1880.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



251 



are grown, other plants than vines may be ex- 

 ported with some chance galls ol the Phylloxera 

 on grape fibres in the soil. Yet it seems to be 

 absurd to cripple all other industries because 

 one may suffer. In our country we study rather 

 how to conquer insect pests than to shiver 

 at their appi-oach. Indeed the very difficulties 

 which insects bring make a richer reward to 

 the energetic man who successfully labors to 

 overcome them. Those Berne "High Joints" 

 have made a mistake by their interdiction. 



Prof. Cope and the Academy of N.\tural 

 Sciences. — A friend who disapproves of the 

 peculiar attitude of Professor Cope towards the 

 Academj'- of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 calls our attention to some points in our June 

 paragraph, which he thinks does not do full jus- 

 tice to Prof. Cope, though he thinks they are not 

 important enough to need correcting. But the 

 Gardener's Monthly corrects even trifling 

 errors, for small errors may lead to greater ones. 

 Professor Cope stated that he lost his position as 

 an officer of the Academy as a penalty for six 

 months' absence on a scientific exploration in 

 Oregon ; and we said that Prof. Cope did not tell 

 the whole story." Our friend suggests that this 

 leaves the impression on the reader that Prof. 

 Cope may have done some very bad thing. If 

 so, this seems to be Prof. Cope's own fault. In 

 his endeavor to place the Academy before the 

 public in the light of obstructing scientific in- 

 vestigation, he made the loss of his seat in the 

 council of the Academy appear as a penalty for 

 absence merely, when it was really a penalty for 

 absence in violation of rules provided for such 

 absence. However, that not even the semblance 

 of injustice may be done Prof Cope, we may 

 say, what Prof. Cope should have said himself, 

 that on proper notice to the council a member 

 may be away for any length of time ; and it was 

 the disregard of this rule, and not absence 

 merely, that cost him his place. 



The Jessup "fund" does not provide that the 

 beneficiary should be only two years. The be- 

 quest was not conditioned in this way. We 

 should have said the rules adopted for the man- 

 agement of the fund. Brevity is often at the 

 expense of clearness. 



When we referred to the immense amount of 

 work done by the Academy on small means, we 

 referred to five hundred paying members. At 

 the moment of writing we had the whole list of 

 members in mind. But a large number are 



honorary,— correspondents. The actual number 

 of annual contributors is only about two hun- 

 dred — $2,000. But this only makes it still more 

 remarkable that so much should be done by this 

 institution, and still more inexcusable the en- 

 deavor to make the public believe that it is 

 doing very little useful work since Prof Cope 

 has had no voice in its management. 



Dust in Fishy Water. — The British Trade 

 Journal, of June 1, has a savage review of an 

 American work. It complains of a "dangerous 

 looseness " in the use of language, and finally 

 concludes that this " looseness " is intentional, 

 and queries : " Is his entire work to be classed 

 with those (and there are many) written solely 

 for the purpose of throwing dust into the air to 

 obscure the light, that the ignorant and un- 

 learned may accept some lesson which it is to 

 the interests of the author to inculcate?" And 

 presuming that his readers will answer this in 

 the affirmative, he proceeds to say :'" We cannot 

 think this ; such tactics are only worthy of the 

 octopus or the skunk." Imagine a fish "throw- 

 ing dust in the air," or a skunk "obscuring the 

 light" by his dreadful odor ; and all this in a 

 criticism on the "dangerous looseness of Ameri- 

 can language ! " 



The Fiftieth Year of an Editor. — The Phil- 

 adelphia Press gives the following account of an 

 interesting occasion, which, from the world-wide 

 renown of the distinguished Editor we transfer 

 to our pages : 



"The semi-centennial anniversary of the 

 establishment of that well-known family news- 

 paper, the Germantoivn Telegraph, was celebrated 

 by a grand reception given bv its founder and 

 editor, Philip R. Freas, Esq., at his beautiful resi- 

 dence in Germantown, last Tuesday afternoon. 

 From 3 o'clock until 8 p. m. there was a constant 

 stream of callers, the visitors including a num- 

 ber of brother journalists of Philadelphia and 

 Eastern Pennsylvania, and leading commercial, 

 manufacturing and mercantile interests and the 

 learned professions, including judges, lawyers, 

 clergymen and physicians, and gentlemen re- 

 tired from active business, all of whom joined in 

 paying their respects and congratulations to the 

 veteran editor who has passed through an edi- 

 torial career of half a century, which has been 

 one long and brilliant success. Among those 

 present were ex-Governors Pollock and Har- 

 tranft ; Judges Butler, Biddle, Pierce and Allison, 

 of the Philadelphia Bench ; Daniel Dougherty, 

 Charles Magargee, Frederick Fraley, Dr. Charles 

 Pancoast, Prof. Thomas Meehan, the noted po- 

 mologist, a dozen or more representatives of the 

 old Wistar family of Germantown. and a hun- 

 dred others. The editorial profession was repre- 



