Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1917 — Page 3

Turning Weeds Into Sheep

The world needs more wool and to obtain the necessary supply of this commodity the country must raise more wool producers—there should be a flock of sheep on every rv

A-jSW remarkable success recently achieved by Mr. Y. C. Mansfield of , Endicott, Washington, in fattenM ing several hundred head of sheep —on the Australian salt-bush has Jjg created an interest in this once Mar /“ despised weed, which is rapidly V 7 / spreading throughout the northw/ west states. One result, of Mr. \ / Mansfield’s experiment is that other ’ farmers on whose acres the weed

grows have come to look upon what was formerly considered absolutely worthless land as a real bonanza, and they are now preparing to turn their attention from the raising of hogs and wheat to sheep, with the assurance that, under ordinary conditions, they can hardly fall short of Mr. Mansfield’s success. They see opened before them what is practically a virgin field of sheep raising, offering wonderful possibilities. As soon as the value of the salt-bush as a forage crop become generally known it undoubtedly will be cultivated In other sections of the West. As a matter of fact, .it is now found, along all the highways from Arizona to Washington, but very few people know its true name add fewer know that it is a valuable plant. In eastern Oregon it is generally known as the Pendleton flood weed, and has been looked upon as such a pest that there is a law in the state'against allowing it to go to seed. According to Mr. Mansfield, however, it is really of more value to eastern Oregon than the alfalfa plant, for not only is it a far better feed for sheep, but it will grow on the most arid land, and practically requires no attention after once getting a stand, as it grows in hard, firm soil better than on loose, well-cultivated land. / Mr. Mansfield’s experience, as related by him to the writer, who was fortunate to visit the farm at a time when a thousand head of sheep had Just been turned Into a new pasture of the saltbush, When the accompanying photographs were taken, reads almost like a fairy story. For several years Mr. Mansfield farmed 3,000 acres of land, all of which was wheat land with the exception of 150 acres, which were subirrigated alfalfa land. Finally the land became so foul with Russian thistles and Jim Hill mustard, that this, together with the high cost of labor and the; low price of wheat, made it Impossible for

DECIPHERING WORLD’S OLDEST LOVE LETTER AT UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

THE world’s oldest love letter and the world’s oldest map, so far found—these are two interesting discoveries just brought to light by Dr. Stephen Herbert Langdon of the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Arts and Sciences. The love letter, on a tablet of <}lay, was, according to Doctor Langdon, written about the time of ■the patriarch Abraham. It is true that in the translation romance gives way to commercialism, but nevertheless there is nothing of the kind in any other The tablet was deciphered and translated by Doctor Ungnad. Personal letters of this type written by the ancient are generally found inclosed in clay envelopes, so fashioned that while they cover the writing completely and hold the tablet Itself secure they do not obliterate the symbols, but rather protect them. 4. So much for the love letter, but Doctor Langdon, leading Sumerian scholar of all time, seems much more interested in the ancient Babylonian map which he has just finished reading. X, The map proves conclusively that the comprehensive city planning, heard so much of in recent years, is almost as old as civilization. Not only did the Babylonians plan the building of their towns and cities, but, according to this map or diagram, they laid out villages and hamlets along preconceived plans to give residents "all the advantages of city life.” Nothing like the map just discovered at the university" ever has been found before by archeologists," and evidently it is pnly one of many, if It can be taken, as a fair sample of the forethought exercised by ancient Babylon in building up her outlying domains, then the whole country must have been connected by the most elaborate system of canals in the history of the world. Babylon had no telephone or telegraph, but for certain fundamental purposes of protection it had “something just as good.” For Doctor Langdon has translated some of the numerous small inscriptions on the tablet bearing the map to indicate that the particular section here described >was so laid out that persons living in any part of |it could hear the blowing of a horn from the central cdmmon. It was an old custom in the country to blow a horn at a certain season of the year, after which grazing was no longer permitted. The treason for this is lost in. antiquity, but examination of other tablets at the museum some day may ireveal its The exact age of the map is not definitely iknown. Doctor Langdon believes it was made in 'the Cassite period, about 1,500 years before Christ. [Concerning the horn-blowing custom, Doctor Langicon says: ■ “The map throws a. .’welcome light.

