The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], June 29, 1913, MAGAZINE SECTION, Image 50

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

Image provided by: University of Alabama Libraries, Tuscaloosa, AL

                
Mexico's Indians Number Millions and Millions
MEXICO CITY.
THE red man is a more serious prob
lem in Mexico than the black man
is in the United States. This coun
try has over 15,000.000 people, and of these
Jess than 3.000,000 are whites. There are
about 6,000,000 pure 'Indians and 6.000.000
more who are red men, more or less
crossed with the whites.
The pure Indians are practically unedu
cated. and ttiis is largely so of the mixed
breeds. The greater part of them were
lor years in little more than debt slavery,
and today some millions of Wiem are
mere hewers of wood and drawers of
water on the estates of the rich haclen
dadoes. Some work in the towns and
others live in villages, maintaining many
of the customs of centuries ago.
Within the past few years Mr. Freder
ick Starr has been making studies of tn
'Mexican Indians. He has traveled from
here across the country down to Guate
mala. City, visiting the various tribes and
taking measurements of their heads,
busts and of other parts of their figures.
He has photographed thousands of them
and has made plaster casts of many. A
part of his travels was through the
mountains of southern Mexico, where he
found mgny Indian villages, each vil
lage being a little republic. He found
many new tribes and also many descend
ants of the ancient peoples who inhabited
Mexico during the days of Montezuma.
It is through his researches and those of
other ethnologists that the authorities
here are studying the great political prob
lems which confront them.
Fifty-One Different Languages
They now know that there are scores ot
different Indian tribes in Mexico, and that
each has its peculiarities. In 1864 one of
the chief scientists of the republic, Don
Manuel Orozco y Barra, foffiid that there
were fil different Indian languages, and,
In addition, about 69 dialects. He di
vided these languages into 11 different
families, and it was later shown that
nearly all of these Indians had used ideo
graphs and employed them in communi
cating thought.
One of the best known of the Indian
races is the Aztecs. It was the ruling
race at the time Cortez came ami there
ore millions of it on the plateau today.
The Aztec civilization has been so pic
tured by Prescott that many think that
it is about the only race of Indians in
Mexico. The truth is that the Aztecs got
ttie most of their civilization from tbs
Toltecs, whom they conquered when they
came hero from the north. They got
their religion from them, and also their
calendar and architecture. The Toltecs
built the pyramids of Mexico, and either
they or a branch of this race, known as
tin Mayans, constructed the wonderful
cities of Yucatan and those of Guate
mala as well. 1 have already written of
the ruins of Quirlgua in the Motagua
valley, not far front the Caribbean sea In
Guatemala, which our archeologists are
row excavating. They are t Ho remains
of temples built by the Mayans, who are
supposed to have gone there from Mexico
centuries ago.
The. Aztecs called themselves Mexicans
and it is from them that we get the name
Mexico. Their descendants are numerous
todav, but are largely peons who work
for the whites, it is from them that the
rank and tile of the soldiers are recruited.
The Miztecas and Zapotecas
Among the other Indians who have to
he reckoned with, in the Mexico to come,
are the Zapotecas and the Miztecas.
Both of these races are noted for their
intelligence, and they have already given
Mexico some of its ablest men. Benito
Juarez, for years the president of the
republic, was a full-blooded Zapotecas,
and President Portirio Diuz bad Miztoca
blood in his veins. These tribes are now
found on the southern slopes of the cen
tral plateaus. You may see them in
Pueblo, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Morelos. It
is said -that their ancestors date back
to the time when Mitla, Xochicalco and
Zaachlla were built. The Zapotecas were
never subdued by the Aztecs, and they
are now growing in independence right
along. There are a great many of them
*••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••'
By FRANK G. CARPENTER
Top—Girl of Tehuantepec In Church Costume. Bottom—Young Aztecs, a Vital Part of Mexico's Future.
Snapshot at a Station
Two Indians From Vera Cruz
in Oaxaca, a state whose population is
fully nine-tenths Indian. Some are to b%
found on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
where the women are noted for their pic
turesqueness and for their independent
ways.
