The Seaforth News, 1955-12-08, Page 3rotato growers, both north
and south of the Border, con-
tinually lament the i'act that
toiks nowadays don't eat as
many "spuds" as they used to
do a few years ago., Dieting to
keep the weight and waist -line
down is generally blamed for
this sad condition, but there are
a good many who believe that
the real reason is that potatoes,
although vastly improved in
appearance, simply do not taste
as well as their predecessors.
My meaning will be made clear-
er by this dispatch by John
Gould to The Christian Science
Monitor, written from the State
of Maine, one of the greatest
potato -growing areas in the
United States.
5 5 5
The lady made quite a rash
remark, for these parts. She
said, "My goodness, if I could
only get a decent potato, even
if it was Idaho, I'd cheer and
carry on . . Such a remark
certainly requires sympathetic
analysie. With Maine full of
potatoes, and the market de-
pressed, and the farmers like-
wise, the high treason of the re-
mark mustn't be lightly con-
strued,
5 5 5
Yet it's a reasonable remark.
I am reading a report by I he
'United States Department of
Agriculture which tells about
the government development of
40 new potato varieties in the
past 20 years, It also says that
by 1973 the average yield per
acre will go from the present
250 to 300 or more bushels. This
news is imparted with a note of
jubilance over the obvious ac-
hievement. Yet last winter Sec-
retary' Benson told the Maine
pOtatO gr Ow e r s they were
crowding the market, that they
should plant fewer acres, con-
tentrate On selling, and work
toward quality. They didn't pay
any attention, of course, but
most of them know he was
right. 5 *
With potatoes plentiful, why
does said lady lament?
When I was a lad we had two
„irm.,N4,015A,"
kweepse'-e-e 4'4
4-4
QUEENLY LOOK - Picture of
regal beauty is Queen Eliza-
beth H on a recent night out in
London. She was attending a
benefit performance at Vic-
toria Palace.
kinds of potatoes we grew, One
was the Early Rose, and we'd
have them big enough to eat by
the Fourth of July. The other
was the Green Mountain which
carne along in the fall and went
into the cellar and to market:
Unless he's been there, nobody
knows the unequaled excellence
of the Early Rose potato -we
liked to cook the little new ones
right in with the green peas,
with a small chunk of salt pork
assisting. It was a haymaker's
delight. The Early Rose, burst-
ing its pink jacket with mealy,
mellow goodness, was tops. But
commercially it is a lost cause.
*
My grandfather used to dig a
wheelbarrow full every morn-
ing, wheel it to the kitchen door,
and Grandmother would pick
out in her apron what she need-
ed for the day's supply. Then
he'd wheel what was left over
and dump them to the pigs.
Then in the fall the Green
Mountains would get harvested
and. the only Early Rose we
stored would be seed for the
next year.
4( *
When the USDA began its re-
search 20 years ago and turned
out 40 new varieties, they com-
promised the standards. The po-
tatoes they produced were "bet-
ter" -but what did they mean
by better? They resisted blight
and bugs, they yielded more per
acre, they ripened sooner, they
kept better in storage, they
looked smoother, they shipped
better, and they did several
other wonderful things. They
also left milady wistfully long-
ing for a good old potato,
* *
A friend of mine has a bro-
ther who farms a few hillsides
in Aroostook County, the potato
empire, and he was up there on
a visit one fall just as the dig-
ging started. The hillsides were
busy. Great lumbering ma-
chines were rolling the potatoes
out of the ground. Swarms of
pickers were gathering them
into barrels. Flat trucks that
hold 40 barrels, with derricks,
were speeding the harvest to
the bins. There were mountains
of potatoes. My friend said to
his brother, "Looks like a good
chance for me to lay in my win-
ter potatoes:" "Sure thing," said
the brother. "The hoe's in the
garage."
"Hoe?"
"Eyuh, We ought to have one
of them potato rakes, like a
clam hoe, but we never bother-
ed to get dne. We use a hoe."
"But what do you use a hoe
for when you've got all that ma-
chinery?"
The brother laughed. "We
don't eat those potatoes -those
are for market and soed to go
to Idaho and Florida and Long
Island. We eat Green Moun-
tains. The outside row, - along
the road, is Green Mountains.
You got to dig them by hand."
* *
So my friend got the hoe, and
he had to walk a long way, be-
cause the farm ,family had al-
ready eaten abolir three quar-
ters of a mile OSi GA.en lVfoun-
tains, and he dug three grain
bags full and then went with
his automobile to get them, Of
course they were wonderful po-
tatoes. So you've got to ponder
on the curious industrial cus-
toms of the modern farmer, who
grows hundreds of acres -of pota-
toes to sell to the unwitting
public, but plants some good
potatoes for himself.
