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T NEWSY NOTES -

B! AGIICOLA

l other cnnunoditias.

_-4?

A Botanical Census

my gpal-e time I amchccking m, the latest list of wid plants mow-n to have been found upon m, Island, and on counting the

umber of species and varieties, I find that there are Just mgr seven - _Thlrty years ago e num- “undred usi. over four h ,By thisi will be been my, we have made some progress m o“; botanical knowledge, and it unreasonable to expect that u time goes on, our 11st will be fur-

me, augmented.

1h

, drink

‘hggfmlier. It is woven into his Home and utilized in his rites and onies. The men of whom we have record have studied u. 5910mm! knew the Cedar of Le- biaon as well asntbo "IWMD 1111i-

mw on the wall. d Botany, however, as s. recor ed “lance, appears first in the time o; ploscorides who enumerata 800 plum, This Greek writer lived m m, rlmo of the Ennperor Nero. m1 published his List. in the form

mnlfrflcast 1.000 species of plants. In 400

m; gucoceding 1 which

m1 of fragments from the wreck b! the ancient writers and. only ‘bout s00 more plants were added u, the previous catalo es. No sys- [gm of classification ad yet em-

tc taloe can of this rather Mterogflwoug ml‘ " It was not mill the sixteenth century that urc science b98811 f0 $11119 mpe: then classification began, md printing lent its aid. Ciuslua. flasher. bauhin. cavesalpinus. and their contemporaries in that cen- my did more to extend. botanical mowledge than had been effected in all the previous ages of the

d.

mlgeiwcen the years 1600 and 1700. yon-loan, Ray, Tournefort. and 9mg“, a lied themselvm to the science w industry and penetra- um; and about 6.000 l-ants were recorded and olassifl awarding m different systems, each ingen- lmls but still defective.

It remained for Linnaeus (1707- m u, promul to a. classification, dulple, natura, and incerlious. which he recorded about 9.000 d18- mlct species of plants, and left the science a0 attractive that his suc- omm, up to the year 1830. had (no -‘ the number to nearly 40.- 000 species all accurately described. one may, with some show of reason nppose that the number has in- acased threefold in the past hund- red years.

i News ‘From Yorkshire

illave just received. a letter from my farmer friend in the “County d la-oad ma" as Yorkshire i4 tarnedandamneofhisnewswilk ts of interest to the . ral read- . or. "I think it mus be pleasant living in a country where you don"t get air raid warnings every day . l» says, "I went, through the last var and came out BIII, so I am ullcd up. But ha is 34. and the reserved age for Agriculture is 21 years here." (The last sentence is not very clear, but I take it to mean

illar. "Will" is no immediate danger of conscription). There is not much travellinfl

aftcr dark now, as no lights are to be shown and car lights have to be dimmed so much that it is not worth while risking going out at night. so when we get “blacked oul" we spend our evenings listen- ing to wireless or reading. The wo- men lrzlit, etc. We are rationed for petrol (gasollnw-our car is 10 h. D. so we are allowed six gallons Der month for private use. but as we take milk to tovm we are allowed some extra for the truck. I have not been North to Newcastle since lbbruary as railway travelling is not very convenient and a bit un- certain now."

"We are soon to be rationed for butler, bacon. ion. sugar, meat, nnd The price of sugar has gone up from 215d (5 cts.) lo 4'f_-(l (9 cts.) pcl‘ lb., butter lronl 15d (30 cls.) to 19d (SBctsJ. bacon lroln 12d to 17d; but up to the present flour and bread are not up. Oi course we wont "be 5O hard hi1. lluvln-g our own potatoes milk. vggn, and poultry. We had a ‘U1’ big crop of apyfcs and plulns 1111s war; I think th-c apples arc tile best we have ever had and we are storm: quite b, lot of them, as 111w may be needed.

"You shy you have had a very iiry summer. Well, we have had a

Diamond Drilling

Wc wish to advise we now °i1crale Diamond Drilling "lillllmcnt 98 well as Churn Drills for water well work.

