344 
No. 154 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Tine Editor with his Young: Headers. 
During the past month we have enjoyed frequent per¬ 
sonal chats with many of our young friends at the Ex¬ 
hibitions and elsewhere, and 
we often wish we could 
gather around us the hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of those 
who read these pages; for 
we could then talk faster 
and longer than when speak¬ 
ing by signs. But even this 
chit-chat is infinitely better 
than eold silence. And 
talking by signs is not so 
bad. Let's see, all talking is 
Dy signs. When you wish 
to express a thought to us, 
you use various ink marks, 
the meaning of which we all 
understand ; and we also use 
these printing-ink marks to 
convey our thoughts to you. 
When we talk we use sound 
signs, and every one uses 
tlie same sounds or combina¬ 
tion of them for a parti¬ 
cular thought. The Deaf 
use finger signs which also 
represent thoughts. Tel¬ 
egraph operators use dot and 
mark signs; thus: this—.. 
is their character for A, or a, 
or a ; _stands for b; 
this . for e ; this .. for i; 
luis ... for s; etc. They 
also use and understand the 
sounds made by the instru¬ 
ment when it is putting 
marks like these on paper. 
Birds and other animals use 
signs of their own. Some¬ 
times these signs are audible 
—we can hear them—and sometimes they are made with 
the eyes or limbs. Did you ever watch two birds talking 
together? If not, try it, and you will be interested. 
STINGY FOLKS—SAVING MONEY. 
Are you acquainted with any stingy people ? Perhaps 
to, but it may be you have not judged rightly about them. 
A person is not stingy, merely because he does not give 
o every one who asks him. We know rich men who are 
really liberal, giving for good objects all they can afford, 
jut who have the name of being covetous, miserly, and 
otingy, merely because they are careful in saving, and 
choose to give according to their own judgment, but they 
do give liberally. We have known boys call a playfellow 
clingy, because he did not spend his money foolishly for 
candy and other nice things to treat his companions. 
There are misers, but net often among boys. Their fault 
usually is carelessness with money. It seems to burn in 
their pockets, and make them unhappy until expended. 
The pennies which most boys receive from time to time, 
if saved, would amount to quite a handsome sum by the 
time of reaching manhood, often, enough to give them a 
capital to start in business. This picture represents the 
business room of 
the bank.” He will have much more pleasure in looking 
at his bank book in which the clerk gives him credit, 
than he would in thinking w hat a fine orange he ate a 
few days ago, if his money had been spent in that way. 
A S.lV.NGS BANK, 
where people may lay by the money they wish to keep. 
The officers of the bank receive the small sums brought 
in, put them together and lend them to persons who pay 
intesest for their uso. Within a few years Savings Banks 
have been established for boys and girls, and thousands 
of dollars have been kept for them. The litt le fellow in the 
picture feels quite proud, no doubt, to have “ business at 
CEYLON CROWS AND THE DOG. 
A boy who thus forms the habit of saving, starts right to 
become a rich man. It is not necessary to put the money 
in such a bank. A pine box or an earthen jug will keep 
it just as well, if the cover be kept down —though in the lat¬ 
ter case it will of course draw no interest. 
We do not say put every cent in the box or bank. That 
would deprive you of the pleasure of doing good with 
some of the money ; and there is no way in w hich it can 
bring so much enjoyment as this. The best way we know 
of is to work by rule—say devote one tenth of all you re¬ 
ceive to benevolent objects, one half to the savings box, 
and spend the rest in the very best manner possible. 
ABOUT THE PICTURE OF THE CROWS AND DOG. 
