v Am W jWli ages from the Editors Notebook Visitors from the city to the country are often heard to re mark after looking down the quiet streets whatever do you do in the country with your spare time Often enough the answer is that there is no spare time in the country There is always something to do around the house or the farm- But when the country people do get away from the there is occupation aplenty for those who want it A glance over the coming events in this paper is proof enough of that And the situation is no dif ferent in Newmarket England We noticed in our contempor arys editorial column the fol lowing people consider country life dull but at the an nual meeting of the Horticultural Society Sir Kenneth Mitchell caused amusement when he said There is so much on in that it seems the only way to live the quiet life is to go and live in London- We have received from New market England a copy of the book Royal Newmarket a his tory of our sister town The book is our share of an ex change of gifts at Christmas time and very much appreciat ed And are grateful too to the Newmarket editor for his in sending us the article which appeared on the front page last week on how the news of the death of the King reached his town That letter took only four days to arrive and reached us well in time for publication We have heard frequent ex pressions of the pleasure de rived from the overseas letters by our readers and have noted that Newmarket England finds interest in our own re turn mail We join Mr Jef freys recently hope that through these exchanges the people of the two are beginning to know each other Certainly our English coun terpart has promised a warm welcome for any Newmarket Ontario people who chance their way a welcome we are sure would be returned here We all live pretty close to one another in fee country and it makes for easy communica tion with our neighbors so it is not surprising that a bit of news passes around the four corners with startling speed Unfortunately human nature being what it is what starts out as a perfectly story becomes garbled and ex aggerated in direct proportion to the number of people who repeat it A case in point is the recent rumor from Holland landing way that a couple of black bears were sighted north of the park We made a few enquiries and eventually- uncovered this ver sion of the report A hunter a while back shot a bear up north and sent the skin and head to Goodwins Tannery for tan ning The tannery removed the skull and tossed it out on the rubbish heap dogs found the skull and periodical ly dragged it out for inspection and tasting The kids talked about the skull The skull in time became a whole bear then a live bear and finally two live bears Now it is just possible that there were two black bears north of the Landing It is Just possible that someone did see them But the other version of the story seems closer to fact Thats always one of the big disappointments about rumor When tracked down the facts are not nearly so attractive Its a point to remember though the next time you hear something extraspecial about the doings next door Just la be on the safe side divide a rumor by two and then subtract one half from the other and youre as close to the truth as you can be From the Files of and 50 Years Aao FEBRUARY The new York County hospi tal was destroyed by fire on Monday evening The build ing was completion and the loss was insur ance This is a severe blow to the York County hos pital board A number of Office Specially formed a theatre party that went to the city last Sat urday afternoon The winter will soon be over Nov is the time to hunt up the catalogues and plan for spring work For the best essays on the British North America Act the Ontario Womens Liberal Association offer prizes Virginia The party on Island was a great success last Wednesday The night could not have been tetter for crossing the lake and the roads were so that cars cutters and sleighs could go so it made an overflowing hall Everyone reports a good time Vandorf The fourth is a very busy line these days with teams hauling gravel for the roads and farmers getting ice want more at our singing class held each Tuesday evening in the hall Come and bring another one with you The York County hospital board has not been able to get a with the insurance yet but it was expected that something definite would he readied last night It is their intention to rebuild hut plans are indefinite I The bloom of the house bulbs is very cheerful these days Have you got any THERE WILL FEBRUARY The roads are still in a had condition Eight loads of wood upset last week within tvo miles of Newmarket The championship hockey match at Hamilton last week must have been one of the hardest fought matches of the season five or six of the New market team out of seven players were completely used up and unable to do anything for several days to say nothing of Milt who was pain- fully injured in the back and unable to return home with the team from Hamilton There is every indication of this being an excellent maple sugar season Mount Albert You Newmar ket folk cant crow any more about early rhubarb John Al exander of burg had rhu barb grown this year with stalks inches long On St