Aten, |
Bellefonte, Pa., October 29, 1915.
ee ———
Bowif
TRUE WORTH.
True worth is in being, not seeming,
In doing each day that goes by
Some little good—not in the dreaming
Of great things to do by-and-by.
For whatever men may say in blindness
And in spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
And nothing so royal as truth.
We get back our mete as we measure,
We cannot do wrong and feel right,
Nor can we give pain and gain pleasure.
For justice avenges each slight.
The air for the wing of the sparrow,
The bush for the robin and wren,
But always the path that is narrow
And straight for the children of men.
—Alice Cary.
THE REASON BIRDS MIGRATE.
rg
A few United States birds—some car-
dinals, Carolina wrens, and bob-whites—
never stray ten miles away from the site
of the parent nest; but most of our birds
are migratory, and the extent of their
migration varies enormously. The rob-
ins that nest in Missouri find winter
quarters in the Gulf States, only a few
miles south; the robins of Iowa travel
twice that distance to reach the Gulf,
and the North Dakota robins double it
again, while robins nesting in far-off
Alaska must go three thousand miles to
and from their winter home in the lower
Mississippi Valley. The bobolink that
fills the New England meadows with rol-
licking melody, and displays his black
and white coat for the admiration of a
dull-colored spouse, spends the winter in
southern Brazil, exchanging the wedding
finery for a sober suit like that of his
mate. The night-hawk adds to the bob-
olink’s course nearly a thousand miles at
each end. The champion flyer of the
world, however, is the Arctic tern. As
far north as land extends, these hardy
voyagers rear their young at the edge of
the ice-fields, and six months later swarm
along the shores of the Antarctic conti-
nent, eleven thousand miles distant.
Some birds migrate by day, but most
of them seek the cover of darkness. Day
migrants include ducks, geese, hawks,
swallows, the night-hawk, and the chim-
ney-swift; the last two, combining busi-
ness and pleasure, catch their morning
or evening meal during a zig-zag flight
that tends in the desired direction. The
daily advance of such migrants covers
only a few miles, and when a large body
of water is encountered, they pass around
rather than across it. The night mi-
grants include all the great family of
warblers—the thrushes, flycatchers, vire-
os, orioles, tanagers, shore-birds, and
most of the sparrows. They usually be-
gin their flight soon after dark and end
it before dawn, and go farther before
than after midnight.
Night migration probably results in
more casualties and deaths from natural
causes than would have occurred had the
birds made the same journey during day-
light; but, on the other hand, darkness
is their shield from the attacks of ene-
mies. Warblers and sparrows migrating
in the daytime would fall easy victims to
the rapacity of hungry hawks, while
barn-swallows, night-hawks, and chim-
ney-swifts, though also weak and
unable to strike back at an assailant,
may safely venture to migrate in broad
daylight, because of their marvelous pow-
ers of flight.
Migrating birds do not fly at their fast-
est speed. A duck-hawk can chase a
teal at two miles a minute, and a rock-
swift can do better yet; but the migra-
tion speed is usually at the rate of from
thirty to forty miles an hour, and rarely
exceeds fifty. Flights of a few hours a
night alternating with rests of one or
more days, make the spring advance very
slow, averaging for all species not more
than twenty-three miles a day, but with
very great variations of daily rate among
the different species. For instance, the
earliest robins in Iowa take a leisurely
gait of only seven miles a day, while the
black-poll warblers that nest in Alaska
work up to three hundred miles per day
for the last fifteen hundred miles of their
trip.
Unlike mankind, birds do not choose
air-line routes. Most of the birds from
New England fly inland and parallel with
the Atlantic Coast until they reach the
Gulf of Mexico, then cross the Gulf to
Central America, and thence go by land
to South America. Florida and Cuba
would seem to be especially arranged by
nature to serve as a birds’ highway, for
the migrant taking the Florida-Cuba-
Yucatan route need never be out of sight
of land. But no night migrant is known
to utilize this course, and it is certain
that most of Yucatan’s visitants take pas-
sage each way directly across the Gulf.
