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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1956-11-22, Page 7Once Scrubland Grows Rich Crops A step by step story of how a 10 -acre plot of useless scrub and swamp was converted into 69 -bushels -per -acre wheat land, was given recently on the farm of Arnold Metcalfe near Wheat- ley, Ontario. In. 1947 this 10 -acre plot was covered with trees and brush and much of it was water- logged. Mr, , Metcalfe decided to bring it under cultivation. A bulldozer was brought into operation and uprooted the scrub and pushed it into rough piles. The following year the piles were pushed into wind- rows so tiling machines could pass through. With the tilling completed, attempts were made to burn the scrub piles but were unsueessful so the windrows were all pushed into one large pile in the centre of the field by the bulldozer. The land was then broken up by a heavy bush -breaker plow and, gradu- ally, the brush pile was elimin- ated by burning and drawing it away. In the spring of 1952 the land was prepared for corn. Mr. Metcalfe realized that new soil is not necessarily high in all three of the major plant food elements -- nitrogen, phosphor- us and potassium. One of his first steps was to take soil sam- ples and have thein analysed at C -I -L's soils laboratory at Chatham, Ont. The test showed his soil needed about 40 more pounds of nitrogen per acre, 60 pounds more of phosphate and 80 peunds more potash. He sup- plied this need by an applica- tion of 520 pounds per acre of 2-12-16 fertilizer and later a side dressing of 33 pounds of nitrogen per care. His first crop yielded 80 bushels of shelled corn per acre. In the fall the corn stalks were shredded and plowed un- der with a broadcast applica- tion of 10-10-10 at 200 pounds per acre. Next spring a soil test re- vealed that the fertility of the land had improved but more nutrients were necessary. Mr. Metcalfe worked in 550 pounds e.' 2-16-6 fertilizer per acre with another 25 to 30 pounds of nitrogen. The yield was again 80 bushels of corn an acre. The 1954 crop was soybeans. Following a soil analysis, 540 pounds per acre of 0-16-8 were applied. The yield was 34 bush- els of soybeans per acre des- pite a very dry summer. In the fall he planted the 10 -acre plot in fall wheat of the Genesee variety fertilizing with 250 pounds of 4-12-10 per acre. The yield was 69 bushels to the acre when he reaped it in the summer of 1955, Mr. Metcalfe now feels he has been well repaid for the ex - SCENT'S WORTH $$$ - Being nosey is Ken McCoy's business. A trader for Cargill, Inc., Mc- Coy determines quality and ,purity of grain by scent. His company, one of the largest grain handlers, risks a great deal of money on McCoy's nose. Menses and work he putinto developing 10 acres of brush and swamp land. Ono of the most important phases of his operations; he says, was the soil testing which guided him in using correct fertilizer mixture. 'te Shirt With _Mashed Potatoes During the first few months of their marriage a handsome young American ex -airman solemnly promised his pretty wife a trip home to Britain every time she had a baby, Well, he has faithfully kept his promise, but it's already cost him a shall fortune to do so. Recently the twenty-nine-year- old wife boarded a 'plane to England for the fourth time. With her flew the four rea- sons for her journeys -- her first daughter Terry, aged ten, her sons Jeffery and Mark, aged nine and five, and a baby daughter Dale, aged two. They stayed in Britian for a month at the home of the wife's par- ents. Although this man has found it eompasatively easy to keep his promise, other people's mar- riage promises have proved much harder to fulfil. Few of the congregation in a fashionable church in Califor- nia one sunny morning in April, 1954, knew of the promise being kept by the lovely bride who walked with firm and steady steps up 'the aisle to marry the man she loved. Only •five months before, while busying herself with plans for the wedding, she had an accident. As a result her right leg had to be amputated. Her distraught husband -to - be realized that she would either have to hobble on crutches or be wheeled to the altar. "Don't w or r y, dearest," whispered his iinacee. "I prom- ise you that I'll learn to walk with an artificial leg so well that nobody will guess I have one on our wedding day." "The fufillment of her prom- ise was a triumph of courage and will power," said her proud husband. A strange promise was made by a Brooklyn man to his dy- ing wife, who feared that, he would marry again ' after her death and "be robbed by some scheming woman who is only after your money." He promised to grant her re- quest: never, .,in any circum- stances, to leave the house af- ter her funeral had taken place. He kept his word. He dis- charged their maidservant and, laying in a store of canned foods, shut himself up in the house for the rest of his life. A fantastic promise was made some years ago by a Texas man. He said that if the baby his wife was expecting proved to be a girl he would eat his shirt. It was a girl. "All right, I'll keep my word," said the man. .He chopped the shirt he was wearing into tiny pieces and ate them -- with mashed potatoes! PUT OUT Peering into his driving mir- ror, the driver of a lorry no- ticed that his vehicle was on fire. Pulling into the side of the road he hastily summoned the fire brigade. --Firemen from Melbourne, Australia, soon I ad the blaze under control and managed to save the Load which, ironically enough, was a delivery of patent fire extinguishers. Good ventilation will help to avert fatigue. During the night, the bedroom window should be open, so that there is a good circulation of air, which is help- ful to health sleep. CROSSWORD PUZZLE A''4'4 1. Tlindtt •'ulycnputt" 5. Tab L't 5. itU0Si.,/1 12. Alltni.' 