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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1952-04-03, Page 7SLEET -- AND FROST — AND SUN — THAT'S WHAT MAKES MAPLE SiUGAR Anyone who has seen a' wheat field leveled by sleet or hail at harvest time would hardly think of these natural phenomena as aids to farm production. But if in the next couple of weeks there happen to be some sunny days and frosty nights, fol- lowed by a driving sleet storm, at least one group of farmers in east- ern Canada will be happy indeed, They're the maple syrup pro- ducers who annually take in $8 millions -$10 millions from the sale of sugar and syrup to Canadian and U.S. consumers, Main output comes from Quebec, with Ontario second and lesser quantities front New Brunswick and Nova Scotia writes Paul Deacon, in the Fin- ancial Post. • No one seems to know exactly why this particular sequence of weather helps production, but people in the business claim that the sap really runs in quantity if the elements are friendly (or, de- pending on how you look at it, un- friendly). Another "friendly" element is good heayy snow, Lots of snow in the bush provides natural re- frigeration for the sap when it's running and lessens chances of spoiling. "It's too early yet to see what sort of season we're likely to have", a large maple syrup processor stated. "But the heavy snow is a good sign. And if we can have three -- or four days of sunshine, with frost at night, atid then an old-, fashioned sleet storm—and the •same thing repeated over again a couple of timed, during the season —there should be a big crop." Warm Weather, Blow There are obviously quite a few "ifs" involved. Last year, for in- stance, farmers were able to start tapping their trees in Quebec and Ontario the first week of March, in Nova Scotia about the third week, and in New Brunswick, to- ward the end of the month. But after this early start, the weather turned against them and frequent rains brought production to a pre- mature and unwelcome halt about the middle of April. Output was off 20%, costing farmers about $2 millions. Why should weather affect the flow so much? According to a forestry expert who has made a study of the matter, things occur something like this! The hard maple is dormant through the winter. In the spring, the sap starts to circulate once more, drawing minerals from the soil to take up to the tree's ex- tremities. Buds start to form, and eventually leaves. • The sap course travels through the outside layer --- the growing layer—of the tree. It's this outside layer which is tapped in the early spring when the sap flows is at its peak. If the nights are cold, the sap is tempor- arily dammed, and rushes out more quickly . when released by the warm sunshine. If the changes in• temperature are small and only gradual during the season, the flow is likely to be slow. There doesn't seem to have been much change over the years in the method of making syrup. The old shack in the maple bush, the wood fire and while the big boiling pots are still used, but, more and more, shallow evaporating pans are the major manufacturing equipment. All through the syrup -producing areas, the pails on the trees and the smoke from the shacks will be signaling the arrival of spring any day now. How Price is Set Farmers sell their output ahead of time in many cases, find out the price afterwards. Buyers, for the processors go through the syrup - producing districts in the fall, sign up farmers for the following spring. Some farmers put up their own product and market it direct to the consumer. More. than 90% leaves the farms as syrup, the rest - as sugar, Going price is usually set to- ward the end of April when most of the crop is in and the supply is known. Processors buy a year's supply, parcel it out according to•demand. Demand doesn't vary too much although there's a bit of a rush in the spring when everyone suddenly thinks of buds and birds and sugar ,bushes and maple syrup. The rest of the year, things are fairly even. Processors market most of the syrup in 1 -Ib, and 2 -ib., bottles, al- though the gallon can is still in evidence in some places. Proces- sors boil the syrup down to stan- dard test, filter it and repack it for resale. Blenders buy it front the processors in 70-1b. blocks as sugar, and it's in this form that nearly 70% of export maple products are sold. The U.S. is the big, and virtually the only export market. In recent years it has taken more than 90% of our maple products exports, and about 40% of all sugar and syrup produced. Used in Cigarettes One of the big buyers in the U.S. is a large cigarette manufac- turer (Canadian cigarette makers don't use it). How it's used is a trade secret. It's also used south of the bor- der in the manufacture of artificial syrups (Canadian processors aren't allowed to market a mixture, trust stick to standard test product). Ice Ditch That Costs $10,000 Per Year More popular than ever this past winter was the world's most amaz- ing toboggan slope, the mile -long Cresta Run at St. Moritz, which costs around $10,000 to construct each year and has to be ridden with ice-cold precision and iron nerves. For it is still the most perilous toboggan run in the world. Speeds of over eighty miles an hour are reached as the rider on his 100 Ib. steel toboggan hurtles along with his nose a few inches from the ice. The run is really a ditch two feet deep and four feet wide. It is trade of beaten snow watered into solid ice and banked at the turns. The toboggan has to be braked or guided by rakes attached to the toes of the boots, and most riders TV Trio—Margaret Truman, the President's daughter, rehearses for her second television show with comedian Jimmy Durante (left), in Hollywood. Eddie Jackson (right), one of Durante's old partners, joins in this dance routine which leads into a neva song —entitled "Truman, Jackson and Durante?