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The Brussels Post, 1960-12-22, Page 7THE FARM FRONT Joiom - '111.110• 111111111111111111111111111111111111111 iiiillitliiiiii1111111111111111611111111 Oi 1 t CHEMICAL PLANT EXPLOSION KILLS 1 T Clouds of smoke billow from giant Tennessee East. man chemical works at Kingsport, Tenn, after one of the plant's building was rocked by an explosion., At least 11 persons, were killed arld lYie others were missing and presumed dead. Firefighting Orgws..klipTo.,-Dilte • Not toe many ;leapt wee life in the rural regions was cons- tantly fraught with the threat of fire, It •still • is, of course, but xzietuls and methods • available once only to urban folks are now pretty generally used. in. deed, a trained city fireman to,- day would probably be most in- efficient if somebody suddenly asked him to put out a country blt,ze; I saw this happen ..once--'a really big fire concentrated equipment from many different cities and towns, and the crack engine and • crew from Central ,Fire •Station in the city of Port- land arrived at full. tilt out in the hinterland and was told to pump from a well. They might just as well have stayed at home, Their axes and shovels and men came in handy, but the engine wasn't rigged for our kind of fire. Long ago a neighbor crawled, to our place in a blizzard, be- cause we bad a telephone, and said his chimney was on fire. We called, not the firehouse, but the telephone operator, The fire- house didn't have a telephone either. She said she'd see what she could do, and after a time ,she located somebody who would ring the bell. When the men gathered, they decided the Model 'T truck with its hose lines couldn't push through the drifts. Much later, a couple of men came, wading hip-dem, with 'buckets over their arms, but the fire had been put out by salt thrown on the embers in the, stove, Those days are wholly gone. Winter roads are kept open, and the newer engines bring at least 600 gallons of water with them. 'The alarm system is better. We still have a "volunteer" com- pany, but the men keep in shape; are organized well, and are ready to roll promptly. Once, a farm - home that "caught" was considered doomed, and the men would try, to save the barn. times they saved the cellar; too. But today, four or five miles means but ,a few more minutes, and engines can arrive „, with country-fire equipment and stop a blaze as well as they can in .the village. Wood fires, once a violent country experience, ,have be- FASCINATION - India's Ja- waharlal Nehru gazes at "Cra- dle Song," Theodore J. Rozak's work on display in New York's Guggenheim Museum. T h e prime minister, taking a break from his U.N. activities, said, he was "perfectly fascinated" by the modern works an dis- play. PUZZLE come much less terrifying. The old method was to ,1;;;;N t ilifo. o s, many Men as poasible with brooms and shovels, and to heat the flames as best they could. Pails helped, but only if water was handy. There was a tech- pique known as ,Ahaelt-firine which often proved as destruc- tive as the original blaze. You started a second fire in the path of the first, controlling its down- wind edge while it was small, and then when the two Mot they burned each .qather out. A shift in the wind could throw every- thing off and you were worse than before, Very little public praise )comes for the professional foreat-fir fighter, But he has developed a organized, efficient system,which is more remarkable because of the wilderness areas in which he has to move. Maine's woodlands -the biggest unbroken stretches left in the country-are watched all summer long by keen eyes in towers. Telephone lines connect them to other lookouts, and to base stations. Radio is on day and night. Just this summer, a vacation- ing couple were caught on a lake by a stiff, bitter wind. They went ashore to wait it out, and kindled a fire to dry their clothes and make a lunch, They were not on an "authorized campsite." Fifteen miles away on a mountain a forestry warden spotted their smoke instantly, telephoned to a camp on the lake and said, "Thirty yards south of Gunner's Brook there's smoke; will you investigate?" The camp owner jumped in his boat, pull- ed the string on his motor, and was at the spot just as the kin- dler stood up with the burnt match in his hand! IL turned out all right, the in- cident didn't