THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1930 r ,_ ■■!■- '‘"‘ 111 -1 rfinri—■ —■—■— ■ i i—■ i —wr*i I INTERESTING I _ j DOINGS OF- i FACTS FOR j ■ WkT 2 CHATHAM ! 'sr rarm News F “ TIMELY HINTS j l STOCK FARMING, * ON c G R R 0 ° p^ iNG j Edited by N. C. SHIVER, County Agt. J P °etc. RY ’ ’ L ws of the Week on " Chatham County Farms ... T Hoke Siler of Siler City v p ‘ one of the first farmers m *-.*• U n t v to seed lespedeza is seed this <-< “ n * acres i n the lespedeza ing ■•Tennessee No. 76, this winter. Sf'fiiler has had good results with S' common for hay, seed and soil th Line- purposes, and states that !” P S qualities can not be over istimated- t , , Mr Sara B. Siler of Siler City ? D is also seeding several acres r Tennessee strain No .76 this lr. and also quite a large acreage fa the common lespedeza. M f L. Vestal of Siler City R. « n ■ is a new member of the les l‘ nA '\, c lub. Mr. Vestal is seeding Tennessee strain No. 76 and also several acres in the common. Mr r N. Connell is a firm be aver in’prepared pastures. He ex lects to seed ten acres in improved pastures this spring. + j. L. Fields of Bonlee is an ther believer in prepared pastures. Mr. Fields is seeding three acres in prepared pastures this spring. IFSPEDEZA seed unloaded Lt 3 AT PITTSBORO \ shipmnt of 10,000 pounds of lespedeza seed arrived at Pittsboro for delivery to farmers Saturday of j a _ t vvee k. 'included in this shipment is 1250 pounds of the mammoth growing variety, Tennessee strain No. 76 A number of farmers came in for seed Saturday, but there is still plenty of seed on hand. e • <§> SHIPMENT OF SOY BEANS DELAYED Last week’s issue carried an an nouncement of soy beans to be de livered at Siler City and Pittsboro. However, owing to weather condi tions in the eastern part of the State, these beans will not be un loaded at Pittsboro and Siler City, Monday and Tuesday, February 3 and 4, as advertised. However, they will probably arrive the latter part of this week, or the first of next. HERD IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIA TION FORMED IN CHATHAM With the formation last week of a cow testing or herd improvement association, Chatham county took a step, which we believe, will prove to be the greatest single factor in the advancement of the dairy indus try in this county. As a result of meetings held in various communi ties of the county Monday and Tues day of last week, some twenty farm ers announced their intentions of joining this association. Briefly, this association will accomplish the fol lowing things for dairy farmers in this county: 1. Enable farmers to cull out their poor producers, or cows that Navy Oil Reserves Being Drained Away t - Geological Survey Records Reveal Startling Loss From Teapot Dome Estimate of oil drops 113 million barrels Secretary Adams asks new legislation Urgent need of legislation In re lation to naval oil reserves, par ticularly reserves No. 1 and N 0.2, in California, is set forth in the annual report of Secretary Adams of the Navy Department. Referring to Reserve No. S (Teapot Dome) the Secretary says: “From present Indications there appears to be practically no loss of oil or gas to operat ing wells outside of the re serve. There are 9,321 acres in this reserve. Total past Production, 3,549.228 barrels; . estimate of total recoverable oil. including post production, 20,000,000 barrels.’* 'l’hls is the famous reserve in Wyoming that the Geological Sur ve Y estimated to contain 135,000,- 000 barrels of oil at the time it ■'v&s leased to the Mammoth Oil Compa,ny # No less startling than the drop 118,500,000 barrels in the esti rnate of the recoverable oil under teapot Dome is the statement that here appears to be practically no loss of oil to wells outside of the reserve. * n contradiction of this view is he renewed request of the Secret ary for power “to contract with owners of lands within or adjoin . ®nch reserves for compensatory royalty (for the oil being drained ypriVate operators from naval re-, | serves) i n i ieu of driU i ng offset t well*.” drJi hat tlier * was and would be rainage from Reserve No. 3 was • th early foremost in a letter from Ra Inspector Naval Petroleum h!T date 4 within seventy two sal A** a ** er Supreme Court had drainage was a mere pre- | tor making of the Teapot lea «e. In the Inspector's r *eke<| owners of adjoin ing T e la they “would be will ■ d.w ° pay for tlle increased pro -*•,*on resulting from drainage ni within the naval reserves.’