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rl {American corn--No, § yellow, no sell. President. Wilson's note. FEN nd ~~ The note was variously commented A upon by the fighting men. The feél- ing was that strong - influences succeeded in including him to believe ho . i this was an opportune moment to act. he world ; nm " Such: action was regarded 'smooth. portant the Uni _ing Germany's road a ling her States, . @4s take the second step in her peace 8nd all - Europe Sentiment at the is uncondi- at. tionally against peace "Every. indication points to much:worse tions in Germany thah the world even: suspects; on theother hand, the allies ; are daily better situated to. wige 8 -- successiul of ve. SL : I : " A despatch from Ottawa says: The Th ! ae British, wha an litle given 0" man-power inventory being made by their expression of absolute confi of the comparatively early def the Central Powers under the allies' gathering strength. estimated total 0 5, which is 25 cent, less than for 1916. - mM MAN-POWER INVENTORY PRODUCING RESULTS. 'of out by the board are coming back fill- in with the information asked for, 'thousand are in already well in r hl the time When if was & pected | the " returns woul made. - There are indications that the tion asked for BY he boar: 'Feadily "and 'q ly. forth, ed. k German Statement of Terms s+ UB. Alone Can Prevent "A 'despatch from Washington rys: -<Unless Germany makes Ching » peace terms to the United States it is unlfiely that any result Will 'follow the President's message to the bel ligerenits. The failure of hid to mest the issue in its reply to ssident has afforded the Enter 9 Rertumi ty of which, in all ty: 1 advan will be taken. , Entente will state their peace te Thr wien mmr wi i IMMENSE INCREASE CE IN NATIONAL DEBT. A despatch from London says: The interest. on debt created under the 'war loans of 1914-16 amounted during "the, financial year ended March 81 the. last fo £38,445,856, according to a an white paper issued on - Friday. The il- total capital of the ~ national : debt, which on March 31, 1915, was £1,104; had. increased by March 81, £2,) 147,644, the. statement Chicken Soup. soldier boys in the { in 'France find that time savily jon their hands, and try i muse. themselv a Revit = | above new crop, 0 ~~ | cording' to freights outsid eat -- $1.20, " the : ers', do. 'wheat crop. is.placed by the institute] Ontario flo producing results. The cards sent | 46: exteri r view 1 s converted into 8 h Harke' of the Breadstufls. an ry ) i il 3 crop t qd Bay ftoba Oats -- No. 3 C.'W.. 88ie Bay ports. * il owing to embargo, 0 oate--No.. 3 white, £2 to Gdc, 3 No, 8, do., 81 to #dc, nominal, ding to freights outside, 0 eat--New No. 2 Winter, per 66 to $1.67; No. 3 do., $1.63 to 2.40, freights outside. outst acoording to freights 8. Harley -- Malting. $1.18 to $1.18, ac- e. to according freights outside. ye--No. 2, $1.32 to $1.33, to freights outside. Manitoba flour--First Jatents: in jute bags, $9.40; 2nd do, $8.90; strong bak- $8.50, Toronto. according ur -- Winter, according to | sample, $6.80 to $6.90, in bags, track To- ronto, prompt shipment. Milifeed--Car lots -- Delivered Mont- real Siclabts, bags included, bran, per ton, $38; hor ta, 0., $37; good feed flour, er bag, $2.70 to $2.80. y--No. 1, per ton, $13 t0"$18.50; No. 2. do., $9 to §11, track, Toronto. Straw 9.50 to $10, ; --Car lots, per tom § track Toronto. Country Produce-- Wholesale. Butter--Fresh dairy, choice, 41 to 48c; in 'the National Service Board is already : prints, 46 to 8c; solids, 41 to gs---No, '1 storage, 40 to dlc: stor- age, adleots, 42 40" 48c; new-laid, in car- tons, 66 to 70¢; out of oartons, 50 Jo Shes Large o 26¢; twins, 2 to She triplets, 263 te 26ic. Live poultry-- ickens, 15 to 16e¢; fowl, 14 to 16¢. Dressed poultry--Chiekens, 31 to 22c; fowl, 16 to 18c; ducks, 18 to 20c; squabs, per doz. $4 to 32¢; geese, to $4.50; turkeys, 28 , 20 t to. 3 tins. to 13¢; 60<1b., 12 to 12jo; buckwheat, '§ ib, Col fine tins, 9 to 9ic. oney--ex 0. m and heavy. weight, per doz. $3: Be A De Ya. Ts No. B. $2.36 to 32. toes -- Ontario, per bag, $2 to New Prunswick Delawares, per 0 Potal 2:15; , $2.15 to $2.25. -- Tmported. hand-picked, per bush. $6.50; $6; Limas, per 1b; 93 to 10c. Provisions--Wholesale. Cured meats and lard are quoted to the trade by Toronto wholesalers as fol- lows: . Smoked meats--Hams, medinm, 25 to 96e: do. heavy, 22 to 23c; cooked, 34 to 3gel is, 19 (6 200; Bréakfast bacon, 26 to' #70; baoks, plain, 26 to 27c; homeless, 38 fo $00, | i % meata--Long, clear: bacon, 18 to 18%e .; clear bellles, 18 to 184 ; Mire lard, tierces, 21% to 21ic; 3 , 320; pals, 22 to 22%e: com- E16g tod Ter nT ' pa Markets. -- Cdnadian G4dc] extra 0.8 Shorts, Mouillle, 0. 