digging in ,southern Mexico during the last few months have traced in missing lines to disclose the picture of a tropical American "Mecca" or "Canter- bury," thronged 11 centuries ago with thousands of bronze -skinned re- ligious pilgrims. This shrine, prob- ably was well-established when, Mo- hammed's religion was still new and Canterbury was just emerging as England's religious capital. Outstanding among the latest ma- terials unearthed were jewelry made of jade of the highest quality ever found in the New wgrld, skillfully carved and sculptured works of art, ceremonial objects, and large deco- rated stone altars. No carved dates were found, but comparison with sites of known age led the archeolo- gists to estimate that La Venta flour- ished between 500 and 800 A. D.- 700 to 1,000 before the coming of Columbus. As reconstructed, La Venta's re- ligious center consisted of a plain dominated by a..great roan -made mound more than a hundred feet high. Stretching from it were lines of a dozen or more smaller mounds. Between, giant human heads sculp- tured from basalt gazed across the plain; and at intervals rose massive, flat-topped stone altars. A short distance off the religious reservation, probably, were the workshops of the artists and artisans whose skilled fingers have given La Venta its fame today. "Here," says a preliminary report of the expedi- tion, "the ancient artisans carved with equal fidelity giant basalt heads weighing 20 tons and miniature ob- jects of jade smaller than a finger- nail and perforated with holes not much larger than the diameter of a coarse hair. With respect to stone work, this may be considered the highest art level achieved in ancient America," Army Flies Own Hangars To Fighting Front Areas \Army airplanes can now fly their own hangars into airports in the front areas where quick cover is needed. As a result of co-operative efforts of the corps of engineers and the army air forces, a demountable hangar has been developed which not only can be transported by air but erected in a matter of hours. The building has a steel frame, held together with hinges and drift bolts, the pieces of which nest in- side each other like tablespoons when the building is knocked down for shipment. Completely fabricated sections of fire-resistant canvas form the walls and ends of the building. These are erected and laced to the frame through a system of ropes hung from pulleys—a technique not un- like that employed with large cir- cus tents. ' Experience with the new build- ing indicates it can be set up com- plete in a period of 12 to 18 hours. Crate Like Home How to "make yourself at home" in a shipping crate is one of the combat tricks now being practiced by students .at the army air forces technical training command's glider mechanics school at Sheppard Field, Texas. Troop carrying gliders will be shipped to advance invasion bases in huge, olive drab wooden crates. The motorless aircraft are shipped 'in five sections. The largest is the fuselage. It is packed in a crate.25 feet long, 8 feet high and '7 feet wide. This spacious container looks like a railroad box car without wheels. Remembering the aban- doned box cars that serve as shacks near railroad yards all over the country, the AAF decided there was no need to consign the fuselage ship- ping crates to the kindling heap. ,Hence, they a1 a provided with in- sulation against cold, heat, wind and rain and will be used as barracks for the pilots and ground crews as glider bases. Source. of Jade Mystery Top interest in the eighth century objects most recently unearthed at La Venta, Mexico, goes. to the jewel- ry fashioned from beautiful translu- cent emerald -green jade, a precious stone as valuable as, emerald itself. This extraordinary jade rivals the famed gem -jade of Burma, standard of world excellence. The finding at La Venta of objects made from both gem -jade and less valuable sorts of the stone emphasizes a mystery that so far has baffled archeologists: the origin of the jade worked into orna- ments abundantly by early Ameri- cans. No natural deposits of jade have been found in all Middle America and few in the New world. Progress Follows Civil War The Civil war was followed by un- precedented progress both in indus- try and agriculture. Between 1870 and 1880, we built over 40,000 miles of railroads, or three-fourths of the total built in the preceding 50 years. During the next decade, we laid 73,- 000 miles more: The continent was knit together with steel rails. Coal tonnage rose from 33 trillion tons in 1870 to over 157 million tons in 1890. Production of iron quadru- pled, copper outputincreased nine times, silver output more