Popular Science Monthly 



95 



The Miniature Farms and Vine- 

 yards of France 



ON the islands of Re and Oleron, 

 near La Rochelle, France, are 

 found the smallest farms in the world. 

 Some of them are only one or two 

 square yards in area, yet these tiny 

 domains are carefully planted with a 

 variety of crops, even including vine- 

 yards. The soil is extremely fertile. 

 The repeated subdivision of estates 

 among heirs and the dense population 

 of the islands explain the existence of 

 these Lilliputian properties. 



Light Your Gas with Electricity — 

 It Saves Waste 



AN invention recently patented by 

 L Frederick C. Gutenberger, of Sacra- 

 mento, Calif., seeks to do away with the 

 use of matches for lighting the gas in 

 range burners. The de\'ice consists of an 

 electric battery or other source of elec- 

 tricity, one pole of which is connected 

 with the top plate of the range. A 

 wire connects the other pole with a coil 

 to the other end of which is attached a 

 wire of convenient length, ending in a pin. 

 The wire going through the pin is in firm 

 contact with a copper tip, somewhat 

 smaller in diameter than the end of the 

 pin into which it is 

 screwed. When the 

 gas is turned on and 

 the burner touched 

 for a moment with 

 the copper tip of the 

 pin, a spark will be 

 formed by the closing 

 and breaking of the 

 electric circuit, and 

 the gas will be ignit- 

 ed at once. 



The coil, enclosed 

 in a protective box, 

 is fastened to a 

 small board, w^hich 

 may be hung upon 

 the wall near the 

 range. A small hook 

 screwed . into the 

 board will accommo- 

 date the lighting 

 pin when it is not 

 in use. 



The concrete box safeguards the tree and very 

 much enhances the beauty of the street 



Concrete Flower Boxes to Protect 

 Exposed Tree Roots 



WHEN Marengo Avenue in Pasadena 

 was extended recently, the grading 

 incidental to the paving, left a lot of fine 

 old pepper trees with some of their roots 

 "high and dry." In fact, the exposure of 

 the roots was so great that the city 

 forester feared that the trees might be 

 killed or their health seriously impaired. 

 Accordingly, to insure the safety of the 

 trees, concrete boxes were built round the 

 trunks and were then filled with rich earth. 

 Plants with beautiful 

 foliage were after- 

 ward set in the boxes. 



To light gas with a match is slow com- 

 pared with the swiftness of electricity 



Mr. Chinaman 

 Must Have His 

 'Melican Cigarette 



TEN years ago we 

 exported four 

 hundred million cig- 

 arettes to China, 

 which is an average 

 of about one cig- 

 arette a year for each 

 Celestial. This year 

 there has already 

 been an average of 

 ten cigarettes export- 

 ed to each Chinaman, 

 or, in round figures, 

 four billion American 

 cigarettes. Last year 

 our exports in 

 cigarettes alone 

 reached the twelve 

 million dollar mark. 



