160 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
JOTS <k (Bums’ (S0ILWMM 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
Youngsters, we have moved! Did you ever move ? 
If so, I have no doubt you thought it great fun 
to carry your household goods from one house to 
another, and very likely some of you have felt quite 
proud to be entrusted with the kitchen clock, or 
some other breakable thing to be taken to the 
new quarters. But moving household “goods and 
■chattels ” is mere child’s play compared to mov¬ 
ing an establishment like ours, with all the rattle¬ 
traps of a printing office added. But I will not 
tell you about the moving, but the fact that we 
have moved may interest many of you who have 
grown to look upon the American Agriculturist, 
Aunt Sue, Uncle Hal, The Doctor, and all the 
rest, as belonging to, and a part of 245 Broadway. 
It seemed to all of us as if that was our home.— 
Yet having been away from there a week or two, 
it is now as easy to write 751, as it formerly was, 
245 Broadway. Perhaps few lines are more fre¬ 
quently quoted than those written over a century 
and a half ago by Bishop Berkeley, who wrote: 
“ Westward the course of empire takes its way 1” 
This is very true as to the United States where 
the movement is always “westward,” but does 
not apply to the City of New York, which has 
very little “westward,” or eastward, and the 
“course of empire,” or of anything else, if it 
moves at all, must go northward. Those of you 
who have never been in New York, must know 
from the maps that the city is upon a long and 
narrow island, about 14 miles long and averaging 
less than a mile and a half in width; on one side 
is the Hudson, or North River, and on the other 
side a narrow part of Long Island Sound,—the 
East River, and separated at its upper end from 
the main land, by a small stream, the Harlem 
River. The early settlement of the City was at 
the lower end of this long and narrow island, 
tilling it from shore to shore, and as the city 
grew, its population pushed upwards. How rapid¬ 
ly it has grown is shown by a catalogue of plants 
published by that eminent botanist (and my dear 
old friend), Dr. John Torrey, who in 1819 stated 
that he found a certain plant, “in fields near 
Canal Street.”—Canal Street is now very far down 
town, nearly a mile below our present office. 
So, from the very shape of the island on which 
the city is built all increase must be in one di¬ 
rection. The American Agriculturist, finding it de¬ 
sirable to keep up with “the course of empire,” 
had to go northward; to go westward or east¬ 
ward a short distance would take it into the heart 
of the heavy wholesale and shipping trades. If 
you look at the map given last month, on page 
121, you will see with what good company we 
are surrounded, and the adage about “ Birds of 
a feather” holds even in business matters. 
When Any of our Boys and Girls, 
or their fathers and mothers, visit New York, 
they will find that 751 is even easier to reach 
than good old 245. When any of you do come 
to the city you will be very sure to visit 751, and 
if you do not find Uncle Hal or the Doctor, 
(Aunt Sue does not live in the City), there 
will be some one else to make you welcome. I 
know that the Orange Judd Company wish all of 
the friends of the American Agriculturist, old and 
young, to make 751 Broadwav a place where they 
will feel at home in this great wilderness of a 
city, where a perfect stranger feels more at loss 
than he would in a real wilderness. 
More About Snails. 
Last month I advised those who would study the 
ways of fresh-water snails to make a little aquarium 
in a jar of some kind. Unless you live in a warmer 
climate than I do, your aquarium and your snails 
are still in the future, for, as I write, every fresh¬ 
water pool, brook, and river, is closed by ice. But 
when spring fairly opens, it is astonishing to see 
how soon both animals and plants come forward 
and begin their season’s work. In speaking of an 
aquarium, I use the word as a convenient one for 
any kind of glass vessel that you may be able to 
procure. Of course a jar of clear glass will let you 
see what is going on within, better than any other, 
but you can manage very well with a common fruit 
jar, and young naturalists must not be too partic¬ 
ular. You will recollect that I advised to have, 
in the first place, a jar; to put in the bottom some 
clean gravel; to nearly fill the jar with water 
(river or rain water will be best); to get some 
fine-leaved water-plants and place them in the 
water, and lastly, to put in some water snails. Now, 
let us, in the first place, see what all this means. 
What is an Aquarium? 
A jar of water with some plants in it would not 
be, in the proper sense of the word, an aquarium; 
neither would a jar of water with snails, fish, or 
other animals, be one. An aquarium, as the term 
is used, must represent a large body of water, in 
which there is both animal and vegetable life, 
and in which both animals and plants help one an¬ 
other. You know that were you to put some small 
fishes in a jar of water, they would soon die un¬ 
less you changed the water every day or so ; snails 
being less active would live longer. Some snails 
breathe by taken the air from the water, but would 
die in a few days if the water were not changed. If 
you think why this is so, you will soon conclude that 
the fish or the snails have taken something out of 
the water that is necessary for them to have in 
order to live. A fish placed in a jar of water does 
well enough for a while, and seems to be con- 
SEA SNAILS AT DIFFERENT DEPTHS IN THE MUD. 
tented; after a while, though, you will see that it 
comes to the surface for a breath of air, and it 
will soon after die, as it is not designed to breathe 
air in that manner. Fish breathe by passing the 
water over their gills, and take from the water 
the air that is dissolved in it. When the fish or 
other animals have removed this air from the 
water, they soon die. To keep fish and some other 
aquatic animals alive, we 
Must Have Plants in the Aquarium. 
