AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
379 
1882 .] 
been taken for a dried fish of some kind, but when wet, 
it resembles a piece of Turkish toweling, being of the 
same light-gray color, and is quite strong. A lady in 
Georgetown, D. C., has one, which she has used for 
mouths, and when torn, darned it with cotton, as she 
would any other cloth. Figure 1 shows the sponge cu¬ 
cumber as it grows on the vine, and as you see, has a 
ridged shell, like the rind of a summer squash, and un¬ 
like the smooth roqnd gourds, sometimes used as cups 
or dippers. Figure 2 shows the “cloth ” when the shell 
or rind is removed. This central portion when cut open 
is ready for the many purposes for which it may be used. 
Children can plant and tend this vine, which will prove 
an ornament to the garden walls, and when the cold days 
come, the girls will be glad of this strong fabric, to make 
up into watch-cases, card-receivers, holders for postage 
stamps, and a variety of other things. 
Our B'uzzle ICov. 
GEOGRAPHICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 32 letters ; 
My 21, 5, 2, 0. is an is an island on the coast of Maine. 
My 4. 25, 6, hi. 27, 19. 8, 21, is a town in Maine. 
My 9, 25, 6, 1, 27, 31, 20, 21, is a town in New York. 
My 29, 1, 7, hi, 10, 8, is an island in New York. 
My 9, 15, 3, 21, 11, 20, is a town in Delaware. 
My 30, 25, 24, (i, 25, 13, is a town in Mississippi. 
My 9, 12, 22, 14, 11, 27, 7, 32, 21, is a city in Ohio. 
My 29. 19, 26, 12, 10, is a Cape. 
My 18. 25, 3, 28, 6, 18, 17, hi, is a town in Ohio. 
My 12, 25, 23, 21, 25. 24, is a town in Kentucky. 
My whole is a proverb all should remember. 
T. SCHWARMAN. 
INSCRIPTION.—TRANSLATE IT. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of thirty letters:— 
My 12, 2, 7. 28. is a limited time. 
My 8, hi, 17, 3. is a hollow place. 
My 21, 29, 23, is a tropical fruit. 
My 21, 28, 10, 23, 16, 30, 6, is used in war, 
My 1, 22, 19, is a wooden vessel. 
My 15, 9, 7, 25, is essential to health, 
My 23, 28, 18, 2, 8, 3. is a country. 
My 11, 13, 2s, 23, 9, 30, is a verb. 
My 26, 16, 8, 2, is a part of the human body. 
My 20, 14, 28, is a possessive pronoun, 
My 5, 2, 7, 8, 24, is a well known fruit, 
My 4, 18, 7, is a common vegetable. 
My whole is an old adage. 
CHARADE. 
My first comes with pattering feet, and blesses the 
homes of rich and poor alike. Children shout in merri¬ 
ment at the bright messenger, and flowers smile back its 
greeting. 
’Tis one of God's greatest gifts; without it old ocean 
would cease to be, and all that is bright and beautiful 
on earth would fade into nothingness. 
My si-cond is of many shapes and colors, and enters 
/largely into the embellishment of the young lady’s toilet 
of to day. It may be large or small, there may be few 
or many, but when tastefully made, it is a “ thing of 
beauty.” It is also the name of an instrument of war. 
My whole is of unequalled beauty, and in its vivid 
light aud majestic form there has been for ages past, 
aud will have in all time to come, a sacred significance. 
ENIGMA. 
Find my first in tide and wavelet, 
Seek it not in surf or foam, 
Find my second twice in sleeping. 
Look for third in dream and home, 
Fourth and fifth appear in picture. 
Sixth and seventh are seen in slate, 
Ninth is oft an interjection, 
Eighth a personal pronoun makes, 
Tenth and last appears in woman, 
And is found again in man, 
My whole by all should be resisted: 
Guess the answer, if you can. 
Two Problems on Uncle Sam’s Income. 
—The official records say that during the past 20 finan¬ 
cial years (1863-1882, inclusive, the years ending June 
30), our General Government received from Internal Rev¬ 
enues, $2,931,227,331 ; and from Customs or Duties, 
$3,232,631,329, making a total income of over Six Thou¬ 
sand Million Dollars ($6,163,858,660). This is a 
trifle over an average of 308 Million Dollars a year. 
Allowing for 52 Sundays, and the fraction over for the 
“ Leap Year,” the average income of “Uncle Sam ” for 
20 years past has been almost exactly a Million Dollars 
a Day for every business day. Calling the business day 
ten hours, this is a Hundred Thousand Dollars an hour; 
$1,666$ a minute, or $27.77 each second ! It would take 
a good many clerks to simply count the money as it 
comes in, especially if they reckoned the odd cents.— 
Two Problems for the young Arithmeticians of the 
readers of the American Agriculturist: The Legal Sil¬ 
ver Dollar weighs 412$ grains, and 7,000 grains make a 
pound Avordupois.—1st Problem: If the entire 20 years’ 
income, given above, were in these Silver Dollars, how 
many wagon loads of silver would there be of a ton or 
2,000 lbs. each ?—2 d Problem: Taking the constant in¬ 
come, how often would a wagon be loaded with these sil¬ 
ver Dollars, that is, in how many minutes and seconds ? 
oysters, clams, and other snails, aud scrapes out the ani¬ 
mal through the hole. Their eggs are laid in a ring, 
mixed with sand, and are often washed ashore. This 
snail is known as “Mermaids’ Collars,” and its beauti¬ 
ful form can be preserved by baking for sometime iu a 
Fig. 3.— “snail lunatica.” 
slow oven. The empty shells are the favorite resorts for 
the Hermit Crabs as their claws fit in so snugly. Many 
fishermen think this shell is natural to them and call them 
“ Jack-in-a-box,” and “ Stone-Lobsters.” Aunt Ida. 
