The Seaforth News, 1961-11-02, Page 3w-•
The Harvest Of
The Keen Nuts,
Drive north from the west
Texas country, from southern
New Mexico, Arizona, and Cal-
ifornia, and the land rises before
yoiz to 4,000 to 6,000, to 7,000 feet
and higher. Mountain ranges be-
come more frequent, lock them-
selves in endless high chains, are
less interrupted by plain and
escarpment, The hard yellowish
surface of the ground becomes
a brownish red and then a red;
the air is slighter and frostier;
the distances ahead are blue and
. mysterious,, And this is, every-
where, the country of the- pinon.
The first westward wayfarers,
the mountain men and fur trad-
ers, found tons of the nuts stored
in Indian encampments. A skin
pouch filled with them was the
invariabletoken of friendship
offered by the earliest residents.
The nuts are still there. It was
John Muir who wrote, at a time
when California grew enough of
a wheat crop for Frank Norris
to write a good book about it,
' that the pinon nut crop in Nev-
ada alone was, worth more than
all of it, Once, vendors sold pin -
ons on street corners in Western
cities as chestnuts were sold in
Eastern and peanuts in •Southern.
The year of the bumper crop
was both a cultural and an econ-
omic event,
In the San Rafaels in California -
it was possible to know when a
buniper crop was about to arrive
by the numbers of Indians- ap-
pearing and camping outwith no
apparent purpose in early Sept-
ember, Many Indians, many nuts;
few 'Indians; few nuts or no nuts
at all, Some said three years
intervened between bumper
crops, some said five, some seven,
Which, in a series of waves, is
always the biggest? No one
knows. No one knew when the
bumper crop would come either.
One may only know that no per-
sons ever control it. It cotnes and
goes when it pleases.
(All that was a long time ago,
Today, all along the pinon belts,
it is often easier to steer the pick-
up past the coming nut cropto
the big city, along the many
paved roads; there. one may buy
the nuts already shelled; but
there are people everywhere who
don't know what is good for
them, eh, senor?)
Birds and bees do- not pollinate
he pinon, which has no many -
hued blossoms to attract them.
Gentle breezes are needed, are
essential, to carry the clouds of
gollen from tree to its neighbor.
alesblow the pollen outside
the pinon belts entirely.
Pinons were unknown• to the
eastern United States until, Fre-
mont brought back the' specimens
which Dr. Torrey classified. The
tree's outline is a departure from
that of most pines, without spires,
round -beaded' or even' scraggy
topped like an uncertain apple.
Trunks are 10 to 12 inches thick
and the trees seldom attain a
height of more than 20 feet.
Limbs have a rubber swinginess
and make a delightful sound
when swayed by the wind.
Leaves . are mostly individual,
like single "awls," if ever
found in the fives, threes, and:
twos of other pines. Cones and
bark are full of a resirty piny
pitch which gives, off frag.
ranee but it nasty to, handle.
The cones measure about
two inches across, the nuts,
round at the , base, pointed
at the top, oftenest nut brown,
about a half inch.- They are easy
to crush between thumb and fore-
finger writes Prank: Dougherty
in the Christian Science Monitor. _
Passing through. Santa Fe a
year or so ago during a bumper
crop, it was. possible to see idle
cars strung thickly along the
roads leading from the city, the
owners busy as beaversin the
trees. Everyone, it' seems, was
aware of the crop of nuts; but
few would part with any if you
tried to buy them, And, every-
where people • ate. them. It was
possible now to believe Ruth
Laughlin's picture of old men
with their backs against a sun-
baked wall. "Cracking pinons
occupies their minds," she. writes;
"while they gossip of the affairs
of the placita. By long practice
they achieve a certain mechan-
ical ,efficiency -the pinon goes in
a corner of the mouth, is cracked
endmunched, and the shells flow
but like an automatic feeder."
The sweet meat is not the fall .4 -
and winter goal of men alone:
birds, squirrels, and even dogs
(Ind horses show great partiality
to it. 'It has been used, in hard
Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking
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years, in the place of barley for
feeding cattle. It is the fat part of
the diet of many a hillside sheep.
herder.
One may read somewhere that
Cabana de Vaca once lived for
three days on a diet of pine nuts
alone, Otherwise, it was lam-
ented, he might have starved.
The story is suspect, One does
not starve to death in three days,
and anyone really acquainted
with. the pine nut can only envy
such a feast, Cabeza couldn't
have been bothered by the ex-
perience, if he „ever had it,
From towns and -cities and
Indian reservations, inthis part-
icular time of the particular year
of a good crop, from the San.
