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The Seaforth News, 1949-11-17, Page 7Chinese Could Teach CJs Much In spite of war and disturbance,. the Chinese farmer even now pro- duces vast quantities of food which he would be glad to market more widely were it possible. The C4t1• nese earth is rich in food produc- tion, and the Chinese farmer is very skilled in conserving the soil, writes Pearl S, Buck, author of "The Good Earth," and other fam- ous books, in The New York Tithes Magazine. The Chinese are farmers of 40 centuries and there they have much to teach the rest of the world, They need help in scientific seed selection and in disease and insect control, which can easily be given thence The primary need of the Chinese farmer, therefore, is not food, but more markets for the food he has. The abundance of food produc• tion in China is more than the result of necessity. The Chinese are extremely modern in their out look on life, Centuries before Hemingway set the.'fasthion for. naturalism for our young sten and women, the Chinese were natural- istic to their•very ricarrw. Every function of . life was meant to be enjoyed. Therefore, food was much more than a necessity -it became an art, in production, in cookery, in eating—and ail astounding plenty and variety of foods were de. veloped. Those who have wandered over China will remember bhe wonder of the markets even in remote little' Inland towns. Tubers of land and water, . green vegetables infinitely more in number than are eaten or even known by Aanerjcans, melons of every color and texture and flav- or, meats fresh and : dried in a score of ways, proteins we do not inspect from beams and peas made into vegetable cheese and cured or oaten fresh, sea food of every va- riety, river fish of every size and sort, the nuts, the sweets, the fruits —I wonder why we do not have formats, those delicious golden fruits of spring, and why we do not have pumeloes, so much better than grapefruit and greater invariety, find why we do not have the many kinds of persimmons that the Chi- nese have. The big persimmons of the north dried for sweetmeats and dusted —_[ with powdered sugar surpass any figs or dates, though the Chinese honey dates, delicately slit with • needles and then preserved in honey are the finest in the world. No one who has eaten for years in China,north and south and all around, in city and village, can believe that the Chinese are hungry qr that they need food—primarily, that is. Take bread alone—in cons parison to the poor pasty product Which Americans eat for their daily (bread, what joy is to be found in the many varieties of C'hinese•bread -the baked, the browned in deep vegetable oil, the steamed in vast trays set into the huge iron -cal- dron; bread in loaves, bread in cakes, bread delicately filled with bean vermicelli and spinach, bread tilled with flavored pork bits, bread Ailed with dates crushed in red -"xrtgar, No, I flout the idea that the Chi- nese are perntaatently hungry and that their hunger is a world prob- lem. I have breakfasted insouthern villages with , the poor and found delicious the bowls of rice gruel and salted vegetables and fish, or in North China the thin sheet of unsalted bread wrapped about a fresh stalk of garlic. I have eaten a bowl of home-made noodles flav- ored with soy sauce and sesame oil In a poor wayside inn and l have eaten official feasts of many toutsste. and all are delicious and abund- ant. The Chinese not only eat well, they cat heartily, They are heavy feeders, especially those wlio work at physical labor, which is most of the people. - Not food, but roads, are what the Chinese need, roads whereby to square with one another their own. plenty, A network of good motor roads and freight vehicles to use tient, cmubined with a few stain railroad lines and some refrigerator ears, and China's famines would be wiped from the record. He Dives For Sunken Treasure -At left, -Bob Forrest is lowered by his helpers into the Crown Zellerbach log pond at Port Angeles. He's going' down to search for "treasure" in the form of sunken logs. "Treasure?" you say: Darn tootin', Loggers up in the woods' float great "booms" of logs down the river to the swmills. A boom consists of thousands of logs, chanted into a gigantic raft. About 5 per cent of the logs become waterlogged and sink. And at present lumber prices, that ain't' hay. Hence the salvage operation. Pict(tre at right shows Forrest supervising recovery of one of the logs he located below the surface and hooked on to the salvage hoist. LOP TOUGHEST DOGS IN THE WORLD Thirty -odd sledge -dogs are in Bri- tain awaiting the day when before long a whaler takes then( "South" through the blue -and -green pack ice to Queen Maud Land, where they will' spend two years hauling the sledges of the Anglo -Scandinavian Antarctic Expedition Across the other side of the Ant- arctic Continent in Graham Land, huskies at the six ,permanent Bri- tish, exploration and scientific bases there are getting ready for the great sledging journeys of the corning Antarctic summer. So it is at the outposts ntaiittained in the Antarc- le by Australia, South Africa, Chile and the Argentine, for in this ma- chine age the husky is anitidispens- adjunct