HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1924-11-20, Page 2FOREST AREAS IN PRAIRIE PROVINCES
Misapprehension Exists as to the Timber Supply—Manitoba
70 Per Cent. Forest Covered.
To many Canadians as well as othere.
the name Prairie Provinces, by which
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta
are known, implies that they are of de-
void of forests or tree growth a nY
Natural says the Resources In-
telligenee Service of the Department
Of the Interior. Such, however, !s not
the case with any of these provinces.
There are large areas of forested
lands la each, while in Manitoba fully
70 per cent, of the total area is under
forest cover,
Recent estimates of the commercial
timber stands of the three provinces
range from eight to eleven million
acres, and the commercial saw -timber
from 33 to 42 thousand million board
feet. These estimates do not include
much of the northern area, where the
growth is more or less of a scrubby
nature. This latter, however, con-
tains a large potential supply of pulp-
wood.
The Forest Branch of the Deparrt-
ment of the Interior has segregated
considerable areas in each of the pro-
vinces as forest reserves. Of a total
reserved area of 31,926 square miles,
18,894 square miles is in Alberta, 9,303
square miles 'in Saskatchewan, and
3,729 square miles in Manitoba. Most
of this forest reserve is composed of
landunfit for agriculture, and the ,ob-
ject of the Interior. Department in es-
tablishing the, reserves has been not
with the idea of keeping the timber
and other resources contained within
• them out of use, but to supply, in per-
petuity, the largest quantity of the
best timber that can be produced. A
certain amount of fuel and building
logs are ;given near -by settlers, and
permits axe given, for a nominal fee,
to cut timber for domestic, community
and various Other purpo'es,
The forest products of the three
prairie provinces in the aggregate for
1
1922, leached a large figure, The lum-
ber cut amounted to 90,167,000 board
feet, 24,737,000 lath were cut, also •
487,685 cross tie's, 37,403 poles, 5,529,-
657 fence posts, 496,380 rails . and a
large quantity of other forms of forest.
product: The total value of the out-
put for 1922 was $8,443,231. There
was . cut for fuel purposes 1,213,936
cords of firewood. Wood is not so
generally used for fuel in the settled
portions of the Prairie Provinces, as
in eastern Canada, owing to the many
areas in whioh a local supply of coal,
is available. Natural gas also provides
a fuel supply in a number of districts,
particularly in Alberta.
The protection of the timbered areas
from forest fires is one of the chief
cares of the Forest Service, and for
this purpose fire Patrols are maintain-
ed both on the reserves and on the ad-
joining timbered areas. Aeroplanes
are engaged during the fire danger
season in patrolling, and good results
have been secured in fire prevention.
Through the efforts of the Tree
Planting Division of the Interior De-
partment the reputation of the Prairie
Provinces as being composed of bald
I
T 7E WORST YS ITT TO COME
7
!.a
prairie land promises to become ale ..`i CeritT VreIitY19-}o
solete. Millions of young trees are
being planted annually about the farm
homes, and in many districts the out- The Little People.
look is broken by wooded areas, which
add much to make homelike conditions
for the newcomer to his prairie home.
Naval Definitions. -
Fatham—A measure of six feet.
Turret A tower for the protection
of the gunners.
Crow's nest—A perch for the look-
out at the masthead.
Armament -A term expressing col-
lectively all the guns of a ship.
Jacob's ladder—A short ladder with
wood rungs and rope sides.
Capstan—A machine used on board
ship for lifting heavy weights.
Bow chaser—A. gun mounted in the
bow to fire on retreating vessels.
Bulkhead—A „partition separating
compartments on the same deck.
Cable—A long, heavy chain used to
retain a ship in place at anchor.
Binnacle—The compass box of a
ship, with a light to show it at night.
Gangway—The aperture in a ship's
side where persons enter and depart.
Displacement—The weight in tons
of the volume of water displaced by a
ship's hull.
Barbette—A fixed circular belt of
armor for protecting the guns in a re-
volving turret. '
Knot—A naual mile of 2025 yards,
equal to about one and one-eighth
Monitor -A low, nearly fiat -bottom-
ed armored vessel, with oneor two
turrets, each carrying two guns.
Bridge—A platform above the rail
extending across the deck for the con-
venience of the ship's officers.
Conning tower -An armored tower
where the wheel, engine, telegraphs,
etc., are located, and from which the
•captain is supposed to dircet kis men
during a battle.