2, per ton, car Finest westerns, 26c; . Butter--Cholcest ec; seconds, 404 to 1 'selected. 42 to . 2 stock, bag, car lots, TH 4 Ho $1.75 to y . 1. Northern 1.73; No. 3, $1.68; d, 90c. Oats b23c; ex~ . Barley--No. c Fads No 0c. 5941 or 2, , 98c; Flax Hh CW eat --May, 4 Hrd, : $1.75% of Dungav spital for na e hospital stands 800 feet up in the te rie oy-ib; Ans, AY! 3% Thay 10 123 orth Sen Heroes Regal 1 officers and men recovering i 1,000,000 TURKS IN the beautiful mountain residence of the Ayrshire hills, "HALF OF THEN IN THE CAUCASUS Duke of amilton, which the thelr She of Bs It accommodates and is an ideal spot for a' -- THE FIELD The Remainder are Scattered Nowhere in Great Force, With -60,000 on Tigris. A despatch from London says: In the 'course of an article on operations {in the Bast, the Times' military cor- respondent says: x "Out of 50 to 66 Turkish divisions Ustill in the field there will be, begin- ning December 23, about 26 on the Caucasus front, 5 to 7 in Arabia, 6or6 in Austria and Dobrudja, 5 in Syria, TIME FOR PEACE IS NOT YET RIPE Czar. Says to End War Would Mean Failure to Secure Objects Sought. A despatch from Petrograd says: {dn the course of an order issued to all {the units of the Russian army, the { Emperor, in a brief review showing ; how the inequalities in. the technical resources for wariafe ae between She allies @ Cent wers. are ba. ee aly a 'with the " re- | sult that the enemy strength is appar- { ently' waning, while that of Russia and "her allies is continually growing, pro- ceeds to say: "Germany is feeling that her com- T | plete defeat is near, and near also is the hour of retribution for all her wrongdoings and violations of the moral law, As in the time of her | strength = she declared = war, so now, | feeling her weakness near, she sud- i deny offers to enter upon peace nego- | tiations before her military talent is usted. : "At the same time she is creating & i false impression' about 'the str { of her army by utilizing her. témpor- | ary. success over the Rumsnians, who lack experience inthe conduct of modern warfare." he Li ; 50,000 ARMENIANS STARVING. hi fs to All of These Deported Now in Viginity of Aleppo. A despatch from New York says: Fifty thousand deported Armenians are starving in the vicinity of Aleppo, Asiatic Turkey, as a result of a recent temporary suspension of relief appro- priations, according to a cablegram from American Ambassador Elkus, received through the State Depart- ment at Washington, and made public 'Here on Thursday night by the Am- | érican 'Committee for Armenian and Serbian relfef. Z GREA ly # BRITISH ~ i A MEAT PURCHASE A despatch from Washington says: ; British' Government has con- 9 | tracted for the entire exportable sup- Zealand - meat until . at N 8 in Mesopotamia, 8 in Persia, 2 each in the Dardanelles, Constantinople; in Smyrna, Silesia, and on the Struma front. general situation seems that half the Turkish army is engaged in the Caucasus and Armenian thea- tres, and the rest geattered nowhere !in great strength. Only two divisions | are engaged south of Smyrna. TEUTONS WIN S-DAY BATTLE Important Rumanian Town Has Fallen to the Invaders. A despatch from London says: The net of the Teutonic allies apparently is fast closing in upon Braila, Ru- | mania's oil and grain centre, on the { Danube. Having taken Filipechti, 80 | miles to the south-west, Field Marshal von Mackensen's troops have now captured the railroad town of Rimnik Sarat, relatively the same distance to the east, while the guns of the Do- brudja army are still hammering the Russo-Rumanians at the bridgehead of Matchin, on the east bank of the Danube, opposite Braila. ' Prior to the fall of Rimnik Sarat the Teutonic allies defeated the Rus- sians on a front of 10% miles south- west of the town, while the Teutonic Danube army captured several forti- fied villages, according to the {Berlin War Office. Petrograd admits that the Russians and Rumanians have been forced to fall back north of Megura, but says elsewhere the invaders were defeated