Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Lexington wheatfield. (Lexington, Or.) 1905-19?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1905)
WONDER OF NATURE. GRAND, CANYON OF ARIZONA A -MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE. Bubiimo Sceiury Xald Out by Nature Hold. Muu in Ita Spe.l-Great Chuaiu Mllea Acroaa - la a Mecca for the Touriat. The Grand Canyon of Arizona is within a government forest reservation sixty by eighty miles in size. About two-thirUs of it Is on the eastern and the other third on the western side. The timber is lu fairly good condition. There was a bad fire two years ago which ruined several hundred acres of tine forest, but there Is little danger of Its recurrence because of the vigil ance of Captain Kenton, the superln--tedent, and his corps of foresters. It is thirteen miles from one rim of the canyon to that on the opposite side, and there are two trails by which the western side may be reached. One of them, the Bright Angel Trail, Is oppo site the new hotel, and although It Is eighteen or twenty miles to the top the climb is comparatively easy. It follows a stream of clear, pure cbid water which comes tumbling down a narrow canyon on the western side, and Major Towell during his first memorable exploration of the canyon called it the Bright Angel River be cause it was such a grateful discovery. Captain Fentou says that the coun try on the western side of the canyon is much better than that on the east ern side; that the timber Is larger and thicker, water is more abundant, and there are a great many deer and other big game. The forest reserve includes a strip of thirty miles along the edge of the canyon, and west of that, to the Utah line, the land has been taken up by Mormon ranchmen, who have large lowed all of the trails to the river; Every one of these , excursions . is entfilgh'to use up the strongest men. . ' Nowadays oiie can ride to the J can yon in a parlor car or a Pullman sleep er and step , off the train into one or the most picturesque and, comfortable hotels' in the world. You can come all the year round. February and March are the least pleasant months, because there are apt to be rain , and snow storms. From Sept. 15 to Feb. 1 the weather is most agreeable, but these summer days are almost perfect neither too cool nor too hot. The ther mometer ranges between 65 and 75 Fahrenheit. There are several advan tages In coming down here in the sum mer, and a good 'many people are he-. ginning to find them out, ; The altitude Is 7,000 feet above.the sea, and that Insures cool nights, no matter how warm the days may be. But the days are not too warm for comfort; the thermometer seldom goes above 80; there Is no humidity In the ' atmos phere; and if the sun Is too hot all you have to do Is to raise your uniberlla. There is occasionally a freak of weather. The snowstorm in whicli we were lost occurred on the 20th of May, 181)9, and It is a singular coincidence that a smiliar squall should arrive on the very same date this year, with snow enougu to hide the roadway through the forest. But there is no danger of getting lost now. The trees have been blazed on both sides of the trail, and if you stick to the railway cars you are sure to bring up at the canyon, three hours or so after you leave the Santa Fe Line at Fort Will lams. The snow never lasts more than a few hours. It may fall to a depth of two or three Inches during the night two or three times a year, but as soon a 8 the sun comes out In the morning it disappears almost Instantly. There Is a peculiar railway down here. It Is the only one I know of in differing In color and Intensity. ..H la I silent desert by the' Colorado jUver, and thftlaln nnd winds,' It U like aT, inverted' mountain range, 21t miles long, reaching a depth of 7,530 feet, with a series of depressions 'averaging 0,000 feet chiseled out of the earth by the erosion of ages. It is the generally accepted theory that this great chasm Is solely 'the work of water of the floods thai come down from ;tha mountains wvery spring and summer but Mr. Ordonez, a distinguished Mexican geologist, who came here not long ago, made a sug gestion which may not be entirely new but-is worth mentioning.' It Is his idea that, while the earth was cool lng, the soil and the rocks contracted and spilt a deep and wide Assure In the surface of the plateau, and that its sides have since been worn down and polished by the action of the water. That seems reasonable. There are various places along the rim from which splendid views of the canyon may be obtained. Each Is dif ferent. Each has Its own glories; but what Is known as the Grand View Is the best, because from that promon tory the eye has a wider vista, a dou ble view; there the canyon curves around like a monstrous serpent, and one can follow it a distance of nearly eighty miles. Thomas Moran palntel his famous pictures from what Is known as Mornn's Point. He thinks the colors of the rocks and the clays appear more brilliant there than else where. You can wander along the rim for sixty miles. There Is no obstruction for all that distance, and you can look down a mile Into the bowels of the earth. William E. Curtis, In Chicago Record-Herald. For Halter-Breaking Horse. Some horses have the bad habit of pulling at their baiters when listened. preparation of shoeblacklng, and even EaTK In Com marc. A poultry farm, whether ducki, geese, chickens or turkeys be the spe cialty, accumulate! a large and malo dorous surplus, of eggs that refused to develop into fowl. The average per son would suppose that If there is any thing on earth that Is utterly worthless-It Is a stale egg. Millions of stale eggs are used every year in preparing leather. dressing for gloves and book binding an industry that is largely carried on In' the foreign tenement houses of New York nnd other large cltlos. They are also used in manu facturing disinfectants nnd In