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The Seaforth News, 1932-12-29, Page 3TFLUtRISDIAY,:D:L+�'CEIt4-BER ¢9, i912 �1�'i71QY9 THE SEAFORTH NEWS. PAGE T&EEE, THE TATTLE CLAY BELT. (Wlhen the first hardly -adventurers ru'ckeinito,t'he bwslh beyondNbrth.Bay and 'discovered siilver, 'nfr„l el, and `co- balt, 'they paved, t'he (way for farmers who saw a 'broad expanse of country rich not noly In mineral wealth but capable of previding ,wonderful c'rops. ,For years there. Was—little :thought b'f' anything but minerals. Trees were cut down and •brush cleared solely for the purpose of drilling over a wider area for precious, metal's, But miners. needed food and s few 'tealinsters acid 1.ovensof the soil eventually took up, some of. this;partially 'cleared land and "organized farming in [Northern On- tario ; was well under way. Jumping the barrier of the 'Temagami Fore's't Reserve and circling around by the 'Olttawa''River pioneer 'farmers soon .found that the ap']ate'au-like stretches of . country which stretched westward and northward from Lake Temiska'm- ing was the blest of clay land. Soon :Many ,snnall communities sprang up ion the 'fringes .of mining settlement, and the running of +the 'Temtiscam'ing and. Northern Ontario Ry. through to Cochrane did the rest. ,All this tock place between 'tweny. and thirty years ago and many men had built substantial homes and were cultivating fanms which 'would often vie in production with many of their fe'll'ow workers in older Ontario. 'But 492i3 saw the terrible scourge of forest' fire which swept through almost the whole of what is now 'known as On- tario's Little Clay IBielt, destroying everything that lay in its path and causing considerable human suffering and death. For a great many this disaster spelt ruin, but a :few hardy sons of the north bravely started all over again. Today the traveller from distant parts touring through New •,1"--41P"' (Liskeard and on up to Cochrane in the heart .of the mineral country is 'forced to admit that a ,settled farming community has developed in which the sight of an occasional mine shaft and refinery adds variety to spreading fields 'ef pasture and ,grain, intersper- sed with the inevitable scrub brush, An encouragement in the . recon- struction period which followed the fire the'Ontario Government purchas- ed 320 acres of land on the outskirts of New Liskeard, at that time a young and very ,struggling hamlet on the shbrss of Lake ITemiscanring. In two yearstime a presentable D'emonstra- tion Farm had been made' of the land and much of the farm had been stum- ped and fenced. lln 19'2!5 W. G. Nix- igon, who ,had been Agricultural (Rep- resentative in that area, ,w'as .placed fo charge and commenced carrying out experimental work in an organi- zed way. 'For some time the only stock on the 'farm consisted of three teams of horses but as soon as a 100 - foot barn with 'stone basement, called a "bank barn" in Ontario was,+finished a herd of Holstein's were purchased and a herd of 'Deal -,Purpose Short- horns and a +flock of Shropshire sheep and some Yorkshire swine, togelther with IBerred !Rock chickens soon com- pleted the picture. Keeping al'Ways 'before him the need for 'de'mon's'trat- un!g to the 'farmeris of .that northern district, that, although they have fniob- Setts peculiar to that country of short growing season' and Mud both early and .late, Mr. Nixon urges always, the use of quality seed, good live stock, and early planting. In carrying out 'these ideas the New ;Liskeard f'ar'm has distributed many young pure bred bulls, assisted in the ,provincial sheep club policy through the placing of good rams, and ,clearly demonstrated the value of Dawson's Golden Chaff Winter w'hea't, Reward spring wheat, :Alaska and 0.A. C. No. '3 oats,' and Chancellor peas as the most profitable grain ,crap's for that country. Ontario's Little! Clay Belt has, prob- lems 'distinctly its 'own, and for that reason experiments of a fairly wide variety have been carried out up till aast year •whengovernmental economy measures caused a tem'p'orary ce:ssa- tion. ; For instance experiments at the Farm have shown fairly conclusively that over a period of years winter w. 