with heavy casualties. Since December 22, says Berlin, more than 8,900 prisoners and 27 ma- chine guns have been captured in mania, £ ere rr GERMANS MUST TURN IN ALL THEIR OLD SHOES And Can Only Secure Two New Pairs During the Year 1917. A Reuter despatch from. Amster- dam to London says that the latest "Germar. papers contain the Federal !'"Council's regulations regarding shoes and clothing for 1917. They prescribe that only two pairs of so-called "shoes de luxe" will be sold on the turning in of cast off, but still wearable pairs. The utilization of cast-of clothing is to be entrusted. to communities which have 'a' monoply for the purchase of these articles.. : The exchange of old for new articles will be allowed only through tickets. . bob a FOOD, SHORTAGE : SERIOUS FOR FOE \ "A despatch front London says i Gen. F. B. Maurice, Chief Director of Military. Operations of the War Office, in a statement issued on Friday, said he had relable reportis indicating that problem of food for the German my was extremely bad, as well as n of the eiyil population i be made is thickly shell Holes filled : with never having held the any other Winter, the effect-of the fog in the valley af ground, but sufficient m fof | ' making artillery observation fire prac- tically useless, and also preventing drying of the ground.' ; v "The French arrived at the same decision, and transferred their atten- tion h you know. We may be in March, as we found the ground at Neuve Chapelle in fairly good 'in March, 1016, although it had been" | very bad during the Winter. Unable {to continne the offensive for the pre- sent, we have done the next best thing, The taking over of a section of the | French line has kept us busy during | the past ten Bays. The operation has | been sucaessful, and. 1 will be glad to tell you the exact extent of the line taken over when I am sure the Ger- mans know the point of junction. "In Rumania the first Rumanian . army, which has borne the brunt of the fighting, has been entirely with- { drawn, and is now re-forming in Mol- davia, while its place has been taken by the Russians. In Dobrudja the line has been moved back in alignment with the battle-front north of the Danube. In this region both our al- lies and the enemy are suffering from adverse weather conditions." SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 1 ian | Causes of Ignition of Barne Without Contact With Flame. : During the months of August, Sep- tember, October and November last, barn fires were unusually prevalent in Ontario. There were, in the first three months named, according to the Provinéial Fire Marshal's records, 182 [olin fires in this province, the barns, with their contents, being worth 'aps | proximately $426,000, and about two- | thirds covered by insurance. In three {months forty-four special investiga {tions were made into the causes of { forty-four different 'barn fives, in- l'vestigations being made only where | the causes of fire were reported to the | Fire Marshal's Department as un- | known or 'suspicious. In 11 cages it was impossible to. find the cause, but of the remaining 83, 18 were assign- ! ed to spontaneous combustion. Spontaneous fires, which break out 'in barns where hay is stored, are due to fermentation." Fermentation is due | to the growth and rapid multiplica-i tion of bacteria which feed upon the organic matter of the hay and rapidly develop when moisture is present, and the material and the enclosed air are not too cold. ceeds slowly the results are blackened and charred masses which are ocea- | sionally found in the interior of stacks, manure heaps, ete. With the right degree a sufficiency. of air to provide the bac- teria with the necessary oxygen, the growth of the bacteria is rapid, more and more heat is generated until, i © the hay is in a confined and poorly ventilated space, the temperature 'is reached at which the gases pr take fire, and the stack and. build in 'which it is stored is burned" though it maybe "weeks; or "even. onths before the firing occurs. ~The initial and essential cause of 'these. cases of spontaneous combustion is | the storage of the hay in a damp or moist condition. Jano The most obvious preventive is be sure the hay .is thoroughly cu before storing in the bi 'cially should cares be taken falfa and with other hay con large percentage of cl If the process pro- HA of moisture present and.