1877.1 
AMERICAN" AGBICULTUKIST. 
267 
the female, and there thej* stay, Tlie skiu of the back of 
llie female swells up, aud furms little pits, or cells, iu 
wLicii each tadpole lives. Instead of takinij' their chances 
iu the water, like the tadpoles of our frogs, each one has 
its little hole iu the skin of the mother's back, where it 
is safe from the attacks of fishes, aud all other enemies, 
aud it stays there, uutil it has gone throui^'h all the tad- 
pole life, aud is ready to come out a yoiiuij Surinam toad. 
Tlie euj;ravin^' shows the mother-toad, with some of the 
yuiuig just escapiuff. — Very curious, isn't it ? 
A1>ois.t tUe ** I'lazzfiiitg- PaizzSe." 
"We gave, in May last, under the heading of "A very 
Puzzling Puzzle," diagrams and very much the words of 
the correspondent who 6eut it. In our remarks we stated 
that it had been sent to Aunt Sue, and she "gave it up." 
We were not quite correct, and find that we did that lady 
injustice. In fact, she really pointed out the direction 
in which the solution of the puzzle would be found, aud 
made a rough drawing, saying if that was not the proper 
answer, she would ^ give it up." — In fact. Aunt Sue was 
really the first one to show the fallacy which makes the 
thing a puzzle at all. Answers have been sent to Aunt 
Sue, to The Doctor, and to The Editors, from a number 
of persons living in almost every State of the Union ; 
some of these answers are accompanied by very elabor- 
ate descriptions, aud carefully made diagrams, but -with 
Buch a host, "we cannot give all proper credit. "We thank 
^-Kl. 
1 
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Fig. 2. 
two squares in passing over five : 
Fig. 1. — DIAGRAM SHOWING THE SPACE. 
all for the trouble they have taken, and acknowledge 
them below in the usual manner. The following, from 
Aunt Sue, gives the substance of the various explana- 
tions.— She says: 
■' Wc have received several letters cocceming the 64 
and 65 squares, and the verdict is that a perfect parallel- 
ogram cannot be made from the pieces cut from a square 
as marked in the illuBtration given on page 187 of the 
May Ameiican Agncidtur- 
ist ; that there will be a 
rhomboidal space running 
through the center of the 
parallelogram diagonally 
from end to end, (fig. 1), 
the area of which is ex- 
actly equal to one of the 
squares. The reason for 
this, is, that the angles do 
not form a straight line 
because, in cutting across 
one piece, the line falls 
while in the other it 
falls only three squares in passing over eight. So that if 
you should take the aggregation of pieces necessary to 
fill the space left in the parallelogram, and put them to- 
gether as in figure 2. you would just get the 6oth square." 
We have received letters embodying the substance of the 
foregoing remarks from A. J. T., Fillmore B. S., H., S., 
A. F. S.~ TowusendW., T. B. A., A. S. W., W. L. W., 
C. E. N., Thos. D. H., J. A. B.. J. A. L.. F. S., C. F. L., 
"Geo. Metry,"' W. S. Morgan, "Architect," C. W. S., 
R. S. H., D. aicC. K., P. B. T., A. W. M.. L. R. C, 
'•Mount Yernon," N. F. P., C. E. R., E. C. W., R. B., 
E. H. A., Mrs. M. B. Y., C. O., F. M. H., J. M. 
"THE PRIZE ENIGMA." 
Our little lady— ''Ciura Josuphine "— has been per- 
suaded to perlorm the task assigned her. The envelopes 
superscribed "Answer to Prize Enigma," were dropped 
into a larj,'e cardboard box and placed upon the fioor. 
C. J. stationed beside them. Her fust ejaculation was 
*' oh— li I " ; then with one fell swoop, a dive, u flirt, aud 
a scuQle. away went the letters all over the carpet. Tliey 
were carefully gaiherod toguiher again, and, by judicious 
management, slie was pcr.-^uaded to hand mc one at a 
time, which I duly marked "1," "2." "3," "4," etc. 
Aud this was the order of the enclosed addresses r 
1. Geo. M.Taylor, Box 19.Riverflide, Burlington CO..N.J. 
2. Mrs. M. Thomas, Clear Lake. Sherburne Co.. Minn. 
3. Frederick Bruco. P. O. Box lOS, Kew Rochclle, 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
4. II. A. Frink, Westerly. R. I. 
5. B. Marliiiez, ISOl Park Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. 
6. Jas. A. Windsor. Jr., Barrin^fon Centre. R. T. 
7. Jessii; L. Kirk, 53 2nd street, Nl-w York City. 
8. Edward D. Campbell, 141 Larucd st., E. Detroil,Mich. 
9. Abraham Rcsh, Bird in Hand, (what u queer name 
for a town, city, Tiliaj;e, or whatever it is,J Lancaster 
Co., Penn. 
