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NOTES -

IIOOLA

ran aura-a iuovammrs '

I recollect many. many years ago one of Camille Flam- marionb in which he said

works

that the Earth had eleven dis- tinct motions. Flammarlon was a French astronom of considerable note 1n his day. and invested the science with a glamor that made hosts ‘of devotees. It is said that one noble French lady. who was enamored with both scientist and science. ordered 1n her will that a sct of his astronomical works bound 1n- her own skin. was to be pre- sented to the astronomer on her wiecease; and it was believed that this unusual bequest was duly car- ried out. Fla-urination conceived that the planets were lnh lted. but not by such dreadful crgatiilges as

e z

like sylphs. with wings like butter- flies. and so forth.

To come back to Earth. We are well aware of the diurnal rotation of the Earth and its annual revo- lution round the Sun; we have the proof at hand in the sequence of day and night. and the passage of the seasons. Not s0 apparent is the movement of the whole solar sys- tem (including cf course the Earth) to a point. said bv astronomers to be located in the constellation Her- cules, This movement is seen in the fact that the stars towards which the solar sys-tem is travelling ap- pear to be diverging. while those

. behind are closing in; m-uch in the [Q1118 way as the natural features of a country behave when we take a. train journey. Only observations carried out over a long period of time. by trained observers with proper equipment, can pmve this the third movement of our planet.

The “precesslorfl or movement of the Earth's pole was discovered by Hlpparchus. a Greek as- tronomer. about the year 125 B. C. Last week we were talking of the ‘gravitational pull of the Sun. and 10W it kept all the planets in their pieces. That "pull" has another ef-

_ as well: the Sun pulls the bulge of the Earth which is near- est to it much more strongly than it dOes that portion which is fur- thest from it. The flattened shape of the Earth. with the buhze round the equator. greatly accentuates this gravitational pull. which causes the Earth to tilt or tip very slight-

l .

yLf we can imagine the Earth's axis to be produced as a. rigid bar extending indefinitely into space.

four miles from Newcastle, 5nd the other species 1n captivity in the Z°°1°8i¢ai Gardens in laondon. The affect. was rather disappointing. because from the pictures of stag- huritr. the writer bad got the im- pression that deer were about the size of horses. which is far from

the measur of the s being a little lesu. The antlers or horns may have given rise to the ‘slusion, for the Red Deer has ant- lers 40 or 42 inches long. which kreatlv aid in the impression of height.

Commenclna with the Bullow Deer. we may remark that the ad- iectlval name comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word "fealu”. mean- imz Dale yellow. That is the color ofdts coat in summer when. too.» it is extensively daprpled with large white spots. At this 1mg it is a pretty sight to see the animals slipping away through the Izreen- wood. as they do instantly at the approach o! SUNTRQTS. In winter. contrary to what one might ex- pect. their coat turns dark brown. In size this deer stands from 36 to 40 inches at the shoulders. and the tall 1s longer than that of the other species. That lt is a relative of the Giant Irish Elk that once roamed the Brltbh Isles. is evin- ced by the extremity of the arit- lers beiriiz flattened and palmet- ed. Good horns measure 30 to 32 inches in length. It is thouaht that Fallow Deer were introduced into Britain from Southern Europe in

Roman es.

The Roe Deer is truly wild only in the Hlgltands of Scotland. but it has been introduced into many other wooded districts in Great Britain and Ireland. One reason for this is. because the KNEW!‘ landowners wished to establish colonies of deer for sport. as well as for crnament._ This is the smell- est of the Britsh deer. STJIICUIUZ only 26 inches high at the Shoul- der and having antlers l1 or 12 inches long. Only the males. how- ever possess antlers. which usually have three points or “tlnes". and are not widely palmated like those of the Fallow Deer. The tail is quite short and is almost hidden by the dense coat of the animal. In hunter's language. the short tail of a deer. ham. or such gauze. is a. scut". In summer the pro- vailing tint of this deers coat is a reddish-fawn. turning on the up- proach of winter to a. grey color.

it would appear to come very near what we now call the Pole Star. It did not, however, always point in? that direction. noi- will it always} do so. The slight tilt mentioned} above would cause the end of the bar to move in u circle ‘in the heavens. the completion of which would take about 26.000 yearsl About 13.000 years ago Vega, liil the constellation Lyra. was near. the end of our bar. and was the‘: Pole Star of those days: 1n an- other 13.000 years it will be the Pole Star again. ‘IT-ifs is the fourth movement cf the Elarth that we are cognizant of.

It will be seen that this, axial movement will cause Heat climatic changes in the course of time. Places which now enjoy a temper- ate cllme will gradually assume an Arc temperature. and an Ice in. O-n the other hand the Polar Regions of today will have a climate more like our own.