The Girls of Tehuantepec
Indeed, the girls of Tehuantepec ari
among the beauties of the North Amer
ican continent. They are as straight as
a royal palm tree and their forms "are
beautifully rounded. They have olive
skins, black hair and eyes and teeth as
white as lime freshly slaked. Their or
dinary costume is a jacket and skirt, the
former having short sleeves and cut very
low at the neck, so that it exposes their
beautiful shoulders and arms. The jacket
reaches almost to the waist and a strip
of bare skin usually shows between it
and the skirt.
The skirt makes one think of that of
the Burmans. It consists of a strip of
red cloth several yards long. This is
wrapped tightly around the hips and.
tucked in at the waist. In addition to
this every woman has a huipil for Sun
days and feast days. The huipil is a lace
decoration of enormous size, which is
worn as a sort of headdress. It Incloses
the face or it may extend around the
neck or hang down from the head at the
back like tlie war plumes of a Comanche
chief. On dress occasions the girls wear
also full skirts, which are often heavily
embroidered with lace.
These women do much of the work.
They are thrifty and accumulative. They
are fond of gold jewelry and like espe
cially ornaments made of American twen
ty-dollar gold pieces. Girls may be fre
quently seen thus wearing a small for
tune in gold double eagles, although their
feet may be bare.
The Ruins of Mitla
The most famous ruins of this tribe lie
within 25 miles to the southeast of Oax
aca City. They are about 300 miles south
of the Mexican capital and one can go
there by train in less than r day. There
are fairly good hotels at Oaxaca, and
from there one can reach the ruins by
carriage in five or six hours. Or he can
go by train to San Pablo in an bout
and a half and stop at the hotel there.
In the latter case he will be right at
the ruins and ran easily spend a day
or so in moving about through them.
The ruins are those of the ancient city
of Mitla. They are of great extent, and
the Indians say that under them lie the
chambers wherein are stored the treas
ures of the ancient Zapoteca kings. Some
of the ruins are striking. The hall of the
monoliths, for instance, has walls live
feet thick and columns of enormous size.
The lintels over the entrances are solid
blocks of stone 18 feet long, four feet
high and live feet thick, and the pillars
are porphyry, rising 14 feet from the
floor and extending, it is said, six feet
below it. They are as big around as a
whisky barrel.
Next this is the salon of the Monoliths,
which is 100 feet long and 20 feet wide.
Its walls are 10 feet in height, and it has
a floor of cement. The decorations of
Mitla make yo uthink of Pompeii. Some
of the floors are in mosaics, and many
of the structures are wonderfully carved
reminding one of the crumbling temples
and fort at Delhi in India.
Strange Indians of Northern Mexico
Some of the most interesting of the
Mexican tribes live in the northern part
of the country* Chihuahua 1ms, for in
stance. the Casas Grandes, which lie near
the railroad on the way from Juarez to
Terrazas. These Casas correspond some
what to the homes of our cave dwellers,
save that they were built on the level
and were of vast extent. They were, in
short, the first apartment houses on
record. The chief building is 800 feet long
from north to south, and 200 feet wide
from west to east, covering an area of
almost five? acres. It seems to have con
sisted of three separate piles, united to
lower buildings. The apartments varied
in size, and the walls in places were 40
or 50 feet high, indicating that the build
ings were in ruins at the time of the
Spanish conquest, and very little is
known of the people who built them, al
though some suppose them to date back
to the Moquis.
Some Cave Dwellers of Mexico
In Chihuahua we have the Tarahumares
Indians, some of whom still live in caves,
and who are sometimes known as t'he
American cave dwellers. Similar homes
are to be found in the Sierra Madre
ir.buntains, the entrances being protected
against the weather and wild beasts by
stone or mud walls. Some of the caves
are very large, and are reached by lad
ders, or by stairways cut out inside the
he uses. Others of the houses are of stone
and some are of adobe, with roofs of
thatch.