SHOWING HEAVY FOLIAGE OF THE SALT-BUSH

him to longer continue in the growing of wheat alone without also keeping live stock to help pay the living expenses. Accordingly, two years ago, he decided to invest in a flock of sheep, and it was while driving these home that he made the discovery which he has since turned to such good account. Along the road near the Mansfield farm the salt-bush grew in abundance; and to Mr. Mansfield’s infinite surprise the sheep began feeding upon it greedily. He figured upon/the spot that he had destroyed SSOO worth of good sheep feed that year, besides wasting a great deal of labor, in trying to get rid of the weeds. Last summer he pastured his entire flock of 1,000 sheep on the salt-bush with the most astonishing results. The sheep were not only exceedingly fat, but their wool was of a superior quality. Several neighboring farmers with small flocks of sheep followed Mr. Mansfield’s experiment and their sheep, also, were in much better shape than those that were taken to the mountains during the summer. During a period of two weeks last summer Mr. Mansfield’s flock of 1,000 sheep was kept on less than five acres of ground that was growing Atfstralian salt-bush, and they did not clean the feed all up at that. These five acres of land were two feed yards where he had fed stock for years and consequently they grew an immense amount of the weed, but ordinarily dry land which practically will not grow anything else, will produce this

upon an obscure law’ in the great law code of Babylonia, which bears the name of Hammurabi. In it we have reference to the custom of blowing a horn at the village gates to notify the shepherds on the plains that the grazing season was over. These rural villages in which the peasants congregated from, the surrounding plain appeared to have been so arranged that the village buglers w’ere able to make the shepherds and farmers hear the sound of the horn In every part of Babylonia. “The rural life of ancient times in this historic land has here a visual commentary.” Lector Langdon adds, “and we see how the peasants lived together in villages, having village commons for their flocks and a municipal marsh to furnish a most necessary article of domestic life, the cane reed.. Assuming that the orientation of the map is the ordinary one employed in other Babylonian maps, one is able to trace the several features of the country and their details. The skeleton of the plan Is made by the canal which enters from the northeast corner of the district, flows south-south-west and turns in a rough parabolic curve, to retreat at the same angle toward the north-north-west. At the center of the district marked by the end of the parabola enter from the southeast and southwest corhers two canals which unite with the main canal. . , Inscriptions on the tablet give the names of the various canals, the villages and hamlets. Thus in the extreme northeast corner is the towm of Bit Kar Nusku, and the northeast wing of the canal, on which this town lies, is called Nar-bilti,. or “Canal of the Burden,” indicating that agricultural and other products were carried upon it. “This name and others,” says Doctor Langdon, “show that these canals w’ere arteries of trade as well as streams to supply the fields with water? The town Kar Nusku Is mentioned in temple accounts of the city of Nippur as supplying sheep and grain for the support of the temple priests. In the northwest corner, pn the left branch of the canal, is the town of Hamri, also mentioned in the accounts of the temple at Nippur. Therefore, the northwest branch of the canal bears the name Nar Hamri. According to references in Assyrian inscriptions, hamru designates a place where the eultHof the fire-god was'established.’’ Another canal bore the name of Belsunu, a rich man, whose estate is supplied with water for irrigation purposes. Unfortunately, the estate itself lay outside the limits of the map, so it is impossible to get any description of Belsunu’s country house. In the opintan of Doctor Langdon the point of chief interest in the mind of the ancient map-maker was the conelike space at the end of the parabola, which is about the center of the map. The following inscription is cut into this

