The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-04-03

One, a giant American elm, deserves
mention.
According to the station forester at
University Farm, one crew of saw
yers gave up in despair and another
sawed nearly half a day before this
tough forest elm toppled and fell. On
the ground its majestic. proportions
occupied the larger part of half an
acre. In all, II perfectly sound and
straight logs were cut from its trunk
and limbs and no log was less than
IL inches in diameter at the small
end.
"In 1921, just 29 years after Co
lumbus first set foot on the western
hemisphere, this elm began its life as
a small Seeding, says DIR. Raphael
Zon, director of the Lake States
Forest Experiment Station. ''It sur
vived disease, overcame competition,
and braved the storms of four CEN
turies. In it's four hundred and sec
ond year it had reached height of
125 feet and diameter of 5 u feet
across the stump. "With the telling
of this tree $500 board feet of lum-
Der became available to the many
users of wood whose supply of this
sort of material is getting alarming
ly short. Some provision must be
made for the continuance of the sup
ply of northern hardwoods-so neces-
sary to our industries. They grew
here before, they can grow again if
given chance"
a.
Auto Mileage Costs Lighter Than
Usual-Auto mileage costs, based on
the reports of Minnesota county
agents, were lighter in 1928 than for
any year since 1918 when records of
auto expenses were summarized and
tabulated for the first time. Records
of Sc cars were used in the computa-
ton for 1923 and the average cost
per mile was close to 61s cents as
against liz cents in 1920, the high
point for the series of years.
Lower costs in 1928 are attributed
to unusual conditions by George A.
Pond, who is in charge Of the section
of cost accounting at University
Farm. The price of gasoline averaged
10 per cent less per gallon than the
previous year and "a per cent less
than in 1921. Tires were cheaper,
also, and the lower price level of
cars helped to reduce depreciation
and interest charges. The season
was dry and the roads good, permit
ting of larger mileage than ever re-
ported before. Gin general, the larg-
er the mileage, the lower the running
cost per MILE" says Mr.. Pond. "While
operating costs are fairly constant re-
gardless of distance travelled, the fixed
charges per mile decrease as the
miles over which they are distributed
increase"
Mr.. Pond has divided the summary
into two divisions, operating costs and
fixed charges. Under the latter, he
lists garage rent, depreciation, in
terest, and insurance. In 1928, for
the first time, the operating costs of
Ford cars exceeded those of other
cars. However, the fixed charges on
tie Fords were less for the year than
OIL other cars and the total of all
costs we're also less for Fords than
for other cars.
% Counties Organize Ton Litter
Contests--Swine growers in 22 coun-
ties of Minnesota have given notice
of their intention to join the ton
litter contest started this year by
the Minnesota Livestock Breeders as
ISOLATION, the Minnesota Swine Crow
ers ssso, iation, and the agricultural
extension service of the university.
Some of tile counties will have only
one or two Filters in the contest, but
others will lave four to six and per-
haps even more.
Organization of such clubs is as
sured in Becker, Cottonwood, Dakota,
Dodge, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston,
Martin, Meeker, Mower, Nicollet,
Mobiles, Olmstead, Ottertail, Pipe
stone, Polk, Rock, Scott, Stevens,
Waterman, Winona, and Yellow Med
icine counties. Several other coun-