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Judge sehool held at Orono fairgrounds The sounds of the Orono. "big band sounci". Providing r) Janette Desousa, Carmen AI Mole, Roy i'orrester, Stage Band livened up the the entertainment to local White, James Lowery, Kevin Peter Parrot and David Chat- streets at 2:00 p.m. with the . shoppers were (Front Row 1 - Lowery and (Back Row 1 - r) terton. The "eUdder-" side of life Bessy the cow would rather Annual OfficialiJudges Con- look the "uidder" way as she ference of Eastern and Cen- is carefully scrutinized at the traI Ontario hosted by the They're not slimy THE FEDERATION 0F ONTARIO NATURALISTS WOODS, WATER AND WILDLIFE By Mike Singleton t's an eerie world. You're on your belly in a sea of 15 foot saplings. You can'î mnove without twisting and winding, for the grid of trunks placed one every foot or twvo. There are no land- marks. Fogged glasses blur your vision; your -ears hear only the same, muffled thuds you feel through the ground. Unci(otrolled, your body temnperalure skyrockets in sunshine, and plummets near freezîng on cold nights. One huge lung, supplies your ox- ygen. No armsý. High oeha.soaring hawks waîch for you. And you, in turn, search out prey; some can bound 15 feet at a ime. You eat perhaps once or twice a week. You've entered the world of the snake. Many people find snakes rtpulsive. For some, it's the produet of role-modelled fear while they were very young. For others, it's the producl of scares - being chased with one, or having il put in a boot. For many, the fear lasts a lifetime. But, 10 those who'll look beyond the myths and fears, you'll find one of our most intriguingly adapted animaIs. If you sal down 10 "design" an animal that could move rapidly thr ouglh dense grass or water, climib shrubbery, and pass through Durham County Holstein Club at the Orono Fair Grounds last Thur-sday. animal burrows or under logs in search of prey, you mighî very well produce the snike. The tremendously elongated body provides a' superb means of movement. Win- ding from side to side "sets Up" waves, through which the snake's body moves. Pushing from side to side- like iceskating - translates in- toforward motion. And, as skating shows, it can provide real speed if you don't have "clutter" - like arms, legs or ears - 10 catch on lhings. Scales provide not only ar- mour against skin damage, but also "pushing plates" - and camouflage. When searching out prey, snakes move slowly, using another form of locomotion. Scutes- giant scales which run righî across the belly- are each attached to a pair of ribs by special muscles. Like oars on an ancient Viking ship, the snakc litcrally rows ils way Agricrew hard at work (Continued from page 7) York. The Oshawa Agricrew, covering southern Durham Region, is made up of Lionel de Knecht, Maureen McCoy, AI Ryan, and Jenny Bab- cock. The final Crew is located at Toronto and il covers the Southern York Region area. Hans Zundel, Stephanie Sienko, Andy Johnston, and Morgan Smith make up this Crew. Agricrew is funded by the Ontario Youth Secretariat, and all participants are covered by Wor-kers compen- sation and Unemploymient Insurance. Farmers interested in hir- ing an Agricrew are advised to book 1 or 2 weeks in ad- vance. Paul Risebrough is this year's local Yiouth Emaploymnent Coordinator and he can be reached at the Canada Farmn Labour Pool office in Port Perry at 985-3831 or 1-800-263-3825. along, pulling the 'open' back edge forward until 'it hooks onto the earth, then pushingthe earth backward, and the snake forward. Snakes can see miovement well. But, they're after camouflaged prey. Evidently, nature lias "found" that the most efficient sense is smell - and bizarre adaptations have capitalized. Snakes 'have modîfied' their tongues - useless for eating, anyway, as we'Illsoon sce - mbt long, 'forked organs. These can be fipped far into the environ- ment, and act like flypaper, catching mîcroscopie odour particles from the air, or picking it off vegetaition. Each ime the tongue is flick- ed out, iî is immediately withdrawn -and pushed into the Jacobsen's organ - a com- plex odour analyzer in the mouth's roof. Frogs,, mice, toads, worms and nany in- sects each have their ow4n, faint but distinct, odour. Once closqe enough 10 Photo & Story by Jennifer Garland The Annujal Official Judges Conference of Eastern and Central Ontario was hosted by the