CHAPTER IV.—THE BEDROOM.

“The Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber whose windows opened towards the sunrising; the name of the chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang.”—_John Bunyan._

It is impossible to treat of house furnishing and decoration without some allusion to what hygiene requires of the house builder. In the properly constructed house the bedroom will be light, airy, and if possible, sunny, like the pilgrim’s chamber. The bedroom windows should not be so heavily hung with curtains as to obstruct the free passage of air. Thin curtains of chintz or muslin are better for sleeping rooms than heavily lined damask or cretonne, as sunlight and pure air are bedroom essentials.

The cheapest and most convenient treatment for the wall is paper hanging; but Dr. Richardson, the well known English writer of house and health papers, inveighs against wall paper upon bedroom walls, and specially against the practice of papering one layer over another, on the ground that germs of disease are liable to be cased up behind wall paper, and to remain a source of danger in after years. No doubt a painted or washable surface is best from a hygienic point of view, but with proper care paper can be risked.

Light, airy patterns are preferable, of varying tints, but the same general color as the ground, for the bedroom should never be gloomy, and the less sunshine it gets from without the more sunny should be the paper that decks its walls. Violent contrasts in color, and spotty or staring designs are a source of irritating annoyance to the sick. Let the purchaser, in selecting wall paper, stand at a distance of a dozen feet or so and look with half closed eyes, and he will get much more of the general effect, and will see more as the invalid will who may occupy the room when the paper is hung.

Then, in the matter of drainage and plumbing, there has been a great overturning in the past few years. People began to discover, about ten years ago, that their modern improvements were followed by a long train of sore throats, diphtheria, and typhoid fevers, and the wise householder was led to study the various systems of pipes and drains. Thanks to our boards of health, and to the efforts and writings of such men as Col. Waring, much has been done to improve and perfect the drainage of city houses, but in spite of the advance that has been made in this direction, modern conveniences often prove in the end to be inconvenient, if not pernicious, and the fewer set washbowls and water closets with which our houses are furnished the safer we may feel. With faucets for hot and cold water on each floor from which to replenish the water jugs, no reasonable servant could complain of the extra drudgery, much less the sensible woman who “does her own work,” and all could sleep sounder at night without fear of being haunted by any of those frightful demons of the drain pipe which were represented in a number of _Harper’s Weekly_ some years ago, as issuing from a set washbowl and hovering over the innocent slumberer.

Upon this point all the writers upon house decoration are as one, and Mr. Cook, in his “House Beautiful” says: “Seeing no certain way to prevent the evil so long as drain pipes are allowed in bedrooms, many people nowadays are giving up fixed washstands altogether, and substituting the old fashioned arrangement of a movable piece of furniture, with movable apparatus, the water brought in pitchers, and the slops carried away in their native slop jars.” Whether healthier or not, I think there can be no doubt that the old way is more comfortable by far.

Setting both health and comfort to one side for a moment, there can be no doubt that the movable washstand, with its paraphernalia of bowls and pitchers, is a more sightly and decorative object in the bedroom than any set washbowl arrangement that has yet been contrived. Of course I am referring to the introduction of waste pipes into the bedroom proper, not to toilet or bath-rooms outside its walls.

In cold weather the bedroom air should be a little cooler, perhaps, than that of the living rooms of the house, but not many degrees lower.

Our fathers and mothers, when boys and girls, slept in rooms freezing cold, and broke the ice in their water pitchers in the morning; but they lived in spite of this, not because of it. There is a deal of loose thinking on this subject. Cold air is no healthier than warm. It is impure air, warm or cold, that is unhealthy, the cold being specially pernicious; witness the church influenza, that most obstinate and unconquerable of all colds, because contracted by sitting in a chilling atmosphere after the body’s vitality has been reduced through breathing air that has not been renewed since the last service held in the room.

There was a clever story called “Lizzie Wilson,” published in _Littell’s Living Age_, years ago, in which a clergyman’s poor widow is represented as bringing up satisfactorily, through many straits, a family of young children. As their bedrooms were not heated, they had a joint dressing room, where the boy of the household first lighted the fire, and then dressed himself, his mother and sisters occupying the room later, in turn. This indulgence in the way of comfort, which might have been deemed an extravagance by others as poor as themselves, was paid for by going without dessert three days of the week; and the children, when cosily warming their backs before the dressing room fire, were pleased to call it “taking a slice of pudding.” A wise household economy of this sort, less pudding and pie and more fires, would not be amiss in many American homes. To keep one room intolerably hot, and all others without any heat, is a wasteful retrenchment, which must be paid for in doctors’ bills and funerals.

The question of single or double beds is also one of some hygienic importance. When a room is to be occupied by more than one person, the European custom of placing two single beds side by side has great advantage over the English double bed fashion. I have known mothers to assert that they observed a marked improvement in the health and temper of nervous, irritable children, after the little ones had been removed to single beds, where they could rest without disturbance from a bedfellow; and no one doubts that sickly or delicate people should occupy single beds.

As to color, I confess to a stout prejudice against getting up rooms all in one hue. I would banish altogether the young-ladyish dainty pink or blue room, and confine the green room to the theater. It is very hard to so manage a symphony in blue, for example, that it shall be truly symphonious. The cretonne furniture covers are apt to contain some analine dyes that fade to forlorn and sickly hues in place of their original smartness. The blue of the wall paper will never agree with that of the carpet, and the cheap paper cambric or stouter jean that peeps through the muslin toilet cover grows paler with age, and each passing day increases the general discord.

White rooms with snowy and spotless walls, curtains and bedcovers, such as certain nun-like story-book young ladies affect, are chilling in the extreme. Their immaculate purity alone renders them endurable, and even then the obtrusiveness of their Dutch-like cleanliness is exasperating. A dingy white room is even more ugly than an ill-assorted blue one.

If the walls are plain, let the curtains be figured with various colors; if the walls are papered with figured polychrome hangings, let the curtains be plain, but harmonizing with some one color of the wall paper. That same color can be emphasized and repeated in carpet, rugs, and table or bureau cover, but no one color should be used to the exclusion of all others, as the eye wearies of neutral tints unrelieved by positive color without a large proportion of neutral tinted space.

A bedroom should look as if intended for the use of its occupants. Much millinery, quilled and ruffled muslin, and toilet tables in fine petticoats are only allowable in the room of a dainty young girl who has plenty of time to spend in renewing and freshening up her ephemeral finery, or in a guest chamber that is seldom used, and is thus made to look pretty at slight expense. Knick-knackeries of this sort provoke the righteous wrath of sturdy men, and they are quite out of taste in that most home-like of all gathering places, the mother’s room. For the name of that chamber should always be Peace and Comfort. It should be of all bedrooms the most commodious, the most convenient of access, with the largest of drawers, the roomiest of closets, the most restful of chairs, and a boundless welcome to all the household.