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

AUSTRALIAN SALT-BUSH PASTURE

weed. Later in the summer Mr. Mansfield made some hay of the weed, but on account- of the scarcity of labor was not able to haul it in out of the shock. , He had to turn his sheep through this hay to the stubble field, where there was plenty of other pasture, and they would stop and eat this hay. They cleaned it Mil up and saved the trouble of hauling it in. Mr. Mansfield is not only very enthusiastic about the saltbush as a food for sheep, but believes it is good feed for other stock also- Hogs, cattle and horses, he states, eat it soon, and he believes that they would learn to like It as well as the sheep do if they were confined a short time

on it Sheep, he adds, must be confined on it a day or two before they relish it. Then they go to it with avidity. They do not, however, eat enough of it to make them sick and die, as they do on alfalfa and a great many other plants, but they get exceedingly fat on it. The Australian saltbush is described as a muchbranched perennial, which forms a thick mat over the ground a foot or 18 inches in depth, the branches extending from five to eight feet; one plant often covering an area of 15 to 20 square feet. The leaves are about an inch long, broadest at the apex, coarsely toothed along the margin, fleshy and somewhat mealy on the outside. The fruits are tinged with red, flattened and pulpy, but become dry as soon as they fall from the plant. The seeds germinate better if sown on the surface, which should be planked or firmed by driving a flock of sheep across it. When covered to any depth the seeds decay before germination. The plant will grow on black alfalfa land that is really of no value for anything else on earth. Mr. Mansfield states that there are millions of acres of such land in the United States, which, if sown to this seed, undoubtedly would keep sheep enough to produce more wool and mutton than is now raised in the entire United States. Mr. Mansfield adds that if cut for hay the saltbush should be cut while the branches are soft «tTnd tender, and the second crop will make considerable pasture and re-seed the ground.

upon an obscure law in the great law code of part' of the tablet: "Field between the canals, the contents (?) are eight gul (a measure of area in the Cassite and Assyrian inscriptions) field of the palace.” “Therefore the mapmaker wished to give an accurate drawing of the field belonging to the royal estates,” says Doctor Langdon, “and we may assume that he did his work at the king’s injunction, and that the tablet has come down to us from the royal archives at Nippur. The Cassite kings nominally held court at Babylon, as the capital of Babylonia, 1 Forests were unknown in southern Babylon, and the natives had to use reeds for making baskets, household furniture, firewood, hedges and even for the writing stylus. Accordingly, a municipal marsh was an essential, and one is shown on the map at the university museum. Another feature of no little significance, which sheds light for the first time on the origin of the customs that sprung up in the middle ages of endowing mon-, asteries with estates to provide for their tables, is the “fiejd of the table of the Baru priest.” On this phase of the diagram Doctor Langdon says: “The Baru priest was the seer of the Babylonians, whom they invariably consulted about all future events. This learned priesthood was attached to all the great temples and, as we see here, owned valuable landed estates. The idea of a state-supported order of seers seems preposterous to us. for divination is considered illegal, but Babylonian religion was supercharged with magic and mystery. Kings and laymen undertook no important tasks, launched no important ventures, without consulting these sages of the liver omens, of oil omens and of every conceivable kind of divination. They formed an important part of the priesthood, and hence we find thehi on our map in possession of estates more valuable than those of the king himself. "In the extreme corner of the northwestern part of the district is the village of Hamri, situated in a field which bears no name, perhaps the municipal property. South of this area is the field in which we find a village with the curious name Til amel Hassh, or Hill of the Fifty Men. The locaL history of this town, which would elucidate its interesting name,ris unknown. The field itself bears no Inscription and was probably a village common also. A small canal separates the two village properties. The large field of the table of the Baru priest is bounded on the north by thq canal of the table. These names refer to the properties settled by royal decree upon this re» ligious order fqr the support of their table, in precisely the same, way certain lands in Europe became the property of monastic ordets in the middle ages.’*.-—Philadelphia Public Ledger. \

Battles Which Made the World

GETTYSBURG The meh Tide of the Southern Confederacy la Which Plckett’a Dlvi■lon Performed One of the Meet Deaperat* Charges Known in Any War.

