1877.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
147 
PRIZE ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 52 letters: 
My 31, 43, 6, 28, 20, 25, 4, 29; is a fop. 
My 24, 41, 9, 39, 20, 5, 49, 36, 3, means—fitness. 
My 48,11, 1. 45, 51, 34—chief. 
My 2,18, 27, is a pacificator. 
My 22, 37, 17—distance. 
My 32,16, 42, 20, 52, 44, 2—adroitness. 
My 26.14, 35, 51—to soil. 
My 50,12, 47, 38, 21,10, 8, is a musical instrument. 
My 26, 40, 23, 33, 34, 30, is an animal. 
My 46,19, 23, 6, 52, is a carnivorous animal. 
My 13, 7,15, 20, is squirrel-fur. 
My whole is very excellent advice. 
(In defining most of the items of the enigma, I have 
chosen one word from the definitions given to the item 
in Worcester’s Unabridged Dictionary. They are all fair 
words, except perhaps the “ fop,” and I should have 
thought his title somewhat slangy , but that Worcester 
gives the name in good faith without any "’local" or 
“ obsolete ” wherewith to qualify it.) 
I have made the enigma comparatively easy by using 
the figures 51, 27, 26, 34, 23, and 6, more than once, and 
figure 20 several times. 
And now I will give you an easy enigma to practise 
upon, not for a prize, but for the fun of doing it. 
SIMPLE ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 20 letters: 
My 8,18,13, 14, is a period of time. 
My 14,13, 2,10, is a kind of wreck. 
My 3,12,15,17, 4, you conld not sing without. 
My 3, 20, 9,1, is worn by the ladies. 
My 5, 8. 6, 7, 20, is what snow is when it first falls; but 
ft does not remain so, long, in New York. 
My 2,17, 20, furnishes amusement in winter and re¬ 
freshment in summer. 
My 18,16, 4, is a number. 
My 19, 11, is a possessive pronoun. 
Try and accomplish my whole. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE FEBRUARY NUMBER. 
Rhymes.— 1. Fair. 2. Hair. 3. Ware. 4. Bear. 5. Pair. 
6. Rare. 7. Mare. 8. Scare. 9. Stair. 10. Tear. 11. Lair. 
12. Pear. 13. Fare. 14. Dare. 15. Care. 16. Spare. 
Alphabetical Arithmetic. — 397)652894(2126. Key— 
“ Burnt child.” 
Pi— Humanity is the peculiar characteristic of great minds. 
Charade. —N ightingale. 
Numerical Enigma. — Nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. 
Anagrams,— 1. Babyhood. 2. Sufferer. 3. Landscape. 4. 
American, a. Pleasure. 6. Mistake. 7. Annoyances. 8. 
Uniforms. 9. Thoroughfare. 10. Misunderstand. 
Positives and Compara¬ 
tives. —1. Weight, waiter. 2. 
Cent.centre. 3. Pond, ponder. 
4. Gnu, newer. 5. Sleigh, 
slayer. 6. Scow, scour. 
Cross Word.—D iamond. 
Concealed Square Word. 
RING 
IDEA 
NEAT 
GATE 
Thanks for puzzles, letters, etc., to Howard S. (although 
puzzles upon the names of the writers, or on those of their 
personal friends, are not acceptable). Louie (I have nothing 
to do witli the business affairs of the American Agricul¬ 
turist, hut I see that they offer to send any back number for 
the price named), Pontiac, Melville and Jim, Belle, Ma, 
M. L. E„ and Annie. 
Several contributions have gone to that bourne whence 
no puzzles return, because they were sent to 245 Broadway, 
Instead of being addressed to “ Aunt Sne, Box 111, P. O., 
Brooklyn, N. Y.” I warn you, children, that you may 
“ never see your darlings any more,’’ if you send them to 
the office of the American Agriculturist. They are too busy 
over there to attend to such small tilings as puzzles. The 
Doctor gets pretty nearly all the pointers (ZST’) that the 
printer lias wherewith to point at my address, and then 
6colds because you don't seem to notice it. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue, to Box 111, 
P. O., Brooklyn, N. 7., and not to 245 Broadway. 
Bird-Houses iliat any Boy can 
Make. 
We are glad that a number of young people write us 
about bird-houses, not only because it shows a love for 
birds and a wish to have them about the house, but be¬ 
cause they are at the same time doing good to themselves 
and their neighbors, by Increasing the number of insect- 
eaters. We have, in former years, given a number of en¬ 
gravings of bird-houses of various kinds, some very 
simple and others ornamental. It is a mistake to have 
the bird-houses too showy and too much exposed. Most 
birds naturally choose a retired place for their nest, and 
slip into it quietly, so that no enemy can find out where 
they live. All that is needed in a bird-house is, a hiding 
place, with an opening just large enough for the bird, 
and a water-tight roof, and there are so many ways in 
which these may be provided, that any boy can contrive 
to make all the bird-houses that may be needed. A cob 
respondent oDce wrote us that he had seen an old hat, with 
a hole for a door, tacked by the rim against a shed, as in 
Tig. 1. —OLD HAT. 
