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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1958-03-20, Page 3Poor listening For .Farmer's Some years ago one of the Blackstones- came to town fa• get a haircut, and the barber asked him how many cows was keeping. "I ain't," he said. "They're keeping me! " ' "No doubt," said the barber "Bit how many you 'got?". "Eight." "Oh, that's all? I thought you had thirty-fortyl" "No," said. Blackstone. "I ta- pered off. Truth is, I got fed up with bounding out Of bed every morning to be nursemaid to a flock of cattle, and I decided to whittle down and begin to take the ease and enjoyment due me, t ain't so young as I was, and I like it better now. 'Stead of roll- ing out in the small hours the, way I used to, I lay abed until (our -thirty]" Now, isn't that a nice little ;tory? I'll . tell you the truth. I Beard it, and it is just the way e happened, except that it was the of the Weaver 'boys and 1 ;hanged the name to protect the nnocent, and I rearranged the numerals to emphasize the point: Re had been keeping ten cows, tnd he cut it down to one, and to said he "laid abed" until five- hirty instead of four -thirty. This gratuitous explanation on ny part is in the interests of suthful history, whereas my Menges in the story were to en - lance the illustrative values. I nn trying to make the paint Drat farming is an early -rising )rofession. , I gather that city people think the farmer is the only fool who gets up before breakfast, and this must be why the farm radio programs are always aired b the prologue of the day. It seems the the FCC insists, somewhat loosely perhaps, that a certain amount of broadcast time be de- voted to agricultural subjects, Ind the program director's an- sweris to feed the stuff out in the dawn, when nobody else would be around. The whole trouble with this notion is largely that we have come to a public situation where the farmer is the last person who needs to hear about farm problems. He knows what they are. But we've got vast, concen- trated populations of nonfarm people who no longer have the slightest knowledge of farm af- fairs, and unless we get them thinking sympathetically fairly soon we'regoing to be in bad shape. It 1s an axiom Of history, as LAST OF CONQUERORS -Eighty- five -year-old Olav Bjaaland, the last man alive of the five Nor- wegians who first reached the South Pole nearly a half cen- tury ago, relaxes with a cigar- ette at his home in Morgedal, Norway. With Roald .Amund- sen and three others, Bjaaland reached the frozen bottom of the world on Dec. 14, 1911. Very much alert, despite his advanced age, he follows cur- rent Antarctic explorations with keen interest. old as historians, that when agri- culture`is neglected, the econ- omy declines, ' Nowadays we have a Secretary of Agriculture, and a USDA, and experiment stations, and a policy, and big appropriations, and all manner of people who think we are taking care of the farmers. When things decline, they'll all wonder hovel -come. Years ago there was a fellow on radio who used to regale us about 5;30' a.m. with the cur- rent quotations on "agricultural commodities." He had a voice like a chain pump with a rim - racked gear. This fellow would tell us how much to charge for kumquats, persimmons, malaga grapes, okra, pineapples, and similar strange and fearsome foods, along with tomatoes, ear - rots, broccoli and other things we had heard of. The radio station was getting some government , listing which was not edited for our locale, and without any thought of what the words said this fellow was stentoriating on the theory that a farmer wouldn't care, and it was good enough for him. He used to say ,"Tomatoes, so much a box;, carrots, so much a box; asparagus, so much a box." I dropped him a card one day and asked what kind of a box he was using for his tomatoes, and instantly got a nice letter back, thanking me for my "interest" and enclosing a fat experiment station booklet about «agricul- tural containers." This fellow would never be . employed' later in the . day to sell soap or electric shavers to:. the discerning and sensitive citizens who arise and listen de- cently, and even if he were, he would not read anything about. farming; I think the best time for a farm program is