68 
POPULAR SCIEIfrCE ^EWS. 
[May, 1891. 
•©he ©ut-Deop ^©rld. 
Edited by HARLAN H. BALLARD, 
President of the Agassiz AssoCIATIO^f. 
[P. O. Address, Pittsfield, Mass.] 
The present outlook for the Agassiz Associa- 
tion is brighter than for years past — which is 
saying a great deal. Without any advertising or 
"pushing," a knowledge of our work is spreading 
among the people, and every mail brings earnest 
letters of inquiry. New Chapters are not formed 
in so large numbers as in some former years, 
when our reports were printed in St. Nicholas, 
with its circulation of a hundred tliousand, but 
the character of the Chapters founded is, on the 
average, far higher, iind of a much more enduring 
nature. The Agassiz Association is in no sense a 
children's society, — though the youngest are still 
as welcome as ever, — but our Chapters are mainly 
composed of young men and women of from six- 
teen to twenty-five, while fully one-quarter of our 
membership is adult. 
OUR OFFICIAL ORGAN. 
It is more and more apparent that in Popular 
Science News we have found very nearly an 
ideal paper for our Association. The very low 
price — one dollar a year — brings it within easy 
reacli of every member. The character of the 
paper, outside of our special department, admira- 
bly meets the requirements of our students. Its 
richness of illustration adds greatly to its interest 
and value. The personal interest taken in our 
work by the editors and publishers is a cliief fac- 
tor in promoting our steady growth ; and then, 
particularly, the intelligent and philanthropic 
class of readers to whom this journal goes each 
month brings the A. A. to the favorable notice of 
those best able and most likely to render it the 
highest service. 
In view of all these facts, it becomes the plain 
duty of every Chapter and member of the Agassiz 
Association to make diligent and constant exer- 
tion in behalf of Popular Science News. No 
efforts toward the permanent upbuilding of the 
A. A. can result in so evident and speedy advan- 
tage as those directed toward the extension of the 
circulation of our oflicial organ. Every new sub- 
scription obtained for this paper introduces our 
Association to the notice of a new circle of help- 
ful friends, and brings new members and new 
Chapters into our ranks. There is not a member 
of tlie A. A. so poor or so far removed from city 
life that lie cannot during the year induce from 
one to a dozen acquaintances to subscribe for 
Popular Science News. Every loyal member 
should always carry a copy of this journal in his 
pocket, and have it ready to show to each friend 
he meets. That our subscription list is not six 
times as large is the most serious hindrance to 
our prosperity; and that it is not is wholly the 
result of thoughtlessness. The whole Associa- 
tion has secured this year only one hundred new 
subscriptions to our journal, and most of these 
have been due to the exertions of less than twenty 
individuals. If every member would dci what 
twenty members have done, we should have thou- 
sands of readers where we now have hundreds, 
and scores of new Chapters where we now have 
one. "A word to the wise is sufficient "'—but, 
unfortunately, most of us are not wise, and so 
many words must be used, and these often re- 
peated. 
Now let each one who reads this note make 
today, and tomorrow, and on each tomorrow, one 
definite attempt to secure one new name, and our 
list will be doubled before the first of June. One 
boy has guaranteed this year the three hundred new 
subscriptions necessary to secure the continuance of 
our department in this journal. Will the A. A. 
allow one member to pay two hundred dollars 
from his own pocket? Shall it long be true that 
an Association numbering thousands of members 
furnishes all told less than five hundred subscrib- 
ers, old and new, to its own official organ — when 
that organ is as excellent as Poi'ular Science 
News, and costs onlj' one dollar a year? 
To show what a little eft'ort can accomplish, we 
add a few letters which have lately been received 
from members of the A. A. loyal enough to work 
for its interests. 
First of all must credit be given to Chapters 
949, New York, (Z) ; 27, Pittsburg, (A) ; and 29, 
Boston, (B), wliich have united iu issuing at their 
own expense a circular urging all Cliapters and 
members of the A. A. to worlv for their paper. 
Two thousand of these circulars have been printed 
and mailed, and if in response thereto only fifty 
subscriptions liave been received, it is not the 
fault of these three Chapters. 
Steatham, London, Ekg. 
Dear Sik : I have sent three new subscriptions from our 
Chapter for the current year to Popular Science News. 
A. N. COUPLAND, Sec. 
Boston, Mass., Feb. 9, '91. 
Dear Sir : Inclosed please find check for seven dollars, 
to cover one year's subscription to Popular Science 
News, to be sent to the following addresses. 
A Friend of the A. A. 
New York, Feb. 9, '91. 
Please find Inclosed check for six dollars, for new and 
renewed subscriptions to Popular Science News. We 
who take the paper have been well repaid, and hope the 
A. A. members will exert themselves to secure the continu- 
ance of our department, " The Out-Door World." 
Chas. Jj. McCord, 
Sec. Chapter 863. 
EOXBURY, Mass., Jan. 30, '91. 
