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CHRONICLES OF GINGER FARM By Gwendoline P. Clarke It has come at last! That lieart- warmiiig, land-drjing, health-giving fuu wc have all been waiting for. Three days without rain, can you believe it? The birds are singing as if their litllc throats must burst with the ecstasy of song; the swamp frogs keep up a perpetual chorui and in our garden there li "a host of golden daffodils." Yes, spring lias come to Ontario. » • • There is the hum of a tractor in the airâ€" later in the day it may be one of many. Acnss the road a ncishbour is working his field with four horses abreast. It is a pleas- ing pictur;. We certainly can't do without tractors but for a pictures- que scene of farm life in Canada what can compare with a good team of well matched horses? However I suppose they can no longer be described as typical of farm life be- cause if one took a cross section of the country no doubt one would find that there are more fields in which tractors are working than horses. Thus time marches on How soon will it be before aero- planes are used to speed up farm- ing operations? No doubt they have their uses even now. 1 think 1 read that DDT was being sprayed from the air over mosquito breeding areai and also for blight on fruit trees. And no doubt helicopters could be used, under favourable conditions, to sow clover seed, like a sort of giant cyclone seeder. Certainly they could be used to scatter poison bait on the prairie when grasshoppers threaten to destroy tlie crops. We could have done with a helicopter very nicely out west in 1920. Then Partner wouldn't have had to drive all over our half section with a horse and buggy at three o'clock in the morning spreading poison bait over llie growing crops. That was an awful job but unless it was done the grasshoppers took the whole crop. * * * Sometimes it gives one a queer feeling to look back and remember the tough times one has come through ; the things one did to make a little e.xtra money when crops were poor â€" Partner hiring out with a threshing gang to work off the bill for his own threshing ; coming home on horseback and arriving anywhere from ten o'clock until midnight ; starting out again before the sun was up ; leaving me alone, perforce, in our prairie farm-house with our two-year-old and a baby yet unborn. And the knitting I did in the winter â€" a pair of socks for 25 cents ! But we got along ; some- how we kept our heads above wa- ter and 1 don't remember that we ever felt particularly sorry for ourselves. Other families were pret- ty much in the same boat â€" some more, some less. Four years with- out a crop soon wipes out any cash reserve one might have had. But we were young and willing to work and the west was in our blood, one might almost say we were inoculat- ed with the spirit of optimism. The last harvest might be bad ; the winter hard; living conditions bare- ly tolerable ; but in the spring. . a sew start . . . promising crops . . this year there surely wouldn't be a grasshopper plague, or a dust storm, or hail and wind to ruin the crops . . this year it would be dif- ferent ; this year there might be a bumper crop such as only the West can produce ! Oh well, this is Ontario . . . llic spring of 1947. . . and each year brings its own problems, to the east and to the west. Right now 1 had better go out and see how my three hundred problems out in the brood- er house are doing. This is only their second day out and they are inclined to wander away from the pen and get themselves lost. Tlicy have about as much sense of direc- tion as I have when 1 get about five miles from home. And that is say- ing a lot ! * * » Do you lyiow, we have not yet taken off our storm windows, and maybe it is just as wellâ€" Partner says it might be safer to leave tlicm on until the middle of June. Any way tractors are on the land, as 1 said before, the grader is working on the ro.id, and a very strong wind is blowing, so between them all there is a great of dust flying around and most of it coming this way. The storm windtjws may, there- fore, do more thas keep out win- ter frost and gales. * ♦ • .Second Niece is here for the wgck-cnd. Tonight it will !)e my job to, take iier down to the Queen I'lizabcth to catch the Niagara bus. that is if our jalopy doesn't fall to pieces on the way. We arc still try- ing to get something that looks more like a car and last week we really thought wc had something, judging from the price that was asked it should have been a good car but when we looked it over what did we find but a cracked block I 1 won- der how nuich longer people will get away with stuff like that. It Juft about burns ine ug I r Anawfr t* Prrvlvaa PnaiU U. S. Diplomat HORIZONTAL 56 Philippine I Pictured U. S. island taken diplomat. by MacArthur VER-nCAL 1 Ipnited 2 Fish 3 Rounded 4 Rabbits 5 Whirlwind 6 Bird 7 Lubricates 8 Steamship (ab.) 9 Papal cape 10 Contradict 11 Burmese wood spirit 12 German river 17 Exclamation 19 Partner (slang) 13 Notioti 14 Goddess of discord 15 480 sheets 16 The earth 18 Cloth measure 19 Treaties 20 Lamprey 21 Nova Scotia (ab.) 22 Winglike part 23 Goods cast overboard to lighten a ves- sel in distress 26 Saturate 29 Before 30 Tasted 33 Pedal digit 34 Specific gravity (ab.) 35 Genuine 36 Sun god 37 Child 39 Conflict 41 Seine 42 Look fixedly 44 12 dozen 46 Crimson 47 Air (comb, form) 48 Outer garments 50 Daybreaks 53 Image of a divinity 54 Speaker's platform 55 SoUd 23 Jokes 24 Fungous dis- ease of cereals 25 Remarkable variable star 26 Ravine 27 Centers 28 Warms 31 Fondle 32 Light touch 38 Marine fish 39 Sleeping 41 Roosevelt nominated him as am- bassador to on its liberation 43 Staggers 45 Enrr'-ish dramatist 48 Chief 49 American hiunorist furniture (pi.) 51 Louse egg 40 Minced oath 52 Compass point TEEN-TOWN TOPICS By BARRY MURKAR We received a letter in the mail this week that we feel should go into print. The writer, whom we will call S.W., sounds off on a theme tliat we think has a lot of sense to it, although we know some people who don't agree at all. Dear Barry: We noticed in your column a few weeks ago that you would like to tell a few of the olders off. At that time you were on the subject of cocktail lounges. Another week, you said you thought that some of the parents missed a lot in the telling. 