A ache
Bellefonte, Pa., July 23, 1920.
RE Me
DON’T.
Folks are queer as they ean be,
Always sayin’ “don’t” to me,
Don’t do this an’ don’t do that,
Don’t annoy or tease the cat,
Don’t throw stones, or climb a tree,
Don’t play in the road. Oh Gee!
Seems like I want to play
Don’t is all that they can say.
If I start to have some fun,
Some one hollers, “Don’t you run.”
If I want to go an’ play
Mother says: “Don’t go away,”
Seems my life is filled clear through
With the things I musn’t do
All the time I'm shouted at;
“No, no, Sonny, don’t do that.”
shout an’ make a noise,
play with those naughty boys.
eat candy, don’t eat pie,
you laugh and don’t you cry,
Don’t stand up and don’t fall,
Don’t do anything at all,
Seems to me both night an’ day
Don’t is all that they can say.
Don’t
Don’t
Don’t
Don’t
When I'm older in my ways
An’ have little boys to raise,
Bet I'll let ’em race and run,
An’ not always speil their fun,
Y’11 not tell ’em all along
Everything they like is wrong,
An’ you bet your life I won't
All the time be sayin’ don’t,
North American.
HOISTING LIVES.
With a quick pull at his levers,
Dominicus Sprague, night engineer at
the Rodstone Company’s hoisting
plant over the B. J. & M. ventilation
shaft, sent the empty bucket hurtling
down into the gloom.
“I’m done at the end of this month,”
he confided to his assistant, Ralph
Sturdee. “I won’t go on hoisting men
up and down with that old cable.
We've turned it end for end, and splic-
ed it in half a dozen places; but it
isn’t safe. The whole plant’s the
same way; everything’s going to rack
and ruin.” :
“Frank Elmore heard a rumor in
Templeton that the Redstone was hav-
ing hard sledding,” said Ralph.
“When a company with capital to
handle only six jobs undertakes to
swing a dozen, it’s easy to tell how
the last end of the list’ll fare,” was
Sprague’s comment. “That's why
they’ve been trying to finish this shaft
with the old gear Blackwell & Brown
used; but they’ll have to find some-
one else to do their hoisting.”
“When you go, I go, too,” said
Ralph.
It was nine o’clock of a night in
October, and a forty-mile gale was
whistling over the engine house. The
walls and floor shook, the windows
rattled, the flames in the cracked lan-
terns flared and smoked.
The building stood over the thous-
and-foot ventilation shaft that was
being driven down through the solid
rock of the Allegheny spur to meet
the four-mile tunnel of the B. J. & M.
Railway. The pit was a black, gap-
ing, ugly hole, twenty feet across,
covered by a platform, in the middle
of which was an opening, five feet
square, directly under the hoisting
drum.
Two hundred feet below, a dozen
men were toiling. Up from the dis-
mal abyss rose thin, distant voices,
the clink of picks and the scraping of
shovels. There was a ladder on the
side of the pit, but the workmen rare-
ly used it; they preferred the quieck-
er and easier trip in the bucket.
A few minutes after nine o'clock
an automobile stopped outside the
engine house, and presently four men
entered. All were young, apparently
not more than thirty. One of them, a
sturdy fellow, with rosy, clean-cut
face and twinkling eyes, handed an
envelope to the engineer.
“I've a letter from Mr. Penfield,”
he said. “We'd like to look your plant
over.”
Mr. Penfield was the manager of
the Redstone company.
“Go ahead,” said Sprague, some-
what ungraciously.
The four inspected the premises
carefully, making frequent comments
in low tones to one another.
“Technical-school fellows!” the eng-
ineer grumbled under his breath.
“Think they know it all! I've seen
their kind before.” ;
At last they had looked at every-
thing except the shaft. Sprague had
just hoisted a bucket of rock, and
Ralph had tipped it into the little
dump car on the track beside the plat-
form.
