THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



11 



Odds and €nds. 



Among the Jesuits it was a standins rule of the 

 Order, that after an application to study for two 

 hours, the mind of the student should be unbent 

 by some relaxation however trifling. 



In Japan wheat is sown in rows, witli wide 

 spaces between theni, which are utilized for 

 beans and other crops, and no sooner is it removed 

 than cucumbers or some other vegetable takes 

 its place, as the land, tinder careful tillage and 

 copious manuring,- bears two, and often three, 

 crops in a year. 



Perpetual Ice Water. — A gentleman in 

 Brandon, Vermont, has a curious well which 

 puzzles even those wise men, tiie s<neiitists. It is 

 about forty-four feet deeji, and at the depth of 

 thirty-nine feet ice begins to form, and continues 

 to do so to the bottom. No matter hoiv liigh the 

 thermometer runs the ice never nu'lts, though it 

 grows thicker in the winter. 



In the -biography of Samuel J. May, he states 

 that once on a morning walk he passed by a ceme- 

 tery, where he observed the old tomb of one 

 ■John Otis opened. Curiosity induced him to look 

 in and open the lid of the crumbling coffin. He 

 found it entirely filled with the filirous roots of 

 the elm, and stepping out he saw the noble wide- 

 spreading tree above him whose transfigured glory 

 represented all that was material of John Otis. " 



the marriage was concluded in 1752. Nothing 

 but the supposition that he was actuated by 

 gratitude for her kindness and attention during 

 his illness can account for this singular step in 

 Mr. Howard's life. The lady, it appears, was 

 not only twice as old as himself, but also very 

 sickl}', and that no reasons of interest can have 

 influenced him, is evident, as much from the 

 fact that she was poor in comparison with him- 

 self, as from the circumstance of his immediately 

 making over the whole of her little property to 

 her sister. Mr. Howard lived very happily with 

 his wife until her death, which occurred in 1755. 



A Poor Chance. — When Dr. Franklin's 

 mother-in-law found out that the young man 

 had a hankering after her daughter, that good 

 lady said she did not know so well about giving 

 her daughter to a printer. There were alreadv 

 two printing offices in the Colonies, and as 

 Franklin intended to set up a third, it Was a 

 question whetlier the country could support so 

 many. If all prospective mothers-in-law looked 

 upon the business in a similar light now-a-days 

 it would be rather discouraging for printers out 

 "wife hunting. 



Along the Tigris the villagers in hot weather 

 hathe ill the river before retiring for the night, 

 and if the heat is particularly oppressive, thev 

 repeat the bath several times during the night. 

 The heat and the vermin of the hutsinake small 

 children restless and troublesome. Hence the 

 villagers make baskets, which they line with 

 some soft material, and hang among the reeds 

 •which grow in the shallows of the river bank. 

 The babies of the village are stowed at nightfall 

 in these baskets, tied under a cover of basket 

 work, hnd remain among the reeds to sleep in 

 peace until morning. 



Grave Robbers.— When the body of Roger 

 Williams was removed to a new resting-place, it 

 was found that an apple tree which had stood at 

 his head, had struck its roots down deep into the 

 ■very coffin itself; which had finally mouldered 

 away. The main stem had curved back of tlie 

 skull, then branched at the shoulders and run 

 <Jown the two arms to the fingers. A strong root 

 ran down the back bone again dividing until it 

 reached the feet, where the fibres curved u])ward. 

 The whole outline of the founder of Rhode 

 Island lay outlined in apple tree roots, which 

 had literally absorbed the man. The tree had 

 been full-fruited and flourisiiing for many a year, 

 and now the question is, who ate Roger Williams? 



On the 3d of July, 1SG!.1, a large white oak, 

 measuring twenty-seven feet in circumference at 

 three feet from the ground, during a high gale of 

 ■wind was uprooted. A short time afterward the 

 immense stump was removed preparatory to 

 leveling the ground. The hole that the extracted 

 root left measured seven feet in depth and thirty- 

 three in circumference. Four feet below the 

 bottom of this hole, or eleven feet from the sur- 

 face of the ground, was found a very rude stone 

 a,xe entangled in a mass of fibrous roots that had 

 been cut ofl' from the main roots of tlie tree. In 

 this case tlie axe must have been buried in the 

 earth before this old tree was an acorn. Now as 

 to the age of the tree : There were not less tlian 

 five hundred rings clearly to be traced on a sec- 

 tion of the tree afterwards. 