The Tarahumares, both women and
men, are noted lor their long, flowing,
jet black hair. The men pull out all the
hairs from their faces. They say thnt
whiskers are a sign of wickedness, and
they believe that the devil has always a
beard. These people are said to be me
greatest runners on record, and instances
are known of where men have run 170
miles without stopping. They go on a
slow trot, and keep it up for hours. The
women can run as fast and as well as
the men, and both men and women have
moonlight races and other athletic sports.
They sometimes race by torchlight.
The Pima Indians, who are found in the
same locality, are much like the Tara
w
A Red Faced Child of the Cactus
humaree and the Tepehuannes. Another
tribe nearby iet their finger and toe nails
grow, in Chinese fashion. They say that
cutting off the nails will produce blind
ness, and that if a girl sucks the back
bone of a deer her hack will grow curved
and she will have the backache. These
tribes are noted for their chastity, those
who fall from grace being publicly
switched.
The Huicholes of Tepic
Among the least known Indians of
Mexico are some in the territory of
Tepic, which lies 'on the west coast,
surrounded by Jalisco, Durango and
SStnaloa. Here live the Huicholes, whom
the Mexicans call the barbarians. They
have little to do with the present trou
bles, and do not want anything but to
be let alone. They have their homes in
the fastnesses of the mountains and
are so warlike that it was a hundred
years before the Spaniards were able
to conquer them. They are nominally
converted to Christianity, but they aro
practically barbarians and are said to
be Christians only when favors aro tu
be obtained. Many of thorn are hunt
ers, and they snare deer in nets
stretched between poles.
Some of the Huicholes look much
like the Chinese, and this reminds me
that I have seen many Japanese and
Chinese faces among the Mexican in*
dlans. It may be that a part of the an
cient population drifted over from Asia
across Bering strait and came down
here through our country. The Huich
oles have a wicker chair which is just
like the Chinese cane chair now in use
and they employ it in their religious
ceremonies. It may be that the custom
of wearing long nails which I have
mentioned came, also from China.
The Huicholes are about five and one
half feet high, and their women are
very good looking. They wear short
skirts and tunics of cotton cloth which
they weave upon their own looms. The
legs are left bare and the skirt is
caught in at the waist by a girdle. The
girdle, like the obi of Japan, Is moro
costly than any other part of tlie dress.
The women wear necklaees and they
have beads in their ears.
The Iluichole houses each contain
but one room and the entrance is low
and small like that of the Eskimo igloo.
The houses are circular and they are
made of stone with thatched roofs. Tin
idols are kept in eaves In the hills.
These people make beautiful blankets
and they do fine embroidery. They have
many queer customs. Marriages are
made by the parents. The babies do not
‘•reop, but they crawl about on all fours
like a monkey until they are able to
sta nd.
^ Not far from the llulcholes live the
Coras, of whom only about 2600 remain.
These Indians claim to have come from
the east and they look not unlike Oo
reans. They have features much like
the Anglo-Saxons and they consider
themselves better than the other tribes
about.
The Coras marry at 15 and the wom
en keep their beauty a long time, al
though their lives are very insanitary.
Their houses have no ventilation niul
they bury their dead in eaves.
Among the Tarascans
Frederick Starr estimates that there
arc still a quarter of a million of pure
Tarascan Indians in Mexico. Many of
these people are found about LakePatz
cuaro. in the state of Miehoacan, where
was once situated Tzuntzinzoon, a great
Tarascan city. Tile name sounds like
Chinese. This town was visited by the
Spaniards in 1522 and they wrote of its
civilization and arts. They told of the
wonderful feather work, for which the
people arc noted today; of their moth*,
er-of-pearl and bon© carvings, and of
their skill in enameling.
Here we again see a similarity be
tween the Mexican Indian and the Chi
nese. in southern China is produced a
kind of bird wing enamel in which the
wings of the bluejuy and humming bird
are employed. The Tarascans do mucli
the same work, getting their material*
from the humming birds of Mexico, of
which there are 50 different kinds, hav
ing feathers of every shape and color,
running from sea green to emerald and
from straw color to a ilery red.