of polar travel writes Frank Illingworth in "Answers." ' Mountie and Missionary Only the more important Arctic settlements are linked' by aircraft and snow -tractor "trains." The rest, and they number thousands, relp on the husky for winter transport, With the first snow of winter the husky beeantes the key to existence over:an area exceeding ten million square miles. He hauls the Mountie attd the Arctic missionary on their rounds; he carries the trapper along his trapline; and the -explorer into frigid new territories; Ise is used to deliver rations to the housewife in some polar parts, and to carry tine doctor into the wilderness of the tundras when the radio crackles SOS calls. °I'Ite sledge -dog's excitement is boundless when the first snow of winter coats tundra 'and forest and his owner turns the sledge over and glazes the runners with frozen blood (which "slides" better than frozen water). A crescendo of yelps burst from the dog's throat; his eyes sparkle with pleasure; he rears up and brings nighty paws thump- ing -down ort your chest. Slap him under the chin, grab his immense ruffle and slip around his neck a Separated -klub McKinley, 19, and "Hersclte1 e Pride," bis 1190- pouticb-1lercford steer, were close pals when this picture was take it al lite 1',n t1 1,ivestnel< Shona-•. But they ere separated Mow, "I'ferschel's Pride" ivon the grand championship. and 'Bob sold hits t.. l:1I) \,'illitinls, meat 'packer for $1755. Bob will it,e the money Lo gel married, strap that crosses between the fore- legs and attaches at the back to the thong that serves as a trace. The team -is traced either in fan - formation or in line -ahead, or the - dogs are hitched to either side of a trace. The method used depends on the terrain to be crossed—for .ex- ample, the trappers of Canada's forest' areas wouldn't think of us ing the fan -formation! Whatever the method of harness- ing employed, the team is -control- led by word of mouth and with a long whip. Iii a well-trained team every dog answers to his (tante. Sometimes a dog will respond to a shouted order only when you pick up a whip. He does not bear a grudge for chas- tisement that is earned. But beat hint unjustly—and look for trouble. The husky has a long memory. And there itas been at least one instance when the team has sided with a badly handled dog and chased its driver, their eyes on the seat of his seal -skin trousers, The husky has a marked sense of humor, Throw your whip and miss and he turns around and "laughs" in a doggy wayl Ile re- spects the good team - driven and recognizes the inept immediately. The thirty-foot thong has been the cause of ,more laughter, embarrass- ment and anger than any other item of arctic equipment. The smallest Eskimo child can belittle it. But the first efforts of the white man send the Eskimos into paroxysms of laughter. Enjoying the Joke Five minutes after Peary's Negro companionon the former's North Pole Expeditions, the great Matt Henson, had taken up his position behind a sledge the Eskimos Ah- nalka and lkwah were helpless with laughter. For while Matt cracked his whip the dogs sat on their haunches and watched the perform- ance, on their faces an expression of wonderment at the manner in which the big Negro was showering them with show, curling the thong around his legs, and keeping the two Eskimos dodging, The husky, will never let you down, When the Norwegian trapper Kare Rodhal, fell ill in one of the traPpers' huts on the aluttst ones pored east coast of Greenland, he strapped his sleeping bag -full length to his sledge, crawled within its fluffy folds ane left his team of eight dogs to find their way back to his cabin. This entailed a dan- gerous journey through moving see - lee. :But ee-iee.:But sixteen hours after he gave the team -leader the order to 'pull, his sledge came to a halt at his cabin door. Never was there a more loyal or tougher dog than the husky. The average pure-bred husky weighs some seventy or eighty pounds. But' crossed with a wolf he will exceed one hundred pounds, and crossed with a St. Bernard he weighs . anything up to 180 pounds. A team, of six or eight huskies will haul a half -ton load over bro- ken ice almost indefinitely. On Vil- hjalnur Stefansson's famous jour- ney across the frozen Beaufort Sea, in Arctic Canada, six 180- pound huskies hauled a load of half a ton for 70U miles, sometimes covering thirty - utiles a day among the fan- tastic pressure ridges of the Arctic Ocean. That was in 1914, since when there have been scores of similar exhibitions of staying power on the part of huskies. Only a couple of years ago a team of huskies hauled a load of half a ton 1,096 utiles across the blizzard -blitzed wastes of Crahamisud in 96 days. A world speed record so far as exploration goes, the latter accom- plishment is beaten every winter by the Polar Eskimos of Thule. To the Polar Eskimos, journeys of 1,000 miles are "routine" during the hunting season. Only last win- ter one of the Thule lfskintoes set off with his wife on a 1,200 mite sledge journey to visit relatives in Ellesmere Land, across the frozen sea from Greenland, returning last spring to report "good hunting"; pleasant trip. Grim Law of the North Even under normal conditions in