The chain of the Greater and Lesser
Antilles, stretching from Florida to South
America, offers a migration route a thous-
and miles shorter than the circuitous Yu-
catan course, but it is traversed by few
if any of the thousands of land birds
seeking a winter home in South Ameri-
ca. The reason is not far to seek—
scarcity of food. The total area of all
the West Indies east of Porto Rico is a
little less than that of Rhode Island.
Should a small proportion only
of the feathered inhabitants of the east-
ern United States choose that way, not
even the teeming insect life and luxuri-
ant vegetation of the tropics could sup-
ply their needs. It is the meals which
decide the route. Enough food of the
right kind is the prime requisite, while
the distance between lunch stations is a
matter of secondary importance. When
crossing from Florida to Yucatan, five
hundred miles is made at a single flight,
and the ocean trip of the Eskimo curlew
is several times that distance.
The migration journey of these cur-
lews, formerly among the most abundant
of Arctic birds, is wonderful enough to
be given in detail. They arrive the first
week of June on the bleak, wind-swept,
barren grounds above the Arctic Circle,
far beyond the tree-line. While the
lakes are still ice-bound, they hurriedly
fashion shabby little nests in the moss
only a few inches above the frozen
ground, and by August they hasten away
to Labrador for a crowberry feast. Grow-
ing over the rocks and treeless slopes of
this inhospitable coast is a kind of heath.
er which bears in profusion a juicy black
berry, and the extravagant fondness of
birds for this fruit has caused it to be
known by the natives as the curlew ber-
ry. The whole body of the curlew be-
comes so saturated with the dark purple
juice that birds have been shot one
thousand miles south of Labrador whose
flesh was still stained with the color.
After gorging a few weeks, the cur-
lews become excessively fat, and are
ready for the great flight. They have
reared their young under the midnight
sun, and now set out for the Southern
Hemisphere. After gaining the coast of
Nova Scotia, they strike straight out to
sea and take a direct course for the
easternmost islands of the West Indies.
Eight hundred miles of ocean waste lie
between the last land of Nova Scotia and
the Bermuda Islands, one thousand
thence to the first of the Antilles, and
yet six hundred more to the northern
coast of South America, their objective
point.
In fair weather the birds fly past the
Bermudas without stopping, and many
flocks do not pause at the first of the
Antilles, but keep on to the larger islands,
and sometimes even to the mainland of
South America, accomplishing the whole
twenty-four hundred miles without pause
or rest. How many days are occupied
in the trip may never be known. Most
migrants either fly at night and rest in
the day or vice versa, but the Eskimo
curlews fly both night and day. After a
short stop on the northern coast of South
America, they resume their journey and
travel overland to the pampas of Argen-
tina. Here they remain from September
to March (the summer of the Southern
Hemisphere), free from all household
responsibilities. The native birds of
Argentina are at this time engrossed in
family cares; but no wayfarer from the
north ever nests in the south.
After a six months’ vacation, the
Eskimo curlews take up again the seri-
ous affairs of life and start back toward
the Arctic, but not by the same route.
In spring they shun the whole Atlantic
Coast from Brazil to Labrador and, pass-
ing northwestward, reach Texas in
March; April finds their long lines trail-
ing across the prairies of the Mississippi
Valley; the first of May sees them cross-
ing our northern boundary, and by the
first week in June they reappear at their
breeding grounds in the frozen north.
What a journey! Eight thousand miles
of latitude separate the extremes of their
elliptical course, and two thousand miles
of longitude constitute the shorter diam-
eter, and all for the sake of spending
ten weeks on an Arctic coast!
Birds are seldom exhausted by a long
land or ocean flight, though this state-
ment is contrary to common belief and
to most of the literature on the subject.
