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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1948-12-23, Page 7• Tili,FARM FROINIT kuTatudi Looks like another mess of hash this week: and the first ingredient is something abont fires. An insur- ance man says that only 11 per cent • of farm fires are the result of care- lessness; which looks somewhat on the small side to us, but who are we to dmibt the say-so of an expert? Poor construction -of buildings, he claims, caused the. balance. *. • , * i3y that he means bad roofs, chimneys that aren't kept in good repair, stoves or furnaces that over- heat, and buildings without light- ning rods. Anyway, it mightn't be a bad idea to take a,look around the place and see if arrything needs fix- ing. And this might be a good time for me to remind you once again that the amount of fire insurance you carry SI-I-qJLD NOT be based on what a building cost you Years ago, but on WHAT IT WOULD COST TO REPLACE at today's prices. There's a mighty big differ- ence between the two. * Of course you know that;Water • pipes that aren't lselow the frost level in the ground need extra pro- tection in winter; but it's also a good idea to check any vertical piping, that has been packed with sawdust or earth, to make sure that the packing hasn't settled, thus ex- posing some part of the pipes. Aad even indoor pipes,. Which pass thiough unheated portions of the house or other buildings, may need insulation. • * This latter is particularly neces- sary with hot water lines, as the insulation not only prevents exces- sive loss of heat, but willkprevent freezing at times when suet piping may be idle. -* Dr. J. W. Bailey, a well known veterinarian, has some interesting _things to say to all who keep dairy cows. We have long been told, he writes, that a lack of water means less milk fromthe cows—and with milk being so largely composed of water, it is easy to see why this ,should be true. * * However, a deficiency of water causes an even. more 'serious. loss • than that of decreased milk produc- • tion. The biggest loss of all is sickness caused by indigestion—in fact it is this sickness Which brings about the decrease in the milk flow. • * * It is only natural that cows should suffer most from lack of water in the winter months. At other sea- • sons they are likely to have greener .feeds and tp be outdoors •where water is more convenient. • * Dr. Bailey tells about a sick cow which he attended hi an ultra- modern barn. She was the only ailing animal in a large herd" and •• was really sick. It took the better part of an hour to figure out what was the matter with. her, and the answer—when found• -•.-was so simple that it made him feel foolish. * • What had happened was that this cow's •drinking cup wasn't working • and Bailey estimated that the poor beast had been without a drink for ;• at least three days. Replacement • of. a wornout valve in thedrinking cup. soon 'fixed things up. * * •Sometiosev.whole herds will sick- ' Yen with indigestion during the winter When ,water pipes freeze, or "auto- metic". water systems go haywire, or drinking cups at plugged with feed, When cattle are watered out- side indigestion on a •herd -size basis is likely to go along with a p6rticu- larly cold spell. Shivering cows won't drink as much as warm ones, even though the water may be steaming and have a smoking heater standing in the tank. • * The situation, naturally, is much. worse if the watering place is an unheated freezing tank, or a hole chopped in the ice of a creek or • New Airport Feature—Road Underp sses ;urtway An Air France Constellation taxis over the world's first roadway underpass built to permit the si- multaneous movement of aircraft and surface vehicles at New York's International Airport. The underpass, considered a major engineering feat, drops to below sea level at the point pictured above. The roadway, retaining walls and overpass comprise a 92,000 -ton "concrete boat" built to with- stand pressures from below sea level. pond. And indigestion on a large scale may even appeal' in fairly mild weather. That's because cows aren't built like camels, so trouble is com- mon in herds that are only turned out to water once a day. * * * So, Bailey says, why not take time off some evening and see if you can figure out some ways of getting more water into your cows this winter? Plenty of good drinking water means better herd health, and that means less expensg and mare milk. , * * * All of. which I pass along to you, together, with The Compliments of the Season.. Searching for Orchids Ever since Jocelyn Brooke was a child he has had a passion for or- chids, those strange and subtly beautiful ,plants. He says that of --the sixty .species that grow wild in Great Britain, many are very rare indeed and growing rarer owing to the increase of building, and the depredations of holiday makers, hikers and zealous botanists. He pleads that these lovely rarities should be allowed to flourish where they grew and said: "If one must gather them, it is better to cut the stalk, as this is less' likely to di- turb the root." • Brooke has been an orchid hunter since he was eight; entranced by the spell of these flowers he has sought and found some of the rarest of them. Orchids have a strangely imitative quality; there is the Bee Orchid, which looks like a cluster of living bees clinging to the stems and the Spider and Fly Orchids have this same quality of mimicry. There is a Man Orchid, Frog, liz- ard and Butterfly Orchids and, rar- est all in Britain, the Military Orchid, He has searched all his life for this, but has not yet found it He has even .written a book • called "The Military Orchid," combination of personal anecdote and botanical record which he terms an "autobontanography," • He called orchids the Royal Fam- ,ily of the British, Flora and said, "lik.e other kinds of royalty, they are on the clecrease; perhaps the plant world in this country is be- coming republican." He mentioned that orchids are thought of by the man in the street as symbols of Edwardian opulence or decadence; to him they have a fascination and a quality of uniqueness. "Orchids , are not quite like anything else; there is something rare and singular about them, something a little dif- ferent, something a little queer, something ratites- self-consciously and defiantly elegant." Jocelyn 'Brooke, product of Bed - ales and Oxford, bas been wine and STOCKING TIME By GLUYAS WILLIAMS • HAWS UP SToel(h46. .014 MANTELPIECE LIVANG ROOM GoES UP To BED WONDERING WHAT TIME SANTA CLAUS WILL COME TO MAT COMES DOWN HALF UNDREsSED ib MAKE SURE THAT STocKiNG IS IN MOST GOA/V.