Closet room should be struggled for in the building of a house. This is a point where the masculine intellect shows its weakness and the feminine its strength. A quick-witted woman will suggest to her architect, nook after nook of waste space to be utilized as closet room which would altogether escape his notice. No bedroom should be unfurnished in this regard. When closets are not built in, portable wardrobes should be supplied.

There is fallacy in the supposition that the most attractive portion of the house should be reserved as a “spare room” for the casual guest. The family should first be made comfortable; when that has been done, if one would use hospitality without grudging, it will be necessary to imitate the great woman of Shunem, and at least furnish a little chamber with the necessary bed, table, stool and candlestick. Moving out of one’s own room and doubling up with another for a night or two does very well in the holiday season, when the spirit of hospitality and good nature is in the air; but, ordinarily speaking, it is quite a task to empty the upper drawer of one’s bureau, and leave one’s own comfortable quarters.

So far as health, neatness and style are concerned, brass bedsteads are the best. They are very simple in form and construction, and so are some of the iron bedsteads, which can be kept absolutely nice and clean in any climate, and are, unlike brass, quite inexpensive. The most objectionable of all bedsteads is that

“Contrived a double debt to pay, A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,”

which is only to be tolerated where a parlor must serve temporarily as sleeping room. A well made bed is the essential piece of bedroom furniture, which may be hidden from view by a screen or curtains, but should not be slammed up and boxed in against the wall, or made to stand upon anything but its own merits.

Wire net springs are probably as good as can be got, and a feather bed under the mattress is an improvement to the best modern bed, if properly aired, turned and shaken daily. Mattresses should be remade and their contents pulled lightly apart before they grow matted or ridgy. Curled hair mattresses are, of course, the best, but English flock, excelsior, and straw, all make respectable beds, and can be made easier by covering them with thick comfortables or blankets, under the sheet. It is quite worth while to make slip covers for mattresses.

Sheets should have an allowance of at least three quarters of a yard for tucking in. Three yards will not be found too long for comfortable home sheets. Blankets are apt to be too short. It is better to tear a pair of blankets apart, and finish the edge with a buttonhole stitch in worsted. The old fashioned “blanket stitch,” as it was called, a long and short stitch alternating, is very pretty. This finish is better than binding, which is apt to shrink and tear off.

It seems a waste of time to make cotton patchwork when pretty quilts can be bought so cheap. In the days when cotton cloth was costly, every scrap was worth saving, but now patchwork seems only serviceable in teaching little girls to sew overhand seams.

Hand-wrought spreads look well when pulled up over the pillows, covering the whole bed, and should be treated with respect and carefully folded and laid away at night.

Pillow shams are troublesome to keep in place, and can be discarded without regret, when a pretty covering of this sort conceals the whole bed. Of my own choice I would never make use of anything with so disreputable a name.

The fault of crazy quilts is their craziness. To be really pleasing they should have some design, like a Turkish rug which, though very irregular in detail, has yet a general plan, a distinct centerpiece, and a plainly defined border. One of the most objectionable features of the ordinary “crazy” quilt is the huddling together in the same piece of work of painting upon silk and embroidery, two widely differing sorts of decoration, which will not bear being brought heedlessly in juxtaposition.

Very pretty comfortables, to be folded like a silk quilt, and thrown over the foot of the bed, can be made of paper muslin, in dainty colors, or of cheese-cloth, lightly filled with cotton batting, and knotted with bright colored wools. Cotton comfortables are not so serviceable as blankets, but they are much cheaper, and it is well to keep a supply on hand for use in cold winter weather, or to make up an extra bed with in case of emergency. They can be folded under the sheet to soften a hard mattress, or white palliases filled with cotton can be made for the same purpose, but great care should be taken to air bedding of this sort very thoroughly.

A roomy lounge in a bed chamber is a great convenience. It affords an opportunity for an afternoon nap without disarranging the well made bed, and many a careworn woman would lie down for a few minutes upon a lounge in her bedroom who would not think of resting in the daytime upon the bed. A long, broad, pine box, with wooden castors attached, makes an admirable lounge frame, or a narrow cot bedstead could be cut down to be of suitable height for a lounge frame. This should be supplied with a good mattress, or a covering of chintz or cretonne could be drawn over it, with a frill falling nearly to the floor. From one to three square pillows, similarly covered, would perfect this lounge, which could serve readily for a bed in time of need.

Bed hangings and canopies are pretty and unnecessary, except in mosquito countries, where lace net, gathered full upon a hoop suspended horizontally from the ceiling, and falling in ample folds to the floor, will serve to keep many out, and one or two teasing marauders in, the long night through. Bed hangings proper are prettiest when made in the form of a canopy over the bed head, and should be of a material that will bear washing.

An ample supply of choice bed linen and towels, all handsomely marked, is no less a subject of pride with housekeepers than dainty table damask, and people of wealth in these days spend lavishly upon hemstitched linen or silk sheets, elegant towels, and elaborately embroidered letterings.

This fondness for well stocked linen presses is a womanly and pardonable weakness, inherited from our far away ancestresses, who strewed stalks of lavender between the sheets in their chests and presses, a custom that has not gone altogether out of date among old fashioned European housekeepers.

Other comforts of the sleeping room where bath-rooms are not attached are plenty of water and bath towels, a washstand for each occupant of the room, generous bowls, a well filled pail with which to replenish the pitchers, foot tub, a portable bath tub, capacious slop jars, a rubber or enameled leather cloth to spread upon the floor, a screen for seclusion’s sake, and room to splash. If the bedroom china, pails and jars be pretty in shape and color, so much the better, but at any rate, let them be large enough.

A wooden topped washstand should be protected with a piece of enameled leather, over which a plain towel can be spread for look’s sake. Fanciful fringed and colored mats are out of place on the washstand, where water should be free to spatter.

Where “splashers” are used to protect the wall, they should be simple of design and easy to wash, and mottoes, if introduced, should be appropriate to the place. “Sweet Rest in Heaven,” which I have known used for this purpose, can hardly be considered suitable; nor yet the prophet’s command to the leprous Syrian captain, “Wash and be clean,” a too suggestive motto, wholly subversive of the theory that bathing is a luxury indulged in for refreshment’s sake; nor yet again a representation of birds dipping into a stream, with the scriptural allusion to the Good Samaritan’s washing and binding up of wounds, “Go and do thou likewise.” These sentences might be appropriate in the accident ward of a charity hospital, but hardly suit the wall decoration of a lady’s dainty bed-chamber.