Our Diamond Drills arc modern Lnngycar machines. Our drilling crewg are ex ris trained in the gold flel s of ihe North Country.

Get our figure on that lest hole nl‘ prospect hole you want ut down.

TRASK WELL Company Limited

ABRAHAM PETERS, North American llotel, ' C“ loltetown.

VAUGHAN II. GROUM Mir. for Prince Edward Island Surnrnersid.

vcry wet seaso _ we have not. ggt xiii g3: "39:? (Written Oct. mm). Th '

"5"" ' "Linking it might be PM"? TW° 101d» to set. now will “mil-Shh. we have five very lay-Kg s} J-"d the hay shed is full. 771° °°m (train) ravest is not all gathered in hcre yea W9 have MM. but the Government has or- dlfliid 115 15° P11111811 up 8 acres. (I may explain that this man l; a dairy farmer, sending his milk w WW" every momma- I-Ie evident- zumlugill 1111 grain. etc; but has

M" 1911431118 here. altho’ the cattle sometima get nasty cum with 1L °é‘.°...’i°‘i‘.t.:i° .’°°"“°“ aumnmflfie can“ es —another

f!" W111!’ to be pulled out.

The elder of Mary's (his dough. teo) boys is 14 and travels by bus to the Grammar School l6 miles away; the younger one goes to I-Iikh School 8 miles away. also 313011111: by glamour. onslincc ‘u; half-wins. u chisel- aY ‘apt-ion ares. and the altar-noon sessions are taken up with the children evacu- ated from ILeeds and Hull, and lcgmldrafrom as far off as Sunder- Tiierestoftrlclcbrcriapelao e1. My friand—whom n

seen,

like o barbed wire-as most British farmers do; they Lhink there is nothing like a wel1-trim- med "quickset" (thorn) hedge, and Perhaps they are right. Thom h ever grows very rampantly here and m lack the patience to it trimmed.

Two Books

I have been renewing acquaint- ance with Robert. Louis Stevenson. I read his collection of tales call- ‘The New Arabian Nights" almost half s century ago, and to my mind there is an added delight in re- reading such classics, for one gets a glimpse of the change wrought by not in the book. but in thie reader. Many a work of fiction, eminently satlsfacto to youth (which is the time my action), proves fiat or else over-strained. to age and ifs season of reflection. Stevenson stands the test, and gives pleasure to both seasons.

It may not be general! recog- nized by a. younger genera ion that the "New Araiblarl. Nights" gives a. delicately flattering portrait of that Prince who afterwards ascended the throne u Edward the Seventh. ‘Thai. Prince (referred to in the book as Fiorlzel) was very urbane. very confident in himself, and rarely 10st command of any situa- tion in which he found himself. But he (likc Shakespeare's Prince Hal.) Justified Stevenson's story by making companions of many in much lower walks of life, and there were not a few amon the miners of the North, who see ng this, taro- phasied a Republic on the dea of Queen Victoria. As all know now. he made a good king and goes into

[history as the "Peacemaker."

The other ‘book which I am re- turning to the Public Library, is also a collection of tales. none of which I have read before. It is call- ed "My Best Adventure Scory" by such writers as Oppenhelm, Saba- tini. Stacpoole, Gibbs, Wells, and a score of others. Cutcliffe Hyne. in "The Paradise Coal-boat" takes the reader among the trials of a Tyne skipper; and Morley Roberts gives us the frivolous adventure of "The Mad Hatter" in a style rem- iniscent of W.W. Jacobs. The “date loan " ticket must soon be replac- ed-a sign that this book pleases the reading public.

Odds and Ends

Gas for Cars. A new fuel for cars is being tested out in Man- chester,‘ England. Ii. is gas-mot gasoline but. illuminating gas. It is contained in a bag, which for a small car contains 60 cubic feet. and propels the vehicle ten miles. A "reflll" costs between 2d and 3d; say 5 cis

The evacuated Londone s. I see by a paragraph "in the local plrss" that an Anglican clergyman ln_ Lhc South of England has been fined $125 because he closed ills doors on a family evacuated from the Metropolis and bllleted on him. The account is ico brief to allow of judgment in the matter. Thcrc may have been ‘contributory caus-

‘es’ for the Rev. gentleman's refusal.

