I Friday, December 6,1985/The Battalion/Page 11 Cattle range research finds potpourri of peculiar facts [|uires, with a fe»td medical improvw 5 d Wore any (KtinJ ic disability rolls, eptions include pri lical conditions bfl but whose ability tow ‘d. stu h as tltroujlij vocational tiaini:; inally holdin^jobsj ■ (ases of f raudoritlJ t escrilwd treatnietia n e his or her alii iccurity Adnjinist ]antes M. Browns to prevent I ring. iistak.es were, le w ere takendliikij not havebeen| deny that." k i'ss is “goingi Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. — Are you cu rious about the potential of hamsters to breed in the wild? Do you care about pocket gophers gnawing on electrical cables? Did vou ever wonder about the value of acorns in the diet of steers? If so, you can Find the answers in research reports from an experi mental cattle range in the Sierra Ne vada foothills of central California. Most recent studies sound highly technical, covering topics such as the effect of nitrogen ana sulfur fertiliz ers on clover yield and the value of point counts in oak and pine wood lands. hut a directory listing studies per formed at the San Joaquin Experi mental Station since it was founded in 1934 reflects a time when scien tific examination was less rigorous. A 1959 study of domestic golden hamsters concluded they could be come a serious pest if they bred in areas with a good food supply and ground cover, but the prediction nasn’t panned out. Animal diets were the subject of numerous reports. Ranchers who leave cull potatoes in their pastures for cattle feed were warned to “guard those spuds” in a 1951 report that noted voracious squirrels show appetite” for them. A 1946 study on rattlesnake stom ach contents snowed their penchant for squirrels. Then a 1978 study of squirrel behavior found both those experienced and inexperienced with snakes reacted in similar ways when confronted with the predators. Ranch maintenance also was a pertinent subject for research. The ability to withstand the sear ing summer heat and winter fog of the foothills produced studies on the weathering characteristics of fence posts and 32 types of particle board. Ranchers were warned against a generally accepted practice in a re port “in defense of blue oaks.” The thinking that blue oaks were bad for forage was disproven by a re searcher who found forage produc tion was almost double under blue oaks and decreased when trees died or were cut down. A study showed the harsh foothill climate and standard tilling improve growth of California poppies, indi cating that protecting the state flower with mulch might not be ad visable. k (uiimassioiBlt; ■ v, alxnit 55.(WJp I'kmt; ix-ople to«M' I Social Securi^t&H view, he said. II led ■efine DlOSiO. Urbanization Farms are being stifled by growth, rising land prices tSaied Press CHARLES, b-4 ,iii(l (lash fiBfinittj ii a Citgo Oil rcfoj iee workers vtioil i epair ii Thursday j nh employee s«W| m ies in (he blasts4 m l a. 108 justsorisj use oftheegqpM Her unit at (hepM er investigation, »l mg, a Citgo spotf®! him City, mi employees'll s .mil a unitopeWj pairing a cojira 1 r\|)losjon|(K8|W| i., he said. ' | ieti Parish JP'I ,n |ohn ScottDopI men “were woM when it explodd»| ' ignited, ted," Doyle said,^1 as substance intM av were working#'I or and it ignited." J aid the injuredW' i | the scene. ■'s no problem ikage, it’s all cM said the firedilil . vond the comprts| i sdi otreater unil,»fe using impurities at the time. Operaft nainder of the.reM it In led. lie said ,i deton, directorolrt ■ plant, said etpii vas minor and‘il juished quickly,’ Associated Press IRVING — It is a picture of con- I trusts. A lone tractor sits out beside an I archaic gas pump. The barn is filled | with farm tools and a pickup truck I with a bed full of hay. The house has [an old-fashioned style. It is sur- | rounded by acres anti acres of land [with cows and horses grazing I nearby. Directly in front of the farm- j house, cars whiz by on North Belt Line Road past the DeVry Institute of Technology and the GTE build- ; ing. Jets from Dallas-Fort Worth In- I ternational Airport fly overhead and | images of the high-rise buildings in Las Golinas can he clearly seen at a distance. It is one of the stark contrasts that stems from the explosive growth of | the last 35 years in Irving. The kind j of growth that has turned a largely I rural community of 2,600 to a bus tling city of more than 140,000. The farmhouse stands as a testi- | mony to what Irving was once like. The house and the surrounding property belong to the estate of W.O. Harrington and only the care taker Roy Salazar stays there now. He has worked for the Harringtons for more than 28 years. Just around the corner, on Car bon Road, lives Harrington’s brother, R.D. and his wife, Allene. They, too, have a large sprawling house surrounded