112 



[June, 



tages, and, in some eases, stately residences. 

 The picture shows the place rather less built 

 up and grown over than it now is, but the 

 idea conveyed of the site and surroundings 

 is a true one. Another scene gives the grace- 

 ful tressel over which the irrigation water is 

 carried across a deep depression in the sur- 

 face and poured out upon fertile lands be- 

 yond. At one of the lower corners of the 

 engraving is a glimpse of a bearing Orange 

 orchard. It lacks, of course, the glorious 

 coloring of nature, the green and the gold 

 contrasting. There is seen, also, the flowing 

 water in the irrigation ditch, and the irrigat- 

 ors at work turning the flow so as to bring 

 the welcome nourishment to the waiting 

 trees. Another corner scene shows the sister- 

 hood of tree and vine, as it is found on many 

 Riverside farms, the contrast of high and 

 low growth being a noticeable feature of the 

 scene. In the background appears one of the 

 finest residences of the settlement — that of 

 Mr. J. H. Benedict, in Arlington, which is a 

 continuation of the original Riverside, and 

 contains some of the most delightful places 

 in the colony. 



" The central scene affords a glimpse of the 

 interior of the Riverside pavilion during the 

 holding of the recent Citrus Fair, the pict- 

 ure being drawn from a photograph by 

 Turner. The view is taken from the stage, 

 and the beholder looks therefrom down the 

 aisles between the long exhibition tables, 

 laden with golden fruit arranged in many 

 shapes, until the eye alights upon the back- 

 ground, which shows the main entrance to 

 the hall, the stair-ways loading to the gallery, 

 which is also filled with beautiful fruit ex- 

 hibits and other products. The Citrus Fair 

 is one of the gala occasions of the year in 

 Riverside, and during the afternoon and 

 evening hours the available space between 

 and around the iables is filled with a throng 

 of people, dividing the time between admira- 

 tion of the exhibits and friendly greetings of 

 other." 



EXTREME SEASONS, 



The commonly expressed opinion that the 

 drouth of last year was unprecedented in se- 

 verity is not correct, nor could it be attributed 

 to especial cause. Secretary John E. Bits-sell, 

 in his report to the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture, says in this regard : 



The earliest settlers found a climate very 

 different from that where they had acquired 

 their agricultural experience and precepts ; 

 irregular and fitful rainfall was found to be 

 a characteristic of this climate. The ther- 

 mometer, a simple and necessary instrument 

 of the present day, was not made practicable 

 until the beginning of the eighteenth cent- 

 ury, so that we have no record of the heat 

 experienced in the summers of the first 

 century of settlements upon this coast, but 

 it is recorded that drouth was an ever-present 

 menace to the struggling colonists, who were 

 dependent upon the agriculture of a narrow 

 area for their entire subsistence. In time 

 of failure of crops, their only hope was in 

 rescue from beyond seas. 



A partial drouth in 1 023 — no rain falling 

 from the latter part of May until the middle 

 of July — threatened the existence of the 



Plymouth Colony. In 1639, an early drouth 

 threw the Colony into great alarm, and there 

 was a resort to fasting and prayer. The 

 years of 164-4, 1617, and 1648 were years 

 of drouth, and the records of the colony for 

 a century succeeding show a continual re- 

 currence at irregular intervals of seasons like 

 the last summer. 



There were also seasons of extreme wet 

 and cold, like that of 1632, causing "great 

 store of mosquitoes and rattlesnakes," grass- 

 hoppers and canker-worm plagues, and 

 "millions of devouring worms in armies." 

 Great variations were noticed in the winters, 

 and it is probable that our climate is no 

 worse than our fathers found it in their early 

 experiences. 



THE OLDEST TREE IN THE WORLD. 



The oldest tree in the world, so far as any 

 one knows, is, says Knowledge, the Bo tree of 

 the sacred city of Amarapoora, in Burniah. 

 It was planted 288 B. C, and is therefore 

 now 2170 years old. Sir James Emerson 

 Tennent gives reasons for believing that the 

 tree is really of this wonderful age, and 

 refers to historic documents in which it is 

 mentioned at different dates as 182 A. D., 

 233 A. D., and so on to the present day. 

 " To it," says Sir James, " kings have even 

 dedicated their dominions, in testimony of a 

 belief that it is a branch of the identical 

 Fig tree under which Buddha reclined at 

 Urumelaya when he underwent his apoth- 

 eosis." Its leaves are carried away as 

 streamers by pilgrims, but it is too sacred to 

 touch with a knife, and therefore they are 

 only gathered when they fall. The King 

 Oak in Windsor Forest, England, is only 

 1000 years old. 



THE SOUTHERN "'GATOR." 



Six thousand baby alligators are sold in 

 Florida every year, and the amount of ivory, 

 number of skins, and quantity of oil ob- 

 tained from the older members of the Saurian 

 family are sufficient to entitle them to a high 

 place among the products of the State. 



