230 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



grance. Although red predominates among outdoor 

 roses, especially the hardy ones, \^ inter reds are de- 

 cidedly scarce. The three above mentioned are good 

 indoors and out, half hardy ; and half-hardy roses 

 would probably winter outdoors with protection at 

 Medina. They are prolific bloomers — a desirable 

 trait. 



That reminds me that the terms " ever-blooming " 

 and " perpetual," as applied to roses, are decidedly 

 misleading to a novice. He reads about them in the 

 catalogs, and expects a plant that will never be with- 

 out a blossom, only to find that a great deal of the 

 tinie no color but green is to be seen on the bush. Yet 

 it is a pleasure for me, this minute, to glance up at the 

 window and see the green buds, promise of red, white, 

 or yellow in the future. Another glance makes me 

 retract — there is something more than green on 

 many a plant, although no blossom. The rich reddish- 

 brown color of some of the young leaves is charming 

 to one who has the love of roses in his heart. A sen- 

 tence in your last letter I've read over several times : 

 " Is there any thing prettier than a new shoot that 

 starts up unexpectedly beside the old one? The 

 dainty grace and color, as it unfolds, are just etiiranc 

 tug." I don't know. Which is prettier — a sweet girl 

 baby, or the same baby when she gets to be sixteen ? 

 The shoot you speak of is the little baby, and the 

 maidtn is the unfolded shoot you speak of after it has 

 unfolded its leaves to full size, and they are hesitating 

 whether to be brown or green, with a delightful blend- 

 ing of both colors. 



I see you have Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. If I could 

 have only one white rose in the window, I think it 

 would be that same Kaiserin ; of purest white, grace- 

 ful as a half-opened bud or full-blown flower ; faith- 

 fully blooming summer and winter, it is hard to ex- 

 cel. Marie lySmbert doesn't compare with it in qual- 

 ity ; but if quantity of blo.ssoms is what you want, no 

 white rose will outdo Marie Lambert. Bride is a good 

 white. Clothilde Soupert, the largest of the polyan- 

 thas, comes near being a white, sometimes well shad- 

 ed with pink ; is a prolific bloomer, with fine fragrance. 



When you buy cut flowers of the florist nowadays, 

 the yellow roses that you generally buy for Marechal 

 Niel are really Perle des Jardins, the latter being 

 much the better rose for the window. A sport from 

 Perle called .Sunset is a beautiful thing, with varied 

 tints not unbefitting its name. After all, I believe I'd 

 rather have Etoile de Lyon, a deeper yellow than 

 Perle, and a freer bloomer. 



Let me tell you the two chief objects I have to live 

 for now. One is to have a normal class in every Sun- 

 day-school to recite in the regular Sunday-school hour 

 (of course I'm interested in every branch of Sunday- 

 school work, but that's the special point I work hard- 

 est upon); and the other is to have the young Presby- 

 terians throughout the .State of Illinois be interested 

 in supporting a special missionary of their own, and 

 to learn to " give tithes of all that they possess." In 

 this la.st I have a special opportunity, as I am perma- 

 nent chairman of the synodical committee on Young 

 People's Societies, so I am practically at the head of 

 the Christian Endeavor work among the Presbyterians 

 in Illinois. I suppose you know that Presbyterians 

 have the largest numbers in C E. work. Our little 

 C. E. .society in Marengo give S400 a year to support 

 Mrs. Swallen, a mi.ssionary in Korea. Now, if I can 

 do only just a little in the two directions I have men- 

 tioned, and if, as a kind of side show, I can do just a 

 little speck to help open the eyes of some to see in 

 flowers the beauties that you and I see, why, I shall be 

 content to — live just as long as I can. 



I enjoyed those pictures in last Gleanings. 



May the Lord make your life constantly brighter and 

 more useful as he constantly opens your eyes to new 

 beauties. ' C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., Feb. 23. 



SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION CONTRASTED ; 

 MORE ABOUT WATER-WITCHING. 



Our good friend Gregory, the veteran seeds- 

 man of Marblehead, Mass., recently remon- 

 strated becau,se the silly superstition of water- 

 witching was every little while brought for- 

 ward with the claim that it has a place in true 

 science ; and a writer, later on, was allowed 

 space in one of our leading agrictiltural papers 

 to talk in a very patronizing way about friend 



Gregory because he would not admit water- 

 witching was scientific. Now, a good many 

 very good people (and perhaps well-educated, 

 people along certain lines) are making a big 

 mistake in this very matter. 



I wonder if I can not make the matter a lit- 

 tle plainer than I have heretofore. The un- 

 reasoning advocates of this superstition tell us 

 that even our intelligent scientific men, our 

 genuine professors in colleges, do not know 

 every thing — that is, they get behind the times 

 occasionally. Of course, we will admit that 

 they do not know every thing ; but there are 

 certain lines in which they are not likely to be 

 behind the times. Our experiment stations, 

 the authors of our text-books, and the heads 

 of our scientific colleges, are compassing the 

 face of the earth (going clear to the North 

 Pole, for instance) for real scientific facts, and 

 nowadays there is scarcely a thing that eludes 

 their grasp. Let us, if you please, contrast 

 the X rays discovery with water-witching. 

 The latter has been before, the world for ages. 

 No scientific man accepts it ; or if he does, he 

 ought to be ashamed of himself. It will not 

 bear the sharp searchlight of modern investi- 

 gation for an instant. But how is it with X 

 rays ? It came into the scientific world like a 

 meteor out of a clear sky. The news of its 

 discovery was heralded everywhere, and it 

 succeeded everywhere with everybody.* The 

 invention came along the beaten track of true 

 science. Why, I do not remember ever hear- 

 ing anybody say he " did not believe it."^ 

 There is no chance to express disbelief, because 

 scientific men everywhere held the thing right 

 up before the eyes of the people, and demon- 

 strated that one could see a pair of shears right 

 through the family Bible (or dictionary), and 

 that you could see the nails and spikes in a 

 stick of timber — yes, even through a foot or 

 two of the soundest timber in the world. The 

 X ray apparatus was a complicated arrange- 

 ment, and well might one wonder that human 

 ingenuity ever struck on the chemical and me- 

 chanical complications necessary to bring it 

 out. The more recent wireless telegraphy 

 came in the same way, along the beaten track 

 of true science, and as a reward for honest 

 hard work on the part of those who had made 

 themselves masters of the accumulated knowl- 

 edge of the world along the line of electrical 

 and other science. The water-witching, with 

 a silly forked stick in the hands of a still sillier 

 person, will not bear investigation of any kind. 

 It is not along the track of any science ; in 

 fact, if there is any truth in it we must admit 

 that it reveals a new force in nature (just the 

 same as the Electropoise and all of its imita- 

 tions and combinations). Why do not the 

 water-witches go before some scientific men 

 and then have the matter recorded in our 

 scientific books? How would it look, for in- 

 stance, in our school text-books? But X rays 

 and wireless telegraphy will be taught in 



* Water-witching works with only a certain favored 

 few. X rays, wireless telegraphy, and all true science, 

 work alike with everybody everv where. When you 

 get into spiritism you are told the spirits will work 

 with some people (mediums) and not with others. 

 This will do for witchcraft, astrology, water-witching, 

 etc.: but with all true science never. 



