' t ~ Tow. - Making Plants and Fruits to Order By J. Russel! Smith, Professor of industry, University of Pennsylvania. ' Z The plant .breeders have got to mixing qualities of late so that plants forget all the bad qualities of their grandfathers and _-- all the good ones. If the wicked old uncle has one 'good quality, and if he happens to be a plum-tree uncle, we now havé away of savin the good quality in his children and let- ting the rest of him go to the wood- pile. Wouldn't we be gods if we could get 'a.the good qualities from our grandfathers and send al! their ones off to the cemetery That's the way they work it with wheat. Out on the wide, rich wheat plains of Washington state the wheat rower was always up against it; ut he was never sure what he would be up against. He could, at planting time, choose between two fine wheats, each with one bad quality. There was possible trou- ble with each and fine profit if he happened by good chance to miss both troubles. Grow the shatter- ing kind and take a certain small loss, or grow the winter-killing kind and risk complete loss or perfect harvest. He tried the winter-kill- ing kind until he lost his nesve for that, and then he tried the shatter- ing kind again. Then Spillman, the plant breeder, came along. This creator of good things cross- ed these two good wheats until he finally got a new variety that in- herited frost resistance from one parent and close fistedness from the other; thus it could grow all win- ter despite the frost, and hold its rain till the harvester came for t. There was a problem solved. That Washington wheat tvick is one that Mr. Luther Burbank has worked with many a plant. He found some freak of ,a plant that had a quality he desired to add to another of the same family. Then he crossed the two, and kept on till some of the offspring had the de- sired mixture and became the par- ent of a strain, just as the first Baldwin apple-tree did. But Mr. Burbank was supposed to be akind of high-class dealer in chances. They called him "wizard"' in an age of science. . Fortunately, science has solved Mr. Burbank by solving and har- nessing heredity. Europe and America joined in her capture. One of the discoverers was Spillman, of the United States De- partment of Agriculture. The law that formulates the discovery beare the name of Mendel, an Austrian monk. These scientists are disobey- ing Scripture by hiding their light under a bushel of big words like homozygote, heterozygote, reces- sives, and so on, until the plain cit- izen wonders where he is "at" and where the plant breeder is But the plant breeder really somewhere: he has the great law of heredity, the greatest thing since steam, and he is teaching us how to use it. Here is the way to work it: 4 Take a thorny, tall, early-blos- goming tree that bears sour red plums and hairy leaves--six quali- ties. Also take a thornless short treo that blooms late, bears sweet yellow plums and smooth leaves-- Bix opposite qualities. Now make a hybrid of the two. To do this, fertilize the bloomeef one of these trees with pollen from a bloom} upen the other. Now grow atree from the seed of the plum produced by the mixed bloom. What kind of a tree will it be and what kind of fruit will it have? Well, it is likely to have almost any kind of plum ander the sun. Je have known that much for a long time, so we carefully raise our plum-tree from buds, not seeds, so that we may a- void the confusions of heredity. Just here Spillman, Mendal and 'Campany come to the rescue an tell us that while this new hybrid lum we are talking about may be anything, the continued crossing of these two trees will produce every possible combination of the qualities of those two plum-trees. Now that really gete us somewhere. Wecan go ahead.- Business ideas can re- place wizardly. Moreover, the as- tonishing discovery has been made that, while hybridizing produces every combination of qualities of the parent plants, is also produces definite proportions of each mix ture. Just as surely as all combinations come out on the dice, so, with cer- tain limitations too long to explain here, will all combinations come out in plant breeding. It may be rather shocking at first to find that Nature is such a plain honest gambler as to fling her pol- len and seeds into the air and depend on mere chance in all -the at work of variation she has thus Ey done; but nevertheless it is a discovery. with great results to fol- Among ot! i i ne quality Gskup railroad ft nies Victims. -thtown from tar windo 'of the cholers 21% i on waited for her to evolve an edible blight-proof pear when the. edible pear grew in England and th blight-proof one grew in north China. Ncw that we know how the thing © ..ks, it is very simple, and indeed is already done. Yet it took Nature, by mere blind chance, a million years to giye us one Baldwin apple-tree from out-of tens of mil- lions of sour crabs. Now that we can operate her wheel of fortune and Joad it for her, we can make geniuses to order. There are tens of thousands of lants in the world, each of which has been adjusted to its locality