tho at the manger and always breaking them. While it is generally considered that the horse gets along much better in the box stall where he is not fasten ed at all It is not always possible to arrange such a plan, so that some thing jnust be done to break the hal ter-breaking habit. The following plan is adriiitted to work nicely and to break any horse of the habit after a few weeks' trial. Take a strong rope long enough for the purpose and, after QZlTXiTj the shells are made into fertilizers. The eggs that have not yet lost their virtue nlso have other uses besides tho more common ones for culinary pur-, poses. It is estimated that fully 55, 000,000 dozen are used by wine clari flcre, dye manufacturers, and In the preparation of photographers' dry. plates. Exchange. Whon hi Stars Fell. Almost historic Is the remark of the awe-strlckeu lad who, while observing PREVENTS II ALTER-BREAKING. doubling it, pass an end each side of the horse nbout midway between the front and hind legs. Puss the ends through a ring", then through the hole In the manger and then tie the ends in the halter ring. When the horse pulls back the rope tightens around the body and pulls him back, so that after a few trials he gives up the plan. To prevent the rope from making the back of the horse sore, make a soft pad of several thicknesses of new un bleached muslin, covered on the out side with a piece of denim or any equally strong, clean material. Make small straps of some of the material and sew, to the pad, the rope passing underneath these loops. The illustra tion shows the idea plainly, Figure 1 indicating the shaping of the pad at the center seam. Indianapolis News. Road nulldlng. The Importance of tho new olllce of public roads, which Is the olnclal desig nation of the division of the bureau of agriculture devoted to the study of roads nnd road-bulldlng materials,' has been recognized In a larger financial appropriation than was accorded the ojd olllce of public road inquiries. The scope of the new division has been ma terially enlarged, now taking cogni zance of the chemical nnd physical character of road materials, work which was formerly done, where pos sible, by the bureau of chemistry. Ono of the features of the nevv olllce, aside from its enlargement and the authority which has been given It to confer with prospective builders and offer them ex pert advice, Is the post-graduate course In highway engineering, which has Just been lnagurated, with a view of giving young civil engineers theoreti cal and practlcul training in road-bulldlng. HomeniRdVWIre Stretcher. Take a round stick 2ya feet long and 2 or 3 Inches in diameter. Make opening in end 0 Inches long and large Practical Land Leveler. Fig. 1, prospective sketch; Fig. 2, side view; leveler, E, extends back di rectly over right side of boat, C; short end of Iron, H, bolts to rear side of B, in middle, and long end Is hinged by bolt to top end of G, which is bolt ed on top of runner with upturned end flush with inner side of runner. Op erator stands on boat, C, and by using lever, E, raises or lowers scraper, B, which is hinged on runners by bolts between G, G and II, H. Boat, C, is SCENE IN THE GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA. herds of cattle. Nearly all of the In habitants of that corner of Arizona are Mormons. John D. Lee, the leader in the Mountain Meadow massacre, had a ranch at a ferry over the Color ado about a hundred mlhis north of here, where he lived in concealment for more than twenty years. He was finally discovered, identified, arrested, convicted and executed for complicity in the murder of a caravan of people in northern Utah wihle on their way to California. Ills widow now keeps a hotel at Holbrook, Ariz., one of the most important stations on the Santa Fe Road, and several of his sons and daughters are living in the locality. People are beginning to find their way here. Last year, which was the first Blnce the railroad was opened, about 12,000 people came. This year, If the present average keeps up, there will be from 20,000 to 25.000 visitors, and everyone who comes goes home a walking advertisement for the place. There Is nothing to compare with It anywhere In the. world. It Is impossi ble to exaggerate the grandeur, the sub limity, the inipressiveness of the scen ery; and Its fascination cannot be ac curately described. It is Impossible for one man to express his emotions to another. It Is a singular fact that three fourths of the people who come to the canyon are women. A large number of them are well along In years, and the endurance and the nerve they show I is extraordinary. Nearly every woman who comes here Insists upon going down to the bottom of the canyon, while only half of the men show that amount of energy. Two New York women have been here for months. They have visited all the places of In terest within 150 miles, Including the Mokl and Supal Indians, and have loi this country over which no passes are Issued. Everybody except the conduc tor and the train crew even the pres ident himself has to pay fare, and a round-trip ticket over the entire sys tem costs $6.50. The railroad is ninety miles long. It has no stations except the terminals at Williams, where it connects with the Santa Fe, and at tho Grand Canyon of the Colorado. It has no side tracks except one to allow the trains to pass. There are four passen ger trains a day, two in each direction, made up of a baggage car and two coaches and through Pullmans from Kansas City and Los Angeles twice a week. There are no freight train? nnd no freight Is carried except water and other supplies for the hotels at the Grand Canyon. The road depends upon passenger traffic alone. That Is the rea inn whv nnsses are not given. There are no Bwltchmen In the employ of the company and the pay roll carries only twelve names, including conduc tors, engineers, firemen, ticket agents and all concerned, and the track