kinds, may be securely fasl 
places near the house, whe 
figure 1, and occupied by 
birds sooner than a showy 
bird-house. Several years ago 
a fx'iend told us that an old 
tin oil-feeder (such as is used 
in filling lamps), which had 
been hung upon a fence 
picket, had been occupied by 
birds, who reared a brood in 
it. European sparrows and 
martins do not seem to care 
how much they are exposed, 
or how many neighbors 
they have, hence large bird- 
houses upon poles, with sev¬ 
eral tenements in them, will 
answer for these, while 
others prefer a more retired 
place. Gourd shells, fruit- 
cans, and boxes of various 
:ened in the trees and at other 
re they will soon be found by 
Fig. 2. —KEG HOUSE. 
Fig. 3. —LARGE HOUSE. 
the birds. The neat little kegs in which oysters are sent 
to inland cities, are capital ready made bird-houses, need¬ 
ing only to be washed out, and placed so that the opening 
in one head will answer for the door. Figure 2 shows 
Fig. 5. —HOUSE WITH BIRCH BARK, 
how six of these kegs may be put together to go upon a 
pole. The kegs are fastened to the boards by screws put 
in from beneath. Figure 8 shows how a two-storied 
house may be made from two shallow boxes, each di¬ 
vided inside into four tenements ; each box has a bot- 
Fig. 6.—HOUSE WITH ROUGH BARK. 
tom board, projecting two inches all around, to answer 
as a landing place; the roof should be tight, and the 
whole so strongly nailed that it will not warp, and it 
should be painted. The remaining engravings show how 
small boxes, of different kinds, such as may be found at 
any store, may be turned into bird-boxes. These are 
much better to be fastened to sheds and out-buildings 
and to the branches find trunks of trees, than to stand 
out upon poles. In figure 4, the covering is of thin strips 
of chestnut or other easy splitting wood; figure 5 is cov¬ 
ered with the bark of the Paper or Canoe Birch, which is 
not rare in northern woods, and ornamented with Laurel 
or other crooked twigs. In the absence of Birch, any 
other bark will answer, no matter how rough, as seen in 
figure 6. In putting up bird-houses, keep two things in 
mind: place them where cats cannot catch the birds as 
they pass in and out, and be sure to fasten them so secure¬ 
ly that no wind, or shaking of the trees will throw them 
down, and thus break up the family. 
A Brunt Site’s CSmts. 
J. M. Blauvelt sends a sum, which, he says, “ was 
given at a Teacher’s Institute in our county some years 
ago by a School Commissioner, and out of fourteen pupils 
only two worked it alike.” 'When I first glanced at it,.I 
thought it was as “ plain as a pike-staff,” and tried it my¬ 
self, but I became terribly “mixed” in the debit and 
credit account. It has furnished much amusement in our 
own family-circle, and I give it to the readers of the 
American Agriculturist with much pleasure. Here it is: 
A liquor-agent of a New England town (where spirits 
were only sold by an agent appointed for the purpose) 
held the office for one year; at the expiration of that 
time he gave the following statement of his account, viz.; 
Amount of cash received on assuming office.$ 32.17 
Value of liquor received at same time. 57.54 
Casit received from sales during the year. 102.97 
Amount paid for liquor during the year—. 59.91 
Amount of agent’s salary. 25.00 
Value of liquor on hand at the end of the year.... 31.37 
Does the town owe the agent, or the agent owe the 
town ? And how much T 
I shall be glad to receive solutions to the above from 
everybody. 
S. (Peel Co., Canada).—Thanks for puzzles, etc. We 
leave a vulnerable point in the alphabetical arithmetic, 
purposely; it would scarcely pay to waste time upon it 
else. Ishall lookforyour solution to the “liquor account.” 
Horace M.E.— Your questions were a little too scientific 
for my department, so I turned them over to the Doctor. 
Florence.— I can scarcely give you any suggestions 
for home-made frames large enough for the pictures you 
describe; still, if I wanted to make some cheap ones, I 
should contrive something or other. Let’s talk it over. 
How would it do to cut a frame out of card-board, like 
figure 1. (Sew a button-mould on each corner), brush it 
over with a coat of glue, 
and, while damp with the 
glue, scatter sand over it T 
Then fasten it to four 
pieces of lath at the back 
(cut to fit the picture, and 
joined at the corners) by a 
brass-headed nail* driven 
through the button-mould 
at each corner. If you do 
not like the sand, scatter 
raw-rice and mustard-seed 
over the glue, and when 
perfectly dry, give it one 
or two coats of red sealing- 
wax varnish (made by dis¬ 
solving red sealing-wax in 
alcohol; or shellac in alcohol, and adding vermilion to 
color it). Or cover the card-board with brown paper (or 
stain it brown), and fasten on to it pressed leaves, acorns, 
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