The Tarascans have a tradition which
corresponds to our deluge. Their Noah
was called Tespi, and when the Hoods
came he made a great boat and filled it
with animals and birds. As the waters
subsided he sent forth a vulture, but
it remained away, feeding on the dead
bodies which then covered the high
lands. Finally a humming bird was
sent forth, ami it came back with a leaf
in its mouth.
I am told that most of the Tarascans
still worship idols, and that every
farmer has one burled in each field,
with the idea that it will keep the
birds and other thieves away from tin*
crops. Others of the Indians are Cath
olics, and 'they make long pilgrimages
to the various shrines. Many of them
come to Guadalupe to worship. Ac
cording to their old religion they
prayed to the southern cross, and
looked upon the sun as their father.
Today they object to doing business
after sunset, and are terrified at the
time of an eclipse, which, they say,
will give one the harelip.
The Tarascans believe in the evil eye,
and they carry charms to ward off its
effects. They do not like to be photo
graphed, and would rather have strang
ers say evil things about their children
than good things. The same is true of
some of the people of Palestine.
Queer Customs of Love and Marriage
I hear strange stories about the mar
riage customs of these Indians. They
are said to believe in love charms, and
think the dried little finger of a dead
man will surely bring luck. It takes
the place of the rabbit foot of the
south. Near Lake Patzcuaro the chief
place of courtship, is at the spring, and
the lover watches for his sweetheart
to go there to bring water. When he
sees her lie catches hold of her rebosa !
or shawl, and refuses to let go until
she says yes. If she does so. he smashes
the jar of water which she has on her
head, so that it falls over her, and
her girl friends thereupon give her a
new jar with which she can carry the
water home. The next day the man
takes a load of wood to the door of his
sweetheart's home, and if this is ac
cepted the match is complete. She then
comes to his house, and he gives her a
bouquet of yellow flowers, which color
is supposed to bring luck.
••••••••••■•••••■•••••••••••••••a*******************
Feminism's Triumphs In Russia
!
(Copyright, 1913, by Curtis Brown.)
ST. PETERSBURG, June 21.—(Spe
cial.)—Minister of rublic Instruc
tion Casso is in deep distress be
cause his four years’ attempt to stem
the tide of women's higher education
has failed. The national enthusiasm for
women as doctors, lawyers, teachers,
scholars, architects and engineers has
proved too strong for him; and now the
imperial duma, ordinarily not a progres
sive body, lias championed the cause of
■women and of equal rights with men.
The cause has not yet earned all its
logical fruits, and women's practical tri
umphs in the domain of medicine and
pedagogy have not been repeated else
where. While legislators have sanctioned
tlie teaching of law to women at uni
versities, the servile senate, under com
pulsion from M. Casso, and his fellow
thinker, Schteglovitoff, has ruled that
women lawyers may hot practice. Simi
larly the state claims that as engineers
they may practice only in subordinate
capacities. Despite this, the triumphs
.which women have gained here during
tlie past two years puts them far ahead
of women elsewhere In Europe; and fem
inists are in an exulting mood, and wait
only tlie downfall of Casso in order to
get the remnant of their demands.
As a result of duma initiative, govern
ment surrenders and feminist enthusiasm,
women are now getting higher education
in every important specialty which is
open to man. In medicine Russian wom
en have always led. At present both
os regards education and as regards prac
ticing they are on a level with men.