Valentines day his housekeep er made a pie thereof From the ads Fresh pork to He per lb G Knowles the cheapest place in town for fresh meats There seems to be no let up to the cold this winter Twelve below zero again last Saturday morning The roads are still in a very bad condition Pitch holes deep enough to bury a horse in are on the between here and Sharon Mr Arthur upset three times in bringing a load of hay to Mount Albert from Holt A skating carni val is to he held in the rink here on Wednesday evening Feb BE AN ENGLAND am Serving Avrora rural districts of North York Tito Era Publish ovory Thursday at Main St by and Express limited for two poor for in Singh cop of Class A of Canada Canadian Association and the Axtdif Bureau of Cfreufafion Authorized as Class Mail Post Office Ottawa JOHN A CAtrXINf ION Worn Sports RACINE Mb PAGE PAGE FOUR THURSDAY THE TWENTYFIRST DAY OF FEBRUARY NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTYTWO WORKING TOGETHER The Township of Whitchurch planning board has shown again its keen awareness of the need for group action in its invitation to representatives of the 14 northern municipalities to discuss common planning problems Not long ago the township board addressed public notices to neighboring municipalities on the need for intermunicipal planning Now the board has narrowed its objectives to a discussion of conservation recreation municipal planning and land use problems and proposes to discuss these matters at a meeting in Vandorf Hall next Friday The advantages of such discussions are immedi ately obvious The municipalities Vaughan and townships and north are pretty much of a unit within the county They are semirural commun ities for tlie most part Their populations are indivi dually smaller than those to the south Their problems are pretty much the same AH of them are expanding the urban municipalities into the rural municipalities the latter experiencing the development of new urban centres There is a need here for collective planning if this growth is to be orderly and economical and if measures are to be taken now to provide for park space and proper proportions of industrial residential and agricultural development But such a meeting has a deeper significance The amalgamation by Toronto of its immediate neighbors is yet to he settled Should the city proceed those same 14 municipalities will be in their turn a county unit It is to their advantage that they learn early to work together upon the solution of their common issues And it is not a bad thing at all that the municipal ities with so much in common but so at odds with the rest of the county have a chance to know each other better Even though Toronto remain confined to its present borders a certain amount of solidarity in the north would be an advantage in settling some of the county issues These municipalities have already had some experi ence in working together Eleven of them administer a county health unit Three other groups work together on conservation commissions They share among them selves several high school areas And there is room for still other combinations working together on the solution of common problems Meetings such as that proposed by Whitchurch were unthought of even ten years ago They are necessary Unlay It is to Whitchurchs credit that they have taken the lead in this instance STANDARD ASSESSMENT Should the seaway development become the channel to the ocean that it is hoped it will the general con sensus is that York county will undergo a period of development unprecedented in its history But if that development were to begin tomorrow it would f the county in a sorry state to cope with it The basis upon which any development must rest is laud assessment and there is not yet a uniform standard of assessment among the municipalities in the county There are encouraging signs that such standardi zation may come about but there is a long way to travel yet In the northern municipalities there are indica tions that a standard county assessment is being given a lively consideration and in some instances early establishment of the system is virtually assured But the system can not be fully effective until all adopt it In the meantime as the municipalities work in creasingly together and begin to share costs for common projects the differences in assessment are a source of friction As encouraging as such meet ings like that proposed by the Whitchurch Township planning board to discuss common planning problems a fair sharing of costs can hardly achieved while disparities in assessment exist And one municipality cannot be exacted to help finance anothers contribu tion It is in the interest of every municipality to review its assessment and maintain it tip to standards parable with its neighbors An uptodate assessment is a municipalitys major asset A rundown assess ment costs taxpayers money reduces municipal budgets limits municipal services Municipalities particularly in York county have undergone considerable develop ment since tlie war They face possibility of still further growth They will be unable to keep apace that growth if they are not well grounded financially BURR UNDER THE BELLYBAND It has been charged against contributors to