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> â- * « 9 â- * - ^ 4 ^ a 4 > < < â-º WATER RUINS CROPS EITHER WAY Too Much â€" An alfalfa cutter stands isolated by water in a field fiooded by a cloudburst, deluging it with over six inches of rain. Kansas farmers are complaining of too much rainy weather. The wheat crop has suffered over-moisture and the potato crop • is imperilled. Too Little â€" Here's what the eastern drought means to the corn crop. Farmer William Hookstra, compares two stalks, the one on the left from a field under irrigation, the other stunted stalk from a field that depends on rain. Atlantic coast farmers face multi-million-dollar losses through the prolonged drought. Rare Documents In the famous Cathedral of St Paul's, London, visitors Will find a remarkable collection of historic documents which has just been R(fded to the library. These docu- ments belong to the Tudor age â€" to the beginnings of the Reformation under Henry VIII and its estab- listhment by his daughter, Elizabeth, Dr. Norman SykeS, an expert in ecclesiastical history, has said that the documents S'how how seriously the age took religion. "Here we may read the very worde and grounds of their objec- tipn to various rules and orders of the ohurch; and if some of the mat- ters wihich aroused in them such waamth â€" such as tftie lawfulness of the ministers wearing surplices at ohuroh, of the giving and receiving of a ring in marriage, and of kneel- ing to take the Holy Communion â€" seemed to us of trifling, if any, jm- portantfe, we may remember that only 20 years ago our modern House of Commons waa roused to great excitement by debates on a pressed further revision of th« Prayer Book which centred on points not very different. "In the days of Elizabeth, how- ever, the dangers of foreign inva- sion from abroad and of civil strife at home seemed too great to permit of differences in religion being tol- erated, and so to tlie authority of the Church was added the force of the state to compel conformity. Some of the Puritans, as the object- ors were called, suffered loss of of- fice, imprisonment, and even death for their principles. "A glimpse of the nature of the foreign danger is given in a series of document? relating to the sol- diers, to be provided and maintained by bishops and olergy duriAg the perils of the Spanish Armada and the rebellion's in Ireland." New and Useful Too Sealing Strip Sealing strip of plastic seals and covers cracks at junctions of wall and bathtub, wash bowl and stall showers and prevents steam of the water from entering and causing damage to walls and woodwork, according to maker. The strip is white, will not craze or crack and is miaffeclcd by water, cites maker; will not harden and is resistant to normal alkali solutions, acids and alcoholii; not affected by common household cleaning solutions, soaps and deterents. Said to adhere readily to porcelain, wood, clay-lile, plastic- lile. lino-wall or any othar types of surface materials ucsd in bathrooms. May be paitited if desired. • ♦ ♦ Plastic Rolling Pin Rolling pin made entirely of plastic has eight small rollers which give more rolling area than single large roller, maker states. Since they travel faster over dough, it doesn't stick. The increased rolling action and the non-porous rollers combine to flatten the dougih uni- formly, leaving no lumps or holes. Comes in variety of colors, cost.i about the same as conventional rolling pin. • * ♦ BUminate Odora A small, compact odor absorber or air purified for cmnmerciail-type rafrigerators, protects and preserves ii>od quality by keeping air sweet •imI clean and- preventing flavor "Transference" between foods, niak- •r states. Derice uses activated car- km M filter to remove gasM and pdors from refrigerator air and li e Hilar In design and operatk>a to get and more elaborato •quip- Sent in general use in air eoadl" >nlng and im'i^'.r.v. ySHoniifcJRV^ Mister Gill By Ridiard HiU WilUnsom At first, Mr. Otis GiU had seemed to take a liking to young Arthur Forbes. But he changed his opinion when the champion began to buck the choppy seas of the open Atlantic. She was not a large liner, and the waves were running high.' Arthur Forbes turned away suddenly and, clutching the deck rail for support, shaped an unsteady course for the companionway. Mr. Gill burst into guffaws of laugliter. "Seasick!" he said, addressing a young couple near by and nodding toward the companionway. "Should have stayed home and tended to his knitting." The young couple smiled politely, but with a lack of enthusiasm. Neither of them felt equal to the task of getting up and following on young Arthu* Forbes' heels. Mr. Gill waa sober now; his face pale, his eyes gjAssy. The dining salon was located be- neath the forward deck; Mr. Gill's table was at the extreme end, near that section where the vessel's bow began to |^frow. He had hardly seated himself when he saw that young Arthur Forbes was placed two