Tenoreatic; atdguont Bellefonte, Pa., April 7, 1922. ES — THE BEGGAR'S PREFERENCE. By Donald W. Barr, State College, Pa. The beggar sat at the city gate, Ragged and unattended, Asking alms of the passing great, Clad in their garments splendid. Some gave silver and some gave gold, And some gave none at all; But each one cursed the beggar bold With a curse as bitter as gall. A lowly stranger one day passed by, And the beggar bade him stay, Imploring gold with a doleful cry In the long-accustomed way. The stranger paused and a genial smile Spread over his noble face. “TI’ll tarry,” he said, “with you a while, And share your humble place.” He filled with gold the beggar’s hands, And he spoke a word of cheer: “Giving, to one who understands, Is a pleasure held most dear.” The beggar returned his gold, and said: “Take it back—I have sadly erred; You have given me greater wealth in- stead— A smile and a pleasant word.” A DEFENSE OF THE LITTLE RED SCHOOL HOUSE. We hear much criticism these days of the “Little Red School House.” One writer in a popular magazine calls it “a pest and a handicap in these later years.” We, who have been pupils in the one-room school house, wish to say a word in its favor. At the same time we will take the liberty to make a few criticisms ourselves. That which stirs the greatest re- sentment among rural people against the program of the State Department of Education is the strenuous inter- ference by the State in local affairs. It is taking over almost entire control of roads and schools, and besides it is taking steps in other directions with a view toward limiting local control. It is time to become alarmed lest lo- cal government become entirely ab- sorbed and local talent completely sti- fled. The patriotism of a nation is largely bound up in the interests and pride of people in their local affairs. What patriotism can there be where the State monopolizes all these little community interests? The school term is too long in rural communities. These three requisites for happy youth—study, work and rec- reation—are not properly balanced. The long term may be advisable in towns and cities, where one of its ob- jects is to keep children, who other- wise might frequently get into mis- chief, under surveillance of teachers as much of the time as possible, but in the conutry, where the children are used to being in the open air, confine- ment in the school room for eight or nine months is detrimental to health. It is a fact that the liability to con- tract diseases increases with the length of the term. Child welfare workers may talk as they will; but, to become industrious men and women, children must have a considerable amount of manual employment in youth, and to teach them carefulness and continuity they should be held re- sponsible fo these tasks, whatever they may be. The pupil who has too much study time compared to his work or play time will become indo- lent. Anything capable of growth is strengthened by judicious use, hence the industry of the youth is strength- ened by moderate work. If he spend too much time in school he will nat- urally become unused to work. This may be the reason for the deplorable lack of interest which many young men and women have for their em- ployment in these times. Too many of them are expecting “white collar jobs.” Let us turn for a moment to the effi- ciency of modern school work. The education of the youth just out of school does not compare favorably with the education of older men and women. Compare the average intelli- gence of the old people of a communi- ty with the intelligence of the youth of the same community. Or, better still, compare the letters, papers, dia- ries and autographs of fifty or sixty years ago with the same kind of com- positions of today. Remember in those days they had three or four months of a school term and very little state supervision. The percentage of illiteracy was not so high then as now, I believe. This be- ing so, of what value is such a wealth of state supervision and the long school term of today? . Remember, that Abraham Lincoln said, that men with sufficient ability to conduct the government in those trying times, equally as well as he and his able advisors, could be select- ed from any regiment in the Union armies. He must have rated the in- telligence of we soldiers of those times pretty highly. It in ete forgotten that the one-room school has some advantages which the graded school does not pos- sess. For instance: The children in the primary grades are continually hearing about, and having an interest created in subjects in advance of their grades. Thus, they are always looking forward to the higher grades. There is always an incentive to advance. The instruction given must be of a more general and broader nature. Thus, the recipient of this instruction becomes a better opportunist, better able to take advantage