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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1948-12-02, Page 7TH UA M FRONT Jokiassea Canadian farmers, should make fuller use,of their grassland areas and realie that many fields, too stoney and rough for regular, crop rotation, can be turned to profitable use by improving their -pasture value. This was the main theme of an address made to a large. audience of f a'r m er s by Professor N. J. Thomas, soil specialist from the Ontario Agicultural College, at a grassland field day held this summer • at Kemptville, Ont. For pastures in a badly rundown' - condition this expert advised loos- ening the top three inches of soil with a disc or spring -toothed har- row, then drilling in fertilizer and seeding with some recommended pasture mixture. And even well- established pastures, he said, can be much improved by Fall' fertiliza- tion with phosphated manure. In most Canadian localities the best results will be obtained if the fertilizeris broadcast before the end of September, as this provides the necessary time for it to be absorb- ed into the soil, so that grasses and clovers will be in a healthy state of growth before the freezeup 'arrives. In addition, a- sufficient supply of plant food is built into the pastures to give theta a good start in the spring and to carry them through- out the grazing season. In this connection it is well to note that rest periods also help pastures. Temporary fences can be used to divide the pasture into severalparts, then each portion can be pastured and rested in turn. This rotation not only produces more grass per acre but aids the health of livestock. For control of sheep parasites pasture changes are an absolute necessity. ,* * * Those of you --• and there are probably- many — who are intend- ing to attend the International Plowing Match to be held in Vic- toria County from October 12 to' 15 had better make note that there has been a slight change in its lo- cation. It was •originally scheduled for the Kaymur Farni, one miles from Lindsay. But the- interest shown has been so tremendous, and the entry list has grown to such a size, that it was •felt there mightn't be sufficient acreage there for all the plowing classes. • So, after a survey of all the avail- able areas, the local committee has selected a new site just four miles west of Lindsay and a mile off Highway Number 7. Farmers in that locality have placed close to 800 acres at the disposal of the proThoters of the match. Headquarters for the match will be on the farm of Jack Co Chambers, where there will b plenty of room for the extensive exhibits of farm machinery and equipment which is always a big feature of these events. The plowing will be done on ad joining farms, so that the setup will be compact. The match will be An officially opened at 2 p.m. on Wed - 4111,, nesclay October 13 by Sir Andrew Jones, head of the British Food Mission to Canada. s Hundreds of speeches have been made, hundreds of articles have been written about the real dangers of soil wastage all ,over the world, and especially on the North Ameri- can continent, where in a few score years unproper farming and forestry methods have caused damage it inay take centuples to repair. But none of them were more eloquent than a recent editorial is the New York ONTARIO BLIND ENJOY PROGRESSIVE SUMMER CAMP Conversational Bicycles -Charlie Randall, Belleville; and Bill Jarvis, Waterford, blind campers rode around the camp guided by sound and instinct The real purpose of the bicycle is to Allow one rifler with sight toaccompany the blind rider. Aquabatic Bobs -Two blind callipers, Bob Storey and Bob La Rose, of Brantford, enjoy themselves on the diving board. Guided by the voice of the swimming, instructor these boys were able to do running dives from this board. Tinges from which -on that chance that some of you may have missed it—I quote, in part, as follows: "Stand on the bank of a river, brook or creek and watch the land's rich, brown blood swept onward to. the sea. Not fn the Northland where the hills are wooded, not where sloping fields and pastures are thick with strong - stemmed grasses. Not where plows turn ribbons of soil on the curve follow- ing the natural contours and where intervening bands of green check the running water. Here earth is thick with humus and stitched solid- ly by trailing roots. "Go to the open areas where great sheets of churned soil stretch upward from the thickened water. Go to the slopes where the furrows run up and down; and provide man- made gullies, where the rain can deepen the furrows, and the humus slowly made during half a million years can be swept quickly, ruth- lessly downward to join the water that takes man's most precious heri- tage to the distant ocean. "Three centuries ago a ten to twelve inch layer of loans lay wait- ing for man to use wisely as he built a new nation. Today it may average six inches. For three hun- dred years the clean cool waters have been muddied as man has torn the soil apart and mined its goodness. A start has been made toward rebuilding the soil, in which our welfare is anchored. But it is only a beginning. From the banks of ten thousand streams one can see the land's rich, brown blood sweep onward to the sea:" ' Surely, after reading that, every man and woman who can possibly do so will join in the fight against an enemy far more deadly, in the long run, than any nation' or coali- tion of nations ever dared to be— the enemy that is slowly but surely stealing our children's and grand- children's bread, butter and meat -- soil erosion and, wastage. My Mistake "What a •lovely coat