Golden Age, September 9, 1925
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Contents of the Golden Age
*«* ■■ ■ ... . ;
Labor and Economics Pits- or News ...
Five-Day Week In Detroit Laundries
Idle Time in Various Industries
Social and Educational Students Had the Wrong Idea
Sad Plight of a New Jersey Family . .
Burning up the Profits
Radio Programs ...
Manufactures and Mining Some Interesting Things About Gotj> ...
The Gold of Ophir . .
“Gold That Perisheth” ..........,.
I
■ Political—Domestic and Foreign
Fascist! Retreat from Staten Island . . . . .......
Who is Planning Mexico’s Next Revolution ? ; . . . . . . . 785
Agriculture and Husbandry The Pecan .
Science and Invention Wonders or the Snow
Home and Health The Right Foods . . . . ...... ... ... . , 781
Disease Is a Functional Disorder . . ... . . . . . .
Combinations Often ’Determine Food Value . , . , . . . .
Travel and Miscellany Aerial Maps of Oil Reserves
Mammoth Spiders of the South Seas
Subterranean Waters of the Sahara Desert
Dog Culture—The Great Dane
A Meditation at Napoleon’s Tomb.....: . .
Religion and Philosophy At the Shrine of Bonne Saints Anne
The Majestic One
Studies in “The Habp of God”
Published every other Wednesday at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A, by WOODWORTH, HUDGINGS & MARTIN
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CT/ie Golden Age
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Volume VI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, September 9, 1925 Number 15*
Some Interesting Things about Gold
GOLD is widely distributed. There are two cents worth of it in every ton of sea water. It is found in silver and copper ores, in quartz veins, and in placer mines, which latter are nothing but gravel beds into which gold has washed from mother lodes higher up.
Gold is 13.3 times as heavy as water. It is harder to melt than brass. It has a tenacity of seven tons per square inch and elongates thirty percent before breaking. A gold wire one-tenth of an inch thick will support 200 pounds. A grain of gold can be made to cover seventy square inches of surface. It can be beaten so thin that a photograph can be taken through it, so thin that it takes three hundred thousand sheets of gold to make an inch in thickness, so thin that it vanishes if rubbed between the fingers.
Gold beating is done today by the same methods used in the days of King Solomon. The sheets of gold, rolled to one-four-thousandth of an inch in thickness, are beaten for seven hours, at the rate of 120 blows a minute, with a hammer weighing seventeen pounds.
Gold leaf for use on signs swallows up $1,-000,000 of gold every year: $4,000,000 more goes into dental cavities. Half of all the known gold in existence is in jewelry. The rest of it is in money or in gold bars which are the basis for money.
In Bible times a favorite form of money was jewelry of a certain weight, and therefore of fixed value. Thus Eliezer presented to Rebecca “a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold”. A relic of this is the English pound sterling, which at one time was of the value of one pound of silver, while a penny was a pennyworth of the same metal. The first shillings were pieces cut from gold armlets..
The world’s production of gold in the past 425 years is estimated at about $18,140,000,000, ol! which amount $9,740,000,000 have gone into cir-rencies. At present nearly half of this amount is held in the United States. England and France each have about three-quarters of a billion; Japan, Spain and Argentina each a half a billion; and Holland, Italy and Canada each a quarter of a billion. In the remaining sixty countries of the world the total gold holdings are about a billion.
It is estimated that three billion dollars in gold have disappeared in India, China and Egypt, where the natives still believe in carrying their wealth around with them in the shape of personal adornments. Gold bangles, anklets and armlets are common in all these countries, and gold nose rings in parts of some of them.
“Zn the Days of ’49”
THE generation that is passing knew much of the great California gold rush, because the actors in that romance were with us only a few years ago. Now they have mostly passed. But there is no doubt that the rush of 1849 has the greatest place in literature and in fancy of any gold stampede that has ever taken place.
At Sonora, California, in the summer of 1851, a man accidentally stubbed his toe against a rock. The impact left the familiar streak of yellow. The man carried the stone home and received several thousand dollars for it. In the same town another man driving a mule cart found a solid gold nugget weighing 35 pounds in a place over which thousands had passed. The third largest nugget ever discovered was picked up at Carson Hill, California, in 1854. It was fifteen inches long, six inches wide and four inches thick, weighed 195 pounds troy and brought more than $43,000.
The mother lode of California is a vein of white gold-bearing quartz that stands abovo the surface like a wall and runs parallel to the main axis of the Sierras for eighty miles. There is gold enough in the lode to pay all the debts of the world, but it costs more to get it out than it is worth. Costs at present are so high that Seventy-five percent of American gold mines have had to discontinue operations. Many of the mines have caved in and cannot be reopened.
Curious things happen in the mining business. Four miners found a valuable nugget. They took it to San Francisco, and were so careful of it that one of them watched it day and night. It was such a magnificent specimen that it was taken east for exhibition purposes, but when they got it there the owners quarreled and lawyers got every cent of the proceeds.
An Omaha man bought a trunk at auction for $4.50. When it was opened it was found to be full of mud. His friends laughed at him for his purchase; but he had the mud assayed, with the result that his purchase netted him a little over $1,800. The mud contained gold to that amount.
It is not generally known that there is gold in small quantities in the East. Georgia and the Carolinas have sixty or seventy gold mines that have produced as high as $1,000,000 worth of gold in a year. There is gold in Maryland. Seven gold mine claims were filed in New York state in 1923. Some of these gold mines in New York state, however, are swindles, pure and simple, run only for the purpose of separating foreigners from their money.
In districts where water is scarce gold dust is now obtained by a method of fanning. Gold is heavy and remains when other forms of dust and gravel are carried on by a blast of air. The usual method of obtaining gold is to reduce the ore to dust, wash away the lighter particles with water, and pass the remainder over mercury, where the mercury seizes and retains the gold. The amalgam is then heated in a retort, the mercury passes off as a gas and is caught for use again, while the gold remains in the retort.