of any circum- stances in which he may find himself. The bright children may advance and not be held back until the medi- ocre can make the grades. Another advantage is that a pupil who is bright in one branch may advance in that branch and not be retarded by his lower proficiency in other branch- es. It is an established fact that any- thing too easily obtained is seldom very highly valued. It often happens that the possessor makes little use of it. An education which may be too easily acquired is not appreciated. COMISSIONER MARTIN ISSUES ' Presbyterial Societies Unite and Here is where educators all over our : land are making a mistake. They are trying to carry the pupils to an edu- cation on “flowery beds of ease.” We | A WARNING AGAINST UNSAFE MILK. It may seem like past history to say have free schools, free school books, | that there were 3403 cases of typhoid | stringent compulsory attendance laws, ' instruction simplified to the limit, ever lengthening school terms and finally wealth of county, State and | national oversight which frequently : is becoming burdensome. This is all on the theory that the more corn and hay you keep in a; horse’s manger, the better the horse | will do, or that if two potatoes are | good for a boy’s dinner, a half bushel would be a couple of dozen times bet- ter. A student who has continually be- | fore him an intellectual diet will prob- - ably develop mental indigestion. | It might be well to call the atten- | tion of the reader to the fact that many of our broadest minded and best fever and 387 deaths from this disease in Pennsylvania during July, August, September and October, 1921, the approach of another summer, picnic typhoid fever of every summer has been traced to milk and milk products, which could be prevented by proper inspection of herds and correct pas- and it was only fitting that the change | teurization of milk. Elect Leaders. An amalgamation of the Women’s Foreign and Home Missionary socie- ties of the Huntingdon Presbytery, embracing seven counties in central Pennsylvania, was consummated at a but with | meeting of the societies at Lewistown its | last week by the adoption of a new parties and ice cream festivals, ! constitution and by-laws and the elec- |it is a timely statement. Much of the | tion of new officers. In the year 1875 the Foreign Mis- sionary society of the Huntingdon Presbytery was founded in Lewistown so long sought by the organization Inadequate pasteurization is worse | should have been accomplished there. than useless. One of the largest epi- demics of typhoid fever with which Pennsylvania was cursed came from i i The uniting of the two missionary bodies was apparently a very popular move as it passed through the conven- milk pasteurized in a machine the tion without a dissenting vote. A thermometer of which was, and had large majority of the members of both been, broken for a long time. The State Department of Health i i 1 inf! d men have had little school | has drafted a model milk ordinance Home z which has been adopted by 12 commu- , training. We may well call Franklin, | Washington, Webster, Lincoln, Roose- velt and Edison—the six intellectual giants of our country. Of these, Web- ster broadened his character by work- ing his own way through school and Roosevelt by “roughing it” on western ranches. These were the only two of the six who had any college training. The other four had very little school train- ing of any kind. The lesson is that too much school work narrows rather than broadens the mind. The “little red school house” has been called a lot of hard names lately, but when you do away with it, you will destroy the greatest single agen- cy for the building of the kind of char- acter which counts, the kind that gives to its possessor initiative and indi- viduality. This is what makes for strength and resourcefulness. The standardized education gotten in reg- | ular order from the graded school and | then on up to the colleges and univer- | sities is too mechanical. Each stu- dent is a stereotyped copy of a single | original. It is like turning out copies of a standardized part to a machine. | There is too much sameness. | Let the power of thought which de- velopes mainly in the quiet and seclu- sion of rural environment have a! chance to grow to some extent along | original lines. This gives individual- | ity, which in turn makes for progress. | Let us get back to first principles in | education. Let us educate for the best | enjoyment of life and liberty rather! than for efficiency in creating wealth | and empire. This was Germany’s mistake. Let us try to get quality in educa- ! tion rather than quantity. Let us get | away from the domination of the ex- | tremist. There is a golden mean in an | educational policy as well as in other things. In short, let us get back to | common sense.