104 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
when I trim next spring the old wood 
will come off, leaving a new tree from 
the inside; and I propose that this 
shape of tree will furnish peaches con- 
tinuously for the next ten years if I 
am on the job to give it the care that 
it should have. 1 fertilize every year 
with well rotted manure, and keep the 
soil to the outer limits of the roots care- 
fully worked. 
I think that I have set forth in this 
letter all that you asked. The real idea 
of the whole thing is that for actual 
recreation for the man whose work is 
inside there is nothing that I know of 
comparable to the pleasure of getting 
acquainted — even becoming familiar — 
with the things that may be grown on 
a fair sized garden or lot. 
I might add that I do much of my 
gardening in the winter time, when, 
from the blueprints of my yard and lot 
and the histories of previous years, the 
ground is laid out and plans made for 
the coming season. 
F. L. Lamson. 
Supposing you take a finger print of 
your thumb, in the conventional man- 
ner of the police records. Then burn 
your thumb sufficiently to destroy the 
skin. Do you know that after the new 
skin has formed the finger print of your 
recovered thumb will be precisely the 
same as the first one? Yes. absolute- 
ly the same, even down to the last line 
and irregularity. I tried it to make 
sure. Here is a mystery which has re- 
mained unanswered until now. — 
Thomas A. Edison in Scientific Ameri- 
can. 
Flying Squirrels. 
BY DR. J. B. PARDOE, BOUND BROOK. X. J. 
Flying squirrels make interesting 
pets. I knew of a nest in the crotch 
of an old pear tree which in decaying 
had formed a natural cavity in which 
the mother squirrel had begun house- 
keeping. I often visited the nest, ad- 
miring the young squirrels with their 
soft, silky fur. and the mother with 
her big, innocent eyes. As I reached 
up to the nest, the mother squirrel 
would leave the nest cavity and run 
up the tree a short way, then turn and 
look down at me as if to say, “You 
wouldn’t hurt my babies, would you?” 
One day upon my approach to the 
nest I discovered a fiendish yellow 
cat reaching into the nest with her 
sharp claw and hauling out a baby 
squirrel. This she took in her mouth 
and disappeared under the barn like a 
yellow streak. Returning to the tree, 
I found only one squirrel left. I took 
it to the house to raise by hand if 
possible. Success attended my efforts. 
Many interesting traits were dis- 
played by Nip. I called him Nip be- 
cause he had a habit of giving me a nip 
or bite when I teased him. He was 
on hand for meals, jumping from the 
table with a nut or cracker to my shoul- 
der and eating there, but if disturbed he 
jumped to the chair back and some- 
times to the buffet and finally to the 
top of a picture on the wall. 
Sleeping in bed, preferably at the 
foot, was one of the traits developed 
by most of my pets. A dog, a cat, a 
crow and an owl were some of them, 
and Nip was no exception, always en- 
tering the bed from the headboard, 
then going down under the covers a 
short space at a time, taking his place 
as near my feet as possible. If dis- 
turbed, he would chatter, scolding soft- 
ly' at first, then louder. If annoyed to 
any great extent he took little bites at 
my toes. If kicked or pushed out of 
the bottom of the bed, quick as a flash 
he ran under the bed and entered by 
the headboard again, never trying to 
get into bed at the foot. 
Being very' tame and gentle, he liked 
to lie curled up in my r hand and be 
petted. One morning I found Nip 
drowned in a large water pitcher into 
which he had fallen. 
Some time later, when I was taking 
my r usual walk in the woods, I came 
upon a squirrel nest in a stump. I im- 
mediately' set my camera in position 
and focussed on the hole in the top of 
the stump. When all was ready I 
carefully' approached the stump and 
with a stick began to knock on it 
gently'. Hearing something inside, I 
stepped back just in time to see a flying 
squirrel come from the hole and hesi- 
tate as it went over the top. My shut- 
ter being set on bulb, I gave one sec- 
ond exposure, this time being enough 
to fully' expose the plate, as the accom- 
panying photograph shows. A snap- 
shot at that hour and lighting would 
have proved to be greatly underex- 
posed. It was seven o’clock in the 
morning and very cloudy'. 
