PAGE 4
TH E CHEMAWA AMERICAN
CAPTIVE BALLOON AIDS ORCHARDI8TS
a dugout, went back to the German trenches and got
Citrus trees in southern California are sometimes pussy number two.
affected by a parasitical scale which can be eradicated
Finally she had three kittens safe in the English
only by fumigating the trees, one at a time, with lines, and speculation as to her reason for the removal
potassium cyanide. This is a most formidable job but of the kittens was vain. She never told why she de
commercial growers are in the business to produce big serted the Germans.
crops of first class fruit—if they can’t do that the
The English officers, amused by her trust in them,
sooner they get out of the game the better—so they wrote the story home and a mother sent red ribbons
fumigate.
for the pussies. Her son in writing said that they
Huge canvas bags or fumigating tents are dropped had named the three kittens Bomb-Thrower, Wheezer
over the trees to confine the fumes of the chemical and Ginger, and that they looked very handsome in
until they can get in their work. Heretofore these their ribbon decorations.
heavy tents have been raised and lowered by means of
ANCESTOR OF WATCH FAMILY
hand-worked derricks, laborious work that requires
Old records which have turned up in Nuremberg,
the services of half a dozen or more men.
An ingenious Eos Angeles man has invented and Germany .together with a queer watch seem to establish
patented a scheme to make a captive balloon do the the watch as the oldest specimen of the portable time
work of the derricks. He uses the balloon, a* small piece in existence. It was meant to be carried on a
one of 3000 cubic feet capacity, somewhat the same strap from the belt, as it is entirely too thick for pock
as such balloons were used in the late war. The tent et use. It resembles the small clocks which for many
is made fast to the balloon instead of the regular para years sold at $1.
The case is an ornamental box like a wide napkin-
chute and ropes, held by men on the ground, are paid
out until the tent is lifted and poised over the tree to ring, with an ornamented, removable lid. The face
be fumigated. Then, by drawing in the ropes, the has the familiar Roman numerals, with the VI actually
balloon is pulled downward and the tent is lowered present, for there is no second-hand to cut off that
over the tree, a large hoop being provided to keep it hour.
The works are altogether of iron and steel. The
open at the base.
main spring has a pig's bristle to act as an auxiliary
The tent is then cut loose from the balloon and is spring as the main spring becomes exhausted. The
supported by the branches of the tree. When the tree is watch had to be wound frequently to keep fair time.
properly fumigated the balloon is given more rope. It was made in Nuremberg in the early part of the 16th
As it goes upward it pulls a big ring along one of the century and marks almost the beginning of the art of
guy ropes until it reaches a trip-hook attached to the watchmaking.
top of the tent, when the latter snaps automatically
HISTORIC TREES IN BOTANIC GARDEN
into the ring, coupling the tent to the balloon.
Though it is now somewhat antiquated and a little
Four men with a balloon can do just about twice as the worse for wear, the national botanic garden, op
much work in a given time as seven men can do with posite the west entrance to the national capitol in
a derrick. Another very important advantage is that Washington, is an interesting place and thousands of
neither the trees nor the growing fruit are damaged as sight seers visit it yearly. There are to be found
trees, shrubs, flowers, etc., native to about every
they sometimes are where a derrick is used for raising clime and country of our globe.
and lowering the tents.
Many of the trees growing in the garden are living
monuments to men who have been prominent in
A CAT OF THE TRENCHES
public life since the garden was established. One
It was in an English encampment of soldiers some of the most interesting in this respect and at the same
where in Belgium—in front, artillery lookouts; be time one of the oddest of the trees there is a hornbeam.
It was planted by Abraham Lincoln. In the half cen-
hind, infantry trenches; in the background, artillery tury and more of its life there it has grown and spread
officers’ dugouts, says Our Dumb Animals.
until it covers about a tenth of an acre.
The lookout men saw a cat emerge from the Ger ' An acorn from a tree growing over the grave of
man trenches in front of them, make her way calmly Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, was carried
to their trenches, pass through and proceed to the to America and planted in this garden by Charles A.
Dana, then editor of the New York Sun and foremost
rear where >he carefully inspected the officers’ billets. among the journalists of the world. Senator Hoar
Then she retraced her steps to the German lines, and and Evarts each planted a cedar of Lebanon tree.
the Englishmen supposed that they had seen the last Gen. Grant is represented bv a beautiful acacia tree
of her. To their amazement she reappeared with a which he planted. The tragedians Edwin Booth,
kitten in her mouth, passed by them to the zone of Edwin Forrest and J. W. Booth, each planted a water
cypress. These three trees are arranged in the form
comparative safety in the rear, dropped her kitten in of a triangle.