266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
Now what I wish to say to you is this. I wish you— 
every oue of you old enough to write or to read what is 
here written—to resolve at once—to promise yourselves— 
that you will never write anything that you are unwilling 
to sign. Never make a charge against another that you 
are not sure you can prove, and to which you are not will¬ 
ing to sign your own name. The writer of this card should 
let this be his or her last. As to the one accused of giv¬ 
ing a wrong age, the prize has gone, and if the one who 
received it obtained it by unfair means, very little pleas¬ 
ure will come of it. Every time it is seen it will be a 
reminder of wrong doing, and will be very soon put out 
of sight. Never, youngsters, write to any one, especially 
if the writing is about a third person, without signing 
your full name. You may think that I do it when I sign 
myself “ The Doctor,” but that is different, 1 do not do 
it for concealment, and the publishers of the American 
Agriculturist are responsible for what appears in the pa¬ 
per, whether it is signed or not. I use the name because 
it is shorter and mere- familiar than my own, and it is the 
custom for those who write for papers to take such 
names, but the real one can be had for the asking, and 
the case is quite different from the one I have mentioned. 
“ The Doctor.” 
Blow E>i«i 14 <S>5 e t 'I'iicre ? 
“G. T.,” writing from Bergen, N. J., says: “I went 
to the city a few days ago with my uncle, who had some 
business in a large store where they import pickles and 
preserved fruits from France. There was a beautiful 
show of such things upon a large stand, at the top of 
which was something that puzzled me. It was a glass 
globe, like those you see in the drug-stores filled with 
colored liquids, and inside of it was a melon pickled or 
preserved in some way. The melon seemed nearly as 
large as my head, but the neck to the globe did not look 
larger than that of a common jug. I asked how they got 
it into the bottle, and was told that it grew there. It was 
a very curious thing, and I should like to know how it 
got there.”—Bottles with curious things inside of them 
used to be more common than they are now. In the 
times when we depended upon the whales for oil to burn 
in our lamps, whaling ships went upon voyages of two, 
three, or more years. On a whaling cruise the men 
sometimes were very busy and had hard work, but for 
most of the voyage they had a great deal of idle time, 
and the sailors amused themselves with making little 
things that took a great deal of patient, slow work. 
Whale ships often brought home the most wonderful 
carvings on whale’s teeth, which are a very hard kind of 
ivory, and the most curious chains 
whittled from a stick of wood, 
but the most wonderful things 
made by these sailors was a reel 
in a bottle. In a large phial or 
small bottle, with a neck scarcely 
larger than a lead-pencil, would 
be a delicate reel, upon which 
were wound silks of different 
colors ; the reel filling the whole 
bottle: sometimes a wooden plug 
was put into the neck of the bot¬ 
tle in place of a cork, and then a 
sort of cross piece or key put into 
the lower end of the plug to keep 
it from coming out. Some of 
these were really wonderful af¬ 
fairs, but they could all be ex¬ 
plained when we knew that those 
who made them had a plenty of 
time and patience; it could be 
seen how all the parts could be put 
together if one was not in a hurry, by the aid of wires 
and long pincers made from wires. The discovery of 
petroleum put an end to most of such time-consuming 
work as putting reels into bottles ; when it was found 
that oil for lamps could be had easier, whales were left in 
peace ; few ships now go to hunt whales, and as the sail¬ 
ors on other voyages are kept busy, we find that the crop 
of wonderful reels in wonderful bottles has failed of late 
years. A few years ago another set of bottle wonders 
came up, and we cannot tell how many specimens of 
fruits of various kinds nearly filling bottles of various 
sorts, sizes, and shapes, have been brought to the office 
of the American Agriculturist as curiosities. We have 
had cucumbers, any quantity of them, apples, and other 
fruits iu bottles, the necks of which were so very small 
that they were very puzzling to persons who did not 
stop to think. We never had a melon in a globe, such as 
“ G. T.” mentions, but this is no more wonderful than a 
cucumber in a bottle, such as is shown in the engraving, 
and this also shows how the trick is done, not only with 
the cucumber, but with our young friend’s melon. The 
cucumber, melon, apple, or whatever may be the fruit, 
is passed into the bottle or globe, and when once there, 
it has nothing to do but grow, as its food is carried to it 
by the stem to which it remains fastened. Indeed the 
cucumber or melon would no doubt grow more rapidly 
within the bottle than without; in England they grow 
cucumbers under glass in hot-beds or greenhouses almost 
entirely—and it used to be a trick of the gardeners, in 
order to get long, straight and tender cucumbers, to slip 
a large glass tube, open at both ends, over the growing 
fruit. This experiment with the cucumber is one that 
any boy can try, if he wishes ; it will be well to pick off 
all the other cucumbers from that branch of the vine, 
and leave only the one in the bottle; of course the stem 
beyond this particular cucumber must be nipped off, but 
outside of the bottle as many leaves as possible should 
be kept on. When the cucumber fills the bottle it should 
be cut from the stem, else it will burst the bottle. Some 
years ago we saw a common 8-sided ink-bottle into which 
a young apple had been thrust; the apple filled the bot¬ 
tle, then broke a hole in its side, through which a part 
of the fruit grew in a curious and mis-shapen mass. Of 
course such fruits will decay if not preserved. The bot¬ 
tle may be filled with alcohol, or strong brine, made with 
as much salt as the watei'will dissolve. Iu either case, 
if the fruit nearly fills the bottle, the alcohol or brine, 
after three or four days, should be poured off, and some 
fresh put in its place. 
