THE FIRST ESSENTIAL OF FARM LIFE 



297 



and very ^'aluablc to man ; upon reach- 

 ing adult age — six years — it is striking- 

 ly marked by black or dark brown pat- 

 ches grouped together on the sides and 

 back, on a white or yellowish ground 

 color. This animal is also known as the 

 saddleback and Greenland seal. The 

 hooded seal is a large species. The 

 older males have a flexible skin bag on 

 top of the nose which they can inflate 

 until it is ten inches high. The color 

 is dark bluish gray with white dots. 

 The ribbon or Harlequin seal, in pat- 

 tern, is the most remarkable of all liv- 

 ing Pinnipeds ; on a smooth ground col- 

 or of blackish brown or yellowish gray 

 are several bands of yellowish white. 

 One strip ties the neck, while others 

 mark the body and flippers attractively. 

 The Pacific walrus, the sea-lions' 

 cousin on the other side of the family, 

 is a remarkable animal — big, slow, 

 hairless and tusked. It can sleep float- 

 ing bolt upright in the water, and often 

 warns vessels from approaching dan- 

 gerous rocks on which it rests with 

 grunts and belloAvs, this is probably 

 done simply to frighten away danger, 

 with no idea of being of service to man. 

 On land the walrus is helpless, but in 

 the water it is at home — and dangerous. 

 They are seldom seen in captivity ; one 

 young specimen in the Zoological 

 Society's collection in Bronx Park re- 

 cently died. This animal supplies the 

 Eskimo with food, fuel, light, boats, 

 dog-harness and leather. A full grown 

 walrus is about twelve feet long and 

 weighs almost a ton ; it stands five feet- 

 and has a neck twelve feet around. The 

 ivory tusks are sometimes two feet 

 long. The chief food is shell fish and 

 crustaceans, but aquatic plants are also 

 eaten. The Atlantic walrus is much 

 like the animal from the Pacific except 

 that the neck is shorter and smaller, 

 and not as heavily tusked. A specimen 

 killed by Commander Peary measured 

 nine feet and weighed more than fifteen 

 hundred pounds ; the skin alone being 

 two hundred and twenty pounds. 



The New York Zoological Societv 

 at present owns neither walrus or seal, 

 but in sea-lions it is rich. Two speci- 

 mens are particularly interesting: Flip 

 and Jack. Jack is a California "Lion" 

 lively, large and intelligent. Flip is a 

 Steller's "Lion" and even more accom- 

 plished than Jack ; his diving is wonder- 

 ful and a habit confined to very few of 



his species. He is probably the largest 

 specimen in captivity and certainly one 

 of the most intelligent. The females 

 owned by the Society are small and do 

 not care as much for the cold water as 

 do the males. 



The First Essential of Farm Life. 



BY MRS. ELIZABETH P. BEMIS, EDITOR OF 

 NORMAL INSTRUCTOR— PRIMARY PLANS. 



I look upon the work that you are do- 

 ing as fundamental, universal, religious 

 work, and eventually the Maker of all 

 we want the children to see and love 

 will open the eyes and heart of some 

 one to see the need of strengthening 

 this movement in a national w^ay and 

 of giving the money to promote it. 



The money value of your work is its 

 power to make people love the beauty 

 of nature enough to be willing to live 

 in the country. 



I know that people can never learn 

 to live happily on farms until women 

 learn to live happily there, and while 

 I believe with all rny heart and soul 

 in supplying women with all modern 

 helps on the farm yet I know that the 

 tendency of women is toward the life 

 of the city and away from the loneli- 

 ness of the farm. Not until women love 

 nature and see its beauties will farming 

 ever be as successful as it is capable of 

 being. This is one of my hobbies. I 

 am forced to think of all altruistic 

 ideals in the terms of commercialism 

 and I've come to respect commercial- 

 ism ; in its right place it is just as spirit- 

 ual as the vigorous root and the rich 

 soil of a fine tree, and the beautiful 

 blossoms and fruit cannot be produced 

 without it. 



[From a later letter.] 



Your work is as hard for some people 

 to understand as Jacob Riis's was, but 

 it is none the less important because it's 

 a new idea. 



While all Europe is spending money 

 by the shipload to promote destruc- 

 tion of human happiness some one 

 ought to jump at the chance to give you 

 a million for constructive work. I'd 

 like to see you promote centers like 

 ArcAdiA all over the United States and 

 if you had money enough to buy "seed 

 corn" you could make a demonstration 

 to be added to by local rich people. I'm 

 never going to stop wishing for it any- 

 how. 



