A LOCAL DEPARTMENT 



IX 



superstition of the past there seems to 

 be a popular impression that botany 

 means some rare floweret in some hid- 

 den cranny as it does not. There is no 

 reason why botany should not be 

 studied in the potato field. Isn't that 

 Solatium tuberosum as interesting as the 

 bittersweet, the Solatium nigrum or any 

 other member of that family? Is there 

 any plant in all the domains of nature 

 more interesting" than the many varie- 

 ties of Brassica? Perhaps you know- 

 it under the name of cabbage, turnip, 

 Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, rape or 

 cauliflower. The last mentioned mem- 

 ber of the Brassica family has perhaps 

 excited more intellectual interest than 

 its plebian brothers and sisters, because 

 it has been so aptly defined as cabbage 

 with a college education. So if you 

 want to study or to revel in the beau- 

 ties of plants or animals, by whatever 

 name you may call it, if it is only your 

 garden or your field or your conserva- 

 tory, or the equipment of your subur- 

 ban home, then the Mecca of all your 

 interests is the well-equipped store that 

 deals in the various appliances that 

 you will need. Of that kind in this 

 vicinity I know of none more extensive 

 or more attractive and efficient than 

 that of Lockwood & Palmer, Stamford, 

 Connecticut. Would you have a better 

 garden, would you better know your 

 garden's interests? Look at the long 

 list of apparatus that you will need, 

 plows, harrows, wheelbarrows, farm 

 wagons, hoes, rakes, trowels, dibbles, 

 in fact no end of attractive appliances 

 to open up the charms of the plant 

 world under cultivation and observa- 

 tion. Would you revel in beautiful 

 ornithology? Here are innumerable 

 appliances for keeping your feathered 

 pets that we know under the common 

 name of poultry. Do your fourfooted 

 friends comprise pet rabbits, cavies, 

 cats, dogs, cows, oxen, bulls or horses, 

 why of course you will find everything 

 3 r ou need at this great and well-equip- 

 ped hardware store. Do you like to 

 tinker around, build buildings and 

 equip them? What better place for 

 every form of tool to delight the worker 

 in wood? If you are building a barn 

 you need an assortment of tools, and 

 do not forget that you are going as di- 

 rectly to nature in building a barn as 

 in building a laboratory, only you are 



dealing with a different form of animal 

 life and have a different point of view. 

 In your barn you will study the bal- 

 anced relations of the cows, you know 

 what is best adapted to your draft 

 horse or to your trotter. If you are 

 building a laboratory, it will be for 

 the study of the habits and the traits 

 of smaller forms of life. 



Lockwood & Palmer's well-equipped 

 store is an emporium for better and 

 more effective living near to the heart 

 of nature. In fact you can find here 

 not only the equipments for living near 

 to the heart of nature, but for getting 

 there. Probably there is no other store 

 in all eastern Connecticut better sup- 

 plied with good, comfortable carriages 

 and all sorts of vehicles than is this 

 store. Merely to walk through their 

 carriage department makes one long to 

 take a ride into the suburbs of Long 

 Ridge, or High Ridge, and to seek the 

 wilds of New Canaan or Quaker Ridge. 

 To tell you all this comes within our 

 guidance into the deep recesses of old 

 Mother Nature as much as would the 

 telling where you might buy a tele- 

 scope. Perhaps some one to whom still 

 cling those cobwebs of erroneous tra- 

 dition will ask, Why does a natural his- 

 tory magazine recommend a hardware 

 store? Why not, when from the roof 

 to the cellar what one finds in these 

 many stories are but helps to take you 

 to nature in the way in which you "like 

 to go. If you like nature best in the 

 cornfield and the potato patch, you will 

 certainly find here as much to delight 

 your eye as will the one who admires 

 nature through the vasculum and col- 

 lecting case. 



Good, intensely good is this modern 

 movement of taking people out of the 

 crowded cities to the country or even 

 to the suburbs. There is more room 

 there, no longer are you crowded into 

 the tiny rooms of a flat, nor in some lit- 

 tle section of a home in the city, but 

 here you have plenty of space in which 

 to spread, and in which you can have 

 the conveniences of a home. If you 

 want to furnish the kitchen, the pantry, 

 the cellar or the back workshop, you go 

 first of all to Lockwood & Palmer's for 

 your supply of good things. That these 

 enterprising proprietors have well 

 served their fellow-men is shown in the 



{Continued on page xix.) 