—By Chas. S. Whitta- ker, in The Huntingdon Monitor. TT | WHY OIL CALMS THE SEA. | | It has long been known that oil poured upon the surface of stormy | waters has a wonderful effect in calm- ! ing it. Many vessels have probably been saved from destruction by this | simple method, and every month the | Hydrographic office at Washington ! publishes along with its pilot chart, | statements from ship captains de-! scribing the results they have obtain- | ed by the use of oil in smoothing the ! waves of an angry sea. i The reason of this curious effect of oil upon water is, in a general sense, perfectly apparent. It depends upon the viscosity, or adhesiveness, of the oil, which causes it to act somewhat like a skin drawn over the more un- stable surface of the water, so that the tendency of the latter to break in- to spray as it is driven by the wind is restrained. The danger to ships from a high running sea arises from the breaking of the waves. As long as the surface of the waves is smooth and unbroken, the ship rides easily upon them. But while the principle upon which the oil acts is thus evident enough, the real method of its action is not so apparent. This has been subjected to a mathematical investigation. The investigator shows that the viscosity of oil is so much greater than that of water, being in the case of olive oil more than 230 times as great, that the water may be regard- ed as a frictionless liquid in compari- son with the oil. The surface ten- sion between the oil and the air is also shown to be considerably greater than that between the oil and the wa- ter. With these data it is found that the motion will be stable, or there will be no breaking of the waves unless the latter vary in length between two certain fractions of a centimeter, namely nine-elevenths and six fifths. —Edwin Tarrisse. ee ————— peer emrn. HOW A SAFE MILK SUPPLY IS INSURED FOR SMALL CITIES, Milk inspection is of prime neces- sity. In most of the larger cities laboratories are maintained where bacteria counts and chemical analy- ses are frequently made on samples collected from retail delivery wagons, stores, and restaurants. But the small cities and towns that cannot af- ford the expense of a tester and labor- atory find it hard to give proper su- ‘pervision to their milk supplies. The United States Department of Agriculture suggests that a practical way for such cities and towns to in- sure a safe milk supply is through the co-operation of two or more adjacent towns in hiring a milk inspector and maintaining a laboratory. The cost of supervising such a plan may be prorated among the different towns on the basis of population without the expense being burdensome to any one of them, State and Federal authori- ties are always willing to co-operate in work of this sort. ihe This plan of town co-operation in milk and dairy inspection has been carried out in different parts of the country, probably the most conspicu- ous example being the group of towns in northern New Jersey own as “The Oranges.” In these towns the plan has been in use for a number of years with results that have been very satisfactory to all concerned. nities, assuring 550,352 citizens a safe milk supply. Not one of these com- munities reported a milk borne case of typhoid fever since the adoption of the ordinance. R. E. Irwin, chief of the Bureau of Milk Control, State Department of Health, states: “There are many tuberculous cows in Pennsylvania; so many, that if they were all killed there would be a milk famine, but a tuberculous cow may yield milk which will give bovine tu- berculosis to the baby. However, a typhoid carrier could milk a tubercu- lous cow into a can contaminated by a diphtheria patient and if the milk i were adequately pasteurized it would be safe for use in so far as the trans- mission of disease is concerned. Un- til a Pennsylvania Legislature defines i pasteurization, this department rec- ommends the standard of the U. S. Department of Agriculture—a tem- perature not lower than 145 degrees Fahrenheit for not less than 30 min- utes.” From a health standpoint alone, the State Health Department is urging every Pennsylvania community to se- cure proper milk inspection and pro- tection before the usual summer in- cidence of typhoid fever begins. “The eagle is an inspiring bird but the nation’s future depends upon the cow,” was the comment of the State Health Commissioner, when asked about his campaign for a safe milk supply in Pennsylvania. “There is no question about the food value of milk and milk products. The health of the people is built upon milk; therefore, milk must not only have its nutrition- al value, but must be safe. The con- sumer should have no other choice— r ilk,” - 4 or chance—than clean milk,” he con Lewistown; tinued. Within the past year the following communities adopted the model milk ordinance: Scranton, Lackawanna Co., Pop. 137,783 Milford, Pike Co., Pop. - 7 Milford is a summer resort with a shifting population of many thousands during the summer months. The ac- tion of the local officials assures visit- | against typhoid fever or other diseas- | es through milk or milk products. It from typhoid fever disseminated by | guests to this locality, after they re- turn home. SANE AND INSANE HOUSED TOGETHER. Harrisburg.