HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-08-02, Page 7"r t Wa$ The Fir$t
xo Go Onto Orbit
Recent satteWs In Space
Flight, coupled with my great
respect tor ttistorieul acetu'aey,
lead me to break silent and
state that tho first a-trcm:tut was
Pat Sawyer. 1 was basketed man
in this, and Pat made a triple
passage and took toad white in a
weightless condition itis ru.entt;v
attitude way magnificent.
• Although Pat and 1 have been
close for years, only mica before
have I intruded his wonderful
adventures to this audience --
that was years ago when we
• lined a colony of wild bees, and
In the excitement that prevailed
when the bees ganged up on us
we came back to the house wear-
ing each other's pates. But now
that penetration of the Oilier
Beyond is almost everyday, I
feel his orbit should be put ue
record.
This was in 1933. The dol-
drums had hit, and a great
Stringency prevailed. Anybody
who had any money was hanging
on to it, and it looked as if the
customary vacation we took with
the Sawyers would have to be
foregone, But our two ladies
contrived somehow to save up
exactly $32. aed with this be-
twixt us we decided to take a
motor- trip until we had spent
half of it and then cone home,
We went up into Quebec, Can-
ada aboard a "coop," which
meant Pat and I sat in the front
net and the two wives enjoyed
the "rumble." It didn't rain dur-
ing the whole trip, We had
lunches for several clays packed,
and avoided anything which cost
money. In retrospect, it was
really a fine time, but in 1933 it
seemed like a penurious outing.
Well, somewhere up there we
rounded a hilltop curve in a dirt
road, and came upon a scene so
handsome we stopped to admire
jt. There was a well -populated
farmyard there, and we talked
with the children and then with
their parents, and our short stop
lengthened into quite a visit.
They brought out some almost -
black slabs of maple sugar, and
we had some thick slices of
home -baked bread slathered with .
farm -fresh sweet butter, and the
learned the names of all the chil-
dren. And we asked them the na-
ture of an odd-looking device
just across the road, which they
•told us was a "roulotte," or
wheel, We tried in our faltering
French to learn what it was for,
supposing it had some farm pur-
pose, and discovered it was a
plaything, It was a home-made
ferric -wheel, built by papa for
the amusement of his brood, and
the children pulled us by the
hands to show us how it worked.
It was cunningly contrived.
Made of peeled spruce poles, it
was perfectly balanced so it
turned at the top of two 20 -foot
tripods, making the tap of the
wheel at least 40 feet off the
ground. This is something of a
height by itself, bat the land-
scape spread downward into the
valley so an illusion of more was
created. I've never seen a home-
made plaything like this any-
where else, The children clamb-
ered aboard until eight of them
occupied the little seats, and then
the other children vent to work
as a motor and began turning the
thing. Here, miles :ram any or-
ganized activity, the farmer had
Upeidednwr It Prevent Peeking
BIG IDEA -- Sam Alterman, 6,
left, and cowpoke buddy Doug
Mobley, 5, thought that they
would go for a ride. Alas,
however, they found that their
steecl was but a baby burrow
and that the saddle did not yet
fit
not only provided a unique and
exciting
pastime for his children,
but had provided children
enough to make it operative.
Around and around they went,
shouting and laughing, and then
they stopped the wheel and told
the I was to get on.
One of the children hopped off
and I took his place, Then they
ran me up to the top positisa
and told Pat to take the bottom
one. You could see that the chil-
dren realized the necessity of
balance, indicating that certain
physical laws had been inculca-
ted by this plaything. It was an
instructional toy. Pat sat down
and they gave us a fine ride -
up and down, up and down, with
the spruce poles creaking and
the bearings whinning in the
lack of lubrieant.
But when it came to dismount-
ing there was an over -shot, Fat
was holding a bread-and-butter
sandwich, chewing from it as he
rotated, singing an an old cou-
reur-de-bois song in rhythm, and
suddenly all the children were
off i.he wheel, I was stepping out
of the downward seat, and he
was all alone, by himself, solo,
in the topmost seat. At this time
things went out of control. Pat
thrust his bread into his mouth
and grabbed on with both hands,
and through the delicate texture
of the staff of life he emitted a
muted and circular wail which
was' easily visible all over Can-
ada. He came down like a shot,
went up like a blast, and made
three complete orbits before his
momentum played out. • After
that he began to run down like a
pendulum, up and down, up and
down, up and down, during
which he continued a curtain
discourse which unfortunately
was not taped by tracking sta-
tions and hence is lost as a his-
torical document. We did try to
stop the thing, but the law of
inertia is such that grabbing
sleek spruce poles as they rush
by is not as easy as Pat seemed
to think,
A pick-up was finally made,
however, but scientific data was
not significant for the reason
that Pat hardly spoke to me
egr.in until late in 1937, and it
was the early '40's before he was
really civil. • I have noticed that
whenever the word "vacation" is
mentioned in his presence -or
"bread-and-butter" and the word
"coop," and Quebec, and such-
like -that Pat kind of evinces,
closes his eyes tight, and grabs
the arms of his chair. Ile was,
of course, our first astronaut and
away ahead of his time. - by
John Gould in the Christian
Science Monitor,
DRIVE WITH CARE!
