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The Seaforth News, 1960-06-30, Page 3Children Playing In The Woods Every year, about this time, 1 get a return of a great sadness over our woods --they sit there alone, with no children whoop- ing things up. It was not always 50. Great comments are made on every hand about juvenile delin- quency and the purposelessness of the beat generation. Maybe it's because nobody plays in our woods anymore -and there have been worse theories than thati There used to be children there, and by this time of year they'd have quite a program going. Our woods happen to be sit- uated se this might be important,. The old range roads were laid out a mile apart, more or less, and in Maine they had to aocom modate hills and streams so the pattern wasn't always so check- erboardish. Our house happens to sit on the far side of such a Maine square from the village- so our woods are closer to town than our house is. The back end of a Maine farm is usually the pasture and wood - lot, and before the days of dairy improvement it would be both, and as the village has grown over the years people have lived closer and closer, Perhaps in time our woods will be in town while our home is still out in the country, This situation made our woods available to village children, and they'd begin appearing as soon as the snow was gone. I used to play with them, or they with me, and there was infinite variety in our pleasures -although maybe in this clay explanations will come hard. We used to make tree houses, for instance. You'd sit up on a limb with imaginary boards, and have quite a good tree house. Remembering how this went, it's somewhat forlorn to wander along now, as I do, and look at the magnificent opportunities that children are no longer us- ing, My own youngsters are off at school and college, so I have no idea what the present-day children are doing instead. They certainly aren't swinging on birches, for instance. A beauti- ful stand of paper birches has come in along the edge of the maple grove, and nary a child has approached them. They are just going to waste. There are no limbs on a birch this size for hands and feet, so you have to "shinny." It's like climbing a pole. And after you get up far enough your own weight causes the tree to bend over. Thus you swing far out and down, landing light as a pussy cat on the ground, and the tree then swings back up into place for somebody else to use. Fifteen or twenty youngsters, going up and coming down can do quite a business -and then there is the occasional misfire. This happens when you don't get up quite far enough, which means fast enough, and the tree bends too soon. It leaves you out but not down. You may be fifteen feet off the ground, and not heavy enough to make the tree bend some more. There you are, hollering away, and everybody finds it amusing. You have a kind of summit decision to make which is simply to let go and come down in a heap. It was never as bad as I thought it was going to be, and next time you climb you make sure to go a bit higher. We used to have meeting places. We'd break up, come evening, with an agreement to meet at "Number One" -this was a monstrous great red oak in the lower pines. It stuck up so high the pine limbs crowded around it, and gave the effect of being a red oak trunk with pine limbs, That was Number One. When we built our house I cut the oak and made the living. room floor with it -it is still Meeting Place Number One. Meeting Place Number Two was a ledge above the spring, a Ode place to have li Lire. When we took lunches, that's where we'd wind up, Most always, if we were Englishmen we'd meet at No, 1, but if we were Indians, we'd nler:t at No. 2. It was a bet- ter place to dry scalps. There were no cowboys around, just Englishmen and Indians, The Englishmen always lost, and got scalped. We were hard on Englishmen, But, there was so much more. We saw the skunk cabbages corn- ing through the ice, and later the hypaticos and moccasin flowers. Somehow, I remember, we had a rule that Mayflowers and Moc- casin flowers didn't get picked - I've always ever since frit bad to see either in a bouquet. They were said to be flowers that of- ten failed to come again the next year if disturbed, sowe left them. We found partridge and wood- cock nests. We sometimes climb- ed pines and brought down a little crow which we kept for a pet. Every boy had a pet crow, one time or another, and