HOMES NEAR TO NATURE. 



they might go and annihilate the plant. 

 That would be the right spirit in which 

 to deal with those who would thought- 

 lessly exterminate the objects, but it 

 would not be right so to treat a fellow 

 botanist who is as appreciative of the 

 find and rarity of the flower as is the 

 original discoverer. The joy in a cab- 

 inet of minerals should largely be in 

 showing them to your admiring friends. 

 Many a natural history specimen is 

 collected largely for the purpose of hav- 

 ing some friend share its enjoyment. 



But strange to say this missionary 

 spirit is too apt to end with the inex- 

 pensive specimens from nature. When 



act after taking possession, had posted 

 the entire property with "No Trespass- 

 ing" signs. The second was to arrest 

 a man who, with his family, went 

 walking through the woods on a holi- 

 day afternoon, although it was shown 

 that not one of the nature lovers thus 

 enjoying a sort of "rambler's lease" had 

 inflicted any injury whatever upon 

 trees, shrubs or plants. It was simply 

 a case of pure, unadulterated selfish- 

 ness. The man had paid his good 

 money, as he expressed it, for those 

 forests, ravines and fields ; they were 

 his and he wanted them to himself. 

 But arresting one man and another 



READY FOR A DRIVE. 



it comes to ownership of real estate, 

 though it be the gem of the region, the 

 common custom is to put up a sign, 

 "Keep off the grass/" or, "No tres- 

 passing ON THESE PREMISES UNDER PEN- 

 ALTY OF THE LAW." 



On a recent visit to a small town in 

 the Middle West the writer had point- 

 ed out by a nature loving friend and 

 member of The Agassiz Association, a 

 charming bit of picturesque forest 

 scenery that had been recently pur- 

 chased by a wealthy, yet evidently in- 

 tensely selfish, man who, for his first 



soon after, and posting notices, were 

 not enough to protect the owner's ex- 

 clusive right to that charming piece 

 of nature. He tried another method- 

 and put around the entire property a 

 barbed wire fence some eight or ten 

 feet high, and not contented with the 

 height of a plain fence he had a pro- 

 jecting top well covered with barbed 

 wire and thus, with plenty of notices 

 which were superfluous because it 

 would be an almost impossible task U 

 climb the fence, except with a liberal 

 supply of ladders, he proclaimed to all 



