The Seaforth News, 1924-09-18, Page 6Address communications to Agronomist, 73 Adelaide St. West, Toronto
PICKING APPLES IS AN ART.
Picking apples is a fine art. To
bogie with, one must get them off
without injuring the tree at all, and
that requires no little skill. And then
the -fruit itself must not be bruised
or damaged in the least, and that
requires still more skill.
For the protection of the tree, care
and good ladders are all that are re-
quired, but they are enough. If one
has the three-legged stepladders, some
of them fairly long, a good share of
the fruit may be picked without the
ladders touching the trees to any ex-
tent. That also does away with the
a number of years and then be use
again in the original herd is 'on
method that could be resorted to or
!the part of the first owner of a tried
and proven sire. Another method tha
prove workable is for two par
ties conveniently situated who hav
valuable tried sires to exchange ser-
vices for such of their own animals
i as are closely related to their own
]sires, Following out: these sugge.
tions would extend the usefulness of
a bull, for instance, from the usual
.three or four years to seven or eight
years.
The greatest possibilities, however,
tad of usefulness
human "clay" it is not: so easy to be- vice to one's family and to one's
gin over. The clay hardens hs we go. l neighbors is a habit that later will
Habits are necessary but they must develop into service for one's commun-
Genes-
habitbe good habits, If we had not thel ity of cleanliness we should have osityTis a habit.d to 111sp at large. esIf
is selfishness. If
Wet Blankets—By Ethel G. Peterson
Agnes rushed excitedly into the. I world rush in all eagerness to
Home Education
'Tho Child's First School is the Family"—FrooboL".
to think about cleanliness and to useithe child is encouraged to be. gener-
will power and energy forcing our-' ous with playthings,the man will .be
selves to cleanliness. With a habit of with his house, .his automobile, his
cleanliness we wash ourselves and money and his self. •
clean our teeth without exerting con -I Those who, are molding the clay
scions energy to make ourselves do should not be chary of praise. Espe-
a o goo D e c a y in -overcoming a• bad abit, The
d manners we behave . ourselves with child who habitually uses good man-
e becoming propriety and do not have Tiers will not expect praise for doing
to make an effort to do so, I what is all he knows how to do.
at
Their reasoningpowers are not level -:Sunshine for Chicken Rousts.
- oped. They do as they are told or do, Most chicken roosts are forever
not do as they are told according to hidden froni the Sint and cleaning is
what they find out about the discipline a doubtful process, but one poultry -
of their elders. A child of two years man has devised aplan bywhich he
will ]Darn obedience if he is trained
s sterilizes the •roosts in the sun and
] into a habit of obedience. but he will, air' after s l—a in .. This is ads t -
be disobedient if he learns that the able to small houses onl . p
government over him is lax. He has.Y
ae excellent mer.oe,i. If he tried tot He nailed a cleat below one•end of
run away the day bef,i•e yestc"clay the roosts, clinching them together,
•,,••„ ,,_ ,,-, L- t __•, Then the other ends were allowed to
Very little children do not reason.
knocking off of apples, which is sure!
to happen more or less when the long'
orchard ladders are leaned up against
a tree laden with fruit.
The fruit in the top of the tree
must, of course, be picked from a long
orchard ladder, provided the trees are
full sized, but if one has the type of
ladder with the side pieces coming
together in a point at the top, and if
care is used in placing them against
the trees, little damage will result.
The picking of the last few scatter-
ing apples in the high and outlying
branches is always a problem.
If one will equip his force with one
or two of the so-called apple pickers
the work may be done quickly and
efficiently. These pickers are of var-
ious types, but in general are some
sort of wire basket with wire fingers
to slip around the apple and pull it
off.
The last factor in this problem of
getting the crop ori without injuring
the tree is to see that the fruit spurs
are left,
In preventing damage to the apples
themselves a few simple rules are all
one need observe.
Don't pull the stein out of the apple.
Don't toss the apple into the basket.
Don't pour the apples from the bas-
ket into the storage box or barrel, or
if you do pour them let it be done
very carefully.
To insure leaving the spur on the
tree, but picking the stem with the
apple, simply place your finger or
thumb alongside the stem, give a
quick side twist to the fruit, and the
stem will separate at the joint be-
tween it and the spur.