Indeed, so little are the trans-Gulf voy-
agers wearied by their five-hundred-mile
flight from Yucatan to Florida that thous-
ands of them, especially chats, red-starts,
and rose-breasted grosbeaks, proceed
more than a hundred miles inland before
they alight. Many a Kentucky warbler
flies four hundred miles across the Gulf
from Mexieo to the northeastern coast
of Texas when the whole journey could
be made by land with scarcely any ap-
preciable increase of distance. Certain-
ly the ocean flight can be no great hard-
ship or it would not be chosen.
How do birds find their way across
continents and over pathless oceans?
Find their way they certainly do, for the
bobolinks that nest this year ina New
England meadow will return the follow-
ing year to the identical spot. though
meantime they have visited Brazil. Mi-
gratory birds rarely fly at a height of
more than half a mile and during most
of the time keep at a much lower alti-
tude. Presumably, when crossing land,
they can utilize prominent physical out-
lines as guides, but something more than
this is needed for accomplishing an ocean
voyage. The five hundred miles between
Florida and Yucatan take the migrant
far out of sight of land, and though it
should mount upward for .five miles, it
could not see one-third of the way across
to the intended landing place. The theo-
ry is that birds are guided by a sense of
direction. We recognize some such a
sense in ourselves, and often trust to it
to a limited degree. The bird’s sense of
direction is not different from ours in
kind, but is vastly more efficient.
But even the bird’s sense of direction
is not infallible. During fair weather no
trouble is experienced in keeping the
course, but in fickle equinoctial weather
many flocks starting out under auspicious
skies find themselves suddenly caught by
a tempest. Buffeted by the wind and all
knowledge of points of the compass gone,
they fall easy victims to the lure of the
light-house. Many are killed by the im-
pact, while many more slightly stunned
by the shock scttle on the frame-work or
foundation until the storm ceases or the
coming of daylight allows them to re-
cover their bearings.
To return to the why of migration.
According to the more commonly ac-
cepted theory, the United States and
Canada swarmed with non-migratory bird
life ages ago, before the Arctic ice-fields,
advancing south during the glacial era,
rendered uninhabitable the northern half
of this continent. The bird’s home love
led it to remain at the nesting site until
the approaching polar conditions forced
a temporary departure. With the re-
treat of the ice the birds returned north-
ward, and the habit of migration thus
forced upon them during countless
generations has been transmitted to their
descendants and become permanent.
Those who thus argue that love of its
birthplace is the actuating impulse to
spring migration call attention to the
seeming impatience of the earliest mi-
grants; the ducks and geese push north-
ward with the beginnings of open water
so far, so fast, and so early that many
are caught by winter flarebacks, and
wander disconsolately over frozen ponds
and rivers, risking starvation rather than
retreat; the purple martins often arrive
at their nesting boxes so prematurely
that the cozy home becomes a tomb if a
sleet storm sweeps from the air their
winged food; the bluebird’s cheery
warble we welcome as a harbinger of
spring, only to find later a lifeless body
in some shed or outbuilding, where it had
sought shelter rather than return to the
sunny land so recently left.
As a matter of fact, only a small pro-
portion of the birds exhibit these pre-
season migration propensities. The great
majority remain in the security of their
winter homes until spring is so far ad-
vanced that the journey can be made
easily and with comparatively few dan-
gers; and they reach the nesting spot
when the food supply is assured and the
condition of weather and vegetation are
all favorable for beginning immediately
the rearing of a young family.
Moreover, if a longing for home is the
main incentive to their northward flight,
why do the birds desert that home so
promptly after the nesting season is over?
For most birds start south assoon as the
fledglings have become able to shift for
themselves. The orchard oricle, the red-
start, and the summer warbler of the
central United States, and the nonpareil
of the South, all begin their southward
To
These
Men
Who
Have
Your
Taxes
And
WM. H. NOLL, JR.
PAID OFF YOUR COUNTY DEBT.