RARE OPPORTUNITY -Mon at left takes a rare oppor-
tunity to kibitz on one of Cuba's leaders - Ernesto "Che"
Guevara, Cuba's industry minister -playing in o 10 -game
tourney. against Argentine Grand Muster Miguel Najdorf,
Way Out Treat
For Black Bear
.Chu 1)ouglt5 Fir, ante of the
great timber trees of the world
and Canada's largest, is not only
unsurpassed as a source cif
structural lumber but is also a
source of a rare form of edible
sugar.
Known as Melezilose -- this
sugar has been found only on
a few plants in the world: same
shrubs in Turkestan and Persia
have been known to produce it
and,, about 40 year's ago, it was
discovered an same Jack pines
in Pennsylvania. Comparatively
few Douglas Firs produce mele-
zitose and these are generally
found among large stands in a
dry belt in British Columbia.
The quantities of melezitose
produced by the Douglas Fir
are relatively large, compared
to the other sources. Native In-
dians of British Columbia knew
about this sugar and gathered it,
perhaps from quite early times.
Their knowledge of it likely
came from observing the activi-
ties of "old sweet tooth," the
black bear that climbs fir trees
and knocks down branches bear-
ing melezitose. Possibly because
the supplies were not abundant,
black bear and the Indians kept
knowledge of it to themselves.
How the early explorers, mIs-
siamort s, and later surveyorse3ors
came to miss noting this pheno-
menon, one so unusual in nature,
is strange, Yet, apparently they
did, as I have been unable to
find any mention of it in early
chronicles of the province; and
certainly, had it been known,
they would surely have written
of it, by reason of its very odd-
ness,
The sugar forms on the fir
branches in irregular masses
from a quarter of an inch to
two inches in diameter, and also
in white flakes. The sugar is
white, just like the refined arti-
cle of commerce, and is very
sweet to the taste.
Investigation in the dry belt
has shown that the trees grow-
ing an northern and eastern
slopes are the chief bearers of
sugar. Trees on the other expo-
sure do not generally yield Nor
do trees in heavy dense forests
of the coastal regions. It has
been conjectured that the pro-
duction of sugar by the fir
trees is stimulated by the atmos-
pheric conditions in this region
of British Columbia. Trees ex-
posed to a good supply of sun-
light gather carbohydrates on,
their leaves, Ordinarily these are
taken into the plant at night to
supply tissues and storage cells.
In the dry -belt, however, an ab-
normal amount of carbohydrates
accumulates on the firs. At the
same time the soil, warmed by
the sun, increases the root acti-
vity so that it continues into the
night. In this region, the nights
are hot, dry and short. As a re-
sult of the increased root acti-
vity the root pressure increases
immensely. This and the cessa-
tion of transpiration cause the
leaves to become gorged' with
water. This water, heavily satur-
ated with sugar, is forced to
exude from leaf tips into the hot
dry night, where it rapidly eva-
porates leaving deposits of su-
gar. These deposits sometimes
fall on the branches below to
form large masses.
Because i t s formation so
largely depends on certain at-
mospheric conditions, the sugar
is not a crop that can be relied
on. However, it may be produc-
ed in other ways, as teas shown
in the strange case of the dead
honey bees, occurring in Penn-
sylvania around 1919. A bee-
keeper lost a number of his
hives when the bees died for
no apparent reason. However,,
when samples of the comb
honey were analysed they were
found to have been made almost
entirely of crystallized melezi-
tose, which is unsuitable as bee
food. This proved to be no In-
novation on the part of the
Pennsylvania bees, references
in the literature on bees, includ-
ing one written in ancient times,
mention the habit which bees
have of gathering manna from
trees during droughts, because
floral nectar is not then abun-
dant, A search was made for
the source of melezitcse in Penn-
sylvania and it was found to be
the jack pine. In this case the
formation of the manna on the
tree was believed to have been
caused by en attack by inserts.