The Klondike and the Incas
OF ALL the gold rushes that have ever taken place the Klondike rush in 1897 was the most spectacular. The fact that the Klondike region is on the very edge of the Arctic circle, and that the district was almost inaccessible and uninhabitable for civilized men, created a remarkable newspaper interest in the repeated reports of inexperienced prospectors who returned after two or three months’ work with $100,000 or $150,000 in their sacks. But for most of. the prospectors who rushed into the Klondike in 1897 there was nothing but disappointment. Only prompt intervention by the government in bringing away the jobless and the moneyless prevented great loss of life.
The Klondike put Canada on the map as a gold-producing country, so to speak. Next to the Transvaal, which comes first, and the United States, which comes second, Canada is at the top of the gold-producing countries. The Ontario gold belt is estimated to be 1,000 miles long, and there is said to be in remote and inaccessible parts of Quebec a gold quartz ribbon two hundred miles long and ten miles broad.
It was the gold of Colombia and Peru that led Pizarro and his comrades on the greatest campaign of treachery, cruelty and meanness ever seen on earth. About the palace of the Inca, at Cuzco, Peru, there was once a chain of gold so heavy that two hundred Indians were required to carry it. They were on their way from Cuzco to Catamarca in 1532 to deliver this chain to Pizarro, when they learned that Pizarro’s men had strangled the Inca; and they threw the chain into a lake, where it still lies.
It is known that there are millions of dollars worth of gold in Colombian and Peruvian lakes, thrown there by the Indians rather than have it fall into the hands of the European savages who represented his Catholic Majesty, the king of Spain. An English syndicate has recovered about $1,000,000 from one of these lakes, Lake Catamarca.
The largest gold nugget ever found came from Chile, weighed more than 400 pounds troy and was worth nearly $100,000. Brazil has a gold mine 6,600 feet deep which employs 3,000 men and turns out more than $2,000,000 worth of gold each year.
The Gold of Ophir
WELVE times the Scriptures mention the gold of Ophir. The statement is made that
the gold for Solomon’s temple came from there. It has been known for centuries that Ophir was some place reached from the head of the Red Sea and that it took three years to make the round trip.—1 Kings 10:22. . .
Scholars have contended for generations as to the location of Ophir, some holding that it refers to India, which does not produce gold in any considerable quantities; some that it refers to Arabia, which does not produce any of the items mentioned in the verse; and some that it refers to southern Africa, which produces all the things mentioned, “gold, silver, ivory, apes and parrots [not peacocks].” The place now seems to be identified with Rhodesia, and the port from which the shipments were made is now known to be the present Sofala (Sofara— Ofar—Ophir), on the Rhodesian coast.
The thing which has made the identification complete is that the old workings of Solomon’s mines have been found, the old road which led from the mines to the coast has been traced for many miles, and the old forts which guarded the treasures enroute are still in evidence and have been previously mentioned in these columns. >
Solomon’s mines are now being worked again. Their veins of gold-bearing quartz seem practically inexhaustible, and the fine quality of the ore furnishes ample justification for the Old Testament’s suggestions that gold from Ophir was superlative, something fine beyond comparison. Moreover, by the methods of navigation then in use it would take just three years, so it is claimed, to make the round trip from the Red Sea to Sofala and return. South Africa produces today more than one-half of all the gold in the world.
Australia produces about seven percent of the world’s present gold supply, and near Kalgoorlie is a sixty-mile ridge rich in the metal. The second largest nugget of gold ever found was obtained at Ballarat, Australia, in 1859. It weighed 224 pounds. There are immense undeveloped gold deposits in Siberia. There are said to be four thousand square miles in the Stanovoi and Zablonoi mountains every part of which shows gold.
Occasionally in their search for gold prospectors throw away metals that are even more valuable. The New York Times tells of some gold miners who threw away a bluish-gray chaikish substance which they thought valueless, but which turned out to be osmiridium, a member of the platinum group, and worth $200 an ounce for tipping fountain pens and making delicate bearings for fine machinery.
“Gold that Perisheth”
THE Scriptures give us to understand that at some time gold will lose its value. Men have found this hard to understand, but now it is becoming plain. In the past there is nothing men would not do for gold. Hardly a month passes but that we. hear of efforts to recover millions in gold known or supposed to have been buried in this or that location by pirates, men who for gold did not hesitate to murder their fellow men. A new device enables divers to cut through the sides of buried vessels with an oxy-acetylene flame and thus reach treasures hitherto inaccessible.
One odd piece of salvaging now under way is the attempt to recover five thousand Dutch cheeses which a German submarine sent to the bottom in 1915, but which are now known to contain $10,000,000 in bar gold and $11,000,000 in Chinese securities.
The war has made men exceedingly clever in finding ways to smuggle gold from one country into another. In a carload of walnuts smuggled from Rumania into Germany it was found that the contents had been removed and the shells had been carefully glued together after being refilled with Rumanian gold coin. A cargo of Rumanian apples was also found to contain a coin in each apple. A shipment of soap went wrong, and a gold coin was found in every bar. The monster War makes the world gold mad; it is that upon which he feeds.
On Oak Island, Nova Scotia, is a treasure of $10,000,000 placed there by pirates long ago. It has been located at a depth of 100 feet in quicksand. The drills have shown that the gold and silver bars or coins are twenty-two inches in depth; but although many attempts have been made, reaching over a period of 130 years, no way of recovering the treasure has ever been found. Several companies have gone bankrupt trying to solve the problem. The sea usually rushes in and drowns the plant just as success seems near.
The way in which gold is about to perish is pretty well understood by scientific men. Small quantities of gold have actually been made from quicksilver. At present the cost of operation is two thousand times greater than the gold is worth; but Thomas Edison, whose opinion on a matter of this kind is of first importance has said: “I have always felt that the gold clausa
in bonds is dang srous. This clause provides that the bonds shall be paid in gold of a certain ’degree of fineness. What would the people who own railway bonds say if they should wake up
some morning and find that gold could be manu-faetured as cheaply as pig iron? Well! That is exactly what will happen some day—and it may happen any day.”
Bits of News
[Radioeast, with other items, from Watchtower WBBR on a wave length of 272.6 meters by the Editor.!
