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THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, COLBORNE; ONT. SEPT. 26, 7957 Moving Sheep BFg Operation One of the oldest stories in the world is relived early each July in the rugged Rocky Mountains of Montana. From their winter pastures on the vast plains that stretches . eastward below the mountains hundreds of thousands of sheep are herded up and over the 10,000-foot passes of the front range to reach the summer grazing lands hat lie beyond. As the hot sun of early summer dries the plains the rich grasses of the high mountain meadows are just reaching maturity. Then it is that the rangers who control grazing in the national forests admit livestock to feast upon government-owned land. From prehistoric times this annual migration of sheep from lowlands to highlands has been going on all over the world--in Spain, Persia, Switzerland, Greenland; indeed, any place Where there are sheep and mountains. The sheep fatten on the rich mountain diet, and their valuable wool coats grow heavy in the cool air. The winter and spring pastureland below is rested and given a chance to produce new growth. Climbing up the valley of the Boulder River each year from the ranches around Big Timber, Mont., are about 60,000 head of sheep. Their destination is Gallatin National Forest, which adjoins the north side of Yellowstone National Park. Moving at the rate of five to ten miles a day, depending on the type of terrain covered and the number of veterans of previous summers In the band, many of the sheep take more than a week to complete the journey. Sheep from more distant ranches may have to travel almost 100 miles. The first part of the journey is made along public roads. Here the main problem of the sheep-herders and their hard-working assistants, the sheep dogs, is to keep each flock moving at a proper pace so that it does not become intermingled with Others ahead or behind. The sheep are dabbed with colored paint for identification purposes. But separating two mixed bands of a thousand or more animals each, with or without painted brands, is a trying task even for the calmest Of the traditionally patient shepherds, writes William A. Bardsley in "The Christian Science Monitor." Food also is a problem for the sheep passing along the narrow, fenced-in right of way of the highway, especially for those flocks toward the end of the long train. By the time the last groups arrive most of the meager roadside grass is gone. Some ranchers now transport their sheep by truck as far as possible into the mountains. As the gentle foothills are passed and the climb over Boul-der-Hel!roaring Divide begins, the difficulties of the sheep-herder and his band increase. No longer do marauding Indians, ravenous wolves, and land-hungry cattlemen have to be contended with. Nevertheless, the road soon degenerates into a steep mountain pass, presenting many pitfalls to the timid, delicate sheep. Dangerous, rock-strewn mountain streams, swollen by the frigid waters of mountain snows, must be forded. Sharp canyon walls drop off beside the trail. Many injured sheep must be treated by the herders, and some must then be carried on pack horses. Coyotes, bobcats, and an occasional bear lurk near the trail ascending the rocky, evergreen-covered slopes. Nothing pleases them more than to prey upon the flock either on the trail or at night. Near the top of the pass deep anowfields are encountered. The sheepherder times his journey so that he can cross these in the early morning when the still frozen crust will support the sheep. Later in the day the animals would break through and wallow helplessly in the deep, wet snow. As a rule, however, few sheep are lost on the drive to the mountains, for the herders know their job well. Once over the summit of the pass, green fields lie just ahead. The sheep plunge happily down the slopes into lush meadows. Good shepherds and good sheep dogs work on the same principle --that the best way to drive sheep is to direct them so that they think they are going where they want to go. Applying this idea, they are able to guide the sheep through' many appetizing fields until they arrive at the ground allotted them by the forest rangers. On public lands each flock must graze within a specified area. Upon entering the national forest the sheep are counted and, according to grass conditions, assigned a certain amount of land. A fee of about nine cents a month for each ewe -- lambs are admitted free -- is assessed to help defray costs of national forest maintenance. A percentage of the grazing fee also is returned to the state, which, of course, receives no taxes from federally owned land. The national forest system was established in 1905, but it was not until several years later that a standardized government program emerged to control grazing in the federally owned forests. These years saw continued much of the open-range warfare end bitter legislative debate that marked the West from the day the first sheep and cattle owners came in contact with one another. The Montana sheepherder, however, probably thinks little about this history. His concern lies with the $25,000 band of virtually helpless woolly critters cropping their way slowly down the mountain valley at his feet. For 24 hours of every day through a lonely summer, during which he may see no other humans but the camp tender who brings his supplies and the ranger who checks his location, the health and safety of the sheep are his complete responsibility. More often than not the flock is in good hands and completes its mountain vacation in excellent condition. September no doubt arrives all' too soon for the sheep, as it does for all summertime excursionists. Even that early in the fall a threat of heavy snow develops in the northern Rockies. By then the sheep again are on the move repeating once more the age-old story, for they must be out of the forest before Sept. 15. All the same dangers exist along the trail as on the way up. But the return to the plains goes more easily. The lambs are stronger and have the experience of the previous trip. The route is mostly downhill instead of up, and the sun no longer beats down with an exhausting midday heat. Cool breezes sweep across the mountain ranges from the north, heralding the approach of another winter. The sheep, their herders, and the dogs hurry down the slopes, hoping to recapture a few days of summer on the plains below. Smart Boy! Johnny was a bright pupil, but this question had him stumped. It read: "State the number of tons of coal shipped out of the United. States in any given year." Johnny scratched his head and squirmed, and then his face lit up. He licked the end of his pencil and wrote:: "1492--none." CROSSWORD PUZZLE 7. Step if. Casual 9. Bread 45. Body of a 46. Epic poen friend &S£Sf Answer elsewhere on this paga. OH, ALL THOSE STEAKS ! - Bearer of a regal name to go w Bardoliermere, 26, poses proudly for Gene Moore, after being Angus Bull at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. ith his massive bulk, Bellevua named the Grand Champion THEFAEM FRONT Kennett Square, P.A., a town famous for its fine stone houses and magnificent gardens, is the capital of one of the oddest industries in the United States -- mushroom growing. Draw a circle with a radius of 25 miles from the center of town and you will cover the source of about half the mushrooms served on American tables. In this area the once rare and exotic delicacy reserved for the feasts Of monarchs has been coaxed into lush growth to feed the millions. Take any route out of Kennett Square and you will find long rows of low, barracklike cinder-block buildings emitting pungent, earthy odors. These are the famous "mushroom houses" where, by a process that lies simewhere between science and art, about 550 Chester County families and companies grow the mysterious fungus. The mushroom turns ordinary farming upside down. The growing houses are dark, for mushrooms have no chlorophyll and sunlight is bad for them. Instead of behaving like green plants, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air and give off waste oxygen, mushrooms act like animals, breathing oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. So the successful grower has a "white," not a "green thumb"; he hasn't the occupational tan of the field farmer, and instead of a straw hat he wears a miner's lamp on These growers scoff at the phrase "like a mushroom overnight," for months of preparation and weeks of growing take place before the pickers go to work. Each "house" is filled with long rows of multiple-decker wooden beds filled with rich compost in which the mushroom spawn is planted. Before planting, heat is turned on and the compost thoroughly pasteurized to kill competing fungus growths and insect larvae. Then the spawn, bred in laboratories under sterile conditions, is spread on the compost. It germinates for about three weeks, as threadlike strands interlace the compost; then the bed is covered with an inch of topsoil which has been sterilized by steam. The beds are frequently watered, and in 10 days to two weeks the first white "buttons" poke through, then surge upward with a tremendous vital force. There have been many reports of mushrooms forcing their way through pavements. Growing mushrooms are 90 per cent water, and scientists liken thair upward drive to that of the hydraulic lift used to raise cars in service stations. About 10 days after they appear the first mushrooms, which are really the flower of the plant, are ready for picking. The most important element in mushroom production is the exact composition of the compost. Growers say that the industry is now based squarely on the pari-mutuel betting system, for horse manure is the main ingredient, and the race tracks and breeding farms are the chief remaining source of the valuable fertilizer. A subsidiary of the huge Brandywine Mushroom Corporation hauls it to its supply yards with a fleet of trailer trucks, and recently had an inventory of more than 20,r 000 tons, worth well over $300,-000, all destined to mushroom growing. Machines turn and aerate the compost, which is rolled on steel trucks into the growing-houses to fill the beds. Cultivated mushrooms have been raised since about 1700. Before that wild mushrooms were eaten as early