* lc«i U « thermore * the u - s - Geolog- Der ;" rVey °® ce records at Cas yomjng, do not support the I are not paying what they should for the feed consumed, through the test ing of each cow in the herd for production, and also through the keeping of an accurate record of each cow in the herd as to her pro , duction. t 2. Cut down feed bills through . the knowledge of the proper grain k mixtures, and also through the eco | nomical mixing of farm grown feeds for the best production of milk or butterfat. 3. Enables the dairy farmers to ’ keep an absolute cost account on each cow in the herd. 4. Gives dairy farmers the bene fit of the advice of a man who has j been trained in feeds and feeding and dairy herd management. Some of the farmers who have announced their intentions of going in this work are: Mr. C. G. Oldham, Chapel Hill R. F. D. No. 1, Mr. J. B. Fearrington, Pittsboro, Mr. R. N. Connell, Pittsboro, Mr. W. H. Fergu son, Pittsboro, Mr. Lacy Webster, Pittsboro, ‘Mr. J. E. Cflark, Pitts* boro, Mr. Walter Perry, Pittsboro, Mr. Will Johnson, Pittsboro and others. DID YOU KNOW THAT— Seed corn dust treatments on co operative plots on 22 lowa farms proved their value during 1929? Their use boosted the yield 4.5 bush els per acre. Seed corn may be treated at a cost of about four cents per acre. The greatest benefit was ob tained when the weather was damp and cold. * * * Records at the lowa State College show that a dairy calf born in the fall can be raised to one year of age at a lower cost than a calf drop ped in the spring. The fall calves also made a better rate of growth. * * * Self feeders for pigs have again proved their value. This time the results come from the Missouri Col lege of Agriculture. The same tests indicate that fall pigs should be full fed from birth to market. Corn should be supplemented with a pro tein concentrate, and alfalfa meal so used is worth SIOO per ton. At present prices, a good protein con centrate is made with two or three parts of fish meal and one part of cottonseed meal. * * * The cost of building soil terraces should be about eight-tenths of a cent per running foot, or between $3.50 and $4 per acre on fields with a five per cent slope and which are not badly gullied. These conclusions are reached after a study of records kept by the Oklahoma A and M college. Terraces were built at the rate of 225 feet per hour. A fifteen drawbar horse power crawler type tractor with an eight foot terracing grader was used. The terraces were 25 feet wide and two feet high. —* TIMELY TOPICS Quite a large acreage will be needed in spring oats this spring to make up the deficit in small grains last fall. Remember that the seeding of spring oats offers a good oppor - - ———^ I n I! |l 1 1 • senouciso *iiv vVST \ ♦ oanoonu w«u. s. > . v 1_ I * yy 'rty l 1 /S>iT crelek} —, mrt §8 £ apcjl ” DOME * jM£ conclusion of Secretary Adams that there Is no drainage to adjacent: Salt Creek wells. Its records of seven outside wells along the edge : of the reserve make the following showing of increased production since the wells in the reserve have been closed down. Barrels per Month 1928 1929 j August HS6 8168 September 185a October 1625 3122 November 1299 3025 As long ago as the spring of 1928 the State Geological deportment of Wyoming put anallne dyes in thir teen Teapot Dome wells and col ored oil soon appeared in adjacent Salt Creek wells. All the evidence sustains the view advanced years ago by Secretary Oenby and Admiral Robinson (but jufstioned by Congress and the Courts) that if the oil in Teapot Dome and other Naval Reserves were not taken out It would not be there very long. The theory of storage of oil in the grourfd has blown up in the face of the facts. The government has won some law suits —but the navy is losing its oil. THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C. 1 W®©lsSfrMgSDsT Z I Catalog of ;W3QDIB BEKDB Mailed free on reouest Write for it. Illustrated and con tains valuable in formation for the fanner T.W.WOOD tr SONS Seedsmen Since 1879 55 SIIV St Richmond. Va« Weolherforecast broadcast daily meters tunity for seeding lespedeza, pasture seeds and other legumes. $ Milking machines are becoming in creasingly popular with dairy farm- ! ers who are handicapped for labor. For the man with ten cows and up in this county, and who has a labor problem, the milking machine if handled right would probably pay in the saving of labor alone. Milking machines would hardly pay where there is enough family labor for milk ing that could not be profitably em ployed elsewhere. * * * Now is the time to watch your cattle closely for “heel fly” infec tion. Heel flies are also known as “Ox Warbles” or “Wolves.” The fly bites the cow or heifer just above j the heel in the spring and deposits an egg. The egg hatches into a grub which travels up the animal’s back, from which place it emerges in the late winter or early spring