that cow has!" "Yes, it's a Jersey." "Good heavens, I though it was its skint * SIDE GLANCES By :Galbraith - CO p 1946 EV NEA SERVICE. INO. T. M. REC. e.9. FAT. OFF. 4L "I think the war was responsible for changing our children's 72',U-2,-c—enc, t of the things they say seemto be in some kind of a private codex" Trouble Along the Border Line Between United States and Canada Widely acclaimed as the longest undefended international borderline in the world, the imaginary. line between Canada and the United States is a shining example of 'how two nations can live side by side in mutual harmony. But the absence of any form of military establish- ments at the same timeleaves both countries particularly vulnerable to the operations of smugglers. Control of the situation in Canada is a responsibility of the branch of the ,Royal Canadian Mounted Police known as the Preventive Service. Generally speaking the work falls into two classes . — catching and bringing to justice those who vio- late the laws, and maintaining along the border a vigilance that will be a - strong deterrent to smugglers, writes Cpl. F. Dobbs in the Royal • Canadian Mounted Police Quarter - 13' The Line House The greatest single challenge to the ingenuity of the Preventive Ser- vice is the line house—any building that straddles the border. Many farms and much property lie partly in Canada and partly in the United States. The international line even bisects some towns, so that half the population is American and the other half .Canadian. There is for example Rock Island, Que., and Derby Line, Vt., which in real- ity are a single community. Even some of the buildings in these two towns are directly athwart the im- aginary line, with the result that in some instances members 'of a family living its the same dwelling sleep in diffrent countries while in other instances they sleep in Canada and eat their meals in the United States or vice versa..: Not all line houses are the fruits of chance construction either, and the Preventive Service is not amus- ed at the trouble they cause. Too • many of then are in lonely out-of- the-way places, and some have proved popular rendezvous for smugglers. Stratagem Failed Once When built some 50 years ago one of them was a general store and. wholly on the New York side of the boundary though hugging it, but with the advent of prohibition its enterprising proprietor recog- nized the value of its strategic loca- tion and extended its north wall some 40 feet into Quebec. He stocked the Canadian part of his establishment with beer and liquor which Ile sold to American boot- leggers at a nice profit, and as an added convenience to his customers annexed garage -accommodation to the main building where cars were loaded and remained in hiding on the Canadian side until scouts re- portedthe coast clear. In some line houses the bar was built right, on the line and the thirsty American clientele drank Canadian litjuor without leaving their country. Though this was in direct violation or Quebec liquor laws it was almost impossible to put a stop to it, for things were so arranged that if the police did come the stock could be quickly switched to the American side. This strata- gem failed only occasionally—when Canadian police`2nd United States customs officials raided the place simultaneously. Smuggling of Aliens The repeal of prohibition saw the beginning of the end of this trade, but the line houses were put to other uses, For a time the sinuggl- ing of aliens into the United States from Canada was a flourishing busi- ness. Some candidates for export were ready to pay as high as $1,000 to be taken into the States without benefit of immigration inspection. Practically every nationality in the world was involved, but by far the most numerous and best paying were the Chinese who had compara- tively easy access. to Canadian teri- tory but were forbidden entry into the States. Early in World War II, before the United States entered the hostilities, deserters' from foreign ships in Canadian ports paid enor- mous sums to get across the border and many of theme were concealed in line houses until the time was propitious for shuttling them over. Of late most of the smuggling has been the other wuy round, About a year ago, for example, a routine police inspection of a border house which from outward appear- ances has been deserted for several years resulted in the finding of a quantity of discarded 'American cigarette boxes and radio cartons in the attic on the Canadian side. Sub- sequent investigations showed that. the merchandise had been bought by a member of a well-known smug- gling ring with headquarters in Montreal. Late in August of 441 months of patient surveillance were reward- ed by a tip-off that a large shipment of cigarettes from Malone had been stored in the House. The police conducted a search, gaining entry by forcing a window. There was not a stick of furniture nor any sign of habitation, but in a clothes closet they found 500 car- tons of cigarettes and a case of cig- arette papers. There was no frame- diate way of telling whether these things were in Canada or in the United States, though it was certain that they were very close .to the international line that ran through the room. The owner of the house and his companion denied knowing any thing about theist so the cigar- ettes and papers were seized. Before court proceedings were in- stituted it was necessary to estab- lish by official survey the exact loca- tion of the line as laid down by the Ashburton Treaty, 1842, This was done and it proved that the merch- andise was 22 inches within United States territory at the