As may be imagined. among thc 1,220,000 evacuees from London. native and foreign, there were many undesirables. Country peo- ple in England are proud of their homes and tidy in themselves, and many are the com lalnts in the press about the bi etees and their doings. Householders, says one newspaper, were horrified to find some of the newcomers introduc- ing insect, pests, while others ob- jected to the Saturday night bath: many had questionable manners. The houses in which they were bil- leted were sometimes overcrowded. At first the children were over- awed by country scenes unlike any- thing they had witnessed in the wilderness of bricks and mortar from whence they came. Afterwards the bored, homesick. little city toughs gravliated together inw gangs and made themselves a nuisance. "boating up the village children. throwing stones at the Bjflifiemcn. letting the pics out o! e urns- chasln the cows, and skirmlshlns with t e enraged farmers. In the end. 200.000 of the million-anri-a- quarter evacuees went back to their city homas. With all London schools closed. they had no choice but to run the streets, presenting another problem to the harassed author- ties.

The Planets. We. are having most uproarious weather 1115i» miwhtlwi? itisaeldom that we gets-us d- for star-Basins: but _whe'n Ye‘ 0(- there is a mashlfmflb d“? a! k° planets across the southern Li) v. Mars. distinguished by his Y“ {if reddish light. shines steadily t wards the West. In the (fr; "i and brightest of all. is the ‘gala pram," Jupiter: w the E" 1'

Heating With Woodi

With Canada's annual bill for fuel wood exceeding thirty million dollars. the Department of Mines and resources offers a few timely pointers ml tlw nmsi. cfflccllt melll. ods of burning wood.

‘Ilests made by this Dcparmwni, show that if a wood-fired stove is of inferior construction or is in Door condition it mav not deliver more than half the heat it should In other words as much as one dOUar out of every two spent 0n fuel 111111’ be needlessly Wasted, A leaky stove which admits an- iihrough a dozen places besides the Tekuiar draught opening is a bad offender and in a very short time may waste more dollars up the chimney than would be required to correct the fault, The amount of B11‘ Rdmitwd to a stove or furnace should be completely under con. trol particularly when burning wood because this fuel requires very little air for satisfactory combustion in comparison with the requirement for other fuels.

Harri mole. yellow birch beach, oak and hickory arc among the best Canadian woods for fuel, a. cord and one-quarter of any one of them being approximately equal in heating value to one ton of anthracite coal, Rogardlegg- or what woodisuseditshouldbeasdl-y 8-! Dflssiible for not only does wet wood give out less heat than dry WOOd but it is also apt to cause TQUUHZ 0f the pipes. For this reas- on firewood seasoned for less than one year should not be used, and to achieve the best results wood should be cut into suitable lengths for the stove or furnace as 50011 as posible so as to permit the most LhOYQUEh seasoning,

i1 Saturn. rm IO bright. ‘There u still another, a little way from 3a- turn; it is _Ura.l_1us, but he is not. readily distinguishable. My experi- ence (empirical, of course) I135 been than; we always have disturbed utca- 1-1191‘. with strong winds. when these planets "cooperate" 5o There may probably be earthquakes, also Allotment Gardfms, etc. The 131-1. tlsh Minister of Agriculture Ls mak- ing great efforts to revive the allot- mem- Eflrdens. and hopes to do as much in one year as was done dur. ing the four ears of last war. A year after t e World War allot- ments took up 1,330,000 acres. but by 1938 they had shrunk to under 990-090 H0165. So there is a good leeway to make up. Farmers are asked to plough up an extra million and a half acres, but no difficulty is anticipated in that, since there are 60,000 tractors in private hands already, and the Minister gives out that he Ims u. reserve stock ready

ose noticeable

to be released, All available land alongside railway tracks will be u grow vegetables-and

there are hundreds of miles of itl A little slip of the typc. In last

weeks Notes it was stated that the proper name “Scljymegeoufl was sounded Skrim-yer. Wrong! sound it skrim-ijer.