Analysis made at both the
chemistry laboratories at Otta-
wa, Ontario, and Washington,
D.C,, show the sugar to have a
high degre of constancy of com-
position. Although its supply 'is
too email and uncertain to melte
it likely to be competitive with
sugar cane or sugar beets, the
fact that it yields a pure rare
triaaecharide may make it valu-
able in chemistry and in the
mixing of medicines.
Prejudice is a gr ea t time-
saver, It enables o n e to form
opinions without bothering to
get the facts
techs 28 1962
GENTLE AS A LAMB - Tender care is given these young
tombs by a tiny fellow at Graff Reinet, South Africa, South
Africa is the third largest producer of wool in the world.
FARM 1'RONT
Joktuiszeit
What follows are excerpts
from an article entitled "Death
on the Farm - the Crop that
Never fails" by Thelma Dick-
man which appeared in the lat-
est issue of the Imperial 011
Review, Probably you have
read or heard most of it before
-but I pass it along because
the care you took yesterday
won't protect you from the care-
lessness of today or tomorrow!
* * *
The morning Sven Johnsen
swung his four-year-old son up
behind him for a ride on the
tractor "as a treat," it was rain-
ing. The tractor wheels sucked
and slithered in the sticky soil
and Mrs. Johnsen had a moment
of misgiving as the machine
moved off into the mist beyond
the farmhouse. But, the weather
had kept the family indoors for
over a week - they were all
bored and restless, and some
fresh air would give her son a
good appetite for lunch.
• The little boy never ate the
lunch his mother prepared.
The tractor tipped on a spongy
piece of ground, the boy was
thrown off and a wheel crushed
his skull.
Neighbours sympathized with
the Johnsens - everyone felt
the tragedy keenly - and yet,
not two weeks later, A SECOND
CHILD DIED eN MUCH THE
SAME WAY, not hale a mile
from the Johnsen's farm.
* ', *
As these families now realize
(but as many farm families do
not), farming is one of the most
dangerous occupations in Cana-
da. In Ontario alone in 1960,
there were over 7,800 farm ac-
cidents, with medical bills total-
ing $701,000, property damage
amounting to $5,253,199 - and
112,493 working days were lost.
Farmers get hurt everywhere
and anywhere. They injure and
kill themselves in fields, barns,
garages, houses a n d highways.
Harry L. Powell, U.S. chairman
for the National Conference for
Farm Safety, estimates that ac-
cidents kill one U.S. farm resi-
dent every 45 minutes, and
every 32 seconds a farm real -
dent has a disabling injury. In
Canada, a recent national sur-
vey indicates that one in every
fourth farm family will be in-
volved in an accident this year.
Unlike industrial work e r s,
protected by Workmen's C o m -
pensation Boards, sickness and
accident insurance and union
benefit plans, farmers usually
have only ono Perm of insurance
to rely on -their own continu-
ing geed health Even a relative-
ly insignificant accident can
mean a loss t0 their income:
Take the case of a leg injury,
with medical bills totaling $180
Like the war that was lost for
want of s horseshoe nail, this
farmer's field work was late, his
feed poor, cattle production tell
off and his gross income drop-
ped from $18,000 to $6,700 to one
year because of one minor in-
jury.
Workmen's Compensation is,
of course, available to farmers
as well as industrial workers,
but the Act doesn't make it easy
for them to participate For one
thing, a farmer can only apply
for, coverage if he employs a
full or part-time employee. or
has a son who does the same
amount of work as an employee
However, the biggest sturnbl•
ing block is cast, Workmen's
Compensation Board premiums
(based entirely on the accident
rate in each industry) in 1944,
for farmens, was 750 per $100
of payroll - in 1961 the cost
had soared to $4.50 per $100 of
payroll.
That's one reason why, with
over 250,000 people in agricul-
ture in Ontario, only 1,200 have
applied for coverage. The Board,
in fixing this high rate of pre-
miums, admits that farming is
regarded as a more dangerous
occupation than some forms 02
mining,
* *
One reason farms are three
times as dangerous as the aver-
age factory is because there's
no way of supervising the way
a farmer works. Factory super-
visors keep a cold and steady
eye on workers, and insist that
they follow safety procedures.