you didn't have to keep him in a cage. One of the nicest things about playing in the woods was the coming of night, when we'd separate for our homes, The village boys would go one way, and I'd come out through the junipers at the top of the hill and see the house down across the fields, lamplight in the win- dows. Being careful to avoid ambushes, I'd scout the situation and find the settlement safe. It was nice to know that while you were supporting the pioneer hardships the people you were protecting were having if comfy and cozy. Little did they know the dangers that prevailed. This spring, as many springs now, I've wandered out as I al- ways do, and there is no evi- dence 01 child's play in the for- est. Nobody makes a brush lean- to; there are no ashes at No, 2. The bright new birches have gone unswung. Nobody has scalped an Englishman; nobody has tracked a Pemaquid. The whole acreage is going to waste, and I think it's a terrible thing we've corse to, -By John Gould in The Christian Science Mon- itor. imagine Sleeping For 23 Years Imagine for a few moments that you're a man (or a woman) of seventy. Then it will amaze you to learn that even if you're a comparatively quiet individu- al, you've spent no fewer than thirteen years talking, says a Swiss scientist. If this fact hasn't left you speechless, ask him how many words the daily speech of a hu- man being consists of and he'll tell you: "An average of 18,000 words, equivalent to a book of fifty-four pages." So a seventy -year-old person has spoken as many words as are contained In 4,620 books of 300 pages each, declares this expert, after making elaborate calcula- tions. For good measure he also tells us that a seventy -year-old per- son, assuming he or she spends eight hours a day sleeping, has slept for twenty-three years. We also spend a great deal of time in eating. A man of seventy spends six years of his life feed- ing and about one and a half years are spent in washing him- self, assuming he washes regu- larly! What about a seventy-year- old's work, entertainment and leisure hours? These involve a period of twenty years, says the scientist. CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Ringed metal fastener 5. wading bird 9. Water resort 12. Aw6y from windward 13. Patron saint of sailors 14, Belly 15, Inclined walls 38. Segregate 18, Threefold 20 Paradise 21, Corroded 22. Tempt 211. Used in mark Ing trans 15, Flatter servilely 31. T,1mb 22, Blasphemed 24, Propel n boat 85. exhaust AA 55 energy 27. Motions of the AAA 114/Filigal";4 4Dave tato 8 rollingSto follow stilt . Testgnn to , wile Spend contest roily . Pail'being . Grandson f A dais al. �oT WN L8ttaledoer 9. Tapering flag 86. Secondnet112 10.:The pool a quadrille in peter 38. Peaceful 11, AIffIrmr tI-.e 41. Vanetlan vote maBletrates 77. LC al rio 42. Mythical 10, Cavallrymdanca 0 monster weapon 45. Strong wind 2. Wing -shaped 22. Aurictthite 40. Foreboding 2. Half (prefix) 24. Siouan ndInn 47. narber's call 4. Condiment 26. Gulis 48. Damp and 6. Plant again 26. Moslem .judge c111ny g 27. War go l 49, Epoch 6. Beverage 28 lnenlrnt ea 00. Noncom - 7. Is Imo inent 80. Absolute ntissioned 8. Mental burden 22. Idealist officer (nb.) 1 t 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 16 16 19 19 26 21 a 22 17 20 23 24 25 27 22 29 30 11 32 33 34 35 16 37 38 39 42 43. 4o 41 44 45 46 47 48 52 55 49 51 83 64 56 5'23 57 Answer elsewhere on this page. THANKS, CHUM - A small fawn, found lost and starving, gives an affectionate nuzzle to 4 -year-old Gayle Schoen as feeding time comes around in its new home. Holding the deer is brother Wayne, Canadians have heard so much of the decline of the rural popu- lation that they tend to accept it as a fact without probing for the human factors behind it, comments Dr. Helen C. Abell. Dr. Abell, head of the rural sociology unit of the Economics Division, Canada Department of Agriculture, made a careful study of this problem in Cana- da's primary industry. She reminds the city•dwelling Canadian that families living on farms go through the normal cycle of rearing children and helping to establish them in their chosen occupation, * 9 k The chosen occupation of most sons used to be the continuation of the family farm or setting themselves up on farms. Today this expectation of transference of the family farm from the present to the succeeding gener- ation is no longer part of the thinking of all farm families. Why this