Echoes from the Past, July 22, 1965
Recent Rain Better Than Nothing, But Not Very Much
Rain that fell Tuesday and Wednesday morning has not been sufficient to make much difference to either the farm drought or for the forest fire hazard.
The Experimental Farm recorded a total of three-tenths of an inch of precipitation while the soil moisture deficit in the ground remained unchanged at 5.78 inches.
At Harrison Hot Springs the Forest Service recorded a total rainfall of .23 inches and 15 mm. Up Harrison Lake at the forestry lookout there was only a tenth of an inch. Only the top half inch of soil had any moisture in it.
The fire hazard remained at high although if predicted rain Wednesday morning had arrived on schedule it might have gone over the borderline to moderate.
It would take three or four inches of rain to completely overcome the effects of the month-long dry spell in the woods.
Aside from the sawdust fire at Harrison Mills, however, there have been no recent fires in the Harrison Ranger District.
Dr. Taylor said that the silage corn was beginning to show the effects of the drought and that it was reaching a critical stage where it would need good moisture.
Raspberry yields so far had been of good quality and quantity was not much less than last year but the latter part of the crop is expected to have a lot of small berries.
Early pea crops were good but later ones are suffering. Beans are expected to be good where they are irrigated, but fields not irrigated will have a short crop.
Pastures will be benefiting to some extent from the dull weather and small amounts of rain but can’t be expected to show vigorous growth without several inches of rain.
Harrison Mills Sawdust Fire Problem To Volunteers, Forestry
Repeated fires in the old Watkins Mills sawdust pile on the Skowlitz Reserve at Harrison Mills are causing a problem for the Kent Volunteer Fire Department and the forestry crew.
Fire has broken out in the pile repeatedly in recent months and has on occasion spread to nearby bush, threatened a house and burned a shack.
Kent chief Alf Jones says his department is satisfied that children are setting fires just to have the fire truck come and that his men will not answer any more calls there. The municipality is paid to provide fire protection for Seabird Island reserve, but not for Skowlitz.
Last Saturday the fire broke out again and the municipal truck went down, but the chief could round up only two men besides himself who would attend. After they left, Forest Ranger Ray Wilson looked it over and called in a crew.
The fire got going again and worked its way to within 10 feet of a house, and was fought by eight men with four hoses for six hours before it appeared out.
It burst up again twice more, requiring eight men for six hours on Sunday and six men for five hours on Monday, and it is expected that it is still smouldering under the sawdust and may break out again at any time.
It is apparently not the Forestry Department’s responsibility any more that it is the municipality’s, but they seem to be stuck with the job of fighting it.
Rear Window Wipers, One-Way Glass Among Things Women Want
Rear window wipes, steering wheel warmers and much more space for storing things – these are among the things women drivers would like to see in their new car, says the B.C. Automobile Association.
The BSAA bases its statement on a recent US survey which had 1,512 responses and nearly as many ideas. All of them will be turned over to the design departments of the automobile manufacturers.
Among other items that were requested by the ladies are a car that goes sideways for easier parking, small windows on the bottom of each front door so the driver could see the curb when parking and a built-in vacuum cleaner for car carpets and upholstery.
Also included were: ratchets type prop for trunk lid to accommodate special loads such as Christmas trees or other outsize objects and one-way glass so that when the car stalls, other drivers can’t see it’s a woman at the wheel,
Also suggested were car radios with earplug speakers so teenagers can listen to their special brand of music without distracting the driving adults, improved ashtrays that would really put out a cigarette and coin holders for the correct change at coin-operated parking lot gates and turnpike toll stations.
Several women took the easy way out, the BCAA notes. The feature they wanted most in the next car, they said, was a chauffeur.