Who's to caution a farmer
when he throws a pitchfork,
prongs first, through a barn
door (a boy was killed that way
not long ago)? Who's to stop
him when he tries to clear a
forage harvester plugged with
corn, while the motor is still
running (the father of four chil-
dren had his right arm sheared
off above the elbow when the
machine cleared itself and start-
ed up again)? The farm fatality
rate from ages eight to 80 is
equivalent to a death every two
weeks in a mine employing 21,-
000 workers, Any mine with
such a death rate would have
inspectors swarming around like
yellow jackets on a rotten ap-
ple - but how can inspections
be made across Canada's far-
flung rural population, and
what individualistic f arm e r
would stand for government in-
spection? Christian Smith, direc-
tor of health education for Sas-
katchewan, says, "The only way
to check the hideous harvest 02
death and injury among our
farm residents is with a com-
prehensive program of educa-
tion, understanding and 'legisla-
tion." * * x:
ED'S. NOTE: 1 consider this
article of such importance that
the balance will appear in 'fu-
ture columns.
(Ft UNDAY SCI1001
LESSON
By itev. ll,. B. Warren, B,A... B4O,
Jeremiah Discourages False
Patriotism
Jeremiah 27: 1 - 11; 37: 11 -
38: 1 -6
eleinory Scripture: Render
therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar's; and unto
God the things that are God's,
Matthew 22:21.
For three hundred years As-
syria was the dominant world
power. In 625 B.C, the Chal-
deans threw off the yoke of As-
syria and 18 years later de-
stroyed Nineveh, the Assyrian
capital, Now the only challen-
ger to Chaldean supremacy was
Egypt. King Josiah took the side
of Egypt and lost his life. His
successors were puppets of the
Babylonians. Some of the people
of Judah were taken captive 10
Babylon,
Jeremiah told King Zedekiah
that complete domination by the
Babylonians was in e v it a b l e.
Other prophets were crying,
"Peace." They accused Jeremiah
of lying, When Hananiah, one
of these, treated Jeremiah with
great contempt, Jeremiah pre-
dicted his death within a year.
He died in two months.
Later, as recorded in chapter
37, Jeremiah, going out of the
it'to a business,
city attend to some ss,
was accused of attempting to
'desert to the Babylonians. He
was arrested and thrown into
prison.
In chapter 38 we see how Jere-
miah was charged with betray-
al. Ile advised against defending
the city. For this, he, an ardent
patriot, suffered as a traitor in
the mire of the dungeon.
Jeremiah saw that God's cup
of wrath was full. Judah must
receive the punishment which
she had brought upon herself.
Jeremiah also saw beyond the
punishment, He saw the triumph
and return the re-estabbsh-
ment of a cleansed nation. His-
tory has proved that he was
right.
There were many who were
willing to tell the king what he
wanted to hear. When the crisis
was on, the king sent his mes-
senger to Jeremiah saying, "Pray
now unto the Lord our God for
us." The lonely prophet who
was opposed on every side was
really respected by those who
opposed him. God's messenger
must be faithful to the truth. no
matter who is displeased. God
will vindicate his servant.
CAUTIOUS QUAIL -The sea'
son on game birds is a long
way off in Independence, Kan.,
but this quail is taking ne
chances of getting blown iota
eternity out of season.
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
10. Color 33. Not far
11. high 03. Feminine
18. Feel one'„ name
way 36. Talce up
16. Scarce again
°0 Egypt. ',kink 39. lnterprete
3. Coit of weight 21 Bobbin 40. Dull finish
4. Harpoon 23• Inclination 41. Rendered tat
downward 42. Slilcworm
6. Rusatan sea 24. Cultured 44 Ireland
6. Disturb woman 46. Pout] fish
7, Danre step 26. Let it stand 47. Cuttlefish.
3. ih. cap 23. County In fluid
9. w 43. Recline
mRunaarriageay Nebraska
29, Be undecided 49. Secret agent
At'RnSs
1. Seed
4 Coarse
hominy
3 omoked
12 Trouble
13 tiaiayan
oaere
14 -i .amh's
pseudonym
16 Ilnrdens
17 blind of
biscuit
13. IlesniratorY
sound
19 Drive away
20 Zeal
23 Kind 01 ruck
25 Profound
26. Chief actor
27 Swab
30 Proper
32 Cannel
24 Entirely
30 Weird
37 Soon
35.. Angry
40. Elurtled
41. Bar for
43 Aurin g
45. Dry
46 Chu, tens
50 ceremony
51 I lave out
62 Pinch
63 Periods of
time
64, Snnd hill
55 Solution
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