Gettysburg, that terrible three days’ battle fought on the first, second and third days of July In 1863, marked the turning point of the American Civil W ar. The war did indeed continue for two years more, but it was Gettysburg which broke the military power of the South; which decided that the United States of America should endure, the united country of a free people. Gettysburg was “the' high tide of the Confederacy.” Gettysburg lies in Pennsylvania, about thirty-five miles southwest of Harrisburg. A sleepy, unimportant Pennsylvania village, it possessed no strategic importance and but for accident probably never would have served as the theater of the greatest battle of our Civil conflict. Lee, directing his great invasion of the North, planned concentration of his forces there. The ragged men of A. P. Hill’s advance Confederate corps—inspired it is said by the hope of obtaining shoes —pushed hurriedly into the hamlet and ,thereupon became involved in & spirited battle with Buford’s Federal Cavalry division. Reynolds, coming up with an infantry corps to support Buford, met his death on the field, but nightfall of the first found the Union forces holding the line on the Cemetery Hill position. They had been pushed back, by superior numbers and cut up severely, particularly in a fierce attack led by the redoubtable Jubal Early, with Ewell’s cops. Still they maintained a formidable position upon which Meade, the newly appointed Federal commander, decided to make his stand. Three more corps were moved up during the night, while Lee got his whole army into position. Thanks to a misunderstanding between Lee and Longstreet, who was to attack the Federal left, the attack on the morning of the second, like Napoleon’s attack at Waterloo, was long delayed. This gave the Northern army time to get into position on a horseshoe ridge, having its right oh Culp’s hill. Longstreet’s assault when it did come, however, came with a desperate fury productive of some terrific fighting. Frightful was the slaughter in the Peach Orchard, where Gen. Dan Sickles holding an advanced Federal position, misunderstood or disobeyed an order to withdraw and saw his men go down like ten pins, while he himself lost a leg. In the meantime the commanding positions of Round Top and Little Round Top remained by some strange oversight unoccupied. Their possession might have been obtained by the Confederates and might have spelled for them victory had not the error been discovered by Gen. G. K. Warren, Meade’s engineer officer. Perceiving these crests to be occupied •>nly by signalers and realizing their tremendous possibilities Warren hastily diverted some Maine regiments who scrambled to the tops and there found themselves almost instantly engaged with eagerly advancing Southern columns. The struggle here was desperate, but in the end the Maine men prevailed.

However Longstreet and Hill actually broke through the main line of the Third Federal corps, though because they were not properly supported the brigades which achieved this feat were soon driven out again. Ewell swept over Culp’s hill, where the defending force had been much reduced, but Early’s attempt to storm Cemetery hill was repulsed. With the coming of night Meade found that with his line no longer a horseshoe, but prolonged to the left, he stood in danger of having both his flanks turned. In council with his corps commanders he encountered serious discussion of retreat, but since Lee had gained no commanding success and since the necessities of the hour were most serious, he decided in favor of continuing the fighting. He had the advantage of Lee in numbers and he had confidence in the steadiness of his men. Upon this superiority in force is based the amusing story of the Confederate scout, related at the reunion in 1913. He declared that creeping to the Federal camp in the darkness he discovered that “the Yanks had all creation,” since he distinctly heard the conftnand:

“Universe attention! Continents fall ini By nations, right wheel!” Also in the night Lee changed his plan. Deciding that Longstreet should not press his attack over the broken ground, he directed that Ewell should resume his hammering of Meade’s extreme right while the overwhelming blow should be delivered by an attack on the center, comparable with the charge of the Guard at Waterloo. For this duty there were assigned the troops of Pickett’s fresh and splendid Virginia division, which constituted -part of Longstreet’s corps. .Longstreet himself never believed this charge could have a chance of success. Between him and Lee there was ever afterward bitterness. But as for the charge itself, it was most gallantly delivered. It almost won. Meade began the -fighting on thc third day by aiming a heavy counteroffensive at Culp’s hUI, which after four hours of fighting _ was retaken from the Confederates. This, how-