Bullets That Fall Like Rain.
Looking across the Thames to the
Surrey side at Waterloo Bridge in Lon-
don: there may be seen to the right a.
huge round tower rising out of a jum-
bled collection of wharfs, sheds, and
chimney stacks to a height of about
200 feet. This is the shot tower of
Walkers, Parker, and Co., Ltd., the
Lambeth Lead and Shot Works.
The general public knows little of
the purpose of this structure, and as
a rule regards it as a kind of compli-
eated . factory chimney. But it holds
the .secret of shot -making for sporting
cartridges and other purposes in Eng-
land. -
Briefly described, the process is to
drop from different heights hot lead
run through a device somewhat like a
colander. The falling shot in the
Course of this process drops into vats
of water at the bottom of the tower,
and when it is removed it has taken on
its spherical form.
The discovery of this method of pro-
ducing shot in large quantities at I
high speed has been attributed to a
man named Watts, about the year
1787, at Bristol. At all events, it was
in the end purchased by Walkers,
Parker for $50,000.
The ,reco'rds are to the effect that
Watts ascended the tower of St. Mary's
Church, Bristol, en a hot day. Over -
tome by the heat, or some refreshment
somewhat more potent, he fell asleep,
and in a dream saw 'himself •dropping
melted" lead to the ground, where It
took the form of pellets. Much ime
pressed, he made experiments at home,
and the shot tower is the indirect
result
A new type of storage tank for
gasoline is spherical in shape, as pies -
Inure is more equally distributed over
.the entire sphere.
Did you ever realize that by yield
ing instead of resisting, by giving in
instead of being stubborn, of being a
stickler for an apology, you disari i
the resentment and awaken the better
nature of the one who has injured
yeti? Many people have thus gained
the good will of she whom tits► hal
regarded as an enemy. -0. S. Mart
wommig
Seals and Camels Have Real
Trap -Door Noses.
Most of us when we go in for diving
have very unpleasant experiense of
getting our nostrils full of water. Na-
ture did not design man to be a diving
animal, otherwise she would have been
as clever with his nose as she has been
. with the seal's
The seal is, without doubt,the clever -
et diver in the animal world, and his
nose is a very ingenious contrivance
indeed. Each nostril is provided with
muscles which close it hermetically at
the owner's will. And the shape of the
nose is such that when the nostrils are
closed not a drop of water can enter.
With seals the closing of the nostrils ,
at the moment of diving has become
an automatic process.
This is wonderful enough, but we
can see a still more remarkable appli
cation of the sane principle in' an
animal as far removed from the seal
as •chalk is from cheese.
The Lord of the Little People,
Gentle and very wise, e
Walking His woods in the twilight,
Harks to His children's cries
And His tender mouth is wry with
pain
And terrible are His eyes.
Thesnare that has throttled the rabbit
Jerks to his dying strain;
I Trapped by his rush -thatched dwell-
ing, t
The muskrat whimpers his pain;
And here the bird with the shot-
• mashed wing
Hidden three days has lain.
The Lord of the Little People
Wistfully goes His way,
Seeking in vain His children;
I i ew-ane arrara are they
Of the mighty beast who has ravished
the world
With his hunger to slay, slay, slay.
I LonlelY S.
the fields at twill h
I ' Empty the darkling was
„ There, in the woodchuck's<to`+ row;
Dead lies an orphaned brW
Here, where the
bob -whit
w rt
Are feathe s and gouts
s
The seal is a wets- animal. The
other Jwner of trap-door •nostrils is
the caamel, an inhabitant of the driest
parts -4-of the world, the waterless,
ands deserts
Now why should the camel; require
sue/ an apparatus•? He isnot troubled
with water, but he is troubled with
dust; not the dust that we see in t
country, but the fierce, blinding dust
storms of the desert. -
These are so violent that tiny par-
ticles are driven into the works of
even the mostly > finely made watch,
which becomes at once clogged and
useless. If the camel had not nostrils
which were perfectly dust -tight, he
could never endure the dreadful sand
and dust storms.
The Day of Rest.
"Why does he sit so far back in the
shadows, in church on Sunday?"
"To rest his eyes from sitting so far
front in the stage lights in the theatre
all week:"
A Gift That Backfired.