cause any trouble -but it shows how quickly and accurately the fire wardens can spot a blaz' So much less fre- quently nowadays, a woods fire will rage out of control. A lightning strike will usually be subdued before it has gone many feet-by wardens coming with portable pumps by boat and truck over woods routes that they have previously agreed upon. Just lately a woods fire burst up in "Township 17," far up in the Maine wilderness. Needing help, the local wardens got it by radio, and a helicopter hovered to coordinate the attack. Bull- dozers are, common in lumber operations now, and it was easy to converge several-not only to push bush undergrowth and strip out barriers, but to cut roads so pumpers and tanks could get In. Any' oil or gasoline transport, in an emergency, can become an auxiliary 'fire tank. A farmer's spray tank on a trac- tor can get over fairly tough terrain with at least a couple hundred galloni of water. ' So it didn't take long to organize a defense against this blaze. Btit it was a dry time, and the rich eotripost of the' woodlands gave -the fire a chance to, burn deep into the ground. Such as smoldering blaze can burst forth . again after you think you've licked it. The job • of the fire- fighters was to contain the blaze in as much an area as possible, and then wait for rain. They did, and it rained a few nights later. Meantime, the Great Northern Paper Company had moved in units of a portable lumber camp, and were feeding and housing 100 men in relays. This savage, fearsome, uncontrolled fire thus turned out to involve merely a couple hundred acres or so, and in spite of its potential it will go into the records as a minor in- cident. It could have swept furi- ously across the whole northern end of the state, and 25 years ago it would have.-by John Gould in the Christian Science Monitor, Leaded Qa4 Ruins. Outboard n Motors Save that motOrt aclitieee the- outboard motor. industry. And incidentally, your wallet, Use of "leaded gasoline is the greatest single cause „of Out- board , motor ,pteblems," rays Carl KiekhaPfer, president of the Klekhaefers Corporation of rond'at Lac ,Wis., Mercury out- board motor manufacturers. Speaking o,.the nation's boat- ing press at,the presentation of Mercury's.101 line of .outhoatd engines, Mr. Niekliaefer caution- ed boat owners that leaded fuels are designed,especially for the four-cycle,' high compression, en- gine where the gasoline and oil are not blended. As octane rat- ings move higher to meet the re- quirements of modern highways, lead compounds are added to gasolines to control the rate of combustion, When used to operate the two- cycle outboard engine, both regular and premium leaded gasoline build up deposits on the spark plugs causing failure. This may also lead to costly teardown of the engine. As lead deposits ,build up on the insulator tip and on the electrodes, eventually the plug is short circuited. This prevents ignition of the fuel-air mixture, which in turn leads to wet foul- ing due to accumulation of un- burned fttel on the electrodes„ Projecting flakes, of carbon also may becoriie red hot and ignite the fuel-air charge before the spark occurs, causing pre- ignition, The two-cycle outboard en- gine does not ,call for a high- octane fuel. A white gas, urges Mr. Kiekhaefer, even one' with a low-octafie rating will 'assure happier boating with fewer en- gine breakdowns., Often an outboard, owner, hoping to clean out a dirty, fouled engine, will add high- priced automotive detergent "oil to the gasoline. This compounds the damage to a two-cycle en- gine, writes Charles E. Dole in The Christian Science Monitor. Automobile engine oil contains a dilution inhibitor which resists mixing of the oil with the gaso- line and with combustion pro- ducts which are formed in the combustion chamber and escape past the piston rings into the crankcase. This same dilution in- hibitor makes the oil resistant to mixing with gasoline in the two- cycle engine, which is' essential for the proper lubrication and functioning of the engine. The result is a layer of oil at the' bottom of the fuel tank with gasoline at the top and an in- adequate mixture of gasoline and oil in between. Start the engine and what happens? With the fuel pickup at the bottom of the tank, the engine -smokes exces- sively at first, burning much of the oil that is in the tank. Then, as