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The Gazette 1991-01-02 - 1991-12-24
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Date
1991-11-27
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Page 14 season good for hunters and animals The 1991 hunting season has turned out to be good all around for hunters and animals alike locally, says local Fish and Wildlife Officer Gerry Filipchuk. He said hunters have generally been successful in cancelling their tags with kills, yet large populations of big game remain. However, Filipchuk cautioned that the favorable situation is no reason for complacency about regulations. There's no reason for the two, three, four hundred violations per district. '' People can hunt without violating the rules, and still be successful, he said. The majority of hunters are honest and law abiding, and many of them harvest their animals without a flaw, he added Filipchuk estimated locally they have caught an average number of violators this year, but a few of the legalities are proving to be problems. Occurrences of hunting on occupied land and discharging firear- arms from road allowances, he said might be partially attributed to the heavy snowfall that came early. With the early snow falls more animals are foraging in open fields, and hunters are being opportunistic in snooting them from road allowances and on occupied land, Filipchuk noted. He said that reading Page 7 of the Big Game Regulations Synopsis, Sections 10 and 11, will help hunters fully understand what the term road allowance means. Page 15 of the Synopsis explains the hunter's obligation to ob- The Gazette tain permission to hunt land, from the landowner. The third infraction they are finding more frequently is noncompliance with the requirement that evidence of sex, species and class of animal be retained. Filipchuk said this is of particular concern because of the difficulty it creates in accurately determining the harvest of particular species, and ultimately interferes with management goals. Wildlife belongs to everyone, and the only way to maintain healthy populations is Wednesday, November 27, 1991. through proper management, which is the point of regulations, Filipchuk concluded. Page 12 of the synopsis covers these requirements. In deer, Filipchuk added that along with the head and hide, the completely haired tail must also be retained. Violating the rule brings a 260 fine, and possibly seizure of the game. I insist that hunters read the summary of the regulations and under stand that every detail is very important, and not should, but must be followed, Filipchuk said. Marijuana-growing sentence Is out of proportion . . . For the life of me, I can't understand the contradictory position of the government on farming. On one hand, governments are paying out billions to farmers engaged in the growing of gigantic crops of wheat which are a drug on the market. Urban taxpayers are sending up smoke signals to the effect: if they can't sell it, the farmers should diversify. The farmers have heard the message and some of them are diversifying to marijuana, barley, rye, corn, grapes, apricots, rhubarb, potatoes, cherries and sugar beets. On the other hand when the government discovery a farmef diversifying to marijuana it will despatch its cops to locations wherein it is grown with orders to confiscate the crop and charge the grower with a criminal offence. I don't understand the nature of the offence - and a farmer from Cluny is spending three years in the jail- house pondering why he was singled out for planting marijuana seeds. (Cluny That's the place where drunks keep stealing the fire engine. It went missing again a few weeks ago.) Why should a grower of marijuana, alias canabis, spliff, reefer, ganja, weed, dope or doobie, be consigned to the slammer when growers of rye, corn and cherries sell their production for making of whiskey? Barley growers are responsible for all the beer that flows. They make vodka out of potatoes. A sugar beet byproduct is molasses from which rum Is distilled. Rhubarb, grapes and apricots are the basis for wines and brandies. Never have any of these growers been in jail for their husbandry activities. Yet they generate products responsible for death and destruction. It seems obscene, insensitive and grotesque to deprive a marijuana grower of his living and sentence him to three years (not three days but three years) when convicted of growing a crop that has a lesser potential for harm than the other nine mentioned. In this respect, it is interesting to realize it will soon be posslle for a freelance grower to plant tobacco seeds and grow tobacco plants: also the raw product of a controlled substance. What has caused this phenomenon is that tobacco prices are outrageously high because of taxation - even higher than liquor prices - and smokers are looking for ways to grow their own, side by side with home brew makers. Two Edmonton area seed stores have received so many requests for packets of tobacco seeds, they plan to start retailing them. The federal department of agriculture says tobacco seed may be sold legally. In view of the fact marijuana growers have never hit on governments for production subsidies of any kind, they should not rate jail terms. They should oe let off with crop confiscation - and a government subsidy to diversify to some other approved crop. Of course, what puts the end product of the other 10 crops In the approved category is that the governments reap billions in taxes from them. I laughed out loud when I came across a recent city- page column in a Calgary daily which gave away about 1,000 worth of free advertising to a company which sells hydroponic gardening equipment and know-how. The company president was a bit red- faced and feigned indignation about marijuana- growers surreptitiously asking for equipment and advice. His pitch - and the columnist ate this up - was that marijuana-growers are illegal farmers and he wanted to distance himself from them and sell only to lawful hydroponic growers. I have no other