time of seiz- ure. On learning this the owner of the house blandly entered a claim and the exhibits were turned over to him, • Another famed line house on the Quebec -New York border is the International Hotel at Dundee, Que., which used to embody a store featuring Canadian and United States goods on the opposite sides. The present proprietor operates a dance hall and is licensed to sell beer and wine in Quebec, When the 25 percent special excise tax was imposed on night clubs and grills during the war he narked off the dance floor exactly where the border divides it, then placed the tables on the north side where pat- rons could sit and sip Canadian drinks. To dance one merely had to step over the narrow white line into the United States, and the man- agement contended that the Canad- ian Government legally could not collect taxes on dancing facilities that were beyond its jurisdiction. For a while the establishment op- erated tax free, but there were. a great many conflicting opinions as to its right to do so. Eventually the issue was settled by a special rul- ing from. the Department of Nation- al Revenue which. decreed that pat- rons must pay. - Early in 1046 most border -detach- ment personnel were faced with a new question. Great disparity had developed in the price of grain on the United States market and in Canada, a ton of dairy feed worth $50 in Canada selling for twice that amount across the line. To make things worse there was a serious shortage of feed grain south of the border, and before long huge quan- tities of Canaidan grain began to flow in that direction in contraven- tion of our export laws. The situation confronted the pol- ice with a real poser, for no breach of the regulations could be proved until exportation had been consum- mated, yet by then it was too late to do anything about it. The favor- ite modus operandi was simplicity itself—a Canadian truck load would be backed up to the rear of an empty American truck just touch- ing the line and the load would change hands. Neither vehicle left its own country, therefore, techni- cally, no offence was committed; moreover, the U.S. rate of duty on grain being very low, all the buyer had to do to stay strictly within the law was to drive his purchase to the nearest customs house and declare it. Most of these transactions took place on secluded roads or private farms, and usually the police were powerless to take action unless they happened along and caught the participants in the act of transferr- ing a load. In such instances the Can- adian truck and whatever grain re- mained in it were declared forfeit, but the American was rarely action- able. On the whole the risks were small and depended solely on how long it took to drive to the border and unload. If the job were speeded up by the use of dump trucks, as it sometimes was, the culprits merely backed -up to the line and within seconds the load was piled on the ground out of danger. Despite the obstacles, dozens of trucks and thousands of tons of grain have been confiscated since the trade began to reach serious proportions. But, like every other offence, so long as there are laws to forbid it attempted smuggling will continue and measures will be necessary to combat it. This latter is an important fact for the public to bear in mind for after all they pay the shot. Your Back Aches Because You Shrrnk Most backaches are caused by '. forces, which make a person a half to three-quarters of an inch shorter at day's end than he is in the morn- ing, two University of California. medical researchers report. The main source of trouble is the telescoping effect of body weight and - motion on the shock absorbers in the spine. The spinal shock absorbers are the layers of cartilage between the vertebrae. Doctors call these layers inter -vertebral discs. Each layer has three parts—an outer capsule, a soft centre which' is s0 per cent water, and a set of fi'rtn,elastic fibers called ligaments. which bind the disc to the bone. The real shock absorber was found to be the ligaments. Normal presure on an intervene bral disc in the lower back amounts to about 80 pounds even when a person is -lying down, the research- ers repotted. When upright and active the weight and motions of the body can increase this pressure to "astounding .figures." This pressure squeezes some of the water out of the soft cores. The compression shortens the spine. A European researcher found this compression shortened adult men as much as three-quarters of an inch and women as much as a hall an inch after a day of activity. Under high pressure the ligament springs may begin to squeak. Weak- ened by fatigue, they cannot snap back. Their tissues may bulge here and there. The result is pain. Or they may be worn due to age; may lack resilience and become paintul because they are no longer equal to the load put upon them. They are highly sensitive to pain, the re- searchers say. The experimenters reported that doctors should look often at the discs for the cause of back pain. Catgut is the name given to the cord made from the intestines of the sheep, .ox, horse, mule, and ass —but never from those of the cat. For Safety's Sake Don't be a weaver. Stay hs line, changing lanes only when necessary to pass or turn. Don't pass unless way is clear. Contrasting heads of rye were picked from neighboring quarter- sections on a Manitoba farm near \Vinkler, south of Winnipeg, on the same day. The fields were sown simultaneously from the sante stock of seed. Smaller head grew on one which had been continuously cropped in normal crop rotation. The other grew on field allowed to lie fallow for a summer.