1 agree with you. Boys and girls of today, who are anything but nice, polite, educated enough to speak properly and know their place, can lay a large piece of the blame at the feet of their par- ents. Boys are hard to control, but in this day and age, girls are harder. 1 know. 1 have two of my own. They think it is smart to smoke and drink rum and cokes. I said they think it is smart. As far as I can possibly check, with- out making them think I don't trust them, neither of my girls has^een that smart yet. I wish you would tell some of the parent readers of your column to start boiiscelcaning at home and then maybe juvenile delinquency will start to fall off. Parents know too much about the "goings-on" of their children and, for some strange reason, don't do anything about it. I believe that, if half of the boys and girls that have been in our court rooms had been started off right at home and checked up every so often, tew of those boys and girls would be able to tell you what a court room look- ed like. 1 think that drink is the greatest source of evil and temp- tation our young people have today and I wish, if you tell the parents off, that you would niention that and a few other things. 1 enjoy your column very nuicli and like your liuniurous yarns about you and Susie. Best of luck to you. s.w. Well, we won't have to tell the parents a thing or two, because S.W. lias hanilleil it very well. * ♦ * A man in the radio business told lis tlic other day that, as soon as •* wood is of better quality and more Many Cancer Cases Can Be Cured plentiful and radio cabinets are coming through better, there will be a reduction in the price of radios and, of course, record players. One company has hundreds of radios and players assembled and can't get the cabinets to put them in. Seems as if there is always some thing holding up the assembly line. * * * Wc were talking to a man the other day that you used to hear on the radio every week. We asked him what he thought of the present radio shows that come over from south of the border. This former singer-comedian of the C B C thought that there were too many guest star appearances, and that humour of the airlanes through the past winter was at an all time low. Low that is. For our money, dur- ing the past season, Fred Allen is tops, followed by Amos n' Andy^ with Fibber and Molly close behind. Maybe next winter there will be a corn shortage and things will be better â€" let's hope so. * * * This Saturday is May 24th and the kiddies will be trying to blow the joint down â€" as usual. Wc le- niember the time a neighbor's kid sent a sky rocket flying tlirough a bedroom window â€" and brother did that shower of sparks and colour cause some excitement. Just a warning: do not let Junior blow his digits off â€" he may be a columnist some day and he can't afford to have anyone else typing liis copy. * * * Some of you may be interested to know that, starting about June IlOth, Paul Wliitcman will be on the air late in the afternoon, Monday through Friday, as Master of Cere- monies on a full-hour recorded pro- gramme. For this little chore radio's fat man will receive $0,000 per week. Robert Ripley of "Be- lieve It or Not'' has a new pro- gramme that will have a lot of interest for high school students. And don't forget High Newsreel from CJBC and Hi Variety from CFItB, both with news aplenty for the teeners. Your local paper will carry the time of these broadcasts. Well that does it, see you next week. ' "lie lliat cures a disease may be the most skilful: but he that pre- vents it is the safest physician." This is an ancient saying but its message lias lost none of its sig- nificance today. The Ontario Cancer .Society hopes to bring home this message to every family in tlie pro- vince with the "prevention rather tliaii rure" slogan paving the way. Letters have been received from many parts of Ontario: grateful, licart-warniing letters expressing gratitude from those who discovered they had cancer and acted upon their discovery. Many attribute being alive today to the literature they received from the society, tell- ing of ."iymplons and signs to watch for. "Until we bring cancer into the open it will continue to spread icy fear into the hearts of our people," says Bruce Taylor, chairman of the drive. "Few people realize that 80 per cent of many types of cancer ran be cured, and our job is to tell them of the facilities available for <liagnosis and treatment of the dis- ease, witli total cure as our ultimate aim." Why Do Clergymen Usually Wear Black? When Martin Luther, in 1524, laid aside the habit of a monk and adopted the style of dress prevail- ing at the time, the Elector of Saxony used to send him from time to time pieces of black cloth, that