explanation for the unforgiveable sin of giving away advertising space than that the columnist must have been doing a little toklng himself. When I worked on that paper, I used to have to go into the washroom nearly every day and bring up when confronted by wave after wave of people arriving to work with that musky marijuana-smoke odor on their clothes as if they had all been in the same cellar. Now they are being pious about using the drug and blaming hard-up farmers for their addiction. It Isn't the farmers who are responsible, it's the system - as everyone says when passing the buck. I just can't stand the smell of marijuana. But give me the delicious aroma of a bottle of dark rum made from molasses (not sugar cane) and I am ready to drink the province into solvency forever. Bottoms up Smoky Lake weighs in world-class pumpkins.... The most interesting stop on the 1991 annual tour of the Alberta Farm Writers Association was at Smoky Lake, the Land of the Big Pumpkins. Raising big vegetables is what people do for fun around here. Smoky Lake has the distinction of being named one ot the five weigh-off centres in Canada for the World Pumpkin Confederation. The other centres are Windsor, N.S., Port Elgin, Ont., Winnipeg and Vancouver. Weigh-off from a dozen other countries are phoned in on Thanksgiving Day to Confederation headquarters at Collins, N.Y. One of the big weigh- off centres in the U.S. is Oconomowoc, Wis. Somebody calls in from Zimbabwe and somone from as far afield as Austrailia. A big pumpkin can mak'i a person feel very small. We visited the garden of Brad LaFleur at Smoky Lake and saw one that weighed 100 pounds more than I do. I weigh an eighth of a ton. Brad wss the 1990 winner at the Smoky Lake weigh-off with one weighing only 335 pounds. But this year, sadly he was beaten out by Rod Goertzen, who toted his all the way from Saskatoon for the victory; and the 750 prize. It was a 438-pound dandy. There were 54 entries. Goertzen attributes his success to using a better brand of cow manure and something in the water. Scientist at Lethbridge Research Station who have been experimenting with various fertilizers have come to the same conclusion as Goertzen about the growing powers of cow manure. Big as his prize pumpkin was, it was smaller than the specimen entered by Will Neely of Windsor, N.S. It won out at 600 pounds. That, in turn, was nowhere nearly as large as the world record pumpkin grown by Ed Gancarz of Wrightstown, N.J., last year - a 816 pound monster. The prize: 3,000. Run concurrently are competitions for big squash and watermelons. Last year the world champion squash tippjd the scales at 807 pounds. Len Stellpflug of Rush, N.Y., was the grower. The best Barry Court could do at Smoky Lake last year was 210 pounds. The top watermelon last year was a 245-pound monster by Waddel) Estep of Donaldson, Ark. By comparison, the best watermelon that came out of Smoky Lake last year was from LaFleur at one pound, 11 ounces. The only embarrassing part'of growing colossal pumpkins is what to do with them afterwards. You can only make so many pumpkin pies. There'd be enough at the Smoky Lake Pumpkin Fair to supply all the people who show up at Alberta's 46 food banks with one each. The pumpkins are auctioned after the fair. In the contest of the world confederation, pumpkin husbandry is classified as a sport. The membership is guided by a set of rules that aims at keeping it in amateur classification. Professionals who receive commercial sponsorship are frowned upon. The confederation can suspend or revoke membership rights of any group not in compliance with the rules. The growers wait until their pumpkin vines get a good start in the early summer. They select one fast-growing individual and cull the others from each vine so the nutrients are diverted into the one big one. It will grow merrily at the rate of three or four pounds a day- It is babied along and covered at night when there is danger of frost. Longer hours of sunlight in that northern location is given credit for much of the growth. Pumpkins in the south of Alberta may have their growth stunted by shorter days and less rainfall. Everyone knows Smoky Lake as Urkatnian country. They are celebrating the 100th anniver sary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada here this year. It is not surprising, therefore, that the pumpkin fair offers prizes for the largest garlic clove and tha largest cabbage - essentials in the Ukrainian diet. The largest garlic clove last year was 12 ounces snd was grown by John Lobay. Linda Christensen grew the largest cabbage in 1990: no doubt, enough leaves to roll up 1,000 cabbage rolls. Or maybe the 28-pound cabbage provided salads for three months. Mrs. Christensen runs a six- acre market garden with part- time help from her husband, Don, who is Smoky Lake district agriculturalist. Growing big cabbages this year was no contest because of the severe drought in northeastern Alberta. She grew 12,000 cabbages but most were just abouty the right size for two or three meals. He was just a coward, and that is the worst luck any man can have. Ernest Hemingway Hold on toyour It's Goodyear s Winter Tire Event. GREAT SAVINGS ULTIMATE ICE AND SNOW RADIAL F32S . -, Everyday Whitewall Size Low Price P155/80R13 63.00 P205/70R14 94.00 P195/75R14 86.00 P205/75R15 97.00 P235/75R15 109-96 ' gt;* * ri *--' ' *- J P2Z5/75H15 PAY NO GST ON AU UGHT TRUCK AND PASSENGER TIRES NOVEMBER 28,29,30 Sale prices in effect until December 7. Call for sizes and prices not shown. GOOD ' ntainTJrC Olds Didsbury Sundre 556-8805 335-3838 638-2535 JENSEN'S MEN'S WEAR I 556-8101 GOTCHA Jeans Sportswear Nov. 20 to 27 Only For Christmas Gift Giving Any Fleece Top 20 Off Bring This Ad Copy For Your Discount Bum Equipment Varnet Brooks Adidas Free Gift Wrapping Open Late Thur and Fri OLDS 556-8101
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Image 867 (1991-11-27), from microfilm reel 867, (CU12515000). Courtesy of Early Alberta Newspapers Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.