“Guess we’ll go down,” said the
spokesman. “Safe, isn’t it?”
“The cable ought to hold you,” said
Sprague. “But you’ll have to run
your own risk; I won’t guarantee any-
thing.”
“How much does that load of rock
weigh?”
“A ton or more,” answered the en-
gineer.
“That’s all right. We won’t foot up
seven hundred,” said the stranger.
“Come on, boys!”
They clambered aboard and dropped
out of sight. Sturdee pushed the car
out on the dump. Soon the bucket
was at the bottom, and Sprague stop-
ped his engine.
Presently the rattle of rock told
him that the conveyor was being load-
ed. That meant that the visitors in-
tended to stay down over one trip.
Before long the hoisting bell clanged,
and the engineer pulled his levers.
The bucket was half way up, when a
shrieking gust of wind made the old
building tremble.
Slam—crash. Sprague
tinkle of breaking glass.
“Window blown!” he muttered.
He could not see the window, for
the boiler cut off his view of it; but
the hurricane itself, now suddenly un-
lashed inside the building furnished
proof enough of what had happened.
Clrssh-sh! Could that old lantern
have been blown fom its nail! Sprague
felt uneasy, but he could not leave his
levers. What made Ralph so long in
dumping that car? :
Suddenly he sniffed apprehensively.
Smoke? Yes! And worst. A red,
dancing light began to flicker beyond
the boiler.
heard the
Just then Ralph appeared, pushing
the car. He raised a yell:
“Fire! Fire!”
“Quick!” shouted Sprague.
extinguisher!” 2 :
Snatching the extinguisher from its
shelf, Ralph began to spray the
flames; but as fast as he put them
out in one place, they burst forth in
another. Running along the oil-soak-
ed floor they licked the walls; soon
the platform over the shaft was afire.
Fanned by the forty-mile gale that
swept through the window, the flames
spread with incredible speed.
“The men!” gasped the engineer,
with a look of horror on his face.
Sixteen lives in peril two hundred
feet below—and the bucket their on-
ly hope! The ladder? Sixteen climb-
ers, mad with fright, crowding on
one another’s heels. By the time the
first could reach the top, the building
would be a seething mass of flames.
It would drive them back. The smoke
would settle. Burning timbers, parts
of machinery, the heavy drum itself,
would fall into the pit. Scorched,
blinded, suffocated, one by one they
would drop from the rungs and go
plunging down to death. ;
Sprague’s face was grim and white.
Before the flames should drive him
from his levers, he must get the men
out. And first of all he must hoist
the load of rock.
Round the drum whirred the cable.
At last the white, ten-foot mark ap-
peared! Then, the bucket! As Ralph
tipped its contents crashing into the
car, the engineer clapped his mouth
to the speaking tube.
“Below there!” he shouted. “The
building’s afire, and we can’t put it
out! Stand by, everyone, to come up
in the bucket!”
He jerked at his levers, and down
the bucket swooped. Ralph plied his
extinguisher frantically, but still the
flames gained.
“The wind beats us!” he groaned.
“If it weren’t for that, I could but it
out.” ;
Sprague stood in silence, with his
hands on the levers and his eyes on
the drum. It was his last hoist with
the old cable. It promised to be a
fearfully hot one, for the flames were
creeping toward him.
“T’ll stand it,” he said to himself
with teeth clenched. “I'll have ‘em
up, if the gear holds.”
A cable mark told him that
the bottom was near, and he slowed
the bucket down to a stop. Ralph
flung himself flat on the platform and
peered down the shaft at the dim
lights clustered at the bottom.
“They’re piling in!” he shouted.
A lantern swung wildly below.
“Hoist away!” he cried.
The drum whirled. The bucket had
never come up so fast. A serpent
of flame writhed along the board at
Sprague’s feet; before long the fire
would be all around him. Ralph di-
rected a spray of chemical toward the
engineer.
“Never mind me!” ordered Sprague.