Something more suggestive of the sparkling, limpid purity of the crystal spring would be in better taste—such as:

“See the face of Laughing Water.”—_Longfellow._

“She sprinkled bright water from the stream.”—_Shelley._

“From a thousand petty rills That tumble down the snowy hills.”—_Milton._

There can be no lack of good mottoes to those who look for them.

A roomy, deep drawered bureau is best for a woman’s use, a dressing table or bureau with small and large drawers for a man. There should be looking glasses suited to the needs of each, but for a lady it is convenient to have a glass so placed as to reflect her full figure, so that she may judge of the “hang” of a skirt or the looping of dress drapery.

A candle-stand by the bed, with candlestick and matches, a table or desk for writing purposes, chairs low enough for sewing or lounging in, and a big, old-fashioned stuffed chair for the solace of the sick, these are all bedroom comforts.

I have said nothing of servants’ rooms, though much might be written on the thoughtless neglect which generally makes such rooms unpresentable. I can recall to memory but one house containing a model room for servants’ use. That bed-chamber was as exquisitely nice in its appointments as the room of the mistress herself, though its furnishing was, of course, much less costly.

Boys’ rooms, also, especially in country homes, are apt to be cheerless, neglected spots, wholly unattractive to their occupants. Boys ought not to be burdened in their rooms with the care of those little prettinesses in which their sisters delight; still they should be educated to enjoy what is truly refined and beautiful. Their bedrooms should be tasteful and comfortable, and they should be taught to keep them in order, to hang clothes tidily in the press, to lay away neckties carefully in the drawer, and to take pride and pleasure in making their rooms attractive to themselves and their young friends. They should be encouraged to feel at home in their rooms, and if no attic or shed room can be given up for their boyish gatherings, for whittling, tinkering, kitemaking, and other important youthful manufactures, to say nothing of choice collections of sticks and stones, then banish the carpet, retaining only a warm rug before the bed, and let them make whatever clutter their legitimate pursuits involve, so long as they are rigidly required to right all disorder when the work is done. Free permission to carry on such innocent occupations within his own domain, with a kindly winking of the maternal eye at an occasional pillow fight, would tell more as a means of grace on the boy who now slips out of the house to find doubtful recreation elsewhere, than a whole barrelful of Sunday sermons. The boy who has once learned to take pleasure and pride in the appointments of his own room will want some time for enjoying them, other than the hours spent in bed, and as he of choice lives more within the walls of home, and enters more and more into the spirit of home he will be so much the more likely in his turn to be one day the master and joint possessor of a homelike house.

“CONSIDER THE LILIES.”

BY MRS. MARY N. EVANS.

Pure white the lily’s cup! Reminding thee of those whom God hath clad In linen robings—fine, and clean, and white— The righteousness of saints!

Perfumed, the lily’s cup! Reminding thee of incense-breathing lives Whose fervent prayer, whose loving words and deeds All earth with fragrance fill!

With honey stored, its cup! Reminding thee of pure heart-chalices Whose limpid depths are wells of heavenly love Whence all who will may draw.

The lily’s cup shall fade! But withered flower and body death-destroyed, Or Spring, or Angel-trump shall wake again To resurrection, life!

This, then, the lily saith: “Pure, perfumed, stored with sweetness be _thy_ life, On earth a benison—then, glory-crowned, Immortal be in heaven!”

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF FORESTRY.

BY THE REV. S. W. POWELL.

In this country many people have only just begun to know that there is such a thing as forestry. Very few understand clearly that it is both a science and an art, and is one of the most important subjects which can come before the mind. For convenience we will treat it under two heads:

A, the value or benefit of forests; and

B, How shall we get the greatest benefit from them?

A. We may regard forests:

I. As yielding a vast amount of products necessary for civilized people.

II. As efficient in preventing certain evils, such as:

(_a_) Washing soil from hillsides;

(_b_) Depositing this material where it does great and lasting mischief;

(_c_) Droughts and floods;

(_d_) Harm done by drying, chilling or malarious winds;

(_e_) The shifting of wind-driven sands which, when not held in place by forests, often cover and ruin fertile land, and even bury fences and buildings;

(_f_) The undue multiplication of insects harmful to vegetation.

III. As beautifying a region and affording healthful retreats for tired and sick people.

But forestry treats not only of this use and value in the woods, but also tells us:

B. How to make them of use: that is, how to manage forest property so as to make it yield the greatest benefit _in the long run_, to the individual owner, to the community, and to future generations. This involves the study of a great many questions which we may classify as follows:

I. On what kinds of soil and in what situations shall we keep or plant trees?

II. What kinds of trees shall we raise in any particular place?

III. At what age, and in what way shall we cut the trees of each kind in a given region?

IV. What are the methods of marketing forest products which will secure the greatest profit?

V. How shall we protect trees from disease, from robbery, and from fires?

Few Americans have studied forests with any other design than that of getting from them the greatest possible amount of _immediate_ profit. Scarcely anywhere has care been taken to so use them that they should continue to yield their many sided benefits to succeeding generations. Neither have they been regarded as of much use in the _present_ except as sources of certain products, such as lumber, timber, tan-bark, charcoal, turpentine, resin, tar, wood-pulp, etc. As a rule, no consideration has been given to the effect they have upon climate, rainfall, droughts, floods, health, or the beauty and attractiveness of a region.

The first settlers cleared off, in the quickest and cheapest way, great forests of the finest trees which, if standing now, would be worth far more than the ground on which they stood can ever be worth for farming. These splendid forests of species of timber that now bring a high price—from $45 to $150 per thousand feet for the best quality—were cut down, hauled together, skidded up in piles and burned to get rid of them. And this was called _improvement_ of that land!

They often cleared in this way steep hillsides which, after yielding two or three good crops by means of the rich vegetable mould that always accumulates under a forest, were almost worthless, even as pastures, and entirely so for tillage. As a result, in large regions so _improved_, springs and brooks fail in the dry season, and in a wet time floods become more and more destructive. Had these hillsides been kept as forests—that is, cut over in such a way as to ensure a new growth of equally good trees—they would have kept on affording in winter steady and remunerative employment; springs and streams would have preserved a more even and permanent flow; climate would have been more favorable for the production of all kinds of crops, and especially of fruits; men and animals would have enjoyed better health; and regions now barren, uninviting, and thinly inhabited by poverty-stricken and unambitious people would furnish a good living to large and vigorous populations, and would beside be attractive to summer visitors in search of health or recreation.

In a word, we may say that forestry—using the term as meaning the science and art of getting from the woods the greatest and most lasting benefits—has never been studied except by a very few of our people. One reason for this is that until quite recently all forest products have been abundant, and the injury to water supply, health, farming, manufacturing and navigation resulting from the destruction of the woods has only just begun to appear.