as 1000 B.C., when Egypt's Pharaohs attributed their sudden overnight appearance to magic and monopolized the delicacies for royal tables. Roman epicures called them "food for the gods," believed they gave strength to warriors, and served them on festive occasions. During the reign of Louis XIV Paris gardeners learned to grow them in caves and cellars, and the British grew them in the dark spaces beneath the raised benches in greenhouses. • * * In the early 1890's three Quaker gardeners in Chester County, Pa., William Swayne, Harry Hicks, and William Sharpless, imported spawn and copied the English method, and in 1893 Mr. Sharpless shipped 66 baskets to New York. Farmers began growing them in unussd barns; then Mr. Hicks designed and built the first Pennsylvania mushroom house, which has served as a pattern for the entire industry. After a slow start, the industry has boomed from a United States crop of 20 million pounds in 1930 to the current annual total of about 75 million pounds. Mushroom culture has spread to Upsidedown i Preve HBBDkl □DQQO KIBU BBS msaB EMS UQ wm wm i BH3SI aiaaH P Delaware, Maryland, California, New York, Illinois, and a few other states, and is backed by an investment of 50 million dollars by 900 growers. Of these, 550 are in the Kennett Square area where the business started. Many factors have contributed to the mushroom boom. Most important is the improvement of the spawn or "seed." Once spawn of uncertain origin was sold in bricks containing seeds and alien organisms which might foul up an entire crop. Good strains were jealously guarded by families, and newcomers ran great risks. Then natural scientists at the Department of Agriculture developed a method of breeding selected spores. In a dozen immaculate laboratories, like that of the Mushroom Growers' Cooperative Association, spores are taken from sturdy, well-shaped fruit and propagated for futurt crops. The spores are microscopic black specks on the knifelike fills seen beneath the cap of the fully mature mushroom. These gills are not seen on market mushrooms, which are picked before the "flower" opens to expose them. A few of the spores are placed in a bottle of pure nutrient, and in a few weeks they send forth a mass of fuzzy white threads called spawn runners. The material is subdivided and used to seed more bottles of sterilized grain, and the process is repeated again and again. In this way one prize mushroom can sire millions of quart bottles of spawn, and one bottle will seed By Rev. R. Barclay Warren B.A., B.D. Nehemiah, Patriot in Action Nehemiah 2: 17-18; 4:6; 13:19-21 Memory Selection: Be strong all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work; for I aaa with you. Haggai 2:4. It's easier to tear down than to build. A block from our home men have demolished 36 house* in three weeks. It will take two-years to build a 15-storey building in their place. But Nehemiah, in his task of raising up the walls about Jerusalem encountered more than the ordinary problems. First he must rouse the people to undertakn the work. The walls were a sorry sight and the gates were consumed with fire. He squarely faced the desperate situation and, strengthened by prayer, ha said. "Come, let us build up tha wall of Jerusalem, that we ba no more a reproach." As he recounted God's dealings with him in bringing him back from Babylon, the people caught his vision and said, "Let us rise up and build." The neighbouring Samaritans tried to hinder the work. They despised the workers and laughed at them in scorn. Tobiah said, "Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall." They tried violence, conspiring to slay the Jews. They slandered the Jews charging that they were planning to rebel. They tried intimidation, using a prophet to induce Nehemiah to take refuge and his men kept praying and working. The people had a mind to work. The wall was finished in fifty-two day. Nehemiah's leave of absence expired after twelve years and he returned to Persia, but soon secured permission from tha king to return to Jerusalem again. He found that certain sins had reappeared. The people harvested their crops on tha Sabbath and the merchants bought and sold. The tithea were not being given to the Le-vites and some of the men wern marrying foreign women. Nehemiah went to work to correct these and other evils. We need godly leaders today like Nehemiah; men who work on the principle that righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is reproach to any people; mefi who will give leadership in leading the people back to God. about 75 square feet of growing space. All growers now buy thin pure spawn and get superioj mushrooms, fewer discards, and fewer pests. VINTAGE RETREAT - When it comes to a motel with a motif that's original in taste, "Cask Villa" takes the cake. Built of wine casks more than 100 years ago, the dwellings each hav» a bedroom and a screened porch in front for sitting space. BEE READY -- Although they may seem to be members of some secret society, the;: cautious newsmen at Celle, Germany. Members cf the lower Saxonian Press > they're outfitted in protective hats and veils during a visit to an institute for bs