Why Not a Parcel Post? — If Canada is satisfied with 

 four cents per pound postage for merchandise, why not 

 the United States ? Is there good reason why we have 

 to pay exorbitant express rates, merely to make a few 

 men or corporations immensely rich ? Why not a parcel- 

 post, as enjoyed by other nations ? Why cannot Uncle 

 Sam carry our packages as well as our letters and papers, 

 etc., at first cost ? — Rural Nezv- Yorker. 



The Best Tools are Cheapest. — So much of the 

 work of the garden is done by hand, that a farmer is in- 

 excusable who does not provide himself with the best 

 tools that are made. Some do not appear to realize that 

 as much improvement has been made in tools for garden- 

 work gs for cultivating and harvesting farm-crops. 

 "When he sees the weeders and cultivators operated by 

 horse-power, he will find that the amount of work neces- 

 sarily done by hand has been greatly reduced, and is not 

 at all burdensome. — American Cnltu'ator. 



Self-Registering Trec-Caliper. — The old-fash- 

 ioned homely and clumsy tree-caliper, while answering 

 its purpose reasonably well, does not satisfy the tastes and 

 demands of people who have a preference for neat and 

 accurate tools. The self-registering caliper here illus- 

 trated, taken from the catalogue of Weaver, Palmer & 

 Richmond, Rochester, N. Y., will please such people. 

 It is quoted at 50 cents. 



The City of Flowers. — There is probably no town in 

 the United States so devoted to the holding of flower and 

 fruit-festivals as Los Angeles. No sooner is one fair 

 over than another commences, and the same spirit is 

 observable in all the smaller towns. It is this spirit 

 which encourages the growth and culture of flowers, and 

 undoubtedly there are few spots where flowers are given 

 so much care. Everybody seems to possess a garden, 

 and the consequence is that flowers can be bought more 

 cheaply in the shops of the San Francisco florists than 

 they can in the Los Angeles flower-stores. What strikes 

 the stranger as most singular are the floral displays in 

 the offices. There is not a bank in town upon whose 

 high desk great bunches of roses do not rest. The pay- 

 ing and receiving tellers' desks, the cashier's desk, the 

 manager's desk, the president's desk, the bookkeeper's 

 desk, in fact, nearly every desk, has a bunch of exquisite 

 roses. — San Francisco Chronicle . 



Garden Burial Places. — Brooklyn has no grander 

 glory than her Greenwood, nor Boston than her Mount 

 Auburn, nor Philadelphia than her Laurel Hill, nor Cin- 

 cinnati than her Spring Grove, nor San Francisco than 

 her Lone Mountain. What shall I say of those country 

 graveyards where the vines have fallen down and the 

 slab is aslant and the mound is caved in, and the grass is 

 the pasture-ground for the sexton's cattle ? Were your 

 father and mother of so little account that you have no 

 more respect than this for their bones ? Some day gather 

 together and straighten up the fence, lift up the slab, 

 bank up the mound, tear out the weeds and plant flowers 

 and shrubs. If you have no regard for the bones of 

 your ancestors, your children will have no deference for 

 your bones. Do you say these relics are of no import- 

 ance ? You will see of how much importance they are 

 when the archangel takes out his trumpet. Turn all your 

 graveyards into gardens. — 7'. DelVitt Tahnage. 



Arrangement of Trees in Country Places. — On 



plantations depends largely the successful composition 

 and coloring of a country place. The first thing to con- 

 sider before you begin to plant is the adjustment of your 

 views, vistas, or outlooks. Or- 

 dinarily, except where you 

 require for some reason a spe- 

 cial outlook, the entire out- 

 side border of the place 

 should be planted with a mass 

 of trees and shrubs, making 

 a hedge of irregular waving 

 lines. Ordinarily, too, there 

 should be about seven shrubs 

 to every tree, the shrubs eight 

 or ten feet apart and the trees 

 forty or fifty feet. This 

 rule applies, of course, only 

 to large-growing shrubs ; the 



^S^^^^*""! ll '^'^ smaller ones can be tucked in 



round about. It is an excel- 

 lent plan to establish a lofty 

 tree, like the elm, tulip, or 

 poplar, at each marked angle of the place and at either 

 side of the carriage-entrance. It tends to give character 

 to the entire lawn. If you have room enough, one of 

 the ways of emphasizing certain interesting parts of 



Self-Registering Tree- 

 Caliper. 