Besides, these mischievous results are not by most folks assigned to their true cause, _e. g._, certain parts of the lower peninsula of Michigan are far less adapted for raising wheat, corn, clover and peaches than they were before, to so great an extent, the great sheltering forests of that State were cut off.

A commission appointed in 1867 by the legislature to examine the subject, reported that for forty years the winters had been growing more severe; and that thirty years before the peach had been abundant, and the crop rarely failed, frost being unknown from May to October; but that at the time of the report it was very uncertain on account of unseasonable frosts. The further statement was made that:

“The destruction of the wheat as well as the corn crop is becoming a matter of great anxiety to our farmers in many sections, and the winter-killing of the clover in the eastern part of the State last winter, not by ‘heaving,’ but, apparently, by being frozen dead in the ground, as it appears black and rotten in the spring, may be another proof of climatic changes of great significance to the farmers and the dairymen.”

It was estimated that the damage to winter wheat by its exposure to cold, wind and sun for want of its former usual covering of snow, caused a loss of half the crop, or 5,000,000 bushels in a single year. (United States Department of Agriculture, Report on Forestry, 1877, p. 271.)

Yet, notwithstanding this evidence of the injury done by forest destruction, it aroused no such general demand for the preservation of at least shelter-belts across the tract of injurious winds that the legislature felt obliged to interfere and secure such preservation. Since 1867 the destruction of the forests of Michigan has gone on much faster than before.

Prof. B. G. Northrop, of Connecticut, who has done so much to promote the observance of “Arbor Days,” says that in visiting the regions where the floods in the Ohio river in 1883-4 did so much damage—that of 1883, it was estimated, destroyed $60,000,000 worth of property, beside a great many lives, and that of 1884, which was five feet higher, did less harm only because that of 1883 had left less property within reach—he often met, even among the sufferers, a doubt or denial that cutting away the forests on the head-waters of the Ohio had much effect in causing the floods.

Another reason for our apathy is that people get used by degrees to changes in climate, springs and streams; in the adaptedness of a region to raise fruit, vegetables, grain or stock; or in the price and quality of forest products. In all these respects, large portions of the country are already suffering great loss, but most of it has come on gradually. Of late years, however, so much has been said in the papers and magazines that floods, drought and injurious changes of climate are more generally attributed to forest destruction. But people do not seem as yet to be very uneasy about the waste and destruction of the valuable material afforded by the woods. We had so much when we received this continent from God’s hand that it never seemed as if we could suffer from lack of it. In fact, few people realize how great is the money value of what every year we draw from this bank. Most folks would be greatly surprised to learn that what we get from the woods is worth more than any other one crop. No one yield of cotton, corn, wheat or hay is worth so much in dollars and cents.

In 1880, the last census year, these products were worth _the enormous sum of $700,000,000_, which is one and two-fifths times the value of our breadstuffs; two and one-eighth times that of the meat we raise; two and one-half times that of all the steel and iron we make; almost three times that of the woolen, and three and one-eighth times that of the cotton goods turned out by our mills; more than three and one-half times that of the boots and shoes; four and one-half times that of the sugar and molasses; _eight and one-fourth times our total outlay for public education_; ten times the output of our gold and silver mines, and three times that of the entire product of coal and ores of all sorts.

Now, this immense sum is what the raw materials afforded by the forests are worth. But these raw materials are themselves the necessary foundation of a vast number of the most important industries, such as the manufacture of furniture, wagons, agricultural implements, railroad cars, pianos, organs and other musical instruments, house-building, etc., etc. It would be a useful exercise to write out a list of the trades and occupations one can think of which must have forest products, or something more costly, as their raw material. We should find that those industries which depend directly on these products include the most important ones, while every branch of manufacture and every kind of work is indirectly dependent on them. Different branches of industry are more and more interwoven with and dependent upon each other, as civilization advances. The greater the number of parts entering into a machine, the greater is the loss from the stoppage of the whole if any one breaks down. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.

Another reason for our indifference is that most things made from forest products are, as yet, cheap, because improved methods and machinery, together with sharp competition, have lessened the cost of finished articles. Men employed in getting these products out of the woods and carrying them to the consumer, are constantly devising more efficient methods of work. A modern saw mill, planing mill, sash and blind or furniture factory, is as much more efficient than anything known fifty years ago as an express train is better than a stage coach. Then, too, wherever the ground is moderately level, the narrow-gauge railroad often takes the place of the old fashioned sleds or trucks drawn by teams. This makes loggers independent of high water for floating their logs. A train of twenty-five cars, containing 40,000 feet of logs, is on the average loaded in seventy-five and unloaded in nine minutes, and the train will run, one day with another, 160 miles. By this means much timber is now reached that grows so far from streams that it would not have paid to carry it to the mills by the old methods. A dollar or a day’s work will, by means of these contrivances, accomplish so much more now than it used to, that under the pressure of competition, most of the finished articles made of wood in whole or in part, are sold cheaper than formerly. But really good lumber and timber in the tree or log is very much dearer, and this because our enormous consumption is exhausting the stock. But since people in general are impressed by what a finished article costs when they buy it, we are not likely to be goaded into the necessary measures by feeling the lack of forest products until the greater part of our woods have been used up. Nothing but agitation and educational work, such as that done by “Arbor Days,” will arouse us in time to prevent the destruction of our forests.

Before leaving this part of our subject, which has to do with the value of the forests as sources of valuable products, it may be well to say a word about the important matter of forest fires. All experts agree that they consume at least as much as the axe and saw, and that is not less than $300,000,000 worth a year, which is about $5.00 for every man, woman and child in the country. But the indirect damage they do by preventing the proper care of old, and the planting of new woodland, will, quite possibly, prove greater than that which they do by destroying what we already have. The most profitable tree culture is that which produces mature and good timber, because it always will command a high price; while there is now, and probably for a long time there will be, a large supply of, and a low price for, immature and cheap timber. But to raise mature trees, we must wait longer for the profit on the time and money expended. Most of our hasty people want quick returns, and if anything makes the long investment risky, these two objections—delay and risk—will weigh more than any arguments that can be put into the other side of the scale, and it is so hard with our present laws and habits to keep fires out of the woods, that it makes it hazardous to spend time and labor in keeping and caring for trees long enough to get the best timber from them, and therefore few undertake it.