NOTES ON ISLAND PLANTS The Rosaccae (4).

The name Potentllla probably or- iginated with the ancient; herbalists who always studied plants. from a medical point of vlclv. To the word Potcntia. meaning ‘fpower? they added a diminutive ending. as much as to say the plant had “little strength."

The wriicr once found u. plant of Queen of the Meadow, (Flli-penduls vlmarln) growing in a roadside ditch on the Island, and maintain- lng itself. If. was. I think, a garden escape. The plant is rather orna- mental, having abundant PSIIICISS of crealny-uhltc fragrant flowers It occurs as an escape at. s-everal points in P.Q.

Out of the ten species of Geum listed in Gray's Manual, we have three. (This name was first used by Pliny. the Roman Naturalist, but we have no means of knowing what plant he gave it to.) The larg-r-leavcd Avens (G. macropllyl- 111m) is a very common plant, in- habltlng rich alluvial ground near streams right across Canada Th0 name “Avcns" shows it was rveli known to the Ancient Britons. for "Alon" (akin lo (he Latin “nmnisb was lbclr namc for a strcam. Pcr- hops thcv lnuuri thc pfriul. "good medicine.“ The Ycllow Avcns ((1. strlcfum) is said to have collie from Asia. "Jul. is now found all over this contilrcui. On the island it is not as plentiful as illc folrucr spcccs. About (our vcnrs aoo Dr. Holman. of Toronto Unlvc:-sli_\'.

‘found the Will/Pl‘ Avcus (G. rlvnlc)

near Sumlncrsidc. I was greatly in- terested, because this plant grew near my home in ingland, where it was culled the “Purple Avens". to dislinguish it from thc others which are y0lii)\\'—fi()\\'(‘1‘f’(l. Thcrc I have sclnrtlmcs found its flow- ers in a prollficd slate. i.e., with a branch or a second flower grow- ing from the cenire of the first one. Llnlcy's “Treasury of ‘Boi- any“ names this p‘ant "Indian chocolate root".

'I‘hi=re is a (loublc-flouxrrcd Geum which has been adopicd as a gar- den plant and much improved by plant breeders.

Now we come to the extensive genus Rubus. also n ROlTlliTl namc. connected with the Latin "ruber," for vcd. Tho very first. species noi- ed is the Red urlld Raspberry. (R. ldaeus). This plant is found in Asia, Europe, and North America. and is the parcnt of our garden varieties. ‘There is n "white" or am- ber colorcd sport cultivalcd: li. has a distinct but delirious flavor. 'I‘llis white vnrictv has bccn found grow-

ing on the mainbmirl, but not here, _

as far as I can gather. In Switzer- land the seeds 0f R. ‘dacus have been rcccvcrcd from the debris of the prehistoric lakc-dwclllngs. On this side. all the Indian lribcs used the berries fresh for food or dried them for wlrltcr use: the leaves were dried and used like tea. An Omaha Indian stated that the root was scraped and boiled. and the decoc- tion was givcn to children for bow- el trouble. Our red raspberry ls the variety R, irlaeus nculeallsslmus. ihe lasl. meaning “mast brisf-ly." ‘The rcsi of the Rubi will be noticed next week.

' NATURAL RESOURCES IIAESHIIIID .

.

I CONSERVATION I

A WEEKLY COLUMN OI PRACTICAL OPINIONS OI‘ Till: VITAL ISSUES AFFECTING THE USES AND ABUSES 0F

BY Ml. LUDDOW JENKINS.

ANTI-STEEL TRAP LAWS

in ' Answer David L. Mills. (Anti-Steel Trap Icague News)

By MR!- EDWAED BRICK

In the April isue of Hunter- Trader-Trapper, published in Col- umbus, Ohio, there appeared an article written by David L. Mills.

director of the American Raw Fur

Irmtltuta (I Believe I ssh riglht in

the title), under the caption Anti- Steel-Trap Lows."