Now, I can only briefly say—for most young 
people could not understand the full explanation— 
that in the Aquarium the plants, in growing, give 
off to the water just what the fish and other crea¬ 
tures need, and these in turn give to the water just 
what the plants must have in order to grow. You 
will learn all about this when you get older, but at 
present you must take it as a fact. It is a most 
beautiful arrangement that the plants and the 
animals, so to speak, balance one another; the 
plants providing what the animals must have in 
order to live, while the animals give out that with¬ 
out which the plants cannot grow. The little jar 
represents that which goes on in a larger pond or 
lake. But more than this, it shows, as you will 
learn when you grow older, the wonderful relations 
of plant and animal life everywhere, out of the 
water as well as in it; how these two forms of life, 
The Animal and Vegetable, 
are related to one another; for it is not alone in the 
water of the Aquarium that the plant supplies the 
wants of the animal and the animal helps the plant, 
but this beautiful balance is kept up the wide world 
over. And to come back from the wide world to 
our jar. You now see why I told you to put some 
plants in the jar. While some water snails come 
to the surface to breathe, others do not, and as you 
will be likely to find both kinds, it is well to pre¬ 
pare for both.... .Having your jar of water, your 
plants, and as many different kinds of snails as you 
can find, you will be interested in watching their 
movements and ways of living. You will very 
likely soon find little jelly-like masses attached to 
the side of the jar. If you have a magnifying 
glass and examine this jelly, you will see that it 
contains several eggs, and within each egg you may 
be able to make out a very young snail, with a bit 
of a shell just forming, nere you will find much 
to interest you, in watching the minute young snails, 
observing how they grow, from day to day, and 
finally leaving the egg, start off for themselves. 
Those who live near the sea-shore or salt water 
rivers will find various kinds of snails, and quite 
different from those of fresh water. As a salt 
water aquarium is rather difficult to manage, I do 
not advise you to try it. If you watch the most 
common of these snails, along the shore, you will 
see that they nearly bury themselves in the mud, 
and in order to have clear water to breathe, they 
take it in through a little tube, called a “siphon,” 
which extends above the mud into clear water. I 
intended to have stated that 6ome of the engrav¬ 
ings there used last month, as well as this one, 
were from a charming little book by Mr. Edward 
Morse, called the “First Book of Geology”—a 
work that I hope those who can afford It may 
possess. The Doctob. 
Our Puzzle Box. 
CROSS-WORD. 
My first is brilliant but not in gay, 
My next is in April but not in May, 
My third is in partner but not in mate, 
My fourth is in canter but not in gait. 
My fifth is in tumble but not in fall, 
My sixth is in kitchen but not in hall, 
My seventh is in fender but not in grate, 
My eighth is in kingdom but not in state, 
My ninth is in happy but not in good, 
My tenth is in timber but not in wood, 
My eleventh is in battle but not in war, 
My twelfth is in verdict but not in law, 
My whole, I fear, is sadly true 
Of many an action done by you. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMAS. 
1. I am composed of 22 letters : 
My 13, 4, 19 t 19, is used at church. 
My 17, 8, 21, 3, 20, 21, is held in the wood* 
My 6, 14, 9, 10, is to try. 
My 16, 18, 7, is a plaything. 
My 1,14,19, 17, is to aid and to prevent. 
My 15, 19, 22, is cunning. 
My 11, 2, 12, is much needed by farmers. 
My 3, 12, 5,16, is a home. 
My whole is a well-known proverb. G. B» K. 
2. I am composed of 28 letters : 
My 4, 13, 1, is a mark. 
My 16,17,18, is a propeller. 
My 6, 7. 8, 9, 10, is a girl’s name. 
My 21, 22, 23, is very powerful for good or evfi. 
My 24, 25, 26, is a kind of dwelling. 
My 15, 14, 3, is a number. 
My 16, 15, 13, 11, is a pedestal. 
My 2, 12, 19, 5, is much used by shoemakers. 
My 27, 9, 20, 28, 21, we must all do before wo oaa 
walk. 
My whole is something which you should read 
if you have not yet doue so. U. S. A, 
DEFINITIONS. 
( Explanation .—The letters necessary to spell : the 
original word, defined, must be found in the letters 
used in the definition of it. 
Example: “Science of harmonical sounds.” In 
that definition you may find the letters, M-U-S-I-C.) 
1. To walk through any yielding substance. 
2. A piece of land containing 160 square rods. 
3. Custom, interest. 
4. Act of growing, to increase. 
5. To take any obstruction from, to open. 
6. Backward. 
7. View through an avenue, the avenue itself. 
ALPHABETICAL ARITHMETIC. 
FENL)TSROWFTNA(ETERF8 
STO A 
WNE W 
A E E O 
TNLF 
STOA 
EERT 
EOOF 
OFSN 
TENL 
LERA 
LNR S_ 
ENR 
DIAMOND. 
1. Part of a house. 2. A verb. 3. The result of 
fire. 4. A man’s name. 5. A girl’s name. 6. 
Amiss. 7. Part of an apricot. The central letters, 
perpendicular and horizontal, name oqe of Shaks- 
peare’s characters. Beatrice. 
LOGOGRIPH. 
In a noun, composed of five letters, may be found 
seven verbs, an animal, a color, a fruit, a beverage, 
three other nouns, an adjective, and a preposition. 