Francisco Peaks north into Utah
and Colorado, from Nevada set-
tlements along the sides of. High-
ways 6 and 40; from California
towns onto • the .. flanks of the
eastern Sierra and into the
Tehachaliis and San Rafaels and
Topa Topas, in: cars and' trucks
and jalopies and horse-drawn
buggies and wagons, harvesters
as nut brown as the pinon itself
will roll out in the direction of
the forests' 'bounty,
Their gathering 300 carloads
shipped once from Santa Fee
alone. Who knowS how many
from other places?
Stop to watch the pickers and
one of them will tell you,: and
you' will believe him, "Sir -this
isnothing else but the gift of
Godl"
On a Pioneer Farm
In Old Ontario
As I look back . to. the 'world
of my boyhood across more than
eighty years of remembered. life,
it seems as though centuries h'ad
passed between then and now.
,The quiet, pleasant country town.
of Strathroy in Western Ontario,
on the outskirts of which I was
born on August 6, 1874, was, like
most places in the Middle West,
still in touch with America's
heroic age, that of the pioneers
Both my grandfathers cleared
their farms from the wilderness
with the ax. My mother's girl-
hood home was built from logs
on the farm, and, although by
my time a frame kitchen had
been added, the. great fireplace
was still used on occasion for
cooking.
There were stumps of the pri-
meval forest in the pasture lot
by the creek, and across it on a
hill a dark, uncut hemlock wood,
by which Indians from the reser-
vation ten miles away used to
camp when the stream was fill-
ed with fish in the spring freshet,
using the bark for roofing their
little huts. Beavers built .their
dams on the smaller creeks, and
if one crept quietly down the
hillside one could see them
chewing down the willow trees.
Apparently the Indians did not
hunt them, and we liked to have
the creatures. there.
By my'. own 'time only one
winding pioneer road still re-
mained, running alongside - the
streams to the nearest market
town, The.' whole `country had
been out' through -by the straight
"concession,lines" and' "side
roads" of government ' engineers,
blacking out square or oblong
farms. There, as . elsewhere all
over the continent, the surveyor
mapped the country for the set -
tier. Orchards, gardens and fields
were setprimly, side by side for,
miles on end, with houses and
farm buildings spaced a ' little
back from the road. The layout
was • symmetrical, with all the
farms . alike, but here, as else-
where on the continent,it, made
prose instead of poetry of the
countryside. - From "The Auto-
biography of James T. Shotwell."
GRASS CROPPER - Here is a mechanical grass hopper with a one track mind, Its long,
hydraulically operated arms can extend up to 21 feet on either side to cut down tree
limbs• and small brush which often encroach on tracks.
MAIM
Wilma
An additional test procedure
has been introduced by Health
of ' Animals Division of the
Division of the Canada Depart-
ment of Agriculture to speed
up re -certification of brucel-
losis -free beef herd areas. It is
a market -cattle testing program
equivalent to the' milk ring re-
certification procedure used for
dairy herds. Co-operation of
beef cattle owners and the
CDA's meat inspection section
will be required to make it
work. '
Advantage of the plastic,
back -tag scheme devised is that
'it provides a method of screen-
ing herds in beef and range
areas for brucellosis with a
minimum _ of inconvenience to
the owner and minimum cost to
the government,
* • *
The plan is for the identi-
fication tags to be attached to
cattle being marketed, especi-
ally brucellosis -susceptible cat-
tle whose herd of origin can
be determined. A record of
the tag 'is kept at the Health
. of Animals Division district
office, At the time that the ani-
mal 'is slaughtered, an inspector
will collect a blood sample
which will be forwarded with
the tag to the laboratory. If
brucellosis is indicated by the
laboratory examination, the
originating herd can be traced
and submitted to test,
* * *
An inspector will inform
the owner and arrange a herd
test. Compensation will not be
paid for positive animals' un- ,
covered on a market test since
these 'animals were not ordered
. slaughtered. Nor- will the •herd.
be subject to'. quarantine and
retests if no . further brucel-
losis -positive animals are . un-
covered as a result of the herd
test.
At first the tags will be
applied ' by meat., inspection
assistants or "technicians at
commission auctions, consign-
ment sales, stockyards or any-
where that cattle, are assembled
for market purposes. But the
hope is that. ranches,- co-opera-
tives . and livestock dealers will
soon be interested enough in
the plan to put the tags on all
cattle' as they are marketed.
• * *
•
The market -cattle testing
program will find its greatest.
application in the west, but it
will be used in Eastern Canada
as well, In the beginning, tag-
ging will 'be confined to adult
cows over four years intended
for immediate slaughter,
Federal veterinarians are
confident that a uniform back-
tagging of animals of proper
age and ' class in districts of
origin and the setting up of
sample collecting, testing and
reporting procedures• will not
only be a tremendous aid to
the brucellosis eradication cam-
paign, but may also contribute
to control of disease in cattle
generally.
