Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, October 12, 1916, Page 13

Horses for th * Lieut. Col. Chauncey B. Baker, U. S. A, of Quarter- master’s Corps, Tells How Mounts Were Provided for; Militia Organizations — If U. S. Should Have a Real War There Wouldn't Be Enough Horses in the Coun- try to Equip the Necessary Troops. HEN the order came that the state troops were to be call- ed into fedéral service and sent to the Mexican border the first thought of the transportation @tvision, after securing raflroad trains, was to provide horses for the new cav- alry, artillery, signal, hospital and en- gineer troops and their supply trains, for there was no provision under state or federal authority to provide them un- der peace conditions. In the face of the drainage from this country of its stock for use in Euro- pean campaigns, many have wondered how horses for the army were obtained. This exportation of animals up to January, 1916, deprived the country of more than 550,000 horses and mules, leaving only about 350,000 suitable for military use. Of these 60,000 have been drafted into the service, leaving a total of less than 300,000 available for our own military use, not-enough for an army 750,000 strong. * * ¥ While there was no provision for pur- chasing the necessary animals before calling out the organized militia, there, fortunately, was no rule that forbade the division of transportation from making such preparation as lay in its Power to secure an ample supply when- ever an emergency wight arise, and everything had been done to meet the situation, which, it had been foreseen, ‘was bound to come. Accordingly, the division was not dis- mayed when it was directed to procure the required number of antmals, which had been computed and found to be 62,000 horses and mules, involving the :qxs)emllture of something over $8,000,- Lieut. Col. Chauncey B. Bake A, of the Quartermasters Gorps hog told how this operation was conducted ‘When the order for mobilization of the National Guard came it fell upon this division to provide animals for the PACK MULE TRAIN O militia organization about to come into the federal service, for, almost without exception, they were not already pro- vided with such animals. “First, let me say that few people realize that so many horses and mules can be needed for the use of the militia, estimated to number about 140,000 men, when far the greatest body, the infan: try, are foot troops. “But every cavalry organlzation re- quires a horse for each man and officer, besides a margin of 10 per cent for re- mounts; and in the new cavalry or- ganjzations it is estimated that there will be a total of about 1,450 mounted men. Besides this will be required draft horses or mules for each cavalry regiment. “An artillery regiment contains 1,200 officers and men and _requires 1,400 horses to draw their field guns, am- munition and supply wagons and to turnish mounts for their officers. The fleld hospitals and ambulance corps, the signal corps and the engineers, re- quire the remainder. Besides this, horses are needed for staff use and for general purposes, especially if it be an open campaign. i “The necessary authority had been siven to the department; and in pur- suance of a plan adopted a year ago, as soon‘as the order to mobilize was made, the transportation division gave instru tions to the quartermasters at the army remount stations and to the govern- ment purchasing agents to advertise for horses and mules. x * “The general specifications for those animals for army use are very rigid and require for cavalry horses a weight not less than 950 pounds, for artillery horses 1,150 pounds and for draft horses 1,200 pounds; but instructions were given that in making these purchases it would be optional with the govern- ment to waive this proyision and accept a lighter weight. “Bids came from various classes of people, regular stock dealers, stock T ers, farmers and horse owners gen- erally. They offered numbers ranging from one lone mare to the whole 62,- 000. The prices were satisfactory, be- ing about $135 apiece. “In detail the departmen{ contracted for 21,735 cavalry artillery 20,673 artil- MARCH. THE MWULES FOLLOW THEIR LEADER. lery horses; 14,900, mules and 3,540 pack mules. “The -department - had no authority from. Congress to maintain a reserve of horses beyond a certain small margin for the regular army, but it had a few thousand animals besides those purchased for the state troops, and they were being broken for army use in the remount stations in various parts of the country. These were available and were;shipped at once to the auxil- iary depots at Bl Paso and Fort Sam Heuston. > “There were established auxiliary re- mount stations for the animals needing treatment either for some of the