change? For one thing the economics of farming are such that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a go of it without a large volume of production and an assured market for the farm produce. * w 4' Many young 'farmers, and sons of older farmers, feel that they do not want to borrow the money necessary for expansion of land, buildings, machinery and stock. They may prefer the regular hours and wages to be found in jobs off the farm and this eventually leads to perman- ent non-farm jobs and urban living. For some farmers, how- ever, this non-farm work is an effort to earn the stake which will enable them to re-establish themselves on the land. * * * Looking at instances where the farm has been expanded, Dr. Abell seeks to find whether thls has led to better living for the family. She finds that the in- creased income has brought into the home some of the things which make life easier and more enjoyable but often at the price of the wife and children giving up much of their time as unpaid labour on the farm. The D.B.S. regular monthly survey for December, 1959, con- firms that unpaid family labour accounts for much of the labour force on Canadian farms -only 79,000 men of 508,000 were paid workers; only 9,000 women of a 30,000 labour force wore paid workers. The search for adjustment to today's economic conditions in- volves the wife and children as well as the man of the family, Dr. Abell concludes. 4 a a Poison ivy and the related poison oak c a n be controlled with herbicides, says Dr. J. R. Hay of the Plant Research In- stitute, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. Poison ivy is found in all provinces of Canada but Is more prevalent in Ontario and West- ern Quebec. From Quebec City eastward it is found less fre- quently and from Winnipeg to the Pacific Ocean It is trouble- some mainly at lake and wood- land resorts. Poison oak occurs in British Columbia. Products containing amino triazole or silvex give good con- trol. For preparations containing amino triazole, 'four pounds of the active ingredient per acre is recommended, and two pounds per acre for silvex. A commer- cial mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (brushkiller) at two pounds of acid equivalent per acre is slightly less effective, * 4 Diroations for spraying small areas are given on containers. It is extremely important that a thorough job be done in apply- ing the chemical, says Dr. Hay, as this can make the difference between excellent and mediocre results. Points to remember are: 1. Use enough solution to wet all foliage thoroughly, going over the area twice if necessary. 2. Spray when the leaves are fully .grown from raid -June to mid-August in Eastern Canada, and proportionately earlier in B,C. Avoid spraying during dry periods as the chemicals are not so effective. 3. Repeat if new growth oc- curs. If the roots are not com- pletely killed the new growth will appear in late summer or in the next season and should be sprayed to prevent re-esta- blishment of the weed. n 4, * Sorg sterilants containing so- dium borate also give good con- trol of poison ivy. These should be applied in early spring or fall when there is adequate rain- fall to carry the chemicals into the soil. They may be applied dry in a granular form or may be mixed with water. All vege- tation in the area treated will be killed for at least one sea- son. s 4 * When working in poison ivy, rubber boots and gauntlet gloves should be worn, cautions Dr. Hay. Avoid skin contact with the leaves, stems, roots and equipment. Wash hands, wear- ing apparel and equipment thor- oughly after spraying. Boy And Mule Try For Corn Record On an acre of sandy loam ha the southern end of Prentiss County, Miss„ corn is coming up, It belongs to a 4-H Club boy, Lindon Ratliff, who is out to break the world's record which his brother Lamar Ratliff esta- blished in 1955. Lamar's yield was 304.38 bushels of yellow corer testing 20 per cent mois- ture when it was shucked. That is the "mostest" corn ever rais- ed in one season, by man or boy, on 43,560 square feet of ground. (The average production of corn last year in the United States was less than 50 bushels per acre.) Lamar will be home In Juno from his stint in the Navy, That'll be In plenty of time to give Lindon some advice on how many pounds of 14-14-14 fertili- zer and extra ammonium nitrate the knee-high maize sIt.ould have in order to top his own record. Inseparable