346 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



I Botany should, in my opin- 



THE STUDY ion, be studied by young gar- 



OF BOTANY. deners, who have aspirations 



to succeed, and as there are 

 few who do not possess some ambition, this practically 

 applies to all. I have met with comparatively few who 

 have any notion whatever of the classification of plants, 

 and I venture to say some confess total ignorance regard- 

 ing the knowledgeof the essential parts of a plant, i. e., 

 the andrajcium (stamens) and the gynsecium (pistil), but 

 simply distinguish plants one from the other by the char- 

 acters which are obvious. 



Doubtless many intelligent young gardeners maintain 

 that it does not constitute any part of their profession, 

 and strengthen their argument by the fact that many 

 head gardeners of today are unacquainted with it ; but 

 apart from this, and looking at it from a "pastime" point 

 of view, one could not wish for a more instructive and in- 

 teresting study, besides incurring little e.xpense. It is 

 generally admitted that scientific gardening is becoming 

 more prevalent each year, and whatever the gardening 

 of the past may have been, I am firmly convinced that 

 the men of the future must be proficient in a combination 

 of both theory and practice. Although a man may be a 

 skilful gardener without possessing any knowledge of 

 botany, we must bear in mind that education advances 

 with the times. When had we better opportunities of 

 improvement than the present day? Botany is progress- 

 ing rapidly, and those who will devote time to the study 

 will notice how the interchange of ideas which faculty of 

 intercourse with it gives, is surely tending to raise the 

 standard of a gardener's intelligence, and therefore ren- 

 der him more fitted for the higher duties when he is 

 called upon in later life to perform such. 



However much practice is commended, horticultural 

 knowledge will remain in its infancy if gardeners possess 

 no higher attainments than merely being able to name 

 plants and do not study the principles upon which the 

 success of practice depends. By elevating the mind it will, 

 to quote the words of an eminent gardener, "create keen 

 powers of observation, which, by exercising powers of 

 adaptability, will make a man successful in any environ- 

 ment." — L. W. Young, in Journal of Horticulture. 



If a tree is on open, level 

 MEASURING ground, the easiest way to as- 



A TREE. certain its height is to meas- 



ure the length of the shadow 

 cast by the tree. At the same time measure the length 

 of your own shadow. Then divide the length of the 

 tree's shadow by the length of your own shadow, and 

 multiply by your actual height. The result will be the 

 height of the tree. 



As very tall trees are seldom found in open, level 

 ground, another method may be adopted. Find a spot 

 some distance from the tree, and on the same level as the 

 ground on which the tree stands. Set up on the spot a 

 pole thirty feet out of the ground and perfectly still, 

 keeping on the same level until upright. Then walk far- 

 ther back till your line of sight touches the top of the pole 

 and the top of the tree, and drive a peg where you are 

 standing. Now measure the distance from the center of 

 the bole of the tree to the pole, and to the peg. Multiply 

 the distance from the peg to the tree by twenty-five, and 

 divide by the distance from the peg to the pole. To the 



result add five feet, and you will have the height of the 

 tree. — Rural Calif ornlan. 



The prehistoric skull recent- 

 REAL GARDEN ly discovered in England is 

 OF EDEN. welcomed as a long expected 



ally by Dr. Franklin H. 

 Giddings, professor of sociology and the history of civil- 

 ization at Columbia University. Dr. Giddings asserts 

 that the really significant thing about the discovery is the 

 light it throws on man's Garden of Eden — his original 

 home. 



"I have been expecting this old Englishman to be dis- 

 covered for many years," Dr. Giddings announced. "More 

 than ten years ago in one of my books I made the state- 

 ment that all evidence tended to show that the earliest 

 men lived over much of the territory between north- 

 western Europe and southeastern Asia. The statement 

 caused some little protest at the time. Scientists were 

 searching for man's original home and believed they 

 would eventually find some one locality, a fertile valley, 

 perhaps, where man first lived. 



"The most highly developed apes are found in fossil 

 remains in France. In Java remains of a manlike ape 

 known as Pithecanthropus erectus were found in 1892. 

 He w'as an intermediate form between man and ape. Per- 

 haps hundreds of thousands of years, during which there 

 was a terrific struggle for survival because of the so-called 

 ice ages, separated these from the early men whose bones 

 and handiwork showed more advanced development. 



"But the significant fact is that these later men, includ- 

 ing the skull just uncovered in England, were found in 

 the same territory. In a sand pit near Heidelberg a broad, 

 powerful apelike jaw has been found. The teeth are like 

 those of man. On the Neander River banks a skull was 

 found which showed still higher development. He is 

 known as the Neanderthal man. 



"Other bits of evidence in the shape of skulls and 

 other bones have been dug up in Belgium and at Gibraltar, 

 all showing that Europe was once inhabited by a race of 

 men much inferior to the lowest living savages now 

 found in Australia, Tasmania and Africa." 



All this, Dr. Giddings believes, indicates that the ten 

 thousand mile strip of land extending from Java to Eng- 

 land saw the development of man from ape at ap- 

 proximately the same time. According to Dr. Giddings, 

 this entire strip of land was very fertile during prehistoric 

 times. It was perhaps the nearest approach to a Garden 

 of Eden then to be found. This prehistoric man of Eng- 

 land is a link in the chain of evidence which proves that 

 the Garden of Eden was several thousand miles long, 

 according to Dr. Giddings. 



A FORTY BIL- Some people think that the 



LION DOLLAR chief end of farming is to put a 



RTTCTMTTcc ^^^^ '"^° *^ ground, sit down 



-tsUtjlNEbb. and watch it grow. That side of . 



farming can be found in books of poetical quotations and 



on foreclosed mortgages. 



The chief end of farming is profit. The farmer is no 

 sentimental hero of a poem — though the poets have over- 

 worked him up to date. He is a business man like a 

 manufacturer or a banker. He sows to reap dollars. 



The American farmer has forty billions of dollars in- 

 vested in his business. He produces twenty-five millions 

 of dollars of wealth every day. The farmer looks to us 



