THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



11 



Odds and €nds. 



THINK FOB YOURSELF. 



By Jeff. D. Serryhilf, Washbmii, Mo, 



In the Farm and Garden, and among other 

 articles of good literature, I find many useful and 

 .interesting essays of various kinds, by dili'erent 

 ^authors, some of which have caused me to tliink 

 niore profoumlly than anything else with which I 

 iiave met. My dear reader, you may be young, 

 aind have not had time to think much, or have 

 Iiad some one to think for you, but knowing that 

 you will not always have this, my object is to 

 start you to think fur yourself, selecting your 

 objects, and laying your plans to accomplish 

 them. True, you are here, and must go through 

 life somehow; but there is a better and easier 

 way than that. 



"The turtle climbs upon the floating log, and 

 «eems to ride very pleasantly ditwn the river, he 

 •does not know, nor does he seem to care, where 

 he is going." Although many men go through 

 life in this way, it seems to me rather an aimless 

 ^nd unmanly voyage, it may do ff»r turtles, but 

 it is surely not best for men. Usefulness, eiiar- 

 ^cter, knowledge, a good conscierice, and a good 

 name, are not accidents, they are bom of honest 

 -effort. If you have your mind on any, or all of 

 Ihese, you must be up and doing, you have no 

 time to loss. If your circumstances are of sucli 

 .nature that your future prospects become blighted, 

 be not discouraged, but think out other plans, 

 ;and endeavor to execute them ; this is manly, 

 ibut to spend all your young life in slothful and 

 ithoughtless indolence^ and at the same time 

 4iope for the fruits of well directed etfort, is worse 

 •than absurdity and foolishness ; this is the 

 tilossom of future discontent and wretchedness, 

 ^nd will not fail to " yield its full harvest in 

 •due season." 



ORIGIN OP THE TORKS. 



Like Romulus, the founder of that martial 

 ipeople was preserved by a she wolf, and the rep- 

 lesentation of that animal on tlie banners of the 

 Turks, suggested the idea of a fable which was 

 invented without any mutual intercourse, by the 

 •sheplierds ot Latiuni ^nd tliose of Scytiiia. At 

 »the equal distance of two thousand miles from 

 ithe Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese, and the Ben- 

 ;gal seas, a ridge of mountains is conspicuous, the 

 ■centre and perhaps the summit of Asia, which, 

 in the language of different nations, has been 

 ■styled Imaus, Caf, Altai, the Golden Mountain.?, 

 and the Girdle of the Earth. According to the 

 ireligious philosophy of the Maiiommedans, the 

 'Ijasis of Mt. Caf is an emerald whose reflection 

 ;produces the azure of the sky, and the mountain 

 is endowed with a sensitive action in its roots or 

 «ierves, and their vibration, at the command of 

 "God, is the cause of earthquakes. 



The sides of the hills were productive of min- 

 •■erals, and the iron forges for the purpose of war, 

 nvere exercised by the Turks, the most despised 

 portion of the slaves of the great Khan Geougen. 

 But their servitude could only last until a leader, 

 bold and eloquent, should arise to persuade his 

 •countrymen that the same arms which they 

 forged for their masters might become, in their 

 >own hands, instruments of freedom and victory. 



They sallied from the mountain. A sceptre 

 was the reward of liis advice, and the annual 

 -ceremony in which a piece of iron was heated in 

 the tire, and a smith's hammer was successively 

 handled by the prince and his nobles, recorded 

 for ages the humble profession and national pride 

 of the Turish nation. Bertezena, their first 

 deader, signalized their valor and his own in suc- 

 ■cessfal comljats against the neighboring tribes, 

 Ibut when he presumed to ask in marriage the 

 slaughter of the great khan, the insolent demand 

 <jf a slave and meclianic was contemptoiisly re- 

 jected. The disgrace was expiated by a more 

 noble alliance with a princess of China, and the 

 decisive battle which almost extirpated the nation 

 of the Geougen, established in Tartary the new 

 iind more powerful empire of the Turks. — Gibbon. 



TREES OP CETI.ON. 