LENGTHENING THE PERIOD OF
USEFULNESS OF SIRES.
It is a lamentable fact that many
sires that have later proven to be.
vlauable breeders have had a limited
period of usefulness to their breed
due to the fact that they were dis-
posed of before their breeding ability,
became known, Early disposal is
sometimes due to a disinclination to
risk the insecurity to life and limb
entailed in keeping aged breeding
animals around, but more often is.
due to the gradual impotency, inadvis-
ability of inbreeding and the lack of
facilities for keeping two herd sires.
Be the causes what they may, the fact
remains that, in many cases, better
use could be made of many of the out-
standing sires in the country that
meet with slaughter while still in
prime breeding condition,
With most classes of stock, proper
care, comfortable quarters, plenty of
exercise, and due cautions on the part
of the attendant reduces impotency in i
the animal and the risk of attendants
being injured by aged sires to a mini-
mum. Also in most classes of stock,
the get of the sire mature sufficiently
early to enable a fair estimate to be c
made, through the get. of the breed-
ing ability of the sire before the lat- s
ter has to be disposed of to avoid in-
breeding. Such being the ease, it t
Would seem advisable for the breeder a
to study his breeding results closely t
and retain as long as he possibly can!
those sires that show outstanding, s
merit. 1 c
Co-operation with neighbors or 1
other breeders (where accredited s
herd regulations will allow in such a t
way that sires may be exchanged for r
of proven sires are in getting the new
breeder to appreciate the value of
these proven sires and to buy them
whenever possible in preference to the
untried young sire. Instances with-
out number could be quoted where
money has been lost and years of
breeding have been wasted, so far as
improvement of herds and flocks was
concerned, through the use of untried
sires that have proven misfits..
On the other hand, many good
proven sires that have been offered
for sale have gone to the slaughter
house for want of a buyer. In the
interests of the breed and the ad-
vancement of breeding generally,
every owner of a tried and proven
sire should, when he is through with
him, endeavor to put him in the hands
of someone who can make further use
of him. Likewise, anyone looking for
a new sire should see that the supply
of tried and proven sires is exhausted
before purchasing a young unproven
one.
This system is followed as between
the Central and Branch Experimental
Farms, and has given excellent re-
sults.
ROBBING AND HOW TO PRE-
VENT IT.
Bees, like some people, if given the
opportunity, will steal from one an-
other rather than work. This, how-
ever, happens usually only in times
of scarcity.
A robber bee is characterized by its
nervous actions. It will fly cautiously
up to the entrance of a hive, and
when it sees a bee coming towards it,
it will quickly dodge back; or it will
search the walls of a hive in the hope
of finding some unguarded crack
through which it can crawl. An old
offender has a shiny appearance, the
result of crawling through cracks or
being roughly handled by the guards.
On leaving the robbed hive, it has a
plump look and unlike the inmates
which come out leisurely, it is in a
hurry and takes wing with difficulty
owing to its. load,
It is the beekeeper's duty, there-
fore, to prevent his bees acquiring
such dishonest habits by seeing that
no sweets are left exposed at any
time; that all cracks and openings in
the walls of the hive are closed with
mud or clay; that when hives are
opened the work be done speedily;
that feeding, if any, be done in the
evening; and that entrances be con-
sistent in size with the strength of
the colony. Should disease be present,
these measures are doubly necessary
to prevent not only robbing and its
disastrous results, but also what is
nfinitely averse, the spreading of the
disease.
Should robbing start, prompt ac-
tion is necessary- Contract the en-
trance so that but two or three bees
an enter abreast; then strew a hand-
ful of coarse grass over it and
prinkle with a dipperful of water.
This puts the robbers at a disad an -
age, as the bees of the colony will
ttack them as they crawl through
he 'wet grass.
Should the robbed colony, however,
tend in danger of being overcome,
arry it clown into the cellar and
eave it there until the uproar sub
ides. Coal oil wiped over all junc-
ions of the hives acts as an excellent
epellant.—A. H. W. Birch, Apiarist.
Your Baby's Habits
Mother is the Moulder of the Human "Clay"
BY DELLA
There is a little pottery in our town
where some ambitious and imagin-
ative girls turn out lovely things, I,
went down there recently to see them'
work. I watched the big lump of dull
looking clay placed on the wheel—a
stupid thing it seemed, lopping this
way and that and having to he held
firmly , in place by the hand of the
potter. Then the wheel began to turn
and the clay to take shape. It was
a vase the girl was modelling and at
first it was rather a bulgy affair with
humps on its surface here and there
and not giving much promise of its
later loveliness.