work - fellow of young Lindon Ratliff is his gray mule, "Dolly." She does all the plowing and cultivating, and Wm - Lindon has taught her to he very careful and nut step on any corn plants. Lindon told met "Mr, Guard, Dolly is not a six- year-old as you might think. But she is only a 'young' sugar mule -- 23 years old." It was in the year 1952 when I journeyed out to Booneville, Miss., to the Rotary Club shindig and gave Lamar a gold medal for producing 214,1 bushels of corn on his 4-11 project acre. At that time Lamar assured me he was going to raise 300 bushels on that stone acre. "You see," he said, "I had only 20,000 plants this year and they yielded 200 bushels plus. Next year I'm going to put 30,- 000 plants on that 160 square rods, manure and fertilize it ac- cordingly, and that ought to make 300 bushels, don't you see?" Sounds reasonable! County Agricultural Agent W. Taylor Smith and 4-H C'ub Leader James Archer were standing by and they smilingly :greed to let him live and 1'arn, writes Samu- el R. Guard in the Christian Science Monitor. So Lamar planted 30,000 stalks cn that acre. When I saw it that summer it was a wilderness of corn, so thick you couldn't wade through It. The sunlight couldn't get in there either, as it should. Lamar forgot about photosyn- thesis, and his yield that year fell to 165 bushels! Accordingly, M a in ma a n d Papa Paul Ratliff persuaded tha boys to cut their population of corn stalks to 25,000 or less on that acre down the hill below their stock pond. Next year the yield was back up to 218.5 bush- els, and in 1955 it made the record 304.38 bushels. Last year Lindon grew 242.7 bushels on his acre, despite a severe frost when the corn was six inches high, a hailstorm right when it had recovered from frostbite, and a flood of 36 measured inches of rain in June, before three weeks of drought in July. (What farmers have to contend with!) SOME FUN - Maureen Chap, Chicago secretary, goes wad- ing in Loop fountain. Some- thing to do with the heat. MOM J£SSON liy ltev. 11 tr'trotay 1'iarreua Has.. MD. The Fir.et Foundation Matthew 7:34-29; 21:28.35 Nfenrory Selection: Whosoever Itearoth these sayings of mine,. and d*eill them, 1 will liken hits surto -a wise marc, which built his house upon a curet. Matthew 7a4. Chapters 5, 0 and 7 of Mtttt.lio record the longest 50110on in th'R Scriptures. Today we study the conclusion, the application of the sermon. The Wise 01011 is he who hears and does the sayings of Jesus. He is like the wise man who builds itis house upon that rock. Hct stands tip in the storm, The 'foolish man has the sates opportunity as the wise stmt. His hears the ravings of Jestrs but tie doesn't do them. His house, built on semi, goes clown in the storm, The distinction lies in whether or not wo obey. the teaching of Jesus. Molly aclniire the wisdom of Jesus' words. They quote them with pride.- But at the same time they will not obey them. This is foolisll. Samuel said to Ring Saul, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' 1 Samuel 15:22. Many arc unable to cope with the crises of life. When the sun is shining they feel fine but when the clouds of trouble, dis- appointment, bereavement and suffering gather, they go to pieces. This is the time when we should prove Jesus Christ aa+ the all sufficient Saviour. The second part of taa. las- on helps to illustrate the first. Ona son at first refuses to go to work but later changes his mind. Tho other says he will go but lits doesn't. From the father's. view- point the first son is the more satisfactory, He did the work though he was slow starting. Je- sus said to the religious persons who did a lot of talking but were not living according to the truth that the publicans and harlots were going into the kingdom of God before them because they were believing. Reader, where do you stand? Are you doing what Jesus taught? if you are disobeying Him your profession is a mock - e r y, It's living the life that counts in God's sight. It's living the life from day to day by the grace of God that will enabler you to stand in the time of storm. The beginning of wisdom is the ability to admit the other guy is right. ISSUE 26 - 1960 Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking 0 O N S .1 N O ODD BIRD -« As you probably suspected, there are two parrot In this picture, not one, it was taken at the San Antonio zo , The birds are flesh -eating Kea parrots normally found in New Zealand.