about eight -thirty in the evening, when the farmer has finished his. labors, removed his boots, and` is sitting in a- rocker relaxing. Perhaps the best message you could bring him would be some soft violin and flute music. But somehow, in the develop- ment of radio farm programs, we have come up with this no- tion that a farmer listens only around six a.m., and he has no interests except the clank of tractor commercials and the sta- tistical renditions ofgovernment reports. Music, interspersed in these programs, is either ear-splitting performances of Sniper Fidelis by a full band, or a predomin- antly alto hill -billy number like Coming Round the Mountain. All conversational offering§§ are done by a refugee from the de- clamation classes. The other morning another, bull -voiced despoiler of diction' gave a speech on impending leg- islation designed to protect the farmer from nonfarm encroach- ments -such as having a non - access highway bisect your acres and leave you forty miles from the lush meadow" you can see across the street. This was a message deserving every art of the trained speaker, and should have been heard by everybody ere, least of all the farmer. He knows, but his salvation will come from the thoughtful rem- edy provided by nonfarm peo- ple who are now, unthinkingly, allowing such absurdities to hap- pen. So it is. . Pd take my portable radio up in the woods with me, for mid- ' afternoon music while I cut lum- ber, if there was anything to hear besides rock and roll and the soupy mouthings of the boy wonders who like it. Timber 1 I -By John Gould in The Chris- tian Science Monitor. LOTS LIKE IInM "Why don't you like Watson?" asked Jones of his companion at the firm's annual dinner and dance. "Well. he's one of those tel - lows who, if you asked the time,. would start to tell you how to make a watch." 7. Second-hand 27. Rent 8, Seappen. '.gain 98. Estrange 9. Thin stiff 39. Shaded fabric'. 39. The birds 89 Support 10. 00ne by 88 Capers 11 Mountain 40 Derisive grin (Scot.) 49 !Carly Amer. DOWN - 17 7005118h rl ver Indian 1. Live in a tent 19. ;Impel with 46. 'Palestina 2.. Butterspread torte seaport 3. Back 22. The Rant 46. Salty drop 4. Roundabout 24. Assail with 4 13rIY1, course missiles 41. 1111113114111e. 6. Bureaus 25.: Springs 49 (lnlnr 9. Tathrinaut 90. Rounders In tienw, en - CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. String 5. Sullen 8. Reckoning 1.9. Opposite of aweather 13 Increase to ;wire 14 Period 13 Animal food 10 Moving part nt an atom 15. Permeable by water 20. C:omba.t between two 21. Bear tastron.l 22. Harvests 26. Officers' mounts 80. Pane 01 'reel right 89. Heather 2 3 4 6 6 7 is lege e 14 15 Ie 16 27 m 23 54. Armpit 83, Pall in drops 87. Domestic, nmployeee 89. Crystal gazers., It. Observed 42. Not any 44. banded property 19. (l110241an 61Milled: 62 'Three strikes 63. 1 ntl ependent Ireland 1,54 Rugged rock 94 '19ny 96 Organ. Pills 457. Withered 26 31 27 28 37 35 39 36 gtg 48 49 47 40 79 31. 17 3o 50 44 38 POR 26 34 34 45 46 47 57 55 53 56 54 Answer e,sewhere on his page. ON A BOOMERANG, YET -Wearing a "digger's° hat, Darryl Stewart, Australia's answer' .to Elvis Presley, autographs a boomerang for 'stewardess Alberta 'Crowe after landing at a, New York airport. Stewart • was in the city for television. PMM FRONT Waissai The following analysis of the 1957 livestock market has been prepared by the Markets Infor- mation Section, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. It is pre- liminary to the more detailed. Livestock Market Review which is released later in the year. *. " * Marketing: The output of cat- tle to public stockyards, shipped direct to pack plants and direct on export in 1957 totalled 2,570,- 891, an increase of 12.6 per cent; calves at 1,013,985, up 4.6 per cent; hogs 5,401,197, decrease 9.4 per cent;, sheep and lambs 598,979, down 1.6 per cent, M* Quality: The average dressed weight of beef carcasses slaugh- tered in inspected plants• was, 505,6 Ib. for the year, nearly eleven pounds more than a year earlier and the heaviest • since 1952, Good pastures and plenti- ful feed were evident in the heavier weights and better fin-, ish of the cattle marketed.' The percentage of Grade A and B. carcasses in the total slaughtered was 38.5 compared with 37.1 