BUOY 



1000 



BURBANK 



But dissenters were not allowed to hold pub- 

 lic meetings, and for his violation of this law 

 Bunyan was arrested and placed in Bedford 

 jail. For twelve years he remained there, sup- 

 porting his family by making shoe laces; and 

 in the intervals of his employment he wrote 

 the work for which he is famous. After his 

 release in 1672 he was allowed to preach when 

 and where he chose, and the closing years of 

 his life seem to have been very happy. In 

 August, 1688, he rode through a hard storm to 

 reconcile a father and son who had had a 

 violent quarrel, and the exposure brought 

 about his death. A statue was erected in his 

 honor in Bedford almost two centuries after 

 his death, but his chief monuments are his 

 written works. These include, besides The 

 Pilgrim's Progress, The Life and Death of Mr. 

 Badman, The Holy War and Grace Abound- 

 ing, the last-named a sort of spiritual auto- 

 biography. A.MC c. 



BUOY, boi or boo'y, an anchored float de- 

 signed to aid navigation by indicating the 

 location of shoals and the courses of channels 

 in harbors or rivers. All ships carry charts 

 which show navigators where to expect buoys 



BUOYS 



(a) Bell buoy; (b) can buoy; (c) buoy car- 

 rying special signal flag. 



and what facts to learn from them. Thus, if 

 a captain entering a harbor in the United 

 States or Canada sees a buoy with one side 

 red and the other side black, he knows he 

 must keep the red on his starboard side. He 



knows, too, that horizontal red and black 

 stripes mark danger spots and green buoys 

 especially dangerous places, while vertical black 

 and white stripes indicate the deepest part of 

 the channel and white buoys show safe anchor- 

 age. 



Among the various types of buoy are the 

 bell buoy, which clangs dolefully as it is 

 tossed about; the whistle buoy, whose motive 

 power is air compressed by the waves them- 

 selves; the lantern buoy, a little, floating light- 

 house; the spar buoy, a wooden pole which is 

 weighted so that it stands upright; the can 

 buoy, an iron cylinder with a dome-shaped 

 base; and the nun or nut buoy, round and 

 tapering at both ends. 



BUR 'BANK, LUTHER (1849- ), an Amer- 

 ican horticulturist who has won international 

 fame through his successful experiments in 

 plant improvement. He is one of the few 

 men who have devoted their lives to the work 

 of creating new timber trees, fruits, flowers, 

 vegetables, grains and grasses and to the im- 

 provement of many familiar species. In re- 

 viewing his service to mankind in this field, 

 one recalls the words written by Jonathan 

 Swift two centuries ago: 



And he gave it as his opinion that whoever 

 could make two ears of corn, or two blades of 

 grass, to grow upon a spot where only one grew 

 before, would deserve better of mankind, and do 

 more essential service to his country than the 

 whole race of politicians put together. 



In the little town of Lancaster, Mass., where 

 he was born and educated, Burbank learned 

 his first lessons in natural history, for from 

 his early boyhood days he was happiest when 

 studying the trees, birds and flowers. He was 

 unable to go far- 

 ther in school 

 than the town 

 academy, and 

 when a young 

 man worked in a 

 factory in Wor- 

 cester, Mass. 

 Though he dis- 

 played there a 

 marked aptitude 

 for mechanics 

 and invented a 

 machine that 

 would perform LUTHER BURBANK 

 the work of half a dozen men, his real inter- 

 est lay in nature's creations. 



He began his real life work as a market 

 gardener and raiser of seeds. It came to him 



