Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-08-31, Page 7The Opt'rt Doe`ir of ITIhe. Old Bairn Oe.: ol.d live) (sieve 1'eerreng- ed to satisfy. more re r°.dern "ii h- inittttes," if you please!) had big swinging. doors Lo *.: e gable to- ward the north tough -which the hay passed on a track -fork. The entire haying :operation has as changed, and when the agrono- my specialists list the adv,en- -teges now prevail[ g, you will see no mention of the wonder - and magnificence titiat heiuriged to those great gable doors, They opened on tine foam of the Big Dipper, and a fairyland beyond compare: What has happened to the cow business is no 'iifferent [lona what has happened In any other business, probably, and haying has been- changed to a mechani- cal process that omits everything you might remember, I can't imagine a youngster, growing up this minute with hay to make, coining back to it in his mem'.ry 40 years hence anti having any- thing to talk about. The end accomplishment is and was to lay fodder aside so the rattle could eat during the winter; the laying aside of pleasant recollec- tions is beside the point. Pet• haps. The motorized hay nha- chinery that moves the hall to- ward the barn and brings it baled to a patent lent is wonder- ful and amazing, and extremely efficient, Yet , . . The thing about the gr ea t doors on the gable was that they stayed open after haying was done, to permit ventilating the mow, and a boy could climb the ladder onto the beams, walk across to the "scaff.ings" and lie on his back there in the dark and look out on :he universe. You can't do that with baled hay, you see, for it has 'no spring and give, end it doesn't take up room enough in stor- age to reach the seafflings any-- Way. ny-Way. - A rainy night was glorious. A soft mid -summer rain drumming • on the roof, dripping from the eaves, and' a boy curled up in. et sett, fragrant bed of meaciew hay is something the farm ma- chinery people have eliminated from possibility. But if the night were clear the open doors would frame the polar sky and you could lie there with your hands looped behind your head and speculate on the distances. The North Star seems close until You project toward it, and it teases you on and on until you are truly in space - and of course nobody had been in space then. The Dipper tips up for you, and then suddenly you wake with the roosters crowing and the cattle stirring in their stanch- [ on s, and morning has come .while -you were 'asleep. A young lady down the road, going away to school this fall, was telling me the other day About her "reading list."' The school had sent her -the titles of three books she. would be ex- pected to r ea d before classes started. It was surprising that • she hadn't already read them, for all three were books I had read as a boy in my haymow library, up in the open doors. On rainy days, when most farm work .can be skipped, I'd climb up and read, Thee was a beam •that made a bookcase, and I once had several -books up there for summer reading a n d Loft them. In the winter, after the hay had been used down, it was Ups:declowe to Prevent Peeking Ll 0110'".. N®3113' N n o m' 3 5 5.:7 N 5-r+ i ilk 3 1®, N 21V'1!� lie V o V 5 le 3 l 0 d1 SW is �9©SiI VU[� 3 K '3 B \i lama,? d3 suddenly remembered that "Lid. napped" was up there, and I had some fancy climbing to do to bring it down. I did "Huckle- berry Finn," "Molly Dick," and "Two Years Before the Mast," in one season, although it was rainier that year than usual, Possibly the slower reading ae- compllslhment of our younger set is because loose hay has gone out of style. There were other peripheral advantages to the old ways, One was driving the horses. Today the bales are boosted on a flat - body truck which doesn't stop at all - it just keeps going. But with loose hay, pitched up with a fork, a pause was necessary. And the load had to be 'built." This meant that ea oh fo1'kful should be placed just so, with a binding layer up the middle to keep the sides f r o in slipping away, If • a load wasn't built right, it could, and would, col- lapse on the way to the barn 1 and fill the whole dooryard. Part of this construction depended on treading, and a flock of inform- ed youngsters jumped up and down on the load was a great help - so they said, But after each bunch was tossed up and trod down- the rack had to be driven to the next bunch, and this was very exacting work, True, the horses were old hands at . this, and -at a "Dup." from the load -builder they would set- tle into -their collars .and move to the next hay, stopping just right all by themselves. Another chance at the horses came at the barn, where one of the team would be unhitched from the rack and his whittle - tree hooked to the long rope of the trackfork. He would raise the hay up through the gable doors into the mows. The farm boy who had the job of lead- ing him out and back was very lucky, for he was in command of great power and controlled the situation, It was a rule that the man who built load should pitch off, so he would thrust the long tines of the horse -fork into the load, .and when he lock- ed the trigs he would stand back, arrange the tripline and shout, "Haul away[" The boy would lead the horse past the woodshed, past the kit- chen door, past the petunia bed, almost out to the mailbox. The rope would squeak in the wood- en pulleys, the barn roof -timbers would creak under the -weight, and the horse would dig in and - pull with mighty effect. The track -fork would rumble along the steel in the peak of the barn, and at the right moment the man would jerk the line and re- lease the load. The horse, feel- ing the load gone, would natter - ally stop all by himself, the boy woud slip the hook off the clevis, and the man on the load would make ready for the •next hoist. If you had a shower