Five-Day Week in Detroit Laundries
NTS hundred and seventy-five laundries in Detroit have agreed upon a five-day week, at least during the hot weather. It seems to us that the steam laundry is an especially appropriate place for the five-day week, because the fumes and heat of laundry work make it almost obligatory that the workers have more than usual time for recuperation out of doors.
Idle Time in Various Industries
HE Federated Engineering Societies have published findings which show that the cloth
ing worker is idle thirty-one percent of his time: the shoemaker, thirty-five percent: the building craftsman, thirty-eight percent. The worst case of all is that of the bituminous coal miner, who averages to be out of work ninety-three working days in the year.
Students Had the Wrong Idea
WO boys, members of the. Missouri School of Mines, needed additional tuition money.
They decided on a quick way to get it. They stole an automobile and drove it to Montana, where they held up the proprietor of a summer resort. They did not know that the Montana man could shoot so quickly or so well. Now they are in jail, awaiting trial for highway robbery, with a good chance of many years in prison to think it over. Education comes high.
Sad Plight of a New Jersey Family
IN THE town of Westville, New Jersey, the Gormley family consists of a destitute widow and four children. The widow was taken ill. She asked a ten-year-old boy to cook some food for a four-year-old child who is ah invalid. He found nothing but rice. When it was cooked the little fellow’s own appetite overcame him and he ate the rice. The mother reproved him, and within a few moments he made two attempts
to hang himself and one attempt at drowning. At last reports he was recuperating in a hospital. How much the world needs God’s kingdom!
Marked Decrease in U. S. Lynchings
URING the last forty years there have been lynched in the United States 3,165 blacks
and 1,038 whites. The average for the forty years was 106 per year; but during last year there were only sixteen lynchings in the whole country, twelve of them blacks and four whites. It is hoped to make 1926 a lynchless year, a civilized year, so to speak.
When You Buy Goods ’
WHEN you buy goods you not only buy the labor and materials which enter into the goods but you also buy additional wages, rent, heat, light, power, telephone, supplies, cost of capital, bad debts, freight, cartage, losses due to markdowns, returns and pilfering, losses due to mistakes, costs of delivery, small purchases, long credits, changes of styles, taxes, broken packages, turnover, leakage, etc. You also buy profits, if there are any. ;
Burning up the Profits
MERICA’S bill for fire waste last year was $1,044 a minute, an annual loss of $548,
000,000, exceeding all previous high records. These figures are furnished by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The total amount of property destroyed during the year was equivalent to more than half the interest on the national debt. -
Child Averts a Wreck
LITTLE Negro girl nine years of age flagged a train on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad near Hagerstown, Md., just as it was bearing down upon the limb of a tree that had fallen across the track. The engineer expressed
. the belief that the obstruction was so placed that if the little girl had not done this it would have thrown the cars fifty feet down the mountain side.
Rhode Island Traffic Rules
HODE ISLAND, which has the distinction of a network of automobile roads that have
cost several million dollars, has the added distinction of making the police regulation that automobilists using the same must make thirty-five miles per hour or get off the road. The official announcement has been made that the ~ roads are too expensive to be cluttered up with traffic moving at twelve to fifteen miles an hour. Sounds like a good advertisement.
Aerial Maps of Oil Reserves
OLORADO has in one district about ninety-two square miles of oil shales. These are
now of such prospective value that the government is having them surveyed; and as they are inaccessible by ordinary methods, lying in very mountainous districts at high elevations, the surveys will be made by airplanes, flying at a height of 13,000 feet.
Legitimate Use for Poison Gas
OTHING but praise is heard for the Indiana bankers who were progressive enough and
clever enough to fortify their bank from robbery by equipping their bank vault with the deadly Lewisite gas. The rout of the burglars at Elnora, Indiana, was so successful that a general' arming of banks with poison gas is considered likely. No human vigilance is needed. The gas is in a delicate glass container that is shattered at the least disturbance of the vault.
Carelessness in Addressing Mail
ARELESSNESS in addressing mail results in two hundred million pieces of mail being
given directory service every year at a cost estimated at $1,740,000. In New York city alone the cost of this service is $500 every day in the year. Dead mail matter which cannot be delivered anywhere yields the government about $300,000 every year.
Belated Praise of Mr. La Follette
FTER the death of Mr. La Follette the New York World generously said:
This man who has more often been called an obstructionist than any other man of his own day was personally responsible for more legislation than any of his contemporaries. Good or bad, there the legislation stands, legislation which La Follette was the chief factor in enacting: shipping laws, railway laws, tax laws, cooperative laws, labor laws, laws addressed to the interest of farms and banks and courts and mill hands. He was straight: no charge of dishonesty was ever leveled at him even in the thick of battle. He was vigilant; it was he who first attacked the lease of the oil reserves.
These words of the World now make one wonder at its attitude toward Mr. La Follette' a year ago. But he is dead now, and big business is always kind and courteous to the dead. It does not fear Mr. La Follette now.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths
OUNG men who have become American citizens have foundra way to get their fiances from Europe and Asia despite the immigration laws. The young ladies come here as students. While here they are married and go to Canada on their honeymoon; and when the young woman returns, with the passport properly viseed, there is said to be no legal way of keeping her out.
Fascisti Retreat from Staten Island
BOM somewhere in the wilds of Manhattan or Brooklyn on the Fourth of July three hundred and fifty honest-to-goodness Fascisti in their black shirts, and with two brass bands, piled off from two ferry boats, on the shores of Staten Island, announcing their determination to take charge of an Italian celebration to which they had not been invited. Just as they were about to begin proceedings they ran into a detachment, twenty-five in number, of New York’s finest under the control of Deputy Police Commissioner Cornelius Cahalane. The Fascisti are alleged to have made the serious mistake of attacking the police, but the battle only lasted a few minutes. After pounding a few heads the police let the 350 men parade around a little and then escorted them back to the boat, very tame and law-abiding Italian-American citizens, doubtful of the value of Fascisti ideas and practices in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
People Wish to Forget World War
ONLY seven of the states have made application to the national government for their share of the large number of trophies of the World War which are available to every state for the mere asking. The common people have no interest in the matter. The World War was not of their seeking or their planning. They did not profit by it. They wish to forget it.