='that Margaret sings. wear a crash helmet and hand - pads. Amy Mollison, the woman flyer, wanted to "do" the Cresta Run directly she saw it, but was told that women were banned because it was too dangerous. So she dress- ed as a man and in the early mor- ning made the attempt, successful- ly qualifying' for a silver badge without the official guessing her identity. "The sensation of speed is incomparably greater than is possible in flying," she declared. Another enthusiast commented after a first run: "The Cresta isn't mere tobogganning. It's a cross between Coney Island, a wall of death and a revolving ice rink!" ON me Test Your Intelligence a Score 10 points for each correct answer in the first five questions: 1. The composer of the Peer Gynt Suite was: —Bach —Beethoven —Greig —Sibelius 2, The Bendix trophy is awarded to: a• —cooks —aviators —tennis players —archers 3. Which of the following animals is known for his lumber jack exploits: —beaver—skunk —mongoose —fox 4. Morocco is in: —India ' —South America —New Zealand —Africa 5. Lewis and Clark were; —physicians —explorers —comedians —golfers 6. Listed below are four countries and opposite then their monetary units. Match them, scoring 10 points for_each correct answer. (A) Switzerland franc (B) Germany —nark (C) Mexico —pesos (D) Italy —lire Total your points. A' score of 0-20 is poor; 30-50 average; 60-70, superior; 80-90, very superior. Answers Elsewhere On This Page Chameleon Fish? Certain fish have .the power of altering their color so as to re- semble the blue of the water in which they have been confined, or which has been their habitat, it is reported by the United States Bu- reau of Fisheries. Minnows, stickle- backs, and trout are listed among those species able to add this camouflage to their appearance. Old -tittle fishermen often are able to tell where a trout comes from by its color. Or 13Y-- HAROLD ARNETT' t k Farm Accidents Approximately 16,000 members of American farm families killed annually in accidents, 1,500,000 members of farm families injured annually. 1 in each 6 farms is the scene of a disabling injury each year. 1 in each 360 farm families visit- ed by accidental death annually. Accidents are being prevented— except in agriculture. The figures for tire past 10 -year period: • Accidental Deaths per 100,000 Workers 1940 1950 In non-agricultural work 33 22 (a decrease of 1/3) In farm work 47 57 (an increase of 1/5) A farm worker is three times as likely to be killed at work as a worker in a manufacturing plant. A junior reporter was assigned to cover the end -of -term play at a local high school. He ensured his literary fame when the following appeared in his write-up: "The auditorium was filled with expect- ant mothers, eagerly awaiting the appearance of their Offsprings." JITTER Low..; PNA x1111, R 'MI'RE PLAYIMO WON ISt $G ROUS ...Mt AHMO GRstiADE/ et A 60'OD Mi)Nk THROW IT MR THE Ntur's. These People Just Didn't Want Progress When the motor -car first made its appearance on the road, railway and coach companies were so concerned about their new com- petitor that they combined to kill the new'inachine at birth. Variou4 laws were passed, one of which is since become famous. Under this Act, motor -cars were declared :?to be such a menace to the public safety that every road locomotive had to be preceded at a ctistanc;e of one hundred yards by a man carrying a red flag, and their speed had never to exceed four m.p.h. ':�i Looking back on it to -day, it might even seem ridiculous that the importance of the motor -car was never foreseen, yet all through _historyI w inventions have been decrienc(i 1 here are -always people ready tta)protest against progress. The ratttvays had more than their share of'ritics. In Germany it was proved by experts that if trains went at the frightening speed of fifteen M.p.h. blood would spurt from the, travellers' noses, and that the passengers would be sure to suffocate;going through tunnels. One eloquent speaker even urged that the introduction of railways would require the building of in- numerable asylums, because people would be driven mad with terror at the sight of trains rushing across the n Thecouprinttrying press has helped to spread learning through the world, yet while the invention was still in its infancy there was a widespread outcry against it. The governor of an American state went so far as to say: "I thank G'od that there' are no free schools, nor printing (in Virginia), for learning has brought disobe- dience and heresy into the world and printing has divulged it." More recently, a local branch of . the Y.it.C.A. announced typing lessons for its members. At the time all typists were men, and the idea of a woman typist seemed to shock society. Vigorous protests were made on the