Round and round went the wheel.
Firmly and deftly the fingers of the
potter molded and pressed and shaped.
Never for a moment did her eye leave
the work she was doing. Finally
grace and lightness tookthe place of
ugly, lumpy forret. Symmetrical and
lovely, the .creation was finally placed
before us. Later in the. week. I saw
T. LUTES.
the vase again, a thing now of exqui-
site coloring and glaze, The hand of
the potter had shaped the clay to
grace and beauty and applied this
finish, the coating of color and smooth
shininess that covered all its gross
beginning.
The likening of the molding- of hu-
man character to the potter's wheel
is an old simile but I do not know' a
better oris. The infant is but a bit
of clay, lumpy, loppy, ready to he
made into anything at all. The hand
of -the potter, isall powerful with this
human clay as with the bit of earth,
FORMING CHARACTER.
Character is formed through habit.
Habit of thought, of act, of deed,
And habits are formed in infancy,
childhood and youth. Tis is the
molding period. Then the clay is wet,
pliable. If the potter lets his clay
harden it must be wet up again and
the molding begun over. With the
managed to do it two or three times;
he will keep on trying and will pay
no attention to a command, 11 he finds
that the day before yesterday and
yesterday and every other day when
he ran away that he was Brought
back and spoken to unpleasantly or
punished, he will soon get into a Habit
of obedience aboait runner/ away.
But that does not mean that he will
have the habit of obedience about
other things. He does not reason that
for. He has to bo brought into a
habit of obedience with every single
thing he does, until the habit of obey-
ing a command is a fixed one.
Physical habits have to be incul-
cated before mental habits, because
in infancy the child is purely physi
cal. Mental development comes later
and with it roust come the establish -
mg of mental habits. The infant must
be taught the habit of sleep at regu-
lar hours. This can not be done by
putting him to bed one day at five
o'clock and another at seven.
Fear is a habit—of mind. Sulki-
ness, obstinacy, selfishness, inatten-
tion, are all mind habits. Constant
example is the best antidote for such
habits. The child who lives in a home
where cheerfulness is the keynote no
matter what the difficulties, is more
or less bound to be cheerful,, Sullen-
ness is pretty sure to fade away under
the influence of a happy smile and
pleasant words. Ridicule does harm
instead of good, since it engenders a
habit of self consciousness and re-
sentment. Scolding is worse. Nothing
but steady, happy molding will do the
work.
Thumb sucking is one of the most
easily acquired of baby habits. It is
a bad habit. It misshapes the mouth,
pulls the gums out of shape, encour-
ages adenoids. To break it, the child
must form another habit with his
hand—the habit of keeping it away
from his mouth. The only way to do
this is not to allow his hand to reach
the mouth until he has forgotten the
habit,
TRAINING SHOULD DE POSITIVE,
Child training should be positive in-
stead of negative as far as possible.
Of course if a child contracts a bad
habit that habit must be broken. Or,
in other words, he mast be given a
good habit to take the place of the
bad one.
Reading is a habit formed in child-
hood or never. Church -going is a
habit that must he begun early and
kept to steadily through youth. Ser -
project through the side of the house
so they just came flush with the out-
side, A stop board cleated thein to
at that end and also closed up
'the holes in the building and kept out
]the weather. The inside cleat rested
upon one below it to support the
roosts at the desired height.
When cleaning time came the own -
11 d
wn-
lled out the roosts then• full
length, supporting then by a stake
underneath, and proceeded with the
cleaning outdoors. When finished and
aired, the roosts were simplypushed
back into the building onto their in-
side supporting cleat.
Artificial Light in Summer.
Although the use of artificial light
in the control of egg production is
largely confined to the late fall; and
winter months, it has been found that
it is worth while to use some artificial
light as early 'as the first of August.
Observation of the way hens lay
leads to the conclusion that although
(narked changes in temperature tend
to bring about corresponding changes
in egg yield, there is quite a tendency
for egg production to anticipate some-
what the seasonal changes in length
of day.