by Nature's rigorous selection of the fittest to survive in that locality. Thus, the plant kingdom has a most astonishing collection of useless one-quality geniuses. They are often cousins to our garden plaats, and the only quality may be wond erful; but most of these hundreds of thousands are as useless to us as are the protective thorns of the cactus. Then suddenly the power of hybridizing makes them useful. A far-fetched plant vith one pro- nounced quality may enable us to add that quality to the cropsin a 9 ere is a revolution of the twe1- tieth century. has already iven new walnuts for California, new lettuce for Florida, new wat *r- melons for Georgia, new grapes fcr Texas, new peaches for all of us Minnesota and the Dakotas aro richer by four million dollars per year through the creations of one man in flax and spring wheat. And we have just begun. Thornlessness will replace tho-ng. eweetness will repiace bitterness, fat kernels will replace slim kernels, heavy yields will replace light yields, crops will replace waste places, prosperity will replace the half-starved community. Not since steam has there been so promising an addition to man's sources of comfort. It merits as much govern- ment money as does the army. It now gets less than does a company of bluecoats. Let us hope for @ truer appreciation of* utiltties.-- Everybedy's Magazine. --k A GRADUATED SCALE. How Orders are Passed Along in a German Regimeats, Criticism in the German army adapts itself to the rank of the criticized with an exactness which is illustrated by the following pas- sage from a recent book by L. A. R. Wyhe, entitled "'My German Year.'"' At the manoeuvers a certain regi- ment fails, let us say to distinguish itself.. The general calls the colonel to him: "Lieber Kamerad, a little more smartness is necessary ; the men are too slow.' I should be grateful if you would see your way to effect- ing an improvement."' They shake hands. The colonel calls the major to him: "Herr Major, his excellency has expressed his dissatisfaction over the conduct of the troops. The wretched crawling and slovenliness particularly attracted his notice. I trust you will assist me in correct- ing these failings." The major salutes, and calls the captains to him: "Meine Herrn, the colonel is furiour with the disgraceful man- agement of the men. It is unheard of. I must request you, both by words and examples, to bring the regiment back to its old smartness. This sort of thing cannot go on. It is the duty cf the younger of- ficers--"' The captains to the lieutenants: "The colonel is besides himself about yesterday ; never saw such a wretched performance in his life. The leading and behavior of the men were beneath all criticism. There must be aa improvement in these matters. It is the duty of the lieutenants--" The lieutenants to the under-of- > cers: "What's the matter with your men? Miserable performance yes- terday! Can't you bring them up to the mark better than that? Upon my word, I'm ashamed of the lot of you, and if there isn't a change for the better in less than no time--"' The under-officers to the men: 'You idiots, you dolts, sheep's heads, you--" But the English language cannot keep peace with the under-officers' vocabulary. It's peculiarly rich. ie WHAT HE KNEW. The lawyer had a somewhat dif- | ficult witness, and finally asked if he was acq ted with any of the men on the jury. "Yes, sir," replied the. witness, "more than bal ot then." "Are you wi to swear that half of them?' you a you know more emanded the lawyer. million fields. | AT MO 10 DOWNING SRE WHERE BRITAIN'S PRIME MIN- ISTERS HAVE LONG LIVED. oe Palmerston and Gladstone Were Among Its Famous Occupants. -- 'fA door knocker is to.a man's house what a sign ig to a shop or a tavern and often it is something more. I realjzed this," says writer in the National Magazine, | "when I stood on the doorstep of, No. 10 Downing street Westmin- | ster, and ga Pitt, at the dull old) door of the offiaial residence' of Old | England's Prime Minister. "What a knocker! What an in-| teresting speqmen of chiselled| metal work! It is probably intend- ed to represegp a lion's head, and yet Lord Beaconsfield once describ- ed toa frieng this particular knock- eras havinga marked resemblance to the features of his political op- ponent, Mr. Gladstone. "There is probably no other; knocker in existence that has been} handled by so many distinguished | persons. For many Prime Minis- ters have resided in the dingy, little red brick mansion so con- venciently situated for the Houses of Parliament, and many great men have been their visitors. ' wning street is 100 yards long and ten yards wide, and No. 10 is) mean and shabby; but unimpres-! sive as it is it is the very hub of | the British Government. Here | Palmerstone, Beaconsfield, Pitt, Gladstone and many another! Premier have presided over Cabinet meetings fraught with the DESTINY OF THE EMPIRE. Downing street owes its existence to a man born in America. That man was George UVowning--Sir George Downing the British Mon- arch made him in the long run-- and he was educated