Brother Allen had in his store an
old-fashioned, ornate .silver table cas-
ter that no one would buy, though he
had marked• It down to "only $4,"
When the sisters of the church asked
for contributions to the good pastor's.
donation party he put in the silver
monstrosity, taking care to insert the
digit one before the four in order to
make the gift seem valuable.
The party was held with its shower
of good things. Little Mrs. Elliott, the
pastor's wife, gazod ccuriously at the
caster and its plethoric tag. "It's too
rich for us!" she said. "Bspecically
when the children need clothes and
we all need food. I'll go and ask
Brother Allen to take it back and let
us have the fourteen dollars' worth of
other things that we need so badly."
Hank Evans, the village gossip, was
in the store when she came in with
the .high-priced donation, So, rather
than betray himself to Banks biting
tongue, Brother Allen sent toutteeii
dollars' worth of goods up to the par-
son's house --almost a, dray load of the
cheaper but more comforting things
that the little woman,had selected.
Moral: A clean gift, like a clean eh-
gine, will not backfire.
The fear of what people will think
d. us Is a very common cause of slay-.
ery: And the nervous anxiety as to
whether we do not please is a. straits
which wastes the energy of the groat -
Ear part of mankind,
The Lord of the Little People,'
Who may divine what stirs -
His heart, as He seeks 'in tYhe'twitight
The songs of His worshippers; -
And hear but whimpers and 'squeals
of pain
From creatures in plumes and furs?
The partridge rots in the woodland;
The wild duck drowns in the sea;,
Beasts on the wide -flung trap lines
Perish in agony •
That the monkey thing with the .wea-
sel's lust
May wallow in mastery. 1
The Lord of the Little People,- 1
i
He knows, He knows when a sparrow
falls
And terrible are His eyes.
Wanted: A Hymn Censor.
Very strong representations have
been made by an influential Buddhist
committee_ in Ceylon against the con-
tinued singing, in its present form,
"From Greenland's Icy Mountains."
The hymn, as everybody knows, re-
grets ' that "Ceylon's Isle" is a spot
where "every prospect pleases " and
Foley man is vile." The Cingalese
strongly object to being called "vile,"
and there is much to be said. for -their
point of view.
It appears, indeed, that in the first
draft of the hymn, which was written
in tweny minutes, Java was the island
chosen for special "vileness," but Cey-
lon 'was substituted. as being more
tuneful in sound. .
During the course of a children's ser-
vice at St. Paul's, Covent Garden,
Canon Adderley was leading the child-
ren in the singing of that favorite
I hymn, "All Things BrigLt and Beauti-
ful," but, coning to the third verse, he
said: "Children, don't sing that' verse,
because it is a lie!" This is the verse
which he objected to: '
"The: rich man in bis castle,
The poor man at his gate—
God made, the
•m high �or lowly,
And ordered their estate."
A returned missionary from Jamaica
and Old Calabar says, that Dr. Dodd -
ridge's description of'heaven in his
well-known hymn:
"No midnight shade, no clouded sun,
But sacred, high, eternal noon."
will make anyone shudder who knows
what it is to be' exposed to the sun of
the torrid zone. He says: "The man
who wrote these lines must have lived
far north, where a _glimpse of•the sun
was a rare favor.
"I once ,-net a black boy," he con-
tinues, "sitting under the shade of a
palm, : taking shelter --from the sun's,
glare and the dazzle of the sandy, sea-
side road. I said; 'Did you ever hear
of heaven, ray boy?'
Who can His thoughts surmise?
Cattle and small gray donkeys -
Heard His first baby cries.
fi
By teaching we learn. Not to com-
municate one's thoughts to others -to
keep one's thoughts to oneself, as peo-
ple say—is either cowardice or pride.
It is a form of sin.—H., G. Wells;
Did you ever notice that the chap
who is always carving his ilitials
'upon the fence, trees, and his desk at
school, seldom, if ever, writes his
name upon the age in which he lives?
He commences carving too early, and
gets tired.
" 'Yah, boss!'
"What sort of a place do you think
it'll be?'
" 'Guess it'll be a mighty cool kin'
o' show, boss!' said the little chap;
and he knew more about it than some
hymn' writers."
An avalanche that swept across a
road near Rochetaillee, France, not
long ago, dropped a huge block of ice
that contained the carcass of a wild
boar. Just how the boar became im-
bedded in the ice is not clear, but
probably it was caught in the slide,
and the mass of snow closing round it,.
solidified and thus converted it into
cold storage pork.