“Fight it away from the shaft!”
It was to be a battle of seconds.
“The
His judgment, his skill, his endurance,
were pitted against the gale-fanned
fire; he must hoist fast, but not too
fast. Sixteen lives. More than a ton
and a quarter of weight. What if
any of the old machinery shoud give
way.
Sprague’s thoughts flew to all the
various weak spots, one after another.
Of thousands of hoists ‘his was the
one when the gear must hold. His
eyes were fastened on the slim rope
of twisted wire, running up through
the center of the black square.
They had reached the ten-foot
mark!
“Here they are! Here they are!”
Ralph yelled in triumph.
Up through the opening in the
burning platform burst the bucket,
packed with men close as sardines.
As it stopped, they tumbled out pell-
mell.
“Everybody safe 7” shouted Sprague.
“Only fourteen! There wasn't
room for us all, so Blair and McCor-
mick started up the ladder.”
The engineer’s exultation gave way
to despair.
“They’ll never make it!” he mut-
tered. “Before they can climb up, the
top of the shaft’ll be ablaze.
He grasped his levers sagain. “I'll
stand here and hoist ’em out, if I
burn to death.”
“But how’ll they get into the buck-
et?” one of the men asked. “It’s sev-
en feet from the ladder.”
Ralph snatched a coil of rope from
the wall and sprang into the conveyer.
“I'll go down and throw ’em the end
of this line. They can pull the buck-
et in to the side of the shaft, and I'll
hold on to the ladder until they can
get aboard. Lower away!”
Sprague obeyed. The flames were
all round him now. Could he stick
to his post until the men were safe?
One of the rescued men was fight-
ing the fire round the shaft. Another
had thrown himself prone upon the
unburned edge of the platform, and
was watching Ralph’s swiftly drop-
ping lantern. On a sudden he saw it
violently swing. Ralph had reached
the two climbers.
“Far enough!” yelled the watcher,
and then a few seconds later, “He’s
got ’em! Hoist away!”
At the same instant the flame drove
him back from the platform; it ring-
ed the opening now.
Only Sprague and the man at the
top of the shaft who was playing the
extinguisher remained in the engine
house. The room was alive with flame.
It scorched Sprague’s shoes and over-
alls and jumper; it burned his hands
and face. He was suffering torments,
but still he stood at his post.
Once more the white mark!
With a tremendous self restraint
the engineer kept his blistering hands
upon the levers, until three heads shot
up through the smoke and fire seethed
over the pit. :
Out of the bucket sprang Blair, Mec-
Cormick and Ralph. Sprague’s task
was finished. Ablaze in a dozen plac-
es he leaped for he door. Several
pairs of hands dragged him outside
and extinguished the flames. 3
The four strangers came up to him.
“We shan’t forget we owe
our lives to you,” said one; and the
others echoed him.
Sprague felt embarrassed. He was
in no mood to be made a hero of; be-
sides, his burns smarted. There was
a lump in his throat as he watched
the flames rapidly eat up the engine
house. With all its faults the old
shack and its machinery had given
him a good living.
“Well,” said the spokesman of the
visitors, “at any rate we've been saved
the trouble of tearing down the build-
ing. We'll have a good electric plant
up in short order. Of course you'll
stay with us, Mr. Sprague? The
company’s reorganized, and you won’t
have any more trouble about getting
repairs made.”
The engineer could hardly believe
his ears.
“But I've lived with steam all my
life,” he stammered. I don’t know
anything about electricity.”
“Not too old to learn, are you?”
said the other, laughing.
“No.”
“Then its settled. We'll send up an
electrician to teach you how to run
the plant and he can stay as long as
you want him. You get a raise of iive
dollars a week; and so does your as-
sistant. I'm your new boss. Be-
tween us we'll put that shaft down
eight hundred feet farther, until we
strike the tunnel.”—The Youth’s
Companion.
Two Tricks for You to Try.
