editor's table. 



ludicrous. This demand for money may be readily cured by adopting the cash system, by 

 which means the papers not wanted would end their long agony in a much shorter time 

 than heretofore. If a paper will not command payment in advance, it had better be given 

 up. These remarks are suggested by the following leader from the Green Mountain (Maine) 

 Farmer, which it is as well to put on record : "As we said before, we absolutely need money. 

 "We have between three and four hundred dollars due us, from those owing six months to a 

 year. Now, friends, don't be bashful, but just send along the small amount due, and then 

 you will have the enviable satisfaction of reflecting, when you sit in your snug, warm parlor, 

 of a cold, chilly night, quietly perusing your paper, that he who labored to fill its columns 

 for you, is not at the same time shivering over a cheerless fire, whose feeble blaze affords 

 him the only light by which to glean news from his exchanges for the next paper ; and also 

 that his better half is not engaged in stuffing those old pantaloons more snugly into the 

 clattering windows to break off the searching wind, or endeavoring to quiet the little ones 

 who have been put to bed minus their cup of milk. We say you will have the satisfaction 

 of reflecting that this is not so. Won't this pay you for your trouble ?" It makes one quite 



sad to think of this application of the " old pantaloons," in lieu of " rural art." A law 



case of interest has lately been decided in England, in which a market gardener sought 

 redress from a gas company for damages caused by the gases and soot evolved from the 

 buildings. The plaintiff complained, and he and his witness proved that his fruit trees 

 were destroyed or rendered unproductive, his hedges blackened and decayed ; the branches 

 of his trees were covered with soot, his annual crops were injured, and his trade seriously 

 affected by the impossibility of bringing what few vegetables he could raise early into a 

 state fit for sale. His scientific witnesses, one of whom was Prof. Way, proved that the 

 leaves of his vegetables were covered with white spots, and those of his trees were shrivelled 

 up ; that the branches were so loaded with soot that it could scarcely be cleaned off, that 

 their breathing pores were choked up, and their very tissue disorganized. Verdict for 



plaintiff. Swans may become attached to mock representations of their mates. One of 



a pair of swans frequenting a pond died recently. The owner not being able to get another 

 swan, had a wooden one made, painted white and moored in the pond. The survivor took 

 it at once as a companion, and never left its neighborhood. A visitor doubted the fact of 

 the live one frequenting that part of the pond on this account, and the wooden swan was 

 removed to the other side of the pond to try, when it was at once followed by the live one. 

 By this contrivance the swan was always kept in the part of the pond which was visible 



from the windows. The Himalayan Rhododendrons have found no fancier in America 



yet, but it may be hoped some one at the South will take the pains to introduce them, and 

 we do not despair of some of these beautiful productions being hardy even here. They 

 should be planted against perpendicular masses of rock facing the north, and most of them 

 in damp and dark situations, screened from every wind ; such being the conditions in which 

 Dr. Hooker (in his Himalayan Journals) describes these plants as most luxuriant in their 

 native habitats. Such an arrangement has the further advantage of retarding their growth 

 in the spring, for all are of an excitable nature, and therefore liable to be injured by late 



frosts. Biddulph Grange, the English seat of James Bateman, would appear to be the 



best worth visiting of any improved place at this moment. A recent description in addition 

 to much of interest, says : " By the margins of the rocky streamlet through the glen, a nice 

 collection of half-aquatic and marsh plants is arranged, and some moist spots are specially 

 provided for the many pleasing bog plants of Ireland and Wales. Here are various kinds 

 of Reeds, Sedges, the Chinese Grass (Acorns japonicus), the Pampas Grass, the New Zealand 

 Flax, Bambesa Metake — a hardy and pretty Bamboo, the double-flowered Sagittaria, the 

 Water Dock, the charming little bog-loving Pinguiculas, and a great number of 

 interesting plants, including some of the bolder fonns of Fern, for which the shad 