Reduced
GIVE A VOTE OF APPRECIATION
D. A. GROVE.
journey early in July, long before the
fall storms sound a warning of approach-
ing winter, and, indeed, when their insect
menu is particularly varied and abun-
dant.
The opposite migration theory holds
that the bird’s real home is the south-
land; that all bird life tends by overpro-
duction to overcrowding, and that the
birds, seeking in all directions for suita-
ble breeding grounds with reduced com-
petition, gradually worked northward as
the retreat of the ice at the end of the
glacial era made habitable vast reaches
of virgin country. But the winter abid-
ing-place was still the home, and to this
they returned as soon as the breeding
season was over.
Whichever theory is accepted the
beginnings of migrations ages ago were
undoubtedly connected intimately with
periodic changes in the food supply.
North America has enormous summer;
stores of bird food, but the birds must
return South for the winter or rerish.
An overcrowding necessarily ensues in
the equatorial regions during the winter,
to be relieved again by the spring exodus
northward. No such exodus occurs to
the corresponding latitudes of the South;
South America has almost no migratory
land birds, for bleak Patagonia and
Tierra del Fuego offer no inducements to
these dwellers in the limitless forests of
the Amazon.
The conclusion is inevitable that the
advantages of the United States and
Canada as a summer home, and the
superlative conditions of climate and
food for the successful rearing of a nest-
ful of voracious younglings, far over-
balance the hazards and disasters of the
journey thither. Each migration route,
however long, is but the present stage in
development of a flight that was at first
short, easily accomplished, and compara-
tively free from danger. Each lengthen-
ing of the course was adopted permanent-
ly only after experience through many
years and generations had proved its ad-
vantage for returning each spring to the
breeding grounds a larger percentage of
the previous year’s colony or for augment-
ing the size of the southward-returning
contingent.—By Wells W. Cooke, in
Collier's Outdoor America.
Greely, the Speller.
No winner of the old-time spelling
matches, perhaps, ever excelled the boy
Horace Greeley, who later became one of
the most famous editors America has
produced. He was, in fact, a spelling
prodigy. What would the boys and girls
of today, who grumble over their daily
task of twenty words, think of a child
not yet six years old who could actually
spell every word in the language! That
is what the young Horace is said to have
been able to do.
His schooling began in his fourth year,
and the art of spelling at once became a
passion with him. In school and out he
kept incessantly at its study. Hour after
hour he would lie on the floor, spelling
over all the difficult words he could find
in the few books that the family owned.
The fame of his knowledge spread.
Naturally, Horace was the first one
chosen at spelling matches. He had a
lisping, whining voice and spelled his
words with the utmost confidence. Some-
times in winter, when the snow drifts
were so deep that one of the big boys had
to take him to the schoolhouse on his
back, the little white-haired fellow would
drop asleep between turns. When his
word came round his neighbor would
nudge him when he would awake, spell
his word and drop asleep again at once.
So great was the boy’s reputation as a
student of unusual powers that the se-
lect-men of a neighboring town, in pass-
ing a rule forbidding the attendance at
the local school of any pupil from oqut-
side the township, honored him by adding
the clause, “Excepting only Horace
Greeley”! —the Evangelical.
State College Professor is Chosen for Im-
portant Post.
Professor James A. Moyer, now in
charge of the departments of extension
education and mechanical engineeing at
the Pennsylvania State College, was re-
cently notified that Governor Walsh of
Massachusetts had appointed him direc.
tor of the new department of University
extension education, as created by spe-
cial legislation in that State. Professor
Moyer will accept his new position im-
mediately.
Because there is not a State university
in Massachusetts, as there are in some
of the Eastern and most Western States,
this department was provided to meet
the demands for a system of free educa-
tion of the college grades, similar to that
offered in most State colleges. Professor
Moyer’s new work will be conducted
under the direction of the State
Board of Education. It is expected that
the new work will ultimately become a
great State University without, however,
a seat of learning.