The wonderful paper rings—This
is a very mysterious trick and very
easy to perform. You get three
strips of paper about three feet long
and one and one-half inches wide anid
join the two ends in each case so
that you can have three paper rings.
Now you explain that you have three
rings and that if you treat them ail
in the same manner you should get
the same result in each case. With
a pair of scissors you now cut the first
ring in halves lengthwise, and you
find that it comes out in two rings.
The second ring is next cut in halves
in the same manner and strange to
say it comes out in one huge ring
double the size of one of the first
rings. The third ring is now cut in
halves and to the wonder of all comes
out as two rings, joined together like
the links of a chain.
The secret is this: You join the
first ring so as to form a simple band,
the second ring you twisted once be-
fore gumming the ends together, and
the third ring you twisted twice.
The shrinking penny—Take a sheet
of ordinary note paper, fairly thick,
and cut a circular hole in the center
just the size of a shilling. Now take
a penny from your pocket, and ask any
one in the room to pass the penny
through the hole without tearing the
paper or enlarging the hole. When
all have failed, you explain that you
will do_the trick without touching the
coin. Put the penny on the table and
fold the paper in halves exactly
through the center of the hole. Now
scoop up the penny with the paper,
and shake it into the center, until
its edge appears through the hole.
Keeping the paper partly folded bend
the sides of the paper upward and
the penny will fall through on the
table.—Minneapolis Tribune.
Short Business Course at State Col-
lege Soon.
State College, Pa., July 20.—A two
week’s course, aimed directly at the
needs of business, and purposing to
equip industrial executives to success-
fully handle the problems of manage-
ment, will again be offered by the in-
dustrial engineering department of the
Pennsylvania State College, August
9th to 21st. This is the fifth of the
courses presented by the department
in an effort to condition manufactur-
ers in the science of efficiency. All pre-
ceding courses have been attended by
industrial department heads from ail
parts of the State who wish to take
advantage of the long standing ex-
perience of the college industrial en-
gineering department in mastering the
various phases of efficiency in produc-
tion, cost and employment problems.
Indications already point to a large
attendance at this school. Many
firms send new men for succeeding
courses, looking upon this work as
a training school for coming fore-
men and department heads. The list
of those who have attended has more
the appearance of an industrial di-
rectory than a student roll, for it in-
cludes many plant owners, superin-
tendents, certified public accountants,
consulting engineers and purchasing
agents, in addition to a great number
of foremen and department managers.
Class room discussion followed by
practical study in the college shops
make up the principal work of the
school. Every branch of management
is thoroughly investigated with the
aim of devising new and better meth-
ods. Professor E. J. Kunze, of the
college engineering school faculty, is
executive director of the course this
summer.
—
Over 500,000 Auto Licenses.
The automobile division of the
State Highway Department predicts
that over 525,000 licenses will be is-
sued in 1920 for pneumatic tired ve-
hicles. Tag No. 469,000 was issued
last Friday. The total number of li-
censes issued for pneumatic tired ve-
hicles in 1919 was 441,224.
Truck registrations also show a
great increase over 1919. The num-
ber of licenses issued up until Friday
for solid tired vehicles totaled 41,446.
The 1919 total was 40,893.
Uy to July 8 the total receipts from
automobile regisrations were $7,176,
761.47. This is an increase over the
fori receipts for 1919 of $1,086,115,-
78.
The automobile division has receiv-
er a number of requests for tag No.
500,000. It is expected that this num-
ber will be reached early in August.
ered An
—Five thousand draft evaders have
been convicted in federal courts and
given sentences of thirty days to one
year in prison, according to reports
compiled at the Department of Jus-
tice in Washington. Thirty thousand
cases remain to be investigated. The
figures do not include persons who
were called in the draft and deserted,
ag such cases are handled by the mili-
tary authorities. About 275,000 cas-
es of delinquents—men who succeed-
ed in avoiding actual entrance into
the service—have been investigated
by the department out of a total of
318,314 reported. There were about
100,000 cases of failure to register and
an equal number of false question-
naires.