Difficulties Faced by Physicians
THE Rockefeller Foundation points out the increasing difficulties faced by the general practitioner of medicine. Specialists monopolize the prestige and receive the larger fees. -Laboratory and hospital facilities are often expensive or inaccessible. Sanitation is eliminating typhoid and malaria. Free clinics, school and industrial medical services, health insurance and hospital associations all tend to cut down his field of livelihood.
Vision Restored Due io X-Ray
BLIND for two years, Benjamin Delobowsky of New York now sees again. An examination of the brain cavity by means of the X-Ray located the difficulty. Surgeons performed an exceedingly delicate operation in the back of the . head (where the organ of sight is located) and Mr. Delobowsky’s sight returned.
Hatred of the Bible Increasing
ANXIOUS to express its hatred of the Bible, and with a fine disregard of truth and common honesty, a Chicago labor paper, The Industrial Pioneer, would discourage all who stand for the Bible by using the following language regarding such: “He represents medievalism, the age of inquisition, auto de fes, rack, rope, block, witch burning and perpetual imprisonment for religious nonconformity.” As a matter of fact the true Bible lover stands for none of these things, but for the exact opposite. The persecution and bigotry in connection with the Tennessee evolution trial is all leveled against the Bible and against those who love the Bible. Nothing could be more unfair than the way the papers treat them.
Prays for Success in Prize Ring
A MIDDLEWEIGHT champion prizefighter, Harry Greb, is represented in the New York Evening Graphic as saying to a Pittsburgh Roman Catholic priest whose church he attends: “Father, you’ll have to pray like hell and I’ll have to fight like hell to whip Mickey Walker.” Greb added: "He did and we won. I sent him a money order for $100 the morning after the fight. This same priest had his whole congregation kneel and pray for my success on the day that I defeated Tom Gibbons at Madison Square Garden.”
1925 A Jubilee Year
THE year 1925 is the year of the Papal Jubilee; since July 4th the United States government has been in its fourth fifty-year jubilee period; and on September 28th the Jews will have completed the seventy jubilee periods of fifty years each, dating from the time they^en- . tered Canaan, and extending until their due time to re-enter and permanently possess the land, which is now here.
Mammoth Spiders of the South Seas
IN NEW GUINEA and Australia are spiders with a leg spread of fully four inches that make nets so strong that small birds caught in them are held fast and helpless. The natives use them to catch fish that weigh up to a pound. Some of these nets ar'e stretched twelve to fifteen feet, with centers six feet high. Florida has an equally large spider that builds a golden yellow net of almost equal size.
Two Sets of Vocal Chords
THE New York Herald reports that a minister in Minnesota has two complete sets of vocal chords, deep bass and soprano; and that he has recently sold his throat for $10,000, to become the property of the British Medical Association after his death. What a joke this would be on the Medical Association if it should turn out that he would be one of the millions now living that will never die! The dominie will be in $10,000.
Clock Built of Straw
A SHOEMAKER of Strasburg, Germany, made entirely of straw a clock which has been running and keeping excellent time for seventeen years. With the exception of the hands, which are of oat straw, the entire clock is of rye straw, no other substance, not even glue, being used in the construction. The straw stalks were strengthened by inserting several smaller stalks in each of the larger ones.
The Pecan ByH.E. Coffee
THE pecan is a native North American nut tree. It belongs to the family of plants known to botanists as Juglandacece and embraces two genera, Juglands and Hicoria. The word Pecan is said to have been derived from the Indian word paean or powcohicoria. Mr. E. E. Risien of San Saba, Texas, has in his possession a fossil pecan which he found in lime rock thirty feet below the surface when digging a well. Geological specimens of pecans have also been found as far as seventy-five feet underground along the Missouri river. These excavated specimens seem to indicate that the pecan was cultivated by people who may have had a different mode of living or a better civilization than had the Indians at the time of the discovery of America.
Pecan Statistics
E MAY arrive at some idea of the importance of the pecan through an examination of statistics, most of which were gathered by the Census Bureau. That these are not altogether accurate must be conceded, because the census enumerators were unable to get accurate information from many of the owners of pecan groves.
According to the latest census there are 2,662,444 pecan trees in the United States, and of these 1,045,694 are to be found in Texas. During the decade, 1909-1919, the entire United States produced 209,097,380 pounds of pecans. Of this total, Texas produced 112,938,940 pounds. The Southern states produce most of the pecans of the world. However Texas deserves special mention because she has fifty percent of the total number of pecan trees grown in the United States and produces fifty-two percent of the pecans. One county in Texas (San Saba) produces nearly one and one-half million pounds of pecans annually.
A great many of the best pecan trees ideally located have produced a ton of nuts in a single season. Government chemists have estimated this amount of pecans to be worth in food value for human consumption, three and one-half tons of best grade beef steak. It is doubtful if there is any other single living thing which can in a year equal this. In most seasons the grower receives from ten cents to fifteen cents per pound for seedling pecans and from twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents for improved varieties. This indicates that the improved varieties are the kind to grow.
How Improved Pecans are Grown
IMPROVED pecans are those varieties which can be depended on to bear every year and yield large and well-filled nuts having a medium thin or very thin shell. For eating purposes these improved varieties are in most instances better flavored and yield a much larger percentage of nut-meat than the unimproved specimens. In those regions which already have pecan timber or hickory timber it has been found very profitable to propagate the improved varieties. Judge Guinn of Texas has said: “I have on my place hundreds of top-worked hickories and am securing good crops of fine pecans from them.” The bitter pecan or pig nut may also be top-worked. .
To top-work a tree for producting good pecans, the limbs are sawed off at about one-third the distance from the trunk. In other words the tree is topped. This work should be done while the tree is dormant in January or February. It pays to top-work only strong and vigorous trees. Trees less than twelve inches in diameter, and between ten and thirty-five feet in height, respond best to this work. After the trees have been topped they are later grafted or budded with the improved variety which it is desired to propagate. The growing part of the tree is that delicate tissue region between the bark and the wood called the cambium layer. In either grafting or budding success depends on the union of the cambium layer of the tree proper with the grafted-on layer from another tree.