by several acres of property. It is peaceful and se rene. It is another contrast to the apart ments and new homes that border the property. Allene Harrington said there was not much there wnen they built their house 22 years ago. Her husband used to farm the land but now they just have a few horses and cattle grazing nearby. Things are remarkably different now, but she doesn’t seem to mind. “I don’t resent anything,” she said. “It’s a sign of development which is good for the area.” But progress has made what used to be largely undeveloped property, prime real estate. According to the irvmg ta: partment, the 180 acres that make up the Harrington estate are valued at more than $25.5 million. The 15 acres belonging to R.D. Harrington are worth more than $2 million, the tax records show. Allene Harrington can appreciate the value of the land because she was a Irving real estate broker for seve ral years before retiring. She said her family plans to hold onto the land around the house despite being approached by developers “almost daily.” Part of the Harrington property will be going to the State Depart ment of Highways and Public Trans portation when it begins building State Highway 161. The thorough fare will connect Interstate Highway 635 and Rock Island Road. The developers don’t bother her much either. ‘^We don’t have to sell anything we don’t want to,” Mrs. Harrington said. But she stops short of saying the property will never be sold. “Never is a long time.” Woman makes living with exotic animals ribed it as Full a rich supreme 9* [ roke hearts, (to 1 ;, leeks, babv s 1 een beans. aid $300 percoiijl ■ unattached, igils ;d went outsideaiy >[as from an armoU* across the street,ke® ink the South AW gain have shown the pigs thank they are,” said! ubversion charges* T i. ‘T here is absol# ’ vital happened liei ( a Laubscher, llr e spokesman, wj ■ gathered oulsiik' h and “police askd 1 1 1 he majority didi | ed the rest wkef ound, and thentf* tsc them.” Associated Press DALLAS — Whether you’re into armadillo weddings, iguana fashion shows or dolphin-finned backyard pools, Ghere Hickock almost always nas the same speedy reply — “No problem.” The “almost” omits koalas and pandas “because they’re virtually im possible to get,” says Hickock, rounder of Animal Trackers Inc., Dallas’ only animal talent agency. But in words that tumble out non stop, she says she can find anything else in the animal kingdom — and people have some pretty weird ideas about what that includes — for her clients. Take iguanas, for example. A Jap anese television crew ordereef an iguana show, heavy on fashion and light on scales. So with the help of a local school’s home economics class and an iguana-bearing friend, she put on a fashion show that could have made Calvin Klein wince. One of the crea tures, appropriately named “Mi chael,” sported a sequined glove and a steel-wool wig. Hickock, 29, also can try to make your Lido a star: More than 450 peo ple have paid her $5 to keep their E ets’ pictures on file in case some- ody comes along needing a dancing mutt or a cat that winks. Bizarre as her job might appear — dressing armadillos in wedding gowns and tuxedos isn’t routine for most folks — it’s relatively tame when compared to her earlier occu pations. “Among the 70 jobs I’ve had, I used to castrate pigs,” she said, swat ting at her pet crow Trammell as it flapped around her head. “I’ve also driven an 18-wheeler cross-country, broken horses, run a chicken ranch and caught rattlesnakes.” After a year of schooling at a Cali fornia exotic animal institute, she worked for two years as a Dallas ani mal cruelty investigator. But in April 1984, she decided to found Animal Trackers. “I had no idea how to go about doing that, and all I owned was a motorcycle and $10,” she said. “So I opened the Yellow Pages, closed my eyes and picked out a veterinarian.” Dr. Bert Childers, who lay under that fateful thumbprint, turned out to be more than sympathetic and of fered to stake her $10,000. He also gave her some office space, files and a telephone. Since then, she has booked more than 150 animal acts that have in cluded television ads for Purina, IBM, Texas Instruments and Puma, as well animals for TV movies such as “Right to Kill” and “Hostage: Dal las.” One of her latest coups is a What- aburger commercial for which her assistant, Suzy Schneider, trained a chicken to wear Groucho glasses and flap its beak as though it is talking to an astonished Mel Ttllis. Her prices vary according to how difficult the act is to procure. Dogs go for about $75 per hour, while el ephants range from $300 to $500 per hour. “But getting a water-skiing el ephant (like the one used years ago in the low-budget flick “Honky Tonk Freeway”) would cost you a little more,” she said. and / Sfiaccaut, I, 2. & 3 & 'Dccfciex “/Renta $250 „ /tecuna &