N ORTH 
Soa 'O RR E 
for the democratic candidate, but as 
the matter stands the President has 
them hoist with their own petard. 
Pledged to protection, but in favor 
of intelligent revision, what the 
President has done has practically 
been to disarm all criticism of the 
real intention of the republican 
party to handle the great tariff 
question in an honorable, business- 
like and intelligible way. He marks 
the cotton bill as ‘‘empirical and 
haphazard.’’ The cotton bill had 
added as amendment there unto a 
new tariff adjustment of the metal, 
iron, steel and chemical imports. 
He scores this method of dealing 
with a great industry as an ‘‘un- 
wise’’ act because it seems ‘‘abso- 
lutely essential to acquire accurate 
information’’ as to the effects 
changes would make on these in- 
dustries. 
As to the Cotton Bill, he writes 
with clarity and force: ‘‘This bill 
thus illustrates and enforces the 
views which I have already ex- 
pressed in vetoing the wool bill and 
the so-called free list bill as to the 
paramount importance of securing, 
through the investigation and _ re- 
ports of the tariff board, a definite 
and certain basis of ascertained fact 
for the consideration of tariff laws. 
When the reports of the tariff board 
upon these schedules are received, 
the duties which should be imposed 
can be determined upon justly and 
with intelligent appreciation of the 
effect they will have both upon in- 
dustry and upon revenue. Very 
likely some of the changes in this 
bill will prove to be desirable and 
some to be undesirable. So far as 
they turn out to be just and reason- 
able I shall be glad to approve them, 
but at present the proposed legsla- 
tion appears to be all a matter of 
guesswork. The important thing is 
to get our tariff legislation out of 
the slough of guesswork and log- 
rolling and ex-parte statements of 
interested persons and to establish 
that legislation on the basis of 
tested and determined facts, to 
which shall be applied, fairly and 
openly, whatever tariff principle the 
people of the country choose to 
adopt.’’ 
School Garden Contest. 
The interesting venture of Mrs. 
Jack Gardner for the benefit of the 
school children of the City of Bos- 
ton, to stimulate an interest in 
flowers and nature study, has been 
prosecuted with equal success in 
Beverly Farms. Early in the season 
the work was placed in the hands of 
a ward chairman who selected eight 
_inspectors. To each of these inspec- 
tors six children’s gardens were as- 
signed for oversight. The seeds 
were distributed at a nominal cost 
through the school department. The 
season has had a _ deterrent effect 
upon the gardens even of profes- 
sional gardeners and many of the 
children’s gardens suffered. Some 
planted and the seed failed to ger- 
minate. Many planted their little 
gardens over again. The prizes 
were assigned in three grades: A 
prize for general improvement of 
the yard, garden plot and fence; an- 
other for the best garden effects in 
flowers, and a third grade for the 
best vegetable garden. The children 
have been industrious and the plan 
as worked out has accomplished all 
that could be expected. The in- 
spectors have been faithful in their 
oversight and have been richly re- 
warded for their human interests 
in the little folks’ gardens. 
To really enjoy a garden it must 
be seen through the eyes of a child. 
Let the garden be the work of the 
child himself and his eestacy is al- 
most unrestrainable. 
with which the tiny people have 
waited with sceptic awe for the little 
black pellets to break ground with 
a spot of green and later flower into 
beautiful flowering plants would 
stimulate any one. The prize for 
general garden improvement goes 
justly to a school child in a court 
who has developed a barren hard 
trodden yard and a high unsightly 
board fence only twelve feet on one 
side and six feet on another side 
from the windows of the house. 
The corner was laid down to loam 
drawn for that purpose, scarlet run- 
ners coaxed up to hide the fence, 
on poles, and the foreground plant- 
ed, watered and carefully weeded 
until it is now a flowering beauty 
spot. This one garden spot has jus- 
tified the movement. There were 
other gardens of merit. 
The community is grateful to the 
interests of the judges and inspec- 
tors and the ward chairman com- 
mends them for their faithful will- 
ing service. Special mention is 
made of Miss Patterson, the prin- 
cipal of the school. Mrs. Robert S. 
Bradley served as one of the judges 
and her interest and attention was 
appreciated by all who were inter- 
ested in the movement, particularly 
the children themselves. 
Ivy Poison. 
One of the disagreeable fears of a 
midsummer ramble o’er hill, through 
the wood or along the shore is the 
possibility of poison from the ‘‘in- 
nocuous flowering dogwood,’’ the 
poison sumachs or the ‘‘pesky”’ 
The eagerness. 
BR FE ABZ 27 
poison ivy. The poison may be in- 
noculated into the skin by touch 
or carried and laid upon the skin 
by the wind blowing the fine 
dust which may gather on any of 
these treacherous plants. Annie 
Oakes Huntington has contributed 
an interesting study of the subject 
and her essay has been published by 
the University Press. The volume is 
a model production and is illustrated 
with carefully selected half-tones 
from photographs. It does not ap- 
pear why she made the interesting 
study of what Asa Gray has re- 
ferred to as the ‘‘vile pest.’’ The 
little volume will be of interest to 
every “‘victim’’ of the ivy or su- 
mach and to the physician. In dis- 
criminating between the staghorn 
and harmless sumachs and the pois- 
onous sister sumach of the swamp 
she writes ‘‘apart from these two 
species prefering a dry and rocky 
soil, unlike water-loving poison su- 
mach, they may be identified by 
their leaves, which number eleven to 
thirty-one leaflets, instead of seven 
to eleven, with margins sharply 
toothed instead of being smooth. 
The berries are of both the poison 
ivy and swamp sumach are white: 
those of the smooth and staghorn 
sumach are a _ rich wine colored 
erimson.’’ <As to the poison ivy it 
can be easily detected as it is ‘‘com- 
monly a elimbing or trailing vine 
which clings to rocks, and fastens 
to the trunks of trees by its thick 
fringe of aerial rootlets, which ap- 
pear at intervals along the stem. 
Sometimes, however, the plant as- 
sumes an upright, shrubby charac- 
ter, and remains near the ground, 
apparently relinquishing its more 
adventurous form of growth. The 
leaves grow in threes and are highly 
decorative in outline, with smooth, 
glistening surfaces, indescribably 
pleasing both in form and color.’’ 
“‘The Treatment of the Poisonous 
Eruption,’’ is the subject of a con- 
eluding chapter. In it she takes the 
position that every ointment serves 
only to spread the eruption. The 
poisonous element in the plants is 
an oil which gets on and into the 
skin and must be removed before 
any relief can be hoped for. ‘‘Soap, 
water and a scrubbing brush seem 
altogether too simple a method of 
treatment to advise for the painful 
eruption brought on by handling 
these two poisonous plants. Yet we 
begin with this old-fashioned coun- 
try remedy and study the various 
methods of treatment from one gen- 
eration to another, we return at last 
through the most scientific investi- 
gations to our original starting 
point. The only effective measures 
