so 



ARBORICULTURE 



ANGRY RATTLESNAKE. 



muscle is supplied with a motor nerve 

 with which to set it in operation." 



Forest and Stream prints the following 

 story, told by a traveling man : 



" 'When I was a young man, living on 

 a farm in the mountain region of Penn- 

 sylvania, one of the women folks came to 

 call me, stating that there was a large 

 rattlesnake in the barn. I ran up there, 

 and in the manger part of the ground 

 floor of the barn found a rattler about 

 four feet and a half long and as thick 

 as my wrist. I got a hay fork and got 

 over the feed rack and stuck one of the 

 tines of the fork through his body. He 

 thrashed around at a terrible rate, and I 

 was somewhat at a loss to know how to 

 kill him, so I called to the girl to come 

 over and hold the fork, which I had then 

 shoved up tight against the wall, until I 

 could get a stick and kill the snake. The 

 snake was still thrashing around when 

 she took hold of the fork, the handle of 

 which was five or six feet in length, but 

 almost immediately thereafter the snake 

 ceased its struggles, raised its head, 

 opened its jaws wide, and shot out at 

 that girl two streams of liquid, which fell 

 on her dress about six inches apart, and 

 actually trickled down the dress. It was 

 a pink calico dress, and the poison took 

 the color out of the dress and left it with 

 the two streaks showing white.' 



"If this story is true, it means that a 

 rattlesnake when it strikes is able to exer- 

 cise control over his 'hypodermic' and to 

 regulate the dose ; that here was a very 

 mad snake who could not get at the per- 

 son it wanted to poison, and so undertook 

 to administer it at long range. 



"And if this is true, it is possible to ad- 

 duce the proof. For if a poisonous snake 

 can control the ejection of its venom, 

 there is a sort of constrictive muscle at- 

 tached to or about the poison sac, and the 



The editor of ArboricuIvTure, while 

 residing in Kansas, some thirty years ago, 

 had a similar experience. In traversing a 

 road crossing a small stream which was 

 skirted with timber. I saw a rattler of 

 monster size. The only weapon to be 

 found was a fence rail, and with that I 

 attempted to kill the reptile. It climbed 

 upon a prostrate log when I struck at the 

 snake, but the rail was too cumbersome 

 for effective work. The rattler thereupon 

 squirted his venom towards me, it falling 

 to the ground six feet from the snake's 

 head, just as a man would spit forcibly. 

 My distance, however, was too great for 

 it to reach me. 



FORESTRY AT THE IOWA STATE 

 COLDEGB. 



The past few years liave witnessed a 

 wonderful progress in tlie interests of all 

 classes of people in the study of common 

 trees and in the care and protection of 

 forest growth as well as the extension of 

 the forest areas of our country, by planting. 

 Every industry which is dependent upon a 

 permanent supply of crude wood material 

 has been forcibly awakened to the fact that 

 prices are much higher than during the 

 past decade, and that forest areas must be 

 protected and extended if that industry is 

 to remain upon a permanent basis. The 

 feeling is everywhere prevalent that some- 

 thing ought to be done, and yet there have 

 been few in this country who could tell how 

 to go about the planting of forest trees, 

 what trees should be planted, what care 

 given after planting, and how our forests 

 should be protected. This demand for men 

 who can carry on practical forestry opera- 

 tions has caused the establishment of 

 forest schools at several of the leading 

 agricultural colleges and universities. 



The Iowa State College is one of the first 

 to recognize this need, and during the past 

 year has established several courses in 

 forestry. 