many ailments which sometimes attack them when they are kept in large bodies or where they may be treated for any ac- cident to limbs or body. * P “By July 15 more than 9,000 horses and mules were drawing their daily forage at their new mobilization camps at El Paso and Fort Sam Houston, in addition to those which before that date had been issued to the militia troops along ‘the border. e United States Army o P “Before delivery and acceptance by the quartermasters militia mules and horses have to undergo an inspection more rigid even than that of the militia men who are willing to go with the boys to the border. “It is, of Tourse, understood that these horses are green to the military business. . Those awarded to cavalry are not acqueinted with the bugle calls or with the evolutions of organizations in that branch of the service. None of the new cavalrymen can trust their mounts to carry them through the mazes of cavalry formation, for the isest horse is hardly as well versed in his duty as the recruit on his back. “I want to digress for one moment to speak of the intelligence of the mule. It takes about fifty to make up a pack train. At night their burdens are re- moved and deposited along the line. In | the morning, when it is time for them Ito go to work, each mule finds his own pack and stands by it until it is properly adjusted. If a green mule is added to the group and takes his place by the wrong pack, he is kicked out all along the line until he reaches his own; and he never makes the same mistake again. “The horse country had been almost skinned by the allies to buy stock for their armies. It was found that in the ighteen months ending January, 1916, 50,000 or more horses had been ex- ported for use in the allied service, most of them going to the western area of contlict. % * “It is easy to see where the horses have gone, but in event of a lively war in the south what is the answer to the question, where are the.horses coming from for our army? “The department, up to the limit al- lowed it—about 6,000 —buys young horses to maintain a reserve for re- mounts. There are three of these de- | pots—Front Royal, Fort Reno and Fort Keogh—where horses from three years up, bought from farmers and stockrais- * . a ers, are “gentled” and broken for use in the service. When matured they are issued to the organizations of the army as they are needed, but this does not ~increase the annual number of colts. “With a view to developing horses fit |for army use. and, incidentally, suit- n Bor promising colt, he may, MULE_TRAINS CARRYING SUPPLIES WHEN THE RAILROAD TRAINS FAIL. able for general purposes, the depart- ments of War and of Agriculture have been pursuing a joint plan to improve the breed, and thereby epcourage the raising of horses. After consulting horsemen throughout the country' the Department of Agriculture purchased and distributed a considerable num- ber of suitable stallioms in horse-breed- ing communities, and the War Depart- ment has the first call on their get at a stipulated price, provided the animal is _suitable for military purposes. “But that a stockman may not be obliged to sell at too low a price a on payment to the government of a fee of $25, have the privilege of retaining the horse “Some such,plan should be extended, for if this country should become in- volved in a real war, where her re- sources were to be exerted to the last pound, a_million men would be almost a trifling force, as such things go today, and there are not suitable horses cnough in the whole country to provide for such an army. We have men enough who, give us time enough, can be made into soldiers, but no sane enemy will give us time enough to let our colts grow into horses for cavalry and artillery.” Men in Public Health Special Carrespondence WASHINGTON, D. C, OLIOMYELITIS—which is the sdl- entific name for infantile paral- ysis, the scourge which has swept over the eastern. states during the past few months—may very probably be the next disease to claim as {ts victim a member of the public health service, the medical branch of the ted States Treasury Depart- ment, which spends its time defending the nation from the ravages of all kinds of epidemics. Already an as- sistant physician at the Municipal Hos- pital in Philadelphia, Pa., has lost his life in fighting that dread disease. In the hygienic laboratory of the public health service in Washington there are nearly a dozen men who dally face death in battling with the un- known scourge, for ‘“polio”. still re- mains among the maladles concerning which science knows but little. The government experts are striving hard to learn the origin of the disease and to discover a cure for it. In doing so they are shaking dice with death as surely as do soldiers upon the firing line, for