in 1956. Slight .improvement in hog quality for the third successive ' year showed grade A as 28.7 per tent of marketings, the best since 1951, and grade Bl 41.7 per cent, * e a Prices: Livestock averaged higher in price in all depart- ments than a year earlier. The course of cattle prices was down- ward through January -Febru- ary. At mid-March the market strengthened and through the April -August period good steers, Toronto, stayed between $19 and $20. The U.S. market moved up sharply during this period and slaughter cattle commenced to move southward in May, 'fol- lowed at mid-August by a heavy movement of feeders. Good slaughter steers dropped to $17- $18 Brackets in October -Novem- ber when marketings were at peak levels, but were- upward bound during December and finished the year near $20. Keen competition from U.S. buyers kept feeder cattle at unusually strong levels during the fall period of heavy marketings and the kinds sold 60¢ cwt, ,higher than in the previous year, good steers averaging $16.75 for all markets. The improvement in stock calf prices was even more . pronounced with the year's av- erage at $17.15, up $1.65. The average of all cattle at eleven markets was up 40¢ at- $14 65 cwt, The al) markets' average for the nine per cent smaller hog output was $29.70 for grade A, an increase of $4.50 cwt, Good lambs averaged $20.10, up 25e. 0 f, Foreign Trade: Cattle exports in 1957 were the heaviest since 1950 and fifth largest on record. Beef cattle shipments to the U.S. at 278,770 ,compared with only 1,800 in 1956. Over 49 mil- lion pounds of, beef were ex- ported to all countries . making a total ed live and dreseed; ex- ports equivalent to about 377,000 cattle. Calf exports were in- creased to 11,823 from 4,490 a year earlier, Imports in 1957 in- cluded 4,441 cattle from the U.S. and nearly 19 million ib. of. fresh and frozen beef, a .total of 42,000 head' in terms of live cat- tle. Exports of dairy and pure- bred cattle at 37,693head were down from 45,348 in •1956. Sheep and lambs moved south during the fall to a total of 17,136, and therequivalent of nearly 11,000 lambs were shipped as dressed product. Some 28,500 live sheep and lambs were . imported from the U.S. and dressed product equivalent to. 244,620 live lambs was brought in from all corm - tries, Exports of fresh and cured pork declined to 36 million pounds in 1957, from 62 million pounds a year earlier. • 0 W * Feeders: Feeder cattle went onto Canadian pastures in in- creasing numbers until the end of July when the increase over 1956 was 25 per cent. From August onward U.S, demand drained off over 200,000 head and'at the year-end 13 per cent fewer cattle had been shipped off stockyards to country points, the total being 299,596. b 5 * Meat Supply: Domestic disap- pearance of meats from com- mercial slaughterings was little changed in total. Beef increased 6 per cent, veal 5 per cent, mut- ton and lamb 6 per cent and pork decreased 8 per cent. All classes . at 1,781 million pounds was less than one per cent above 1956. 4. a Nt Values: Commercial livestock marketings in 1957 showed an increase in total value of 13 per cent over 1956, aggregating $655 millien. Per head values 1957 (1956 in brackets): Cattle $135 ($129), calves $45• ($41), hogs $47 ($39.25), sheep $16 ($15.50). The condition of peaches and of containers in rail transit from the Niagara and 'southweaterri Ontario peach growing areas to markets east of. Montreal and west of Sudbury, and the air car temperatures in transit, were the objects of a. study in 1956 and 1957 by the Transportation stor- age and Retail Section and the Fruit and Vegetable Division of the Canada Department of Agri- culture in co-operation with the Canadian railroads. A total of ' 40 carloads of peaches were examined at the time of loading and unloading. Thermographs were used to ob- tain temperatures during the loading, transit and unloading period. 4 ,' 4 Air temperatures within the refrigerated cars before loading averaged 45 degrees at the top and 44 degrees at the bottom. An average of 7,700 pounds of ice and''662 pounds -of -salt were used in the initial icing and standard re -icing instructions were follow- ed en route. The peaches were. pre -cooled to an average tem- perature of 45 degrees before loading. 