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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1914)
nOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Editorial Page of Home and Farm Magazine Section Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought. 4 TO ADVERTISERS. Advertisers in this locality who wish to fnlly cover all sections of Oregon and Wash ington and a portion of Idaho will apply to local publishers for rates. General advertisers may address C. L. Bur ton, Advlrtising Manager of Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer, Oregonian Building, Port land, Oregon, for rates and information. TO READERS. Readers are requested to send letters and articles for publication to The Editor, Or egon - Washington - Idaho Farmer, Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon. Discussions on questions' and problems that bear directly on the agricultural, live stock and poultry Interests of the Northwest, and on the uplift and comfort of the farm home always are welcomed. No letters treat ing of religion, politics or the European war tre solicited, for the Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer proclaims nentrallty on these matters. Comparatively brief contributions are pre ferred to long ones. Send us also photo graphs of your livestock and farm scenes that you think would be of general interest. We wish to make this magazine of value to you. Help us to do it. not considered. It is acknowledged that the excessive finish given a show animal is not practical, yet it is maintained that it is neces sary to demonstrate how the offspring from such -stock can take on a high finish. The fat has to be cut off before the meat is fit to eat, and in that case what gain is there over the Jersey steer which puts the exces size amounts on the inside t The one looks better than the other, that's all. Many a block test has shown that one cuts up as eco nomically as the other. Cannot the exhibition idea be overworked T REALIZATION. AS YOU sit at the breakfast table with morning paper propped up against the sugar bowl, you road the head lines that tell of thousands of violent deaths on European battlefields. You munch your toast, wash it down with gulps of coffee, and remark to Friend Wife: "Sherman was sure right. I see here where a whole corps of Scotchmen was wiped out of existence when it was caught between a German crossfire.". "Yes, dear, it's awful. It's just wicked that such things can happen in this day and age," replies your better half. "Uh, huh," you agree, and continue with your persusal of war horrors. Possibly you occasionally try to picture yourself on the firing line with death-laden missiles hurtling above your head or burst ing near. You give it up, for to your calm, ordered existence it is a thing apart incom prehensible. Yet, do you realize that the majority of the men now facing annihila tion on foreign fields had no more realiza tion of war's terror a few months ago than you? Can you imagine the revolutionizing, power of Mars that has made the lust for blood dominant in the fighter who was for merly a man at peace with his neighbors and the world? It is difficult. But, as you read in a matter-of-fact way of wholesale slaughters to which your sympathies have become numbed by their -very magnitude, offer up a little prayer of thanks to that Being whom you worship, that your country is not demanding that her male blood flow on battlefields for a quarrel in which you do not share, either by interest or desire. WHITHER DRIFTING. THE show ring does what? asks a farm paper. It develops ideals, but ideals are not always practical. For instance, the ideal of ths poultry show is a creature of appearance only. It is feathers and form, rather than egg production or economical meat growth, that win the prizes. We can neither eat feathers nor form, though form may help hold meat. In the beef ring it is the form that wins. The animal that puts on the best cuts at the cheapest price is not in it with another that has deep layers of fat all over the carcass that is not one whit better. It is all in the finish which no one cares a snap to eat. The cost of putting on that worthless fat is THE PLACE FOR WAR NEWS. A SENSITIVE, tender-hearted person writes to a Philadelphia paper to urge that more cheerful things than war news be placed on the front pages of the daily papers. Headlines on war news should be reduced to the very minimum, the in genuous writer says, and the story with all its horrors placed on an inside page. The argument advanced in favor of this move is that, with only agreeable matters to confront them first each morning, read ers would be put into a state of mind that would benefit them morally, physically and financially. "If you will give a man some thing pleasant to meet his first glance, both morning and evening," declares the would be reformer of the press, "he is better able to perform a day's work, meet with trying