There are several methods of grafting, but bark grafting has been most commonly used by pecan propagators. By this method the scion is inserted under a slit in the bark of the prepared stock. However, budding is the commonest and most approved method of propagation. There are several methods of budding in use—chip budding, patch budding, shield budding and H budding. Of these various methods patch budding is considered by many leading authorities to be best.
In patch budding the stock and scion must be of about the same size. A patch of bark about three-fourths of an inch long and about one-half inch wide is cut from the stock at the desired point. Another patch of bark of the same length and width containing a plump and well-matured bud is then cut from the bud stick and fitted in the place from which the patch from the stock was cut. The patch bud is tied in place with raff a, wrapping cord or strips of waxed cloth and in such a way as not to interfere with the growth of the bud. Suitable buds for this work are found as a rule only on wood of one and two year’s growth and only about five or seven will be found on a twig. However by cutting away the foliage and leaving an inch or more of the leaf stem, the number of suitable buds on a given limb may be materially increased. These buds are ready for use from ten to fifteen days after the foliage has been removed.
Expenses for Fifty Acres
THE tabulation of expenses and proceeds on Judge T. H. Ridgeway’s pecan grove may prove of interest. Judge Ridgeway was reared on a farm in Missouri and for a number of years has been practising law in San Antonio, Texas. He purchased fifty acres of land thirteen miles from San Antonio which contained native pecan trees. He had all the native trees topped and top-worked with improved varieties of pecans. He has kept an itemized account of his expenses and income on this venture which is submitted to give an idea of what may be accomplished by budding and grafting:
EXPENSES
50 acres, purchase price $60 per acre.....—..$3000.00
Clearing and grubbing, leaving approxi
mately 600 bearing pecan trees................ 500.00
Cost of budding and grafting 150 native
trees, including care of trees, and owner’s
time ........................................................... 150.00
Removing moss and dead limbs from bearing trees.................................................... 25.00
Hog-proof fences................................... 150.00
Total cost to date........................$3825.00
PROCEEDS
1919 Sale of wood ...........—-—..................$ 200.00
1919 Sale of pecans................................... 1,800.00
1919 Sale of 300 bushels corn grown on 12
acres, at $1.15 per bushel.............. 345.00
1920 Complete failure of pecans and corn.
Used entire fifty acres for pasture for hogs and cattle........................................
1921 Sale of pecans.................................... 1500.00
1921 300 bushels of corn, 50c. per bushel.. 150.00
1922 400 bushels of corn, 50c. per bushel.. 200.00
1922 4000 pounds pecans (estimated) 20c. 800.00
Value of pasturage, at $100 per year for four years .................................................. 400.00
Total..................................................$5395.00
Total profits during the period ......$1510.00
Pecan Insects
A BOUT one-half of the pecan crop of Texas is destroyed annually by the nut casebearer. This insect appears as a moth in May and as many as three generations may be produced in a season. Its stages of life-history are: Egg, larva, pupa and moth. The damage from this insect may be greatly reduced by applying to pecan trees an arsenate of lead spray. Other insect enemies of the pecan are the obscure scale, pecan shuck worm, May beetle, pecan catacala, pecan twig girdler, fall web worm, pecan bud worm, flatheaded apple-tree borer, leaf galls, termites and black walnut curculio. A few other injurious insects might be added to the foregoing list.
The earth no doubt will in time be rid of all injurious insects. Perhaps one way-in which this essential work may be accomplished will be by beneficial insects. A very beneficial insect which heads the list is the lace-wing fly or aphis lion. This insect is very fond of eggs of butterflies and moths, and will eat any insect it can overpower. It has been found very helpful in controlling many insects injurious to pecans. The nut case-bearer, which I have before mentioned, is often held in check by the ichneumon-fly. This is a parasitic insect of which there are various kinds and sizes. The correct name for this kind is hymenoptera wasp. The eggs of this wasp are deposited by the female in the back of the nut case-bearer. She does this by locating the larva in the nut or twig and drilling a hole in it. This egg produces a larva which lives by sucking the blood of the larva in which it was deposited as an egg. Finally instead of a nut case-bearer moth emerging the young ichneumon-fly emerges. Other beneficial insects are the tachina fly and the wheel bug. By proper encouragement of these beneficial insects in a short time the injurious ones could be entirely done away with, whereas now they serve merely to hold them in check. Now they seem to serve merely as the agencies of a divine providence ■which says: "Thus far shaft thou go and no further.” Is it unreasonable to expect that out future ruler, Christ, will accord to them the ability to multiply more abundantly and make the earth a better place for man’s habitation?
A Tree for Future Generations
BOUT twenty years ago there occurred the death of James Stephen Hogg, one-time governor of Texas, a man who arose from humble circumstances and a citizen well known for constructive legislation. His death was given added publicity because of an unusual wish of his which -was complied with. He expressed the desire that no monument be erected to his 'memory but that a pecan tree be planted at the head of his grave and a walnut tree at the foot. He further requested that the nuts from these trees be passed out among the plain people of his state for planting, that they might help to make Texas a land of trees.
This unselfish spirit manifested by Governor Hogg has aroused the interest of a great many in planting pecan trees. The pecan tree is not quick to yield returns but the returns are sure and extend over a period of many years. , It takes from four to six years for pecan nuts to develop into trees suitable for budding or grafting. After this, one may have to wait ten years longer for a very large return in way of nuts. Regardless of this, many old men have taken the interest to plant pecan groves, knowing that the trees would yield returns to their children and grandchildren.
Principal Roy M. Canon, of Runge, Texas, reports planting fifty paper-shell pecan trees this year on some land owned by the Runge public school. The returns will be used as an endowment fund for the school. He says: “Of course, I do not expect to be here when that endowment begins to return a revenue; yet the school, and whoever happens to be here, will profit by it.”