4• * y The carlots of peaches examin- ed had all been shipped a con- siderable distance. Twenty car - lots shipped to points in Quebec province required an average of 37 hours in transit. For these, the average .temperatureof the peaches decreased three degrees during transit. Thirteen carlots were shipped to the Maritime prvoinces in an average transit time of 61 hours. .There was no difference for these carlots in the loading and arrival tempera- ture of the peaches. 4, .i * Thirty-six of the 40 carloads in the study arrived in good condi- tion. Three were infected with brown rot, and the remaining carlot was slightly damaged by the shifting of the containers during transit. * The time taken by loading and unloading during the shipment of peaches is considerable. In this study, the loading took from two to six hours for most of the carloads, and unloading required from eight to 48 hours or longer. In the United States last year, 42,000,000,000 cans were open- ed. That is 259 for every man, woman and child in the coun- try. Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking REMO OEM'PPM MEN VPMEREO EMIR © MEM= ©©DEMON EMO© ©©EES MESE© ©©©UOMMO' MEMO MEUTAIUME NEM ERREADMENMOMM ©MME 1 INEUME WERE r i ©OOi r r1 ©OE©®®EE ME© WE0.. ©©Ili ®EMU 00B MOO 001DE NDAYSCii001 LESSON By Rev. It. Barclay Warren B.A., B.O. The Church and Community Evangelism Mark 5:18-20; Luke 10:1-3; Acts 5:42; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10. Memory Selection: The harm - est truly is great, but the le - boosters are few: pray ye titers• fore the Lord of the harveal. that He would send 'forth la- bourers into His Harvest. Three boys were born to Mr. and Mrs. Carman Bell at theis farm home at Stayner, Ont. To- day, one is a medical missionary in Nigeria and the other two are successful pastors in Ontario. 1 asked one of them, "How do you account for the fact that all three are in the full-time ministry?" He paused and then replied, "It was Mother's prayers." Whet finer tribute could a boy pay to his mother? In our memory selection, Jesus indicates that prayer is the way to solve the present shortage of ministers. We need the vision of the ripened harvest that stirs ua to prayer. Then the Lord will send forth the labourers. If they are not sent by Him they will not succeed in harvesting. When one comes to know - Jesus Christ ss his Lord and Saviour, first impulse is to tell others that they may know Him, too. The best place to start is the home community among those we know best, The man in our lesson when freed from the tyranny of Saton, wanted to con- tinue in the presence of Jesus. But Jesus said, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Jesus sent 70 put in pairs to announce the kingdom and prepare the way for His visit to the various towns, God is still depending on people to do Hca work. How energetic were the early Christians; "Daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Community evan- gelism will take us into the homes as well as into tine churches. The lesson concludes with a tribute .to the successful wit- nessing of the Christians in Thessalonica. From them sound- ed ounded out the word of the Lord far and wide. Their faith God -wart was spread abroad. They h.tl• turned from their idols "to servo the living and true God; and tip wait for His Son from heaven. Let us ask ourselves, "Do we see the harvest? Do we prey; Are we going into the homes of our community, telling of Jesus Christ? Are we showing forth the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by our daily living?" PLENTY OF LIFE IN OLD MAN WINTER i The heaviest fall of snow in Washington in 22 years - 14 inohes-brought out the men with shovels to clear the steps of the Capitol and adjacent buildings, left. A mammoth storm crippled the East Coast from Maine to fhe. Carolinas but the scene below was an ex- ception xception in the cold, sunny Mid- west, Helen LaCuke wields a small broom against an impres- sive pile of the white stuff cov- ering a car In front of her Michigan City, Ind., home. A freak storm, dumping four feet of snow on an area less than 20 miles square onthe south- east shore of Lake Michigan, threw the city of 30,000 into a state of emergency. Chicago as well as surrounding towns sent help to the stricken city.