than five times. Steel production leaped from 2,600 tons,. to. 1,000,000 tons annually in 12 years. Paraguay Once .a Remote Gateway to South America A Portuguese explorer, Alejo Gar- cia, is supposed to have explored part of present-day Paraguay •as early as 1524, but Sebastian Cabot is generally credited with being the first European to set eyes on the virgin forests and plains of the South American paradise. He never reached the present site of Asuncion, the capital, but in' 1537 Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Irala reached a paint where the eastern shore of the Paraguay river opened into a broad bay. There they estab- lished the little colony which was to become the capital. Asuncion, like a remote gateway to still more remote, and beckoning regions, was a crossroads for ex- plorers and adventurers. And its history is written in so much ad- venture, cruelty, suffering and swashbuckling gaiety, that historians call it the most romantic of Amer- ican cities. Paraguay declared its independ- ence from Spain in 1811 and was one of the first American countries to break with the mother country, The Spanish governor, Velasco, was in sympathy with the revolutionary movement, and became one of the first leaders of the budding repub- lic. A constitution and flag were adopted in 1812, and leadership en- trusted to two consuls. Two years later the consuls gave way to the first elected president, Carlos A. Lo- pez. Lopez served for ten years, and was succeeded by his son. Liberty Ship Designed To Deliver the Goods She is American designed, origi- nally built for the British on Lend Lease account. Altered slightly to meet our specific requirements, the first contract for construction was let in March of 1941 and the first Liberty Ship was delivered exactly three weeks after Pearl Harbor. She is no beauty. She is built for utility. She lacks the rakish or streamlined appearance of the Mari- time Commission's C -ships. But she is a very practical craft, sound and seaworthy. She's ,a sea -going truck of 10,500 deadweight tons. The fame of the Liberty Ship is based on sound quality. She was designed to meet a pressing and ur- gent transportation need. They have been built in greater numbers than any ship of a similar tonnage. Their performance has been uniformly ex- cellent—the service hard and exact- ing. Standardized to the last small gas- ket, to the final door hinge, a con- tract can be shifted from one ship- yard to another, should the necessity arise, and no time would be lost. Re- pairs can be made readily at almost any place, and replacement of parts offers no serious problem, occasions no delay. Market Determines Waste Price The little porkers that grow fat and sleek on waste from army kitch- ens hereafter will pay for their food on a sliding scale of prices based on their value at the nearest stockyard as of the 15th day of each month. A new form of contract for the sale of kitchen waste which links the price the army will receive with the market value of hogs has been pre- pared by the legal department of the quartermaster corps as an op- tional feature in future contracts for the sale of waste for hog feeding, the war department reports. Under the terms of the new con- tract, bidders will be allowed to sub- mit bids for kitchen waste on the usual "per man per month" basis, the price for each month or portion of a month during the contract peri- od to be determined by the selling price of hogs on the hoof at a desig- nated stock yard market. If the price of hogs goes up, the buyer of the kitchen waste will pay more; if it goes down, he will pay less, the amounts of variation to be stated in the contract. Memorial Day Memorial day, or Decoration day, originated in the South when in 1865 James Redpath Ied a parade of Un- ion soldiers, citizens and children to nearby Union soldiers' graves and there planted flowers. The following year the custom was taken up by Southern women for their dead, and in 1868 Gen. John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, designated May 30 for the ob- servance of the celebration, the day now generally marked by Northern states, Some Southern states have set aside April 26, the date on which Gen. Joseph E. Johnson surren- dered, and others, June 3, Jeffer- son Davis' birthday; War Levels Paraguay Independent Paraguay, blessed with immense natural riches and a mild climate, prospered until 1865, when a disastrous war with Argen- tina, Brazil and Uruguay depleted the country's wealth and population. The war was so bitter that only 50 per cent of the population survived it. Of the 227,000 survivors, only 22,000 were. males. The little republic was just