the engine receives almost straight gasoline, it overheats and the engine may be scored. High-priced automobile en- gine oil also contains metallic detergents to inhibit varnish formation and piston ring stick- ing. This is all very well for the four-cycle engine. In the two-cycle engine the metallic detergents enter the cylinders above the pistons and form deposits when they come in contact with the hot spark plugs, pistons and combustion chambers. The result? Scored metal and fouled plugs. The preferred outboard oil, according to the industry, is re- fined from paraffinic base crude, blended with organ's, not metal- lic detergents. With anywhere from $150 to more than $1,000 invested in an outboard engine, why risk cost- ly repairs through careless choice of fuels and oils? Many outboarders complain that white fuel is not available at their marina or in their area of the country: DeMand it, the industry says. Where there is a demand, the oil industry will meet it. Last year the multibillion- dollar boating industry in the United I States filled up their tanks to the extent of 490,000,000 gallons of gasoline and 25,500,000 galletia of oil. Japan's Winkie Doll Fever Is Spreading Japan's latest fad took over that country'' faster than Asian The atitaleett An inflated black plastic, :"dakkeelian" (erebrate, able( doll that clings to its owner'' with stubby little arms. NOW-the "dakkochan" or Winkle Doll IS being Copied over here. Likened to a baby Martian; the doll 1160 2 loving-cup ear4 a red '0", of a Month •and a little plastic Skirt. Its wink IS an illusion that ace ant. with every ,change in the' ailed at Whieh tliglit hits its. plas- tid and cardboard eyes. An Indian botanist has hit upon a revolutionary and inex- pensive method of solving In- dia's persistent food shortage. He asserts that soft music broadcast for a few hours daily to growing crops can increase their yield by as much as 100 per cent. The shrill ringing of an electric bell can jerk the seeds to germinate faster just as that sound might jerk a person out of sleep. But an overdose will result in the plants wither- ing away. * * These are the conclusions of Prof. T. C. N. Singh, head of the botany department of the An-. namalai University, South India. The professor's assertion is no idle boast. It is backed by 10 years of intensive research on the reactions of a variety of plants to music and sound waves. Professor Singh's claim is also backed by agriculttiral officials of Pendicherry, the tiny French settlement (now part of India), on the east coast of South India. For the past two' years, the Pondicherry administration experimented' with Professor Singh's technique to grow' paddy and other crops at a state-owned farm. The results were astound- ing - the crop yield increased from 28 to 61 per cent and the yield of straw went up as much as 75 per cent. * Professor Singh first got the Idea of trying music to acceler- ate the growth of plants from reading Hindu epics and histori- cal records. The epics speak of the Hindu deity Krishna playing the flute in the Brindaban gar- dens, 70 miles south of Mysore (South India). As a result, the gardens blossomed. The Mogul poet, Tansen, so history narrates, had such a great mastery of music that he once sang an entire garden into bloom, before his eyes, * e Peasants in many parts of India still observe the custom of harvest and sowing ,festivals when they sing and dance to the tune of music and drum beats amidst their fields. While the simple villagers have ne idea of the significance of these festi- vals, the professor feels that their origin might in some way be connected with the effect of music On the growth of plants. Soon after his appointment as head Of the botany department of Annamalai University, Pro- fessor Singh took up his experi- ments in earnest. He filled his house and garden with potted plants and experimented with a variety of Musical tunes to ob- serve the plants' reactions. First, he started with seeds. After a series Of experiments he suc- ceeded in speeding tip the get= ruination of seeds by "exciting them" 'with sound waves, He sowed a Variety of Seeds in different beds - paddy, mustard, Pea, teriander, and etheit, A Shrill-with-ding electric bell, installed nearby, we§ then rung continuously for 86 minutes each day. The seeds sprouted in 4:Mee third of the time it nor/leant