Kutal Sa-ketu loplcs 



By C. M. SEAGRAVES, Safety Director 



^%^HE book "How to Win 

 ^*~Y^ Friends" continues in its popu- 

 \J larity. That's a good sign. 

 However, besides winning friends, we 

 should know how to keep them. One 

 of the best ways to do this is to consider 

 their feelings when they are passengers 

 in our car. Friendship shouldn't be ex- 

 pected to survive needless risk of injury. 

 If we just remembered how readily we 

 push on the floor boards when we ride 

 in a poorly driven car, perhaps we'd give 

 our passengers less cause to apply the 

 back-seat brakes. Folks aren't usually 

 scared unless something scares them. If 

 it's our driving, we're doing a bad job of 

 it. We wonder how many friendships 

 have been wrecked at the same time the 

 car was. 



And speaking of friends, reminds us 

 that the horse is sometimes mentioned 

 as man's best friend. Maybe so, but 

 during the first eleven months this year, 

 Illinois horses seriously injured nearly 

 300 persons and killed 30. A horse may 

 just take this way to say '"morning" but 

 when he puts a foot in somebody's stom- 

 ach, the receiver's tongue is likely to fly 

 out so far he gets a good look at his 

 large intestine. The way most of us 

 like to talk there's no reason for us to 

 start behind a horse without first speak- 

 ing to him. All parents realize, of course, 

 that youngsters are frequently fatally in- 

 jured while playing in the horse barn. 



And speaking of barns .... did you 

 ever notice the number of weary build- 

 ings in your county.' Propped up here 

 .... wired there .... braced some other 

 place .... poor old things are bound to 

 fall down soon. Maybe they'll injure a 

 person; maybe an animal. Whether they 

 do or not, they are either an eye-sore and 

 should be wrecked, or they're an asset 

 and should be repaired. Instead of a 

 book full of resolutions why not start the 

 New Year by repairing one building? 



And speaking of repairing, reminds 

 us of one Illinois farmer who last winter 

 found that he'd have to build a new 

 building instead of repair it. It all hap- 

 pened this way: Setting his lantern 

 down in his henhouse, while he filled the 

 automatic feeder, a leghorn chicken, with 

 typical nervousness, flew into the light, 

 knocking the lantern over and breaking 

 it. The cork fell out of the filler cap 



.... the kerosene ran out on the straw 

 .... the straw caught fire .... the 

 henhouse burned to the ground .... and 

 200 chickens roasted alive. Now, we all 

 agree the lantern shouldn't have had a 

 cork in it, but what is more important — 

 if it had been susfjended from a wire 

 stretched across the building, it wouldn't 

 have been on the floor and the chicken 

 wouldn't have knocked it over, the hen- 

 house wouldn't have burned, and the 

 hens would still, no doubt, be laying 

 eggs. 



A wire costs a nickel and a couple of 

 nails. Its use might save a barn as well 

 as a henhouse. By the way, where do 

 you place your lantern? 



"Scatter rugs," and bless them, how 

 they live up to their name. No matter 

 how dignified one may be, let one step 

 unguardedly on one of these little articles 

 of household furnishings and not only 

 the dignity but in many cases the tailor- 

 made molars are swallowed and contents 

 of the pockets are eflFectively scattered. 



Some wits of the home pet variety, find 

 it nice clean sport to wax a floor, place 

 two or three of these scatter rugs, or, as 

 some folks call them, "throw" rugs, 

 around and then wait for the guests to 

 make a spine shortening landing. Oc- 

 casions are not rare where folks so upset 

 incur broken bones as well as irreparably 

 stretched girdles. 



Waxed floors, unless properly waxed 

 (read the directions), are an unnecessary 

 hazard in themselves. Add small un- 

 anchored rugs, and you have a situation 

 as fraught with unpleasant possibilities 

 as a mouse in a coflFee pot. 



Reports at present indicate that incor- 

 rect turning is one of the leading causes 

 for rural highway accidents. Anyone con- 

 templating a turn should move over to 

 the side of the road toward which he ex- 

 pects to turn, at least 100 feet from the 

 corner, after he has made certain that this 

 movement will not interfere with straight 

 through traffic. The proper arm signal 

 should be clearly made during this time. 



Following motorists have no way of 

 knowing what a driver has in mind unless 

 by his actions this driver shows clearly 

 and in ample time what he expects to 

 do. This business of swinging in one 

 direction just before turning in another 

 is fine on the basketball floor. On the 

 highway, it shows that the fellow doing 



it is either just beginning to drive or has 

 never really learned how. Every motor- 

 ist is entitled to the courtesy of ample 

 warning before any stop or turn is made 

 by another car. 



Night continues as the most hazardous 

 time for highway travel. Besides more 

 reasonable speeds, we need more atten- 

 tion given to our lights. Motorists should 

 take their cars to the service station and 

 have the headlight bulbs exchanged for 

 new ones. At this same time the reflec- 

 tors should be cleaned. 



Headlight bulbs have a way of grad- 

 ually decreasing in efficiency without the 

 driver realizing it. At least once a year 

 the bulbs should be thrown away and 

 replaced with new ones. Motorists will 

 be pleasantly surprised with their in- 

 creased range of vision. 



We no longer hear the thunderous 

 horns that buses at one time used. The 

 managements of large bus companies arc 

 interested in accident-prevention as much 

 as any group in the country. It did not 

 take them long to find out that horns 

 which frightened people, instead of 

 warning them, were conducive to acci- 

 dents rather than to safety. 



If motor car manufacturers would 

 come to this realization, we would no 

 longer have cars equipped with noise- 

 making devices by which all motorists at 

 one time or another have been fright- 

 ened. When a motorist has been ter- 

 rified by one of these boorish blasts his 

 first reaction is anger .... good driving 

 and indignation don't go together. Motor 

 car manufacturers in their safety cam- 

 paign would do well to give more con- 

 sideration to this factor. 



Frost on the walls of the poultry 



house may indicate that the house is 

 not properly ventilated. Muslin cur- 

 tains for the open front straw loft 

 house will provide sufficient winter 

 protection. Poultrymen using the open 

 front house with muslin curtains and 

 straw ceiling report very few birds 

 having frosted combs and wattles dur- 

 ing bitter cold weather. 



The success or failure of the 1938 

 poultry crop will be established for 

 many during the next few weeks. 

 Breeders should be fed a complete 

 ration to produce eggs that will give 

 the chicks a good start. Then should 

 follow the best-known methods of feed- 

 ing and managing the young stock to 

 prevent their becoming stunted early 

 in life. 



When the thermometer registers any- 

 where from 10 below to 10 above in 

 winter, a cow will go without rather 

 than drink ice water. 



JANUARY, 1938 



27 