10. Joliu Brown Mitchell, Cos 32G, P. O., Clinton, 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
Only four were left iu the box, aud they looked so lone- 
some that I determined to count them iu also, aud send 
prizes to all ; but upon opening them, X found that two 
were written by the same person, though signing diflur- 
ent names (one '"NelUe Hunt," and the other "Emma 
Guldie "), and as I did not propose to give two prizes to 
one individual, and could not quite tell how to identify 
the right party, I must put tiiem down blank. The re- 
maining two were May Goldie, Mott Haven. New York 
City, care of Geo. W. Kirk, and C. S. Camphell, Owego, 
Tioga Co., N. Y. (I sliould like to know if tliese two 
Campbell's are related to each other, as it is rather curi- 
ous that there should be two of that name out of only 
fourteen.) 
The answer to the enigma is — "As j'ou cannot avoid 
your own company, make it as good as possible." 
Not thinking it worth while to wait until July before 
notifying the puzzlers of their success, I have already 
(May 13th) sent some of the prizes, with a request that 
the recipients would acknowledge the same, aud also tell 
me liow they found a clew to the sohuion of the enigma. 
I have received one answer, which gives such an excel- 
lent desci'iption of the jnodus operandi, that I publish it 
entire, (it is better than one of my " lessons ") : 
'^Westerly, R. I., May 11, 1S77. 
Dear Aunt Sue ; — Please accept my acknowledgements 
for the very neat 'Pocket Companion' sent me on ac- 
count of the ' Prize Puzzle,' and convey my kindest re- 
gards to Miss Clara Josephine (j'ou know bow to do it) 
for her perspicacity, if that is not too big a word for such 
a little lady, in selecting me as one of the recipients for 
her favor. Now for the modus operandi of the solution. 
I seldom pay much attention to that style of enigma, but 
this being preceded by instruction, attracted my notice. 
At first 1 did not look at the dictionary, but glanced over 
the meanings and could think of none to suit. For the 
first, I knew no word of eight letters meaning Fop. For 
the third, I did not know whether it should bo a noun or 
an adjective. For the fourth aud fifth, words of three let- 
ters were so scarce that I could think of none ; and so I 
went on, down to the bottom, completely at sea. Then 
I took the dictionary (I had no unabridged Worcester, 
but I have a Webster), and looking at Fop, I took each 
of its meanings and looked for its synonyms without re- 
sult. I then took the second and pursued a similar 
course, succeeding no better. By this time, to use a 
slang term, ' I smelt a rat,' and made up my mind that 
nouc of the words could be found by referring to the 
meanings given. Then I pursued another cotu'se. Of 
course the 'musical instrument' and ' an animal ' were 
too general to begin upon, and besides I wanted one 
which had No. 20 iu it ; so I, noticing that 'caruivcrous 
animal ' and ' fop ' each had No. 6 and ' fop ' No. 20, se- 
lected them for the attack. I had been working at some 
difficult Algebraic Problems, aud my 'dander' was up 
and I was bound to doit. I made alist of carniverous 
animals as follows: Civet, Genet, Hyena, Otter, Ounce, 
Ratel, Sable, Stoat, Tiger, aud noticing that five of them 
had the letter ' e ' for the next to the last, and that must 
be the third letter iu No. 1, I looked for a word meaning 
Fop, whoso third letter was 'e,' and there was no such 
word. That left, me but four on the list. I tlien tried 
'Sable,' but there was no word with 'L' for a third letter 
meaning 'Fop.' Next I tried 'Ounce,' and found Mac- 
aroni and Macaroon. Of course I did not have to look 
at all the words consecutively in the dictionary, but only 
such as commenced with a consonant followed by a 
vowel After knowing what No. 20 was, I took address 
for adroitness, which gave mc 'S' for No. 2. and it did 
not take mc long to find ' Sop ' for a pacificator, etc., etc. 
Rather a loug answer to your question of which item I 
guessed first. Yours, respectfully, H. A. Frisk." 
Is there one among you who does nut know how to find 
out anagrams ? Well, suppose I tell you to find out the 
original word, from llie anagram '• sad rub " ; you take 
the letters S— A— D— R— U— B (if you have no printed 
letters, take a strip of cardboard and print iho letters 
upon it yourself), then cut them separate, and move Ihcm 
about (transpose tliem) until you discover Iho word 
"absurd." If you desire to construct anagrams, reverse 
the process. Select your word, make small words out of 
ihc letters composing the origiiud word, using all the 
letters every time, until you get a sentence to suit you. 
Foriuslance, we will take the word "A — T— M— O— S— 
P— II— E— R— E " ; now let us see how many sentences 
wu can make — "Seraph tome" (well, there's no seusc 
in that !)— Phrase tome; — Hctajismore; — 01 stamp here; 
—Heart poems ;— Hope, muster;— A shop metre ;— Old see 
tramp;— !\[cre hot sap;— He tore maps;— Slop I hear me !— 
Tom see harp;— Home repast;— O ! three maps;— Mother's 
ape ;— and I dare say we ci)uld uuikc many nuu'e ci-uibina- 
tious. None of iho above auagruma arc very good, as 
they are neither relevant nor comically irrelevant (like 
'•Real fun," which resolves itself into '-funeral"); but 
I think the most tolerable of tlie lot is " Stop ! hear mc ! " 
And as our anagrams are made mure fur amusement than 
for approbation, we will not be too particular. 