In Pennsylvania, since he came from
the University of Michigan three years
ago, Professor Moyer has established a
network of entension classes throughout
the State. Courses are offered in hun-
dreds of branches of technical instruc-
tion. These courses have been increas-
ingly successful as the real object of
bringing the “facilities” for education as
they exist at the State College to the
doors of all the people.
Stone jars with tight-fitting covers
make excellent bread receptacles, better
than tin boxes.
——For high class Job Work come to
the WATCHMAN Office.
Sending Sick Children to School.
A day spent in school by a half sick
child may result in a week’s serious ill-
ness. If, as so otten happens, the slight
indisposition proves to be the beginning
of some communicable disease, the re-
sult is that the other children in the
school are exposed and those who are
susceptible will follow in turn.
School authorities are naturally anx-
ious to secure regularity of attendance
on the part of the scholars and many
parents feel that they are simply doing
their duty in forcing children to go to
school who complain of not feeling well.
It is much better for a child to lose an
occasional day’s schooling than to risk
bringing on an illness and exposing
others.
Children’s recuparative powers, gener-
ally speaking, are superior to those of
older people. Proper rest and care will
often ward off serious illness but this re-
quires care and insight on the part of
the parents as the chiidren themselves
are not apt to call attention to their con-
dition until they become seriously ill.
Loss of appetite, feverishness, lassi-
tude, discoloration of the eyes, are all
indications which should be watched as
symptoms of indisposition.
The work which children lose in the
schools they can make up far more read-
ily than what they lose in health. Satis-
factory mental progress cannot be made
unless health is first considered and
school authorities should realize that the
total amount of time lost 1s far greater
owing to the added possibility of spread-
ing communicable disease when half sick
children are permitted in school.
When children are ill their playmates
should not be permitted to go to see
them until it is absolutely certain that
they are not suffering from some com-
municable disease. Colds are communic-
able. Parents should see that their chil-
dren do not visit other youngsters who
are ill and infants should never be taken
into houses where there is danger of
their contracting illness from children
who are not well.
How the Hessian Fly Was Brought to
America.
“A small, long-legged, dark-colored,
mosquito-like fly ruined several fields of
wheat on Long Island, New York, in
1779. The flies lived five or six days
only, and during that time ate little if
anything. The farmers could not under-
stand how such short-lived flies could do
so much damage. The origin of the flies
was a mystery. Then it was recalled
that Hessian troops had been landed
three years previous by the British army
near the site of the ruined wheat fields.
This gave rise to the theory that the
flies were in the straw the troops brought
with them. .
“In more recent times this little fly has
caused a loss of a billion dollars to
American wheat farmers during a single
crop season. This year millions of dol-
lars were lost because of the work of
this fly. Many more millions will be
lost in 1916 if some concerted action is
not taken in fighting this mosquito-like
enemy.
“This little flying foe, for nearly a cen-
tury and a half the enemy of the Ameri-
can wheat farmer, is none other than the
dreaded Hessian fly.
“One hundred and thirty-six years of
experience has taught wheat growers a
lot about the Hessian fly. Of late years
the state experiment stations and the
United States Department of Agricuture
have helped the farmer wage the battle
against this pest of European origin.”
Used as Fertilzer.
According to Farm and Fireside, the
city of Los Angeles gathers up from 150
to 175 tons of garbage a day and con-
verts it into twenty or twenty-five tons
of fertilizer. That sells at from $14 to
$18 per ton. It goes to the orchards,
farms and vegetable gardens of the vi-
cinity. Experience with the Los
Angeles plan is but a duplication of the ex-
perience of Toledo and other American
cities, as well as many in Europe. Proper
utilization of garbage represents the op-
portunity to dispose of the city’s wastes
without expense, and in some cases at a
profit to the city; while at the same
time the resultant fertilizer goes back to
the soil from which it came, and to
which it ought never be lost. ‘Nobody
need think twice to realize that the in-
cineration or other waste of the useful
elements in a great city’s garbage is
worse than wicked. The land cannot be
denuded always of its most valuable con-
stituents, and yet go on producing for
the increasing millions of population.