'he et will .gave greater yields of belt ter quality grain than spring on the heavy clay of that area, and it is ride ommended in preference to spring wheat as a live stock feed crop. lAs hkvs been proven fairly widely throughout 'Elashern. Canada, the dist- rict ist rict under ,discussion can produce • line croppsof red clover: This ,'odd i as 'been a life-saver to;many standby h in years farmer, .pla7ti'eula'rly y t„, pioneer Shen other crops were poor, At New w -i else ',fJis'keard red ,clover is °a three p,iur P crop. In a' good average year hay, Wishes verybody A Happy Let us open the door of the new year daringly 14) oi and expectantly, tai for the world is yet young and the God of Good ctii Will has only be un to make 04'Y Ili known to us lei is Treasures fittt 41) tat Ro ew activities, and M this work horse's are indispensable. As, a result` the casual tourist passing along almost any of the main roads is impressed by the large number of horses every- where. 'Any epidemic of ,disease which gets a foothold arming the hrorse's in such a country is liable to he serious. Already. there have been indications that horses are subject to more than one malady in the Clay Belt. For some three years now occasional cases of enl'arge'd' liver , •whe'rc in- stead ,of weighing 15 ,pound's when the animal was opened up, some liv- ers have been found which weighed up 'to 60 pounds. It is saus'piected, that the luxuriant :growth Of clover pas- tures which is the onion horse ration has something to de with this con- dition.. lIt is institutions such as the New Liskeard farm which are proving of ine;stina'able value to the farmers- •of their district bath in demonstrating the p'ossibil'ities of standard crops in the North and by experiment in lead- ing the way into better farm prac- tice. Li 4' TWO MUST DIE FOR KILLPNG dOUTH Two farmers in their late 50's, long residents o'f the L'(Ori'gnal rural com- munity, heard themselves sentenced to death after a jury had convicted them o'f murdering a youth for his life insurance. They 'were Witham J. ,Laradque and Emmanuel Lavictoire, the former beneficiary under a $10,- 000 insurance policy on the life of Leo Bergeron, 2'7 -year old farm Laborer. Bergeron was killed on Larocque's farm on the morning of March 188th last, and the two convicted men were the only witnesses. They were sentenced by Mr. Justice (Patrick Kerwin to be hanged on Mar,. 15th next. Phe declaration of the two that Bergeron was trampled to death when he led a team of horses into the stable on Larocque's farm, stou'tly maintained from the morning of the tragedy until the conclusion of .their trial, failed to impress the jury, The trial was featured by evidence of another death that of Ath•anase iLamardhe, in October, 1430, when the two accused were the only witnesses. Lamarche was also heavily insured, and large payments were subsequent- ly made by his father to the two far- mers. A few days after the death of Ber- geron, which was at first described as an accident, .provincial police' started an investigation. . The found blood- stains on the walls and other places in ehe ;Laro'oque farm, and a blood- stained pitohifork. Evidence at the inquest, given by the accused couple, was that the horses were drawing a heavy thresh- ing machine and that Bergeron was.. leading them. They claimedthat when • the youth fell beneath the feet of the 'horses, which, they said, had been alarmed by having the threshing ma- chine roll against them, they were prevented from reaching him by the machine blocking the door, B'ergon died on the floor of the stable before' ;medical help reached him,' He was in- jured in several places, but it was stated that a.crushed skull was the actual cause of death, Evidence in- dicated that Laro;cque had had been noting as a su,biagenit in securing the insurance on Bergeron's life, and that he had paid. Most of the 'pre'miums. ]B'engeron was refused in'sur'ance by one company because of mental de- ficiency. seed or si'l'age may be made from this crop.' IIn the latter instanola the first season's growth is o'uaed for ensiling or a mixture of oats and red clover does well in wet seasons, which, for- tunately, come ,fairly ,often. 