The fo.lowing old Euglish anagnnns arc excellent: 
Sly ware— Lawyers. It'siu Charily— Chrisuanity. 
Great helps — Telegraphs. No more stars — Astronomers. 
Gvit as a clue— Catalogues. Best in pra5'er— Presbyterian. 
'Tis ye govern- Soveruiguty. There we sal— Sweetheart. 
Now, little ones, go to work and make some anagrams, 
but be sure that you send only the best of theiu to 
Aunt Sue. 
Below wc give some anagrams for you to try your skill 
upon : 
1. Seedy tray. (3. Draw faster. 
2. Did I feign P 7. Amusing my — . 
3. Even road. S. I spyachin. 
4. Idle stoic. 9. Nine treats. 
5. Troy's deed. 10. No mimic roses. 
EASX ANAGiiAiis.— ;^o/- the little oues,) 
1. Shore. 6. No c;it in. 
li. Or ivy. 7. To eat sop. 
3. Bleat. S. Hurt hog. 
4. China. 0. Been wet. 
5. No cars. 10. Red ear. 
NrMEItlCAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 26 letters : 
My IS, 21, '^3. 9, G, is something that each one of us 
possesses, which may be transposed into a planet. 
My 4, 3, 11. 17, is something necessary to each one of us. 
My 20, 19, 10, 15, is generally an unpleasant noise, 
though there may be exceptional cases. 
My 2, 12, 20, 10, is a small auimal. 
My 1, 7, 25, 15, S, is a large auimal, though ii is ofteu 
called something else. 
My 11, 23, 13, is a tool. 
My 24, 14, 22, 5, is what sensible people are. 
My whole is a well-kuowu proverb. 
3. 
ANSAVEKS TO PUZZLES IN TUE MAT NUJIBEK. 
iLLrsTKATED ExiGiLA.— Tlic Ccntciiaial Exhibition. 
HiDDEX Counties in Ouio.— I. Darke. 2. Medina. 
Allen. 4. Logau. 5. "W.-iync. 6. lioss. 7. Loraiu. 
(Maud Beach, a little girl nine years old, ar.swcrcd these.) 
Hidden Deities.— 1. Tyro. 2. Arge. S. lo. 4. Inc. 5. 
At6. 6. Comus. 7. Abas. S. Orus. 
TnK Liquor Agent's Account, given iu April, lias been 
correctly answered (in additiou to those crtditcd last 
niontlO.by: C.E.N., M., "W. A. H. 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to IV. W. B., L. J. S.. Ella 
M. K., G. A. C, H. II., Lollie F. T.. E. A. Y., AY. AV., 
Erania, Frank Nichnls. 
Send communications intended for Annt S'le. to Sox 111, 
P. 0., Drookli/n, iV. T., and not to 245 Broadway. 
Aunt Sale's Cliats, 
I have been asked to describe a frame made of lamp- 
lighters, so give one this month. Cut six sticks niue 
inches long, and six ten inches long. "Weave the three 
shorter into the three longer (as shown in the pattern), 
for one corner of the frame ; push them together as close- 
ly as yon can, then measure the widlhof the three sticks, 
and if it be two inches, cut 22 pieces each 2 inches long. 
Ji 11 P i, ^ .. 
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13 
W,:j; 
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I i — 1 ^[,, and 8 pieces 3 inches long. The latter 
r-^||i '," p-q arc to project at the back tas seen in 
||jf-^^-=p|:i'ip; the pattern), for the purpose of hold- 
ing the picture in i)lace. Sujtpose the 
sticks alreatly cut arc luo\\ n, cut ei;,dit 
more of tlie 2 inch kni:ih. of while, 
and proceed lo put them all together, 
as in the pattern. The white pieces 
are marked 1. 9, 3. 4: the rest are 
brown. The only difllcully about mak- 
ing such a frame is in joining tlie six 
sticks at the lust corner (afier having 
completed the four sides and the tbi-ee corners) ; but all 
it requires is dexterity. The corners maybe ornamented 
Willi colored worsteds, as shown in the corner of the 
illnslration. You will see how topushlhctu together, 
nnder and over, without further explanation. Of cotirse 
y(Ui can vary Ihe coloi-s aud Icnirths to suit 5'our tastes 
and Ihc size of your picture, rcmemliering that when a 
dilTerent color from tin- main frame is lo be usvd. the 
ends should be i)ut under the outside bars, as shown in 
the while pieces at 1, 2, 3, aud 4. in the pattern. 
Thomas Tuumb.— Puzzles scat to ua must always be 
im 