‘This big precmsional circle ls 110$ steady: the Moon's gravitation-pull on the Earth causes o. "mutation" or wobibling of the Earth's axis about its mean position. "A com- plete wobble to and fro" says the Astronomer Royal. “takes place in about l9 years”. Our rigid bar though its end 1s describing a big 26.000-year circle. has a decided wiggle on it. which ‘Flammarion call- ed the "Dance of the Pole." 'I‘h1s is the fifth movement, of the Earth. and the last one that I can recol- lect of the astronomers eleven. One can't remember evcrythilur!

The Sun's pull in the precession- al effect. must cause great strains 1n the solid crust of the earth: which again are the cause of earth tremors.

DEER. IN BRITAIN

The Island of Great Britain. (comprising England. Scotland and Wales) is, roughly speaking 600

' miles ions. or about four times the

“skittish?”

length of P. E. Island: but it has an area of close on 89.000 square ‘miles or 40 times the area of this Province. This arises from the shape and compactness. Neverthe- less when we compare this (to us) relatively lame area with the rest of the world. 1t seems a. small spot '1ndeed: and we may find it dif- ficult to believe that at least fifty noecles of "wild animals" are still '0! be found there. and that de- spite the teeming Doipulation. The largest of these feral ani- srpecles of deer:

, 0116 R06 DOQI,

‘, 3rd‘ the Red Deer. The writer has

1een the F'all0w Deer running wild lgktlie woods at Axweil Hall. dbOlll

This animulis found also in Eur-| ope and Asia. where the breed is» said to be slightly larger. with longer antlers. In the former con- tinent it is likely to be much rarer than it used to be. since owing to the demand for food in the dis- tress created by the World War. many species of big Rome were. practically extermlnated. and some tirely s0.

The Red Deer, the third and largest of the group. 1s found in the South of England. on Exmoor: in the Highlands of Scotland and| cn some of the larger Scottish ls- lands; and in County Kerry in Ireland. Its summer coat is a buffy- bi-own, fuming to greyish in wiry‘

ter. The young are born spotted. but soon become uniform in hue. The antlers are shed annually inl February and March in this spec-i ies; the new horns appear i_r. April. and by Juiv their growth 1S Iccmpleted and the animal is again in fighting trim. The female is .hornless.

With the general break-up of the large estates which has been going on since the turn of the ceniurv.| the survival of these interesting animals has become very Blob- lematic. and their extinction may follow. from conditions created by the present war.

MORE REMINISCENCES

Readers may rccofect my sav- ing that it is thirty years this spring since I first se-t foot in P. E. Island. That is a quite respec- table percentage of a man's life- time. and counts as a “illenerati_on" in the estimation of genealogists. A new generation has certainly grown up. and very few indeed of my early acquaintances on the Is- land. are left to read these cur- sory notes of the cld times. There have been great changes in the outlook and mtci-ests of the people the comforts of their homes. and the management of their farme- The averane young farmer has at his, command conveniences his father never dreamed of in his early days: and a5 for his grand- father. that worthy patriarch wou‘d scarcely understand current events if he could revisit the scene of his labors.

During this long time. one 1s glad to notice that the loyalty of the people to the British connec- tion has not changed a whit It is as strong today as I found it 1n 1010. For all that. an Englishman was looked upon as a “forelrmer” here. and on the western yvlieat fields the slogan was f‘no Engiish-

u

“FOR WINTER FEEDING”

Ideal winter for food, can 'be

3""! Till Standard l-‘ox Cubes contain meat. fish, tobacco"; nit, molasscl, bone, wheat, ollcake, Alfalfa and corn. ‘

Silver Sm- fox cubes contain dried meat, corn, Alfalfa, 0a!- meaL wheat germ. fllh. barley malt, but pulp, molasses. milk powder, salt, cod oll. cont gluten and soy bean meal.

_ The used in conjunction ‘with

ground meat. flali trip Qhllfllflflhhil,

SILVER TIP BISCUIT 00.,‘ LTO.

MONCTON, N. B.

NATURAL RESOURCES

» CONSERVATION

a WIIKVIJ oounnl or IIAUIIGAL OPINIONS or rm mar. manna anIo-rmo ran vale arm causes or

I! II- LUDLOW JENKINS

PAGING MR. CROW (Nature Maser-inc)

It ls doubtful whether there has ever been lmed a B06319 111°" starkly exciting than the madbat- tie against the grasshopper hordel 1n "The Good Earth". Yet shortly after we saw this great motion pic- ture we saw briefly in a news reel a picture o! an American farmer. his wife and children pathetically killing grasshoppers among therows nf their ill-fated corn d017-

There was. in both of these scenes. a lesson in conservation. There have always been cases of devastating swarming of grasshop- pers. In this country they have al- ways been worse on the normally treeless plains where there is little or no bird life. In China, where the destruction of tree and bird life has en going on for centuries. it Ls only natural that such insect de- vastation should occur unchecked by any other force of Nature. In most parts of the United States this should not be the case. Yet even here the pros/poets are not bright if we continue mass kilIlng of the birds that Nature provided to main- tain hei- balance. .