Spring egg production reaches its
peak considerably in advance of the
longest day of the year and the low-
est point of production comes some
weeks before the shortest day of the
year.
Reasoning from this basis one may
explain, at least in part, the favor-
able results in egg laying which fol-
low the use of some artificial light as
early as August, while . the natural
daylight still exceeds twelve hours.
Try a Short Chain.
An Dight -foot log chain has been
part of my farming outfit for six
years, I had a grab hook and a round
hook welded on the ends.
I use this chain four times where
I use the twenty -foot ones once. It's
easy to carry, quick to hitch on any
tool and will stand any pull.
When I take a few sacks of fertil-
izer to the field and want it moved up
to where I work, the short chain
quickly connects to the drill and the
wagon moves where I want it without!
unhitching. This chain will get a load
of poles or a log where I want it(
easier than a long one.
Maybe you've broken a chain which
can be fixed up into a short one.1
You'll never regret it,—E. R.
room, intent on telling the fami.y share my news with Mother. Prole-
about the tennis match,. She had not ably her first comment would be,
finished two sentences when Jrck, who "Alice, your voice is several octaves
had reached the fastidious stage in'too high. Get it down,"
his existence, interrupted. ! A 'little subdued; I would recom-
"Gee, you're a sight( Mother,. can't mence, only to hear, "That word is
you make her fix her hair better? It's' accented on the first syllable, not on
forever tumbling down; other chaps'i the second."
sisters don't look the way she does."' 'When I had been stopped several
Mrs. Norris said gently, "Jack, let times in that fashion, my enthusiasm
Agnos tell her story." had evaporated.; Mother, noticing
Agnes made a grimace at Jack, ant this, would laughingly say, "Now go
went on with her tale, an account of on and tell me about it. I simply
thegame she had won against odds, wanted to call your attention to that
She was -making a very good.narra- word before I forgot."
tive of it, but now it was Big Sister And many times I too flounced out
who said, "Don't talk so fast. No- of the room with the silent resolve
body can understand a word you say." never ,to tell Mother anything again.
Agnes ignored this, too, but when a Now, I know that it was Mother's
minute later her father remarked love for me, her deep desire that
I
Imild]Y,"Daughter,bullyis not a nice should excel, that made her critical,
word for a young lady -to use," the but to this day I have a fear of her;
child, already overwrought with the criticism of .any talk I niay give, or
strain of the game, burst into tears, any article I may write—the childish i
and left the room, sobbing out, "When impression is:still too strong. And
I tell you folks anything again, you'll as a consequence, Mother has been i
know it." hurt many times at my reserve over;
The fancily commentedin resigned;. my personalaffairs.
tones on Agnes' dreadful temper, but . So I have firmly resolved that both
my sympathies were all with the girl, for my sake and theirs, I will not
for I remembered my own childhood. "wet blanket" my children's first en -
I was the intense, emotional type, my thusiasms. If criticism must' home,,
mother calm, reserved, and a purist let It be later, after the first excite
in the use of English, meet has worn off.
G
MY
G,'IARDA' s,EN FALL
` BY F. Ie. ROCKWELIL.
I had a garden;seve;'.l years -before
I realized that,I wee malting it work
onlyabput half=time. Since I leamned
to make it put in -full time, I've ivon-
dered each year why .more farmers
don't realize the. possibilities of the
late fall garden.
On most farms there is plenty of
land available,; but even 'where the
space is limited, there will be ground
where spring and summer crops have
1 matured that can be. used agile. r
use a two-way hillside plow, which will
tarn ever narrow strips without leav-
ing any dead furrow.' It is 0 good
plan to rake in a dressing of fertilizer
with a high percentage of ammonia,
as it is important to give these 1 ,te
plantings a quick start: I have one
line of overhead irrigation which I ran
move around to give a gee I wetting
rping o to l
anyight tiafterme getting'antithse as cropnot up aosend
started.
I plant bush beans, spinach. turnips,
mustard (fine for greens), radishes,
and also plants of lettuce, cabbage,
Brussels sprouts, and kale, these lat-
ter being good, big, stocky plants
which have had lots of room to de-
velop. The later the planting is done
the more:• important it is to use an
early variety of whatever is being
sown,
To make sure of rapid growth, I
give a top -dressing of nitrate of soda
THE CHILDREN'S
HOUR
ARE YOU POLITE AND COUR-
TEOUS?