—Inadequate facilities |! in county almshouses are responsible for the housing together of sane per- sons and the violently insane, accord- ing to Dr. John M. Baldy, head of the State Welfare Department, whe will ask the next Legislature to enact leg- islation centralizing the care of all in- sane under the direct control of the State. A survey of the present method of care of insane partly by counties, it is said by Dr. Baldy, has disclosed conditions that are “inefficient and deplorable.” The same buildings and facilities now in use, he says, would house 25 per cent. more patients if placed under state control and super- vision. “In many counties,” says Dr. Baldy, “dangerously insane patients are car- ed for in the same institutions as the poor. They eat at the same table and are forced to associate with each oth- er. That is deplorable. It is unfair to the poor, who deserve better care, and it is equally unfair to the insane, as they do not get the treatment that might restore many of them to sani- ty. , “Under state supervision we could remedy all that. We could segregate in separate institutions those requir- ing different care; we could put the tubercular in one place and the dan- gerously insane in another, and so on. Moreover, it would cost less to care for them adequately.” TO COUNT PIGS IN MAY. How many pigs are there in the United States? Because of the un- certainty regarding the size of the population of animal life the Depart- ment of Agriculbure, co-operating with the Postoffice Department, is going to conduct a pig census begin- ning in May. When the census is completed the department will know as much about American pigs as it does about American men, women and children. Instead of hiring an army of infor- mation gatherers, such as is necessa- ry in the decennial census of humans, the Department of Agriculture has made an arrangement with the Post- office Department whereby letter car- riers, and rural carriers particularly, will do most of the work. It is esti- mated that the carriers can cover the country closely, as there are 24,000 in the rural service alone. societies realized that under the old regime their efforts overlapped and there was an abundant of lost motion in the conduct of affairs. The united societies unanimously elected the following officers: Presi- dent, Mrs. Mary Newlin, Spruce Creek church, Franklinville, Pa.; associate president, Mrs. H. R. Smith, First church, Altoona; first vice president or the chairman of the society of Home Missions, Mrs. H. H. Stine, of the Second church, Altoona; second vice president or chairman of the so- ciety of Foreign Missions, Miss Eliz- abeth Findley, Second church, Altoo- na; third vice president, Mrs. M. F. Fisher, Huntingdon; fourth vice pres- ident, Mrs. John T. Scott, Philipsburg; ' fifth vice president, Mrs. O. H. Travis, First church, Altoona; sixth vice pres- ident, Mrs. Samuel Barber, Bellwood; seventh vice president, Mrs. Charles Reed, Huntingdon; eighth vice presi- dent, Mrs. G. L. Russell, Lewistown. District presidents: Mrs. M. H. Alexander, Hollidaysburg; Miss Grace Woodcock, Birmingham; Miss Som- merivlle, Winburne; Miss Mary H. Linn, Bellefonte; Mrs. Allison Miller, , Huntingdon; Mrs. M. K. Gifford, Mt. Union; Mrs. J. M. Ewing, Lewistown; Miss Nellie Morrell, Hollidaysburg; Mrs. S. R. Lowrie, Warriorsmark; Mrs. Samuel Barber, Bellwood; Miss Anna McCoy, Bellefonte; Mrs. J. W. . Galbraith, Bedford, and Mrs. F. M. Emerick, Mifflintown. Recording secreary, Miss Elsie Clif- ford, Altoona; corresponding secreta- ry, Mrs. J. H. Fretz, Lewistown; treasurer foreign missions, Mrs. Theo- dore Jackson, Philipsburg; treasurer home missions, Mrs. E. E. Sanford, Altoona. Secretaries of the young peoples work, Miss Anna Fisher, Huntingdon; Miss M. Boob, Huntingdon; Mrs. Wil- Reading, Berks Co., Pop. - - AO T Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co., Pop. 73,828 Bethlehem, Northampton Co., Pop. 54,149 | York, York Co., Pop. - - 47,514 Williamsport, Lycoming Co., Pop. 36,198 New Castle, Lawrence Co., Pop. 44.938 Butler, Butler Co., Pop. - - 23,788 ¢ Waynesboro, Franklin Co., Pop. 9.720 Kingston, Luzerne Co., Pop. - 8.952 Grove City, Mercer Co., Pop. - 4.944 with it. liam Stahl, Juniata; secretary West- minster Guild, Miss Catherine Woods, literature, Mrs. ucation, Mrs. H. H. Boor, Altoona; associate members, Mrs. J. O. C. Me- Cracken, Altoona; Standard of excel- lence, Miss Virginia Zerby, Philips- burg. ELEPHANT’S USE OF TRUNK. There is a great deal of misunder- standing about what an