Many cities are now encouraging the idea of planting useful trees which are useful in the greatest number of ways. They have in many instance selected the pecan; for it is a tree which makes excellent shade and can be depended on to yield a most useful food. Those who plant the pecan tree now are helping to give fulfilment to that prophecy which says: “They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” Those who plant trees may usually be numbered among the “meek”. It is that prophecy from Holy Writ which now applies to the “millions now living [that] will never die”. It was in anticipation of this time that the prophet wrote: “All the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” The pecan tree will be among these. This scripture is not meant to be applied literally, but we may expect the pecan tree to flourish under Messiah’s reign. The poet has well expressed my thought and truthfully in words of prophecy:
“They shall walk ’ncath the trees by the river .
With the friends they have loved by their side.”
Subterranean Waters of the Sahara Desert
THE following excerpt from the Neue Zuricher Zeitung appeared in a recent issue of the German edition of The Golden Age :
Under the African sun, over a seemingly unending horizon, stretches out the hot sandy ground of the Sahara desert. Here and there a few palm trees invite a rest, and under their branches there is a struggling spring of brackish water. , Waste and unproductiveness are the marks of this great desert. What is it that this dead ground needs to make it productive? Water, just water, Without which no creature can exist.
"And yet this precious fluid, whose absence is so deeply: felt, under the hot African sun, is not far distant. , It is not necessary to bring it from far away at great cost; it is right there. But it cannot be seen; for it is covered with sand-dunes. In an epoch not very remote from the present, according to geology, there roamed at one time whole herds of elephants where now the camel yearns for dried grass. This stream of a dead past has been rediscovered, likewise its sister stream deep under the brown sand. In the west the Saur a and in the east the Igharghar run together in one channel whose course is well known. Tomorrow, perhaps may be re-discovered the underground sea “Bahar Tahtani” of which the natives never tire to speak.
To make the Sahara desert productive as of old it will be necessary for the life-giving water buried under great depths of sand to be brought to the surface. The idea to water the Sahara with its own water is not new. On May 1st, 1856, the engineer Jus undertook the first drillings with a temperature of about 103* F. This was near Tamema, a small oasis of Ued R’rir, which was threatened with extinction due to lack of water. The fever attacked not only their bodies but their brains as well. At last, on June 9th, 1856, the water flowed from the ground, having been reached after drilling about 200 feet. The spring delivers 950 gallons per minute. Tamerna was saved. The second attempt was made in the gardens of Temersina. There the spring only gave forth nine gallons per minute. In Sidi Rached the natives began to dig a well, but a layer»of sandstone stopped their primitive work. The French came to their rescue and continued the drilling. After four days the pure water came forth at the rate of 897 gallons per minute. This put new life into a region that was near extinction. In 1860 there were fifty wells in the Sahara desert. The work of boring now began to be carried on systematically; whole sections were being reclaimed to new life and activity. Not the large date palms merely but the people themselves who under their shade subsist on their fruits were made to thrive because of the waters of those reclaimed lands. In 1901, 22,050 lbs. of dates were exported; in 1910, 48,510 lbs.; in 1921, 116,865 lbs.; the best proof of the good results that followed the drilling of these wells. The population also greatly increased during this time.
The World War put a stop to all further activity here as elsewhere. From 1914 till 1919 all boring was at a standstill; and when it was resumed, scientific boring methods being improved in the meantime, it seems as if nature wished to make up for the four years of inactivity by lavishly pouring forth its water riches. Drilling now reached depths which before were impossible, some wells reaching a depth of 3900 feet. Since then there is water in abundance. In 1923 four wells were opened, delivering 2120 gallons per minute, the one at Tarfund Serira 3430, and the other at Saad ben Tobbi 3700 gallons per minute. But all of these figures were overtopped by a well near an oasis called M’raier, 72 miles from Biskra. This artesian well, opened in March, 1924, and sunk to about 650 feet, began to flow first at the rate of 1056 gallons per minute, then 5280, 9770, 10,000, and now as many as 11,100 gallons per minute water the parched ground. More than 80,000 palm trees have been awakened to new life. The oasis expands and others appear; a big change has come. To be sure, the Sahara desert is still far from being a cultivated plain, except where the date palm with its top greeting the sun and its roots planted in water does flourish; while under its shadow perhaps some cereal may grow; but the hope that the whole desert will become an oasis is well founded in view of the fact of present wonderful results. Already there are many cultivated places in the desert which have been permanently reclaimed from unproductiveness.
As for the cost of these borings: This is almost nothing compared to the benefits received. From 1904 till 1918 the boring of artesian wells cost 1,266,000 francs. Years before, caravans when weary from heat and thirst in the desert, saw in their feverish imaginings the cooling, refreshing water, sparkling under the shady branches. Then it was an illusion. Now scientific principles and their applications are bringing about the realization of those feverish dreams.
This interesting report from the Neue Zuricher Zeitung is a remarkable proof that we are now living in the time when divine prophecies are being fulfilled before our eyes. The world witnesses, and the events transpiring corroborate that which holy men of old foretold thousands of years ago: That the wilderness shall become a fruitful field (Isaiah 32: 15); that the wilderness and the solitary places shall be made glad, and that the desert shall blossom as a rose.—Isaiah 35:1.
This report confirms that in the wilderness waters shall break out and streams in the desert, that the parched ground shall become a pool, and that in the thirsty land there will arise springs of water. (Isaiah 35:6,7) Men have discovered the streams spoken of in Isaiah 41, verses 18,19, and now see with their own eyes the Literal transformation of the desert into pools, thirsty lands into springs of water, and the planting of the cedar, shittah, myrtle, olive, fig, pine and box trees together; yet with cold hearts and silent lips they look on this spectacle. The great astounding feature of all this fulfilment of prophecy they fail to appreciate. An amazing self-conceit, termed wisdom, has so completely blinded mankind that not even such tangible proofs and “signs of the times” which God gave, as stated by the prophet in Isaiah 41: 20, have any effect on their minds.