at what is now Harvard University. "George was a constructive genius and put up his own quarters at Harvard, where he studied to such purpose that when he took ship to England in quest of acareer he found one awaiting him. He be- came a diplomat. Charles JI, sent him to The Hague as Ambas- sador and incidentally took occasion to sell him the little lane along which Henry VIII. had been wont to stroll from Whitehall Palace to see cockfights. "In its confines George built the first brick houses of importance ever erected in London, and his children and grandchildren owned the street until in 1734 Baron Bothmar, then Danish Ambassador to England, bought No. 10. It was not until George II. took possession of No. 10 and made it. the official residence of Sir Richard Walpole, Lord of the Treasury, that it assumed real im- portance. The great Pitt dwelt in the house for twenty years and he never slept elsewhere when he could avoid it. "Although Cabinet councils may be held anywhere their proper locale is 10 Downing street. THE CABINET ROOM, situated on the ground floor, is a finely proportioned apartment divided by columns in the Corin- thian style, and the walls are completely Lips' with bookcases filled with works of reference and innumerable volumes of Parlia- mentary reports, familiarly known as blue hooks, '*As befits a meeting place of such a secret character, the doors are double and communicate with carefully cuzreed anterooms. There are five double windows, three, of which look out into the garden at the rear of the house. The room has a very businesslike appearance, not unlike that of a foreign court of justice. The seats are arranged in what one might call a series of ews, group&)-round a central table covered with green baize. Desks upon folding rests are pro- vided, and the seats are comfort- ably upholstered. "The chamberis by no means the kind of a place for a lounge. In the days of Greville the Ministers were renowned for their knack o taking it easy. At that period the Cahinet meetings were held in a long, narrow, old fashioned room upstairs, where Ministers sat at very close quarters, so close indeed that one right honorable member became unpopular with" his ool- leagues owing to the fact that he had fallen into the bad habit of kicking the shins of those around him at intervals of & minute or go. 'In Mr. Gladstone's later days the meetings of the Cabinet were often held in a smaller and more convenient apartment because THE GRAND OLD MAN ef politics had turnea the Cabinet room into an office for his secre- taries. Lord Beaconfield had much affection for the room on the ground floor, however, and he had moved into it for his own personal use the chair in which the great Pitt used to Bit. "The office of the Prime Minister at No. 10 is a somewhat sombre room and-is fitted with deske similar to those to be found in the mansg- -er'e .rooni When Sod tee ment. It stood close to the door! with keyboard invitingly open, «0: that the First Lerd of the Treasury could at any moment soothe harassed brain with the songs of Mendelssohn or the melodious movements of Beethoven. "No Minister, secretary or other Official is allowed to take notes of the business transacted at a Cabi- net meeting, and it is considered a breach of confidence to keep a priv- ate record of what is discussed. This rule has been broken more than once, however. During the Bulgarian atrocity "debates Lord Derby had the permission of the #\ Tate Queen Victoria to lift the veil and to disclose the deliberations of the Cabinet, and it seemed clear that he - had taken notes. Lord Salisbury came into confif@t with his account of the proceedings and the incident led to a rather disagree- ablee discussion. able discussion. 'Tt is interesting to know that each member of the Cabinet is sup- pied with a key which fits the lock ° A CERTAIN DESPATCH BOX retained by the Prime Minister. . At any particuar crisis when important papers reach Downing street the Premier, after perusing them, laces them in the despatch box and hands the box to a special messeng- er, who takes it round to each mem- ber of the Cabinet in succession. Each member opens it with his key and relocks it after he has read the documents it contains. In_ this way the papers are prevented from falling into the hands of strangers or members of Parliament who are not in the Cabinet. "Now and aguin it is found neces- sary to print copies of a 'secret' which comes up for discussion at a meeting of the Cabinet. The docu- ment is cut up into many small pieces and distributed among a goodly number of compositors in the Government printing works, each of whom sets up his little piece, and the little piece may re- present only a dozen lines of type. When all the fragments are in type 'a highly trusted official collects both the copy and the type and puts the latter together. The printing of the document is then done in secret under the eyes of this official and the men who work the printing machine are forbidden to handle any of the paper after it is printed upon." * FROM ERIN'S GREEN ISLE NEWS BY MAIL FROM IRE- LAND'S