color then being fashionable at the court. Luther's diseii>Ies thought because he wore black, it became them to do so, and thus it came about that the clergy gen- erally grew to regard it as the only proper color for them to wear. • • TABLE TALKS • • • The Old Hen Gets in a Stew The tiiiie of year is almost at hand when the old birds will be culled from the chicken flocks. These birds may be used in several ways. They may be steamed, stewed, fricasseed or canned for late use. These older birds are prepared as for roasting, but require a long, slow cooking using moist heat to soften and make tender the tough connective tissue. Chickens cooked in this manner will lose some of their )uu-e and flavour, hut it is regained when the broth is served as gravy with the meat. Fowl is usually cut into serving pieces before stewing and then placed in a kettle, half-filled with lightly salted water. It should be simmered, covered, until the meat is tender. It should never boil. The pieces should be turned occa- sionally to ensure even cooking throughout. A tablespoon of vine- gar added to the water helps to make the meat more tender. It is sometime necessary to replenish the water during the cooking period. A young fowl will require from 2-3 hours to cook tender. Fricasseeing is another method of cooking fowl. The bird may be cut into serving piece.'', rolled in flour and browned on all sides in hot fat. Then simmered in a small quantity of water or tomato juice. If stewed fowl is to be served cold, it should be allowed to cool for an hour or more in the broth â€" the meat will be more moist. Three to four cups of cooked meat will be obtained from a four-five pound chicken. Fricasseed Chicken With Sour Cream 1 4-lb. chicken, cut into serving portions 3 tablespoons vinegar Yi cup flour 1 teaspoon salt % teaspoon pepper % cup fat 'As cup chopped onion Ya cup chopped parsley or celery leaves I'A cup sour cream Rub chicken with vinegar and roll in mixture of flour, salt and pepper. Melt fat and brown chicken in large casserole, add onions, celery leaves and cover with sour cream. Cook covered in a moderately slow oven 325 deg. F. until tender 254-3 hours. Six serv- ings. Chicken Mousse V/i tablespoons granulated gela- tine 2 tablespoons cold water 3 egg yolki I'A cups chicken broth' 'A teaspoon salt Yi teaspoon pepper 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped Yt cup chopped sweet pickles Y2 cup heavy cream, whipped Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes. Beat egg yolks and add chicken broth. Cook in top of double boiler until mixture coats spoon. Add salt, pepper, and soaked gelatine. Stir until dissolved. Cool mixture until partially set. Add chopped chicken, pickles and fold in the whipped cream. Pour into a greased mould and chill until firm. Unmould on bed of lettuce and garnish with sliced tomatoes, sliced hard cooked egg, watercress and radishes. Serve with mayon- naise. Six-eight servings. Precious Plalypu«c« Safe In New Home Three duck-billed platypuses ar- rived at the Bronx Zoo, New York, after a 13,000-mile plane and ship voyage from Australia which was frought with difficulties high- lighted by a shortage of earth- worms for their feed. The animalsâ€" Cecil. Betty But- ton and Penelopeâ€" are reputed to be the only ones of their kind out- side their native habitat. They ar- rived plump, healthy and active. The platypuses are described at seal-furred, duck-liilled, venom- spurred, egglaying and woodchuck- shaped mammals. Ten thousand earthworms, their favorite diet, had been flown by the zoo to meet the ship at Pana- ma because the rations were low. The animals had to be treated with great care. The volume of the ship's foghorn was reduced so it would not make them nervous, the deck lights were toned down and the ship changed course oc- casionally to avoid rough weather. A- 4 â- â™¦ 4 I 4 â- 4 «• •r SWEETER ^hite Bread TASTIER RECIPE Put 1 c. lukewarm water in bread bowl, add 1 envelope Royal fast Rising Dry Yeast and 1 tsp. sugar, stir: let stand 10 mio. Scald 2 c. milk, add 9 tbs. sugan add 5 tsp. salt; cool to luke-warm. Add to yeast with 1 c. water; add 6 c sifted flour; beat well. Add 9 tbs. melted shortening and 6 c. more sifted flour, or enough to make easily bandied dough. Knead dough quickly and lightly until smooth and elas- tic. Place dough in greased bowl, cover; set in warm place, free from draft. I.et rise until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down in bowl: let rise again until about ^ as high as first rise. When light, divide into 4 equal portions; shape into baUs. Cover with cloth; let rest XU to IS min. Shape into loaves; place in greased bread pans. Coven let rise ontil doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Bake in 425*^ F. oven for IS min., then reduce heat to 373° F. Finish baking about 30 min. longer. 4 4 « r ^ LET UPTON'S TEA BRING CHEER TO YOU WHEN YOU'RE LOW AND FEELING BLUE- Only UPTON'S brisk- tasting TEA GIVES YOU THAT • What a lift you get from Lipton's Tea! It's Lipton's FLAVOR-LifT ... a delicious, stimulat- ing combination of brisk, mellow flavor . . . plus a lift that sends exhilarating new energy right througii you! Lipton's Tea is a wonderful "pick-iTie-up" â€" wonderful anytime, morning, noon and night! And only Lipton's gives you that FLA VOR-UFTâ€" because it's the blend that makes Lipton's . . . and Lipton's who make the blend. Ask for Lipton's at your grocer's today! I â- * -A MR. BRISK aayS-^^S, l DO ! I USE UPTON'S TEA BAGS. TOO!' .m > A -* •m. â- â™¦ !