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN.
DAILY THOUGHT.
You may be
someone—the
Shine!
as the morning star to
harbinger of a new day.
Plenty of string beans in jars in
the store closet means that the basis
for innumerable salads and vegetable
side dishes is at the housekeeper’s
command all during the winter
months so when this vegetable is at
its best in the garden or on the mar-
ket, the wise woman cans enough for
use when it is out of season. The
following directions for canning string
beans are given by the United States
Department of Agriculture:
Select small, tender wax or green
beans for canning purposes. Beans
which have grown within the pod to
any size are difficult to can, and the
resulting product is not as satisfac-
tory as one from younger beans. The
sooner the beans are in the jar after
picking the better the flavor and the
more certain they are to keep. Wash,
string, and cut off the ends of the
beans. Whole beans may be canned
or they may be cut in short lengths.
Those cut diagonally are attractive
in appearance.
FILL JARS WITH HOT BRINE.
Place the beans in a wire sieve or
in cheesecloth and blanch (scald) in
hot water or live steam for from 3
te five minutes, or until the pod will
bend without breaking. On removal,
drain well and pack into hot jars
which have been boiled for 15 min-
utes. On the jars place rubbers which
have been boiled in a solution of 1
tablespoon of soda to 1 quart of wa-
ter.
Cover beans with a hot brine made
from 4 level tablespoonfuls of salt to
4 quarts of boiling water. Put on
top which has been boiled 15 minutes.
With glass-top jars put one wire bail
in position. Make serew tops about
half tight. Processing beans under
steam pressure is recommended.
Quart jars should be processed 45
minutes under pressure of 10 pounds.
With a hot-water canner or with a
home-made canner made out of a
wash boiler or lard can process the
jars three hours if the one-period pro-
cedure is used. Make sure the water
is boiling before starting to count
time. When boiled, tighten the cov-
ers and cool.
If the intermittent boiling proced-
ure is used, boil for 1 hour on 3 suc-
cessive days. Before each boiling
loosen the covers. Tighten covers af-
ter each boiling. When the process-
ing is finished, lift the jars from the
canner. Cool in a spot free from
drafts; test, and store. In event of
leakage when jar is tested, remove
rubber, put on new, wet, boiled one,
and process 15 minutes more.
VINEGAR AIDS IN PREVENTING
SPOILAGE.
During the past year the Home Eco-
nomics Experimental Kitchen of the
United States Department of Agri-
culture has been experimenting with
the addition of a small amount of
acid—vinegar—to non-acid vegetables
being canned. This work is being con-
tinued, and the results thus: far in-
dicate that 1 to 4 tablespoons of vine-
gar added to a quart jar help great-
ly in reducing the amount of spoilage.
When the vinegar is added, the time
of processing can be reduced. For
instance, it is found that corn, which
ordinarily is difficult to can success-
fully, keeps well when 4 tablespoon-
fuls of vinegar are added to a quart
Jar processed 3 hours continuously.
String beans, old peas, and spinach
are other vegetables successfully can-
ned by this method.
The addition of vinegar to canned
vegetables in the amounts mentioned
modifies to some degree the natural
flavor of the vegetable, but the re-
sult is not objectionable to most people
and in many instances is not noticed.
THE HOUSE IN SUMMER
Bare floors, cretonne covered furni-
ture and pictures veiled in cheese
cloth may give te rooms a barren and
unoccupied appearance, but they are
delightfully cool looking, which is
the chief consideration in the summer
dressing of the house.
Not only do these precautions
against dust and heat add to the cool-
ness of the rooms, but they make them
easy to care for, an item of vast im-
portance when the thermometer is
registering the fatigue of the house-
wife with every added degree.
Shrouding the house in washable
fabrics has come to be quite the thing,
whether one is in town or gone to the
country.