This picture is interesting. You will easily understand 
it. The story which it illustrates, is a pretty hard one 
to believe, but it is said to be a literal truth, and if so, 
we shall readily believe the assertion that the crows in 
Ceylon are very cunning and sensible, more so than our 
own, which are somewhat larger, and have not quite so 
glossy black coats. However, we give our American 
crows considerable credit for “ cuteness,” and they can 
talk in their own way too. We once thought the crows 
did more harm than good (we think differently now), and 
we often tried to trap and shoot them. Sometimes we 
could catch one, by covering a steel trap with chaff, near 
a dead animal, but they almost always seemed to under¬ 
stand our game. Anybody who has tried to shoot crows, 
knows how annoying it is to cautiously creep around be¬ 
hind trees or bushes, and get just ready to take aim at a 
flock, when an old sentinel crow perched on a tree top 
will ring out his caw 1 caw! caw !”—and away go 
your intended victims, making the air ring with their 
cawing over your discomfiture. We have sometimes 
blazed away at them when on the wing and at a safe dis¬ 
tance, just in return for the fun they were poking at us. 
The story of our picture is, that one of these Ceylon 
crows wanted to share a bone in possession of a dog, but 
the latter gave him a growling notice that he wanted it all 
himself. f«o the crow quickly called a companion, and 
after a little cawing together on the subject as if laying 
their plans, the second crow flew down and gave the dog’s 
tail a sharp pinching. The dog of course turned round to 
look out for his tail, and then the first crow seized the 
bone and made off with it. The story don’t tell us wheth¬ 
er he divided the booty with his companion who had as¬ 
sisted him, but we are bound to believe he did, for we 
never heard of a mean act in a community of crows. 
They always appear to bo on the best of terms. Who 
ever saw or heard of two crow’s fighting or quarreling? In 
this respect they are an example to other animals—in¬ 
cluding those w hom Old Diogenes called “ bipeds without 
feathers.” . 
THE IIEN AND PIG—THE CAT AND SQUIRREL . 
There is a side scene in our picture worth looking 
at the hen who has taken charge of a poor motherless 
little pig. This fact is vouched for by an English writer 
who owned the animals. 
Perhaps it is true. We know 
a cat that lost her kittens, 
and she actually adopted a 
young' squirrel and nursed 
and reared it. The little fel¬ 
low frisked around his foster 
mother and played many 
amusing pranks. When he 
became too troublesome, she 
would give him a sharp pat 
with her paw, and away he 
would scamper out of pussy’s 
reach, and not return until 
she mewed for him, when he 
would run down and nestle 
up to her : 
THE CAT AND THE HORSE. 
In a livery stable in this 
city, there is a cat that was 
reared in company with a 
horse. When he is at home, 
she usually sits upon his 
back, and always shows 
great pleasure when he 
comes in after a drive, by 
rubbing against his legs and 
purring loudly. The horse 
too seems to be very fond of 
her, and to be pleased to have 
her take her accustomed 
place to sleep. 
GATHERING CHESTNUTS. 
f A western artist has fur¬ 
nished us with original 
sketches of the Chestnut, the 
Beech, and the “Buckeye,” 
By the way, can any of the 
i Ohio boys tell us why the people of that State are called 
“ Buckeyes ”? Below we have a twig of the chestnut, 
with four plump burs, two of them cracking open, almost 
ready to let the ripe nuts drop rattling among the 
brown leaves below, there to be hunted for by the Boys 
and Gills, or to be quickly snapped up by the sharp-eyed 
active squirrel. It makes us feel young again to look 
at them. Back we go. twenty years and more at a 
bound, to the woods and fields on “Father’s farm,” 
where we have hunted, and pelted, and climbed for 
the treasures. There stood a famous old tree on one 
side of an apple orchard on the old homestead, and many 
a feast of nuts and apples we have had there. And then, 
when nutting season was over, what good times there 
were around the old fashioned hearth where the fire was 
roaring, and we were popping chestnuts in the hot ashes, 
and telling stories. On one such evening we had quite 
an adventure; we took the basket to go down cellar for 
some apples to have a good time with brothers and sis¬ 
ters. Just as we reached the apple bin, the candle drop¬ 
ped, and it was as dark as a pocket. The basket was soon 
filled, and we started for the stairs, but somehow or other 
got “ turned around ” and actually lost, down cellar. To 
have called for a guide, would have made us the joke o. 
the evening, so round we went groping and feeling for 
some familiar object by which to steer to the stairs. 