no one knows at what moment the scourge may strike them down as a punishment for their persistency in attemptinfl to pene- trate into the uncharted realms of med- fcal sclence. But in the event that any one of the government's surgeons succumbs to infantile paralysis it is safe to say that he will face death calmly, content to know that his fate may add some- thing {o the small store of knowledge of the malady and that it may aid in fome manner to combat the disease in the future. * * * The fight which is now being waged In Washington against poliomyelitis 1s “spotted fever” which was devastating that sectfon in 1912; he returned to Washington within three months after his marriage and died from the bites of the ticks. While more than half believing that he was immune {0 'the malady, having been bitten by the “fever tick” severai years before, Dr. McClfntic fully real- ized the danger he was running in re- turning to the haunt of the tiny insect which hovers over the valley of the Bitter Root. But he had been ordered to continue his investigations of the strange disease and he went back to Montana without a murmur. His herolc spirit and self-immolation were shown when, on returning to Washington, he was ‘taken to a gOV- ernment hospital and told that he could not live beyond the night. Lifting his arm, where the deadly ticks had raised large welts with their tiny probes, he sald: v “They don’t seem to be going down. 1 hope they don't disappear before the boys (his colleagues) see theém. They might be able to make something more out of them.” Three hours later he died, but not before the welts had been carefully ex- amined by his brother officers and he had been assured that his death would in all probability add greatly to the knowledge of science concerning the disease. * * % Guayaquil, Ecuador, has long been noted as one of the most dangerous ports of the western hemiisphere. Scarcely a disease known to modern science but flourished there before the United States government undertook to clean out “the pest hole of the Pacific.” Leprosy walked unchallenged in the streets; the open gutters ran mud- colored filth of all descriptions, and all the tropical and temperate fevers stalked deathlike in the shade of the illy ventilated houses. LUTHER WALKER JENKINS, Drowned while on duty. J. M. EAGER, ‘Who died in Naples a few months ago. T. B. McCLINTIC, Vietim of spotted fever. Ecuadorean government the place. Dr. immune to yellow to clean up Wightman, supposedly fever, port and sent hack word to Washing: ton that the nitary conditiohs were almost beyvond belief. “The nativ are more or less im- mune to the dise: ,'" he reported, “but it is almost certain death for a for- eigner to remain here any length ofj time.” ent to_thej a revolution. The Yorktown anchored far out in the harbor of Guayaqu one of the finest on the Pacific coa and took every precaution agalnst ease. But, in spite of this, Commander Ber- tolette and three of his crew died of cholera and fourteen others were talken sick with the disease. Since this oe- currence the city has been sanitated to a certain degree under the direction laws from 1909 until he returned to this country to dle in 1913, while his immediate successor, Dr. J. M. Hager, succumbed to the insidious health con- ditions of the beautiful Italian port during the past summer. Both of these men, in the opinion of their brother officers in the public health service, died in the ‘service of who went to Cairo, Tll, in 1878 to fight the epidemic, which had come up the Mississippi from Louisiana and the gulf. This was one of thé worst epl- demics with which the service had ever had to contend, and Dr. Waldo was on his feet night and day trying to pre- vent the spreaq of the diseaSe: ight '\ caKE of dbiistant attention to the sick and dyving in Cairo broke down his health, and. the germs of yellow | fever found him a ready victim, but not ( until he had succeeded in checking tne | advance of the disease wave.and Keep- ing the fever from ading the north. Key West, Fla, the outpost of the Florida kevs and formerly one of the most unhealthy places along the south- ern coast, was the deathbed which claimed two other officers of the public health service, Drs. Glazier and Me- Adam. Dr, Glazier diéd there in 1880, am went to his death in rs after the great epidemic Ga., which caused the John W. Branham. = o % Four years previously Dr. J. F. Groenvelt, ory red to the front to fight | yellow: fever in Louisiana, had con- | fed the disease and had'dled at the e camp at Chandeleur Islangd, just e beginning three great nate-y Which swept outhern states in 1891, 1893 and Owing to the excellent nner which the government physicians fought yellow fever and the pre- taken in quarantine to pre- nece as well as