II. But we were to give a glance at the usefulness of forests as _preventing certain evils_. Taking these up in the order named, we come first to (_a_) _The washing of the soil from hillsides_. It was estimated by the exact and cautious George P. Marsh (“Earth as Modified by Human Action”—a book that no one can afford not to read—pp. 282-3), that during the last two thousand years there has been washed away from the portion of Italy drained by the river Po, enough soil to raise the _entire surface forty-five feet_! Had the woods been left on the steep hillsides as they should have been, most of this havoc would never have occurred. For lack of that soil many districts once fertile are barren, and much of the material of which they have been robbed has been deposited where it is an almost unbearable nuisance. _E. g._, it has little by little raised the bottom of the Po itself, and the dykes have been built higher and higher to keep the river from flooding the plains through which in the lower part of its course it flows, so that it runs far above the surrounding country, in a sort of aqueduct. The same thing has occurred in the lower part of the Mississippi. From the deck of a steamboat, for a long distance above New Orleans, one looks down on the plantations. This elevation, of course, makes the pressure of the water and the cost of keeping up the dykes, or levees, greater every year, and when a break occurs in time of high water, of course it is more destructive, because it pours down from a higher level.

Now, were all the steep land in the Mississippi valley kept covered with trees, as it should be, this enormous amount of sediment would not come down to raise the bottom and the dykes, and to do much other harm. In time it may break through its banks and make new channels for itself, leaving important towns high and dry, and, of course, destroying much property where its new route is cut. The vast mass of vegetable mould, ashes, etc., which will be washed down into the Hudson—if the forests of the Adirondacks are ever destroyed by fire, as there is danger that they may be—by the great floods which denudation of those mountain sides will often cause, will quite possibly ruin the navigation of that river and the harbor of New York, not to speak of the destruction of farms, factories, and towns lying where those floods can reach them.

Next in our list of evils prevented by forests come Droughts and Floods (_c_). The annual supply of water from rain and snow, if held back by woods on steep hillsides until it can soak down to the underground sources of springs, or if stored up as in a sponge by the mass of fine roots, dead leaves, decayed wood, moss, etc., which often accumulate on the surface under old forests to the depth of two or three feet—may be made to last through a whole summer. There falls from the clouds—one year with another—only a certain amount of water in any particular region. If there is nothing on the hillsides to hinder its rush down into the streams, it is lavished like the money of a spendthrift, where it does little or no good, and very likely much harm. The difference between the two is that between feverish, riotous waste and sober plenty. “Waste not, want not,” is as good a maxim for the management of water as for that of cash.

A torrent is a stream liable to extreme and sudden increase and decrease—usually very small or quite dry in a dry time, but liable to rise suddenly to a great height, and as quickly to shrink to its former size. By the loss of its once rich forests, the Ardêche, a tributary of the Rhone, became such a torrent, its principal branch often being entirely dry. It has been known to rise sixty feet and dwindle back to almost nothing within a few days. The upper Hudson has apparently all the conditions necessary for becoming such a torrent if once its forests are exterminated. It descends some 4,000 feet in a short and steep course, from a region where there falls a great deal of rain and snow.

As the headwaters of this important river, unlike those of the Ohio, lie almost within the limits of a single state, and the control of a single legislature, great efforts have, within the last two years, been made to secure the appropriation of the great Adirondack region, which is entirely unsuited for farming, to be kept forever as a forest. It has been objected that this would cost too much, and that if such laws were enacted as would enable the State (which now holds mostly by tax title some 750,000 acres) and the permanent owners of large tracts to protect their land from fire and timber stealing, those who hold smaller lots, and do not care to keep them after cutting off the spruce and hemlock they contain, would let them pass into the possession of the State by non-payment of taxes. But a recent judicial decision renders it very doubtful whether in this way a sufficiently valid title could be secured. There are strong arguments against any effective measures. Most men who have invested money in lumbering, tanning and pulp mills, and iron works requiring charcoal, have been accustomed to carry on their work in such a way that it has made the destruction of the woods liable or almost certain to occur sooner or later; and they are not willing—indeed, they declare they are not able—to go on with their business if there is added the cost which would be involved in the changing to safer methods. They are certainly mistaken in their violent opposition to legislation which aims to protect the woods. They would, were a proper system of forestry once put in practice, find that their tracts of land would yield so much more, and so much better material, and that their losses from fires, floods, etc., would be so diminished, that in the long run they would be gainers, and at any rate the damage which would result from the denudation of those mountains would be so vast and so lasting that all the possible cost of paying these men a fair equivalent for any loss such protective measures might occasion would be a mere trifle in the comparison.

As to the value of forests in preventing damage done by drying, chilling or malarious winds (_d_), there can be no doubt that it is very great. It is probable that all through the region between the eastern boundary of the Indian Territory, Kansas and Nebraska, and 105° west longitude, dry winds from the south and west are very detrimental to both vegetable and animal life. If any species of trees can be made to grow there—and by doing this over areas large enough to warrant the cost of irrigation and other protective measures the undertaking might succeed where it would not if attempted on a smaller scale—it is very probable that in the line of such belts of timber other species and many crops might thrive which can not now be raised.

It is certain that everywhere in the northern prairie states a grove that breaks the force of the cold winds from the north and west adds greatly to the value of a farm. And it is gratifying to learn that so much tree planting has already been done in those states. Some have even been so sanguine as to predict that when the soft and hard timber of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is gone these new prairie states may be able—at least partially—to supply the needs of those just named, whose forests were confidently asserted to be inexhaustible.

The effect of certain trees—indeed, of almost any—as fences against malarious winds has been carefully studied in France and Italy, and the verdict is that it is very great.

Marsh (“Earth as Modified by Human Action,” p. 159) says: “It is well known that the great swamps of Virginia and the Carolinas, in climates nearly similar to that of Italy, are healthy even to the white man, so long as the forests in and around them remain, but become very insalubrious when the woods are felled.” He quotes Jules Clavé, a French expert, as authority for the statement that “the flat and marshy district of the Sologne, in France, was salubrious till its woods were felled. It then became pestilential, but within the last few years its healthfulness has been restored by forest plantations.” Marsh also thinks that in Germany and India belts of trees have been found very beneficial in warding off cholera. A lumber journal recently asserted that cholera has never prevailed in pine-producing districts.

Lanisci says that in the time of Gregory VIII. (who came to the papal chair in 1572 and reformed the calendar) Rome became much more unhealthful when a pine forest lying to the south was cut down because infested by brigands. The abbey of Trois Fontaines, considered one of the worst places in the fever infested Roman _campagna_, was much improved in three years by plantations of the Eucalyptus, and this tree has been used with good effect for the same purpose in the French settlements in Algeria (Hough, U.S. Forestry Report for 1877, p. 285).

Of the service rendered by forests in preventing the drifting of sands (_e_) the most remarkable instance is afforded by the once dreary regions in the extreme southwestern part of France, where plantations of the maritime pine have, in the departments of the _Landes_ and _Gironde_ transformed over 4,000 square miles of poverty-stricken country into populous hives of an intelligent and thrifty population. In the lower part of the valley of the Wisconsin river, much loss and inconvenience is experienced by the drifting of the sand which, driven by the prevailing west winds, covers and ruins fields and gardens, and in many cases, even fences. A few belts of timber running across that valley would be worth many times their cost in preventing this nuisance.

