Popular Science Monthly 



897 



A Flowery Conception of the 

 Western Hemisphere 



AN inmate of the Soldiers' Home, 

 l\ at Atchison, Kans., has con- 

 ceived a plan which makes the 

 lawn in front of the Home 

 the most conspicuous and 

 admired object for miles 

 around. 



A huge framework of 

 closely woven galvanized 

 wire in the form of a 

 -phere has been placed 

 in the center of a ter- 

 raced flower bed. This 

 sphere is filled with 

 rich soil in which are 

 embedded hundreds of 

 tiny plants, which are 

 trained to grow out 

 through the mesh. A 

 perforated pipe runs up 

 through the center of the 

 sphere and keeps the 

 flowers watered. 



The design is changed 

 with the seasons to prevent 

 monotony. At present the 

 Western Hemisphere is out- 

 lined in red, white and blue. 

 The land spaces are filled in 

 with red and white flowers and 

 the oceans with blue. The 

 Stars and Stripes, also in red, 

 white and blue, furnish a popular variation. 

 No doubt airplanes and bursting bombs 

 will find a place on the flower>- globe 

 sometime before this year is out, for the 

 gardener is bent upon depicting in flowers 

 the patriotic sentiment of the moment. 



The fruit is cut off and 

 dropped through a long 

 cloth sleeve into a pail 



Picking Fruit from Tall Trees While 

 Standing on the Ground 



NSTEAD of wasting time in 

 climbing trees to pick fruit, George 

 J. Fallkin, of San Jose, Illinois, 

 gathers his fruit while stand- 

 ing on the ground. He 

 simply uses a long cutter- 

 pole having a metal cup 

 mounted on its end. A 

 set of knife blades are 

 arranged near the top 

 of the cup. The pole is 

 brought up to the fruit 

 in the tree until the 

 fruit is well inside the 

 cup. A string is then 

 pulled. This causes the 

 sharp cutting blades to 

 sever the stem of the 

 fruit. The fruit falls in- 

 to the cup, the bottom 

 of which opens out under 

 the weight of the fruit 

 and allows it to drop down 

 through an opening and in- 

 to a long cloth sleeve. When 

 the sleeve is filled up, the fruit 

 is dumped into a pail or basket. 

 By this method there is no 

 danger of bursting choice fruit 

 and thus decreasing its mar- 

 ket value and keeping quality. 



^^sitij^. 



The spherical garden at Soldiers' Home, Atchison, Kansas. The 

 land is designated by red and white and the oceans by blue flowers 



What the War Has Cost the Fight- 

 ing Nations Thus Far 



ON February i , last, the various govern- 

 ments at war had spent something 

 like sevent>'-one billion, seven hundred and 

 forty million dollars. How 

 much money is this? Can 

 we comprehend it? If it 

 were distributed equally 

 among all the inhabi- 

 tants of the globe, from 

 the Eskimo in his frozen 

 igloo, to the African bush- 

 man in his grass hovel, there 

 would be forty-four dollars 

 to give to every man, woman 

 and child. The world's pop- 

 ulation is estimated at more 

 than a billion and a half 

 souls. Or, a man could ride 

 in a taxi to the sun and back, 

 paying fifty cents a mile for 

 the trip, and have about six- 

 teen million dollars left. 