its spread, ave cautio vent its. entra the former curse of the gulf states has become .almost a negligiple quantity | of late years, Dr. Wightman being the only zovernment surgeon who has suc- | | cumbed to this d e since Dr. Mc- Adam’s death in 189 The intimdte study of tuberculosis, which has been of such tremendous Dbenefit in fightinz the white plague, has also left its imprint upon.tie roll of Service Who Have Made Supreme Sacrifice this dust from a number of hospital wards and subjected it to microscopical analysis. As” he had surmised, it tuberculosis and other germs, order went forth that all cracks be closed with an__antiseptic solution and carefully scrubbed with a solutior poisonous to the baeilli. Dr. Deck discovery, valuable as it was to science and to the proper management of hos pitals, caused his death, for he con- tracted the white plague, and, althoush rushed west, died shortly after reach- ing New Mexico. contained and the * Typhoid fever is the other scourge which has added materially to th honor roll of the service. While fight- ing an epidemic of this disease in New Orleans in 190§ Dr. T. F. Richardson | contracted typhoid and died; while Dr. W. W. Miller died from the same caus in Washington in 1910, after examining decayed animal matter for the presence of germs. He found them; but, unfo tunately, absorbed them into his tem, and his death occurred only a few days later While the list of Uncle Sam’ martyr: to the public health contains, for the most part, only the names of those who died as the direct result of fight- ing disease, which, as a heral rule, they contracted with results, there Is at least one case of great herolsm of another sort. This is the incident connected with the death ot | Dr. Jenkins, who, while stationed on the coast of Alas was informed thit s desperately ill w a man w th pneu- monia in a_nearby lighthouse. Despite the fact that a very heavy sea wag running, Dr. Jenkins ordered that a lifeboat be launched, and he assisted in rowing to the place where the patient was marooned. A rapid examination of the sick man showed that the only chance to save his life was to remove him at once ta a hospital. Against the earnest advice 8 . ». CFEhIn e e d ik 3 movernment of- |their country just as surely as though : analogous in many respects to that hT;ihehdeuh ofkgevera! Americans who .]'!.|flv(](‘fl|"} within six months after ar- of other United ;]‘;Btf::‘ar-‘o‘; xn!:‘r:j élzl the | they had been shot down in battle. The | honor 6f the public health service, Dr. | of the volunteer life crew, Dr. Jenkins dundaoted omty A N Mo AN O s e o e L e it .ooaat War against disease and infection may | Spencer C. Deven, Dr. Bmile Prochazka | insisted on attempting to return te of the western plains—a fight which |the absolute necessity for cleaning up|against disea a4 the fact that he e against an ‘invading force, but it isf their TemonaC s e égn;u\xgl{ the boat wa tgver(uaflefld. nd every per: Fisat et M e > s e 5 Jhot] ’ very mearly as deadly,”as the records|ing the causes and cures for £ - | son in the little cra rowned. cost the life of Dr. T. B. the city, and FEcuador was asked|had had yellow fever in his youth, he very mearly as d ¥s 28 . i > st e : r- T. B. MeClintie of | X, (1ier, 12" the United States sent a|eontrasted the yvellow scourge and died| Another port of call, larger and far|of the pubiic health service will prove. | tion. 2 i | 'Thus it is that the men who are the public health service, but which|health official to Guayaquil, the author- | in Guayaquil without having been able |better kmown than Guayaquil, which| Yellow fever, the disease which car- | The death of Dr. Decker was closely | today strugsling to learn the inner resulted in a greatly Increased knowl-|ities would try to sanitate the city. The |to put into effect any of the health|y. “Coimlo"s o omeers of the public|Lied off Dr. ‘gggh‘{gggm‘zfi‘,:;“-}g:“;‘,‘,g At nd 3 E ol WA R BT | et e e - 1y, egula s and i Feme rhi as claimed Rea 2 as been dire r th smuch as he died as lire & o at they are edge of the disease and the manner in|TePly, &lven rather balf-heartedly, was | regulations and improvements which he |, )" 0 vice within the past four|deaths of six members of the public |sult of experiments undertaken to show | anything out of the ordinary—they ar« PR Miren- Would see what could be done. - | Mous vears later the United State e Namles, Itoly. Here It was|health service and indirectly for the | that the germs of tuberculosis found a | merely carrying out the traditions of Dr. McClintic, a man of tairty- 2 FIone O vz 1s DaD s, o = ® | deaths of two more. ready hidding place In the dirt and|a service which says that the peopl & of tairty-five,] Accordingly Dr. W. W. Wightman was | gunboat Yorktown, under Commander