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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1956)
lGgT MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Wednesday, March 2l; 1&5B o s- P t , - r 4 J 4 o fj ' ' i ii mil f '4 wmmmmtm ymmmmim f BLASTING OFF amid cloud of smoke from its jet assisted takeoff bottles, Navys surface-to-surface guided missile Regulus leaves launching platform aboard the sub marine Tunny during operations of the California coast. (International Soundphoto) Ripple Rock Ship Menace Will Be Blasted by Canada Washington (U.R) Tons of high explosive will remove a shipping peril along the inside passage to Alaska if a Canadian plan succeeds. The target is Ripple Rock, a twin-knobbed reef on which more than a hundred vessels have foundered with a toll of scores of lives. Ripple Rock is at the southern end of Seymour Narrows in the Strait of Georgia between Brit ish Columbia and Vancover Is land. Seamen have tagged it with a number of names: "the Fang," "the Barb," "the Lurking Jackal." Government plans for destroy ing the reef began last fall. But the actual blast will not be heard until late 1957 or early 1958. Engineers have learned that blasting Ripple Rock is no or dinary task. Turbulent currents and tides defeated two previous attempts to remove the obstacle by drilling and blasting from an anchored barge. Many Solutions For years' officials have been beseiged with ideas from eager amateurs. Canadians and for eigners, engineers, scientists, laborers and daydreamers, have offered solution. Some would attack the rock with Navy torpe does, plaster it with mortar shells or vaporize it with an atomic bomb. The prevailing plan is to bore from below, place explosives in prepared slots and rip it apart. H So smooth it leaves you breathless mirnoff tJte empztcsf name J -V0HKA 80proof Madefrom 10096 grain neutral spiria. Ste. Pre Smirnoff Fls. Inc.Haftford.Conn. The assault calls for a 500- foot shaft on neighboring Maud Island. From this shaft a 2,370 foot turmel will be excavated to connect with the reef. The tunnel will provide means for placing water and vapor-proof charges for detonation. Elaborate safety precautions have been devised. Advance warnings will go to persons in danger areas. Seismic recording apparatus will check the magni tude of earth tremors. And the blast will be timed to do min imum damage to fish. The explosion is expected to reduce Ripple Rock by about 40 feet. This depth will provide clearance for vessels swept in on the strong .tidal currents. Now, at low tide, the reef's pin nacles reach to within a few feet of the surface. They defy direct passage by anything but low draft shipping. Traffic Jam - The current "traffic jam" at each end of the Seymour Nar rows was described by a Ca nadian engineer. He said ships wait "like cars on Main Street at a red light, and at the right moment they all dart through from both sides, causing a heavy pileup." The yearly time lost by ships and barges forced to lie idle for long periods is substan tial and the monetary loss is heavy. Another consideration mo tivates removal of the reef. In an emergency, United States and Canadian shipping to far-north bases and supply depots would be held up or actually imperiled. Ladino Clover Commission Desired Salem (U.R) State Agri culture Director J. F. Short said today a commodity commission for Oregon ladino clover grow ers is desirable on the basis of hearings held recently in major, growing areas. Short said times and places for a growers' referendum on whether or not to form a clover commission will be announced later. Hearings were held last month in Madras and Medford. Most of the ladino clover acre age in Oregon is in Jefferson county, with smaller acreage in Josephine and Jackson coun ties and in the Willamette val ley. Growers said a commission was desirable to organize adver tising and promotion programs, promote research and study fed eral and state legislation which have an effect on the clover in dustry in Oregon. Only Doing Duly, NeubergerSays Washington (U.R) Sen. Rich ard L. Neuberger (D-Ore.) said today that he and Sen. Wayne Morse D-Ore.) were only doing their duty in asking for an in-( vestigation of the proposed mer ger of Long-Bell Lumber Co. and International Paper Co. Neuberger said he regretted the recent attack on the two sen ators by the Portland Chamber of Commerce which said the Morse-Neuberger action would not be appreciated by workers who would find employment in mills to be built by the merged firms. The senator said "I should like to state in reply that it has been the policy of the federal government for over 50 years to inquire into any situation where monopoly might restrain