By CAPT. ROLAND F. ANDREWS

(Copyright. IMT, hy MoClore Newspaper Syndicate)

ever, did not deter Lee from following his original plan. He was determined that Pickett should make his grand assault. In preparation, Alexander, the Confederate chief of artillery, opened with one long line of seventy-five guns, while sixty-five of Hill’s guns came into action on the left Against these the Federate, cramped for space, could oppose but seventy-five, and the fire of these was soon stopped that they might be held to meet the infantry attack. Longstreet, still certain the result could be only failure, could not bring himself to order the advance, but shortly before two in the afternoon Pickett himself asked and obtained permission to go forward. There followed one of the most desperate charges ( in history, beside which, when one reckons in loss of life, such an exploit as that of the Light Brigade at Balaklava becomes almost child’s play. To reach the Union line the Virginians had to cross 1,800 yards of ground Swept by terrible rifle and artillery fire. All three of Pickett’s brigadiers went down, two killed and one, Kemper, desperately wounded. The Union troops. Gibbon’s division and a part of the Second corps, all under Hancock, held unflinchingly. Lieutenant Cushing, commanding.a battery, held in his entrails with one hand while with the other he helped roll a gun into position, crying out, “Give them one more shot, Webb.” The slaughter was frightful, but the dauntless Virginians actually broke Meade’s first line before they withered under the fearful fire and, abandoned by their support, fell back. Brigadier General Garnett, who had leaped the wall with his hat on his sword, died under a Union gun carriage. This ended the battle. Afterward there was only a retreat which might have been a rout, had the Union troops ■ pressed their advantage or had Lee been less prompt and skillful in rallying his men. The Confederates lost 30,000 out of a total approximating 75,000. Of Pickett’s division, which charged 4,500 strong, 3,393 were left on the field. Meade’s losses were 23,000 out of 82,000, but the Confederacy had attained Its greatest success and had seen that success wane Into hopeless failure.

Modern Babylon.

Forty miles from New York in tho direction of Berlin and just behind the Fire Island lighthouse, which we used to trail from home-coming liners in the good old days before the war, when cats might look at kings and the simplest citizen of these United States at the good things in the shop windows of the Rue de la Palx without being classed as a casus belli, is Babylon, Ralph Barton writes in Cartoons Magazine. What wag, what droll fellow ever thought of choosing the name Babylon for a south shore, Long Island, clam and flatfish village, the chronicles fail to relate. Its gardens hang right side up, and bear potatoes In a highly respectable and. patriotic manner, and the once Justly famous daughters of Babylon are as scarce as hanging gardens, for they simply do not exist. The moment the Babylonian female attains that age when a single swift glance at a male of the genus suffices to tell her'*the precise figure of his income, she takes the 11:04 to the better husband stalking preserves 40 miles to the west—and she does not return.

An Aerial Shepherd.

The gallant little republic of Venezuela, which may shortly come In on the side of the allies, boasts of a re* markable bird which can be trained to tend flocks, says London Tit-Bits. Not only does the yak-a-milk, as it is called, take the place of the sheep dog, but It is frequently used to guard the home of Its owner. When the Indiana capture a yak-a-milk they find little difficulty In training it to domestic use. It is attached to the farmyard and performs the same duties as a faithful watchdog. A yak-a-milk soon learns to know and obey the voice of its master. Its usual gait Is slow and sedate, but sometimes It will execute most eccentric movements, waltzing and pirouetting in a very absurd fashion. Instances are recorded where these strange birds have defended their charges from attacks of wild and savage animals, and even driven them off.

Test of Endurance.

Human endurance is seldom tested so severely as among the postal messengers of the Chinese government between Peking and Lhassa. These mes.sengers are picked and trained men, who in times of great urgency are required to cover 4,500 miles between the two capitals, on horseback, in 36 days, or 125 miles a day. The messenger’s letters, inclosed in a yellow bag, are never taken off hisback except when he changes his dress, once a week. He changes horses every few miles, eats and sleeps - in postal stations, is under the most rigid restrictions as to articles of diet, land is permitted to sleep only four hdurs a day.