Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-15
Eurattttg Gllat

WI. I1enTy w. shoemaker. L0e
course of his studies of the wild life
| of the State and in inspections as n
! state Forest Commission member,
has established the interesting fact =
that in spite of the disastrous forest
fires which have swept through sec
tions of the Blue Ridge, there is more
wild life in such districts than in
those where poison has been scat
tered about to get rid of vermin and
nulsances. State Game Commission
| ofhcials. who have been carrying on
! investigations along the same line,
nave arranged to restrict the use OF
! polsons by wardens and to make
some kindred observations. Col.
! shoemaker has for long time held
to the conviction that the use of
/ poisons i'll the woods was dangerous
to domestic animals and the game
! which the State protects. 'I think
have proved that in the Blue Ridge
section, where disastrous forest fire
occurred lately one of the kind that
we should aim to prevent by organ
lied effort, there are more turkeys.
pheasants and various kinds of
game than in some sections whero
poison has been used to kill off the
enemies of game and the farmer"
said he. For a long time l have
| been observing 1t and over in the
Hamburg region j was surprised to
see the game in the district where
the fires had occurred" The Colonel
said that he thought it high time to
bring the use of poisons within GER
tain limits. Seth Il. Gordon, acting
secretary of the State Game Commits
sion, who has been looking up the
use of poisons, is authority for tho
statement that in some of the sec
tions where poison has been COM
planned of as the cause of deaths OF
domestic animals and game, it has
been demonstrated that it has been
placed By private persons and not by
State wardens. Mr.. Gordon says
that in some sections dogs havo
given much trouble as well as YER
min. In any event, the practice OF
killing off nuisances by strychnine is
to be brought within control. There
I.has been some difference of opinion
whether corn dosed with the poison
will kill game birds. as chickens
seem to have been only exhilarated
by some treated for crows. Quail
are said not to have minded it.
Dauphin county is so accustomed
to cosmopolitan labor because of it's
iron and steel works, mines, quarries
and other industries that it does not
always realize what interesting
groups it has within its borders. The
!
Steelton are real study, while this
city has within a few blocks settle
ments of Rumanians, Transylvanians
and Bohemians. The Irish and Ger
man groups which sixty years ago
were important Industrial factors
are now assimilated and the
folks from Italy are rapidly
going the some way. But the
men from the near eastern coun-
t,.,Aa, Il ~ 10 hn In
Activity at the postal savings windows
shows how they regard this COM
munity and from all accounts quite
Il few have left here recently for
home. where they will probably fare
badly if they have ready money. An
other interesting fact is that con-
tractors on road work in this county
have had gangs of Mexicans and
Greeks working for them at various
periods in the last year.
Certain people in this city and
vicinity are glad the coal strike is
over and from what a few of them
say Harrisburg and Steelton were in
danger of more curtailment of gas
supply than generally believed. The
great works at Steelton, which fur
nishes u considerable share of the
gas for lighting and cooking, had
supply of coal that would not have
run much more than a fortnight, If
that. and it would have meant de-
pending upon the gas plants here If
the strike had gone on. Another in
teresting fact is that some important
experiments with oil as fuel have
been under way in Harrisburg's
basic industries lately and no one
has known much about it.
News of the death of Arthur j.
Anderson. editor of the Pennsyl
vania Farmer and we'll known to
. Harrisburg newspapermen. has come
here. Mr.. Anderson was speaker at
a number of agricultural gatherings
here in recent years and combined
the training of a good Detroit news
/ paperman with an inside knowledge
of farming gained in the fields and
, enriched by special study in college.
The school libraries of the Harris
. burg Public Library have been in
, over a dozen and n half of the
schools of the lower grades for just
about one week and in some of the
buildings it commences to look as
: though the youngsters would read all
r through the books in short order.
Some have been seeking book
dav. The success of the school
libraries of former years is appar-
emily going to be outdone this year
The school authorities, who have
! been cooperating in every way,
, have had the cases for the new libra
! ries made by students in the high
schools and there is just bit of
rivalry there to turn out the best
and most finished looking piece of
work.
More December plowinS has been
done within twenty miles of Harris
burg this year than thought possible
Probably it was because last De-
cember was such a mild month. The
:, farmers in several districts not far
: from Harrisburg have been in the
fields every suitable day and on Sat-
urday burrows were turned not far
from Hummlestown and also in the
!. vicinity of Goldsboro. The present
freeze-up may end work in that di-
rection, however.