The immediate inspiration of the ‘paper his to be Ingrid gnththe faézt that t e ponen o e an - stcel-tra 0Y1... in Massachusetts. enacted referendum in 1930, re- cently came to the fore see an

(amendment to the law which. if suco-essful, would vitlate the value (of the law throughout. The amend- 'ment sought was obviously 1111 91' ‘fort. to bring back general trapping with the steel-trap in Massachus- yetis and consisted in s provision to extend the distance of flft. yards ,from farm buildings and cu tivated ‘plots of ground, in which 1t. is now ,lawful to set steel traps for "verm- ,in." to a distance of 2.8 miles, or .5,000 yards.

I, Before commenting flu-ther- on ‘Mr. Mills’ I may say that the amendment failed of passage iand the anti-steel trap law is still in force.

The fur interests Presumed to say that the law was "put over" on the people of the Commonwealth. The fact is that the voters of the statc abolished the steel tmp be- cause lt is an instrument which in- fllcls an amount of torture upon ‘living creatures for which there is no commensurate purpose. This iwas done after a campai had been waged for eighteen months

to

iv- ‘and every available agency for pub-

yliclty concerning the steel-tram had ,been used. The result was the limit of seasoned Judgment. The ila-w was enacted with a majority of nearly 300.000.

It is not to be supposed that Mr. (Mills, with his hand on the pulse of the fur trade, does not know ,these facts, yet he says of the peo- ple of Massachusetts:

I “Ticy did not know that this ,hubub about the cruelly of trap- ping was either "cased on purely fictitious causes or on conditions that did not prevail in the Oom- monwealth of Massaaltiusetfililhey as e e sa ure - bear and the wolf traps of great size and power are unknown in this state and that over ninet per cent of the traps used in t state were of the smTallllcsstlssltze." '

o say that, in Mr. Mills opinion, the small steel-trap, with- ‘out teeth, would have been accept- able to the voters; that in the smaller sizes (for smaller animals) the steel-trap is not painful! Come. come, Mr. Mills, this is almost. foo much! The voters were thoroughly informed. if they did not already lcnow. that. they were not concern- ed with the question cf trapping wolves. bears, coyotes ‘and mount- ain lion, but with the capture of such creatures, as raccoons. skunks and weasels.

"'I‘hey did not know that the steelitraptig tlrlletonly dzcavlce titans far nvenc . a can coune upon with r-Irasonable assurance to ‘function efficiently. It is easielé’ carried, easily Sew easli concea n and relatively safe to andle. ..

Such a statement by one high in the favor of the fur trade leaves him in the dlifixcrugu pgslgiog of pronouncelncnt o r- i5 - 111119- “holdiru the bag" because of the official organ of the American Troopers‘ Association. which has

said

"Largely due to the agitation of ‘various organizations th-ere have been numerous new trails Put on the market during the past year 0r two. One of these, known as the Humane Killer, is meeting with great success for the animals for which it. is made. The smaller size, No. 1, is intended for muskrat. mill-k. iveascl, while No. 2 ls for skunk and other animals of like . . Aside from the humane fea- iurc. Lhc No. 2 has added value in that it kills skunk without them throwing scent. in about 99 per cent ‘-of catches. Nulnrrorls letters from thosc who have and are using the iliumam Killer Trap. including illot. only troopers from various (states and Canada, but Game [Wardens as well. speak highly of ithis trap. Some of the advantages noted are: It is ‘humane.’ practical, ilizht. compact: easily set and con-

cealcrl: not, freezing easily; holds- what it catches; good at all seis. both land and in water, and with the many who look upon the old style trap as cruel this trap is bound to become more popular each year."

A self-refuting argument present- ‘ d by Mr. Mills in his article is the following sintemeni:

“The fact that if is difficult t0

find a ‘wild’ in this part of Massa- chusetts that is not in close prox- limit-y to somebodys chicken run does not appear to occur to these (excellently inclined people." I Now. as a matter of fact, Mr. |Mills is quite wrong. yhis fact has ‘occurred with such a force to ithesc “excellently inclined people" |that it is one cf the chief reasons Iwlpv they believe the; fifty yards is a sufficient distance to concede Ito the farmers and noufirv men [for protection against vermin.