to do this damage over again as an adult fly. The time to control them is now, by squeezing the grubs out of their backs. After doing this, make an inspection every ten days for about a month to see that none remain. Cows infected with heel flies will not put on flesh, and are low in milk production. ♦ “FARM PHILOSOPHY” Blessed are the soil makers for they shall see profits from increased yields. * * ♦ Highways to market are a part of “farm equipment,” and therefore, better roads should mean better farming. * * * High prices for farm products grown in excess of demands are il logical, and right thinking farmers should not expect them. * * * Neither the Federal Farm Board or any other agency uncjer high heav en can get tKe farmer a quality price for anything but a quality product. ♦ * * Insisting on their independence keeps farmers from becoming more independent through group action in their business. * * * There is no “Winter of Discontent” for those of us who see a thousand beauties in winter’s starkness. 3> More Livestock Needed on Farms A growing demand for more milk, butter, beef and poultry makes it asbolutely necessary that farmers in North Carolina increase their live stock production if they continue to “live at home.” “The rapidly increasing urban pop ulation has brought to the farm door the opportunity of buying those things that at one time were of ne cessity produced on the farm,” says A. C. Kimrey, dairy extension spe cialist at State College, “but it is also increasing the demand for all kinds of livestock products. In neg lecting to increase his dairy herd and poultry flocks the farmer is neglect* ing a wonderful opportunity to not only produce a good living but also make a good income from the farm.” In the early days of our history, states Mr. Kimrey, when the markets were few and far apart it was not only good business but a necessity to produce everything needed on the farm. This naturally led to the pro duction of crops that were adapted to slow marketing such as cotton, to bacco and grain. But now, he states, it is not only necessary to produce the things needed on the farm but also to produce those things most in demand at the nearest market which, in most cases, is at the front door. The constant demand today is for food products from livestock. According to Mr. Kimrey, live stock, pasture and feed crops in rea sonable proportions will enable every farmer in North Carolina to utilize a maximum percent of his acreage and will at the same time, produce a decent living and a marketing sur plus of livestock products. “This is the only permanent solu tion and as long as the farmers of North Carolina refuse to follow this system, just so long will they have a small and insufficient farm income and a standard of living not in keep nig with other livestock producing sections,” says Mr. Kimrey. [they anii tiierel j History told as it would bo written today | * By IRVIN S, COBB ! 1 . . 1 j A Pen Picture of the Bridge of Death 50*1 Napoleon’s star ot conquest sank when his stupendous campaign against Russia in 1812 ended in one of the most terrible and fatal collapses that military history records. The retreat from Moscow was immortalized by novel Is', s and by painters. It remained, though, for a humble participant in that enormous holocaust to draw a picture of its crowning catastrophe more intense and more effective than any a fictionist ever achieved. The chronicler of the awful scenes at the crossing of the River Berezina was one Constant Voivry, who, as a vale! to Napoleon, accompanied his master through the Rus sian misadventure. Under the title of “The Memoirs of Napoleon/' a translation of Con stant's writings was printed in IDOS by the Scribners and it is from this volume that I have drawn for certain extracts printed here. Napoleon, entering Russia in June, 1812, took with him an immense force. Until the great World war of more than a century later accustomed us to armed hosts numbering Up into the millions, his total strength of 450,000 men seemed tremendous. From the very outset, the invasion of the enemy's country was marked by setbacks. Sunstroke, heat, colic among the horses as a result of feeding them on green grain, worked heavy losses In the columns. Straggling began; the road back to the frontier Was lined with deserters. Before the oncoming French the Russians steadily retreated, burning the oouatry ao .... fell back. Napoleon's plans to force a pitched battle all fqilgd; his elusive enemy declined the issue. Ho chased them across a desolated terrain and all the while the vigor end the morale of hie troop# declined alarmingly. He reached Moscow, expecting to find there provisions and shelter for