the Arctic, the husky's life is -a hard 011e, There have been innumerable oc i nasions where to stave off starvation on a long sledge journey the weak- est members of a team have been shot and fed to their team-mates. When a female husky "pups" in the traces, her trace -urates will snap up the helpless pups and swallow them at a gulp. But sometimes the husky prefers to starve rather than tarn cannibal, and then he is classed among the weaker of a team and killed and fed to the other animals, That is the law of the North. Suffering the pain of snow blind- ness, flanks sunken with hunger, paws lacerated with the rip of sharp ice, the husky is expected to haul until he can hard no farther. And he is prepared to haul to a stand- still. Isis award? A Inutk of neat once a day, or every few days in lean times: a bed in the snow at (tight, even if the temperature drops. to "fifty below"; and the knowledge that he.is the most lot ed creature in the Grea t North, icor he is lolved, both in the Far North and by the British explorers in the Far South. - .0m You probably recall the ancient tale about the small boy, whose mother was trying to coax, into sati'nga new vegetable, "It's lovely, dear,' she said. "It's, something new—it's Broccoli," x * „ The tiny tot tooka wary mouth- ful, outhful, chewed gingerly, then spat it out. "You' can. call .it Broccoli if you like,", quoth lte. "But. I say it's spinach. And I say to (tell with it.,, * Well, there are some folks who profess to admire the starling as a beautiful bird, and who urge its preservation. But practically every body who ever lived .in a place infested with them will. contend, "1 say they're nothing but pests. Annd- 1 say to hell with then." or, words .to that effect. ✓ * i. So it won't carne as welcome news to any of the latter to hear that DDT has been tried for star -- ling extermination — tried and found wanting. lit closely -watched tests last sum- mer DDT powder in strengths of 10, 50 and 100 per cent was dusted on flocks of starlings to determine the results that would probably be obtained if use of the insecticide was attempted in the field. * * *' No ill effect was noted among any of the birds regardless of the strength of DDT or the amount Used. Similar tests repeated with pigeons and English sparrows yielded equally negative results. • * 5, When DDT was applied to house mice in sufficient quantity, some d'r gree of control was obtained, Re- sults were most satisfactory when a finely micronized DDT product was used. rt * * Plans are already being made for a big celebration to take place at Levis, Quebec, in the fall of 1950, It will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Credit Unions. Started in a small way there h, ' Levis, Credit Unions have now spread to every Province in Camel., and to every state in the United States. is * * Canadian credit unions hit it new high during 1948.according to a report to be released shortly he the Dominion Department of Agri- culture, Ottawa, In 1948 there were 2,608 credit unions chartered in Canada with over 850,000 members and total assets of $250 million. During the year. the e e i' !t ' et - which are in reality co-operative savings and lending institutions made loans to member: 285,237. Deposits and shares at the end of the year totalled almost $140,000,000. Quebec is the leading province with 1,078 credit unions, over half. a°million members and assets of $205,000,000. Ontario is next in im- portance with 371 credit unions, 95,000 members and $16,500,000 assets, There exists in every province at least one central credit union where. individual' credit union; and. -co- operatives ntai deposit surplus funds and make loans as needed. There are 21 such centrals in Canada and the combined balance sheet for 18 of these is included in the report and shows' total as>"ts of over - $35,000,000. The Government "hand -nut," from. which I borrowed the above facts, failed to state the name of the in- dividual 'responsible for the Credit Union idea. However, whoever he was, he really started something, and no mistake. Two bandits held up a woniase florist in her shop in Los Angeles. When she told them she was .a poor widow, they handed' her $8 and. departed. Film Cutie—Actress Mary jam Saunders, age 7, clutches tight- ly the $6,000 to $20;000 -a -near movie contract approved for her by a Los Angeles superior court. The child actress star- red with Bob Hope in "Sorrow- ful Jones," the "Little Mists Marker" role that started Shir- ley Temple on the road to film# Prize Poster----11er-bert Matter, photographer, looks at his poster, which won hitt $1000 in a contest sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, The poster, which won first prize, is a photo -montage. Matter used his own son, who recovered from polio, as one of the models JITTER J'trrsft aL FrAi,4t. Moor're suscove --was, a, -LOOie, MS1M • HIS PIAM6r MUsr au JI'rran" tr'g WAs sLa 9 Web 1N HIS. cow," Ha 14 H--IHNN YHg YARD AND HE 8'46 wlar ANO HUNGRY ..o'it(c keep t HIM FOR AWHILir? ...OM ALL rztsHr IF NE STAYS per OF MlsoHlUft : wNit ALL 'NOSE HANpp5 Ht' SHpuLptGAELSTO HLLP SEAT 7NE. NEEf 1 I( 6'ApON- ONE' DY(.INDER—Qom LOAFING! ¥3y Aronitsr rtL'ta6L cr ,11)gi WHAT'RE YOU 'WNW T TAkING A _ - REST CURE.'