Woods prevent the increase of noxious insects (_f_) in two ways: They shelter birds, nature’s great insect-police, and they stop the progress of many species, such as the grasshoppers, which scourge some of the western states, and the chinch-bug, so much dreaded by wheat growers. It is said that the latter pest never traverses a belt of thick trees as much as seven or eight rods in width. So, too, it is affirmed on apparently good authority, that winds carrying the fungus called wheat-rust deposit their baleful load if they find a forest in their track.

III. Scarcely any room remains to speak of the important service which forests render in beautifying a region. Besides preventing the disfiguring ravages of wind and water, they add a positive element of beauty. No one accustomed to the palpitating glow of autumn color in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts; or to the more subtle attractions of the shifting half-tints in which spring drapes budding trees in the same region; or to the splendor of a wooded mountain side with the diamonds of an ice-storm glittering in the sun; or to the restful coolness of a dark hemlock grove in July heat, can ever feel quite at home in a treeless region.

B. _How shall we manage forest property so as to make it yield these benefits and ward off these evils?_ The questions arranged under our five heads have for more than a hundred years been exhaustively studied in Germany and France. Germany thinks that before a man is put in charge of the immense interests which center around her forests, he needs from ten to fourteen years of hard work and study after he has as much education as the average graduate of an American college. The science elaborated in these schools, and in the forests under the charge of their graduates, is embodied in a large, learned and rapidly growing literature. The application of these principles to any particular region must be learned upon the spot. For this purpose, one of the first things which our national and state governments should do is to establish in different parts of the country experiment stations connected with large tracts of land.

At these stations we could work out specific answers to the questions suggested under our second main division (B). It is plainly impossible in the limits of a single article to do more than give a hint of some of these practical questions. Not even the most expert German forester could give adequate answers until he had before him the results of years of experiment conducted in different parts of the country by able men. Even then such answers would fill many books.

The end aimed at in this paper has been reached, if the numerous readers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN get from it some distinct impression of the magnitude of the interests with which the science of forestry has to do, and of the pressing need that the American people begin at once, and in earnest, to protect, to improve, and to extend the forest estate which up to the present we have been so heedlessly wasting.

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN.

BY MRS. PATTIE L. COLLINS.

Since the appearance of my first article on this subject, in the October number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, I have received letters, asking further information, from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I have tried to answer all of them, but to none could I return more than a brief, and I fear unsatisfactory reply. I therefore resume the subject in this public way, with the hope of furnishing full information to all who are interested.

My former article was much criticised by my friends, scarcely one of whom agreed with me entirely. Some said that my view of the Civil Service was an ideal one—as it should be, not as it is—and others that I wrote from the standpoint of a successful (!) woman. A person high in authority gave me food for reflection in the following inquiry: “Do you not think that in justice to those who wish to apply for examination, you ought to say how many have already successfully passed, for whom places can not be found?”

This was a new phase of the question, and quite staggered me. With my accumulating correspondence around me, I began to feel as if I had ignorantly committed a serious blunder which I must lose no time in explaining. The fact that the Commission already had on file the names of many women, with a bare possibility of the list being exhausted at a remote period, was an aspect of the case which I had not adequately considered.

The reason for the great excess in the number of women’s names over those of men left on file, is officially stated to be that, whenever vacancies occur in any of the departments a demand is usually made for a male instead of a female clerk. I think that I am not mistaken in saying that appointments have hitherto been made in the ratio of six to one. The Commission has been allowed no discretion. When a demand was made for a male clerk, a female could not be supplied. With my observation and experience among department clerks, this appears to me an unjust discrimination. I have often asked the reason for this of those who ought to be able to furnish intelligent opinions upon the subject, but have never succeeded in eliciting anything satisfactory. One general argument used is that it is more difficult to enforce discipline among women. This, however, is such a weak statement, though oft repeated, that I am not inclined to discuss its merits or demerits. A really strong point is made in their average loss of time. It is claimed by some of the aggrieved class that this would be rectified by a just apportionment of salary as it would relieve them of much additional labor after office hours. I am not prepared to suggest the remedy, I only desire to speak of the service as it exists. Whenever a proposition is made to introduce a woman clerk into one of the cosy, well-furnished apartments occupied by three, four or six clerks of the opposite sex, it is met by a prompt and indignant protest.

Why? Well, this is a question I will answer myself, and if it be treason, I am absolutely indifferent to the consequences. Pass along the corridors and glance through the half-open doors into these pleasant offices; observe the occupants engaged with fresh newspapers, their chairs tipped back, barely preserving a perilous balance by making footstools of the desks; observe also the clouds of fragrant smoke; if the weather be warm, graceful negligé costumes will not escape you; a vacant chair, perhaps many vacant chairs will be sadly suggestive to the unenlightened, but if you inquire, the answer will be reassuring: “He has only stepped out” (for an hour or two). Paradoxical as it may appear, the affairs of an entire department may be administered while the $8,000 head, accompanied by his bureau officers, is fishing in the Adirondacks, making an excursion to Florida, crossing the plains, or summering at Mount Desert; and all along the line there are delicious masculine privileges which the ambitious female must not even cherish a profane desire to possess. In the light of these exclusive dispensations I have often seriously considered the tenets of the Arcadian settlement upon the bayou Têche. No woman is allowed to enter its peaceful borders who can read and write, consequently they are lovely cooks and have no wrinkles. The difficulty seems to begin when they are allowed to master the alphabet—after that there is no stopping them. In a word, the intelligent, deft, skillful, conscientious women workers of the departments have trespassed alarmingly upon the ancient, solidified rights of the original “lords of the territory,” and that, too, just as they were most aggressively and menacingly arrayed. The passage of the Civil Service act was “a trumpet pealing news of battle above the unrisen morrow”—to women. Visions of the beautiful “equal work, equal pay” doctrine rose thick and fast beyond the dark limit line of a hitherto narrow horizon; visions of regular promotions for well performed work. Alas, instead of this, the departments are permitted to discriminate in favor of male clerks, and no laws have yet been enacted in reference to promotion. In view of these two truths perhaps I ought to take back all that my former article contained. If the operation of the law is to practically exclude women, while it offers no opportunities of advancement to those already within the gates, certainly I owe it to my readers to admit it. But this admission—even with the six to one, or even greater ratio confronting me, I am not prepared to make. I have shadowed forth the reasons for this state of things, and I shall continue to hope and to believe that wise legislation will regulate the system, and time will adjust it to harmonious working order.