The modern method of handling fertiliz-
ers means economy to the city and also
to the country; it presents the city, for
the first time, in business of feeding the
soil.
Where Railroad Ties Come From.
The place from which more railroad
ties are shipped than from any other
in the United States is Reeds Springs,
Mo., in the Ozarks. Tie hewers are
paid from 12 to 16 cents a tie, accord-
Ing to the hardness of the wood.
Scared.
“] believe that woman is trying to
flirt with me. I wish you would tell
her I am married.”
“1 did tell her.”
“What did she say?” pled
| “She said you looked it* ; .*.
Te
mE
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN
DAILY THOUGHT.
Curiosity is a gift, a capacity of pleasure in
knowing, which if you destroy you make your”
self cold and dull.—Ruskin.
“Don’t seal any social note or letter of
introduction given to deliver.
“Don’t invite people without consulting
your hostess.
“Don’tinvite a friend visiting in town
without her hostess.
“Do leave a card for the hostess when
calling on a friend who is a guest.
“Don’t accept any invitation, however
informal, without consulting your hos-
tess.
“Do await a confirmation of an invita-
tion by the hostess before. accepting one
given by a male member of the family.
“Do, as host, see that a conveyance is
provided to and from the station.
“Do, as guest, supply your own post-
age and pay for your laundry.
“Do send a ‘bread and butter letter’
after your departure.
“Do ask permission to introduce a gen-
tleman to a lady.
“Do, when introducing a gentleman to
a lady, say: ‘May I present Mr. ,to
you, Miss ———?’
others.”
“To remove a blood stain made by a
pricked finger on any silk material, place
about four inches of white sewing silk in
in the mouth to moisten. Then roll into
a ball and rub the spot gently, and the
stain will disappear as if by magic. Just
try it and see.”
For Stout Women.—“Do keep up-to-
date in style, always securing the hest of
the season’s new lines, those most fitted
to stout figures.
“Do keep to dark. colors, navy-blue,
black.
“Do wear plain materials, soft in finish
serge, broadcloth, crepe de chine, ungloss-
ed satin, voile, chiffon.
“Do have simple trimmings—a slight
touch of white, or colors that harmonize
with the costume.
“Do keep to long lines, plaits, panels,
deep revere collars, pointed waistcoat ef-
fects, V-shaped necks.”
For Real Old-fashioned Baked Beans.—
“Pick over three cupfuls of pea beans,
cover with cold water, and soak for sev-
eral hours. Drain, put in stew-pan,
cover with fresh water, heat gradually to
skins will burst, which is best determined
by taking a few beans on the tip of a
spoon and blowing on them, when skins
will burst if sufficiently cooked. Drain
beans. Scrape a three-fourths-pound
piece of fat salt pork, remove a one-
fourth-inch slice, and put in bottom of
bean pot. Cut threugh rind of remain-
ing pork at one-half-inch distances. Put
beans in pot and bury pork in beans,
leaving the rind exposed. Mix one table-
spoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of
sugar, and two tablespoonfuls of molas-
ses. Add one cupful of boiling water
and pour mixture over beans; then add
.| enough boiling water to cover beans.
Bake in a slow oven eight hours, uncov-
ering the last hour of the cooking that
the rind may become brown. Add more
boiling water as needed.”
Too much fat destroys the contours of
an otherwise beautiful chin and throat.
To bring the chin into more prominence
and restore its beauty, place the thumbs
under the center of the chin and two
fingers of either hand in the upper part
of the jaw.
Begin massage with a gentle, firm
stroke, moving the hands back toward
the ears. After a slight reduction is per-
ceptible start the massage more to the
side of the chin-—using the outline of the
chin as a guide. This treatment should
be given each night, before retiring, until
sufficient reduction has taken place, then
only as required.
It often occurs that the chin is not
distorted by fat, but is naturally broad.