'Sown ,for hay the mixture used is usu'a'lly Abs. of timothy, 5 of red clover, 2 of alsike, and one of alfalfa, and an average o'f. from 'P,A to 2 tons per acre is 'usual. ,But ,no matter how wet 'the season the North can usually count on a good Drop of hay. 'Keep'ing ,up -Ito -da't'e in all things some experimental 'worle has been done with fertilizers. Taking the average Over a few years ahem - jog fertilizers have shown 'Tittle ap- preciable results with farm grain 'crops, due .Mostly to ,excessive rains :bitting the crops at .odd Itinuels. But with turnips and 'potatoes; ,fertilized areas yielded much more heavily than those wi'thou't, the 'former giving par- ticularly good results. Mr. 'Nixon has at all times stressed the need for as complete a system as possible of ,surlface drains. The Li'tt'le Clay :Belt has so many plateau areas which tend to hold the rain, that it is folly to hope :that surplus water will dissipate without 'practical ia'ssi,s- mance. an older Ontario some farnvers object to water furrows 'because they sometimes 'hinder the proper use ,of farm m'ac'hinery 'bu't in Northern ,On- tario the lack of surface drainage may mean the difference 'between a crop and no 'crop at all. iAdvenituring in new and almost ,un- tried fields of agricultural endeavor the New ,Liskeard Harm ;has proven that small fruits end some •orchard crops can be .grown satisfactorily in INio•nthern Ontario, 'The Senator Dun- lop strawberry and the, Herbert rasp- berry Ihave ,given .splendid resulits, while gooseberries and 'currants of all kinds have been found quite hardy and prolific. So 'far none of the stand- ard varieties 'of fall and winter apples have proven suitable for the North but harvest applies have been 'grown successfully in the town of New Lisk- eard and 'Russian and cea'bapples have shd'wn 'ind'ication's of ,future produc- tion. gin addition to Chancellor peas which have given excellent results as a field ,crop, or even for the ±canning factory which has operated success- fully for some years, all the well- known varieities of garden vegetables can be •successfully grown to harvest in an a'ver'age year. The [canning ' fac- tory 'cans peas and lIueberries which grlow'wiid os' much of the enough land .adjacent to Lake 'Teanisuaming, .and ,bo'th these prod'ucts'have a ,high repu- tation among the retail stores of the • Weekly Crop Report Peel County reports that owing to the low pork and 'beef prices, farmers are killing their own meat supplies, in fa'ot'dressed hogs are being sold by North. 'farmer to householders both in Tor- nto and 'Brampton. Farmers are also burning more of their own wood than ever before and woodlots are be- ing cleaned up and all mature trees taken o'ut. Wentworth County reports that in spite of the lowest hog prices in history, farmers are paying more attention than ever to quality. During October, 40 per cent of the ho'gs m'a'rketed through Wentworth' pack- ing plants graded Select E'acon and e4` per cent bacon. ' In discussing the sheep and swine business in •Northern 'Ontario .Mr. Ni- xon mentioned that, although most of the land there is what might be called 5'new" yet fntennal parasites of these animal's had made their ap- pearance ,and had 'to he guarded against. Onefeature of the pig busi- ness which was proving of real bene- fit to settlers 'in that north country I was the fact that pigs are a great help in clearing up slash Wand, after the :larger trees had been removed. !Pigs in a field of new stumps, after one or two winters' frosts, will root out 'roost o'f the smaller root and soon snake the land .!fit for -the plo'u'gh. As might he expected in a .country Which is .still heavily (wooded,, lumber- ing, especially that wfiich has to do with nutting o'ut ,pulpwood, still plays a large part :in the farmer�seititler'i IA Remedy for E'arac'he.—ITo have the earache is to endure torture. The ear is a delicate ,organ and few care to deal with it, con's'idering it work for a doctor. Dr. Thainas'' Eclectrit Oil offers a sim'ple 'remedy. A 'few drops upon a piece of lint or medicat- ed cotton and placed in thio ear will do much in relieving pain.