In reading the complete and exhaustive work upon the Civil Service of Great Britain, by the Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, chairman of our own Commission, I find that when women were first employed in that enlightened land they were considered too dishonest to be trusted with letters that had not been first cut open by men clerks, and all valuables removed! They were also under the constant surveillance of a “matron.” Now they fill numberless places of trust and responsibility, and a large class of earnest, self-reliant, independent women has been the outgrowth of an experiment which had this puny, almost despicable beginning. Therefore, despite facts and figures, we need not be discouraged in this country. It ought to be comforting to those clamoring upon the outside that there are friends and allies within. It is said that there are twelve hundred women in the Treasury alone, while those in the other departments must aggregate many hundreds more. A certain historian affirms that the Bourbons mainly owed their restoration to the throne of France to the following message sent by Prince Talleyrand to the allied sovereigns and their generals: “You may do everything and you dare nothing; for once, then, be daring.” I repeat the warlike sentiment to women desiring work here. If you do not ask for it, assuredly you will not receive it. If you do ask—you, or you, my sister—from the North, East, South or West, may be successful. Some of you certainly. In direct response to questions which have been asked me by numerous correspondents, I make the following statements: Each state and territory is entitled to a quota of appointments based upon its population, without reference to present incumbents who were appointed under the old system. Examinations are held in various places, thereby affording all who desire an opportunity to attend. A letter addressed “Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C.,” containing a request for information, will obtain a printed form containing full particulars as to every step of procedure. Age, moral character, previous employment, where educated, etc., must be testified to under oath, and each applicant must be endorsed by not less than three nor more than five reputable persons to whom he or she must be personally known. All applicants will be informed when and where the first examination most convenient to them will be held. A thorough, rudimentary education is all that is necessary for the $900 examination. For the $1,200 places something more is required; a knowledge of book-keeping, and our civil government, and wider historical and geographical information. There are special and technical examinations for linguists, mechanical experts, etc. The ordinary work—by which I mean all that is usually performed by clerks of the lower grades—is never of an intricate character. It is easily learned, whether it be keeping books of records, copying or briefing letters, counting money or reckoning percentages. I do not wish to convey the impression that there is any child’s play in the matter—far from it. There is an abundant field in which industry and intelligence can exhibit themselves advantageously. The extracts appended are from the first annual report of the Commission, submitted to the President in February, 1884. I have endeavored to outline the difficulties that lie all along the way, and to show that long waiting may follow even a successful examination. I am not conscious of being even at heart a strong partisan, and think that I have presented a calm and impartial statement. In conclusion, I may add that although good penmanship may be considered as a rather low accomplishment, it is an important factor of success in this special direction.

APPENDIX No. 5.

The questions below are an example of those used in the grades which fall under the first and fourth clauses of Rule 7, known respectively as the general and limited examinations. They are a fair sample of all those used in those grades. It is at one or the other of those grades that fully 95 out of every 100 applicants have been examined under the rules. The questions are frequently varied, indeed almost at every examination, without materially changing their grade, and there are special adaptions of them to various places in the postal and customs offices. For the sake of brevity the ample spaces for the answers on the examination papers are omitted.

GENERAL EXAMINATION UNDER CLAUSE 1 OF RULE 7.—FIRST SUBJECT.

Question 1.—One of the examiners will distinctly read (at a rate reasonable for copying) fifteen lines from the Civil Service Law or Rules, and each applicant will copy the same below from the reading as it proceeds.

Question 2.—Write below, at length, the names of fifteen states and fifteen cities of the Union.

Question 3.—Copy the following, which is section five of the Civil Service act, in the blank below:

SEC. 5. That any said commissioner, examiner, copyist, or messenger, or any person in the public service who shall willfully and corruptly, by himself or in coöperation with one or more other persons, defeat, deceive, or obstruct any person in respect of his or her right of examination according to any such rules or regulations, or who shall willfully, corruptly, and falsely mark, grade, estimate or report upon the examination or proper standing of any person examined hereunder, or aid in so doing, or who shall willfully and corruptly make any false representations concerning the same or concerning the person examined, or who shall willfully and corruptly furnish to any person any special or secret information for the purpose of either improving or injuring the prospects or chances of any person so examined, or to be examined, being appointed, employed, or promoted, shall for each such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not less than ten days, nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SECOND SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Multiply 307968 by 490875 and divide the product by 307968. Write in full the operation.

Question 2.—Divide three fourths of eight ninths by one seventh of three fifths and subtract one seventh from the quotient.

Question 3.—Divide one thousand and eight and three one-thousandths by three and eight one-hundredths, expressing the process in decimal fractions.

Question 4.—The compensation of a clerk, beginning June 30th, was $133.33 a calendar month. On the first of October his salary was increased 15 per cent., and so remained until June 1st, when it was increased a further amount of three per cent. on the original salary. What was the whole amount payable to the clerk for the year?

Question 5.—A commissary suddenly forced to change quarters had on hand 980 bushels of wheat which cost 80 cents per bushel. He sold six per cent. of it at a loss of four per cent. and four per cent. of it at a loss of three per cent. How much was the whole loss incurred by the sale?

THIRD SUBJECT.

Question 1.—A note for $2,647.34 is payable eleven months from date with interest at 3½ per cent. What will be the amount due on the note at maturity? Give all the figures in the operation.

Question 2.—A disbursing agent failed, owing the government one item of $308.45, another of $2,901.02. The government agreed to make a discount of 13 per cent. on the first item and 11½ per cent. on the second. How much was payable under the agreement?

Question 3.—June 30, 1880, A gave B a note for $1,005 payable July 4, 1882, with interest at 4 per cent. May 1, 1882, A paid $235. What was the amount of principal and interest due B when the note matured?

Question 1.—A contractor furnished the government articles as follows: June 8, 1880, 300 barrels of flour at $4.50 a barrel, and July 6, 1880, 187 yards of carpet at $1 a yard. August 4, 1880, 1,000 yards of carpet at 87 cents a yard. The government paid on account as follows: June 12, 1880, $1,000; July 10, 1880, $100; August 4, 1880, $500. State the dealings between the parties in the form of a debit and credit account, showing the balance due.

FOURTH SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Give a definition as full as the space will allow of (1) a verb; (2) a noun; (3) an adverb; (4) an adjective; (5) a preposition; (6) a conjunction; and of (7) the phrase, “the grammar of the English language.”

Question 2.—Write a letter, addressing it to the President and giving your views, as far as you are willing to express them, in regard to the duties and responsibilities of an officer in the public service which you seek to enter. Let it fill, as nearly as may be, the following space.

FIFTH SUBJECT.

Question 1.—Which States extend to or border on the sea or tide-water? What is the capital of each of said States?

Question 2.—What is meant in our history, (1) by the Colonial period; (2) by the Continental Congress; (3) by the Declaration of Independence; (4) by the Emancipation Proclamation? Let your answers, as nearly as may be, fill this blank.