For sixty miles along the shore of Ceylon 

 ithere are cinnamon groves, and the sweet scent 

 may be perceived far off u))on tlie seas. The 

 •cinnamon trees are never allowed to grow tall, 

 because it is only the upper branches wliich are 

 inuch prized for their bark. The little children 

 ■of Ceylon may often be seen cutting in the shade, 

 peeling off the bark with their knives. There 

 are also groves of cocoanut trees on the shores of 

 Ceylon. A few of these trees are a little fortune 

 to a i)oor man, for he can eat the fruit, build his 

 house with the wood, roof it with the leaves, 

 jnake cups of tlie shell, and use the oil of the 



kernel instead of candles. The Jack tree bears 

 a fruit as large as a horse's head. This large 

 fruit does not hang on the tree by a stalk, but 

 grows out of the trunk on the great brandies. 

 The outside of the fruit is like a horse chestnut, 

 green and prickly, the inside is y^ellow, and is 

 full of kernels, like beans. The wood is like 

 mahogany — hard and handsome. But there is a 

 tree in Ceylon still more curious than the Jack 

 tree. It is the Talpot tree. This is a very tall 

 tree, and its top is covered by a cluster of round 

 leaves, each leaf so large that it would do for a 

 common sized room, and one single leaf, cut in 

 three-cornered jiieces, will make a tent. "When 

 cut up the leaves are used for fans and books. 

 Tliis tree bears no fruit until just before it dies, 

 that is until it is tifty years old, then an enor- 

 mous bud is seen raising its huge head in the 

 midst of the crown of leaves. The bud bursts 

 with a loud noise, and a yellow flower appears — 

 a flower so large that it would fill a room. The 

 flower turns into fruit, and the same year the 

 tree dies. 



THE GREAT ■WALL OF CHINA. 



It was with a view of securing his Empire 

 against future attacks from various formidable 

 tribes, that Che-waugte (B. c. 214), undertook 

 the completion of this great wall, a stupendous 

 work, surpassing the most wonderful ettbrts of 

 human hilior in other countries, and upon which 

 twenty centuries have exerted but little effect. 

 The largest of the pyramids of Egypt contains 

 but a small portion of the matter in this wall, the 

 solid contents of which, not including the pro- 

 jecting mass of stone and brick, which contains 

 as much masonry as all Lonilon ; are supjiosed to 

 exceed in bulk the materials of all the dwelling- 

 houses in England and Scotland. The vastness 

 of the mass may be better appreciated by consid- 

 ering that it is more than sufficient to surround 

 tlie circumference of the Earth on two of its cir- 

 cles, with two walls, each six feet high and two 

 feet thick. Walls had already been erected by 

 some of the petty princes in the north, to exclude 

 the barbarians from their States. The Emperor 

 directed his general, Mungteen, wlio had com- 

 pleted the campaign against the Houngnoos, to 

 survey the walls built by these princes to com- 

 plete the union, and to continue this great barrier 

 from Kea-yuh-kivan to the place where at a sub- 

 sequent jieriod Wung-hal-Iow 'was built, on the 

 shore of the Eastern Sea, a space of about fifteen 

 hundred miles, over deep valleys, and mountains 

 of great elevation. Enormous numbers of men, 

 some say millions, being a third of the inhabitants 

 of a certain age, were collected. 



THE COAST SDBVEY 



The real work of the Coast Survey commenced 

 in 18.>2, under the supervision of Ferdinand R. 

 Ilasslar, a native ot Switzerland. Hasslar was 

 hamjiered and embarassed continually by limited 

 appropriations. His operations were not of a 

 ciiaracter easily seen ; Congress wondered contin- 

 ually what he was about. While he was systema- 

 tising methods and training assistants. Congress 

 was shrugging its shoulders and clamoring be- 

 cause results were inadequate to the expenditure. 