Durhamn County Holstein Club at the Orono Fair Grounds last Thursday, July 18. Gerry Nelson, Field Representative' for Ontario Branch of the Holstein Association of Canada, welcomed the participants travelling from the ten coun- tics in the district which make up the Eastern Central On- tario Division. Some traveil- ed from as far away as New Liskard in Northern Ontario. According to N elson, the ivestock judgîng school ex- ists for three reasons: to serve as a refresher course previous to the start of the show season; to maintain uniformi- ty in dealîng with problems encountered in judging; and. to study the correati oii-- parts of animals to various techniques of dairy cattle showmanship., 4.1t is a procedure of train- ing to develop judgcs to make sure an ample number of peo- pIc are available to judge shows at alI levels, " Nelson sald. The judging manual of the Holstein. Association of Canada states that the pur- pose of livestock judging is to detect, describe and evaluate the various parts of the animal and to know how closely these parts and the animal as a whole approach the ideal. recognize prey by movement or form, the snake puts on a burst of speed, or slowly poses to strike. A snake can lunge about 'A of its length, grabbinig prey in its mouth. Eight rows of tiny, needie- like> teeth point backwards toward the throat - one rowv on each jaw, and two top and bottom, mounted in flaps which normally lay fiat. Holding the prey firmnly with these teeth, the snake first opens and advances one side of the mouth, then the other, walking its way over the prey. To accommnodate the huge size of frogs or mice - they might be larger than the snake's diameter - the lower jaw disconnects frous the skull and hinges at the mid- dle. The whole structure, held together by ligaments, literally deforms to accom- modate the prey, then rear- ranges itself. Depending upon the size of the prey, digestion may take a couple of weeks or more, and is accommodaîed by the decign of 5spcciaI intestines When its'printîng give us a caI 983-5301 Ior success in livestock judging, at. least three things are necessary, the report also states, a definite mind picture of the, ideal animal, a thorough knowledge of the location and names of the parts of the animal, and a sense of good judgemtent to property evaluate the strong and weak points of the animal. Participants were divided into three' groups, official judges, approved aspiring judges, and others to judge the following five classesof animais: junior yearling, senior yearling, 2 year olds, 3 year olds, and 5 year olds. Catîle pro vided by local breeders in the Durham county were carefully scrutinized. Their general ap- pearance, dairy, character, capacity, feet and legs, rump and mammary systemn were, all judged and evaluated by the students seeking a perfect score. A score card was used to descrîbe and evaluate the parts of the ideal animal. Participant scores were com- pared to the collective scores of the Holstein Association P anel Meinhers, al of whom are official Judges. Those who successfully complete the course will par- ticipate in livestock judging, at local fairs, county Holstein shows, regional and cham- p ionship, shows and the big one, the Royal Winter Falr. The school is to be held in Northumberland County, next year.- and the one long lun g. Du r- ing this time, the snake lazily rests and wanders, slowly building the fat reserves that will carry it through winter hibernation. Ontario's 14 snakes include many specialists, some of which feed on mice (milk and fox snakes), freshly moulted crayfish (queen), toads (hognosed) worms and slugs (red-bellied) or insects (smooth green). One (nor- thern water) feeds heavily on carrion, and can be called nature's garbageman. But th e garter snake - a real oppor- tunist - eats a wide array of insects and small animal pests. It is, as a result, Our most common - and befieficial - snake. Rather than running in panic, have a czurious look at the ipext snakç you.see - if it doesn't scoot in even greater panic the other way. YOU'l see a marvellously interesting - and highly beneficial animal.1 WIMULY TOMS u il u il u P.O. BOX 209, ORONO, ONTARIO LOB 1MB PRINTING AND PUBLISH1NGI *Letterheads Envelopes Business Cards* Invoices *Labels* Invitations * Brochures, NCR Forms Continuous and Snap-Out Forms ' 8rOrono Weekly Times, Wednesday, JnIy 24tb, 1M8 The sounds of 'Yeserday"