grounds that the female constitution would break down under the severe strain irnnosed. It was the great visionary. Jules Verne. who first predicted the sub- marine, but at the time nobody believed in him. it was not only the unimagina- tive who decried him, H. G. Wells, who foresaw many of our twentieth- centtu•y inventions, joined the popular disparagement of Verne's idea and wrote: "I must confess that my imagination refuses to see a submarine doing anvthiun' but suffocating its crew and foundering at sea." And as lately as 1936, one prominent statesman was rash enough to protest against the en- larging of the Royal Air Force, de- claring that aeroplanes could never play a major role in any wars ONLY ONE STUMP LEFT AND No MORO• BLASTING roViDaRt yusr Ana LUck. A, farmer out in Washington has f9pnd that fruit trees and laying hens are a really profitable com- binat:ion. When Lester Smith is busy tending chicks, his trees are in; the dormant stage. When the busiest time in the fruit orchard rolls around, the pullets are out on the range, needing little labor. A side benefit comes from peat moss; litter and droppings which snake a weed -free organic fertilizer. Smith has 20 acres planted to cherries, plums and peaches along with a young apple orchard not yet in production. He keeps 1000 laying hens to boost his income while trees mature according to a writer in The Country Gentleman. * * * Spreading labor is the big ad- vantage of his system. The first lot of chicks is brooded in early Feb- ruary. When pruning starts in March, these chicks no longer de- mand steady attention. Dormant ,spray is applied after pruning and at this point the early chicks are on range. Before the busy thinning season, Smith starts his second batch of chicks before orchard work is demanding. * * * When the first soft fruit is ready to harvest, all pullets are on range. They are not housed until this fruit is picked, avoiding labor con- flict at this stage. Summer spray- ing and irrigating fit in with poultry, since laying -house chores can be done before and after or- chard work. * * * Layers have paid around $2.50 per hen labor income the last few years. Additional return has come from droppings spread around the base of trees out to branch tips. Each tree gets front 100 to 150 lbs. of this fertilizer, and it brings a rank cover crop in addition to good growth on trees, * * "Fruit and poultry make a per- fect combination," says Smith. "Our dependable monthly income from eggs puts us in a better posi- tion to finance orchard operations and carries us along in bad soft - fruit weather." * * * Writing in the same magazine Henry Schacht tells of how a young west coast fruit ,grower has solved his peach problem by "Gassing" the soil. * * * Roger Chandler, young fruit grower in Sutter Co., Calif., want- ed to replace worn-out peach trees on his land with new ones. But he knew that replacements on land that had been producing peaches usually get into a lot of trouble. Nobody -knows the exact cause, but it appears that the ground ac- cumulates some substance that is toxic to the new trees. * * * Wondering if the soil couldn't be disinfected in some way, .Chandler consulted with County' 'Agent Herman Graser, and to- gether they decided to experirneett by "gassing" the soil with carbon bisulphide. * * * The chemical was injected around the site of the new plantings in a sandy loam soil. The results were excellent. Of the 297 trees Chandler planted, not one was lost. * * * Other orchardists in the Sutter - Yuba "peach bowl" are enthusiasti- cally adopting the idea. * v,N * County Agent Graser report's that "we are positive that disin- fection of the entire orchard area gives beneficial results. In such cases, replanted trees grow fully as well as they do on virgin soil." * * * Many growers are convinced that it also pays to inject carbon bissul- pltide in a 2' circle around the tree site, with about 6 injections of 2 oz. each, at a depth of 6". Another injection is made where the tree is to stand. * * * Similar results have been report- ed for soil treatments with benzene hexachloride (BHC) for newly - planted peach and apple trees. University of California authorities are cautious on this treatment, How- ever, and advise growers not to use it commercially until further tests have been completed, as they fear that benzene hexachloride, which lasts in the soil for years, might eventually build up and harm the trees, or give the fruit an off - flavor. DIETING Attempts to reduce By a menu of lean meals Availeth one nought If one eateth between meals. 'I know you're jealous, but act. ually I don't give a hoot for him!" :ANSWERS 1—Greig. 2—aviators. 3—beaver. 4— Africa. 5—explorers. 6 — (A) franc; (B) mark; (C) pesos; (D) lire, Royal Passenger—The Duke of Edinburgh s'ts in a Comet, world's first jet airliner, before takeoff from Hatfield, Eng., on a flight lasting an hour, pilot was John Cunningham, left. By Arthur Pointer r/MY05 IF WG' COr c N13tATEl) W. couLD"THINk." IT OUT: x READ ONCE 'BOUT 4 T.MC-1110164EIMP MIND OVER " Nye r tz ter, `.N rnr EiRaHrit..KEEP TOUR MIND Ori STUMF'S...pm' T THINK iw,sOUT • 1• 51.11 LLAC klaiNTl l7 ON '711E 'INDEX " At '> i p P1C.!'T'IONAARiE + .hilp '51/AILACilgIO11.$vl U.L .MAKE THE 'TAOS WA51-1ABB1-E. IN ADDITION,' 1)415 WILL /I<1 - iE -rA65 ALMOST WENRPItt )