Curtains are taken down to allow
the free pasage of air, and if the
playful breeze carries undue amounts
of dust through the open windows it
can be swept up or dusted from the
smooth floor and coverings so easily
that summer housekeeping becomes a
pleasure.
Milk is the natural food for chil-
dren. It is the best food we have. A
quart a.day for every child is pos-
sible, and a pint without fail, should
be the slogan of every household.
. Milk gives children the body-build-
ing protein, one of the materials from
which their bodies are made. When
children drink milk, these body pro-
teins make muscles and blood. Chil-
dren need these because their bodies
grow so fast.
Milk contains lime and other salts
which are needed for strong bones
and teeth and for body regulations.
Many children who do not have plenty
of milk have soft or deformed bones
and poor teeth.
Children are so active that they need
more fuel food for their size than
grown people. Milk furnishes energy
for the growing child.
Besides these, milk contains cer-
tain substances which are essential to
vitamines. One is the fat-soluble
vitamine, so called because it is sol-
uble in certain fats; this is found in
the greatest abundance in the butter
fat of milk. Butter is rich in this
vitamine. It is also found to some
extent in cheese.
In milk is found another vitamine,
called the water-soluble vitamine, be-
cause it is soluble in water. These
vitamines are found to some extent
in certain other foods, but nowhere
are they found in so great an abund-
ance as in milk, according to the U. S.
Department of Agriculture.
DELICATE SHORTCAKE.
Take two cupfuls of sifted flour,
two teaspoonfuls of baking powder,
three tablespoonfuls of butter, three
tablespoonfuls of sugar, one egg and
three quarters of a cupful of milk.
Sift the salt and baking powder into
the flour after it has been sifted
once and measured. Cream the but-
ter, sugar and egg until light. Into
this gently stir the milk and flour,
alternating (do not beat, just stir
lightly), then pour into a greased lay-
er cake tin. Bake in a brisk oven,
Canned peaches, plums or cherries or
any favorite canned fruit may be util-
ized for this purpose. Fresh apple
sauce is delicious between the layers.
Serve with plenty of sweet cream.
HOW HEAVY IS A CHILD?
A Scientific Formula for Finding the
Normal Weight, Based upon In-
dividual Measurements.
Parents are often puzzled to know
whether a particular child is of nor-
mal weight for its height. A mere
weight-for-age scale does not suffice,
since there is so wide a variation in
the normal size of children in health.
Nor does it appear that there is a
dependable weight-for-height scale
that is universally applicable.
An endeavor has been made by Pro-
fessor E. W. Ainley Walker, to pro-
vide a dependable test. He thinks he
has found it in the measurement of
the length of the body; or, stated
otherwise, the height when seated.
His observations were conducted by
having the individual seated on a low
table (not a chair,) with back flat
against the wall, measurement being
made from the table to the top of the
individual’s head.
From a long series of such observa-
tions, Prof. Walker has produced a
formula that is applicable, he believes
to all children, throughout the period
of growth, irrespective of whether the
individual child is large or small. He
writes his formula 1—kw-n.
Being interpreted, this means that
the length of the child (in millimeters)
as determined by the above method,
should be equal to the weight (in
grams) modified by two factors, the
values of which have been determined
by his observations. The value of n
he notes for the male as 0.33 and for
the female as 0.32. Raising a num-
ber to this fractional power is practi-
cally equivalent to extracting its cube
root. The value of the length con-
stant k for groups of individual males
is 23.23 and for groups of individ-
ual females 25.60. In making appli-
cation to the individual boy the over-
age value of k is 23.23 and for the
individual girl 25.58.
In making practical test of an in-
dividual boy, the formula would thus
become: The cube root of the weight
in grams multiplied by 23.33 should
closely approximate the length of the
body in millimeters.
The practical value of the method
is conditioned on the claim’ that if
the body length of any individual
child differs by as much as 17 per
cent. from the value calculated by
means of this formula, the individual
is certainly abnormal. If it differs by
12 per cent. the child is probably ab-
normal.