Question 3.—State in general terms, but as particularly as the space below will permit, what are the authority and functions of (1) the Congress of the United States; of (2) the Supreme Court of the United States; of (3) the President of the United States; and give the names of each of the executive departments at Washington.

LIMITED EXAMINATION UNDER CLAUSE 4 OF RULE 7.

First subject same as in examination under Clause 1.

SECOND SUBJECT.

DIRECTION.—In case the examiners think that any of the following examples may have been seen by the applicants, they can in the first strike out a line of the figures, and, in the others, change some of the figures without altering the grade of the question.

Question 1.—Add the following:

64379582 28597346 91731625 52613719 26598421 53679713 83576532 62985274 79365497 --------

Question 2.—Find the difference between the following numbers:

905127038624 605138759928 ------------

Question 3.—Subtract ten thousand one hundred dollars and six cents from one hundred thousand and seven dollars and five cents, giving all the figures required in the operation.

Question 4.—Multiply 7089 by 983.

Question 5.—Divide 368506 by 375.

Question 6.—When board costs three dollars and seventy-six cents per week what will it cost from March 15th to July 4th?

Question 7.—How many times is 17 cents contained in ten thousand dollars and ten cents?

Question 8.—There are seven hundred and three dollars to be divided between nine men and three boys. The boys are to have twenty-five dollars and five cents each, the residue is to be equally divided among the men, what is each man’s share? Give all the figures involved in the solution.

APPENDIX No. 6.

The following tables show the statistics of the examinations in the three branches of the classified service. These considerations should be borne in mind in considering them:

1. That the ratio of those who fail to those who succeed is likely to be much less when the grade of questions shall be better understood; for the more incompetent will see they have little chance of succeeding. Besides, a better class has appeared at each succeeding examination.

2. It was necessary in the outset to examine a large number to make sure of having those competent to fill every variety of vacancy. Many appointments may be now made without further examinations. The excessive number examined from the District of Columbia was the result of conforming to a rule having an unanticipated effect, which has been since amended.

3. In regard to education, the records of the Commission are defective in not showing how long those who have been at an academy or college have remained at either, nor how many are graduates. If a person has been but a month at an academy or college, he is put under the head of those institutions. The habit of calling so many schools academies, and so many academies colleges, helps to make this unavoidable classification the more misleading.

TABLE

_Showing numbers of examinations, number of those examined, passed, appointed, age, education, etc., in the Department Service, Washington._

------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------------------------- |Number examined. | | | |Male.| | | Number | | |Female. | appointed. | | | |Average +-----+ STATES, | | | |age. | Number passed at 65| TERRITORIES | | | | +-----+-----+-----+ per | AND | | | | | Education. |cent.| DIST. OF | | | | +-----+-----+-----+ or | COLUMBIA. | | | | |Common school. |over.| | | | | | |Academy. | | | | | | | | |College. | ------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Alabama | 4 | 2 | 2 | 42 | 2 | 2 | .. | 2 | .. Arizona Territory | 1 | .. | 1 | 33 | .. | 1 | .. | 1 | .. California | 7 | 6 | 1 | 30 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 Colorado | 4 | 2 | 2 | 37 | 1 | 3 | .. | 2 | .. Connecticut | 9 | 3 | 6 | 29 | 4 | 2 | .. | 3 | 1 Dakota Territory | 2 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 1 | .. | 1 | .. District of | | | | | | | | | Columbia | 125 | 54 | 71 | 25 | 48 | 53 | 24 | 74 | 3 Delaware | 1 | .. | 1 | 25 | 1 | .. | .. | 1 | .. Florida | 2 | .. | 2 | 36 | .. | 1 | 1 | 1 | .. Georgia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 25 | .. | 1 | 2 | .. | .. Illinois | 24 | 16 | 8 | 31 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 15 | 4 Indiana | 40 | 29 | 11 | 26 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 2 Indian Territory | 1 | 1 | .. | 30 | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. Iowa | 3 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 Kansas | 15 | 13 | 2 | 32 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 2 Kentucky | 21 | 16 | 5 | 28 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 2 Louisiana | 6 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 2 | 4 | .. | 3 | .. Maine | 14 | 10 | 4 | 26 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 11 | 2 Maryland | 66 | 40 | 26 | 26 | 13 | 35 | 18 | 44 | 3 Massachusetts | 36 | 27 | 9 | 30 | 6 | 17 | 13 | 26 | 1 Michigan | 18 | 12 | 6 | 28 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 3 Minnesota | 7 | 5 | 2 | 36 | 3 | .. | 4 | 4 | .. Mississippi | 4 | 3 | 1 | 30 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .. Missouri | 15 | 11 | 4 | 34 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 2 Nebraska | 1 | .. | 1 | 25 | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. New Hampshire | 6 | 2 | 4 | 35 | .. | 6 | .. | 3 | 1 New Jersey | 16 | 7 | 9 | 28 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 2 New York | 94 | 65 | 29 | 26 | 20 | 54 | 20 | 50 | 5 North Carolina | 38 | 26 | 12 | 27 | 2 | 24 | 12 | 19 | 1 Ohio | 64 | 45 | 19 | 32 | 20 | 27 | 17 | 42 | 4 Pennsylvania | 42 | 30 | 12 | 30 | 10 | 22 | 10 | 22 | 5 Rhode Island | 6 | 4 | 2 | 42 | 5 | 1 | .. | 1 | 1 South Carolina | 13 | 11 | 2 | 24 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 1 Tennessee | 4 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 2 | 2 | .. | 2 | .. Texas | 3 | 1 | 2 | 36 | .. | 3 | .. | 3 | .. Vermont | 5 | 1 | 4 | 28 | 2 | 3 | .. | 4 | 1 Virginia | 37 | 21 | 16 | 32 | 9 | 22 | 6 | 24 | 2 Washington | | | | | | | | | Territory | 1 | .. | 1 | 40 | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. West Virginia | 19 | 13 | 6 | 30 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 1 Wisconsin | 7 | 6 | 1 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Total | 784 | 491 | 293 | 32 | 217 | 366 | 201 | 459 | 53

* * * * *

Time was when Nature’s every mystic mood Poured round my heart a flood of eager joy; When pageantry of sunsets moved the boy More than high ventures of the great and good; When trellised shadows in the vernal wood, And little peeping flowers, so sweet and coy, Were simple happiness without alloy, And whispered to me things I understood. But now the strange sad weight of human woe, And all the bitterness of human wrong, Press on my saddened spirit as I go, And stir the pulsings of a graver song: Dread mysteries of life and death I scan, And all my soul is only full of man.—_W. W. Bedford._

THE ART OF FISH CULTURE.

BY PROF. G. BROWN GOODE.