Their legal duties and prospects of state
employment are the same as those of
men. Russia has now nearly 3000 women
doctors, and in addition 10,000 dimplo
jiiaed "feldschers" or doctors' assistants,
and of course a host of midwives and
trained nurses. In law women have Just
gained the success of being allowed to
study in the Juristic faculties of the
universities. Altogether there are 187 girl
law students and 40 girl lawyers. These
lawyers are trained exactly as men; and
they would be able to practice were it
not for the veto of the senate. However,
they have prospects of getting round the
veto. In Russia a litigant who cannot
pay a lawyer and Is Incompetent him
self to plead can invite any friend or
relative to plead for him, and the new
women lawyers propose to plead In court
mot as lawyers hut merely as friends of
litigants or of accused persons; and in
this way to prove—what nobody doubts—
that In forensic capacity they are equal
to men. Russian women teachers are
trained everywhere, and have equal rights
end compensation wdth men. For would
be women architects and engineers the
position is peculiar. These subjects are
not taught in the universities, but In
Independent technological colleges, to most
of which so far women have not ac
cess. Rut Bt. Petersburg has now special
women’s higher courses for both the
brandies.
Theology is, therefore, the only do
main from which women aspirants are
excluded. The universities have no theo
logical faculties, and grant no degrees of
divinity. All male candidates for priest
hood are educated in priests’ seminaries,
where they live as boarders; and this
makes it impossible for women to claim
admission. Russians have a strong prej
udice against women preachers. The main
obstacle, however, is that practically no
women want to become priests. Women
aspiring to higher education are nearly
all of the specialized “intelligentsiya"
type, who thirst for an active fruitful
life, and look upon the formalistic and
corrupt orthodox church as offering a ca
reer only for the more idle among the
moujiks.
Russian women’s progress in higher ed
ucation is not surprising to those who
know that in admitting women to uni
versities Russia led all Europe. In 1861
Alexalnder IT issued a decree declaring
that “the girls’ gymnasiums (secondary
schools) will prepare girls for the univer
sities, so that in future girls and boys
may enjoy university education in com
mon.’’ At that time no university in Eu
rope had opened its doors to women; and
as a fact progressive Germany did not
do this until 30 years afterward. Alex
ander II’s plan did not come wholly to
fruition. Women’s higher education re
mained in the main restricted to medicine;
and then not In the universities, but In
special “courses,” organized by university
professors, and mostly subsidized by
wealthy friends of demlnism. The
“courses” turned out well educated wom
en doctors, and they created in litera
ture the type of the “coursistka,” the
short haired, spectacled, untidy, violent
ly progressive girl, which is now disap
pearing in a newborn enthusiasm for
sport und soap. In the last years Alex
ander’s initiative has been revived. First
ly, the courses, or women's medical col
lege, founded in 1897, was recognized as
equal to the men’s universities; and given
the right to grant diplomas which have
the same value to applicants for state
employment as the diplomas of men’s uni
versities. The most distinguished profes
sor in the medical college at present is
a woman. This reform did not get passed
until after furious feuds, caused by the
opposition of reactionaries. l*he duina op
position was led by the notorious Kursk
Right deputy, Purishkievitch, who caused
a terrilic scandal by declaring that girls
matriculate at St. Petersburg university
in order to live wit,h students as their
mistresses. Deputies Schubinsky, Count
Uvaroff and many others stood up for
equal rights, and the well known special
ist, G. I. Turner, of the Military Med
ical academy, helped the cause by de
claring that women doctors will be even
more necessary than women nurses on
the battlefields of the future.
By JULIUS OSTMANN
—i i - ■ *■ — —» 1TII.-B f • ^
IiEON CASSO T*mrWW
ItiiMMlnn Minister of I*n... . m Whoae Four Yearn’
Attempt to Stem the Title of \* ouuiii'm Higher Education
lit Csar*M Domain Haw been a Failure.
— AfTTV v ^ w . . lit . i
MADAM ANTO TCHEKHOFF
FninoiiM RiinmIiiii \rtreMN nn«l \ovcll»t'M Widow Who llan
taiveu Three l>arx of Her Stncce KarnliiKx to Advance
tl># lutereNtM of Women In RiimnIm.
Present legislation admits women to
all the university faculties and gives
them equal rights. They can choose the
medical, judicial, philological, philo
sophical or. mathematical faculty, and
attend all lectures. The right of pass
ing a state examination giving a claim
on state employment is so far confined
to the women doctors and lawyers. As
a teacher the university trained women
has far greater rights than the univer
sity trained woman teacher in Germany.
