Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Sept. 11, 1936, edition 1 / Page 12
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PAGE FOUR THE STATE FARMER SECTION Duck Season’s Opening A TenneseMe River duck hunter. Note the green cane blind on the bow of the boat. By DICK WOOD JEST A-WHITT LIN' AN'A-THINKIN' BY PETE GETTY5 The opening of the duck shooting season is a major event in the lives of over a million sportsmen. Ducks are widely distributed and popular game \vit!\ all shotgun visits. Mij;rating ducks often light and tarry for days on ponds, sloughs and creeks, providing sport and duck dinners alike for the farmer lad with his single barrel ‘ I/Ong Tom” and the crank sportsman with his automatic. Jump shooting on rivers requires con- s'llcrablf skill and provides more real sjwrt than deer hunting. The usual pro cedure is to engage a hx'al riverman to paddle his skiff on a float down river. Thrill# Around Bend The start should be made on a con- siiitrable'title’ (freshet) which keeps the ducks near the banks, and the colder the niormng, the better. 'I'he hunter invari ably follows the convex bank, and the skdled boatman keeps the craft hugging drooping foliage, and paddles quieth. trom the sterti. One or two shooters sit in the bow and bang away at ducks along the banks, w’ithin range. 'I'his sort of hunting is far more en joyable and spf>rtsmanlike than sitting in a cold blind, firing into the (Kcasional fl(kk that drifts into a bunch of decoys. I’he river duck hunter anticipates thrilling action around every bend. When the ducks come out or rise per- The worst of all bad eggs is the non laying hen. * * * 'The road tlirough the one-iTop cot t«ui farm leads to the poor house. • ♦ * Selection is the solution of successful selling. 4> * » Splitting farm yields with bugs and plant <iis<'aNes is mighty poor business. ' * • Home-grown feeds fed to home-grown livestwk make lionie-grown profits. * * * .‘\fter all. the real basis for a better and happier rural life is greater earn ing capacity for farmers. ♦ « * Now, more than ever, it is apparent fai niers who won’t coop<"rate blrnk theii own progress. * » « More and better family cows would mean a higher standard of health and peiidicularly, skill is reijuired to hit them from a nniving boat. Sometimes a small buiKh of tliicks will be sighted far down the bank and a long stalk by boat be gins. If a straggler or brace of mallards are kicked up on the way down, the hunter has to make a hasty decision on taking the bird in hand or trying for the two in the bush. It usually pays to pass up no fair shots. Sometimes ducks are not frightened by shooting beyoi:d halt a mile. Conservation Problem It is illegal to use an automatic shot gun of more than three shots. Since wii<l ducks were vtiminishing rapitlly. something had to be tione by the conser vationists. 1 contend it is not the gun, hut the man back of it, who hogs the game. My idea would be t(» restrict hunters in areas where ducks are abuiul- ant, such as on the marshes of Mary land, to single shot arms; the river duck lumter will seldom kill the legal limit with the five shot automatic, and the evtra shots do save a lot of cripples. 'I'he 12 gauge is almost universally accepted as the best <luck bore, but the ^1) makes clean kills at slightly shorter ranges and is a more sportsmanlike gun where ducks are abundant. If using a single barrel, 1 prefer a v>-'uch full choke. If a double barrel, 28-inch, right modified, left fvdl choke. None but the best grade duck loads should be used. happiness among Southern farm people. » * ♦ I'he test of the scrub hog is on the meat scales, when he is weighed in the balance, and found wanting. * * « A pretty stream through the farm adds usefulness to beauty when harncss- L'd to a little home power plant. « • * Club boys and girls who live up to their slogan, “Make the best better,” also set a fine example to their parents. « « » Yes, business before pleasure, hut why not business and pleasure 'ii a sec-and- learn tour among the best farmers you can find? « * « Since we learfied from our agricul tural college that green fof>ds keep bwl- ies strong and well, with needeil nuner- ais and \itamins. It is easier t«i get our garden work done. Maybe there is and maybe there ain't somethin’ that God made that’s prettier ’n a Jersey heifer—but whatever it is, I ain’t never saw it—and evidently there’s some who don’t share in this opinion for out in Kansas they had a “Beauty Bovine Contest”—open to all the breeds and not judged on the reg ular points—any cow—scrub or pure bred, with sufficient “it” could enter the race, an<l the pickin’ of winners was n^ade strictly on the groimtls of charm and l)eauty—artificial beauty aids, of course, were allowed, an' beauty shops did a landoffice business. Rouge, lip stick an’ mascara were freely painted on, hoofs were carmined an’ eyebrows j>en- ciled an’ curled, bovine coiffures were baked an' fri/zed into permanents that’ll be the envy of the barn lot for many months.” Bvit the jvidgos selected a reg istered Holstein as “Miss tlovine Amer ica,” an’ left out tlie