JOHN HO^WABD. 



John Howard, the philanthropist, married his 

 landlady, Mrs. Sarah Loidon, an elderiv widow, 

 and altiiough she remonstrated witli lilra ui^on 

 the impropriety of the step, considering the 

 great disparity of their ages — he being in his 

 twenty-fifth, and she in her fifty-second year — 



See What You Sign.— We look with surprise 

 on the many instances of swindling among 

 farmers, because they sign their names unguard- 

 edly to an innocent-looking paper in the hands 

 of a wily stranger. But the country has not 

 the monopoly of careless signers. A man in a 

 large town resolved to prove this. He drew up 

 a petition to the Legislature, asking to have the 

 jiastor of the Presbyterian church hung in the 

 public square. He laid it on his office table, and 

 asked visitors to "sign a petition favoring the 

 widening of Oswego street." Most who were 

 asked signed promptly without reading, among 

 them two deacons of tiie church, and the pastor's 

 son-in-law. A large list of signers was obtained 

 before the f\tcts leaked out. Then the men came 

 back, one by one, and sheepishly asked to cross 

 their names ofl'. " Oh, yes. Scratch them oft'," 

 said the gentleman, " if you do not want the 

 pastor hung." 



The Earthquake. — Baron Humbolt thus des- 

 cribes his first experience of an earthquake: 

 " The shock came after a strange stillness. It 

 caused an earthquake in my mind, for it over- 

 threw all my lifelong notions about the stability 

 of the earth. The crocodiles ran from the river 

 Orinoco, howling into the woods. The dogs and 

 jiigs were powerless with fear. The houses could 

 not shelter, for they were falling to ruins, j 

 turned to the trees; but they were overthrown, 

 'file next thought was to mil to the mountains; 

 lint they reeled like drunken men. I then 

 looked toward the sea, but, lo! it had fled. 

 Ships, which a few minutes before were in deep 

 water, rocked on the sand. Being then at my 

 wits-end, I looked up and observed that the 

 heavens alone Were calm and unshaken." The 

 mild earthquake which lately visited us un- 

 settled the minds of many with regard to the 

 stability of things in much the same way. 



By the Pixe Knot La.mp.— The late distin- 

 guished politician, and man of large-hearted 

 benevolence, Thurlow Weed, always had a warm 

 side for young men, whom he endeavored to 

 incite to self-improvement, by stating incidents 

 in his own early history. Sap gathering and 

 sugar making are not considered favorable to 

 literary pursuit, but young Weed managed to 

 get through with a good many valuable books in 

 tlie sugar season. "During the day," he said, 

 " I \yould lay in a good supply of fat pine, by 

 the light of wliieh I have passed many a delight- 

 ful night in the sugar camp reading. I remein- 

 ber in this way to have read a history of the 

 French Revolution, and to have obtained from it 

 a better and more enduring knowledge of its 

 events and horrors, than I have received from all 

 subsequent readings." 



The long evenings are nere again, ana the 

 boys who spend them in profitable reading will 

 lie the mer of mark in the next generation. 



MINIATURE machinery. 



Arnold, the Loudon watchmaker, constructed 

 a watch for (Jeorge III, which was set in a finger 

 ring; but this was nothing uncommon, for the 

 Emperor Charles V., as well as James I., of 

 England, had similar ornaments in the jewels of 

 tlieir rings, and this species of mechanism is 

 sometimes witnessed, on a large scale, in the 

 bracelets of ladies. In Iluljy's" Museum notice 

 is taken of an exhibition at the house of one 

 Boverick, a watchmaker in the Strand (1745), at 

 whicli were shown, among other things, the 

 following curiosities : 1st. — The furniture of a 

 dining-room, with two persons seated at dinner, 

 and a footman in waiting, tlie whole capalile of 

 being enclosed in a cherry stone. 2d. — A landau 

 in ivory, with four persons inside, two postillions, 

 a driver, and six horses, the whole fully mounted 

 and habited, and drawn by a flea. 3d. — A four- 



wheel, open chaise, equally perfect, and weighing 

 only one grain. Another London exhibition, 

 about the same time, constructed of ivorv a tea- 

 table, fully equipped, with urn, teapot, cups and 

 saucers, tlie whole being contained in a Barceleona 

 filbert shell. " 



obnamental gardening in japan. 