AbubiS Sne'ai IPsaxzle-BSox. 
CHARADE. 
First. 
A tree that grows in sultry climes, 
Bears neither cocoanut.s nor limes. 
But still a fruit we all like well. 
Relished alike by sweep and belle. 
Second. 
My second gives a name well known 
To those who are to learning prone ; 
This man, a chemist very wise, 
lias left a book that students prize. 
Whole. 
My whole’s possessed by ev’ry thing; 
So say the wise men, they who bring 
Us knowledge learned in Nature’s book, 
This may be seen by all who look. IIenrt. 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
The initials and finals name two reptiles. 
1. Slipperwort. 2. Belonging to the shoulder. 3. A 
tool. 4. Persian priests. 5. A germ. 6. A Southern 
State. 7. The original name of ant. 8. An American 
lake. 9. A magician. 
ANAGRAMS. 
1. Hunt red blots. 
2. Teach men scorn. 
3. Now skip harm. 
4. No pure sea. 
5. Black rye, sir. 
6. Cel, yet in line. 
7. O ! we assure. 
8. Dream not, dunce. 
9. Heal hares. 
10. Can’t sing here. 
CUCUMBER IN A BOTTLE. 
TRANSPOSITIONS. 
(Fill the following blanks with the same words trans¬ 
posed.) 
1. It is very-we get-to give perfect satis¬ 
faction. 
2. Tell Jack to-and put down that — 
3. Don't touch that-you will-it. 
4. You may carry away all • 
5. He was after those - 
him 1 
• the 
it was enough to- 
A. L. Fred. 
SQUARE WORD. 
1. A pronoun. 2. The deck of a ship. 3. The Turk¬ 
ish college of ministers, lawyers and judges. 4. A cer¬ 
tain Italian. 5. Brief periods. Johnny Smith. 
DIAMOND PUZZLE. 
The center letters read downwards and across form a 
river.—1. Part of a door. 2. A boy’s nickname. 3. 
Planets. 4. To reel. 5. A river. G. A city. 7. Fasten¬ 
ings. 8. A song. 9. A letter. Nip. 
DECAPITATIONS. 
(Fill the second blank with the word belonging to the 
first blank, beheaded.) ^ 
1. He had a large-- in N. Y.-. 
2. I hope he will not-in his purpose, and- 
his mind. 
3. The birds took-as soon as it was-. 
4. That-ring looks like a pretty-one. 
5. She said that the ■ 
G. I do not see the ■ 
■ she wore she did not - 
oign of a storm in the - 
F. E. G. 
CROSS WORD. 
My first is in bramble but not in bush, 
My next is in haul but not in push, 
My third is in far but not in nigh. 
My fourth is in cake but not in pic. 
My fifth is in street but not in lane, 
My sixth is in snow but not in rain, 
My seventh is in rake but not in hoc, 
My eighth is in high but not in low, 
My ninth is in hand but not in fist. 
My whole is a well-known humorist. 
George II. Fuller, 
pi. 
Ni Stewminrest’s oraly shall, 
Bored ni hetir finicalspot, 
S’langned cantine platerse dosot 
Hof eth sep’lope grith dan dogo. Wiiitehit. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER. 
Anagrams.— 1. Breastplate. 2. Peninsula. 3. Proverbi¬ 
ally. 4. Traditional. 5. Unostentatious. 6. Overboard. 7. 
Manufactories. 8. Synagogues. 9. Epidemical. 10. Worm- 
eaten. 
Metagram. --Block, clock, flock, lock, hock. 
Decapitations.— I. Lash, ash. 2. Goat, oat. 3. Fear, ear. 