this page and we fear ourselves that we are inclined to be too critical that we are quick to pounce on what we believe to be the errors of the occasion and slow to give credit when credit is so obviously due And on behalf of those contributors and ourselves we must plead guilty to the charge but always with reservations that editorial privilege that sometimes permits us to sound off even when we are not too certain of our argument The fact is that we have always looked to an edi torial page as a means of criticism rather than a source of praise With a little coaxing one can always find a willing praisegiver but the critic has a thankless task and he is accordingly in the minority We contend that human nature being what it is the critic unspar ing though he may be is a very necessary part of society particularly in this age of the gladhand and the press agent Mind you there is the kind of critic whose beg leave to disagree is only an excuse for ranting and tubthumping and we will join you all in a dislike of that species Heaven forbid we be ever guilty of such poor judgment But pending a default lets leave it for someone else to provide the carrot and when that doesnt work well be the burr under the bellyband THE REAL ISSUE The hog producers took a sad knock when the price of hogs tumbled a few days ago and the blow was hardly softened when it could be demonstrated that the break in the market was not caused by any of the normal effects of supply and d a d but by a method of marketing which allows manipulation Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the York County Hog Producers listened with general approval to Mr Charles proposals for a central hog marketing agency which by imposing orderly marketing would stabilize prices Mr is the president of the Ontario Hog Producers and is a speaker of some note But his eloquence was not really needed the facts he presented were enough to convince many of the producers that a hog marketing agency controlled by producers themselves was the only answer to present methods which give the packers every advantage and deprive the farmer of a free market We know of no alternative to the proposed hog marketing agency its method of operation is sim plicity itself All ho would be marketed through the agency Price would be set on competitive bidding at the stockyards If there was a surplus of hogs the agency would remove them from the market and attempt to dispose of Ihcm elsewhere in Montreal perhaps or across the border It is as Mr MucGinnis minted out nothing more than a planned sales program no different in its a than that followed by manufacturing industry However as inviting as such a proposal seems and particularly at this moment it seems to us that estab lishment of a marketing agency poses a deeer question Controlled marketing sooner or later requires controlled production The sales program of industry would he impossible if industry was unable to control its pro duction If prices wore stabilized hog production would increase despite the action of feed prices setting of standards incidence of disease and similar factors The time may come when there are more hogs than the market can stand or the marketing agency dispose of Wlion that time comes the agency must consider means of regulating hog production The producer must then content to accept the direction of the agency The agricultural producer has traditionally insisted upon determining his own production question it seems to us that hog producers must settle is not marketing agency but whether they are pre pared to accept the possibility of directed or controlled production issue is not immediate to bo sure But establishment of a hog marketing agency makes the decision inevitable The producer must ask himself whether the advantages of stable markets worth disadvantages of possible controlled production not master mt offoinsf on in not function of to mi and national It which rmt Off ice Cat Reports Catnips By Ginger More people should eat sea food It would help out our na tional economy Most of us realize What rare dishes we tan get from the sea like oysters lobsters scallops and seaweed only they call it or something A- lot of people down in the Newfoundland out in BC work hard to fish this stuff and the least we can do is to eat it once in a while These people who fish have to make a living remember an old salt say ing one time If it werent for cod liver oil and Scotts Emul sion and Fridays we wouldnt be all So Canadians should take heed and eat more fish to bolster an important part of the national economy And if you dont like fish food learn to I once didnt like dill pickles but all of a sudden I learned to like em when I tried them with raw onion and raw groundup beefsteak sand wiches all a matter of com binations and permutations You sit down a table with oysters In front of you Grant ed they may look like some sort of bottled specimens on the shelves of a pathology labora tory but as I said its all a mat ter of what you get used to Oysters come in the shell or out of the shell You need a few tools to eat them in the shell or half shell such as a hammer and chisel A pick and shovel is more in the line of required equip ment when you have lobster