118 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



your bed with an old coverlid or bit of sail cloth. The bed 

 may now be dressed, or fertilized, with the usual dressings, 

 and the flowers will soon make their appearance. 



But few, if any insects trouble these bulbs in the spring, 

 and if so, they quit possession after one application of a 

 weak solution of warm soap and water. 



Ollipod Quill. 



ORNAMENTAL AND FOREST 

 FOR FARMS. 



TREES 



THERE is much said in the agricultural papers of the 

 day concerning the planting of ornamental and shade 

 trees at the West. Various States have set apart "arbor 

 days,"when every man and boy shall feel it his duty to trans- 

 plant one or more trees, and some States are so wise as to 

 offer a reward to the person who shall set out the largest 

 number of forest trees on that day. Now there is as great 

 a scarcity of shade trees upon many farms at the East as at 

 the West, and the purpose of this article is to call attention 

 to the fact, and persuade youthful farmers to supply the 

 deficiency, and to transplant the maple, oak, elm, and 

 other trees this season, which will afford a grateful shade 

 for years to come. 



I heartily commend those farmers who plant aew or- 

 chards of apples, pears, cherries, plums, and peaches. The 

 fruit is delicious, highly appreciated at home and abroad, 

 and will bring in plenty of "material aid" in the shape of 

 greenbacks. But fruit trees are not desirable about the 

 house, aud can never take the place of forest trees for 

 adornment, timber or fuel; nor are they as desirable for a 

 "cool, umbrageous shade." 



Cattle seek grateful shelter from the noon-day sun, and 

 it is as essential for their comfort to obtain it "as it is for 

 man's — as needful for their health. But do not plant the 

 trees too close to your dwelling-houses and barns; give 

 the air a free circulation about such buildings. Oaks, ma- 

 ples, and elms should not droop their branches over the 

 roof-tops,- but be planted at least thirty or forty feet dis- 

 tant. 



In selecting trees to plant around the home farm, it is al- 

 ways well to choose those which are useful as well as orna- 

 mental. The sugar maples are quite as handsome as oaks 

 and elms, while from thirty or forty good-sized trees, sev- 

 eral pounds of delicious syrup can be obtained. I know a 

 man who planted in his yard ten sugar maples, some twen- 

 ty or thirty years ago, and now obtains about three gallons 

 of maple syrup every spring. Thus we can combine utility 

 and beauty. The American weeping elm is as perfect a 

 tree as grows, and the oak is always majestic, while the 

 white and black ash and silver maple are also much ad- 

 mired. 



While I am on this subject, let me beg your readars to 

 plant trees outside of lawns and front yards, as well as 

 within the fences, and have the pleasure of providing a 

 shady highway and sidewalk for every passer-by. There 

 is nothing which adds more beauty to a street than rows of 

 forest trees. Evergreens are most desirable for windbreaks, 

 screens, and ornamental purposes upon a lawn, but are not 

 so well adapted to the front door yards. They are excel- 

 lent shields from the north wind, however, and in single 

 trees or in clusters, are especially beautiful on large lawns. 

 Almost all farmers can go into the forests and obtain as 

 many trees as they require, merely for the cost of digging 

 and transplanting them. If they choose maples, elms, oaks 

 or ash, they will be surer of success if they select those 

 that are from eight to ten feet high; their top branches 

 should be shortened, and many of them cut entirely away, 

 leaving the stems nearly bare, but taking care to lift ti 

 large ball of earth and all the little rootlets possible, 



In planting them prepare a hole larger than the base of 

 the tree, and deeper than the roots; pour one or two pails 

 of water into the hole, and set the tree in firmly and 

 straight. Stamp down the soil around the roots closely, 

 and then turn the uplifted sods, bottom upwards around 

 the base of the tree. 



To transplant chestnut, hickory, and white oak, select 

 small trees, not over five or six feet high, and leave the 

 poles nearly bare of branches or leaves; also cut the main 

 stem in for half a foot. This severe pruning has the effect 

 of producing more root growth, and saves the life of many 

 trees. 



When new trees are planted, it is well to mulch them 

 about the roots and stems with coarse stable litter or hay; 

 and if planted where cattle will be liable to rub against 

 + hem, a strong stake will afford much protection. — Gauntry 

 C-^Mleman. 



-♦•♦. 