elephant can do with his trunk. It is a sensitive organ and he never uses it for heavy labor, but he can strike a terrific blow I have seen many a man’s ribs and arms broken when he neg- | lected to take the proper precautions. ors a clean milk supply and protection | In approaching a dangerous elephant, a man should come up sideways, with | the nearer arm folded to protect the also means that Milford is protecting : Pennsylvania and adjoining States’ ribs. Then, if the blow fell on the upper part of the arm, there is the most flesh to protect the bone. Such a blow never knocks a man flat; it tumbles over. The elephant uses both his trunk ' and his lungs in calling, and he has a large variety of sounds and combina- tion of sounds with which to express himself. When rushing an enemy, he trumpets shrilly; when enraged by a wound, he grumbles hoarsely from his throat; he expresses fear by a shrill, brassy trumpet and a roar; and pleas- ure by a continued low squeaking through the trunk. When apprehen- sive of danger or when attempting to intimidate an enemy, he raps the end of his trunk smartly on the ground and trumpets. The peculiar noise sounds like that produced by the roll- ing up of a sheet of tin, In a moment of danger, the ele- phaat coils his trunk to protect it from injury. When he is engaged in heavy work, such as piling lumber, he may use his trunk to balance the load he is carrying on his tusks, but never to bear part of the burden. If an un- harnessed elephant must pull a rope, he holds it in his mouth, taking good care to keep his trunk out of the way. It has happened many times that an elephant keeper—not a trainer, for a trainer knows better—has used a hook a little too freely on an elephant’s trunk. If he doesn’t get killed, he picks himself up, several yards from where he was standing. A trainer is invariably pleased at such an occur- rence, because it shows that the keep- er was abusing the elephant and has merely received his deserts. The ele- phant is a good, faithful animal, and he does not attack his keeper without excuse.—Charles Mayer. rr—————— ron ——— ——The German women are solving the problem of shortage of men through the employment of a sort of marriage market. Matrimonial bu- reaus in Berlin have been carrying on a very active and extensive business finding husbands for the German wom- en in Europe, America, Asia and even Africa. The surprising feature of the business is the patronage of people of high social standing. Since the war there has been a breaking down of so- cial barriers and weddings are fre- quent between members of old nobiti- ty and commoners, American soldiers figure largely in the marriage trans- action, and even Frenchmen find suit- able matches in Germany. Widows are very popular with those seeking wives, for there are many of these who own furnished homes for the bachelors to move into.—Reformatory Record. ——Most of us know better but few of us do better. Charles Campbell, Petersburg; missionary ed- FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN. DAILY THOUGHT. The cares which are the keys to riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle that they clog him with weary days and restless nights, when others sleep qui- etly.—Izaac Walton. The dressmakers, watching their colleagues, determined to try the trick. They were weary of plain clothes. They believed that such clothes kept women from spending. So they invented ingenious ways of decorating a frock. Some of them are novels, others are revivals. Jenny has put her faith in English eyelet work. For this the Island of Madeira is famous, and any one who | has been a tourist in those crooked lit- | tle streets waiting for an ox-cart with ‘a canopy for an afternoon drive has , stopped at small booths and bought the coarse linen handkerchiefs, table { linen and badly cut underclothes which | ! the country offers as a means of sell- | ing its eyelet work. Jenny has adopt- "ed the exact Madeira patterns. cue from the exile of Charles and Zi- ta, of Austria. Not only does Jenny put this eyelet work on frocks, but she uses it on heavy white linen for collar and cuffs, on blue serge gowns, also on black crepe ones. Paris, you know, is amusing itself with the American Peter Pan collar, which the Americans , wore at Deauville last year and at Nice and Cannes this February. Such collars give a firm foundation for eye- ° let work. The dressmakers have caught a trick from the interior decorators as well as from milliners when they use white cotton and linen tape in Renais- sance designs on street frocks; and, by the way, the Renaissance patterns have preference over the Egyptian points and Moroccan triangles. interlocking loops and the wheel with its many spokes and ornamental cen- ter are designs that the dressmakers use when they want to splash white or colored linen tape on, say, a blue serge frock. It might