- 1W PLACE FO SANTA cLAus Ws UP AGAINIWON- RIM6 WRY pAREN SEEMED A LITTLE START LED WHEN RE APPEARED AT DOOR COMEgDoWAI OWE is PUZZLED BY ACTIONS RETIRES BUT HAS TO MORE TO MAKE CER- 0 PARENTS WOO COMC DOWN AGAIN TAIN TREr4 ISN'T' SEEM VERY ILL'AT-EASE To CONVINCE HIMSELF A ROLEU4 l4 ToE AND KEEP "MEW:ELVES The PIM IS STRONG OF THE sToCKING V.SETvigahl 111M AND ENOUGH TO HOLD • STo cKING SIOCKIMG.f INDS PAREMS -• VicAyrigfa, br Bell StoctionteVit LOCKED THE DoOR GEIS INTO BED WOW oElul* WHAT MAK PARENTS /‘CT se atiEER, PUT 16150 SLEEPY To 1,,NoRRY MUCH ABoUI book seller, author and medical -orderly in the Army. He joined as a private during the war, remained in the ranks for five years, and has recently re-enlisted for a further term. He concluded his talk on British orchids by saying: "When so many of dur public or private hymbols are losing their power to sustain us I find it consoling to think that certainly, btit I can still return every year to look at the Early Spider on the Dover cliffs, or the Lady Orchid in the woods of the Elham Valley, and' feel pretty sure that they will still be there, and that they will still give me the same satisfaction that they did when 1 was a child in that remote, untieliev- - able age of thirty years ago." Poor Hubby In recent months a perfume mak- er has been carrying on an unusual- ly ambitious advertising campaign in newspapers of the Mid -West and Far West. The ads smell like the perfume, which is miiced with the ink used for the particular page on which the ad appears. All went well until one news- paper, by error, got the perfume mixed into all its ink for one issue. The whole paper reeked. Heavily scented husbands hesitated to go home from the office lest their odor be misinterpreted. Glass -Blowers At A Delicate One The glassblower's delicate art is thousands of years old, and is gen- erally thought to have been di - covered about the beginning of the Christian era in the Phoenician city of Sidon. Since that time there has been little change in glassblowing methods, although modern tools help simplify the procedure, In the great days of Venice, glass blowers achieved a high artistie status with their exquisite creations, but today the blowing of glass for most uses has been modified by mechanical means, although the art survives to contribute an essential skill to the field of chemical re- search. The scientist, and especially the chemist, has become dependent upon glass as one of the chief materials for fabrication of con- tainers in which his studies are made. Front the beginning of science to the end of the last century only the simplest'glass apparatus was known; flasks, retorts and tubes were used and their style changed little down the centuries. In the last quarter century, however, more elaborate apparatus and custom- made glassware have been intro- duced, a development necessitated by the complicated work of today's scientific workers. In the type of work done for the laboratory, a raw stock of tubular glass, previously blown to this shape as part of the manufacturing process, is held in the flame of a burner, fueled with gas and com- pressed air or oxygen until the glass reaches the right state of flux, a point between rigidity and lique- faction. From long practice the operator konws by the colour of the glowing piece when it has reached the proper state of plasticity. The glass can then be drawn out many times its own length or blown into any shape desired. The flame from •the torch can be adjusted from a mere pinpoint to a fanlike blaze. Glass first becomes red and then white-hot and in this latter stage is almost impossible to mould; therefore, most of the work is done while glass is red•hot. As glass is a poor conductor ot heat the piece being worked can he handled within an inch.or two nIthis molten portion. Without this happy faculty, the glassblower's efforts ro znould the piece would be difficult indeed, as he must turn the entice affair by hand, slowly and routine.- , ously to achieve even heating while applying the dame. Strictly Fresh Anthropologists have turned up in South Africa another "missing link" in the evolution of man, Ultimately we expect to hear of the existence of a whole chain of nothing bot - missing links, In England, the top quiz prize ors BBC is $8. For that kind of money here, you couldn't even get people to answer the phone! One bookstore advertised a vo• lume entitled, "Harry Truman, a Political Biography," with this itit• flationary sign: "Formerly 19 cents, now three dollars." And for a de• flationary note—there's probably a drastic cut in any Dewey literature. * * * Juliette St, Amour was granted divorce from Romeo St. Amour io Detroit. That's a new wrinkle in very old cloth. II , dlotemarti 10..4 toc...4011sz. leery of blind dates—de- scribe her to me!" • 4 , , 44, • .144 44. •• 4,•• :41" rhe Otker Christmas Christmas—a time of candle.light flickering on happy faces, a time of carols and good cheer, of brightlywrapped gifts and tinselled trees. And deep within us all is still another Christmas, the Christmas guiding our every day— a Christmas born for us of a tolerance and understanding that goes beyond 1,vords$ born for us so that men may live in harmony, with purpose to their lives, and benevolence in their hear , , This is the othor Christmas, the spiritual Chrixtmas. THE HOU S E OF E A G. R A M