conditions with better grace and brighter hopes, than if at first glance yoir shock him with something distressing and terrible." Probably thi3 person, who represents a considerable class, does not suspect that he is a humorist, nor does he understand that the province of a newspaper is to publish the news, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant. Stories of battles and suffering are not agreeable reading, but while the great Euro pean conflict is the tremendous event of the world which it is likely to continue to be for many months to come those stories go on the first page even at the cost of shock ing the people who would like always to smile. If burying war news on' an inside page with inconspicuous headlines would abate the war itself, every editor would follow that courae and place the most inane of society news on the front page along with columns of jokes; but as this would not lessen the terrible facts, the sensitive feelings of molly coddles who "can not bear to read about battles" will continue to be harrowed as heretofore. War news will be "played up" in a manner befitting its importance. THE FARM REPAIR SHOP. THE man with a good repair shop on the farm will often wonder how he got along without it. The building need not be expensive, but light and warm. One end should be rigged up for blaeksmithing. Build a hearth of stone and ordinary clay mortar, with a good-sized flue, about nine bricks to the round. An opening should be left at the proper place for the admission of a five to six-inch stovepipe. Procure a blower, or bellows, an anvil, a drill press, a vise, some dies and taps, one quarter to five-eighths-inch, for cutting thread, a hammer, tongs, and two or three sizes of heading tools. Steel punches for hot iron are also necessary, but these can be made. After some experience, many other tools can be made that come handy. Much of the equipment' mentioned ' can often be gotten Becond-hand from machinists or blacksmiths. Collect all kinds of scrap iron, bolts, old horseshoes, etc., from about the farm. Much useful iron may often be gotten for a trifle at public sales. As to the actual work in this line, many, valuable hints may be gotten from a good natured blacksmith. One may need instruc tion, particularly on the working and tem pering of steel. For a time the novice may. be discouraged by his seeming awkwardness, but after he gets the set of his hammer and the hang of his tongs, some experience in welding, etc., there will be little repairing that need be taken away from the farm. Put in the other end of the building a bench or table. Provide a cross-cut handsaw, nine teeth to the inch, a square, a smoothing planea jack and fore plane, a brace with at least seven bits differing in size one-eighth, three or four sizes of chisels, drawing knife, miter square, a hand ax or bench hatchet, and a supply of different sized nails and wood screws. This will equip the woodworking end of the shop for all ordinary repairing. Many new implements can be made and ironed complete later. Now get or make a sewing or saddler's horse, procure some needles, wax and thread, harness rivets, etc. With this equipment, a farmer will find that he can save much money and time. For any work on a large scale, such a repair shop is well worth the initial investment. THE FARMERS' VOTE. A CAREFUL study of the farmers' vote in the recent elections in Oregon, Washington and Idaho proves that they are doomed to defeat who are the foes of practical, up-to-date laws which really permit a voter to do as he sees fit. We have been told repeatedly that the farmer would not sufficiently acquaint him self with proposed legislation to vote intelli gently. No longer can intelligent, fair minded persons make such a charge. It is not our purpose to discuss politics as politics, but we are interested in the general upbuilding of the Pacific Northwest and every meritorious law that is placed on the ballot should have the support of every per son interested in the growth of this section. It is indeed gratifying to analyze the farmers' vote. Practically every county, having no large city, shows a majority in favor of each and every meritorious pro posed law. Farmers, we congratulate you. News that the Turks are planning to take the Suez Canal confirms the wisdom of the United States in rejecting the water-level Panama route for a canal with locks. It seems to bo a great source of sorrow over in Europe that they have not been able to get us tangled up in the fighting. David Starr Jordan thinks famine will end the war in another year. Meanwhile let's not . permit it to end Belgium. Brazil's President is named Wcncslau Braz. Wonder if he came from the vicinity ofTrzemysl? Watchful waiting now means watching Eu rope and waiting to hear what happens in Mexico. Carranza and Villa Reem willing to fight it out, if it takes their last peon. Rain checks for forest fires will always meet with approval.