t Dr. H. D. Geddings fought an un 2 e Pluce ° oA g for whom was predicted a_most bril- |instructed to go to Ecuador and make | Bartolette, was forced to call at Guay- | hat Dr- Sl ST = The first martyr to the cause of | dustwhich lodge in the cracks of floors, | of the United States must be protected liant future, went to the Bitter Root|a report on the sanitary condition of |aquil for the purpose of protecting |ceasing battle for sanitation and the |ccience in the government seryice from | no matter how well the latter may be | against the spread of epidemics, at any district of Montana to study the|Guayaquil with a view to forcing the|American interests in Ecuador during |strict enforcement of the immigration |this cause was Dr. William A. Waldo, | serubbed. Dr. Decker secured some of | cost. : . A Woman Scientist Brings Bpecial Correspondence WASHINGTON,D. C.,. , ., . OR a number of years paét the United States Department of Agriculture has beenstudyingthe potato and scientifically selecting and breeding new varieties that will bring it up to the highest standard of efficiency in its duty to mankind. In its Tater ef- forts toward the improvement of the use- ful tuber, it has called in the assiStance of a woman that she may bring her woman’s knowledge of home economies to bear upon the study of the vegetable. **" It is the provinge of Miss Margaret Con- nor, scientific assistant in pomology, the youngest woman sclentist In the govern- ment employ, to put the potatoes through their paces from the standpoint of the home economist. Potato growing_on a large scale in the United States hhs been céntralized in half a dozen localities, corresponding roughly to the various wnphtm ai- visions of the country. This speciali: tlon has created a demand for varieties adapted to conditions in particular lo- callties, or for varleties possessing cer- tain desirable qualities, such as heat and ! drought resistance, resistance to p: sitic fungi, early or late maturity, Bt:ll.l".‘ch qflgment, ete. e office of horticulture and mology of the Department of Agriculturepg?.s c:\gr{ red on such investigations for a number of years, under the direct supervision of Prof. William Stuart, who has Succeeded in developing a large number of seedling potatoes. These seedlings are crosses be- tween known varietles whose character~ istics it has been deemed worth whilé to perpetuate, o to combine with the desired characteristics of other varieties, As a result of the years of seclection and breeding literally thousands of seedling potatoes have been secured. These are grown in all parts of the United States whene the office of horticulture and giomolog)' has experimental grounds— aing, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Idaho—and’ complete records are kept of every phase of their development. Tao undersirable seedlings are discarded | and those showing good characteristics are saved for further testing before being distributed among the different state ex- periment stations and-eventunally reaching seedsman and consumer. One of these tests kas :fen undertaken to show their culinary value. “No matter how disease or drought resistant a potato vine may be, the seedling will prove of little practical importance if the potatoes have a dis- agreeable flavor or odor, if thelr flesh turns black after cooking, or if they do not prove suited to the demands of the housewife,” d Miss Connor in talking of her work. “The tubers from each scedling, which is thought worthy of saving are subjected to a cooking test and if this is unfavorable the seedling must possess some very desir- able cultural characteristics to save it from the discard. “We make several tests of each Seed- ling during the course of the winter and complete data are kept for each indivigual tuber. You know the com- position of the potato changes slightly in_ storage, s of the starch. being convetted 'into sugar and the. water evaporating. Have you ever moticed the ‘sweet taste you often get in a Do- tato late in winter? Its cooking quali- ties, therefore, vary slightly at differ- ent seasons of the year. The deserip- tions and measurements of each potato are kept on uniform cards. “There are three general tests which verapply to each potato—boiling, bak- ng and potato chips. The first two methods of cooking are the foundation of practically all the ways in which potatocs are served in the household, The latter is a method of commercial utilization which has Been developed as a distinet industry as well as an im- portant adjunct of delicatessen. and Out the balkery trade. If a potato will prove satisfactory when subjected to these three tests it is good for almost any- thing. We use, as a standard, the Green Mountain, one of the most satis- factory, all-round cooking varieties. Some of the seedlings grade higher in comparison, some lower. Ky “There afe many more characteristics in a potato than the average person would believe. One with a disagreeable flavor or with a bad color is of no use for culinary purposes, and if a potato takes too long to cook it is held un- profitable. If it is lacking in the quali- ties of mealiness when baked or boiled, it is of little general value and is §0 raded. A mealy potato makes the est potato chips, strange to say, pro- vided that the starch is well soaked out beforehand. 