competition." He added that "compliance with federal anti-trust statutes should not present a barrier to Oregon industrial growth." Neuberger challenged the chamber to "inquire into the wisdom" of its stand in favor of partnership power which Neu berger claimed would drive in dustry out of the state because of its higher cost . Hearing Held on UnemploymentClaims Fifteen women who were de nied unemployment compensa tion claims at the Medford of fice of the Oregon State Employ ment service appeared Tuesday at a hearing before representa tives of the service from Salem. They were represented by Med ford Attorney Stanley C. Jones Jr. Although the claims involved only a "very small amount,' Jones said the, results pf the hearings would be significant because of a new state law pro viding that seasonal employees no longer be considered "sea sonal." The state office is expected to act on the hearings within 10 days to two weeks, Jones said. SCIENCE AT WORK By OEtOS SMITH United Preu Science Editor Japanese Construction Leaders To Visit U.S. Tokyo U.R) Thirteen repre sentatives of Japan's building construction industry leave for the United States Thursday for a 6-week study tour, the U.S. Embassy announced today. The group will visit San Fran cisco, Phoenix, Ariz., Kansas City, Chicago, Washington and New York to observe construc tion methods, management and labor administration. Canadian Clams Harvested By 'Conservation' Machine Washington (U.R) Clam dig ging, long synonymous with back-breaking labor, is being mechanized in Canada's Mar itime Provinces. Elimination of human toil, however, is not the principle ob ject at present of the labor-saving device. The machine is expected to reduce the toll of young clams that results from hand digging. The digger is about 90 per cent efficient in taking small clams but less so in gathering large ones. Made for the Ca nadian Department of Fisheries, it is being tested as a device for removing smaller specimens from poor growing areas into places where breeding methods can be scientifically studied. Made Indian Money The salt-water clam has been AMMTEE j j WE GU YOU'LL IMPROVE ANY REC'Pc THAT CALLS FOR FLOUR WITH KITCHEN CRAFT Wonderful for pies, cookies, cakes, breads, biscuits! fay SAFEWAY STORE an important food source for centuries. Indians of the North Atlantic coast gave the name quahog to one edible hard-shell variety. Belts from quahog shells were respected treaty symbols. Shell fragments, polished and rounded, were strung into or namental beads, and shells were passed as money by the tribes. Another popular variety, the pismo clam, is found on sandy beaches of the West Coast. Com mercial digging has greatly re duced their numbers. They require from four to seven years to reach marketables age. Razor clams are widely fa vored for their flavor. Found in shallow sand banks between tide marks, they are dug for family and commercial use. Living ver tically in the sand, the knife shaped clams feed with part of the shell thrust above the sur face. Many are found along North America's Pacific coast. Shallow, muddy bottoms are preferred by soft-shell clams. Tasty and popular, they are also known as steamer clams arid long clams. They have been in troduced into the San Francisco Bay area. The variety is abun dant along the Atlantic Coast. Clams are attractive to fish and gulls as well as to people. Fishes crush the shells with their jaws and swallow smaller clams whole. Gulls, after seizing a clam, ascend 50 to 100 feet and drop the shellfish. Striking the beach, the shell usually breaks, particularly if it lands sidewise. A fatal instinct of the clam aids its enemies. When alarmed, it contracts the muscles so strongly that a strain is imposed on the shell, leaving it vulnerable even to a slight blow. Clams Move Slowly The clam has feeble powers of locomotion. They move over sand or mud by extending and contracting foot muscles, caus ing the single foot to act as a spring. Some species can leap 12 inches in this manner. Long attrition has depleted supplies of clams, affecting particularly beds of New Eng land and Long Island. Predatory green crabs have made in cursions into the clam beds off Maine and caused some destruc tion. Fences are being erected to keep out the intruders. The U.S. uses about one-half the world supply of tin. New York-OJ.R) Dr. Charles i G. Carpenter, who is a scientific authority on this subject, thinks most people wonder how boy garter snakes find girl garter snakes (and vice versa) when spring comes. Being snakes, they are very close to the ground. There's a lot of vegetation around, forming obstructions to direct vision. In this low-down world, the snakes just can't meet by seeing one