1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



191 



of the gum made it well worth ten cents to the 

 citizen who had never seen it. 



Stealing Snowdrops. — Two men convicted 

 at Maidstone, in England, recently, of dig- 

 ging up Snowdrop roots in a private garden, were 

 recently sentenced by an English Judge to seven 

 year.s- penal servitude. This is in striking con- 

 trast with the law of a Philadelphia court, 

 where a systematic swindler, of several j'cars' 

 duration, was given a comfortable rest for sixty 

 days, instead of servitude or hard labor; and 

 with another case, where the same Judge Thayer 

 actually discharged a prisoner who had stolen 

 pear trees from a nurseryman, on the ground 

 that Pear trees were real estate, which a man 

 ^'could not steal." When the Snowdrop thieves 

 get out they will probably emigrate to Phila- 

 vlelphia. 



Gardeners and Farmers.— Mr. Peter Hen- 

 derson made an admirable address before the 

 American Institute Farmers' Club, on the 

 29th of April. Besides the excellent practical 

 hints as to the formation and management of 

 farm-gardens, he made a strong point on the fact 

 that many of the lest men in the garden busi- 

 ness were originally farmers, and even from 

 other ranks have some of the best recruiis been 

 drawn. Of an old New York firm he says: 



" This 1 know to be the fact, in scores of in. 

 stances where the business of nurseryman, market 

 gardeners or tlorisLs was, as it were, just forced 

 upon the farmer by his \ illage neighbors desiring 

 to buy the products of his garden. 



The original proprietoi* of one of the largest 

 seed-houses in the city of New York emigrated 

 from Scotland some time about the beginning of 

 the present centmy. He was a nailer by trade, 

 and was entirely ignorant ot anything pertaining 

 to seeds or gardei;ing; but one day, coming 

 through the Bowery, then half farm, half cil}'^ 

 he saw a Rosebush in a cottage window. It was 

 a Rose in the wilderness, for probably there were 

 not a score more in the city of New York. He 

 went in and bought it for 50 cents, took it home, 

 painted the pot-green, and placing it in the 

 window of his nailshop, quickly sold it for a 

 dollar. This was eivsier work and better pay 

 than nail-making. He started out daily, buying 

 plants of all kinds, always painting the pots 

 green (a practice that modern science would 

 frown at), and doubling his money rnpidly. 



From plants, the transition to dealing in seeds 

 was natural au'i easy, so that in less than twenty 

 years from the time this humble Scotch nail- 



maker had purchased his Rosebush in the 

 Bowery, his seed-house had become the largest 

 on this continent. 



An I:xceptionai.ly Honest Man. — A Mr. 

 W. V. Andrews, who signs himself "Cor. Secre- 

 tary of the Long Island Entomologist's Society, 

 U. S. A.," sends a communication to Hardwick's 

 Science Gossip, advising the Engli.-h people not 

 to use Paris green in case the potato beetle 

 appears there, as "its use is entirely unnecessary. 

 For small plots of land, hand-picking by boys 

 and girls is efficacious, and without danger, for I 

 do hope that your readers are not believei-s in 

 the foolish stories told of the beetle being poison- 

 ous. For larger lots, an ordinary butterHy 

 bag-net, swept gently along the potato-tops, will 

 capture more beetles in an hour than Paris green 

 will kill in a week." He then goes on to tell 

 how Paris green came to be used in this country, 

 in these words : 



"Mr. Rye tells you that Paris green is a 

 favorite remedy here, but he does not understand 

 the American mode of doing things. Some 

 State entomologist or other probably had a friend 

 in the oil and color business, and gave a friendly 

 puff to Paris green. Then the oil and color man 

 advertises in some agricultural paper's that he 

 has the 'never-failing exterminator' of potato 

 bugs— Paris green, and the editor of tliat journal 

 at once strongly recommends it. You do not do 

 things in that way in* honest old England, but 

 we do here." 



Paris green was first recommended in the 

 Gardener's Monthly. We doubt whether 

 any advertisement, not merel}' of Paris green, 

 but of .any "oil or color man," ever appeared in 

 its pages. We have been a pi-etfy close reader 

 of the leading agricultural papers of our country 

 for years, advertisements and all, and we have 

 rarely seen an acveriisement of Paris green. At 

 any rate, we are quite sure there was at no time 

 any necessity for "editorial notices" to make it 

 go. If they have any room for another honest 

 man in honest old England, Ameiica can verj'- 

 well spare this Mr. Andrews. 



Science in the Department of Agri- 

 culture. — We note with great pU'asure that 

 general Ee Due has appointed Prof. Riley as 

 Entomolo<>ist to the Department. With such 

 men as Riley, Dr. Vasey in the Botanical, and 

 Mr. Saunders i:i the Horticultural, the most 

 enthusiastic " why don't you do it?" can ask 

 no more. 