3 * “A good salad potato should possess slightly, different characteristics from one primarily intended for baking, mashing, ete. It should be firm and waxy in texture, with cohesive parti- cles, so that the flesh may be cut into cubes without crumbling. Many of the large hotels and restaurants, before the war, imported foreign potatoes for salad purposes, the yellow, waxy flesh of these German and Holland varieties being well adapted to this method of preparation. “One of Prof. Stuart's aims has been to breed an American variety which would possess the requisite salad char- acteristics, and a number of the seed- ling crosses between native and Furo- pean or South American varjeties have been developed with that end in view.” It was In her businesslike office on the fourth floor of one of the build- ings which house the bureau of plant industry that Miss Connor received her interviewer, and the latter, looking vainly for sign of culinary outfit, re- celved an Invitation to inspect the ex- pertmental laboratory of the potato ex- pert. The kitchen where Miss Connor makes her cooking tests is in the base- ment of the building, and is not at all uniike a well kept family kitchen. The first object of interest is the electric oven, where the baking tests are car- ried gn. This laboratory apparatus is provided with a thermostat, which en- ables’ one, to control”the temperature oven almost to a ree. To make assurance doubly sure, how- ever, thére is & céntral oven thermom- eter well, and with the aid of a lit- tle electric light inside the oven cham- ber the readings can be taken at any time through the glass window in front. By means of this accurately controlled eguipment each seedling po- tato 1§ given a uniform test. “All the potatoes are cooked at the same oven heat,” explained the genlus of this laboratody kitchen, “and the in- terior of each is allowed to reach the same temperature. This latter is de- termined by means of a small ther- mometer inserted into the center of each potato. There is, of course. a great difference in the Jength of time it takes different potatoes to cook, de- pending upon their size, shape, etc. The different seedlings show a great variztion from standard, some being most uneconomical and requiring en- tirely too much timé and heat. * - R “This last yeag I ran a,series of ex- periments with Yone standard variety of potatoes, testing out the most de- sirable oven temperature for baking. There is a marked différence in the length of time'{t takes potatoes of uni- form size, shape and variety to cook when the oven is too hot, or too cold, or just right. You would also be sur- prised at the difference in the amount of waste when cooked in a very slow oven as Compared with a normal or with one too hot.” ' : An apparatus for "beiling, or more correctly speaking, for steaming the| I & Best That Is in the Potato otatoes fills a window space in the boratory. In this test, also, the tems perature is .perfectly controlled, sq so that each potato has an equal chanca There is nothing hit or miss here any more than in the oven. While if steams each potato holds its thermom eter, which projects through a cork it the 1id of ‘the steamer so that th( temperature. can be read without re: moving the lid. “We steam the potatoes in prefer ence to boiling them directly in water,' said Miss Connor. “The flavor is beti ter preserved by steaming; a mealy pof tato will cook thoroughly without falll ing to pleces and it is in every way th( better method. We also leave theil jackets on. —Much of the valuable proi tein and mineral matter lle directly under the skin and- when the potato il pared this nutriment is lost.” A potato peeler, slicer and iron fr ing basket and pan comprise part the equipment for the potato chif tests, and samples of the work looke( temptingly golden and crisp. Miss Connor is @ Braduate of Cornel Unlyersity, from which she gainea thy degree of B. A. a few years agq standing very high in all her classel and winning the Phi Beta Kappa pit for distinguished scholarship. Al though she is yet a very young woman she is deeply interested in the special scientific work ghe is efilciently accom( plishing for the Department of Agri culture and for the community at large