Of course the measurement must pe
made accurately, but forthis nothing
more is necessary than to make sure
the child’s back is flat against the
wall.—Hearsts.
State Forests to be Extended.
Extension of the system of State
forests to include all the waste moun-
tain land in Centre county is contem-
plated by the Pennsylvania department
of Forestry. Gifford Pinchot, the
State’s chief forester, is seeking ad-
ditions to the forests.
It is his policy to enlarge the State
forests as rapidly as possible, so that
eventually the 5,000,000 acres com-
prising the Pennsylvania Desert may
be converted into profitable timber
producing areas. Approximately one-
half of the forest land in Pennsyl-
vania is now a barren waste, growing
nothing of value. Forester Pinchot
expects that the State will buy vast
tracts of cut-over and burned-over
mountain land, protect them from for-
est fires and assure Pennsylvania of
a future timber supply.
Estimates by Forester Pinchot in-
dicate that the value of the present
State forests has far more than dou-
bled since they were purchased. Con-
sequently, the expenditure of public
funds for waste land is regarded as
a profitable investment, rather than
an expense.
All of the State foresters have been
instructed to collect full information
respecting parcels of land which
should be bought and made State for-
ests. George W. Woodruff, chief of
the Bureau of Lands, is receiving the
foresters’ reports, and he will com-
pile them for early consideration by
the State Forest Commission.
That “But” Stuff.
“He is a nice chap, but—"
Chop that “but” off your sentences.
It is the thing you say after that
conjunction which makes you disliked.
Men cannot be standardized and if
you could make them all as much
alike as carbon copies of the same
letter this would be a sorry world
indeed.
Learn to love men because of these
little differences from your standard
of manhood, just as you love a piece
of handwork for its variations from
machine products of which a thousand
are duplicates.
Just say, “He’s a nice chap,” and
Sop there.—Roe Fulkerson in Kiwanis
ech.
The Master.
“Of course, there is no such thing
as woman’s supremacy?”
“Think not? From the time a boy
sits under a street light playing with
toads until he is blind and old and
toothless he has to explain to some
woman why he didn’t come home ear-
lier.”—Life.
Heredity.
“What is heredity?” :
“Something a father believes in un-
til his son begins acting like a darn
fool.”—American Legion Weekly.
|
FARM NOTES.
—Large crops do not always mean
large profits. The main question is
the cost of producing them.
—An extensive dairyman says that
for 20 years his cows had dry hay
before them every time they were
milked, which was twice a day, and
the pasturs was never so good but
what those cows would eat some of
the dry hay.
—Make it a rule to keep no more
stock on the farm than there is
enough feed to supply liberally. Sell
off the others, even though it seems
a sacrifice. There is no sacrifice
equal to that which comes from stunt-
ed livestock.
“City persons cannot expect
farmers to produce on a 16-hour bas-
is and pay six-hour or even eight-
hour prices for everything they buy,”
said Senator Arthur Capper. If we
mistake not the present temper of
the organized farmers, they are not
going to.
—It will take two or three years
to get back the normal amount of
hay land, and in the meantime the
soy bean is one of the best substi-
tutes for the regular perennial legume
hays. If cured in time, it makes a
hay that is very palatable and at the
same time gives a satisfactory return
per acre. Probably two and a half
tons of cured hay would be the aver-
age yield.
Ducks may be fed on the rations
recommended for fowls and chickens
but better results are usually secured
by feeding more green and vegetable
seeds and a larger proportion of mash.
Eggs from Pekin ducks are used
largely for hatching, and the profit is
secured in producing green ducklings;
therefore these ducks are fed a main-
tenance ration after they stop laying
in the summer until about December
1, when a laying ration is given and
the amount of mash increased.
Indian Runner ducks have been in-
troduced as producers of commercial
eggs, so they should be fed laying
rations throughout the year if kept
for egg production.