is kept In order by five section gangs of ten men each, who are now rebuilding it from the bottom with new ties, new rails and ballast of volcanic cinder. I shall not try to describe the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Few pens are brave enough to attempt It, and none la equal to the task. Famous writers have described the canyon with fine word-painting, but none conveys more than a meager idea of what the can you looks like; and it seldom looks the same from hour to hour. With every shifting cloud ita outlines and colors seem to alter. As the sun rises and sets In the heavens its majestic out lines change like the scenes of a pan orama. You may sit on the rim from breakfast to dinner, gazing over the same area, and see a dozen pictures the great meterolc display of 1833. turned his eyes to a familiar corner of the heavens after an especially brill iant flight of meteors, drew a long breath, and gasped: "Well, the old Dipper's still' there anyhow!" Much more recently a similar spe& tacle, although in this Instance a dis play no greater than Is ordinarily look ed for in August skies, disturbed the tranaulllltv of a little girl whose father, an enthusiastic amateur astron omer, had taken her up on the roof with him to see the sight. He expected her to be delighted with the shooting stars, but he soon observed that her expression was scarcely a joyous one. "What Is It, Ada?" he asked her. "Don't you like to watch them. Aren't you enjoying yourself?" "Ye-es, papa," she answered, dubi ously, conscientiously trying to har monize the dictates of politeness and WIRE STRETCHER. enough to allow wire to slip In. Tut handle on the other end nnd then with stick nt right angles to post and wire next to post twist us tight as wanted. Any wire can be broken with this de vice nnd you don't have to have any thing to fasten stretcher to. Exchange. GOOD LAND LEVELER. hinged to back of scraper with bottom 2 Inches above lower edge of scraper. Iron, D, is 1-inch wagon tire and has half twist at x, x. Chancey Avery, in Ohio Farmer. The Uruguay Potato, Fresh investigation regarding the new Uruguay potato indicates that the plant will probably not prove of much practical value where the common po tato or the sweet potato can be grown with success. It Is a tropical plant which will not thrive in cool weather, and even where it has succeeded it, Is of such a weedy character that it is liable to become a nuisance when It How to Make a Hay Sweep. A. E. Shreffler, of South Dakota, says: "The following Is what I be-1 lleve to be a cheap and practical way to make a buckcr, or hay sweep. All the materials required for this purpose are two lx8's, 14 feet long; one 2x12, 14 feet long; three 2x4's, 18 feet long; one 2x4, 12 feet long, and 30 feet of 1-lnch rope. Cut the 18-foot 2x4 into pieces 9 feet long and point them at both ends with a sharp hand ax. Next spike these' 9-foot pieces on the 2x12 plank, 4 feet from ench end, placing the 2x4's 2 feet and 4 Inches apart. Cut the 12-foot 2x4 into four equal pieces, place upright on the edge of the 2x12, 3 feet 8 Inches apart, and brace tuera solid by nailing the 1x8 on the stakes. Cut rope to 15 feet length and put one on each end of the 2x12 and you have a reversible bucker, or sweep-rake, bet ter than you can buy for twice the cost." ixi i.1 ,v, truth. "At least, I suppose we can escapes irom cmuvauuu. , uu spare the stars, and I think I might are experimenting wun tne new potato enjoy it if only you can give me your express some hopes that it may yet be word we nre sure of the moon." Serpent Immune from Its enom, One of the most Important things about serpent venom is that each species seems to be Immune to its own poison. If a snake Is Inoculated with its own venom It remains unaffected. M. 0. Phisallx, who has done so much on this subject, finds experimental evi dence that this immunity is to be at tributed to the presence in the blood of a free antitoxin. This neutralizes the poison as it is introduced. How Lion Is Week? "Oh, yes, he's very careful about himself and his clothes. Why, he can wear a collar a whole week long." "Gee wMa. he must have an awful long neck 1" Philadelphia Preia. IniDroved to such an extent that Its vigorous productive character may bring it into use to a limited extent. At present it is not recommended for commercial uses. Spreading- Manure. Calculate the amount of mannure on hand and estimate the expected amount next spring. Then measure oft or estimate the area of land that the manure will probably cover. Do not waste the manure by spreading it over too much space. A small plot that is well manured will give larger propor tionate crops, and at a lower cost, than a large field that is mnnured insuffi ciently. Homeopathic doses of manure do not give good results. Concentrate your manure on the least space possi ble for a fair return. Preventing Scab and Rust. The results of various methods of treatment to prevent apple scab are given in bulletin No. 88 of the Ne braska Experiment Station. Re moving cedar trees from the vicinity of the orchard and destroying the ce dar apples Is the customary way to control the cedar rust, which Is closely related to applescab. Thorough spray ing with Bordeaux Is effectunl against both scab and rust, and the spray should be applied in a fine mist and with considerable force. All parts of the tree must be wet thoroughly in order to prevent the rust securing a start Stopped the Crowing, Those who live in crowded neighbor hoods in town or city are often debar red from keeping chickens because of complaints of neighbors of the early morning crowing of the cocks. The authorities In an English town have devised a remedy for this trouble, con sisting of placing the perch where the cock roosts so high that when he stands up to crow he knocks his head against the roof and desists. It is I claimed that a swinging board over his head answers the same purpose.