* *
Nowadays we. hear of Katah-
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
MID Ogg
1, Auto
4, Winglike
2. Sweetsoo
2. Illxint
111, CI eangin g
agent
15. int:,
17. 2,0 -way or
13. As tar, as
10. Object
20. implore
2.1. Eau nt
01. Silence
CI, Worthle,.s
dog
25. Panel
20, 1./er0nye*
27. Wealthy
20, Concerning
20, winnow
01, Openwork
fabric
82, Itizzcianiatioll
34, Tench
SI. Stitch
87..klit hard
09. Rather [Ilan
40, Cm
41 Misery
42, Insect
43, Sp mu.
44, Dike
43, Illuminated
At. Painter
49. liome
52. Beyerag.
62, Vali
04, Be fond
05. 'Dark shrilly
DOWN
1. Public vehinle
1. Constellation
2. Tell
4. Ilusbnnd
03 Eve
5. Cuitled
6, Near
7. A wa
0. Turkish 111 1*
U. Symbol for
t
00. no
19. rocky
14. 00 ill t
16. Decline
20. Bitten It
21.1.1nexpl0ded
shell
." Deface
22. Shoshonean
Indian
24. l'iapPY
21. Black
21', Drown boy
23. However
00. Dense mint
82. Chop
33. Nocturnal
bird
54. Pool Stiak
33, -Skill
36, Sou n dnegg
02 1111111
27. (It aus
as, The one
0(0290102
40, llici opt
4:1, 11 e In
42,2,0 liberty
40, Vat t of
Ole motiDt
40. lion:Lye
47. tinge 9 are
48. Genlie3t...ok*
on. T17119
31, Nn
4
2
5
V.**
137
5
..,44,-;
*.;•;,1:
8
e
.
lo
1 1
12$i
..**.2%,..4
1111r4
15
..
IC
,777-'s'..:iiil------,,,
,
• ,, '',
Iii''P
"
::.;:.;':;:l,t
'1..i.'‘:••.M
09
22
23
„ .,.,.,
24'
:. •ti. •
22
2.
'
.te
..,.% .
47
20
::::,.••••:.47:77
29"
•••",.g.tM.ria
'
..,21
V
ietset
5e
33
''zii .ki
'si
kt.
34.
3'
:1,
ae
'kg:
13 t
....
41
, • ...:?:.V;:.
44
61,W
''''',;*46
•.s.':
47-4g
50
•
51
b.,..49
52
53
94
i1.
N
4 t4
55
Answer elsewhere on this page.
Mary Pickford
1918
Lillian Gish
1912
- -
HarOld Lloyd
1921
Richard Barthelmess
1921
"GEORGE" WINNERS - These famous stars of the silent screen
are among 20 winners of the first "George" award for "Distin-
guished contribution to the art of motion pictures, 1915-1925."
The awards were made at the First Festival of Film Artists. The
winners were selected by the persons they worked' with during
their film days. The festival is sponsored by the George Eastman
House of Photography. The award, named for George Eastman,
is a medal bearing his likeness, set in an eight -inch block of
transparent plastic.
u.
dins, Kennebecs. Chippewas,
Ontarios, Sebago s, Houmas
(pronounced Homers) and
Cherokees; and other 33 others
of like stripe, and the horizon
is obscured with an excess crop,
and we have a little woman
plaintively longing for a good
potato. You name a blight or a
bug and we've got a potato that
will lick it. You propose a trade
difficulty, and we've got a po-
tato that takes care of it. The
Colorado Beetle has been licked,
we are up to 275 bushels to the
acre, we keep making new va-
rieties to plant -and we --sit
sit around remembering how
real potatoes looked when you
burst the jacket and laid on a
cut of butter. By 1973, they tell
us, it will be even more so,
* *
It is an interesting develop-
ment. Of course, a lot of modern
people tell you they're satisfied
with this or that potato. In fact
I've tried new kinds myself and
opined they were pretty good.
The Kennebec is about as good
as any, and has won many
friends. But most of that is by
comparison with other modern
kinds, and it still a long distance
from what I'd 'call top-notch.
Skin -Diving Off The Coast of Kona
Our outrigger lies like a dark
arrow on the sunlit bay. -We
are in tropic waters which
dance and dazzle on the sur -
surface, gleaming turquoise
over sand, cobalt over coral,
and gun-metal over lava out-
croppings. Farther out, the pur-
ple patches mean cloud sha-
dows, and on the horizon a tum-
ultuous pile of pearly clouds
hide volcano Haleakala and its
island Maui.