The now classic instance of bird- dom's rallying to the side of man in the insect battle is the gather- in-z of the gulls near Great Salt Lake to check the grasshoppers and crickets. But gulls cannot be ex-

: “d to came to the aid of Kan- sas. Ohio. Illinois. Wisconsin, or other of our mid-Western States. They must rely largely on resident birds. Yet these and other states are either encouroglna or actually promoting the systemail. destruc- tion o1 a great ally against the grasshopper and other destructive spring “and summervinsects. That

n-

man need apply". It was common-

ly said that the Ilngllsh were too

critical of Canadian mBI-hOd-‘S find were top 515w to Suit the weal/BF“

Canadians. This slowness of the

British was a 168E110 in the United

states too. Perhaps it arose out of

the thoroughness with which the

B11 to accomplish their tasks. Captain of my Canadian friends oi early days. who had retired and lived in the West for some years. used to tell this experience: “When an Eimllsh hired man was asked to take a horse and sleigh to some destination previously unknown t0 him. he would question his em- pltJyBI‘ about every turn 1n tho read till he (the employer» was exasperated. but the horse 811d Sleigh would arrive safely at lie destination. The Canadian or Am- crlcun. in similar circumstances. would be 1n the sleiith Tllfht BWB-lf; and would wind up in a swamp! (My old friend took to the sea 0.2.1111 in command of 25 years 1120. fill-d W85 overboard and lost. in a great storm off the coast of Newfoundland.»

As to the British slowness. it

certainly did not apply l0 mane" of policy or economy. We got rid of political patronage very largely in 1e32, and for the past hundred years the British Government has spaicd no effort to clear away the residuum. In Canada. even at the present day. its existence st ren- ders evclw act of government, sus- pect. Armin. the National Unem- ployment Insurance Bill. designed to give the workman security when he 1s, unfortunately. out of work. was passed by the British Gcv- ernment in 1911: and has been in operation ever since. Neither the United States noi- Canada have vet adopted this very important measure. though they IN Still talking about it—20 years after. The progress in agricultural mat- ters. it must be admitted. has been slower in Britain with regard to the rights of farm laborers: but even so their lot has been Rreatly Iumellorated. Thirty years ado a hired man in the North of Ena- land worked long hours for 22 shillings weekly: today. by decree of the Board of Agriculture he 1s paid a minimum wage of 34 shil- lings and sixpence. and his hours are shortened. In Canada. we are slower still. for no move at all has been made to a. very hard- working class.

i Farmers and farm workers are all cooperating to llnrptove condi- tions ln their vocation. and the British Government ls obliged to lake steps to help them. I recollect that years ago an attempt was made to create a "Farmers Party" in the Island here. but it fell flat mainly because of the method em- ployed. A number of candidates of- fered themselves for election. and were defeated; had they

offer

themselves as candidates for either I-i

o! the traditional parties. they might have succeeded for they were good men. The “Reconstruction Party" too. went down to defeat. though their aim was good: for there seems to be a. suspicion of third parties on this ccnthient. The roper method. it seems to me. woul have been to inaugurate. not a. political party. but a. Farmers’ Protective Union. which. by reason of its loyalty and numbers. would brine about the necessary reforms. as has been done in Britain. Ivy uslniz the parties already 1n ex- istence. No Government could af- ford to neglect the pressure ttiat tne Island farmers could apply. if they were united.

It has often been held against John Bull that he is away behind 1n the use of farm machinery. and it may surprise my readem to 1dr trrwm P "t! 8 e 0R in his tight little island.

NOTES 0N ISLAND PLANTS The Linaceu

we now come to a number of Natural Families. with few rep- resentatives in our Province. e first of these is the Iinaceae. which ls limited to one species. the Com- mon. Flax. Llnum usitatlutmurn. The plant has been introduced. and was sometimes grovm as a field crop.’ whose you.

in 1926. The uce is two-fold: the . and the fibre called flax.

lfioutluucunupnnmoolll

ed ing lhla horses NlChOLOIYS Horse- ea

ally, whether the state conserva- tion departments, the arms and ammimition company éiropagandists or others like 1t or no , is the crow.