14, Sandpiper 14, Not any- ]:;, $per•tal tlo.'tor 14, Sttture 1:1. ,Son of Seth 20. Metri, rr=aetares 22. 1:00" of x.rrIu'd wen 2t. $riff„c 2Z. 11.4411,:i fan 40,141,,.e. note note 30. Mian 02. Penn ee ilteep 23. vlr•ti!:, 24. A:aiatk' palms 26. tlornnulsion 25. 8;1.14 20,Stsecl, ntatner tn. t'i,u 42.1,a mure 24,011 sht)rt illi. That. moo ,17. 'lt'+)re:tirda t ned 4t, Metli.'iaai plant 42. Atony r:omliodee 141 &3 rook af611t' *4. 'l ear •lidli 1rt .. l'uhJ1, *odour $r Nol hard 2. 1a4.42t r %"inial 3 gives 0001- clence again 8, 1^xlretnc.ly (�cut,1 9, Swaggered 10, Collection of facts 11. Short /or a man's urine 15. Short sleeps 17. Arrow pol>oa 20. Wrl's name 21.11also 4. 'Press 22, Toothed tool Elevates 2:,.'Alalt liquor• 5, Roman btronxe 24, is profitable 11. Burned with 7. Hated lr„t %vat„! / 2 3 4 ir`i:. b 7 • ort loth 4 prouf urs will 311, Sheltered 37. On 40, Tiox 41, 11m -oldie wreath 43, Continent 44, Silage cribz 4J, t'hickens 44, Swirl 45, Tott'rntin: k period 49. Rushy clomp ;,!i, 1147,1 eroge /2 15 !3 w /6 /7 seettesese 20 e! /6 /4 ve22 28 23 x4 25' 46 20 '3a 33 ee• a7 ee 47 4 Answer elsewhere on this page. BETTER BY A BARNSIGHT-In Green County, where cows out- number people by three to one, farmers like Dale Barth spend plenty of time in the barn. So Barth decided it was time for television. Above, he enjoys a program he couldn't see before. It's believed he is the first in the area to enjoy barnyard TV. • One of nature's most costly and destructive phenomena, hail, may be partially or totally con- trolled in the future as a result of • experiments and studies un- dertaken in central Alberta this year by two separate organiz- ations. * k +6 In the experiments and stud- ies, which will be continued un- til definite conclusions are indi- cated, the Alberta Research Council is conducting a study into the formation and life cycle of hail - bearing storms. The Water Resources Development Corporation of Denver is em- ploying a cloud -seeding pro- cedure which, aecording to some' observers, appears to modify hail precipitation. * The. hailsuppression experi- ment being conducted by the WRDC in the Didsbury district of central Alberta since July 20 has apparently proven success- ful. For the first time in a num- ber of years, there has been no hail damage reported in that district, which boasts one of the richest soil belts in Alberta and the not -so - enviable record of being one of North America's worst hail areas. * * More than 800 Didsbury farm- ers, weary of heavy crop losses because of hail damage year atter year, joined together to form the Mountain View and Knee Hill Hail Suppression As- sociation, Each subscribing farmer was assessed $15 per 160 acres to cover the cost of hiring t ie Denver corporation to tackle t :e problem. 4' R a, The test area covers a rec- tsngular district 12 miles wide and 36 miles long. Half the test area is in each of the Mountain View and Knee Hill municipali- ties. * Forty-two "hail suppressors" • hove been installed in the dis- trict, most: of them far north and west of the "target area." he suppressor unit is basically a furnace burning coke impreg- nated with silver iodide. The silver iodide vaporizes due to heat, forming minute crystals. Vertical air currents, always pl esent during an impending storm, carry the crystals aloft. It L believed that the silver iodide crystals, similar in size and formation to natural ice crystals, cause a large number of shall ice crystals to form in the clouds. Without this man- made boost, moisture in the clouds condenses to form a rela- tively small number of large drops. These can freeze and be- come hailstones of varying sizes. Since the hail suppressors have been in operation, several bad storms have struck the sur- rounding districts. Severe hail damage to crops has been re- pctrted at Bowden to the north, Crossfield to the south, and Cremona to the west of the "target area." About 30 per cent crop damage was reported in a small section of the southwest corner of the experimental plot. - * lot. -.4 4< ,r i A separate study on hail has` been undertaken this year bye the Alberta Research Council.'