another first. Yet, Dr. Carpenter figured, ap proximately 65 per cent of fe male garter snakes encounter the males every spring. The fig ure isn't as high as it is for other creatures, but, considering the handicaps, it's good. Here's how garter snakes do it, according to the scientist: "Garter snake populations are much larger than would be sus pected, exceeding 10 individuals per acre in suitable habits. Hi bernating snakes tend to congre gate in favorable areas, and when they emerge in the spring, ready to mate, they are already in close proximity. Summsr Hatching "Of primary importance is the ability of the male to follow the trail of scent left by the female in the spring. I have watched males follow the exact path taken by previously released fe males, making right-angle turns at the proper points." The male garter snake courts the female, when he overtakes her, by rubbing the under side of his chin over her back. But mat ing does not always occur in the spring; sometimes it is in the fall just before hibernation. In that case, there are no young until spring nature miraculously holds the process in a state of chemical suspension. The young resulting from spring mating are hatched in late summer, and there is a record of one garter snake a very large one becoming the mother of 80 at the same time. Dr. Carpenter said, however that the average litter js about 18. In common with the water snakes and the rattlesnake, the female garter snake retains her eggs in her body until they hatch. "Newborn garter snakes," con tinued Dr. Carpenter are com pletely independent and begin to scatter soon after birth, perhaps Night Bus Service In Salem May End never again to come in contact with their mother. Juveniles look and behave like miniatures of their parents tongues flicker and eyes are alert." And they grow very rapidly, doubling their length in a year; But garter snakes never wan der very far from the place where they were hatched. Dr. Carpenter caught and marked more than 1,500 of themf so he'd recongnize individuals each time he caught them again. They lived out their lives in areas of no more than two or three acres. In this particular locale of 48 acres, he calculated the garter snake population at 10 per acre: But there were enough snakes of other kinds to raise the total shake population to 20 an acre. "One does not usually see snakes in this abundance," he said. "As a matter of fact an ex perienced "observer searching this area for an entire day would probably be fortunate to find 20 or 30 snakes. Most of the popula tion either would be inactive and well hidden or would find cover before being noticed." The American Association for the Advancement of Science published Dir. Carpenter's in timate facts concerning garter snakes because it is the best known of American snakes. He is assistant professor of zoology and curator of reptiles and mam mals at the University of Oklahoma. Salem (U.R) Carl Wendt, manager of Salem's city transit lines, said today it "was probable that night bus service would end in the city April 1. He said that despite publicity given to the line's financial plight, patronage fell off at an increased rate during Febru ary. The city council is scheduled to take action next Monday on a bill to permit the line to dis continue most night bus runs. Councilmen called off a pro posed city-wide questionnaire on transit problems and asked instead that citizens with views on the subject write city haU. Salem Chamber of Commerce officials favor a subsidy to keep the night buses rolling. One-third of the earth's origt nal forests have been destroyed by man. Kefauver Campaigns For Montana Votes Great Falls, Mont. (U.R) Sen. Estes Kefauver arrived here today fresh from a presidential preference primary victory in Minnesota to bid for Montana's 16 Democratic National Conven tion votes. The Tennessee Democrat said he believed one of the most sig nificant results of his showing in Minnesota's primary ws that "I polled more votes than Presi dent Eisenhower." Kefauver addresses a Demo crater dinner tonight and then leaves for San Francisco where he will spend five days in Cali fornia in an effort to get Cali fornia's Democratic National Convention votes. UNDERWOOD Special SfS750 1 WEEK ONLY! A rru rrr r -r , c . i i f rtTT 3jju lypewrirers . . . aranaara tee. Completely Overhauled. SEE THESE FOR REAL VALUES! We Give S&H Green Stamps Some Terms Medford Office Equipment Co. 41 SOUTH GRAPE STREET HE C NCmETE Phone 2-5336 or 2-5897 M. C. UNINGER & SONS WH EM VOO GO OWEIR TTO OD- 89 HOLIDAY COUPE BUILT-IN VALUES ADD UP TO FINER MOTORING NOW... TOP RESALE LATER! LP) It's a matter of record! 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