1882.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



255 



The Horse : How to Buy and Sell, &c.— By 

 Peter Howden, New York, Orange Judd Co. 1882. 



The lees a buyer knows about a horse, the 

 more sure he is to look very wise and knowing, 

 when he is buying one. It is amusing to note 

 how carefully he opens the creature's mouth, 

 and examines the teeth and gums, and how he 

 punches the poor beast's ribs, and switches its 

 tail, with a fool-me-if-you-can look, which almost 

 defies the seller's trickery. After all there will 

 be no harm in having a little real knowledge, 

 and surely this little book will be worth all its 

 cost to any horse buyer. 



Kules of Simple Hygiene, and hints and rem- 

 edies for the treatment of common accidents and 

 dishes. Compiled by Dawson W. Turner, 

 D. C. L. An American edition is announced by 

 Macmillan and Co., New York. 



The Ladies Floral Cabinet.— We learned 

 at Rochester that this very beautiful monthly 

 publication has again changed hands. C. L. 

 Allen has become the editor, and the many who 

 know of his intelligent love of plants and ilowers, 

 and his excellent editorial abilities, will look for 

 a wide field of usefulness by his connection with 



the magazine. 



«-■-» 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Typographical Errors. — "C. Dickens Shaks- 

 peare Bryant Jones" says: "A catalogue of 

 Mr. 'A. W., of Lawrence, Kansas,' has just 

 reached me in which he advertises ' the Garden- 

 er's Monthly, assisted by an able corpse of 

 American and Foreign correspondents.' Now I 

 always considered the Monthly a live paper; 

 but how a ' corpse.' no matter how ' able,' can 

 give it increased vitalitj', would puzzle even a 

 materialistic spiritualist. A corps of ' corpses,' 

 if anything, would be even deader than one 

 deserter from that graveyard regiment coming 

 ' to re-visit the pale glimpses of the moon,' and 

 to haunt your sanctum with baleful horticultural 

 suggestions and ' dead issues.' The only use you 

 could possibly have for an 'able corpse,' as I 

 conceive, is in your Hints for the Month, where, 

 when ripened by sun, frost and time, and prop- 

 erly composted, you might work it in with 

 part sand into pots, or in the garden borders, 

 where it would become ' a brother to the in- 

 sensible rock, and to the sluggish clod which the 

 rude swain turns with his share and treads 

 upon.' Excuse me, Mr. Editor, for ' dropping 

 into poetry' like Mr. Wegg; but the subject is so 



' fertile' in suggestion, that a whole ' corpse' of 

 dead writers starts up unbidden, every fellow 

 wishing to put in a few remarks in his own pe- 

 culiar vein." 



[All of which is jovial enough, and in which 

 hilarity we should perhaps be tempted to join, 

 did we not know of our own troubles with com- 

 positors and proof readers. A printer seldom 

 thinks of what he is doing, and if a writer 

 made a flourish to the s, so as to look like an e, 

 it would be the most natural thing in the world 

 for him to set up 'corpse' for corps; especially 

 if, while handling the type, he was thinking of 

 the last base ball match. — Ed. G. M.] 



French Weights and Measures.— " D. W. A." 

 Waukon, Iowa, writes as follows: "On page 176 

 of the Monthly is an item ' French Fruits in 

 England,' all in English except one word, and 

 that renders the whole item unintelligible to 

 49,000,000 of the American people, including 

 myself. Now is it necessary, for the advance- 

 ment of science, that the measures of fruit, as 

 well as the names of flowers, should be given in 

 an 'unknown tongue?' " 



[The decimal system of the French is so im- 

 measurably superior to the old English method 

 of calculation, that we are surprised that in a 

 country where dollars and cents have driven out 

 " pounds, shillings and pence," 49,000,000 people 

 have got no further towards decimal measures 

 than were their great grandfathers, before 

 their grandsires declared their independence of 

 other absurdities. But we must take things as 

 we find them, and for the benefit of our despair- 

 ing friends say that a gramme is equal to the 

 thirtieth part of an ounce, and a kilogramme is 

 two pounds and three ounces of our stupid sys- 

 tem. Our ton of 2,240 pounds is 100 kilogrammes, 

 and on this basis all the lower weights are pro- 

 portionately graded. In measure the French 

 also begin with the 100 quarts, which is their 

 hectolitre, and while we flounder through gills 

 and pints and quarts and pecks and bushels, 

 and one knows not what, the French simply 

 number their litres as we number our cents in 

 the dollar. We fancy the school boys among 

 the 49.000,000, as they grow older, will wish their 

 elders had adopted the French method in the 

 public schools. We often feel for the poor things 

 as they worry over the " examples." We should 

 like to convert the Master of the National 

 Grange, and to know that he had set his " lec- 

 turers" to work in the interests of this reform.— 

 Ed. G. M.] 