The hunters sell young '"gators" at 

 twenty-five dollars per hundred, and the 

 dealer from seventy-five cents to one dollar 

 each. Live alligators, two years old, repre- 

 sent to the captor fifty cents each, and to the 

 dealer from two to five dollars, as the season 

 of travel is at its height or far advanced. A 

 ten-foot alligator is worth ten dollars, and 

 one fourteen feet long twenty-five dollars to 

 the hunter, while the dealer charges twice or 

 three times that price. The eggs are worth 

 to the hunter fifty cents per dozen, and to 

 the dealer twenty-five cents each. 



The dead alligator is quite as valuable as 

 the live one, for a specimen nine feet long 

 and reasonably fat will net both branches of 

 the trade as follows : 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. 

 Moorestown, N. J., Agricultural and Indus- 

 trial Society. — Premium List of the Fourth An- 

 nual Spring Exhibition, to be held June 8th and 

 9th. 



New Music— Messrs. Ditson <£• Co., Boston, have 

 sent us a good- sized roll of music as a specimen 

 of their work. The sheets are large, clearly 

 printed in first-class style, and the collection com- 

 prises a great variety of music. 



Agricultural Review, New-York.— The April 

 number before us contains some articles of un- 

 usual interest, especially so that of Mr. Shasuke 

 Sato, on Japauese Agriculture, from which we 

 give some extracts on auother page; Farmers' 

 Gardens, by F. K. Moreland ; Animal Nutrition, 

 by Dr. J. H. Gilbert ; Superphosphates, by Prof. 

 Penhallow. 



Kansas State Hoard of Agriculture. — Monthly 

 Report for the month ending April 30, 1883; 

 containing reports by counties as to the con- 

 dition of Wheat, Eye, Oats, Corn, and Potatoes; 

 the condition of fruit and live stock, and the 

 Meteorological Record for the month ; William 

 Sims, Secretary. This interesting report is the 

 first one of the series, which is now, according to 

 an act of the Legislature, issued monthly, to take 

 the place of the second and third quarterlies that 

 heretofore covered this period. 



India and Ceylon, by Prof. Ernest Haeckel ; 

 translated by Mrs. S. E. Boggs.— This work is 

 justly considered one of the most interesting and 

 valuable narratives of travel published in many 

 years. Although written by one of the most pro- 

 ! found scientists of the age, its entire tone is of a 

 pleasing popular style, and its perusal as fas- 

 cinating as a good novel. The reproduction of 

 works of this class in a cheap and yet neat 

 and convenient book form is to be highly com- 

 mended. Price, twenty cents. John W. Lovell <£• 

 Co., New- York, Publishers. 



New Jersey State Board of Agriculture. 



THE HUNTEli. 



Oil $5 .50 



Skill 100 



Head 10.00 



$16.50 



THE DEALER. 



Oil $7.50 



Skin 4 00 



Head 25.00 



$36.50 



The value of the head is ascertained by the 

 number and size of the teeth. Dealers mount 

 especially fine specimens of the skull, but the 

 greater number have no other value than 

 that of the ivory they contain. — James Otis, in 

 | The Continent. 



Tenth Annual Report. Mr. P. T. Quinn, Secretary. 

 | —This volume, like all its predecessors, presents 

 a large amount of valuable matter, of interest not 

 only to the farmers of the State, but to every one 

 engaged in agricultural pursuits. It contains, in 

 addition to the elaborate address of Pres. Thos. 

 H. Dudley and several highly interesting papers 

 by various authors, Prof. Cook's report of the 

 State Agricultural College, the report of the 

 American Cranberry Growers' Association, and 

 condensed reports of every local agricultural and 

 horticultural society in the State. 



Outing, an Illustrated Magazine of Recreation, 

 Albany, N. T. — With its May number this ex- 

 cellent monthly appears in an entirely new and 

 elegant dress, and considerably enlarged and im- 

 proved. It is with real pleasure that we perceive 

 •this evident indication of deserved success and 

 prosperity, as well as the means for still greater 

 usefulness afforded thereby. Systematic and 

 beneficial recreation and relaxation are among 

 the most important questions of the day, and a 

 journal which devotes itself to their solution 

 should be welcomed by every one who has the 

 best interests of his family at heart. Any one 

 who cannot find in its pages suggestions for some 

 kind of recreation suited to his tastes must surely 

 be deficient in the appreciation of a higher life, 

 than that of the mollusk. 



Agriculture of Massachusetts.— Annual Re- 

 port of the State Board of Agriculture for the Tear 

 1882.— An elegant volume of one hundred and 

 fifty-nine pages. Mr. John E. Russell, the secre- 

 tary, reviews the. agricultural situation and con- 

 ditions of the year, and condenses in his report 

 about as much common sense and sound agricult- 

 ural advice as can well be squeezed into an equal 

 space. Of the large number of valuable papers 

 and essays contained in the volume, we have 

 room only to mention a few of the most promi- 

 nent : The Masschusetts Agricultural College, by 

 the late president, Paul A. Chadbourne; The 

 Milk Question, by Major H. E. Afford; From 

 Grain to Ear, by Dr. B. D. Halsted ; Influence of 

 Chemistry on the Development of a Rational 

 System of Stock Feeding, by Prof. Goessmann ; 

 Tobacco and its Culture, by J. M. Smith; Fowls 

 for the Table aud Market, by Colonel M. C. Weld ; 

 Barb Wire, and the Fence Question, by H. M. 