tables away and slightly be- hind. There was a plate of food on the table- before the youth, but it was untouched. Like one in a trance Mr. Forbes was sitting with eyes widened greatly beyond their nor- mal size, cheeks a« ^le as death. After a time, Mr. Gill saw that the youth at the other table was staring toward a port-hole, and his grin broadened. The port-hole was located far forward, and with each dip of the vessel, one could see the entire sloap of a wave, from trough to crest. Then for a space there would be nothing but open sky. It provided a sensation similar to rid- ing on a roller coaster. Mr. Gill knew that as long as young Forbes continued to stare througrh the port-hole, his seasick- ness would steadily grow worse. And he chuckled at the thought. After a wlTile, Mr. Gill found it was easier to tarse straight ahead than to sit half-turned in his chair in order to watch young Forbes, who, after all, wasn't the most pleasing sight in the world. And in staring straight ahead, Mr. Gill found that he was looking directh' through the porthole at the swish- ing seas. He wstched idly for a few mo- menta and then looked away, con- scious of a feeling in his stomach not wholly normal. The sensation passed and he looked again at the port-hole, feeling more comfortable in this position. Instantly the same strange sensation attacked him again. . Mr. Gill was sober now; his face pale; his eyes glassy. Realization of what was happening to him came like a shock. He was seasickl Helplessly, miserably ill. Never in his life could Mr. Gill remember feeling so utterly at the mercy of anything. Miraculously, Mr. Gill reached the doorway and disappeared up the stairs. Instantly, the dining salon was a bedlam of laughter. Up to- ward the bow, young Arthur Forbes was wiping some white substance from his cheeks and grinning broadly. Several men came over and spoke. "I'll change your order, sir. Bring you some hot food." Mr. Forbes smiled. "Thanks. And say, steward, that was a smart idea of yours â€" asking me to play the role of the helplessly seasick pas- senger and placing Gill at that table directly opposite the port-hole." The steward nodded, his eyas atwinkie. ''We have a man like Mr. Gill on board every voyage, sir. And we have that table placed there for just this type. No one else is asked to sit so far forward." Mr. Forbes chuckled. "Think of everything for the comfort of your passengers, eh? Well, if you didn't, I'm afraid this voyage would have proved almost intolerable â€" with Gill talking the way he was." City Of The Sands â€" Timbuktu In the midst of the desert sands of Africa, more than a thousand *miles from anywhere in particular but a small world unto itself, is a place few tourists have seen but all would like to â€" or think they would. Its remoteness is proverbial. For have you net heard this man or that say, upon being queried as to his destination when he sets forth upon a journey, "Oh, maybe to Timbuctoo?" In other words, may- be anywhere at all. For that is how we think of the city of the sands, Timbuktu, as it is properly spelled. .\ thousand miles south from the Moroccan border, an equal distance from the Atlantic coast, it has perhaps known less of change from, been less affected by, the frantic activities of the world in war and peace through the past quarter-century than any commun- ity of similar size anywhere. It is still the half-fanciful, Alice-in- Won- derland city of the sands. _On the Niger, down which come big, heavy-laden trading canoes from a hundred native villages and towns. Timbuktu is likewise such a camel-caravan center as perhaps does not exist today anywhere else in the world. The amount of trad- "Loaded" â€" Movie actress \'era Ralston sports a young fortune in jewels. The ear-rings, neck- lace and bracelets, from a Hollywood antique collection, are valued at $250,000. They are supposed to have been fiven to the Empress Josephine y Napoleon. The necklace alone contains 20 square-cut diamonds ranging in size from two to five carats each. ing is enormous. Salt is the princi- pal «immodity and the people of these regions prefer it to the com- mercial varieties imported from Europe. It arrives at Timbuktu by camel-train twice a year, coming from Saharan salt mines 500 miles in the heart of the desert. The im- mense caravans have been known to run as high as 4,000 beasts, Yet Timbuktu is cosmopolitan, no doubt of that, though it is an African cosmopolitanism rather than a European. The people of scores of African tribes, most of them speaking different languages, rub elbows with Aral) nomads from all over the Saliara in the teeming, sun-drenched streets where few European buildings of any sort have yet made their appearance. Unbelieveable color against blaz- ing white light blends in a hundred shades in tribal costume, in garish adornment, in native markets, in the armament of far-cotne "untam- ed" nomads on their camels. These, especially the fierce, heavily veiled Touaregs whose long swords are de- corated with hilts in the form of a cross, sullenly resent the presence here, the political control of the "un- believer," How and when they may try to implement that resentment if, out of the current political con- fusion in Africa and adjacent .