rook for similar "unexcited" seeds 10 germinate, * • • Professor Singh's next task Was to find out how far Mtge could atedierate the growth and. yield of the plants. He Started With playing Various Indian tritt- sical tunes to the seedlings. Overdose of music resulted in many plants withering, Plants bombarded with sound waves from different tunes remained unaffected as far as their growth was concerned. But if one par- ticular tune was played for a brief period each day, the plants responded rapidly through fast- er and healthier growth. Their yield also showed a proportion- ate increase. * • The professor had to experi- ment with several tunes before hitting upon the right one suited to each plant. He calls this technique "musi- cal dosing" of the plants. "Dosed plants with the right type of music" became more lush and even changed structurally. Thus Mimosa l'udica (sensitive plant) was found to grow twice as fast when it was serenaded with a 25-minute daily dose of soft vio- lin' music continuously over a four-week period. The seeds sprouted in half the time le similar violin music was played nearby,. The most effective tunes in these experiments were Indian classical ones played on the flute, violin, and veena (Indian vio- lin). * e The plants also reacted vigor- ously to dancing. The professor found that if a dancer performed an Indian classical dance, with its stamping, clanging, and rhythmical music, the plants' growth pattern and yield in- creased in the same way as "musically excited" plants. Professor Singh ,made one of his students perform "Bharata Natyarn"-a particularly color- ful and vigorous form of Indian classical dance-before a group of potted plants for 30 minutes a day for a few weeks. The re- sults were exceedingly gratify- ing, he said later, writes Sharokh Sabavala in The Christian Science Monitor. He later branched out into large-scale experiments under actual field conditions of his dis- covery. Loud-speakers were in- stalled at strategic points in growing fields of paddy and other crops and each day record- ed soft music was played to the plants in brief daily doses over a period of three to four weeks. As a result the plants grew faster and their yields showed an increase of 28 to 60 per cent, compared to crops in neighboring fields. • • • Professor Singh explains the Secret of his technique thus: The sound waves produced by musical vibrations bombard the plants' cell Walls. This disturb- ance feeds to agitate the sensi- tive'protoplasm and titicletiS contained in the dells and causes their to react in ways that ad- delerate their normal arid cus- tomary growth. The adoption 'of professor Singh's technique by the Pondi- cherry agricultural officials •al- ready has proved successful; but Delhi's agricultural experts are still rather skeptical. They have now invited the professor to come to Delhi and demonatrate the effectiveness of his miithed at the capitril'S Agricultural Re- Search institute. It win take another two year 1. fore the exnetirrients in bel'lii can be completed. Should they prove a success, Indians would have really hit upon a sure way of solving their food shortage. The government already has indicated that it would adopt the technique on a mass scale to increase the food yield, provided the Delhi experiments succeed. All that the government need do, apart from the normal sup» ply of chemical fertilizers, is to provide a village with a set of records of soft music and install a few loud-speakers at strategic points in the nearby fields. The peasants can easily play the music each day during the ger- mination and growth period of the crops and then wait for a bumper harvest. These Wagon Trains Weren't So Tough! Alexander Majors, born in Franklin Count y, Kentucky, brought his young family to western Missouri in 1835, farm- ed for a decade, then ventured on a trading expedition to In- dian villages up the Kaw. The profits enabled him to buy six wagons and trade down the San- ta Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri. The trip established a record - he was back in ninety- two days, with a five-thousand. dollar profit. The feat was the more remark- able because of the work rules used by this soft-spoken giant. There is no record that Majore ever attended school. Yet he had learned to read and write flu- ently, and heredity had blessed him with eloquence