. and the Meteorological Service of Canada to learn as much as' possible about the formation and life history of individual hail storms. This knowledge will serve as a guide in planning and assessing future experiments on hail control. While the study has no con- nection whatsoever with the Didsbury experience, official are keeping in close contact with it and are recording results. The research officers in charge have enlisted the aid of Alberta farmers in gathering data. Let- ters of explanation and hail reports cards were supplied to about 6,500 farmers in central Alberta. * These farmers were asked to report every hail fall by using the cards, They have provided such information as the exact location of the storm, the time it began and ended, size of the Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking largest stone, lightning, and winds, Remarks of any unusual phenomena accompanying a storm . also were requested. * The pattern of hail storms is being given close attention in the study. Of'f'icials are making an effort to determine why cer- tain areas seem to be more sus- ceptible to hail, over a period of years, than other nearby dis- tricts. d, 4, These officials now feel that an extensive storm, cutting a wide swath up to say 100 miles in length, , probably consists of a serves of small individual storms or cells, each of which goes through its cycle in a rela- tively short period of time, per- haps half an hour. There is evi- dently a link between each such call and the next one., as if the end of one cell "triggers off" a new one nearby. Just how, why, and where this chain reaction begins in the first place are problems that re- main to be investigated. Don't Try To Beat A heetah While a naturalist was driv- ing in the country recently a hare suddenly jumped out from a hedge and sped away up the road in front of the car. The naturalist decided to check its speed. The car was accelerated to 30 miles an hour, but the hare kept well ahead. Then it vanished into a field. At no time did the hare appear to be unduly exerting itself, re- ported the naturalist, Close observers of the speeds achieved by wild animals point out that the hare's heart is "tuned up" by nature to en- able it to reach top speed in a second or two. A New Zealand motor- cycl- ist in 1922 saw a_ hare start up before him on a dead straight road. For half a mile he man- aged to keep "on the hare's tail" and his speedometer showed a record of 45 miles an hour. Rabbits are s1oilver than hares, but a Swiss observer checked the speed of one in 1929 and found it exceeded 34 Miles an hour when it was go- ing "all out." Cheetahs are speedsters. Der - le ; winners and greyhounds See "also , rans'i compared with them. From a standing start, a cheetah can attain a speed of 45 miles an hour in three sec- onds. It can sprint without diffi- culty at 70 miles an hour, NMY SUIOOL LESSON 13Y 1 4e/ i2 BARt 1.AY WARREN B.A.. B.D. 'rlie Suffering Servant Isaiah 53 Memory' Selection: He was wounded for our trensg'essionsc, lie was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peaee was upon him; and with h1 stripes we are Healed. Isaiah 53:S, The business man with whom I was chatting on the train re- marked that his Bible was the Old Testament. At once I knew he was a Jew. "Well," I said, "I have a warm feeling for your people, We owe a great deal to you. Our Bible, both Old and New Testaments, was written by your people. The One whom we hold as our Saviour was born of a maiden of your race." We talked freely of our beliefs. He did not think that Jesus who had come as a man was the Mes- siah. "How do you think he will come?" I queried. "I don't know," was the reply. I asked what he thought of Isaiah 53, our lesson for today. He was not familiar with it so I read it to him. He reserved comment but said he might read it for himself when he reached his hotel room. If one reads this prophecy and then reads the New Testament he can scarcely help but see in Jesus a striking fulfillment of the prophecy. Jesus was despised and rejected, afflicted, cut off from the living, died with wicked and was buried in a rich man's tomb. By coming to know Him many have been justified, that is, cleared of their sins. But Isaiah is not just sketching in advance the life of Jesus. He points out repeatedly that this Sufferer would bear our sins. By His stripes we are healed. "It was for me the Saviour died." Jewish writers contend that Isaiah was writing of the Jewish people. It is true that the Jews have suffered but not even their theologians will assert that in their suffering they are making atonement for our sins. Jesus Christ is the only One who ans- wers to the description by Isaiah. We firmly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose again the third day. Food has a lot to do with that tired let -clown feeling. A bal- anced diet will help to give ex- tra energy and a general feeling well-being. 'AND EVERYWHERE THAT MARY WENT' - Only in this case isn't a Mary and it isn't a lamb that's following her to school. It's "Donald," pet duck that trails Jaquita Thompson, 11, to her sixth grade class at school and incidentally creates a traffic headache for Mrs. Marion Vallowe, crossing guard. HIS FRIEND IS GONE The body of Fannie, the elephant, who died of lockjaw et the Paul Kelly Animal Farm, lies on the ground as her watchdog, Charlie keeps e vigil. Charlie went without food to stay near Fannie during her illness, Only when the 13 -year-old elephant was placed In its grave did the dog leave its side.