In such a case the breadth may be les-
sened by massaging only the sides of the
chin. .
Dame Fashion.—A white crepe de
chine blouse of the newest cut shows
eyelet embroidery, quite like that work-
ed on a Madeira tea napkin, worked in
white silk on sleeves and fronts.
One of the new blouses is made of
plaid taffeta, with strips and pockets of
heavy blue serge, trimmed with buttons.
Children’s hats, with down-turning
brims, are trimmed with a band of braid
or silk, and a long tassel hanging down
at one side.
Plaid ribbons in bright colors are shown
in the shops. They are used for trim-
ming hats, and frocks as well.
Irish Stew.—Shoulder mutton chops or
a piece of lamb from the neck, cut into
pieces of a convenient size for serving,
ana slice a large onion and fry in a little
dripping or butter, thenremove and place
in a deep kettle. Flour the meat all over
after wiping it carefully and brown it in
the fat also, turning frequently so that
all sides are seared and browned. Then
place the meat in the deep kettle with
the onion, pare and quarter two turnips,
two carrqts and two parsnips and brown
them in the same way. Then turn all
into the kettle with the meat, udd two
large tomatoes sculded, peeled and
quartered, a teaspoon of salt and a salt-
spoon of pepper or you may add a sweet
red pepper from which you have removed
the seeds and cut in eighths.. Cover
with cold water and simmer for two
hours or a little longer will do no harm.
When done the gravy should be brown
and of the right consistency. if not quite
thick enough, stir in a spoonful of flour
and water well blended and cook for 10
minutes longer. Serve on a large plat-
ter, the meat in the center and the vege-
tables grouped about it.
Did you ever know that common bicar-
bonate of soda will exterminate black
ants quickly? It will, and ground cloves
also rids a place of the tiny red ones.
If you are using canned food empty it
into china or glass at once after opening,
never put food of any kind away in tin.
A novel way of sweetening grapefruit
is the use of honey in place of sugar. If
the fruit is to be used for breakfast, pre-
pare it the night before,loosening the pulp
from the skin and membrane; then pour
over it enough honey to cover. In the
normisg the flavor will be found excel-
ent.
“Don’t scold your servants before |
African-brown, bottle-green, deep purple, :
the boiling point, and let simmer until |
will answer for this dish nicely. Peel.
FARM NOTES.
—*“More than half the nation’s egg
SoD is produced in March, April, and
ay.”
—Poor crops follow the use of poor
seed. Without good seed you cannot
grow a good crop.
—*“Few rats exist in Germany. If any
appear in a building the police are noti-
fied and they send an official rat catcher.
No charge is made for his services.”
—*“The power of wind is measured by
the cube of its velocity. A wind blow-
ing ten miles an hour gives a windmill
sight times as much power as a five mile
wind.”
—Cottonseed meal is considerably
cheaper than it was last year at this
time. It is pretty aptto remain so, since
there will be about 500,000 tons more of
it on the home market this year than
there was last. This fact means a lot to
the man who is feeding high-priced corn
to high-priced feeders.
—*“Many farmers suffer from photo-
phobia, a sensitiveness to light. This is
caused by the reflection of sunlight on
the ground and the strain thrown on the
eyes in an effort to overcome the sensi-
tiveness by adjusting the lenses of the
eyes.
“Bathing the eyes with hot water sev-
{ eral times every morning, and rubbing
| the forehead above the eyes in a circular
; motion with the fingers, will relieve photo-
phobia in many cases.”
—“Twenty-five dollars would plant and
care for at least five elm trees for a ten-
year period. Itis a moderate estimate to
say that, at the end of the second year, a
building lot would be worth a hundred
dollars more for their presence. At the
end of twenty-five years no man who
owned the land on which they stood
would take a hundred dollars apiece for
them. Plant an elm or a maple near
| your home this fall, and look upon it as
| a hundred-dollar endowment policy, ma-
turing in 1940, with no premiums after
the first year.
