THE FUN OF SEEING THINGS 
57 
Novel Pinning Board. 
Ontario, California. 
To the Editor: 
I have found out something so good 
while here for the summer school that 
I must pass it along. 
1 am mailing you a small log of yucca 
flower stalk, Spanish dagger, which 
grows in the mountains and gravelly 
wastes among the foothills here in 
southern California and elsewhere in 
the arid southwest. The pith makes 
the most excellent pinning board for 
spreading insects. It is actually a 
pleasure to work upon it. I whittled 
out one for the children and we have 
put it to use already. I find it no trouble 
to cut up with a ripsaw. There is 
enough material in the piece for two 
boards including the middle pinning 
strip and cleats. I put the one I made 
together with common straight pins. 
The stuff can be cut as thin or as thick 
as one likes. 
These stems are useful material if 
taken before beetles destroy the pith. 
I found old stems untouched by larvae 
among others that were practically hol- 
lowed ; near-by were fresh stems just 
dropping their petals yet riddled with 
punctures as though struck by charges 
of bird shot. I found in one stalk, a 
fresh one, literally hundreds of beauti- 
fully tinted blue-green larvae of a small 
moth. With them were found many 
small grubs of some three or four kinds 
and an occasional large one resembling 
the goldsmith. I have never seen such 
noble plants, environment considered, 
except it be trees. 
Frank B. Hopkins. 
Mr. Hopkins very kindly sends us 
drawings showing how he makes the 
pinning boards and has contributed to 
ArcAdiA a large piece of the yucca 
stalk. 
Broom Holds Water. 
BY C. D. ROMIG, AUDENRIED, PENNSYLVANIA. 
Dip a broom in water and quickly 
take the handle horizontally in both 
hands and with one hand twirl it slow- 
ly, using the other hand as a bearing, 
and hardly a drop of water will fall, 
after a little practice, even when the 
broom is soaked completely full. 
This is useful in an emergency for 
sprinkling floors or to dampen anything 
on fire, or for similar purpose, and was 
discovered in this way by the writer. 
English Sparrows Injure Corn. 
Lawrence, Kansas. 
To the Editor: 
I read in the August number of Tiie 
Guide to Nature the short article by 
Miss Wilson on English sparrows and 
corn pollen. My experience with corn 
and sparrows was not so fortunate. 
She thought they fertilized the corn 
and they may have in her case, but in 
my case they began to eat it before it 
was ripe enough for the disturbance on 
it to fertilize the silk. They ate so 
greedily that by the time the pollen was 
ripe enough to fall either of itself or 
by their movements in it so much was 
gone that the ears of corn were very 
poorly filled. I never had seen English 
sparrows so thick in the corn patch and 
I never before had such poorly filled 
ears. 
Mary M. Palmer. 
Cities and Plant Growth. 
The farther away from a city they 
are the better the lichens grow. A 
lichen is seldom seen on a tree or a 
rock within the settled portions of a 
city and its immediate suburbs. But 
the reverse is true with gardens. The 
nearer to the city the more numerous 
and luxuriant the gardens. This ob- 
servation is prompted by a recent rail- 
road trip through New England. Gar- 
dens are frequent along the city por- 
tions of the railroad but in the strictly 
farming territory they are not numer- 
ous. Some six hours’ railroad riding 
through the state of Maine revealed 
not a single garden that could be fa- 
vorably compared with many in Sound 
Beach, notably our own ArcAdiA gar- 
den. Why is that? One wonders 
especially in Maine what garden truck 
the farmers live on as the garden crops 
or, for that matter, other crops are few 
and far between. Nearly all the tillable 
land appears to be devoted to hay with 
seldom any crop requiring plowing and 
planting. 
Two Crescents. 
A crescent moon in a sunset sky, 
A silver scimiter poised on high, 
To cleave the darkness of the night, 
And let us share its Heavenly light. 
A crescent isle in a sunset sea, 
Beck’ning afar to you and me: 
And we’re hasting o’er the ocean’s calm. 
To seek anew its rest and charm. 
— Emma Peirce. 