The remarkable achiev tient .of Miss Mabel Green,blind typist ot Lon-
don,
@ ,,Yp n
don lies behind the iublidatien :of ock recently, the entire matt
r l a b y, usOtipt of
which oxte dine tot* o
n g to 40;006 words, shii too d wn in Braille slterthand and..
faultlessly transcribed.
WHAT FOREIGNERS CALL INSUL
We have all heard of the adage that
,one man's meat is another's poison,"
but it le not so well -known that .inaai-
n-ers differ almost as much as food. In
greliioue observances, for instance, see
how the Christian •takes' eff his hat
when entering a church, while the Mo-
hammedan keeps on his bat and takes
orf his shoes,
The Foreign Office in England one
time received a complaint through the
Chinese Legation in London that the
minister representing Her Majesty in
China had insulted the Chinese Cabinet.
There wa.si great excitement for awhile
but investigation revealed that the
only conduct of which he had been
guilty was thumping the table at
which he was sitting. to emphasize a
remark. In China it is a grievous' of-
fense to thump the table, and' because
the British Government refused to dis-
cipline their representative, the Chin-
ese diplomats were exceedingly angry.
In this country if a friend itt visiting
another and stays to dinner, he may
ask for the loan of a hair brush with-
out giving offense, but in Hungary he
may not.
To attempt to borrow that useful ar-
ticle is one of the greatest insults
which can be offered to a Hungarian,
and "one which will in most cases
cause a duel.
In France there are'severaI insults
which the unwary foreigner may offer
without knowing it For example, he
may be visiting a friend, and may put
his hat upon the bed. This is a griev-
ous form of insult,. but why is not
known; it is 'a very ancient one, and
1 so, probably, results from an old super-
stition.
Again, there are - two ways of, pour- !
i ing out wine in France, as everywhere
i else: One of these is to hold the bot -
i tle so that while pouring the thumb is
facing the tablecloth. The second way
is to hold the hand reversed -and this
is a ; great insult to the assembled
guests and the host—a far greater in,
Stilt tliau drinking a health in water,
and that 1e pretty serious in. Fiance,
Germany has some curious forms of
• insult. To begin with, to:offer• a rose,
or any other flower, without any green
or leaves with it, to a lady is, to deeply
insult her, though why this should be
so is not known precisely.
Tim German students, ere i formed in-
to corps, some of which are fighting
corps, and others not, Each 'corps has
it distinctive cap, and when a ment-
berof one meets another in the street
it is' etiquette for each to doff, his cap.
Should the other not respond a com-
plaint is made to his corps, and a duel
isfought—a real. duel, with sabres or
pistols, not the fencing duel which is
pastime in Germany, for the insult is
nearly the worst that can be offered.
There is one•worse, and that is spill-
ing or flicking beer over another stu-
dent purposely., No apology wiIi'wipe
out this offense; nothing will except a
duel to the death, or a duel which is
continued,until one of the combatants
i3 too badly wounded to continue the
fight. A minor insult Is to refuse to
drink With a student if invited, or to
refuse to respond with "Prosit" when
he raises -his glass and says "Ich Isom.
me vor"; but this is more a breach of
goad manners than an ,actual- i7isult
We might :finish with two Spanish
examples of curious insults in South
America. The first of these is to re-
fuse to smoke a cigarette which an-
other man offers• you after he has had
it in his mouth; and the second is to.
refuse drink out of the same glass
that a man has just drunk from, or,
worse still, to wipe it before drinking.
There are doubtless many other un-
known insults which Canadians may
cominitwithout knowing it,' and that
is why they should be very :careful to,
learn in advance something about the •
manners and customs of the people
among whom they intend to travel,
A Poem You Ought to Know.
Ode to Autumn.