“No one thinks of shade trees as a
profitable crop, and yet, of all vegetable
growth cultivated by the hand of man,
none renders a more generous return.”
—“To get the fullest flavor and melt-
ing-in-the-mouth effect in muskmelons
{ and watermelons, they must remain at-
tached to the parent stem until a certain
stage of development is reached, or when
the life current ceases. To know this
stage to a nicety one must have ‘melon
sense.’ ]
“It is more of a trick to know this
stage in a watermelon than to know when
the muskmelon is fit.
“Watermelon that is still undeveloped
will show quite a white color where the
melon rests on the ground. When ripe
or about fit to pick, the color becomes a
lemon or creamy tint. There can gen-
erally be heard a crackling sound at this
stage when the melon is pressed with
considerable force.
“Generally there will be found a ten-
dril on the vine near the stem. This
tendril remains green as long as the
melon is growing and turns brown when
the growth is completed.
“Muskmelons when about ready to
pick separate quite easily from the vines,
and when fully ripe and mellow the
| vines generally crack near the stem to
! which the melon is attached. At this
stage there sometimes will be seen drops
of juice adhering to the cracking stem.
“Both muskmelons and watermelons
should be stored a few days ina cool
place to mellow up before cutting.”
—“It has been fully demonstrated that
the straw produced on twenty acres of
average wheat has a value of $50 to $75,
when spread on the land, in its fertiliz-
ing value alone, to say nothing of the
advantageous effect of the straw as a
source of humus. The ashes left after
burning have a mineral value of less than
five dollars in a straw stack from twenty
acres of average wheat, even if the ashes
are saved and spread over the land to
the best advantage.
“Why burn the straw piles.”
“In horse heaven the load in hot weath-
er is made light.
“The driving is slow.
“The horse is watered very frequently
if he is kept moving, but not just before
he is to be allowed to stand.
“After he has had his evening’s hay
he is watered. How would you like try-
ing to go to sleep after eating dry crack-
ers without a sup of water?
*‘His feet are bathed, but not his legs.
“If it is very hot he is sponged all
over, with water in which has been put a
little vinegar; but the hose is never turn-
ed on him.
“He is never made to wear one of those
horrid bell-shaped horse hats.
“If his stall is so hot that he sweats at
night, he is tied outside, well bedded
down. This gives him a chance to re-
gain strength for the next day’s work.
“Such a horse heaven may be estab-
lished on almost any farm.”
—“The color of a horse has a good
deal to do with its market price. Except
for funerals, circuses, and a few special
purposes, white horses are not wanted.
Light colors in general are not as popu-
lar as dark.
“The British army wants neither white
nor light gray horses because they are
such good targets on the battlefield. Bay,
black, brown, and chestnut are in great-
est demand.
“Gray colors are very hard to get rid
of by breeding. A pure gray mated with
bay, black, or chestnut always produces
a gray foal. Black mated with black
will theoretically give all black foals, but
in actual count of all kinds of black or
nearly black horses, 90 per cent. of the
colts were black.
“Chestnut crossed with bay frequently
gives a blend, for example: 52 per cent.
of several hundred foals were bay; 41
per cent, chestnut; and the rest black or
brown. Chestnut and brown also blend,
giving about 50 per cent. bay foals, 25
per cent. chestnut, and the rest black
and brown in about equal proportions.
“The color is no indication of working
ability, speed, or disposition.
“To consider the question of color in
live-stock breeding is certainly a wise
thing to do. But it should be secondary
to other more important qualities, such
as vigor, size, and soundness. Some-
times a certain color has been so estab-
lished—for instance, the white in the
White Leghorn or the face of the Here-
ford—that it has ceased to be a draw-
back since it is no trouble to maintain it.
But co.or style has worked to the great
damage of some of the best breeds.
Wherever the color scheme causes the
rejection of good animals because of
faulty color, it is a vicious sort of dual-
purpose breeding.”—Farm and Fireside.