01«1 With IHievy Eyes. 
The “Boat-shell,” (fig. 1,) is found in great num¬ 
bers the whole length of our coast, and is prized by 
children as a toy. Sometimes dozens of them adhere to¬ 
gether, aud those lowest in the group cling to other ani¬ 
mals, empty shells, or pebbles. Its form resembles that 
of a boat, half covered by a straight piece. Figure 2 rep¬ 
resents the pretty purple covering of the Mussel. When 
living, the animals are found attached to timber and 
rocks, by their little byssus threads. They hang to¬ 
gether in clusters, aud many worms and other small ani¬ 
mals hide among 
them. When a 
mussel is placed 
in a glass of wa¬ 
ter, it reaches out 
its foot, presses it 
against the dish, 
aud secretes, in a 
groove on one 
side, a tough 
thread, one end fastened to the glass, and the other to 
the animal in the shell. Thread after thread is made iu 
this way, until the mussel is fastened securely enough 
to endure the most severe storm. Owing to the abun¬ 
dance of oysters aud clams, the mussel is not very gen¬ 
erally used for food, but in Europe it is extensively 
eaten, and in the Baltic Sea, and on the coast of France, 
it is extensively cultivated. The little “ Jingle Shells,” 
are so called from the sharp metallic sound they have 
when shaken together. They are thin round shells, both 
dark aud light, with gold and silver lustre. They are 
brilliant in Massachusetts Bay, aud iu childhood my 
schoolmates made them into necklaces. They are very 
thin and delicate, so that a needle will pass through 
them easily. We attached one row flatly to a band of 
black velvet, and another row as pendants to the lower 
Fig. 1.—BOAT-SHELL. 
Fig. 2.—COVERING OF MUSSEL. 
edge. We made the band just large enough to fit the 
neck snugly, and placed a velvet bow at the back. My 
grandmother called them “ Wampum,” because the In¬ 
dians decorated with them, but we thought them quite 
pretty, and enjoyed wearing them very much. The 
“ Snail Lunatica,” (fig. 3,) is so cruel, that it almost 
causes one to ignore the beautiful globular shell, with 
greyish-blue out side, and pink lining. It has teeth on 
its tongue, with which it drills through the shells of 
The Picnic on Bear Hill. 
BY AGNES CARR. 
Mrs. May was frying doughnuts in the back kitchen, 
her round motherly face one rosy glow, for the ther¬ 
mometer stood at ninety in the shade, and the roaring 
fire in the stove raised it many degrees higher. But 
“necessity knows no law,” and Farmer May would have 
thought the world had turned upside down, if he had 
sat down to breakfast without finding a fried cake to 
eat with his coffee; and Mrs. May was not the woman 
to disappoint him. She had just dropped the last indi¬ 
gestible lump of dough into the boiling lard, when the 
outer door was burst open, and in dashed her son Nat, 
closely followed by his sister Rose, their eyes sparkling 
with delighted anticipation. 
“ Oh ! mother ! mother ! ” cried Nat, “ what do you 
think! the blackberries are ripe on Bear Hill.”—“And 
Dave Van Riper has promised to take us up there to¬ 
morrow 1” exclaimed Rose.—“And have a picnic at Long 
Pond,” put in Nat.—“ We can both go, can't we, 
mother?” asked Rose, anxiously.—“ Oh, I think so,” 
responded Mrs. May, heartily, for she delighted to for¬ 
ward her children's pleasure, “ if you are up bright and 
early, to finish your work in good season.”—" And me, 
too ! me, too 1” cried four-year-old Dolly, from a distant 
corner, where she was hugging a long-suffering and 
much-enduring kitten, that rent the air with its piteous 
mews. “ Dolly wants to go to nicpic.”—" So you shall,” 
said Rose, hastening to rescue the unfortunate cat from 
her young mistress’ too loving embrace, “ but you must 
not tease poor pussy so.” 
Bubble, bubble, bubble, went the lard-kettle, and Mrs. 
May hurried to draw out the brown twists, which all the 
young folks said were the thing for the morrow’s lunch. 
“I hope it will be a clear day,” remarked Nat, as he 
came in with the evening milk; aud all three scanned 
the sunset clouds anxiously, while 
Dolly nodded to the sun. as he hid 
his fiery face below the horizon, 
calling gaily, “Dood night, Mr. 
Sun; come early to-morrow.” 
And as though in obedience to 
the childish command, the old 
Dutch clock had scarcely struck 
five the next morning, when the 
' king of day” peeped through 
the farm house windows, and 
wakened the trio with a loving 
kiss. And when, some hours 
later, Dave Van Riper drove up to 
the door with his country wagon 
filled with a merry load of little 
folks and big baskets, followed 
by another load of young people, 
Nat and Rose were all ready to 
join the party; and Dolly, iu a 
blue sun-bonnet, was dancing up 
and down on the door-step. 
“ I hardly like to have that baby 
go,” said Mrs. May; “she is too 
young to be trusted.” But the children overruled her 
objections, and Rose promised to keep a faithful watch 
on the little one. So Miss Dolly was queen of the day, 
and rode off in state, waving her hand io Rover, the great 
shepherd dog, and her constant companion, who howled 
dismally at seeing his little friend depart without him. 
Bear Hill was a wild woodland spot, about seven miles 
from the village, given up to the birds, bees, and butter¬ 
flies, the animals from which it derived its name having 