4. Face, ace. 
Square Word. 
T O D D Y 
O P E P, A 
1) E B A It 
I) I; A W N 
YARNS 
Diamond Puzzle. 
M 
L I D 
MONAD 
CHANGES 
MI NS E S O '1' A 
PULSATE 
KUO C 1C 
A T E 
A 
Hidden Capes.— 1. Ann. 
out. 3. Henry. 0. May. 7. 
Cross Word. 
Hindostau. 
Curtailments. — 1. Tone, 
ton. Not, no. 3. Spite, 
spit. 4. Plant, plan. 5. Cane, 
can. 
Numerical Enigma. — A 
stitch in time saves nine. 
Pi. — “Why do yon show 
favor to yonr enemies instead 
of destroying them?” said a 
chieftain to tlie Emperor 
Sigismund. “ Do I not destroy 
my enemies by making them 
my friends?” was the Em¬ 
peror's noble reply. 
!. Cod. 3. Charles. 4. Look- 
oru. 8. Farewell. 
Positive and Comparative.—1. Luke, lucre. 2 Ham, 
hammer. 3. Tou, ewer. 4. Inn, inner. 3. Seed, cedar, (i. 
Rap, wrapper. 
Thanks, for letters, original puzzles, etc., to Rosa Brodie. 
A. L. P., H. P. Lowe, John W. Wheatley, J. C. Lawson. B. 
I. Beck, C. F. Giles, Alice S, Paul, and to the little one 
who forgot to sign her name, hut whose “ Granpa takes the 
American Agriculturist," and who has “two pieces done” 
ot the muslin tidy, and uses “red worsted,” F. .J. p., “12 
years,” (though I do not quite see the sense of signing one¬ 
self “ as ever 12 years,”) Mira C. G., Jimmy John, D. Si. W. 
(it always pleases me to hear that “ even papa” takes an in¬ 
terest in tlie Puzzle Box), P. A. W., E. W.—Correspondents 
need not hope to tee their puzzles, nor to receive an answer 
“ in the next number” ; because my communications have to 
be sent to 243 Brojdway, six weeks before the reader sees 
them published. I merely mention this fact, thatsome of my 
little friends may not think I am neglecting them entirely. 
Amanda L. P.—You can either “ tlig out ” the answer to 
the alphabetical arithmetic by experimenting with the 
figures you suppose the letters to represent; or yoi.- 
take tlie letters and try to form a sentence with them,*.,., 
grammatically, and then see if they “come right” in tlie 
sum. I cannot tell yon how to guess them any more than I 
could tell you how to guess a conundrum. 
Kate Boardman.— Please send me the address to which I 
can return the picture you were kind enough to send. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue , to Box 111, 
P. 0., Brooklyn , A r . Y., aucl not to 245 Broadway. 
A Story of a, S’rog. 
Far away over the ocean, iu the sunny land of France, 
there is a beautiful little lake, on the borders of which 
grow many trees, tall poplars and elms, but especially 
willows; of these there are so many that the people there 
call it “ The Lake of the Weeping Willows.” Flags and 
grasses and many wild flowers fringe its margins, and 
through the clear water the fish may lie seen darting 
hither and thither. Down toward tlie marshy end, tlie 
frogs croak all night, and when the sun shines warm, 
hundreds of little tadpoles bask and play in the shallow 
water. It is about one of these little tadpoles that I am 
going to tell you. His name was Panel esculenta , which 
means “ a frog which can be eaten ” ; a strange name for 
a little tadpole, but you will sec how it. suits him before 
we have done with the story. 
Rana had a slender tail, a large round head, an immense 
mouth, two bright eyes, and—that was all. He had been 
so often told that he was handsome by his brothers and 
sisters, and that he was smart by his mother, that lie 
thought there was nobody else so wise and so pretty in 
the whole lake. True, he was only an inch long, but was 
he not growing all the time, and had he not felt some 
strange lumps on each side of his tail, which his mother 
said were legs growing out ? So Rana got all the nicest 
little bits of the tendercst water-plants for himself, for 
yon must know that, while the grown frogs eat insects 
and other animal food, the tadpoles are brought up on 
vegetables. Ho was petted so much that he became un¬ 
kind to his brothers and sisters, and saucy to his mother, 
until at last no one cared to he with him. But he only 
kept on stuffing himself with the best food, and admiring 
his own elegant style of swimming and his beautiful 
form. All he could sec of his form, however, was the end 
of his tail, which daily seemed to grow shorter and 
shorter, while his legs grew longer and longer. 
One day, while he was speaking very impudently to his 
mother, because she would not indulge him in some 
