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the tribune stouffville ont thursday january 31 1952 bicycles are still the principal mode of travel in the british isles by cwrge abell stool vule we have been on the subject of hobbies and how people spend their leisure time in this country for the last two weeks and before i go on to something new there are a few other points that per haps may prove of interest one is the much greater amount of walking and outdoor exercise indulged in by the average adult in the greatest part of the country economic reasons have a lot to do with it for only reasonably well to do people can afford to own and operate a motor car probably not more than one houe in ten in the whole british isles has a garage but the places without a bicycle shed in the back garden are few and far between you have never seen bicycles on the roads till you come to europe and while eng land has not nearly as many per thousand population as holland or denmark she cannot be very far behind pupils and teachers alike ride their bikes to school and it seems as if every one who works in every factory must use them for the cycle parks outside some are quite a size when i first came over here i was trying to get a job at fords mammoth car and tractor plant at dagenham the plant itself is as big as anything id ever seen before but the cycle parking sheds must cover at least ten acres and are as big as the tractor assembly lines sheds no i didnt get a job there were lots open there but they were all the wrong kind you had to work at themt its no social disgrace here for a woman to ride a bike downtown to shop or fetch junior either that may have some bearing on the fact that women have such mar vellous complexions here and you never see a blemish spot or sallow face alright girls take it out on the editor i only write this stuff but he is brave enough to print it and besides look how much closer he is to you than i am she cer tainly has no parking worries while using her bike the young folk belong to various cycling clubs and not having cars to roar around in weekends are quite happy to go on cycling trips through the country and stay j at youth hostels overnight where an old fashioned siag song around the fire in the evening is the order of the day the next step above the com mon or garden variety of bicycle is the mechanized mouse which is a bicycle with one of the half dozen types of little poppop motors hung on it somewhere they seem to be everywhere like a bad smell in this country and you see some wierd and wonderful types sailing along on them as if they had war admiral under them instead of little bits of iron that may fall to jffeces any moment there was a base and vile rumour around town last summer that winston had been seen up on the downs one morning on one watch ing some of his horses work out but think it must have been start ed by clement attlee there are all sizes and kinds of motor cycles from the little skooters up to four cylinder ones that cost as much as a car and go twice as fast motorcycle racing is very popular not only in stadiums by professionals but is participated in by great numbers of young fellows who ride week ends in meets called trials which are held over the wildest hilliest muddiest and wettest paths and tracks that can be found the boys treat their bikes with loving care and as they mostly are good mechanics the machines are in the best of condition all the time two lads about hi who go in for lw were talking in a cafe behind me one day and they certainly blind ed me with science one was going to take the camshaft out of his machine and cut a higher lift on the cams on his own lathe the other one had some plan to intens ify the induction potential of the coil or something horrible like that those kids will be flying atom powered rockets to the moon before long if they are not careful but how many young fellows do you know who would think it was fun sliding around muddy hills on a motorbike all day sunday and then ride forty miles home in the fog probably none although no doubt there are some over there now from here so watch out in the whitchurch sandhills next sum mer for they really travel but its when you get into cars that the real difference between the mad english and the stolid canadians show up rube goldberg in his wildest imagination could never have dreamed up some of the cars that are driven all the time on the roads here great big roadsters with no mudguards or tops are common and plenty of people make their own cars theres three wheelers and ive even seen one with live wheels but as i couldnt tell back from front i dont know which end the three wheels were on motor racing is very popular and the midget racers which use a one cylinder motorcycle engine are owned by many sportsmen they travel at 90 to 120 miles per hour and are not the safest cars in the world to drive the great disappointment since ive been here is the british racing motor or hrm as it is called a million dollars has been poured into this car in the last few years and it always breaks down in the race as the germans and italians have by far the worlds fastest lacing cars the people here are tired of excuses about the brm and really want it to do its stuff next summer but what ever the brm does the sporting i fraternity will be racing their cars motorcycles and bicycles all over the place each weekend and whoever wins the sentiments al ways will be jolly good show old man well done by the losers and thev mean every word st peters cathedral in rome is the largest in the world goodwood potato grower urges a review of the grading system ontarios potato growers were advised this week on how to make murphy a better vegetable meeting at the ontario crop im provement association convention in toronto they considered a pro duction program to meet ontarios needs the program topped by a pro posal to discuss with other pro vinces establishment of a worlds championship in potatoes to be held at the royal winter fair took in all phases of the potato in dustry as far back as the days when they sold for 23 cents a bag planned production to meet known markets was the answer said edgar hewitt of simcoe for even as little as five per cent over production will deprive us of any chance to get our products worth the growers got some advice too from people who peel the product marian wright home economist with the ontario department of agriculture said women want po tatoes that are firm and clean well- shaped and uniform in size a review of the system of grad ing and inspection was urged bv ii harper of goodwood j b gran- ham president of the potato sec tion advised growers to concen trate on the quality of crops after mr hewitt had specified the most practical action was to use low- grade potatoes for stock feed and send top quality to market national health week health league of canada in cooperation with health departments space contributed in the service by john labatt limited of the community cxx ontario county folk school ontario countys second folk school was held recently at the farm home of mr and mrs william pegg three miles north of greenwood under the leadership of clare burt provincial secretary of farm forum rural young people from a number of com munities availed themselves of this opportunity of working and playing together for a few days the first afternoon was an in formal getacquainted period with instruction in leathercraft by the resident leader and in weaving by beatrice mclean mr burt spoke of the history of the folk school movement in our province he pointed out that we have adapted some of the ideas from- the danish folk high schools apply ing them to our own situation where we are conducting short- term folk schools the activities of each day began with a worship service prepared by the students or participants as they prefer to be called through work groups everyone assisted the school mother mrs i il mclean with the household duties the discussions of various topics were interspersed by recrea tion and crafts during the lively discussion on the topic coop principles it was decided that nominating by ballot as well as electing by ballot is one democratic way of getting an active board of directors rather than open nominations from the floor the statement that the board should be made up of all men was strongly questioned our municipal government set up was discussed from many angles we should let the local council know what we want done or not done by sending delega tions if we must criticize make it constructive criticism why farm forum we can make our forums effective in our communities by dealing with our problems in the small discussion groups on questions needing action at government level the federation of agriculture can act on the farm forum findings other discussions periods in cluded are we using the press and the influence of radio it was decided that of all the med iums of information and commun ication available in our modern world the radio probably has the greatest influence but the press- is a very close second individuals or groups should commend a news paper or radio station when we read or hear something of out standing interest all our letters shouldnt be about our dislikes a naturestudy hike was conduct ed in uxbridge forest another enjoyable session was one dealing with an appreciation of the vis ual arts from among the many copies of famous paintings which were on display throughout the school each person was asked to choose one and later tell the story of the artist and painting sunday morning the participants leaders and hosts attended the greenwood united church where the service was in charge of rev h r monkman in the afternoon the group went to the studios of station cklb oshawa where two tape recordings were made of folk school activities following the closing banquet an evaluation session brought the folk school to a conclusion the ontario county federations of agriculture financed seventy- five per cent of the fourday school which was open to rural young people from anywhere in the county retail grocery sales in canada during the first quarter of 1951 were up hifi per cent over the same period of 1950 tttt rsccecasaaae wm kn a pp painting and wall papering also drapes made phone 172w aurora m m m l market prices paid for deadstock horses cattle hogs tftfphome couect stouffvillr 235 toronto km 33030 gordon young limited