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The Seaforth News, 1949-01-06, Page 77 TIEFAIDI FRONT vaiwen Looks like another' mess of hash this week, and the first ingredient is something about fires, An insur- ance pan says that only 11 per ccdb of farm fires are the result of care- lessness; which looks somewhat on the small side to us, but who are we to doubt the say-so of an .expert? Poor construction of buildings, he claims, caused the balance. By that he, means bad roofs, ' chimneys that aren't kept m good repair, stoles or furnaces that aver 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 anything needs fix- ing. And this aright be a good time for me to remind you once again that the amount of fire insurance you carry SH M'ULD 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 cotu'se you know that water pipes that aren't below 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 earthy is make sure that the 'packing hasn't E'bttled, thus ex- posing some part of the pipes. And even indoor pipes, which pass. through 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 will ,prevent freezing at. times when such piping may .be idle. ' * * * Dr, J. W. Bailey, a well knowia 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 from the cows—and with milk being so largely composed of 411111116.,water, it is easy to see why this should be true. * * However, a deficiency of water . causes an evert 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 thaj cows should suffer mos); from lack of water in the wintett months. At other sea- sons they are likely to have greener feeds and to be outdoors where water is more convenient. 4, 5, " Dr, Bailey tells about a sick cow which he attended in 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 wvith her, and the answer—when found—was so simple that it made hint feel foolish. • * * What hall 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 its the drinking cup soon fixed things up. * * * . Sometimes whole herds will sick- en with indigestion during the winter when water pipes freeze, or "auto- uratic" water systems go haywire, or drinking cups get plugged with feed. When cattle are watered out- side indigestion on a herd -size basis is likely to go along with a particu- 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 standingti'in.the tank. * * The situation, naturally, is intW1 worse if the watering place is Vi unheated freezing tank, or a hole chopped in the ice of a creek or New Airport Feature --Road Underpasses Runway 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 belosv sea level at the point pictured above. The roadway, ,retaining walls and overpass comprise a 92,000 -ton "concrete boat" built to with- stanc1 pressures,from below sea level. • pond, And indigestion on a large scale may even appear 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 expense and more 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 holida), 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 dis- 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 of all in Britain, the Military Orchid. He has searched all his life for this, but has not yet found it. Ile has even written a book called "The Military Orchid," combination of personal anecdote and botanical record which he terms an "autobontanograplty." He called orchids the Royal Fanc- ily of the British Flora and said, "like other kinds of royalty, they are on the decrease; perhaps the plant world in this country is be- coming republican," He mentioned that orchids are thought of by the ma,, 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 abotit them, something a little dif- ferent, something a little queer, something rather self-consciously and defiantly elegant." Jocelyn Brooke, product of Bed - ales and Oxford, has been wine and STOCKING TIME By CLUYAS WILLIAMS HANGS UP SreekING INE MINTG ROOMS GOES UP TO 8ED WONDERING WHAT TIME SANTA CLAUS WILL COME TO FILL iT C0M55 DOWN HALF UNDRESSED TO MAKE SURE THAT STOCKING lS 1N MOST CONVEN- tENT PLACE Fon. SANTA CLAUS DoOR GOES UP AGAIN/ WON- DERING WHY PARE SEEMED A LITTLE STARTLED WW1?N RE APPEARED AT COMES. DOWN 'oNc0 (0 PUZZLED INACTIONS RETIRES BUTEIAOirs MORETo MAKE CER- of PARENTS WN o oME DOWN 404111 THIN THERE ISN'T SEEM VERY IL -AT-EASE neSIVINCTIIIMSELP MU IN 1140 TOL AND KEEP THEMIEl.VE6 E PIN IS Male OP -o10 STOCKING BETWEEN HIM AND ENOUGH TO HOLD =GRIN& TOCKINGFINOS nn, ram,byauuanvta+a YsoEtOLy4EDTFtE,:t Elk 1NTo asp WO PERINU WHAT MA. PARENTS ACT SO" QUEER BUT IS TOO SLEEPY lb VtIDIZEYMUCH MOUT n • book seller, author and medical orderly in the Arany. 