E;tim,\tes of Timtbetc. — A tract of 2,400 acres of pine 



land, located in Lapeer county, was sold by parties in the 



Saghw Vallev, two years ago, for $72,00*0, estimated to 



contai 40,000,000 feet of logs. The purchasers erected a 



mill om ie tract and commenced cutting. After making 



very Ca\f u j estimates they found it would yield 80,000,'- 



^)bfeet,p r | j iave so ] c j t j ie undivided one-half of the tract, 



o- %T-j, \ the price paid originally for the whole. A 



oaginvw i„ ly a ] so so ] c i aD0U t two years ago-, a tract of 640 



SoflSk 5 on tlie line of tlie J - L - ana s - R - RR -> for 

 *w,«u», W% -was S aid to contain .3,000,000 feet of logs. 

 X t P urcna ^s looked over the tract carefully and found 

 tnatit wouUp ro duce 5,500,000 feet, and one year after 

 onnn nnn 1 '/ '°- Tbe present owners claim it' will yield 

 8,uuu,U0U teet„ ld its actual value they fix at $20,000.— 

 Lumberman's C e n e ^ 



**♦♦ 



Old ENOLisny INEYARDS _oid charters, the bygone 

 names • of half -f gotten vineyards belonging to monastic 

 houses, prove tfcaUe cultivation of the grape, even up to 

 the Koman wall a\ the banks of Tweed, was once by far 

 more frequent tha.it now is. England was probably the 

 most northerly of tli^e countries in which vines were grow- 

 ing at the time of thWeat millenary jubilee, and that they 

 flourished at all, is ip r0 of how resolute were the monks 

 to drink what the dfficulties of land transport debarred 

 to those who lived t remote from the coast, London 

 and Bristol, Boston an\ Norwich, could pick and choose 

 between the amber Rhtnish and the crimson nectar from 

 fcraronne, but a long strach of dry land was a serious im- 

 pediment to the carriace of so bulky an article of com- 

 merce.— All the Year RovM. 



—Why are sheep the most unfortunate of animals? Be- 

 cause they gambol in theii youth, frequent the turf, are 

 often black-legs, and are universally fleeced. 



THE PAPER NAUTILUS, OR ARGONAUT. • 



* 



WRITERS upon Natural History, from the earliest 

 times, including Ouvier, represented the Argonaut 

 as having the power of propelling itself upon the surface of 

 a smooth sea, by means of its tentacles, which it used for 

 oars, and certain expanded membranes for sails; and the le- 

 gend ran that the ancients learned navigation from this 

 mollusk. So the poet says: — 



"Learn of the little Nautilus to sail 



Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." 



Modern writers, however, declare this to be a fable. Now 

 this is not a matter to be decided by theories,but by evidence. 

 The early writers, Pliny, Aristotle, Allan, and others, who 

 lived near the Mediterannean, where the animal is common, 

 certainly had a better opportunity of studying its habits 

 than closet naturalists in England and the United States, 

 who never saw the creature alive. 



Having myself seen the Argonaut sailing on the surface 

 in a calm, in the Indian ocean, and that so near to the 

 ship that there could be no doubt of the fact, I was induced 

 to ask an old ship master who had sailed these tropical seas 

 all his life, if he had ever seen it, at the same time showing 

 him the shell of the creature. "Fifty times," was his re- 

 ply. But there is better evidence than this. 



Some forty years ago, Madame Power, in Messina, where 

 the Nautilus is numerous, made a series of observations 

 upon the habits of these animals, which she kept in cages 

 sunk in the sea. Her object was to determine whether the 

 shell was secreted by the animal, or whether it was a para- 

 site occupying the shell of another species, as believed by 

 some naturalists. In 1839, Madame Porrer sent to Profes- 

 sor Owen, of London, the results of her observations, and 

 the Professor gave it as his opinion before the Zoological 

 Society, that Madame Power had established the fact that 

 the Argonaut was the maker of the shell.. 



Madame Power states also, as the result of her observa- 

 tions, that the Argonaut uses two of its arms as masts, on 

 which it spreads out membranes which act as sails. These 

 sails, she says, arc so large that when turned backwards, 

 and pressed against the shell they can entirely cover and 

 protect it. Thus, she concludes that the true office of the 

 sails is keeping themselves applied to the shell at all times 

 in reserve for the moment when the animal, coining to the 

 surface of the water, raises them as sails. She also says 

 that the Argonaut uses the long funnel or proboscis as a 

 helm to steer its course, and projects it from the stern or 

 wide part of the shell for that purpose. 



Now, as we find the statements of the early writers con- 

 firmed by the aulhority of Baron Cuvier, aud this accurate 

 and systematic observer Madame Power, as well as by voy- 

 agers, who profess to have witnessed these sailor-like hab- 

 its on the ocean, it seems time that they are to be believed, 

 rather than the theorists, however numerous, who, because 

 they have not seen these things, deny their existence. 