be said in passing that blue serge has come forward like a debutante. It has many rivals, but its backers are powerful dressmakers. Trimmed with white cotton tape, half ! covered with eyelet work, it presents itself as an easy victim to those who i turn out hundreds of gowns at small prices, ready to wear. linked with the sea. Fish scales are made into ropes and garlands. Flakes ' of seashells, pink and opalescent, are made into flowers which are used on i the drapery of skirt or as a girdle, and these are new. They are sometimes : strung together for long earrings, for | the jewelers have permitted the dress- makers to encroach upon their prerog- atives, and it is now possible to buy a tiara, a pair of earrings, a jeweled girdle from the house that makes your frock. Not only are snail shells strung together for earrings, but one girl in Paris wears bunches of frost- ed silver grapes in her ears. Silk ginghams from France have a strong appeal to many, and these are usually found in the two-toned check- ed design that gained such enormous vogue in cotton ginghams last season. Extremely small and extremely large checks divide the honors. That white will be even more popu- lar this spring than last is every- where predicted. The all-white frock or suit worn with a bright colored hat is noticeable at many of the smart winter resorts, where one may get a foretaste of general spring tenden- | cies. | French silk makers do not overlook the persistent vogue for materials sends him spinning like a top until he with a highly lustrous finish and much | | has been made in Paris of a so-called metallic satin, made of silk and cot- out containing any metal. White and oyster-colored pongee has been shown by some of the clever dressmakers in the gowns shown for early spring resort wear. themselves to the woman who must be economical. Wear canary yellow or cinnamon brown if you want to be smart this season, So said the backers of the Philadel- phia Fashion Show and Pageant that took place in the Bellevue-Stratford last week. Sixty mannequins display- ed the gowns, shoes, hats and dress accessories shown by fifty exhibitors from Philadelphia. Students of the School of Industrial Art also showed their skill in fashioning the latest cre- ations for the well-dressed woman's wardrobe. : Individuality in style is said by the exhibitors to be the guiding principle behind the designing of the clothes in the coming spring season, making a complete departure from the uniform- ity in dress that exists at present. The Oriental and Russian influences will strike the exotic note in dress. For afternoon and evening gowns canary yellow threatens to be the fa- vorite. For street and outdoor wear cinnamon brown is being strongly backed. Combinations of red will be a close second in popularity, with black still holding on well in the forefront of fashion. Remedies for Burns.—The house- keeper who numbers cooking among her many household duties is always liable to be burned when around the stove. For small scorches an appli- cation of cold cream, or a greasy so- lution of any kind keeps the air from the raw flesh and eases the pain. In the case of deep burns a box of bismuth ointment should be at hand, as this is cooling and healing where another application might cause in- tense pain. The remedy for the slight burns is really to keep the air from the raw places, and if salve applied is of a healing nature the new skin will form much quicker. Scalloped Steak.—One pound ham- burg steak, one egg, teaspoonful salt, half teaspoonful pepper, tablespoon of cracker crumbs, cup sweet milk. Mix in order named and turn into a bread pan in which a large piece of butter has been melted. Bake for 30 minutes. No | doubt the French imagination took its | The ! Ornate trimmings are still closely ton, producing a metallic sheen with- And these are both fabrics that recommend ! : FARM NOTES, | — | —This is a good time to start a ber- - ry patch. | —In the souuthern part of the i State, as soon as the ground becomes | dry enough to work, plant onion sets and sow spinach, beets, peas, carrots and lettuce. This may be done about April 10th in other parts of the State. | —Disease-free potato seed last sea- son in Pennsylvania averaged 45 per cent. increase over ordinary home grown seed. This is one reason why farmers of this State have bought : 100,000 bushels of good seed for plant- ing this year, more than twice as much as was planted last year. They yield- ed almost 70 bushels more to the acre last season. —The regular pruning is best done during the dormant season, in spring, for then growth soon heals the wounds. There is a popular notion that there is danger in pruning when the wood is frozen, though there is re- ally little to this. Serious injury has seldom been known as the result of winter pruning. In case of such ten- der fruits as the peach, pruning may well be