10 Conservative.
Anyone who luis
TWO GOOD much to do with
SAYINGS. young men who
are earning their
first money , is likely to be painfully
aware how many of them think noth
ing of borrowing small sums here and
there , which they find it hard to re
pay. This is nothing new , however.
Benjamin Franklin had the same state
of things in his mind when he said
"Better go to bed suppcrless than
rise in debt. " To the same purpose
is the story of the broom-dealer in
the old books ' ' A proud , lazy young
fellow came to him for a besom upon
trust ; to whom the old man said ,
'Friend , hast thou no money ? Bor
row of thy back , and borrow of thy
belly , they'll ne'er ask tliee again ,
whereas I shall bo dunning thce every
day. ' "
There is a cy-
ANCIENT TREES , press at Somma ,
between Lake
Maggiore and Milan , which has the
reputation of being coeval with the
Christian era , and , to avoid destroy
ing this venerable tree , Napoleon
being more careful of vegetable life
than of human caused a road which
he was making to deviate from its
straight course. This cypress is about
twenty-three feet in girth , but the
average growth of cypress is esti
mated as about two feet of girth in
a century , though even this is a mat
ter of great uncertainty. It is , there
fore , quite impossible to say from the
size of the tree whether its planting
took place in the time of Christ or
later , though there can be no doubt
of the tree's great antiquity. Tradi
tions are of course far more fallible
than the condition of a tree itself ;
and yet. . it is very difficult not to yield
to the seductive voice of legend. One
is very liable to accept the pleasing
supposition that the aged olives in
the garden of Gethsemane are the
same trees that witnessed the Sav
ior's passion ; and few travellers can
resist the temptation to connect the
cedars on Lebanon with direct Bibli
cal times. An American traveller ,
speaking of the Gethsemane olives ,
says"One of these , the largest barked
and scarified by the knives of pil
grims , is reverenced as the identical
tree under which Christ was be
trayed ; and its enormous roots grow
ing high out of the earth , could in
duce a belief of almost any degree of
antiquity. ' ' But oven could the trees
have lived so long , it is certain that
the knives of pilgrims , here referred
to , would have destroyed or removed
them long ago ; neither is it considered
likely , by those who may be called ex
perts , that the present cedars of Lib-
anus reach a greater age than eight
or nine centuries.
Another tree that reaches a great
age , but an age that is very difficult
to prove , is the Spanish chestnut.
The difficulties in this case are in
creased by the fact that some of the
largest chestnuts known often prove
to be a growing together of several
different stems , which accounts for
the enormous bulk and the appearance
of vast antiquity. The celebrated
Tort-worth chestnut , which lays
claim to bo the oldest tree in Britain ,
is probably an instance of this grow
ing together. Though now a mere
fragment , it is assorted to have at
tained a girth of fifty-seven feet ,
which measurement has been far sur
passed by chestnuts on the conti
nent. It is stated that King John held
a parliament under this tree , a tradi
tion which reminds us that forests
and world's earliest
groves wore over the
iest parliament houses , and that Celt
and Teuton alike held their assem
blages under the trees or on breezy
hillsides. The largest chestnut in the
world is the Castagno di cento cavili ,
in * the forest of Carpinetto on the"
slopes of Mount Etna. Its girth is
010 feet , and a kiln for drying chest
nuts has been constructed in its hol
low trunk. Judging not only by its
bulk , bxit by its rings , the age of this
gigantic tree has been estimated at
from 8,000 to 4,000 years , which
takes us back into times that are al
most mythical. If such an age be pos
sible , the tree at Tortworth is modest
in claiming only some eight or nine
centuries ; but it is tolerably certain
that the tree on Etna is not one , but
four or five different trees associated
together like one. This must mater
ially affect any considerations of its
age , as also in the case of the famed
Gloucestershire chestnut. The soil
of Etna would also prove specially
favorable to vast growth.
When we come to the oak , our fav
orite British tree , wo find the same
difficulty in accurately estimating an
tiquity. It is certain that sine is not
an infallible criterion. Tradition
has been particularly busy with the
oaks of our woodlands , in attributing
to them ages which appear fabulous.
The Cowthrope oak is to be the larg
est in England ; but it need not there
fore be the oldest. Pliny told some
remarkable tales of the antiquity of
the Quorcus ilex , which , we know in
Britain as the Helm oak , but it
would seem that Pliny was sometimes
either given to romancing or to great
credulity. In the second century of
the Christian era there was said to
be existing in Greece a plane tree
that had actually been planted by
Menolaus , which is much as if wo
wore to assert that a certain oak had
been planted by Merlin the wizard , or
by King Arthur. London Standard.
CORN FIELDS AND DRY WEATHER.
From the time when the drouth first
began to show its effects to the end
of August , a careful watch was kept
upon the corn fields with a view of as
certaining the amount of moisture
available to the crop , how and under
what conditions it varied and how the
crop was affected.
The questions to be answered wore
the following : Can a sufficiency of
moisture for a normal crop-develop
ment bo expected to exist in our soil
within reach of the plants under any
conditions in such an extremely hot
and dry season ? What percentage of
moisture is necessary in first two feet
of soil to support a healthy growth ?
How can this be maintained ? What
is the minimum amount of moisture
with which the corn plant can con
tinue to exist ?
The first question was easily an
swered by the use of a spade , and it
was found that standing water could
invariably bo readied at from five to
eight foot below the surface. This
left not the slightest room for doubt
but that a sufficiency of moisture
could be kept within easy reach .of the
roots where the surface soil can bo
kept in a proper condition. In one in
stance where the surface soil was in ex
tremely bad condition and there was
no visible sign of moisture to a depth
of three and a half feet , standing
water was found at a depth of seven
feet. In the face of these facts it is
reasonable to state that there , is an
inexhaustible supply of water in these
bottom lands and within easy reach
of the surface , for with favorable ca
pillary conditions , such as do exist in
these soils , water can be lifted from a
much greater depth. But the physical
composition of most of our soils is such
that in hot dry weather conditions may
easily arise under which evaporation
becomes so rapid that no moisture can
be retained near the surface the con
nection between the water and the
hot dry atmosphere is too direct.
In order to answer the second ques
tion satisfactorily , gravimetric soil
moisture determinations were made
during the end of July and the first
half of August in normally growing
fields. The average of seven tests
showed the water content to bo 14.5
per cent in the first foot and 15.5 per
cent in the second foot. Corn under
these conditions developed without a
chock and made a full crop. These
results were found in portions of fields
which possessed no advantage other
than a mellow condition of the sur
face.
It was reasonable to conclude that
this mellow condition of the surface
soil observed in the above experiment
had something to do with the reten
tion of moisture , and to answer the
third question it was only necessary to
determine how the surface soil could
be kept mellow and free from cracks.
A timely and proper use of the culti
vator was unquestionably the means.
A field was found where 'for s'ome rea *
son a strip had been loft uncultivated'
after the last rain the heavy rain