* 4 •
The Health of Animals Divis-
ion has embarked on an edu-
cational program to acquaint
livestock owners of the bene:
fits of market testing and to
enlist their participation.
*' •
*
Aurora is the name of a new
variety of alsike clover licensed
by the Canada Department of
Agriculture, It was developed
jointly: by the department's.
experimental farms at Beaver -
lodge and Lacombe and the
University of Alberta. Now on
test at six locations across Can-
ada seed for distribution will
be derived from the lot desig-
nated as breeder seed- in the
autumn of 1962.
4. * •
Canada's dairy industry must
look deeper into customer mo-
tivation if it is to sell more of its
products, according to D. B.
Goodwillie, of the Canada De-
partment of Agriculture,
He was moderator of a panel
discussion at the National Dairy
Council of Canada at its annual
meeting in Halifax.
He said that milk production,
now about 19 billion pounds per
year, is apparently on the in-
crease. Milk is still one of the
best food values at the store and
the population of the country
is going up,
But, asked the speaker, why
is per capita consumption . /of
milk products going down? In
1960 the figure was 950 pounds
against 1,062 pounds ten years
before.
He wondered if dairy products
are not being "out -promoted and
out -merchandised" by other foods
claiming their share of the house-
wife's dollar.
• * •
In the face of such competi-
tion, producers and retailers
need to know more about the
market - such as what custom-
ers want and why they want it;
why tastes differ in different
areas; would teenagers take to
milk; do people drink it from
habit or because it is food for
them?
Finally, ,there is the question
of price.- There are many food
and non-food products bidding
against dairy foods and the
price must be competitive to
meet this challenge.
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
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pronoun 48. Quick4. Trappings 21. Refuse wool
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network
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ports
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82. Genealogy
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container
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disorders
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writing
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Answer elsewhere on this page
NDAY R11001
By Rev. R. Barclay Warren
S.A., B.D,
Growth in Christian Concern
Matthew 25:31-46
Memory Selection; .Bear ye one
another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ, Galatians 6:2.
It was the final week of our
Lord's ministry, He was looking
forward to the cross, and beyond.
He told His disciples of the
signs that would precede His re-
turn to earth in glory and the
judgment that would follow,, He
gave three parables; The Ten
Virgins, The Talents, and The
Sheep and the Goats, In the first
the foolish virgins had not made
adequate preparation for the
-coming, of the Bridegroom; in the
second, the wicked and slothful
servant did not use the gift that
had been given hila, and in the
last, which forms our lesson, the
great separation takes places.
The goats are those who failed to
serve the Lord in ministering to
the needs, material and spiritual,
of their fellowmen. Jesus' final
charge to them is, "Verily 1 say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it
not to one of the least of these,
ye did it not to me." Then He
utters the fearful words, "And
these shall go away into ever-
lasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal,"
We are prone to forget the pos-
sibility of the spiritual develop-
ment of man; man who was
created in the image of God. Al-
though that image has been mar-
red by sin, the moral and spiri-
tual image can be restored
through the salvation purchased'
for us by our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. When we help to
do this by acting in a Christ -
like manner to this creature from
the hand of God, we are serving
our Lord. Note that we have used
the word, "Christ -like". To give
people that for which they ask,
may be to do them an injustice.
We should investigate before we
invest. To be gullible is to en-
courage roguery.
In Galatians 6:1-6, Paul re-
minds us of our responsibility to
others. While every man must
bear his own pack, we must go
to the support of those who have
an extra burden of grief or sor-
row. if one has faltered and
failed in the hour of temptation,
we must not stand back and
criticize. In meekness we should
reprove and help the one who
has failed, back to his feet. In
thus helping others, we fulfill
the law of Christ.
"The girl who thinks no man
is good enough for her may be
right," says a psychologist. Yes,
and she also may be left.
ISSUE 43 - 1961
ee
Agricultural Scientists Carry Out Researches 'Amid the Alien Corn' ---
In a constant effort to develop strains of corn with improved character-
istics which can be incorporatt9d into new hybrid varieties, agricultural
scientists sometimes come up with some odd. results, Threeexamples
grown In the research nursery of the Missouri Farmers Assn,, are dis-
played by three pretty airls. Lth. Janet Grubb holds a stranaa-loakina
ear which has husk covering each kernel as wel
Center, Joanne Debenedetto displays an exotic ear
resembles a huge strawberry. The ear of corn with
cob, held by Mary Howell, right wouldn't be much
pipe, but'it has other desirable features: large ear,
Asan' kernalti
•
I; as the ear itself,
of red popcorn that
an extremely small
good for a corncob
small cob and long,