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 our public or private symbols are losing their power to sustain us I find it consoling to think. that 'certainly, but 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 Elhunt 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 I was a child in that remote, unbeliev- able age of thirty years ago." Glass -Blowers Art A Delicate One The glassblower's delicate art is thousands of years old, and is gen- erally thought to have been dis- 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 artistic 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. From 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, Jtowever, 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 tor tlae 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 kouws by the colour of the glowing piece when it has' reached the proper state of plasticity. The glass can their 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 of ;teat the piece being wd ked can be handled within an inch or two of the molten portion.Without this happy faculty, the glassblower's efforts to mould the piece would be difficult indeed, as he 'must turn the entire affair by hand, slowly and continu- ously to achieve even Treating while applying the flame, Poor Hubby La recent months a perfume mak- er aas been carrying- on an unusual- ly ambitious advertising campaign in newspapers of the Mid -West and F'ur West, The ads smell like the perfume, which is mixed 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. Among the complaints was one from a reader who suggested that the scent of hanibusgiter would' be more wholesome and appetizing. The newspaper said no, all the dogs would follow the carrier -boys. Merry Menagerie-BsNX'alu Disney "I7n leery of blind dates—de scribe her to mel" Millions of Tons Of Iron Ore fiches lu bleak Ungava, the stunted tamarack had turned burnt umber and each morning light snow frost- ed rosted the tough caribou moss. For the' • engineers probing the biggest iron ore deposit since Minnesota's Mes- abi, it was time to call it a sum mer. Day after day a little Norse- man seaplane dipped dawn on to Quebec and Labrador lakes, picked up men and supplies, 'moved thein back to the main base at Burnt Creek (pop. 190). Now the twelve drills were operating close by Burnt Creek. Soon they would be silent, and the year's work would egad. Geologists have long known of the .vast iron ore riches in the trough straddling the border of Quebec and Labrador. When Do - m111100 Geologist A. P. Low talked about the deposits 50 years ago, Mesabi was just coming into its own and nobody was interested in the sub -Arctic wilderness. In 1937, when Quebec Geologist Joe Retty came out of Ungava with a more detailed report of high-grade iron ore, Mesabi was still king. But as war demand cut deep into Mesabi, Betty's reports became more inter- esting. By 1942 Hollinger Presi- dent Jules Timmins was ready, to gamble $5,000,000 on Ungava. Since then exploration drills have been biting into the northern earth. So rich was the lode that drill- ing was done only where ore could be reached readily. One of the best deposits was found by acci- dent st•hen a new -type drill was tested at the Burnt Creek cams site. The drill bit down into: the earth, struck rich ore at two feet, was still in it when drilling Ivan stop ped at 367 feet. For exploration work in the wild- erness everything had to be flower in, from beef to bulldozers. At first,; air freight cost Hollinger 73 cents a pound. By last April Jules Tim mins had his own airlift operating from ,Seven Islands to the airstrip at Knob Lake. This season it car- ried 759 tons, at an average cost So far Hollinger had had no trouble recruiting workers, most- ly Newfoundlanders acid' French Canadians. They eat well, pay 31.25 a day for food that costs the com pany $4.50. They tvoi'k twelve-hour shifts, around the clock, six days a week, make from 70 cents to 31.30 (top driller pay) an hour For those who stay for six months—most 01 them do—there .is a 10 -cent -an hour bonus, Because they are in to make a stake, they get along without liquor or movies. take their fun in recreation but sessions- with harmonicas, jew's harps and fiddles. Before Hollinger can move a ton of ore, 'it must build a railroad to the St. Lawrence at Seven Islands. where it Is ice -free about tea ntoyaths out of the year. The survey for the 360 -mile rail line ($101 mil- lion to build and equip) will be fin- ished next year. The line will take three years to complete. Hollinger already has an eye on Eaton Can- yon's 350 -ft. waterfall, with its 500,- 000 h.p• potential, for a power source, Production in Ungava is probably Rye years away, and some $201 trillion will le poured into it before a ton of ore is set down at dockside. • "Monty Shows Them How"—The motorcycle was a present to Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery at a London shows and although he looks quite at home in the saddle, he'll prob- ably transfer the gift to his son David, an undergraduate at Oxford. Labor Trouble Leaves Berlin Railway Station Ei ;sty•--\\ IL,u 1;0',t t ,,.;ri;tun;ui<t V, ,n! err r.tn Berlin's western zone walked off the job—to give transport employees a. -chance to vote in the city elections—the S -Rahn station at Teutpclhof was left empty. In retaliation,' the 12u. ,171.n* threatened to cut off power service to rail lines in westren sectors,, MITER NxI. ? M1121th O b "IIIA Y u 1116 FOUPTN T1Mg. ;'TO CLIMBEDMOSE rtrr S" WE'LL_ -PIMA t 10 -rills ropuciANEsst E:tt4NT AO°tr'-B DRINK, ` 0030.,' fJ r'9Astrz P,*t' i'