With further reference to this matter we quote the following from Thurgauer Zeitung:
The water gushes from the auger-hole in a high stream. With this stream fish and small crabs in perfectly fresh condition are carried to the surface, together with mollusks and other aquatic creatures. As emphasized by the French periodical La Nature, these creatures belong to the same species as are native to the lakes of Palestine. Science thus finds itself confronted by a whole chain of problems, difficult of solution. Whence come these creatures and how do they subsist at such depth? The fact that they exist, leads to the conclusion that these subterranean waters must extend over a vast area, and that artesian wells presumably could supply enough water to transform part of the desert into fertile land. It might be added that these fish, living in eternal darkness, are minus their eyesight.
The Right Foods By c. e. stewart [Broadcast from WBBB by the writer.]
ADVANCEMENT is being made along all scientific lines; but making progress in the proper use of foods to best sustain and conserve the energy of the human machine is fraught with difficulty. In the first place dieticians do not agree. Each of them has his hobby, and in trying to do something to attract attention each of them at times develops a bad case of “hot air”. One dietician urges the use of milk; another says milk is fit only for calves. One says to eat no meat, no concentrated food; his opponent advises meat eating. One says to use only raw or uncooked foods; his opponent says to cook food until well done.
That there should be a change from the old bad habits is evident; and in time the evils of bad combinations and poor preparation of food will entirely be done away. Science is doing much in teaching us the component parts of all foodstuffs, and what each part has to do with the rebuilding of the human organism.
Mechanism of Human Body
HE human body, like everything else, is built of electrons. The atoms oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, iron, calcium, iodine, phosphorus, potassium, etc., are found in the Human body. Each has an electronic content of its own; and the combinations of these atoms, forming molecules, go to make up flesh, bone and blood. If these atoms are normal, and their electrons are functioning properly and orderly, health is enjoyed. But any atomic derangement causes a dis-ease of body, and the symptom of the disease will manifest itself in the weakest part of the body.
An overload of certain foods causes extra secretions of mucus, and this will show up in some form of catarrh or constipation. If the catarrh is in the nasal passages, and a remedy is taken to stop the discharge of the nose, then the catarrhal condition is scattered to other parts of the body, which increases the poisonous content of the entire human organism. Really to cure catarrh one must stop eating the offending foods and build up the system with foods which contain the elements which the body lacks.
If we are to have healthy flesh, skin, bones, nails, hair, blood, sinew, veins, nerves, eyes and teeth it stands to reason that we must eat foods which will supply the materials to rebuild the wasted tissues. The electronic content of the atoms of the human machine needs a variety of compounds peculiar to the functioning units of the organism, such as those found in glands, gastric juices, tissue, fibre, nerves, etc.; and these peculiar combinations are manufactured within the body as nature demands, when supplied with the materials out of which they can be made. For instance, the body needs sugar. But all the sugar necessary will be refined within the body from the fruits and vegetables that are ingested. We need not, therefore, consume an ounce of granulated sugar at any time.
Disease is a Functional Disorder
DISEASE is any functional disorder, the cause of which is improper nourishment, clogging of the physical system, lack of proper bodily care, overtaxation of energy by labor, worry, grief, or loss of rest and sleep. Disease is caused by poisoning the system through harmful foods and drinks, by vaccination, or by any other means of filling the body with poisons in such quantities that the elimination system is inadequate to the immediate exigencies of the case. The symptom is not the disease; an ache or pain is not the disease. These are but the signals of nature which call attention to the disease. Sneezing, gaping, yawning, coughing, belching, hiccoughs, etc., are but distress signals which the human body is throwing out as a warning that something is out of balance. These are signals which call for attention as much as do hunger and thirst.
Catarrh, boils, carbuncles, running sores, foulsmelling feet and bodily odors are evidences that a person is filled with filth, and that the system is using any or all of these methods to make a house-cleaning. The remedy is not pills, salves, etc., but in corrected habits of diet. In nine times out of ten the body is overcharged with starchy foods. “Catching” cold is not possible for a person in normal health, but is a sure indication that the person has an excess of wastes or poisons stored up in the tissues and blood of his body.
Constipation the Bane of Health
IF THE bowels are not open, giving at least two movements a day, reduce the food intake of all kinds, except as follows: Uncooked apples, peaches, apricots, plums, pineapples, grapes, muskmelons, tomatoes, figs, prunes (uncooked and stewed), and cooked spinach and other greens, fresh cider, and liberal quantities of water.
When the bowels are too loose, eat sparingly of all the above-mentioned laxative foods and drink any of the the following: Blackberry juice, raspberry juice, strawberry juice, cocoa, chocolate, ginger ale, and sassafras tea. Well-masticated cream cheese is also recommended. Tea, coffee and coca-cola are also binding, but these are not recommended. The coca-cola habit is a form of drug addiction.
Constipation is a clogging of the human body; it is a great evil, and a source of much bodily distress and of most diseases. Constipation and its hurtful results is not sufficiently stressed upon the minds of the young to induce them to regard it as a serious matter. Constipation should not be taken as a “matter of course”, but as an indication of ignorance or stupidity in respect to eating, or as the result of indulging the craving of a false appetite. Constipation is a filling, or at least a covering of the intestinal linings with effete matter which retards the movement of the wastes of the digestive system, much the same as soot clogs a stovepipe; and atrophy of the bowel muscles results, reducing the elasticity and resiliency of the intestines and destroying the natural operation of the alimentary canal.
