Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/258

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Forest Rangers Must Fight Snakes as Well as Fires

THE Forest Service is on the war patli against rattlesnakes in the national forests. Alany forest rangers have been bitten by these venomous snakes from time to time, but the attention of the forest service was sharply called to the necessity for the extinction of rattle- snakes by an episode which occurred during a recent forest fire.

Several fires broke out in the Shasta National Forest, and a force of men was called to subdue it. After the fire was thought to be extinguished and the men were withdrawn it was (lisco\ered that one blaze had broken out again. A squad of men who returned to the scene ran into a section of brush that seemed literally alive with rattlesnakes. Six hours were spent in fighting the snakes before it was possible to enter the forest, and in the affray several men were bitten.

��Arrangements are now being com- pleted for the arming of forest guards and fire fighters against snake bites. The weapon to be given out consists of a small combination tool containing a sharp lancet and a receptacle to hold per- manganate of potash, which is declared to be the best antidote for snake bite.

Making Butter by the Barrel.

DAIRY work is receiving much atten- tion in England during the war. The thousands of wounded and convales- cent soldiers in the hospitals through- out the British Isles consume tons of eggs, milk and butter every day, and it is extremely important that all of this material be of the very best. The accompanying illustration shows a monster churn which can make and wash six hundred pounds of butter at a single operation.

���This monster churn makes and washes six hundred pounds of butter at a single operation, and

is exceeding valuable at this time in English hospitals, where wounded soldiers consume

large quantities of dairy products by the orders of their doctors

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