The ducklings to be marketed
should be fattened for two weeks be-
fore killing on a ration made of three
parts, by weight, of corn meal, two
parts of low grade flour or middlings,
one part of bran, one-half part of beef
scrap, with 3 per cent. grit and 10
per cent. green feed. Feed this mash
three times daily, or use a mash of
three parts corn meal, one part low-
grade wheat flour, one part bran, 5
per cent beef scrap, and 3 per cent.
oyster shell, with green feed and grit
added.
The green feed is sometimes left
out of the ration during the last sey-
en days of fattening, as it tends to
color the meat and may produce a
slightly flabby rather than a firm
flesh; however, it is easier to keep
the ducklings in good feeding con-
dition on a mash containing green
feed. Boiled fish may replace the
beef scrap, but should only be fed up
to within two weeks before they are
killed, as it may give a fishy taste
to their flesh, United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture specialists 4
gest. A considerable quantity of
boiled fish is also fed in the mash to
laying ducks in sections where the
duck farms border on the water and
where fish is available at a very small
cost. This fish aids materially in re-
ducing the cost of feeding.
Breeding ducks, if not kept for the
production of market eggs, should
have a grass range, if possible, after
the hatching season is over and be fed
sparingly on a mash of 1 part, by
weight, corn meal, 2 parts bran, 1
part low-grade wheat flour, 1 part
green feed, 8 per cent beef scrap, and
3 per cent grit, given once or twice
daily, with one feed of mixed grains;
or the mash may be made of 3 parts,
by measure, corn meal, 4 parts bran,
2 parts low-grade wheat flour, 3-4
part beef scrap, and 2 parts of green
feed, with a small amount of grit
and shell or mineral matter.
Feed Pekin ducks for eggs, begin-
ning about December 1, on 1 pound of
corn meal, 1 pound of low-grade flour
or middlings, 1 pound of bran, 15 per
cent of vegetables or green feed, and
some grit, feeding this mash twice
daily, in the morning and at night;
also giving 1 quart of mixed corn and
wheat to every 30 ducks at noon when
they are laying heavily. These lay-
Ing rations should be fed throughout
the year to Indian Runners or to
any breed of ducks kept principally
for the production of market eggs,
poultry specialists of the United
States Department of Agriculture say.
If the Indian Runner ducks are not
laying, they should be fed sparingly.
All rations are by weight unless oth-
erwise stated. Thirty laying ducks
(Pekins) will eat about 10 quarts of
moist mash at each meal.
Sweden has proved a good market
for America honey in competition
with the domestic product during the
past two years. As the production
this year will probably be less than in
1919 the demand for the American
product 1s expected to continue, es-
pecially as it is cheaper than Swedish
honey. The American consul at Mal-
mo writes that if the honey is put up
in small glass or tin containers in-
stead of in large tubes or cases it
would be more salable.
A list of importers of honey in
Sweden may be had upon application
to the Bureau of Markets by request-
ing list Sweden 10749.
The New York State College of
Agriculture says that a ton of aver-
age mixed manure contains 12 pounds
of ammonia, 5 pounds of phosphoric
acid and 10 pounds of potash. In
plant food it is equivalent to 100
pounds of a 12-5-10 fertilizer. When
reinforced with 100 pounds of acid
phosphate, or 50 pounds of rock phos-
phate, it is equivalent in plant-food
content, to 200 pounds of a 6-10-5
mixture. The nitrogen would have a
value of $2.50 if purchased as nitrate
of soda or sulphate of ammonia at
present delivered prices. When pur-
chased in the form of 2-12 mixture,
an equivalent amount of nitrogen, or
ammonia would cost about $6.40.
Based on muriate at $155, the potash
of a ton of fresh manure has a value of
$1.55. If obtained in a 12-2 mixed
fertilizer this would be increased to
over $4.
J
Sr