coming up this was done with considerable speed, and a boy felt mighty im- portant as he trotted his horse back for the next load. I don't know what boys do tie - day during haying. If they aren't big enough to lift a bale they can't fit in, And there is no hay- mow for them to lie in and read, or study the stars, or dream their long -long thoughts where but- tercups and clover are laid by. - By John Gould in the Christian Science Monitor. Big Cars Banned Japan has taken an interesting and unusual approach to the problem of road construction costs. Under a new construction ministry, regulation That takes effect right away, big cars, many of them American, will be ban- ned from side roads, The bus companies that use such roads have been given three years to reduce the size of their vehicles. It has long been a question as to whether the government was really obligated to provide roads everywhere that would stand up under the pounding of heavy ve- hicles. Japan has said, not. - Commercial Appeal (Memphis) TANKLESS JOS - Demonstrating a guided missile tank killer, o soldier alms his sight controller at the British Army infantry school in Warminster, England, The launcher is In the rear, ready to send a Vickers Vigilant rocket winging on its way aa the arlueeze of a trigger. PISTOL PACKIN' PLAYMATES - It`s gruelin' duelin' cap pistol style for these two small desperalloes as they face, each other for the showdown. Robbie Jamison may be out of gun range,, but Mark Defeo with his hand on his foot -long shootin' iron is going to give it a try. The short pants set seems to like the adult westerns, foo. THfSA1M FRONT j-QkZ Livestock provides about 42 per cent of the agricultural in- come of the Prairie provinces of Canada. This includes primarily beef cattle, although dairy and • sheep contribute a substantial protion to this income. In this period of excessive dryness throughout the plains country, the lack of sufficient moisture has heightened appre- hensions that the grass cover might not be enough to carry the normal herds into and through next winter. * * e Earlier this summer, as the rainless days stretched endless- ly, there was some panic selling of cattle. For a, while this threat- ened to depress the prices which ranchers and farmers get for their beef animals. After the- first rush, however, the urgency -faded. This, coupled with emergency steps taken -by federal and provincial govern- ments to head off any depletion in livestock herds or at least to assure better prices for those who have to sell, firmed up the market. As the ranchers and farmers looked around, they discovered that feed might be more readily available than they had expect- ed. And some rains, though pri- marily local in nature, came along at just the- right time in just the right places on occasion to save the grass and strengthen the feed situation enough by helping revive to some extent grain crops which had declined almost to a point where it would not be feasible to cut them even for feed, The federal government step- ped in with relief measures which in some cases make it more profitable to cut stunted wheat stands to use as feed -for cattle. Other measures have combined also to give the ranch- ers and farmers more confidence in the stability of the Canadian economy and forestall further selling off of herds in a panic, Some government officials note that the ranching area has been moving into a period of moisture deficiency for almost five years. During this period -the cattle in- dustry.has been getting5itself set against the seriousness of the current dry spell which is begin- ning to take serious blows at Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. C * While the livestock industry is one of the least controlled in Canadian agriculture, the fed- eral and provincial governments do have in operation various methods to help those cattle growers who might find them- selves hard put to keep their herds at full or near -full popu- lation. Government officials, among them the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Alvin Hamilton, who comes from northern Sas- katchewan, say they cannot give an accurate estimate this tune on the o '"i'c total cost of goy- ernment relief, but they do'point with pride to specific measures. r e ,e One of these is the operation of community pressures under the Prairie Farm and Rehabili- tation Administration. To meet the increasing pressures from farmers and ranchers whose own pastures are not able to carry their normal cattle population, the PFRA has announced plans to double the size of herds al- lowed on the community pas- tures, This restoration of confidence has an effect on the Canadian • economy which reaches far be- yond the livbstock industry, writes Bicknell Eubanks in the Christian Science Monitor. In addition to being a princi- pal part of the agricultural eco- nomy in the prairies, livestock also makes up the basis of large investments in packing plants, milk - condensing plants, and other food-processing activities. This give jobs to thousands of city -dwelling workers. a a * Like other facets of the west- ern agriculture in Canada and elsewhere in the northern Great Plains down in the Dakotas and Montana, the experts as well as the ranchers and farmers are trying to peer as far into the future as they can. Ranchers especially have to be prepared to carry their herds through the winter by laying in ample supplies of hay and other feeds and keep their herds at a size that would not put too great pressure on spring pastures and early summer grass should the fall, winter, and early spring precipitation turn out to be as short as it was this season. * * * in Saskatchewan, farmers and ranchers who have been short- changed of normal fodder sup- plies are beginning to use two methods for feeding their cattle through the current