the whiter. But the city was ftrsd by agents left behind for that purpose when the Russians evacuated it, and within two days the greater part of Moscow was in smoking ashes and the French * were compelled to quit it. They retraced their way through a barren land and now the rigors of the northern winter added to their other miseries. Frost fought on the side of the Russians who con stantly harassed their aaarch, preying on the rear guard and picking off stray detachments. It was at the Berezina, on November 26, 27 and 28, that the failed campaign reached Ita climax of disaster. With enormous losses, over improvised bridges, dm French forced the passage of the river. From that time on, the army was a mob, the retreat a flight of starving, freezing fugitives trapped in a pitiless climate and beleagured by wary and resolute swarms of foes. CONSTANT was well-named. No man could have been more faithful in his devotion to an imperial master than he to Napoleon We take up the memories of the adoring valet-historian at the point where he begins to describe the ap proach to the bridge of death. There is one early paragraph which describes very graphically and yet very simply the state to which the once-disciplined legions of France had degenerated. He says: “One brave and kindly officer took off his own uniform to give it to a poor soldier whose ragged garments exposed him naked to the cold, put ting on his own back a tattered old infantry coat, because he was more capable of resisting the rigors of the weather. If excessive misery withers the soul, on the other hand it some times expands it to the highest point, as one may see. Many of the most wretched blew their brains out in de spair. In that act, there was a res ignation and a coolness that made one shudder. In ttiis disastrous campaign I saw what vanities are physical force and human courage where that moral force which is born of a determined will is nonexistent.” Working in Water. He cornea next to Napoleon, of whom always tie speaks as the em peror. The well-being and the com fort of Napoleon were of more conse quence to, blip than the fate of the. hundreds of thousands of suffering wretches who made up the rank and fitei This is easy to understand. Con stant may have been a painstakiug chronicler; certainly his eye was quick to see, and his pen to set down, the horrors ttiat multiplied about him in that most ghastly of recorded routs. But above ail he was the servaut He goes on: “It was frightful to see these mov ing masses sometimes halting progres sively, the advance corps first, then those that followed, then the last. When Marshal Oadinot, who was ahead, suspended his march for some unknown reason, there would he a movement of general uneasiness, then alarming speeches would begin and, as men who have seen everything are in clined to believe everything, both true and false tidings easily found credit. “By five o’clock in the evening of the 25th some trestles had been fixed about the stream, constructed of wood en beams taken from Polish cabins. The trestles gave way at a little past five o’clock. They were not strong enough. It was plain that next day the army would have to sustain the enemy’s fire; but there was no room for choice. At the end of that night of anguish and sufferings of every sort the first trestles were driven down into the river. “The soldiers stood up to their hips in water full of floating ice in order to drive the piles several feet deep into a miry river bed; struggling against the most horrible fatigues; pushing away with their hands enor mous masses of ice which would have knocked them down and submerged them by their weight; fighting, in a word, and fighting unto death with cold, the greatest enemy of.life. Well, that is what our French pontonniers did. Several of them were either dragged down by the currents or suf focated by the cold. “The emperor awaited day in a wretched hovel. In the morning he said to Prince Berthier: ‘Well! Ber thier, how are we to get out of this?’ He was sitting in his chamber, great ttr,.rs were rolling down his cheeks, which were paler than usual. The French Leaders Really Lead. “But they exchanged very few words. The emperor seemed over whelmed with sadness. It was then that the king of Naples spoke frankly to Ids brother-in-law, entreating him in the name of the army to think of his own safety, the peril being so im minent. Some brave Poles offered to form the escort of the emperor. They could go further up the Beresina and reach Wilna in five days. The emper or shook his head in sign of refusal i but said nothing. The king under stood, and there was no further men tion of It. “Before the bridge was finished some four hundred men were partial ly transported from the other side of the river on two miserable rafts which they could with difficulty steer against the current. From the shore, we saw them greatly shaken by the great pieces of ice which clogged the river. These masses would come to the very edge of the raft. Meeting an obstacle, they would stop for a while and then he drawn underneath those feeble planks and produce horrible shocks. Our soldiers would stop the largest ones with their bayonets and make them deviate beyond ttie rafts. “The impatience of the army was at its highest pitch. The first to arrive on the other bank were the brave M. Jacqueminot, aide-de-camp of Marsha! Oudinot, and Count Predziecski. This last named was a brave Lithuanian whom the emperor greatly liked, espe cially when he shared our sufferings through fidelity and devotion. Both of them crossed the river on horse back. The army uttered shouts of ad miration on seeing that its leaders were the first to give the example of Intrepidity. There was, In fact, enough to disturb the strongest minds. The current forced the poor horses to swim obliquely across, which dou bled the length of the passage. Then came the masses of ice, which, strik ing against their chests and sides, in flicted piteous gashes. Over a Road of Bodies. “At one o’clock General. Legrand and his division blocked up the bridge constructed for the infantry. The em peror was on tiie opposite side. Sev oral cannons got entangled in each other and stopped the march for an instant The emperor sprang on to the bridge, put his own hands to the teams, and aided in freeing the pieces. The enthusiasm of the soldiers was extreme. It was to shouts of ‘Long Live the Emperor I’ that the infantry landed on the other shore. “When the artillery and the baggage were crossing, the bridge was so thronged that it broke. Then ensued that retrograde movement which crowd ed back in horrible confusion the whole multitude of stragglers who were ad vancing like driven cattle behind the artillery. Another bridge had been hastily constructed as if in sad pre vision of the breaking of the first one; but the second one was narrow and unprotected at the sides. However, It was a makeshift which at first glance seemed very precious in such an ap palling calamity; but what miseries ensued! The laggards flocked thither in droves. As the artillery, the bag gage—ln a word, the entire materia) of the army—had been in advance on the first birdge when it broke, and by the sudden recoil which took place, the catastrophe became known, then those who bad been behind were the first to gain the other bridge. “But it was necessary that the artil lery should cross first. It pressed for w;trd then with impetuousity toward the only way of salvation which was left Here the pen refuses to describe the scene of horrors that took place. II was literally over a road of crushed bodies that the wagons of every sort reached the bridge. On this occasion one saw what hardness, what syste matic ferocity, even, can be imparted to the soul by the instinct of self-pres ervation. There were some of the stragglers, the craziest of any, who wounded and killed with bayonet thrusts the unfortunate horses that did not obey the whip of their drivers. Saved From Icy Depths. “1 have said that the bridge had no ledges at the sides. Crowds of poor wretches who were trying to cross U were seen to fall into the stream and be sucked under the masses of ice. Others tried to cling to the miserable planks of the bridge, and would re main hanging over the abyss until their hands, crushed by the wheels ol the wagons, would force them to let go their hold. They dropped and were engulfed by the waters. Whole artil lery wagons, horses and drivers alike, were plunged Into the stream. “Poor women were seen holding their children out of the water, as if to retard their death by a few mo ments. The emperor wished to re trace his steps, hoping his presence might restore order; he was dis suaded from this, and in a munnei so significant that he struggled against the impulse oi uu* umt tmu aio>ea where he was, and assuredly it wa* not his grandeur that riveted him tw the shore. You could see wlmt suffer* ings he endured when, at every to-t stunt, he would ask how the passage, was getting on, if the cannons could still be heard rolling over the if there were fewer cries from that! side. ‘lmprudent people,’ he would say*! ‘why could they not have waited a lit tle longer?