delayed until spring, when the extent of the crop is known. —Do not delay further the pruning of grape vines. Many home vines are not pruned as severely as they should be. Strong vines should be cut to car- ry not more than twenty to fifty buds, and weaker vines will do best on even fewer buds. The new crop comes {from the buds now present on last year’s wood. Eight canes with about six buds each is a good proportion for strong vines. Write to The Pennsyl- vania State College agricultural school for extension circular No. 81, which gives detailed information on grape pruning. —The three new tomato varieties developed by Professor C. Emery My- ers, of the agricultural school at The Pennsylvania State College, and an- nounced but a few weeks ago, have al- ready gained a national reputation. During the past three weeks Profes- sor Myers has received hundreds of requests for seed samples. They have .come from almost every State in the Union, and several from Canada. Cal- ifornia, Texas, Florida, New Hamp- shire and Washington are represented in the queries for additional informa- . tion and seed. One of the first requests of William Jennings Bryan on his recent visit to | State College was to meet rose e Myers and see his new tomatoes. ; had heard about them in Florida, and . was greatly interested. The new to- . matoes are noted for their ability to - yield better than the average, and for i their appearance, flavor and manner of growth without cracking. They have been called “Nittany,” “Match- um,” and “Penn State Earliana.” The first named was obtained through crossing a lage red tomato and a small yellow pear tomato; the second result- ed from a cross with Matchless and Hummer varieties, and the third came from the development of an especially fine fruit of Earliana. Professor My- ers has some seed left for distribution to those interested. —Making the Hotbed and the Cold Frame.—Hotbeds are made by dig- ging a pit three feet deep and as large as desired. For the average farm a one-sash bed is generally large enough. Hotbed sash measures three feet in width and six in length; the pit should extend six inches beyond it all around. For the frame-work two-inch stuff should be used. The ; back of the bed should be 8 or 10 inch- ! es deeper than the front, and 8 and 18 . makes a good depth. The frame should be so constructed that the sash will fit it snugly, and be ; made so it may be pushed either back ‘or forth to permit easy working at i either end, and to ventilate on bright days. Double-glass sash are best. | Where more than one sash is used, 'a partition must be constructed be- ' tween each frame, sufficiently high to admit of this strip above the sash on each side, or else it may be a little more than flush with the top of the sash and a four inch board nailed on top. This will prevent swelling of the partition boards, by shedding the rain. Manure fresh from the horse barn is packed evenly and firmly in the pit and covered with six inches of rich soil. The manure, if heating when used, should be forked over a few times to secure an even distribution of the heat before being packed in the pit. It should be fairly moist or it will fire in the bed with a strong heat and not last long. On the other hand, if the manure is wet enough it will heat evenly and slowly, and will last until warm weather, and rot without burning black to any great extent. There must be a lot of humus in hot- bed soil, and it should be fairly rich. The difference between a hotbed and a cold frame is that no pit is pro- vided for the latter, and no manure is used for heating. The only heat a cold frame has is that which comes from the sun. The mission of the cold frame is to grow and harden the plants, after the hotbed has started them. They remain in the cold frame until ready to set out. Plants of a large size cannot be grown in hotbeds. The plants in the hotbed require plenty of water, and when needed it should be given in large doses, rather than in frequent small ones. This watering should be continued so long as the soil will readily absorb it. The soils should then be watched, and when the ground is dry enough so it will crumble at a touch when pressed into a ball, it should again be watered, but not before. The seeds should be sown in rows about three inches apart, so as to enable one to stir the soil and thus admit air. Both hotbeds and cold frames, when covered with glass, need close watch- ing, for a bright sun is very apt to run up the heat. It is advisable to keep a thermometer in the bed, and when the temperature gets above 80 degrees on the shady side of a board, the sash should be opened a little, regardless of the coldness of the weather. All the air possible should be given, and the temperature kept up to a growing heat. Toward the last the sash should be left off as much as possible. Let the plants have every warm, slow rain.