S. C. Clakke. 



DO SNASKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 



^ Museum. Wesleyan University, September 19th. 

 Editor of Forest and Sti:ea_u: — 



Affirmative evidence on this question is rapidly accu- 

 mulating. Twenty-two additional cases have been brought 

 to my notice since the meeting of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, making 

 in all one hundred and sixteen. M. Palisot de Beauvois, 

 an eminent French naturalist, saw seven young rattle- 

 snakes, each as thick as a goose quill, run down the 

 parent's throat: he hid behind a tree- and soon saw them 

 reappear; he advanced, when they a second time disap- 

 peared, and the parent escaped with the precious burden 

 among the underbrush. This statement, published in 1802, 

 seems to have been overlooked by those who have written 

 on the subject. It is very desirable to ascertain whether 

 the male snake ever protects the 3 r oung in this way, also 

 to determine whether the ordinary black snake ever swal- 

 lows its young. I am inclined to believe that all the sup- 

 posed cases relate to the mountain blacksnake, {Coluber al- 

 leffhammsis), which has a prominent ridge along the mid- 

 dle of each scale, while the ordinary blacksnake, (Bcmeinion 

 constrictor) has scales round and smooth. 



G. Brown Goode. 

 •»**. 



The Laplander. — The prove rbial low stature attribu- 

 ted to the Laplander is a mistake. Some of them may be 

 found under-sized, and frightfully ugly, but a Laplander 

 only four feet high is a rarity. Quite to the contrary, the 

 nomadic Laplander is most frequently found six feet tall. 

 I have met Laplanders over six feet tall, who would pass 

 anywhere for magnificent specimens of humanity. Gener- 

 ally their eyes are of coal black, piercing in character, their 

 hair is not always black, as I have often seen flaxen haired 

 individuals among them. Their complexion is invariably 

 dark, and they have prominent cheek bones, small nose, 

 rather flat, and the forehead is more broad than high. The 

 men are mostly thin and spare, the women, however, in- 

 cline to corpulency. Formerly brandy was the bane of the 

 Laplander, but the Sweedish Government have curtailed 

 its use among them. They are tremendous tobacco smokers, 

 and with a pipe in their mouths, will drink strong coffee 

 from morning to night. A. Bulk, (Atjsland). 

 -+•+* 



— The Moniteiir de VAlgerie states that, in 1871, the coral 

 fishery employed 131 boats. In 1872, there were 80 more 

 boats. Improved methods of fishing have, however, given 

 equally good results, when compared with those of former 

 years; in fact, there has been an increase in quantity of 

 coral put on the market. New beds of coral have been 

 found near Sardinia, which have drawn many of the Alger- 

 ian fishermen to the Northern Mediterranean. 



Whiskey vs. Crotoltne.— In the Germantown Telegraph 

 there is an interesting letter from a Mr. N. E. MorleV of 

 Cimarron, New Mexico, in regard to rattlesnakes, and tin 

 methods of curing persons bitten by them. Some one we 

 think, very foolishly has started the temperance question 

 in this connection, to which the New Mexico gentleman 

 replies most comprehensively : 



"My own experience has been with whiskev as a remedv 

 and, while I do not dispute the efficacy of oilier stimulants 

 at the same time I did not advocate them. I have kiowja 

 persons to die from snakebites, but they were invariably 

 cases where the wound was given near some of the larger 

 veins, and where whiskey could not be obtained in reason 

 able time. 



Animals bitten about the head are apt to die in a very 

 short time ; but bitten in a fleshy part not so. and in many 

 cases get well without remedy. " I think the effect of this 

 poison is in some way to change the nature of the blood 1 

 probably by coagulation or thickening, while the effect of 

 whiskey is just the reverse. Be that as it may, any amount 

 of controversy will scarcely prevent people in rattlesnake 

 countries from using whiskey as an antidote." 



Perhaps the most comprehensive paper ever written on 



this subject of rattlesnakes, as to their anatomy, where the 



poison was secreted, the construction of the fangs, how 



the venom was ejected, was the production of a Philadel 



phia physician, published some fifteen years ago by the 



Smithsonian Institute. The advice we have to give is to 



use whiskey invariably, and in good strong doses, and to 



apply a ligature, 



-^♦-^ 



A Duel Between Summing- Biros.— a gentleman of 

 Kingston, in this State, recently witnessed a novel battle 

 in a" garden of that place, Two green-backed humming 

 birds were the combattants, and the fray lasted seventeen 

 minutes. The tiny antagonists would dart on each other 

 most viciously; would soar twenty feet or more in the air. 

 and then return to the flowers in tlie beds for a moment, 

 where the warfare raged most bitterly. Occasionally the 

 larger would pin the smaller to the ground, when the latter 

 would strike vigorously at the throat of its foe, Finally 

 the larger bird apparently became very much enraged and 

 made an energetic spurt." The other fell to the ground, its 

 wings fluttered, the body quivered, one quick gasp, and 

 the ruby : throated littL one was dead. The victor flew to a 

 dead twig on a neighboring shrub, smoothed its ruffled plu- 

 mage as a dove would, and twisted its neck from side to 

 side, then for a moment hovering over the lifeless body of 

 its enemy, as if to be certain life was extinct, it flew 

 swiftly away. 