Looking down over the side
of the narrow boat, there are
thirty feet of pure salt sea
water between us and the bot-
tom. It is this lambent world of
fantastic colors, shapes, and tex-
tures that we will penetrate.
For we are after coral. Two of
us dive from the outrigger; an-
other surface -dives. Wearing
rubber flippers and glass face
masks, we each are on our own.
Fifteen feet below the sur-
face rises a lava shelf shaped
like an anvil, startlingly black
against the white sand bottom.
Around this dart and dance
brightly -colored reef fish.
I plummet down. Then, grasp-
ing the lava anvil with both
hands to steady myself against
the strong coastwise current,
lie still, outstretched, a few
moments. Tha fish, which have
darted into crevices, now come
out again, as curious as their
visitor.
Each is more startling in
shape and plot, than the last.
There are green fish with red
stripes, red fish with green
stripes, silver fish with black
stripes, black fish with silver
stripes, blue on silver, silver on
blue, dots on ,stripes, stripes on
dots. Fish that are long and
thin, like animated drinking
straws. Fish that are fat and
grumpy as goblins. Fish with
faces that laugh and say, "Isn't
this a delightful world?" and
fish with big turned -down lips
that mutter, "Ain't it an ewers
place to be!"
There are fish that dart like
arrows. Fish that . dance "their
long. sea' dances"- *either solo
or in pairs. Fish that loll, se-
cure in the doorway of their
watery caves.
-Here is a brit tient yellow
sunfish. There goes a stately
black and yellcav banded Moor-
ish idol. Now a trigger fish,
which natives take the pains to
call "humuhumunkunukuopua-
a." There hesitates a butterfly
fish with a long delicate nose
and an even longer name -
"louwiliwilinukunukuoeoe" - a
name which we doubt if he ever
answers to, And now, before I
have to leave, a fish I don't
know the name for. He lies in
a cave entrance like a melted
lump of tallow, and surveys the
world through disenchanted
eyes, writes Chaffee Castleton
in The Christian Science Moni-
tor.
1 surface, gaspmg for air, gain
my breath, then go down again.
This time, grasping the lava, I
stare into another puka, or hole.
In it is a puffer. After a few
flourishes of trepidation he
settles down to outstare me,
and we remain nose to nose,
both raptly fascinated.
What a comical creature: This
marine Pagliacci has a long
pointed delicate snout which
slopes back to a dish -shaped
face and a body the shape of
an angular cucumber. The most
intricate design 'of royal blue
and black pattern his sides -
it would thrill a couturier. Itis
back is orange polka dots on
velvet black, and his comical
face is ringed in canary yellow.
I surface again, and rest on
the yaku, or arm, of the out-
rigger, looking across dappled
Water to the mid -Pacific isle
that we set out from. Here
white combers gnash on black
lava but three years cooled.
There a windmill rising out of
a kiawe jungle marks a human
habitation.
Higher yet, the kiawe (ines
-
quit known as algeroba) is'
broken by deeper bands of
green that mark the coffee
farms. Pockets of yet deeper
green mark the dark lustrous
magnolialike leaves of kamane.
Broad -bands of lava striate the
mountainside, their black fields
of a'a; or broken pumice, soft-
ened by straggling ohia trees e -
the first to grow on lava, and
the yellow -green of kukui, or
candlenut trees. Long gone are
the camphor trees which sweet-
ened the air far out to sea.
I raised my eyes. A dazzling
scarf Of white mist at the 1.500 -
foot level girdles the volcano
Hualalai, whose top is hid lit
rain clouds.
Now I grasp a hammer in one
hand, and screwdriver in the
other (for why dull a wood
chisel on bone?), and dive for
coral.
Down again in the watery
world of muted color, huge cor-
al heads spring around me like
gigantic tinted cauliflowers.
Red, rust, blue, purple, mustard,
pink -they blossom at my fing-
er tips.
Prowling among this seem-
ingly petrified, but yet a forest
of living creatures, I spot ig
smaller head, the size of a
basketball, with perfectly form-
ed branches, and a brilliant
blue in color. Surfacing for air,
I resubmerge,
place the screw-
driver against the stem under
the branchingi head and give
One knock of the hammer. The
head breaks neatly off. This I
carefully bear to the surface
and place the brittle shape, yet
slimy with living polyps, in the
Outrigger.
By the time I have surfaced
with another, the first one has
turned mauve. In the strong
sunlight, it will be pink by- the
time we return to, shore.
In the meantime my two
Filipino companions have not
been idle, bringing up beautiful
heads and branches to add to
our collection. There is branch
coral, brain coral, finger coral,
antler coral, fire coral (for this
they must wear canvas gloves),
and an assortment of shells. One
af the boys proudly adds a hel-
met shell, complete with heavy
orange lip and living mollusk,
which he spotted crawling along
on the deepest place of all.