Are you courteous, day by day, and
do you make a constant effort to be
so? Even common courtesy and po-
liteness are not found as often as they
should be. And yet anyone who is
continuously courteous is making him-
self, thereby, very popr'pr with every-
one he meets. For courtesy and po-
liteness are great assets that often
have a real, monetary value. It pays
to be polite. A business concern,
where politeness and courtesy are
practiced, is one to which customers
are naturally drawn. And, more than
that, it. makes for acquaintance, and,
later, possibly, friendship. Also your
exercise of politeness and courtesy at
all times will make you a lady, or e
gentleman, in the fullest sense of the
words, in the eyes of others. If we
want to be workers, who leave behind
a mark of progress and betterment,
we should be polite and courteous at
all times to everyone. It takes brains
to be clever, but it takes character to'
be a real lady or gentleman.
ON THE WRONG ROAD.
At the crossroads the sign post was
down, and Jackie Rabbit, Johnnie
Muskrat and -Willie Woodchuck all
wanted to take a different road home.
But when Johnnie Muskrat drew the
longest in the "cuts" they started off
down the road he thought was the
one that would take them back to
Woodland. These throe little Wood-
land boys didn't like it one bit to be
lost, and hurried along so they could
get home before dark.
CONQUERORS OFROBSON'S LOFTY .P
Members of the first parties of Al- :Lower•group, right to .lett; Back row,
pine Club members to. climb chant M. C. Geddes, Calgary, who also took
:Robson, 18,068 feel; high and Monarch rail In first ascent, of Mt. Geikie, in
Of the Canadian Rockies. Upper photo- Jasper National Park; T. B. Moffat,
graph shows fist party on snow ridge Calgary; T -I. 10. Laanbart,- Ottawa; A.
at the summit of Mount Robson, with .'Drinnan, Calgary, and T. 13, Porter,
1 Conrad Rain, noted Canadian guide, in: Saskatoon:
'the lead. duper right, 0 -lies M. I3.;. Front row:. ,T, Saladana, gtilde an(I
Gold, of Edmonton, a member of the I packet'; W. A, D. Monday, Vancouver;
third party to reach Robson's summit, Mrs. W. A. D. Munday first woman to
EAK
reach the peak of Robson; A. H. Mac-
Carthy, of Windermere, -B:0., who is
credited' with taking part in first act-
' ual official, ascent; -.M9§s Annette' E.
Buclr, Brooklyn, N.•Y'., and Harry PO.
lard, Calgary photographer, who pack-
ed a comers to.Robson's peak to se-
cure the first pictures of a climbing
party at the summit.—C.N.R. photos.
All the waY, Jackie Rabbit was ver
much in doubt about their being o
the right road. Several times h
scratched his head and wondered
Everything looked strange to him
even the big trees looked different
Willie Woodchuck didn't have mut
to say about it, but he, too, was cath
er doubtful and all the time his fa
little legs were getting more tired.
It wasn't long before they came t
where the woods were thinner and
little way farther on there was onl
here and there a tree. Finally the
came to the open fields where tiler
were no trees at all.
"I don't think this is the way home,'
said Willie Woodchuck, "mother al
ways taught me to beware of the open
fields. She said a man with a gun
could easily see you there."
"Don't be a coward, Willie," said
Johnnie, "Let's go on a little farther.'
Soon they came to a village, but it
didn't look at all like their own little
village in Woodland,
"This isn't Woodland," said. Jackie'
Rabbit. "We must be a long, long
way from home."
"Yes, but where, where?" lamented
Willie Woodchuck. "I'm getting awful-
ly tired. These houses are so big,
twice as big as ours, and they are all
built on stones. I never saw stone
houses before. On the sign it said
',Stoneyville, and this must be the
place. We must have come the wrong
way."
"Who lives in Stoneyville?" asked
Jackie Rabbit.
"I don't know," said Johnnie Musk-
rat, "but I'll knock at this door and
see if they can tell us the way to
Woodland."
It took a lot of courage for Johnnie
to go up to the door, but he knew he
should for it was his mistake. As he
went up the path, he was saying to
himself, "I won't be a coward." But
all the time his knees trembled and
he wished more than he had ever
wished in his life that he was home.