Dear Sir: I have just secured four new subscribers to 
Popular Science News, and iiave asked Dr. Nichols to 
credit them to the Agassiz Associatioi^. I shali be on the 
lookout for more. Frances Zirngiebel, 
Chapter 29, Boston, (B). 
SELECTED REPORTS FROM THE FIRST 
CENTURY (CHAPTERS 1-100). 
1, Pittsfield, Mass., [A]. — The condition of our 
Chapter is the same as Last year. Various reasons 
of a domestic and personal nature have prevented 
us from holding regular meetings, but many of 
our members have followed their individual lines 
of study, and we have enrolled during the year no 
fewer than seventy-five corresponding members. 
We were represented at the State Convention last 
May, and expect to send one or more delegates 
this year. — L. Walker, Sec. 
4, La Crosse, Wis., [A].— Our family Chapter 
has had a large number of outings this year, but, 
although it has made ra.iuy smaller "finds," it 
has made but few valuable discoveries in our 
specialty — archaeology. One of these is a black 
stone the' size of an English walnut, ground flat 
on one side, which has iu it two small holes, or 
depressions ; the other (convex) side has carved 
on it a figure representing a bird. We have one 
new member.— Mrs. D. S. Mc^Vi'thur, Sec. 
8, Mobile, Ala., [A]. — We have been organized 
only a few months, and have gained only one new 
member, Nellie T. Fi'iend. Oiir meetings have 
been few and informal, as we are all busy people, 
and two of our members live at a distance from 
tlxe other three. One of our members has a beau- 
tiful collection of ferns — some native to Alabama, 
and others collected in Indiana and Illinois. Our 
President has some curiosities from the deep — a 
tine starfish, a sea-nettle, and some branches of 
coral. Our boy member lias quiti! a large collec- 
tion of our native birds' eggs, — more than a liun- 
dred specimens, — and also a number of birds' 
nests. He has studied the habits and the plumage 
of birds, and has made some interesting observa- 
tions on the attempts of the English sparrows, 
when captured, to feign death in order to eft'eet a 
release. Our other members — one of whom is 
only seven years old — have devoted tlieir atten- 
tion to flowers, especially to potted plants, in- 
cluding geraniums. We have had some specimens 
of the fly-catching plant, which grows at Mount 
Vernon, Ala., a small place thirty miles from 
Mobile. We have some fine semi-tropical plants 
growing in the open air — orange, lemon, and pecan 
trees, banana plants, a large aloe which blooms 
once in twenty-five years, camellia japonicas, mag- 
nolia grandifloras and fuscatis, and sweet olives. 
We have a continuous succession of flowers iu our 
genial climate. I did not mention our azalea and 
our oleander, which is quite tall. Our wild flow- 
ers are very abundant and beautiful — yellow jas- 
mines, honeysuckles, azaleas, mountain laurel, 
pond lilies, bay flowers, and many other speci- 
mens. — Miss Mary Jlinge Friend, Sec, 3.50 Gov- 
ernment street. 
12, Forreston, 111., [A].— Our retrospect of the 
year 1890 is, on the whole. Very satiafactoi-y. Of 
our absent members, one in the South reportt* 
himself as trying to give instruction in science to 
a company of soldiers, while another farther nortli 
than we is doing the game for a class of girls ; and 
another asks for specimen copies of the Fopulai! 
Science New'S, that, though deep in business 
cares, he may prove his loyalty to the A. A. bv 
attempting to gain some subscribers. Here let 
me say that I have sent my own renewal, with the 
name of one new subscriber. I have also re- 
quested that a copy be sent to a young man wlio 
was for one year a member of our Chapter, as of 
our family school, and shall also write to hhii, 
urging that he add his mite Ity giving us a sul)- 
scription. Charley and Alice during the summer 
carried on their study of plants, and have an her- 
barium — not extensive, but carefully prepared— 
as fruit of their labor. At present Charley is 
making sketches of twigs from difterent trees and 
shrubs, in which lie shows, as well as his skill in 
drawing will allow, not only the arrangement of 
leaves and buds, but the extent to wliich the 
latter are developed by the exceptionally mild 
weather of the past two or three weeks. I en- 
close one as a proof that we are not entirely idle. 
Our mineral cabinet has beeu enriched by ex- 
changes and by our house collections beyond our 
expectations. Our catalogue now readies (not 
counting duplicates) to No. 301, of which all, ex- 
cepting al)out twenty, are named as well as num- 
bered. At intervals in the construction of forts 
and castles, the children haye been delighted to 
find in»"the sand-pile" not only colored pebbles 
but fragments of coral and shells. One of tin' 
latter, with every line and curve complete, — a 
species of ortliis, probably,— is among our most 
valued possessions. The same watchful eyes also 
detected acrinoid stem in the rough stone founda- 
tion of a building two lilocks away, and some one 
having good-naturedly knockeil off the fragment 
for them, they came bringing it lionie iu trhnnpb. 
Indeed, our respect for our plain limestone rocks 
has grown with every passing month. \Ve still 
admire the many-hued feldspars, the silky ashes- 