* “There were fine examples of devo tion on this unfortunate occasion. A young artilleryman sprang into the water to save a poor woman who, en cumbered by her two children, was trying to reach the other shore In * small boat. The load was too heavy. An enormous piece of ice struck the boat and it foundered. The cannoneer seized one of the children and swaa ashore with it. The mother and the other infant perished. This good young man brought up the little or phan as his son. The Emperor Shivers While the Sol diers Die. “Some officers harnessed themselves to sledges so as to fetch along a num ber of their companions who had been made helpless by their wounds. Tbegr wrapped the poor fellows up as warm ly as possible, comforted them occa sionally with a glass of brandy when any could be procured, and lavished on them the most touching attention*. There were many who acted thus; and yet bow many whose names are no known! How few returned to enjoy - in their own country the most beauti ful memories of their life! “The bridge was burned at eight o’clock in the morning. The 29th, the emperor left the banks of the Beres ina and we went to pass the night at Kamen. There his majesty occupied a wretched wooden house. A freezing wind entered it on every side through windows, nearly every pane of which was broken. We closed the aperture# with trusses of hay.” Constant was concerned, you see. over the privations which his beloved master endured. There is no word from him to indicate that in the slight est degree Napoleon showed remorse for the host who died that night or for the greater hosts who already had died in this hideous retreat —poor nameless sacrifices to the insatiate ambition of a man determined to hold military dominion over a continent. Between Constant’s lines we read the concern which Napoleon felt for the destruction of his army, but where is there an implication that J#»- poleon was stirred to pity for the in dividual human atoms whose stiffened bodies by thousands and yet more thousands dotted the wintry plains be hind him. Conquerors are like that* else they would never have the will to conquer. To them human beings are merely pawns in a mighty game. So Constant, one perceives, is dis tressed by the fact that Bonaparte must shiver in a dismantled hovel, with only bundles of fodder to shut out the Icy blasts. Immediately after telling of this he adds another para graph which sums up in some measqre the miseries of the forlorn wretches elsewhere in that encampment—mee who have no roofs above them bnt the heavens, no beds beneath them but the frozen earth. What Price Glory? This is what he says in summary oT the scenes presented within earshot of his master’s resting place: “Not far away from us on a vast open space the unfortunate Russian prisoners whom the army was driving* before it were penned up like cattlcx Truly, I found difficulty In compre hending that air of being victorious which our soldiers still assumed by dragging along a wretched superfluity of prisoners who could only hamper them by requiring superintendence. When the victors are dying of hanger, what becomes of the vanquished? Hence these miserable Russians, worn out by want and marching, nearly all perished that night. In tjie morning we saw them huadled close together They had hoped to find a little warmth in this w ay. The feeblest of them had succumbed, and all night long their dead bodies had been embraced by the survivors without the latter hav ing noticed it. There were some win* in their voracity, devoured their dead companions. The firmness with which the Russians endure pain has often been spoken of; I can give an Instance of it which almost surpasses beife£ One of these poor fellows having wan dered away from the corps to which he belonged, was struck by a cannon ball which cut off both his legs and killed his horse. A French officer? making a reconnaissance on the bank of the river where the Russians had fallen, perceived at a distance a moss which he recognized as a dead horse; and yet he saw that this mass was oof without movement. He approached It and saw the head and shoulders of s man whose extremities were hidden in the body of the horse. The unfor tunate man had been there four day* shutting himself up inside his horse as a shelter from the cold, and feed ing on infected scraps from this fright ful lodging.” That is the final picture which t, fbr one, got from this narrative—not tbo emperor in his makeshift quarters, bnt the legless Russian clinging to life fls side the carcass of a slaughtered beast To my way of thinking It to a picture which all lovers of war fto war’s sake should be invited to read and reread and ponder over. (£1 br tfco 801 l Srodleato. lae.) “ , j Better Shot Angry Neighbor—That boy of fOBHT has just thrown a stone at met “Did he hit you?” “No.” . “Then it wasn’t my boy.” 1 PAGE THREE

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view