recov- ering from the effects of, a war fought 50 years before when a fron- tier dispute with Bolivia plunged it into anotheg,..tragic conflict in 1932. The Chaco war was ended by an armistice in 1935, followed by a peace treaty which fixed the battle lines between the two nation" as their frontier. THURS., FEB, tOth 19$ States' Revenue Policies Linked to National Trends "War prosperity's and "war short- ages" have exercised strong, but conflicting; influences on state reve- nues and revenue trends during the last three years. "War prosperity" on the one hand has brought states`. their greatest revenue surpluses in history;, "war shortages" are- shift- ing the emphasis from sales taxes to income taxes—or from indirect to direct taxation. State revenues have been rising steadily since 1939 with the upward - trend continuing in 1942 and 1943,• though at a more moderate rate than during 1940 and 1941. This slow- ing down reflects the growing influ- ence of shortages, rationing and lev- eling off of production: States have come to depend for more than three-fifths of their total revenues upon such taxes as income • and excise levies: The swing to dependence upon these taxes, which reflect any change in national in- come, coupled with the fact that many states have begun to put funds aside for postwar purposes, indicates how strongly financial and political development of individual states has been integrated into national trends. From the point of view of state revenues, increase in the national income expresses itself in rising rev- enues from income and sales taxes, Shortages of various goods and serv- ices' produce declining revenues from excise taxes. Insurance Developed to Protect Shipping Cargoes When the ancient businessman or trader sent his goods to another country by means of a ship, two perils might prevent his goods from reaching their destination. The first was the simple matter of -pirates. It was the duty of the captain of the ship to see that his ship was heavily armed or to travel in the company of other heavily armed ships. This gave some measure of protection against the cutthroats of the sea. Storms, hurricanes, and treacherous shoals were entirely a different matter. When a ship began to sink be- cause of heavy waves or gun fire a simple plan was used in an effort to save the ship. Part of the cargo was thrown overboard to lighten the ship and thus keep her afloat, It made no difference whose goods went overboard! The loss was made up by contributions from the owners of the rest of the goods saved by the sacrifice. This was really an in- surance device—primarily a device for the limited distribution of loss. At the same time another clever idea grew up, Money was loaned to shippers on the condition that they repay at a high interest rate if the cargo were delivered. In the event of loss, however, they did not have to redeem the loan. Medicine From Weeds Creeping Jenny (European bind- weed) is of practical value. In the root of this plant is a substance that stops bleeding, and in wartime a medicine like that is vital. This stop -bleeding substance was discovered by plant physiologist Ar- thur I. Bakke and hospital superin- tendent Norman D. Render, while they were studying the roots of this weed at a laboratory in Chariton, Iowa. In chopping up the weed roots with sharp butcher knives, the men hap- pened to nick their fingers, and sud- denly noticed that although the cuts were deep, bleeding stopped instant- ly when the roots touched, the wounds. After processing the roots to ob- tain the vital substance, Dr. Render applied the dosage to volunteer pa- tients at the Cherokee State hospital, and found that the clotting of human blood was accelerated. Several pharmaceutical concerns are in- vestigating production of the medi- cine in quantity. What's In a Name ' Louisiana is exceptionally rich in unusual titles for villages and other communities, For example, in Jack- son's parish, La., are towns named Duty, Liberty, Uncle Sam, and Aim - well, with the town of Daily not far away! Gaytirne, Bohemia and Bliss are in Rapides parish. There are towns named Hard Times, Solitude and Blondes. Mythology has contributed its her- itage to other community names in Louisiana. Ulysses, Odin, Ajax, Nestor, Phoenix, Eros, Leander, Adonis, Minerva, and Echo all are commemorated in the state, The weather is a common inspira- tion of town names, in Louisiana as elsewhere. Flood, Tide, and Frost are three, and Sunbeam, Sunrise, Starlight, Luna, and Half Moon pay homage to the planets. Locomotive Drafted A railroad locomotive was drafted recently by Pontiac, Mich., to sup- ply steam for operation of a pump, at one of the city's water pumping stations while new equipment was being installed at the plant. The locomotive kept going one pump maintaining a 5,000,000 -gallon flow per day into the mains, and upon experimentation, was found to pro- duce sufficient steam to operate an 8,000,000 -gallon pump also. Connec- tions used in the experiment were purchased by the city, and will be left in place, making it possible to reconnect a locomotive in less; than half an hour should an emergency arise. Fi'eld's Rose Pasd • Fried's Limited, London dealers in_, 'women's wear, have been fined > 200 'and costs for selling a. air of -w P o. 