There are also blue -black
spiny urchins, a native delicacy
when broken open and the roe
eaten raw, like marine caviar.
To this wealth from the deep 1
add some red-spined urchins,
just to make the collection pret-
ty. These brilliant red spikes,
like pieces of chalk with blunt
ends, will turn purple and then
brown, as sunlight dulls them.
We spy a turtle's hind -legs
sticking out from a cave, where
he has repaired headfirst to
sleep. We grasp him and pull
him out, and then have merry
sport trying to "ride" him to the
surface, the poor creature all
the time trying to swim down
to those nether realms that he
calls home.
We finally let him go, and
rest and catch our breath on
the surface. You would think
we would have had enough, but
I can't keep my eyes off the
bottom. Peering through my
face 'glass, 1 suddenly see a
small tiger shark meandering
among the coralheads. He has
a streamlined nose, a long
oblique tail, and six feet of gray
lithe steely strong body. Now
he circles my lava anvil direct-
ly beneath me, His little eyes
roll up to me, but he keeps on
his circuitous course.
The picture is complete. The
shark in the coral, sleek, beau-
tiful in his effortless motion;
the reef fish, darting in and
out of their crevices or dancing
in pairs in the sheer joy of liv-
ing; the sun shining down,
warming the world; the waters
lapping the boat; the trade
winds, blowing fresh and free;
me on the surface- peering
down in wonderment and peace,
the surf against the shore, the
shore against the mountain, the
mountain against the sky.
I leisurely climb aboard the
outrigger, where my two com-
panions had quickly repaired at
the first breath of "shark," and
we paddled shoreward, our boat
heavy with our trophies of the
deep. We are in brilliant sun-
light, made even more intense
by contrast with the mountain
we are paddling toward, dark
with rain. As we move into the
quieter waters of Keauhou bay,
a dazzling rainbow arches the
sky.
R. Barclay Warren, B.A., BA.
Who la My NeighbourT
Luke 10: 25:37
Memory Selection: Thou
love the Lord thy God wit:12
thy heart, and with all thy seule,
and with all thy strength, auf
with all thy mind; and Or
neighbour as thyself. Luke 1111
27.
In our Christian life theory
and practice must be properly
coordinated. The lawyer was u
on his theory but not so cleat
on its everyday application. H441
knew that to love God with alit
one's being and to love one'es
neighbour as himself was the
way to inherit eternal life. But
he also knew that he had not
lived up to this law of love and.
so he asked, "And who is my
neighbour?" The point of thes
parable of the Good Samartiaet
was unmistable. The essence of
neighbourliness is to show
mercy on the needy regardlese
of colour, race or creed. Thee
priest looked at the unfortunate*
anan and passed by on the other
side. The Levite who perform-
ed more ordinary duties around
the temple looked more closely'
but went on. But the Samaritan,
despised by the Jews because
he was a descendant of those
Jews who had intermarried with
the colonists brought in by the
Assyrians, cared for the mart.
He proved himself a neighbour.
He even left the wages for two
days' work with the innkeeper
to insure his continued care and
promised more if it were re.
quired.
Our well -organized welfare
agencies leave us lots of room
to be good neighbours. There
are needs about us among our
citizens and among immigrants,
There are the little deeds which
we may do that say so much,
Nationally we are considering
our less fortunate neighbours.
The Colombo plan is an example
of Our effort here. Many of our
trained young people are catch-
ing the vision of going to thou!
parts of the world where they
are most needed. I asked one of
my former students what were
his plans when he graduated(
with his M.D. "Oh, set up t
practise here and make a pito
of money," he replied, I saw
the twinkle in his eye. "No," he
said, "I'm thinking of going to
North Africa." That is the spirit
of the Good Samaritan,
MERRY MENAGERIE
"Most frustrated turtle I know
He's subject to spells of w
derlust, but never gets to we
he's goinee"
Upsidedown to Preveni Peeking
v A a
.1.
V
3
'0
14
0
21
a I
5
a
a.
1 MV
9I
M
a 5
.Li
V
3
0
.1.
21
V
.1.
N
.1.
11
140
N
0
14
14
9
0
3
2i
0
0
0
1
3
S a a
a ±
al v
.411121 EllEdilk1610
000
v v v
0.1.
s a v
•
DENTAL DESPREATION -- Josef Schneider is down in the mouth
over his work most of the time -and he's not a dentist. Tha
children's photographer has found this a sure way to coax es
smile from almost any baby -but you must be quick. Schneider
began a career 03 a child psychologist, but found that tins
eamerci, not the couch, was his trUe medium,