THE Y S A Y 



567 



Second. Supervisors to employ labor where best 

 value can be obtained, preference to be given to home 

 labor. 



Third. That all commodities of equal value shall be 

 taxed at the same rate as real estate. 



Fourth. That some efficient head in each county 

 shall be appointed to prepare plans and supervise the 

 work of road building. 



A Budding Machine.— W. H. Rowell, of Ft. Meade, 

 has invented a budding machine. Mr. Rowell's budder 

 being "loaded" with a bud, plows under the bark, a 

 pull on the trigger drives the bud in, and it is left in 

 proper position for binding. Mr. Rowel! claims that 

 12,000 buds can be inserted in a day with his budder, 

 and that a child can learn the use of it in fifteen minutes. 

 This implement is in some respects like a seed dropper. 

 The part that holds and inserts the bud is 

 made of different sizes or numbers, adapted 

 to the different sizes of buds and stocks. 

 By changing the points it may be used on 

 stocks ranging from an inch down to one- 

 eighth of an inch in diameter. — Florida 

 As_yiciillurist . 



cereus, both crimson and pink, of the rat-tail and crab- 

 claw cactuses, and such free-blooming sorts that we savv, 

 were grown by flower-loving women, possessing only the 

 simplest appliances for the work. — D. W. 



Spoils Rural Beauty. — One of our artists was in an 

 ambitious rural town not long ago, and his attention 

 was directed to a scene which suggested the accompany- 

 ing sketch. It is a warning to "keep rural and not ape 

 city ways." The good people who are so fortunate as 

 to own and inhabit the handsome old house, built some- 

 what in the square colonial style, are fond of gardening 

 and kindred things. The house was somewhat badly 

 placed at first, being directly on the street, as was the 

 custom when it was built. There is a large garden on 

 the other side of it, not shown in the sketch. With 

 commendable public spirit, a high board fence that con- 



Farmers' Institutes. — Secretary Rusk 

 speaks with enthusiasm concerning farm- 

 ers' institutes: "I would merely say on 

 this subject that it is a matter of no lit- 

 tle gratification to me that this great work 

 has nowhere been more fully tried than in 

 my own state, where it was my privilege 

 and pleasure to encourage it in every legiti- 

 mate way, and nowhere has it reaped a more abund- 

 ant harvest than in Wisconsin. Experience there and 

 in other states has fully demonstrated the extraor- 

 dinary benefits arising from these institutes, and I 

 am strongly of the opinion that, without going into 

 details as to the precise way in which aid to the move- 

 ment should be furnished, the National Government, in 

 pursuance of the policy so strongly marked out by the 

 establishment of the agricultural colleges and experi- 

 ment stations, should put it in the power of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to foster and encourage the work of 

 the institutes in the various states and territories. The 

 institutes have been justly designated the farmers' col- 

 leges. No truer title was ever conferred. I will only 

 add that the strongest lever to raise and uphold the work 

 of superior agricultural education represented by our 

 system of agricultural colleges and experiment stations 

 is to be found in this institute and kindred work." 



The Cactuses that bear the most flowers and give 

 greatest satisfaction in this northern latitude, are not 

 those entrusted to the care of florists and to the climate of 

 a hot-house. Here they grow best in a dry, coo! room, 

 which has an even temperature during the winter, and 

 which allows the entrance of sunlight and heat during 

 the early spring. 



This season we travelled on the banks of the Hudson, 

 and along the Atlantic seaboard from New Jersey to 

 Massachusetts, and the most splendid specimens of 



cealed this beautiful garden was taken down and the 

 latter is now a daily delight to the passing towns people- 

 The owner's ambition was to have a green grassy bank 

 around the house, but this apparently simple thing has 

 been attended with difficulties. First, the town had a 

 hole dug and a lamp post put up. Then a water hydrant 

 made another blemish. Thinking that this property 

 held its share of public institutions the owner requested 

 that the electric light post be put elsewhere, yet he had 

 to submit. The hitching post is a country institution 

 and a great convenience to the neighbors who have 

 none, but the horses are inclined to gnaw and trample 

 the bank. Steps were provided for the people who want 

 to cross the street, but most of them prefer to walk on 

 the grass, and have worn paths by so doing. Somehow 

 these people are not yet satisfied ; they feel as if they 

 were not in a city, and yet have lost the simplicity of a 

 country town. 



Some Cactus History. — Dr. George Engelman wrote 

 in 1S56 as follows concerning the knowledge of American 

 cactus : "The only cactus known to Linnaeus from the 

 countries north of Mexico was his "Cactus OpiDitia" 

 [Opiintia Twil.i;aris). Long after him, more than forty 

 years ago, Nuttall, the pioneer of west American botany, 

 discovered two mamillarias and two opuntias on the 

 upper Missouri, and again, twenty years later, in Cali- 

 fornia, a new echinocactus. About ten years ago we 

 became acquainted with numerous new cactacea.'' in 