Feline Agility. — Burt G. Wilder sends to the American 

 NaturalM the following statement of the ' distance leaped 

 by a cat, which he received from the Sanford Brothers, of 

 Ithaca, N. Y., whom he styles accurate observers of the 

 animals. They write: "When our cat was about a year 

 old, he was seen on several days to take position upon a 

 showcase four feet high, and to watch a canary bird in a 

 cage hanging from the ceiling, eight feet from the case; the 

 ceiling was eleven feet from the floor, and the cage an or- 

 dinary cylindrical one. One day, as we w ere observing him 

 thus engaged, he suddenly sprang at the cage and caught 

 his claws upon it; his weight swung the cage up against the 

 ceiling, spilling all the vessels and terrifying the canary. 

 After swinging to and fro several times, the cat dropped 

 to the floor uninjured. We measured the distance from 

 the top of the case to the cage and found it to be ten feet; 

 SO that the cat made an ascent of six feet in eight, or upon 

 an incline of nearly thirty-five degress. 7 ' 

 -#-**»- » 



— The London Times sharply controverts the assertion 

 made by Dr. Edward Smith to the British Association that; 

 fish is rather a relish than food, and contains little more 

 nutriment than water. As opposed to this statement, the 

 investigations of M. Payee are cited, who proves that the 

 flesh of fish on the average does not contain more water 

 than fresh beef, and has as much solid substance as the 

 latter. For instance the flesh of salmon contains 75.70 

 per cent, of water, and 34. 29(5 per cent, solid substances, 

 while beef (muscle) contains 75.88 per cent, water, and 

 34,12 per cent, solid substances. The flesh of herring con- 

 tains still less water than that of salmon, and even the fish 

 are as rich in nitrogenous substances as the best wheaten 

 flour, weight for weight. 



— ■«►«»» 



Intemperate Bees. — Much care is needed on the part of 

 those who handle lavender, against being stung by bees 

 which remain attached to the flowers. The temperance, 

 industry, and providence of these insects are proverbial; 

 yet their behavior in lavender-fields, especially towards 

 the end of the season, when the flowers are fully devel- 

 oped, cannot be too severely reprobated. So careless are 

 they of the good reputation they have earned, that they 

 refuse to leave their lucious feast even when it is laid on the 

 trimming bench; and hundreds are thrown into the still, not- 

 withstanding the efforts to dislodge them, in a state of help- 

 less intoxication. — Chambers'' Jon.rnetl. 



■ ^■•^ 



Animals donated to Central Park during the month of 

 September: — 



One Marmoset— Mrs. V. E. Wetmore, Fordham, K Y. 



Ten painted Turtles— Richard E. Kunze, M.D., 606 Third 

 avenue. 



Two Horned Toads— E. P. De Mott, 29 W. 29th st. 



Two Canada Geese, One Chinese Goose— Stemway & 

 Son, 52d st. and 4th avenue. 



One Pea Fowl — George Bing, Rochester, N. Y. 



One small Alligator— Mrs. Hazard, 120 W. 45th st. 



Two Green Herons— Master Ed. W. Davis, 226 E. 81st st. 



One Blue and Yellow Macaw— David H. Flork, 244 "W . 

 11th street. 



One Vervet Monkey— C. E. Hunter, 400 Bowery. 



One Mexican Squirrel— Master D. CjAYylie, 110 E. 39thst. 



No animals have been purchased. 



_J5. H. Wal es, President. 



—A will of the late Mrs. Ben. Holladay, of White Plains, 

 dated in 1871, has just been presented for probate m the 

 Surrogate's office, by S. L. M. Barlow. Surrogate Coftm 

 has received notice that there is another will, and that there 

 will be a contest. Mrs. Holladav's estate is immense. She 

 owned 12,000 acres of land near White Plains. Twenty 

 buffaloes, several antelopes, numerous wolves, elks, deer, 

 and other zoological curiosities are among her personal 

 effects. 