\sia, they think they perceive an oppor- tunity is a question of the immediate tomorrow clotlied with some un- certaintv. * • THEFAEM FBONl lolvix12u.s^eLL Somebody's always taking the joy out of life. Here I waa going along, doing my best and stealing agricul- tural information from here and passing it along to you when, all of a sudden came a blaet from the mouth of Dr. J. Gordon Taggart, deputy minister of agriculture down at Ottawa. « * * » Too many "experts" â€" and the word experts was in quotes â€" are telling the farmers what to do about soil conserx'ation was the way the dailies started off fheir story of Dr. Taggart'i speech at the annual con- ference of agricultural representa- tives at the O..^.C. in Guelph. * * * If a high-grade production pro- gram is maintained and only tlie best agricultural technique used by farmers, the worthy doctor asserted, the much talked-of conservation plan will take care of itself. He went on to deplore the theory that a great many of the ills of mankind and many of the difficulties of tlie farmers are attributable to fanners' misuse of the land. * * « "The world is full of people who think they know what's wrong with agriculture and how to cure it." he said. "But they forget that the aver- age farmer himself realizes the need for conservation of his resources." He further urged that emphasis be placed on a positive rather than a negative api>roach. * * * "The farmers themselves know that they cannot possible live and prosper by destroying their own resources," Dr. Taggart insisted. * ♦ * ^ Well, when I think of some of fhe ruined farms I've seen and heard about that have been slowly brought back to life and full pro- duction, just through talcing such so-called "expert" advice, I feel like tell Dr. Taggart to â€" well â€" well â€" accept my thanks for giving me ma- terial for part of a column, I guess I'd better make it. * « 4: Another soil specialist has been making certain statements that are, to put it mildly, open to question. He's Wallace Micheltree, associate extension specialist in soils at the College of Agriculture, Rutgers University, and he says that lots of farmers and gardeners are doing more harm Shan good by cultivat- ing the soil during dry spells. * * « Because of lack 'of rainfaJl, soil hi not crusting, explains Mitchel- tree. and unless some of the mora hardy weeds got by the last culti- vation, there's no point in cultivat- ing. On the harmful side, cultivation now turns up moist soil with un- necessary loss of moisture. Further- more, it disturbs root systems of plants and kills some of the root hairs that are necessary to pick up the moisture and plant food. • * * A farmer or gardener believes he is doing good by cultivating l)e- causc he sees moist soil where ho works. He thinks he is drawing up the moisture, but actually, tlie only effect is to expose more soil to the eflects of evaporation. » * « That's the finish of what I'm going to quote from Mr. Mitchcl- tree. As I said three or four pnra; graphs back, wliat lie says is open to question. 1 wonder if any of my readers would like to express opin- ions on this or any other agricul- tural matter. » * * If so, all you have to do is ad- dress. John Russell, Box 1. I2J Eighteenth Street. N'ew Toronto, Ont. And if you don't want your name used in anything 1 might print in this column, just tell me so when you write. Ottawa To Get That "New Look*' Canada is to have a new national capital. The name will still be Ottawa, and tlie location will be the same â€" but the city will be given such a new look that it will not be recognizable by the end of th« century. The plan, as laid before Par- liament by a special National Planning Committee, calls for wide highways to be cut through and around the city. Railroads, which now run through the heart of the capital, will b« moved outside the urban area. Slums will be demolished, and great new blocks of flats and gov- ernment buildings erected. Broad parks will be developed throughout the city and on it* outskirts. Present bridges across the Ot- tawa and Rideau Rivers will b« abolished, and replaced by new thoroughfares. About the only feature that will remain the same is Parliament HilL Dog Taxes â€" i07 Pounds A Year â€" .Annual receipts for doff taxes in the City of Toronto back in 1845 were 107 pounds, ac- cording to an old handwritten Canadian account book contained in the yueen's Univer.sity historical collection. This year hook, dated 1.S45, i.s part of the R. S. McLaughlin collection recently donated to the Queen's archives department. Here, Nancy Kingston otaniines the precious old account book with Queen s Librarian, H. Pearson Gundv. JITTER i.