plus the will to live in harmony with convic- tions. Methodist circuit-riders and Baptist lay preachers were organizing the massive frenzy of camp meetings in Missouri. A generation later, Alexander Ma- jors might have turned to the "cloth" and become a revivalist. Instead, he used the Bible as his "highest court" for ethical de- cisions and business judgments, and developed eloquence by studying it. So, in astonishing contrast to the frontier's harshness, Majors ran his freighting enterprise with Calvinist discipline. No work or travel was permitted on the Sabbath. Every employee must sign a pledge that read: "While I am in the employ of A. Majors, I agree not to use pro- fane language, not to get drunk, not to gamble, not to treat the animals cruelly, and not to do By B,ey, R. Barclay Warren B.U. 0142 g.XPerienee of clod Esalta 116; 14,4 Memory Selection; I love Itike Lord, because be bath loarkit my voice and my Supplicatione. Psalm 1.16 :1, We 511,00.41 withhold criticistn of that person, who, having ex- Perieneed great answers to pray* or, appears very effusive in his expressions of gratitude to God. We don't want to be like the Pharisee who found fault. whit the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, wiped them with the hairs of her bead,, kissed His feet and annointed them with oitment, To her Jesus said, "Thy faith bath saved thee; go in peace." Luke 7;50. The writer of our lesson had. been in trouble and sorrow. Some physical affliction had brought him low, He prayed: earnestly and was restored to health again. He was very grate- ful, He said, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." A severe illness has proved a blessing to many people. We are humbled. We realize our own, frailty. When we pray we find that God is merciful. That should and usually does excite our sense of gratitude. We make pro. mises of loving service to our Lord, Some pay these vows and, sorry to say, some do not. The Psalmist said, "I will pay my vows unto the Lord now 14 the presence of all His, people.' He was not ashamed of his Benefactor. Indeed, he wanted the people to know what great things the Lord had done for him. Those who serve the Lord should boldly take their stand for Him. We are called to be witnesses. Illness is an experience of the spirit as well as of the body. We can never be the same after it. Some are embittered. Their atti- tude is, "Why should this happen to me?" Why shouldn't it? Thil world is a place of thorns and, suffering. Look around and be thankful hat nothing worse has happened to you. Many are drawn closer to God through pain, I have had that experience. Only through suffer. ing was God able to get my at• tention and finally enlist me te take up my cross and follow Him. I thank God for all Hie ways with me. I love Him. anything incompatible with the conduct of a gentleman. I agree,, if I violate any of the above conditions, to accept my digs' ` charge without any pay for my; services." The pledge signed, and cares fully filed, Majors presented to each new hand a leather-bound Bible, and later, as his business developed, a copy of his crisp, learned "Rules for Wagon Masa ters." es Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking WOMOU WM WWWWWWWWWWUM WWUM CUM ODU MVO COMM OU MOO 0Cm MU 1120 WUDIJOW OM WOM WOW LI MC WOODUMME ION UP MO OM W DOE= WWM ©OE ECU 011012 WOUW0000 101 000 wOODO IdY ISSUE 46 -- 1960 lance 41. AltertiatiVe 4 Mongolian ' . Storage container 4t. Mavable harrier If. Pedal Melt . 3/. The highest intelleat 62 Leaking' 2„ 6re tan(' IriVi Moray Salieinee 39. Pelle,/ . it. tone Atthet4ii 11. Tavern 98. Steal 33. Transported 42. Perin bu tiding a specified 43. Labot way ACROSS DOWN 14. TIP , 44. Actor's part 46. Christmas 19. Old joke .47. ApPointed to 1. Toward the 1. Function *tern 21. Netwous arrive 20 Instead Of . twitching 48. Constituting 4, Lawful 22. SWIft19 9. ue. letter 4',, Behold 23 Biblical enetiiy so. atirdlitoilhe 3. Prune 12. 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Infant's CROSSWORD India napkin 10, Sault Sainte 35. Subsiding Marie 37. Large tank 40.11111...: Answet eiSetViitee tilS page 1 I r 4:k BIKE Way up le tha it-yeer-old !'chord 61a* hltinei g es Uneaty stfille for the benefit of the pii6tedeaphlw and Jane gritnell, 6. The Y5-year-Old relle it Mounted outside p. bitytte shop In Wcitcestior Park. Urritiy. En'elerid.