Jersr. queens. Like the old feller w'ho jumped a ten- rail fence—he said he had to ’cause a bear was after him. A lot of us fellers have done a lot of things d\irin’ the last few years that we thought we couldn’t, “ ’cause we had to—^the old she-bear depression was crowding us.” Now' along comes the Dept, of Agriculture an’ says when sufficient pressure of hunger an’ heat is put on some species of grasshop pers, an’ they can’t get around fast enough a-hoppin,’ they can change into fliers so they can get places quicker an' the voung turkeys can’t catch ’em. firown at high temperatures, an' de prived of choice green food, grasshop pers in test cages grew longer wings, got slimmer, an’ took on brighter colors. Yes sir—hard times’ll evolve a lot of things—an’ make necessity the mother of invention with a vengeance. When two fellers, both apparently about equally mentally equipped, an’ one seems to get along better than the other, a reason’s sure to crop out sooner or later. Over in the adjoining county there’s a number of good farms and good farmers—all seemin’ to get along pretty i^ood—until the drought ca'me this Spring an’ their hay crops an’ pastures dried up, an' they had to go to town for hay—except one—“just like a lot of other insurance I carry, I always have an extra silo to fall back on that car ries me through, an’ it has paid for it self many times over this Spring.” The feller who can’t afford fire in surance is the one who can’t afford to without it, an’ it’s the feller who thinks he can't afford an extra silo that lueds it worst. “Neighbor, this shorely must be (lod’s country around here—walnut an’ hick ory nuts an’ chinky pitis an’ wild grapes and chestnuts, and a whole vvagon-load of stuff that just growed. Now, if a fel ler just ha*l a yaller hound dog that’d free ginseng, an’ shary nosed razor- back hog to root it up—w-ouldn't he bf fixed ?” It's mighty aggravating to hear soim’ feller who doesn't know what he’s talkin' about say that the farmer ain’t progres sive—that he’s operating small produc ing units wastefully, w'hile industry, put tin’ together the efforts of thousands of workers under a single roof, has swept by him and left him hopelessly in the lurch. 'I'he man who believes these things is no closer to the fanner than the carica tares in the funny papers would make him. Those who have worked with the American farmer know that he has set a new record in the history of man in contact with the soil by the quickness aiid intelligence with which he has assimil ated the results of invention an' scien tific research, an’ made the changes in his daily practice w'hich new appliances and new methods indicated. Bookkeeping on the farm of course ain’t the exact science it is in case of many other commercial businesses—but there are some reliable cross section sta tistics of our country’s successful farm ing— But these are gross incomes—still they ain't the total gross, an’ every radish pulled, every quart of .milk used by the fiimily an’ its labor, every chicken an’ hog butchered an’ every day of housing enjoyed must be added to make a true gross. Agriculture’s more than a profession for makin’ a living. It’s the life of families workin’ at it. I'here's no other v(K:ition u'hich requires the entire fam ily as iloes the business of fanning. Men who make their livin' farmin' have never prospered to the same degree that some men in e>ther trades and profes sions have, even with the same or even more capital invested an’ the same mus cle and brains applied to their business, an’ it’s doubtful if they ever will. I he fanner can't control the weather, the rain, insects, disease an' other fac tors entering into the cost of produc tion an' the price at which the product is sold, w'ith the same tlegree of accur acy as the man rumiin’ a factory. How ever, for one that likes farmin’ there’s other compensations. I'here’s an indepen dence an’ down right pleasure in workin’ in the open an’ with growin’ things that only people thoroughly fanuliar with the farmin’ business can understand. ITiis Summer there was a moon-vine growing' on a stump in our side yard. We sat out on the porch about dark an lcK)ked at the buds and waited for ’em to open. As long as we watched, they didn’t seem to stir, but take our eyes away for a few minutes, an’ lo an’ be hold! there they were in full blmjni just a smilin’ up at you. “Listen, Honey”—said the old Black Manuny—“IxK)k over yonder, in de cawn-fiel.’ See dem tall stalks move an' quiver.^ Yet there’s nary a fiel’-hand near ’em. Hear dem big blades rustle? \ et ain’t ’ary breath of wind to stir em from their sleep. Some one what comes to see sure, that our corn don’ blight, that sun don’ parch, nor rain don mildew. Somebody is makin’ sure that his children have corn for the win ter, corn an’ to spare!” WR ALL NICHT EVERY NIGHT SOMEONE H'ALKS IN THE CORN. Yes, some one walks in the corn— Sf)ine unseen |x>wer, makes those moon- vines open. FRANK FARMER Says — "By A. B. Bryan
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Sept. 11, 1936, edition 1
12
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