Between early April and lwte August crows depend upon insects for more than one-third of their food. Iktensivo analysis of the contents of crows‘ stomachs reveals that one hundred grasshoppers eat- en during an hour or two of feed- ing 1s n0 feat for a. crow. A group of four nestling crows will keep the parent; busy for an hour or so. and 1n that time consume 400 grass- hoppers. Analysls of the stom- achs of 157 crows 1n a. grasshopper- lnfested area showed 151 of them to have eaten generously of the in- sects, The evidence of the crew's importance in holding this insect pest 1n check is voluminous and

table.

About some of the trading posts in central Canada, where grasshop- pers periodically ravage the vege- table gardens, both Indians and whites appreciate the help cf the crow and encourage the few that nest there as well as the hordes of blackblrds, to feed freely through- out the summer about the villages. There even the children are taught to protect these birds ln gratitude for payment received in advance.

Yet, on the other side of the shield, we find the Indiana De- partment of Conservation, for 1n- stance. proudlly bcastln: that its campaign of prize awards for crow feet has resulted in 194.271 fewer crows. If. with utter conserva- tism. we say that each one of these ‘crows. in the face of a grasshop- per over-ubundance. ate fifty in- isects a day. then there woud be 9.- 713.550 more grasshoppers than lf the crows had been left alive. And fifty a day would be just whettlng a hungry crew's appetite. Multiply this nearly ten million hoppers- that the kindly conservation com- mission has spared to eat the Hoos- ier farmer's products-by the fifteen or twenty days of a izrasdioopei" 1n- vaslcn and we gel, srme id-sa of how . useful a crow can be.

Of course. the big ‘alack birds! are not the onl_ victims of these organized "vermin hunts". Useful

WEEKLY LIVESTOCK ' MARKET REPORT

OTTAWA. JANUARY B5. BUMMARY

The cattle market was a very spotty affair dufllli the past week. Toronto. while dmggv, was steady to a shade stronger than last week's prices. while Montreal was active to 25c higher 1n spots. Price changes m the west were Within narrow limits but were of a. down- iward nature under generally slow trading. Calves gained 50c at T0- mnto and also considerably strong- er at Winnipeg. An early 15c in the Toronto hog market was lost by the close, while Alberta. markets were up 10o to 20c and other centres unchanged. ‘There was little to feature the sheep and lamb market, receipts being ex- tremely light. and most prices holdlni; unchanked.

Eastern Cattle Steady to Stronger

Although trade was uraugii at. To- ronto a light run served to boll prices steady to n shade stronger. weighty steers sold up to a top of $8 and butcher steers and heifers had a range of $0.50 to $7.50. Montreal enioyed a 800d demand for the s,mall amount of cattle of- fered and trading was active and fie higher on some transactions. rue bulk of the steers‘ sold be- TWBEI} $0 and $7.50. and a few top cattle made up to $7.90. Good cows

9! quality goods disposed

nmzn sores on TOPICS

CONN ECTED WIT

Silver Fox Farming

H

Lowell I-lartcocs, Summersiue, is one of our most aggressive youns business men, one who never accept defeat but turns obstacles into means of achieving further pro- gress. Inst fall was admittedly very discouraging from a. fox rancher-is standpoint, yet Lowell by judicious advertising and with of about thirty Igh-class breeding ifoxes. Now he nas started something new by advertising matings from sev- eral of the best sires in his ranch. Prices range from $20.00 to $30.00 and every facility ls offered ranch- ers, who simply express their foxes to Summerrida where they will be met at the station, taken care of and returned by express. Well done, Lowell, you more cgalnl i

‘rho appointment of B .Graham Rogers. Summerside, as Supervisor of the Prince Edward Island Travel Bureau was certainly a step in the right direction. Graham has

lenty of energy and is full of deas for the betterment of our tourist trade. He is an expert on publicity. During the years 1918 to 1930 Graham's pen and brain ad- I

were $5.50, with odd sales up to $6. In the Maritimes. with increased, receipts. the tendency appeared to be ea-zlere but a good demand hein- ed to keep prices about steady with 5W?" $611108 "P to $7.25 and cows up N) $5.25.

Wcstcrn Cattle Tending Easier

The cattle market at Winnipeg Bot away to a slow start with some early sales ruling 25; law-er. Heavy steers were the dull spot in me market. with practically nothing in demand above $6.75. Most killing clarses ‘were under premme dllg to a lack of outside enquiry. Light to moderate receipts in the latter part of the week served to tone up the market slightly but there was 1o Yew“??? 111 weighty cattle prices. ‘The present position of the crane warrants further orderly marketinzs as‘ the market at the moment is fairly sensitive to supply. 139s; handyweight killing steers sold