in the shell but when you get into it its good Cant say the same about oysters Dont ever try to chew oysters They have the texture of the sole of an old rubber boot which lias been water logged for a couple of seasons with some gravel still embedded in the bottom layers Scallops Now theres a sea food for you providing you dont look at them before they cooked Now to cook scal lops you need a deepfry because you deep fry them why you need a deepfry par Before they axe cooked lops look something like clams without shells on but most scallop never see them that way they eat them they are nice crispybrown the scallops tl is Yes its better not to at them before they are cook- in fact any sea food lover tell the untutored newcomer the small circle of sea food perts not to look at them On youve acquired the enthusias though it doesnt matter sight wiU deter you from fruit of the briny deep Ever eat dulce Slim gens was a fisherman down in New Brunswick On you dont fish because isnt a fish You harvest it reap it or something like at least you take it from sea Its a sort of a sea weed is good for you the say It keeps you from goitre and some other rare sease which nobody ever seem to have When you eat it dried I always got the impres slon of chewing dried leave you might rake off the lawn it the fall I dont really enjoy dulce A lot of people do though chew on it and smack their lips and try to smile but all the their faces are screwed up like prunes When you eat its something like tossing back a handful of salt with a little- iodine In it and a dash of tract of livers dried Thats why I think Canadians should cat more sea food Its a Canadian product and once you get the public sea food con- scious theyll really go over- board for it Already many of our large cities have more fine large sea food restaurants than they ever used to have More columnists should push these ocean products like I am doing by Dairy Farmef We attended the York County Hog Producers meeting the other day and listened while the president of the Ontario association presented the case for a marketing agency for hogs It was an able and color ful presentation of the situation and the underlying reasoning was familiar to us all It was proven to the audi ence that the fluctuations brought about by present way of marketing hogs were to the packers ability to turn to their advantage a me- of marketing they have encouraged He pointed out the injustice of the present way of setting prices and the disad vantages resulting from mar keting hogs by Kissing the stockyards where buyer and seller meet and where compe titive bidding should take pi nee He went on from there and outlined the advantage of the proposed agency He pointed out that if a marketing board was set up and all hogs were sold by this body nil the pro cessors would have to bid on their total requirements it was pointed out very rightfully that farmers ere always ahead in their knowledge of producing and backward In their marketing ways He sufi- guiMted that producers should adopt the technique used by the manufacturing in dustries of having a sales policy and marketing policy Wo spellbound listening to this able speaker the kind of speaker too rare these days He knows what he is driving at and has the figures and the data to back up his contentions Inevitably the question came from floor Should we pro duce more hogs or should wo produce less To our utter dis may answer was we should breed one sow less and have about percent fewer hogs to market We are utterly amazed the shortsighted and downright narrow view that a policy of scarcity should be adopted in order to maintain prices We are wondering if the growers of any agricultural product realize the full implications of such thinking First because the ultimate profit depends on the most per unit and not the selling price It a farmer is equipped to grow certain number of hogs and cuts down to maintain prices overhead will change very little His investment in build ings land etc will still be the same His taxes will stay the same His labor cost will not change In other words his cost per unit marketed will go up Secondly this policy seems futile because in producing pork we produce a commodity which can be substituted for by other meat and growers of beef and of poultry products will be only too glad to increase their production to take tip the slack left by too expensive pork Thirdly it is a foolish sug gestion it is impossible and can never be enforced un less the marketing agency is given authority to buy one mans hog and not his neigh bors Hut what about the long term outlook Every day this country has new Cana dians settling in it Our own domestic market is increasing at a tremendous rate As countrys population increases the food supply has to increase too There is no danger that the market will be flooded As the countrys population in creases Industry will give us cheaper products because their cost per unit is decreasing Being able to produce more for the increased population will increase our profits too By taking advantages of the expanding economy of our day we can increase our net re turns by increasing our produc tion Narrowminded scarcity thinking will lose money I a E H TOWN BvSTANLI