She first gets her doctor’s degree, then
passes a special examination pro fac.
docendi in pedagogy, history of peda
gogy, methodies of pedagogy, and psy
chology, and then has the right to teach
not only in girls’ gymnasiums but also
In boys’. She can become a directress
of a girls’ gymnasium, though not of a
boys’. The duma declared that equal
work deserved equal pay, and voted for
identical salaries for men and women
teachers. This success has been gained
by women nowhere else. Women who
have not been at a university but who
have passed an examination of some
foreign language course are also in fu
ture to receive the samo salaries as
men, and to be allowed to teach both
in boys’ and girls’ schools. Teachers
of this class begin at |50 a month,
which for Russian conditions is very
high. Tiie salary of the average ele
mentary teacher seldom exceeds |12.
Greatest difficulty of all is met with
in organizing the training of women as
architects and engineers, but during the
last few years successes have been
gained. Women are not allowed to
study in most of the technological in
stitutes; and in view of the absence of
technological faculties in the universi
ties they have had to provide training
themselves. At St. Petersburg there
are now women’s courses for architec
ture and engineering with the same
curriculum and tests as have the big
state institutes; and from these courses
are now being turned out ’admirably
equipped women architects and engin
eers, who are doing good work. The
courses were founded in 1909 by Uni
versity Professor Molas, and financed
by a rich woman named Bagayeff.
They began with only 20 students and
now have about 90. The first nine
completed their course of training in
1912, and one of them, an architect, so
succeeded at her examinations and test
work that she has been infited to go to
Germany, where no woman architect
exists. All the remaining 8 at once se
cured employment on such works as
the Ochta bridge across the Neva, the
St. Petersburg tranmways committee,
and in building a skyscraper for the
officers’ co-operative stores. Just now
the women architects and engineers are
having trouble with the government
which denies them the right to prac
tise independently. “You may build
houses for your friends," say the bu
reaucrats, “and you may assist male
practitioners, but you cannot apply for
membership of architects’ and engineers’
associations; and you will not be al
lowed to enter for official competitions
for public buildings and public engi
neering work.” The feminists propose
to fight this decree in the courts, but
they have small prospects of success,
as the senate, which Is the higliest ap
peal instance, always gives judgment
in accord with the government’s wish.
The struggle in the cause of women’s
higher education is still going on.
The cause is backed by the progressive
parties in the duma, and against these
stand the nationalists and the right,
both fanatical anti-feminists. Outside
the legislature the cause is being backed
by the mass of educated men, and also
by many women who personally have
no Interest in the campaign. Russia’s
lawyers, architects and engineers are
almost unanimously in favor of women
being admitted on equal terms. In most
other countries professional men resist
such emancipation for reasons of pock
et, but with Russians progresslsm is
stronger even than self interest and
fear of competition.
Finally the women themselves are at
work. Last year they lost by death
Anna Pavlovna Philosofova, the origi
nal creator and foster mother of the
Russian feminism, the woman who
pushed forward the movement in the
sixties of the nineteenth century when
it had few friends. Now the friends
- I
are plentiful. The stage in particular
is strongly represented. One feminist
actress is the widow of the famous nov
elist. Anton Tchekhoff, who is herself
a star of the Moscow Art theatre. Ma
dame Tchekhoff has given three yea.’s
of her stage earnings to the cause.
There are other helpful women in the
business classes. One, Madame Eka
terina Jasinsky, has offered to pay a
third of the cost of erecting a women’s
university at Moscow. Tills university
would have five faculties, and make
women’s higher education entirely inde
pendent of men’s.
FRENCH ADOPT THE
CHINESE METHODS
OF WHEAT CULTURE
% _
• Paris. June 28.—(Special.)—Great Interest
Is taken in France just now in a new
method by which the yield of crops per
acre Is enormously Increased. In one test
case the yield of wheat has been three
times above that grown In similar soil
in the same neighborhood.