Medicines which cause bowel convulsions are harmful, weakening the system, and laying it open to further ravages of disease. Proper foods intelligently used are the only remedy, supplemented with fasting when advisable. The constipated person not only has his body of flesh filling up with poisons, but his blood becomes thick and his nerves become impaired through malnutrition of the glands, and his brain becomes diseased through improper nourishment until the mind loses some of its alertness, and the whole body becomes a cesspool of corruption. Castor oil or salts may remove the filth from the intestines for a day or so, but what of the poisons which saturate the fibres and sinews of the body, and have even gotten into the very marrow of the bone I
Turn at once to proper foods and patiently persist in the straight and narrow, but pleasant (after you get used to it) path to Wellville. The length of time it will take is determined by the long standing of the case and the power of the will. Caution should be exercised to make no abrupt change of a revolutionary kind, but change by degrees and as fast as possible without too far depleting the system of its energy. Start the change by cutting out all white bread, white crackers, macaroni, spaghetti, potatoes, pastries and prepared breakfast foods (except bran); and ingest instead cooked and uncooked prunes, figs, and members of the Green family— spinach, kale, chard, dandelion, beet tops, etc. Take liberal quantities of these. The prunes and figs need not be thoroughly masticated; but the Green family need to be ground into fine pulp, chewed until the swallowing impulse comes naturally. Grass-eating animals usually chew their cud, you know. And as you increase the intake of these foods reduce the consumption of all others. You are probably eating three “square” meals a day. Reduce the number by, cutting out the breakfast meal.
Full Stomachs and Yet Starving
WHILE the American people are more or less gluttonous they are starving for want of foods containing certain elements which are necessary to health. The nearer we get to foods in their natural state the better will be the results. We have been catering to false appetites and creating perverse tastes for so long that we have had to season our foods to make them taste “right”. All refined foods are noxious and inimical to health. There are sixteen mineral salts in wheat, but all of these are removed in the milling process, and the buyer of white flour is robbed of all the food value. White flour is an excellent article with which to make paste—for hanging paper on the walls, etc. It is also extensively used by the womenfolks. in making pastries—pies, cakes, doughnuts, etc. Polished rice is another article which should never be eaten; and to call it “food” is a discredit to the human intellect.
The world would be much better off without so much wheat and rice and oats. The reason why these things are pushed upon suffering humanity and so extensively advertised is that these commodities are controlled by gigantic trusts which are interested not in the health of a nation but in getting its money. Refined foods are mucus-forming foods and therefore fill the system with poisons and catarrhal affections of the nasal passage, stomach and other organs, and help to make the drug store and doctor business good. Small quantities of-whole wheat and unpolished brown rice are not objectional foods.
Too much importance is given to bread, possibly because bread is mentioned in the Bible; but bread in the Bible is sometimes synonymous with food, and has no reference to the stuff we call bread. The world would surely be better off without any white bread; for it is not the staff of life, but the cudgel of death.
The skins of potatoes also contain the essential mineral salts; but when potatoes are peeled the hogs get the food and the members of the household get the mucus-forming portion which causes constipation and ultimately disease. If eaten at all, potatoes should be baked and the skins eaten, discarding the interior as useless, especially if there are other starches to be consumed at the same meal. Meats are another cause of disease. They contain much protein and uric acid. We do not need the protein that was once thought necessary, therefore the meat eater overloads his body with concentrated food which is injurious to health and diminishes the 'desire for the other foods which are rich in essential salts so necessary to health. To supply the needs of the body meat is not needed at all, though if used sparingly and well cooked it is permissible; for when in health the body can eliminate the excess of its requirements. But in a diseased body meat only adds to the derangement. Beef eaters lay the foundation for tuberculosis, and pork eaters are inviting the dread disease of cancer. An occasional meal containing lamb or prime bullock, well done, is not very objectionable. Meats should not be eaten in hot weather.
Occupation, Habits and Fashions
THE occupation and habits have much to do with the requirements of each individual.
In whatever way the vitality is expended or the system sapped the replenishing process should be along the lines of the wastes. If the, work is muscular, one should eat vegetables of all kinds, sea-food products, fruits of all kinds, and greens, in the order named as to quantity, and of course properly combined. If the work is mental, one should eat fruits of all kinds, greens, vegetables, and sea-food products, in the order named as to quantity and importance, properly combined. The amount of ingestion should be governed by the energy expended.
Most people want to be fat (excuse the error), stout or at least “pleasingly plump”. When the texture of the skin is fine and ruddy, the muscles firm and the physique in good health from work and exercise, then it is allowable to have a little plumpness; for the elimination system is taking care of the wastes and poisons which the human engine continually discharges through the bowels, kidneys and liver, and exudes through the pores of the skin. But if the flesh is flabby, rough or coarse, then the system is full of filth, whether the symptoms of disease are manifest or not. The approach of gout, rheumatism, neuritis, failing eyes, decaying teeth, or catarrhal discharges is only a question of time, if indeed the individual is not already fearful of the actual presence of one or more of these disorders. The wiry, muscular, trim physique of the athlete is the model best for men and women. Underweight is better than overweight for health and longevity.
Combinations Often Determine Food Value '
ARIOUS foods in themselves are not injurious, but become harmful when taken
in improper combinations with other foods. General rules may be laid down which should be religiously followed by all. And additionally,. there are specific rules which each person must learn for himself; and in this, experience is the best teacher. We know a person who cannot eat anything to which tomatoes have been added; another gets sick at even the smell of onions; another will vomit and need a week for recovery if milk in any form is taken into the ' stomach; another is unable to digest boiled cabbage; and still another has a digestive apparatus which rebels at canned corn.
Right foods ofttimes become wrong foods because of peculiar derangements in the chemical laboratory of the body. Right foods become wrong foods in improper combinations. Therefore teo large variety at one meal should be avoided, and practice should be given to eating one thing at a time. If we eat salad made up of either fruit or vegetables we should permit the desire for food through the aid of the eye to make the choice as to what is to be first eaten; eat all of this that is wanted; then proceed to the second item, making selection as before; and so on.
Cook with butter; vegetable oils are permissible ; but avoid lard. The cooking of foods is an essential part of health, after the proper foods have been selected. Heavy cast aluminum cooking utensils are the best. The ordinary sheet or pressed-out aluminum is not the best. Never use granite ware to cook in; granite slivers off in small particles and gets into the food; granite is indigestible. Cast aluminum costs money, but it is economy in the end—and health. With the use of cast aluminum very little water is necessary, and the less water used in cooking the better. Be sure to utilize the water from cooked food some way; if in no other way, drink it, for the mineral salts which are so important to health are often cooked out into the water. There is health in every drop we have been throwing away.
Disposing of the Breakfast Hour
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