 Hasslar was an eccentric man, of irascible dispo- 

 sition and great independence of character. On 

 one occasion a committee from Congress waited 

 upon him in his office to inspect his work. " You 

 come to 'spect my vork, eh ? Vat you know 'bout 

 my vork? Vat you going to 'spect? " The gen- 

 tlemen, conscious of their ignorance, tried to 

 smooth his ruffled temper by an exjilanation, 

 which only made matters worse. "\ou knows 

 notting at all 'bout my vork. How can you 

 'spect my vork vere you knows notting? Get 

 out of here ; you in my vay ; Congress be one big 

 vool to send you to 'spect my vork. I 'ave no 

 time to vaste vith such as knows notting vat I am 

 'bout. Go back to Congress and tell dem vat I 

 .say." The committee did "go back to Congress," 

 and reported amid uproarious laughter, the result 

 of their inspecting interview. 



KHARDB PODS. 



The husks upon which the Prodigal Son, fed, 

 are not, as the American reailer is apt to imagine, 

 the husk of maize, that is, of Indian corn. They 

 are the fruit of the Kharub tree, and are, from 

 their shape, called, in tlve Greek, little horns. 

 From t'le popular notion that they were the food 

 of John the Bapti.st, they are called St. John's 

 bread. Dr. Thomson describes them as fleshy 

 pods, somewhat like those of the honey locust 

 tree, from six to ten inches long, and one broad, 

 lined inside witli a gelatinous substance, not 

 wholly unpleasant to the taste when thoroughly 

 ripe. I have seen large orchards of the Kharub 

 in Cyprus, where it is still the food which the 

 swine do eat. 



ENVY OR GOOD 'WILL. 



When JIutius was seen to wear a sorrowful 

 countenance, it was said: " Eitlier some great 

 evil has iiajipened to Mntius, or some great good 

 to another." Eitlier efi'ected him in the same 

 way. He was not alone in l>earing this feeling 

 of envy and illwill to those who possessed a good 

 he did not. It is surprising to what small mean- 

 ness this sjiirit will sometimes lead a ])erson to 

 descend. A poor woman rented a liouse, with 

 the understanding that it might be sold, and she 

 be obliged to leave it. Her little garden was 

 growing well when the place was sold. She had 

 no quarrel with those who bought it, J>ut forth- 

 with she proceeded to pull u]i all the growing 

 things in her garden, destroying it as far as 

 possible. " If she could not have the good of 

 them no body else should." »' 



A- spirit like this could not be happy in Edeu 

 itself. Instead of rejoicing that someone else 

 might rea]) the fruit of her labors, even if she 

 could not, so it might not be a total loss, she 

 would have hiliored upon that as the crowning 

 calamity. What a bless: (.,^,.^,„„j „„j „^„j. 

 ing that tlie world has so ricks »iii both talk to far- 

 many broad, generous na- Sbt,,." K' "• S..'^ m" 

 tures, who delight in the ciub ror the farm and gar- 

 general good, and seek to "'^''' 

 jiromote it. If no one planted trees they were 

 not fully expecting to eat the fruit of them- 

 selves all along as the tree stood, ■what a light 

 fruit harvest we should have. 



As remote from such a desperation as the poles 

 are distant, was the mind of that eccentric old 

 man named Jonathan Chapman, who went all 

 through Southern Ohio, in pioneer days, plant- 

 ing apple seeds, wherever he could find an appro- 

 priate spot, with a reasonable ho)ie of them 

 being undisturbed. He gathered his bag of seed 

 at the cider mills in Pennsylvania, and set out 

 out on his travels, by highways and by-ways, and 

 the result was many good, strong fruit trees, 

 all ready in bearing for the first settlers when 

 they came to the region. It was a strange hobby, 

 but it fell in the line of a most useful service to 

 fellow men. He acquired the name of Johnny 

 Appleseed, but he was beloved and welcomed in 

 all old pioneer homes, and even the native 

 Indians treated him with respect, and sought to 

 notice his little trees, a favor for -which he was 

 always deeply grateful. 



flDYEI^IiISEMENirS. 



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4- ALL GARDEN SUPPLIES. 4< 



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Illustrated Catalogue Mailed Free. 



Address. ROBERT J. HALLIDAY, 

 SeeiUnian *and Florist. Daltimore City. Mil. 



BULBOUS ROOTS. 



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Seedsman aud Florist, 



714 Chestnut Street, Pliilaclelpnia. Pennn. 



FOOD CARP. 



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Uf'll I I AM DARRV Prrsfiiiil'Amrlriin Cniii VuUurt 

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