Except in the gardens of the Buddhist Mon- 

 astery of Hangtse in China, I have never seea 

 anything approaching in singularitv to these pro- 

 ductions, but the gardeners of Tokivo are far 

 more daring than the monks. Bushes and 

 shrubs, cut into the life-size resemblances of 

 men and women, are equipped with faces of 

 painted wood or paper, the clothes, fans, or 

 weapons being formed of carefully trained leaves 

 anil flowers, which fall in artistic draperies of 

 delightfully harmonized colors. In one scene 

 a tree represents a monster fan, two others a 

 liridge, witu a sliip passing underneath it, then 

 a landscape with a ]iieiiie, and a setting sun of 

 gold-colored chrysanthemunis is wonderfully 

 executed. Chinese women walking, and animals, 

 especially hares and rabbits, are also represented • 

 by this singular art. Scenes from well-known 

 plays are the most enduringly popular of all 

 these scenes, and one of the mvthie heroes of 

 Japan, shown in combat with an eight-headed 

 monster, while the lady, for whom he is fighting, 

 sits apart, clothed in red, yellow, and white 

 chrysanthemums, the whole forming a landscape 

 over thirty feet long, is always the centre of joy- 

 ous crowds in late October, when the sun is warm 

 and the air is still. — Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 



Dr. Charles R. Darwin, grandson of the author 

 of "The Botanic Garden/' and " Loonomia," 

 was born in lSO!t. He showed at an early age 

 great capacity as a naturalist. In 1.S59 he pub- 

 lished the "Origin of Species by means of Natural 

 Selection ; the Preservation ' of the Favored 

 Haoes in the Struggle of Life." This book had 

 hardly been published when it was found that a 

 great crisis had been reached in the history of 

 science and of thought. Mr. Darwin's central 

 idea was that the various species of plants and 

 animals, instead of each being especially created 

 and inimitable, -are continually undergoing 

 modification and change, through a process of 

 adaptation, by virtue of which such varieties of 

 the species as are in any way better fitted for the 

 rough work of the struggle tor existence, are 

 enabled to survive and multiply, at the expense 

 of the others. Mr. Darwin considers this prin- 

 ciple, with, indeed, some other and less impor- 

 tant causes, capable of explaining the manner in 

 which all existing types may have descended 

 from one or a very few low forms of life. All 

 animals, beasts, birds, reptiles, and insects have 

 descended, he contends, from a verv limited 

 numberof progenitors, and he holds that analogy 

 points to the belief that all animals and plants, 

 whatever, have descended from one common 

 prototype.— i//s<o;-j/ of Our Own Times. 



THE PEACH. 



The peach belongs to the rose f\imilv {rosarea), 

 and is closely allied to the almond. "It is gener- 

 ally regarded as a .short-lived tree, but iii" a ge- 

 nial soil and climate it lives to a good age, there 

 being in 'Virginia trees that were planted seventy 

 years ago, and in France a vigorous tree that is 

 known to be ninety -five years old. There are a 

 number of ornamental varieties of the jieach, 

 among the best known of which are several 

 double sorts, which produce a profusion of flowers 

 as double as roses; one of these, the Camellia 

 Flowered, is especially beautiful. Some of them 

 bear fruit of an indifli'erent quality. The dwarf 

 varieties are curious producing fruit when one or 

 two feet high ; one of these, the Golden Dwarf. 

 originated in Georgia, another is Italian, and 

 others are Australian. The Weeping Peach 

 originated witli the late William Reid, of Eliza- 

 beth, New Jersey, and bears his name. When 

 grafted on a plum stock six feet high, the bran- 

 ches hang down like those of the Weeping 

 Willow. It produces an abundance of fruit, 

 which, however, is fit only for cooking. A blood- 

 leaved, or purple-leaved 'variety of the peach is 

 very .showy in the S]iring, but the leaves do not 

 retain their dark purple during the summer. 

 The Peen-to or Flat Peach of China has its 

 fruit so singularly compressed that the ends of 

 the stone are only covered by the skin, the flesh 

 being all at the s"ide. — Appleton's Encyclopedia. 



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SMALL FKUIT 



CLASS. 



_ ^^ _ _ BEST STOC 



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