dry spell, Farmers are swathing and bail- ing standing wheat crops, Grain growers who have -thinly filled cereals are selling their standing crops for fodder at about $10 a ton. This costs the stockmen about $15 a ton after haying costs are added on. Western agricultural publica- tions are giving space to provide lists of farmers in the three provinces who are offering vari- ous kinds of fodder. invented Himself Into The Pokey i Walter Shaw of Miami Is an amateur inventor who specializes in gadgets that drive the tele- phone companies crazy. He has one which allows you to receive your home telephone calls at any phone you may be near. All you do is call home and another lit- tle box records what number you're calling from and will transfer the call there. Walter's best invention is an electronic device which cuts the cost of long-distance telephone bills to nothing. It is such a good gimmick that the went to jail because of it. His invention, contained in a box six inches square, attaches to wires leading from a tele- phone, Any direct -dial call made to that phone costs nothing be- cause a signal issued from the device interferes with the tele- phone system's timing apparatus. It is as if the call were never completed. You can talk as long as you like and there is no re- cord of the call. Shaw, who used to work for a telephone company as a lineman, was making about ten of the gadgets a day, in his living room, and selling them to bookmakers, who normally run up a high phone bill, for $1,500 each. A recent raid on a bookie par- lor just outside New York City uncovered several of the gadgets. They were traced first to Dade County, Florida, and then to Shaw. Shaw was charged with attaching unauthorized equip- ment to a telephone, a misde- meanor with a one-year maxi- mum sentence. When he gets fin- ished with the law, the phone company where he used to work may want him back. It would rather have him for a friend than an enemy, - From SAGA. "The best things in life are free," says the adage. Yes, but you need imagination and a will to work to find them. By Rev. R. Barclay Warren B,A., 8,O. Lydia, a Christian Business Woman. Acts 16: 11-15, 35-40 Memory Selection: As many az received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons elf God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1:12. Women have always played an important part in the advance of Christianity. On most mission fields, women outnumber the men two to one. Go to any pray- er meeting, (if you can find one in your community), and you will find women are in the ma- jority. When Paul and his compan- ions arrived in Europe, by God's leading, they went on the first Sabbath to a prayer meeting by the river outside the city, Lydia, a saleslady for the purple -dyed garments made in Thyatira, lis- tened attentively. She was al- ready a worshipper of God, That day as she listened to the mes- sage of God's Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord opened her heart. This coming to know Jesus Christ is a supernatural experience. Unless there is a spiritual rebirth, one cannot enter the kingdom. This is accomplished by the Holy Spirit leading the repentant sin- ner tb faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Lydia and her household were baptized. Then she invited the group, Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, to stay at her house It wasn't easy to put up four men, but this was part expres- sion res- t of hem P sion of gratitude to God. When Paul and Silas were re- leased from prison, Lydia was still their friend. She wasn't ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. They came 'again to her home, saw the believers and comforted them, One would have thought Paul and Silas with scarred backs were the ones needing comfort, but they were comfort- ing others. Actually, helping others is a good way to help yourself. The memory selection empha- sizes the truth of this lesson. Re- ceiving Christ is much more than joining a church. It is receiving power to become a child of God. And this glorious experience is for us all on the simple condi- tion of believing on Jesus Christ. ISSUE 34 - 1961 1. ea 4. Unfathomable 8. Fagg -end 12. Goddess of infatuation 18. Of an era 14. Sigh est male voice 16. Dilemma 16. Impetuosity 17. Sustenance 15. Lasso 20, -Scandinavian legend 22. Type squares 24. nents, 28. Thorough- fares $2, Italian seaport 52. Textile screw pine 84 Person addressed 30 Unit of weight 27 manuscript 4n rTTnfnstene 43 5rnrinntIng tnnet.l 45 nllnn 45 • mnornr nt 11,,. FInly nnmvn rmntre 45 cc4nInen.c. nn t 5 ,nuntry in r V Arnbin 5 *orad 57 Ilnrh eve. 54 *Tonic mnnep 59 I nrinnt slave nn r'nrnnr Rr Tinrrinn. nose 07 T,nnhc nslcane* In rnnromnt 8. Ydezlean food 86. Fairy gime CROSSWORD e. Greenlan 86. saroaaile 10....kl o 89. Canadian eklmo proVlnc• (ab.) 1111 Hasard 4,y1i Thwart PUZZLE 14. Pagoda 4k. UnrBYlned ornament metal 2g1. Joke 44. Feminine Energy SS 88.a imal d 55, Within pea 47. Fr river (slang) DOWN (comb tort) 49. Broad - 1. Young salmon 90. eoluded 80. Corrupt 2. Small case place 81. scraggy 87. Dresses $2. Palm leaf e. So. Amer. armadillo 4. Slander 5. Silkworm S. Auricles 7. Double fold in cloth leather 83. Prefix 1$. Dependable meaning 99. Jogginggait wrong' 38. Breathng 54. Guido's satin second note 81, Smelt Fr, 58. Compaee coin point I 2 3 32 16 IB h t t .:sueeletet: 28 29 30 4 S I 7 IS I6 1s 22 23 31 24 9 9 • 10 I 32 25 26 27 33 37 43 3: 39 34 36 44 40 4s 41 42. ,4i�:iN t•-•:� 52 58 61 53 54 46 47 55 29 62. 56 Ansuei elsewhere on this pane WiDE SPOT IN THIS ROAD - No less than 11 railroad cars were pulled by a locomotive across this natural trestle in Kingdom City, Mo. The road bed fell into an abandoned quarry, leaving a hole 100 feet deep, Nobody knew what happened until after the train passed safely over the gap.