'men's stockings at a - price higher - than the basic period price. Aceord; ing to evidence subiit n ted in, city police court the hose . :standard were pmarked "sub, purchased in Decent.. ber for $1.15, Samuel Friedman, 'manager of the store testified that t ;hosiery was sold for thisrice during wring'• that basic period. Eric Moorhouse ,counsel for the Wartime Price and Trade Board, contended that the price was for a better grade of hese, The. 'fine in one of the largest imposed la. London for price ceiling violations, Tire Case The theft of tires by three London • men and their sales throughout Weat ern Ontario has resulted in the court; appearances of twenty-eight persons, penitentiary sentences totalling eight and one-half years, jail sentences ef- sixty days and total fines of $2,775,• Carl Ryan, Russell Wood and Dun, can McLennan received penitentiary, sentences for breaking and entering the garages• from which the tires disappeared: Ryan and Wood got three years each and McMellan two and one-half: In addition Ryan andi. Wood received thirty days for sell- - ing tires when they were not author,. ized dealers. Fines imposed for ob. twining tires were each 1100 to 9200 with costs added. Cases were heard in several eounties—six being tried, at London by Magistrate Menzies, five were heard at Owen Sound by Magestrate Spereman, one at Walker, ton by Magistrate Walker and the last one on February 4th at Sisncest by Magistrate Innes sitting for the first day as Magistrate for Norfolk County. V Fertilizer. Action has been taken by the War- . time Prices and Trade Board to en-. sure farmers getting a fair supply of fertilizer. According' to an apnoea -- cement wade by W. Harold McPhill, ips prices and supply representative for Western Ontario, under a new directive, all retail fertilizer distribu. tors are required to see that all their regular customers are supplied be- . fore accepting new accounts, Distributors are not allowed to supply their customers with fertilized containing potash in a quality ex- ceeding 73 per cent of the potash supplied in 1943. If the distributor is a farmer he must not retain for his own use any more than 73 per cent of" the potash he used in 1943. Farmers are urged to place their orders for fertilizer not later than March the 15th; otherwise it may be difficult to obtain supplies. v Holstein -Friesian Associat, ion Best Year in History J. J. E. McCague, Alliston, Ontario,, was chosen as President of the Hot, stein -Friesian Association of Canada for 1944 at the Annual Meeting held February 2 in Toronto. Reports sub- . mitted by the officers indicated that 1943 was the best year in the Associa-, tion's history with the total reeipts of $138,781 showing an increase of'' 22 per cent over 1942. Registrations showed a gain of 15 per cent totaii, ing 51.100 while transfers' of owner, ship were up 19 per cent for a total of 44,356. L. A. H. Peters, Chairman of the Cattle Committee of the Nether, lands Economic, Financial ,and Ship, ping Mission at Washington, who ad,. dressed the crowd of over 600 breed, ers who attended the afternoon ses, sion, said "If the cattle population a!i the time of liberation has not de, alined considerably compared with present numbers, I doubt whether any importion of dairy cattle will be neees, sary, I say If conditions do not change greatly, but in this respect, we must be extremely cautious, for - nobody knows what sort of destruction still lies ahead. The experience gain, ed in Russia, Africa, Sicily and Italy, where the retreating German armies have caused enormous destruction, does not allow us to have an opti- mistic outlook. Actual warfare and scorched earth policy may put the Netherlands. In a position where large scales importations of cattle aro necessary.to restore the dairy indus, try," SEES FIVE SNAKES BASKING DUNGANNON, Feb. 7, —The groundhog may or may not have seen 'his shadow recently, but Nelson Culbert, of Dungannon, reports hay, ing seen five snakes coiled up basking in the sun' at jiis(maxi twQ miles east .: of here;