At the end of the path Jackie and
Willie waited for him,
"Rap tap tap?"
In a minute, but it seemed like sev-
eral minutes to Johnnie Muskrat, the
door opened and there stood a man
whom his mother had always taught
him to fear. Of course Jackie and
Willie saw him too.
It is hard to say who was more
surprised, the man to see these three
little Woodland boys in his front yard,
or the boys to learn that a man lived
in that big stone house. Added to the
Woodland boys' surprise, they were
terribly frightened. To think that one
of them had dared to knock right on
a man's door!
But they didn't stop one minute to
consider it or to ask questions. They
took to their heels as fast as they
could go, dodging behind bushes and
bunches of grass until they, had left!
Stoneyville far behind.
Feed the Pullets Liberally.
Y as soon as the plants are well started,
TI Frequent cultivation is also important
e to keep the ground active.
• Several' of these late planted crops
will not reach full maturity, but for
• storing and canning they are all the
h better. The beans, for instance, usu-
- ally giveetus two air three picking's of
delicious, tender young pods that are
so much better than those ordinarily
o canned that there is no comparison.
a The same is true of the beets, which
Y! are most delicious when only an inch
Yi or so in diameter; and they will keep
e in perfect condition in the cellar,
where mature roots, such as we used
to store before we found this better
way, will wilt and be as tough as
leather,
Cloth -Wrapped Wires.
, To preclude the necessity of school
children climbing and damaging his
fences on their way to and from
school, a farmer wrapped the wires
between two posts with pieces of bur
lap. This allowed the youngsters to
slide between the wires in safety and
saved the farmer the trouble and
worry of keeping several sections of
fence stapled onto the posts.
The same idea is adaptable to other
places about the farm where gates
are impractable and where occasion
often arises for climbing through
fences.
It is easy to make the mistake of
not feeding pullets on range all that
they ought to have at this season.
In the first place they are, or should
be, growing rapidly. This means that
their requirements for maintenance
are increasing steadily. Furthorlirorle,
the natural feeds that have been
available to them are no longer so
plentiful.
It is probably_ true that 'thousands
of pullets. will fail to" give. maximum
egg production this fall because . of
too little feed •during the hist 8f the
growing season. Non_, will be in-
jured by overfeeding.
Especially should . liberal grain
feeding be practiced in order to keep
the ,pullets' in good flesh and to pre-
paee;them for winter egg production;
In looking for 'a place to sell fruit,
a microscope is a good .instrument to
use, states one successful farmer. It
may be there are people close by who
would be willing to pay•a good price
for' fruit if they knew' about it.
Russia in Europe and Asia' has a
population of about 126,000,000,
Hand -Bent Pipes.
Quite often on the farm there
arises the need of pipes with bends to
them, but the average man is inclined .
to think that only a mechanic with.
special tools can •bend a- pipe. This
is a mistaken notion.
All that is required is to fill the
pipe with dry sand, plugging both
ends securely, andapply heat at the
precise point where the bend is de-
sired.—'H. H.
It is becoming more and more ap-
parent to farmers who produce good
eggs that they can, as a rule, secure
better yea r'round prices for this pro-
duct where they cater to a demand
that is reasonably near home.
The alfalfa grower succeeds best
with a fine seed -bed, vigorous adapted
seed, and sweet soil. He will, how-
ever, do well to give the new seeding
plenty of plant food to enable it to go
through the first winter successfully.
Often this can be satisfactorily done
on many soils with a good application
of acid phosphate or a high -analysis
fertilizer. Some hold that for this
purpose the fertilizer is preferable to
manure because of avoiding `weed
seeds.
"Jennie said I writ cue man in a
thousand."
"Ridiculous] She's nevte agage1
to so many.
Patiline's Peril,
One day when Pauline's mother was
reading to the child, alio clime io the
word gravitation, the meaning 'of
this she explained to Yauiino telling
her ]cow it wss that people 'sta:>ed or,
the earth. A few claye ,alrr Pamine
came running into the bourn with the
announcement: •
"Mother! It's a good thing for ire `
there's a law of gravitation; if tbere
wasn't I'd have surely tumbled head
over heels into heaven just now!"
Have patience! Turn the stone till
the axe is sharp. The work that if
will do will pay you twice over