Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-26
Enertttn Gt1at

High school boys from Harris
burg. Reading. Lancaster, York and
other cities and towns of Central
Pennsylvania have been the means
of saving many thousands of dol
lars worth of apples and corn for
the orchard md farmers of a dozen
or more counties which have been
hard hit by the shortage of farm
labor and in some sections the stu
dents have constituted almost all the
help the far2ccrs had. Most of the
boys went out before the influenza
epidemic closed the schools, but
since that time the number has been
increased. In the Adams county
apple belt' the boys helped get in
big crop and as the greater part
OF the shipments from that region
were in bulk and by carload lots
to be graded elsewhere in many
cases the boys were of great serv-
ice. The boys also helped in saving
the peach crop earlier in the fall.
This IL the first time in which a
general call for students. to assist in
the fields and orchards has been
made and the response has given
49, sNAN dAAN puN PONhCN illOhtH
into the hands of the boys. The corn
cutting also called out many men
from the cities and towns who
wanted to get into the open air dur
ing the prevalence of the influenza
epidemic. In some of the southern
counties n huge corn crop was raised
and most OF 1t is now out OF danger.
Capitol Hill is getting back to
normal as far as the personnel of
the departments is concerned and
clerks and stenographers are on
deck again after suffering from in
fluenza. III spite of the fine airy
location of the Capitol there was not
u department or bureau which was
not affected and some of them had
to get along with less than half of
their forces on some days. One Of
the oddities of the epidemic was that
none of the heads of departments
was taken sick.
State officials, men connected with
big corporations and private owners
of forest land, conservationists and
lovers of wild life have been MAX
ing a special effort this year to pre-
vent recurrences of the fall forest
fires and calls will be made upon
sportsmen and others who go into
the woods to not only prevent fires,
but to go out of their way to stop
them. The loss in timber in Penn
sylvania last spring alone was more
than million dollars and thou
sands of acres, including some young
timber planted at considerable ex-
pense, were ruined. An elaborate
system of warnings of fires has been
perfected in a dozen counties and
hunters viii be asked to give their
help in event of blazes occurring.
Appeals have also been made to the
national railroad authorities as sta
tistics show thatya high percentage
of the forest fires in the regions
wherein there is good hunting have
been caused by sparks from locomo-
tiVes. Loss in game last spring was
very great, notably in Center and
other counties where efforts to
propagate have been under way
fires occurring in districts which had
afforded good hunting. This fall the
small number of fires has been en-
couraging.
1t is an interesting fact for Har-
risburgers to know that two sons of
a native OF Harrisburg, the late Cen
eral Calvin Dewitt, are now colonels
with the American Forces in France.
Col Wallace Dewitt is a medical
officer and Col. ]. L. Dewitt is in
command of an infantry regiment.
Col Wallace Dewitt was in COM
mand of the hospital at Camp Sher-
man, Chillicothe, o., until some
months ago.
For the period of the war"
which has been appearing in a num-
Der of the decisions of the Public
Service Commission in regard to
complaints which have been dis
missed bids fair to turn up a good
many times additional in the official
documents of the PENNSYLVANIA
state government in the next six
months. A number of the COM
plants filed against public service
companies before thes commission,
especially those calling for con-
struction of various kinds will prob
ably be dismissed without prejudice
because OF abnormal conditions,
while some extensions will be
granted for the same indefinite
stretch of time The uncertainty
n honf IurafiOn oF +Lo