John Keats enriched our literature
with five of its• greatest Odes. The
"Ode to a Nightingale" is perhaps the
best known, but the following, though
the shortest, has the perfection of a
flawless gem:
Season of mists and mellow fruitful-
ness,
Close bosom -friend of the maturing
sun;
Conspiring with him how to load ant
bless
�` With fruit the vines that round the
thatch -eaves run; •
To bend with apples the mosssed cot-
- tage trees,
And fill all fruit: with •ripenessto the
core;
To swell the gourd, and . plump the
hazel ishells
With a sweel kernel; to set budding
Andstill more, later flowers for the
bees,
Until they think warm days ,will never
cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their
clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy
store •
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad
may find
Thee .sitting careless on a granary
floor,
Thy hair soft -lifted by the winnow-
ing wind;
Or on a half -reaped furrow sound
asleep,
Drowsed: with the fume of poppies,
while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its
twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou
dost keep
Steady thy laden head across- a
brook;
Or by a cider -press, with patient
look,
Thou watchest the last oozings,
hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay,
where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy
music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft -
dying day,
And touch the stubble -plains with
rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats
mourn
Among the river saliows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives
or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from
hilly bourn;
Hedge -crickets sing; and now with
treble soft
The redbreast whistles from the gar-
den croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in
the skies.
Living on Seeds.
You sit down to your breakfast and
begin with porridge; the oatmeal is
crushed oat seed. You go on with
toast, whioh is made from .the seed of
wheat, and with these foods you drink
ooffee, which, is a decoction of the.
crushed and roasted seed of the coffee ,.
shrub.
Has it ever occurred to you to con-
sider the extent to which seeds enter
into the diet of the whole human. race?
A11 our bread is made of seeds, either
of wheat, barley, rye, or corn. Eastern
races, who do not eat bread as much
as we do, live largely upon the seed. of
the rice plant, boiled instead of baked.
We ourselves eat enormous quantities
of rice, both as a .vegetable and as a
pudding.
In Central America, the whole popu-
lation from Mei*ico dawn to'<Southern
Brazil lives mainly upon corn, either
cracked and cooked as hominy or
ground into flour and made into bread,,
and cakes.
Ainottg our most prized . vegetables
are green peas and broad beans, both
the -green seeds of cultivated plants,
while dried pea' and lentils are used
for soup and as winter vegetables.
Cocoa is also made from a. seed. And
our condiments, with the exception of
salt, nea.rly all come from seeds. Nina.
tardapepper, and nutmeg are well-
known examples.
Nuts form a considerable proportion
Iof the food of the human race. We
eat walnuts, chestnuts, Brazil nuts,
Iand hazel nuts, which are all -seeds of
different trees. ,
But by far the most important of
nuts is that'of the Coco -palm, from
which is made margarine and oil, and
hundreds of tons of whioh are used
in the manufacture of cakes and con-
fectionery. Almonds are also essential
to the makers of crakes and sweets.
Flood Lights to Repel Bandits.
Floodlighting projectors for use on
railroad cars carrying Chinese sol•
diers sent out to repel bandits have
just been provided, The floodlighting
prejeotors were equ'pped with 250 -
watt lamps, and a Considerable num-
ber of the,se projectors were mounted
on several railroad cars used to .trans-
port detachments of soldiers. Good
work was done by this means in re-
ducing the number of bandit attacks
upon railroad trainseauthe 'Tientsin-
Pukow railway:
undiscovered.
"My friend, are you travelling the'
strait and narrow path?"
In silence the man handed ever his
card., which read:
"Signor Baliancio, Tightrope Walk -
et!'
Hard Luck.
Bug -"Great Scott, old nidi,---"
Worm—"Isn't it. terrible, I swallow-
ed a hairpin on a bet!"
A Canadian Wembley.
Even when the British Empire Ex'Ex-
hibition is over, its memory will still
be preserved in Canada, where the
latest railway -station; 'fifteeneen iles
,south-west of Grand Prairie, Alberta,
has been giventhe name of Wembley.
This is not the first time that places
in Canada have been named after well-
known persons and places, in the Old.
Country, There . is a Beaconsfield and
a Gladstone in Manitoba, an Asquith
Poet -office in Saskatchewan, and a
Boner Law station in Ontario. Revel-
stoke, British Columbia, is another
case in point. It was named after the
that Lord Revelstoke, of Baring Broth-
ers, who took over the first bond isms
(.fifteen million ,dollars) of. the Cana-
dian Pacific Railway.
In addition to these there are the
classical examples of Hudson :E38Y,
named after the explorer: and Wind-
sor, Woodstock, Chatham, and Lon-
don-on-Thanles in Ontario. The last -
netted, suitably enough, is in Middle,
sex County, which provides another ex
ample. Ontario also boasts a, Glas,
go'w and a Glencoe,