The remarkable value of the method Is
Indicated by the statement that it has
made 20 grains of wheat produce 700,000
in one year.
The method conslts in preparing seed
beds in widely spaced lines on very mel
low land, and at the end of two months
dividing the tufts springing from each
grain, replanting each of these rooted
shoots thus detached and finally In hoe
ing and earthing up these n^w plants
many times.
The system is not really new, but a
very ancient one, used Immemorially by
the Chinese, and to it iq due the enor
mous yield of their Helds, which have
been treated like gardens.
While our farmers throw broadcast
handfuls of grain on the harrowed earth,
offering rich pasturuge to pillaging birds
and rodents, the Chinaman, after fur
rowing the earth with his wooden plow
share, without turning it, crumbles each
lump in his hands until it is fine like pow
der. This done, at planting time he
walks slowly clown each furrow, carry
ing a grain drill, which is a marvel of
ingenius simplicity.
The sower pushes the drill in front of
him, inclining it now to the right and
now to the left, In such a wray that each
Inclination causes the issue of a single
seed, which is instantly pressed under
by the track of one foot or the other.
Each grain is thus planted at a distance
of 16 to 20 inches from Its neighbor in
every direction.
At the end of a fewr weeks a germina
tion begins. When the young plant is 10
or 12 Indies in height there are a score
of stalks about its stem, each provided
with a fringe of rootlets. The farmer
covers each with loose earth by means of
careful hoeing, thus raising the level of
the furrow.
Each stalk soon has 15 to 20 new stalks
around its stem, which detach them
selves. All are the Indirect issue of a
single grain, which proves, therefore, to
have been the parent of 000 or 400 stalks
each hearing an ear.
An Algerian French farmer, M. Bour
diol-Humbert, has been planting wheat
and oats in the same fields for five years
without the application of manure. He
makes his furrows 36 inches apart and
plants seeds therein at a distance of 20
inches from each other. Then he har
rows the earth constantly, stirring the
soil, destroying Its parasite and keeping
it pulverized.
Fur Farming in Canada
From the Montreal Gazette.
Fur farming, an industry that has re
cently attracted much attention in some
parts of Canada, Is the subject of a book,
compiled by Mr. J. Walter .Jones, B. S.
A., which the Dominion commission of
conservation has printed and issued.
Conditions such as cleared the bison
from the great North American plains
have been operating to reduce the supply
of every kind of wild furred creature,
whether of the land or water, and this at.
a time when the calls of fashion and the
.growing w'ealth of the people caused the
demand for the finer varieties of skins
to greatly Increase. A table of prices
paid at the Hudson Bay company sales in
London shows that between 1882 and 1910
muskrat pelts advanced from 16 cents to
87 cents, mink from 73 cents to $6.34, dark
red fox from $3.11 to $16.65, and large lynx
from $4.87 to $39.85. Such rare skins as
black fox and sea otter are not quoted,
their value being fixed beyond ordinary
commercial ratings, the former having
sold, it 1h stated, as high as $2600, and
the latter at times bringing $1800 and
$1700. I
The demands of the market and the
skill of men who prepare and dye skins
led to the practices that may hardly he
held to be in accord with strict honesty.
Some 80,000,000 rabbit skins are imported
every year into London. They figure
later in workshops and store windows
as sable, electric, Red river, Hudson, and
other “seals.” ns ermine, chinchilla, etc.
Other skins are manipulated into sables,
bears, mink, fox, etc. The London
chamber of commerce even issued a list
of substitutions which are designated as
“permissible.” (This list was published
in Dally Consular and Trade Reports for
March 17, 1911).
Raising animals for fur is not so new
as might be thought. The karakul*
sheep, which some have lately spoken of
introducing into Quebec, Is the source of
supply of Persian lamb and broadtail. It
was the domestic sheep of its Asiatic
habitat, but now has a greater value. Ex
periments have been made In both Eu
rope and America to adapt it to the new
surroundings, and crossings with Lin
coln and Cotswold lustrous wooled sheep
are'spoken of as promising.