SHORES. Happenings in the Emerald Isle of Interest to Irish- men. LA cattle drive has taken place at Kildeemo, Milton-Malboy: Charles Hogan, a noted steeple- chase rider, has died at Curragh. A man named Dermody was kill- ed on the railway at Kilkenny. King George gave £1,000 to be distributed for the benefit of the poor of Dublin. The women of Belfast and dis- trict gifted to Queen Mary an Irish ace court train, During 1910, 32,457 natives of Ire- land emigrated--17,737 males and 14,720 females. A big decrease in population is reported from the Waterford and Lismore districts. Since 1841 the cultivated area of Ireland has dwindled from about 4,000,000 acres to 2,000,000. Through being struck by a ball on the chest, a boy named Hickey, of Kyris Square, Cork, has died. Fifteen evicted tenants on the O'Brien estate at Mullenahone, Tip- perary, have been reinstated. Not a single case of intemperance has been tried in the Ross Pettey Sessions districts for six months. The people of Drogheda intend starting a tannery and to put $25,- 000 capital in the local boot factory. Fruit growers in Mid-Armagh and South Tyrone are having one of the best seasons they have had for many years. A schooner was sunk in collision with the steamer Earl of Erne in the Irish Sea, but her crew of 15 were rescued by the steamer. The full population of Ireland ten years ago was 4,458,778. In the intervening decade there has been a decrease of practically speaking, 70,000. It is proposed to have Jong boat- hooks available to fish children out of the Antrim Road waterworks, Belfast. This is owing to the num- ber of accidents, which have hap- pened there recently. At recent poor-law elections in erick, Ireland, six women were elected, this being the first time wo- The taxation of Ireland, far from decreasing, has by nearly two millio tion has fallen by 960,000 men b returned for Lim- erick ae Wards. , » TE PAES OF KN EOE FOUR BOYS IN ATTENDANCE @N HIS MAJESTY. Positions Are Coveted for the Ad- vantages and Social Standing They Insure. One of the most coveted positions about the court is that of page of honor to the King. It usually means that a boy's future in the royal household is assured, while his standing in society of course at once becomes unquestioned. There are only four of these pages ap- poiin and they are on duty two at a time for a fortnight, taking alternate days, says the Lady's Pictorial, an These posts are vacated auto- matically when the holders reach the age of eighteen, but often ould they, for instance, desite to enter the army they retire before reaching this age. There is always very considerable competition for any vacancy that occurs, but unless one has a great deal of influence at court it is next to impossible to ob- tain the appointment. Formerly there were many very valuable privileges attached to the position of a page of honor to the sovereign, but these have now al- most al! been abolished. The ap- pointment of an ENSIGN OF THE GUARDS. came as a matter of course, and if the receipient did not desire to hold this himself he was allowed to sell it for the best price he could obtain. The King also saw to it that his pages of honor made very advan tageous marriages, usually pairing them off with the daughters of peers and others about the court. These privileges have long since disappeared, but the positions are to be coveted as much for the ad- vantages they bestow as for the social standing they insure. Not only are the pages fairly handsome- ly paid but their education is like- wise a charge upon the civil list so long as they hold their appoint- ments. It cannot be said that their duties are overexacting, an ing George makes it his practice to see that their attendance at Court is so arranged that their education is in- terfered with as little as possible. For this reason they are only now called upon to attend the Court at either Buckingham Palace or Wind- sor Castle. Therefore they no long- er accompany the Court to Scot- land, nor when the Sovereign pays a state visit to a foreign ruler, as was the case in the past. DURING AN ORDINARY DAY. The page jin attendance may not be called upon once. His duty is to attend in the King's ante-cham-. ber for certain hours in order to re- ceive the royal commands as trans- mitted to him by the higher Court officials and to see that they are promptly and properly carried out. The King is, however, most consid- trate and should he and the Queen be going out for the afternoon or evening, the page is at once inform- ed that his services will not be again required that day, and he is free then to return to his home or to fill in his time as best appeals to him. . : The everyday uniform of a page of honor consists of a tunic of black velvet with silver buttons and worn over a white silk frilled shirt and waistcoat with black velvet breeches, silk stockings and shoes of patent leather with silver buckles. This uniform is-of course changed before they leave the Palace upon some duty and the ages now wear mufti in tho street As recently as the commencement of Queen Victoria's reign, how- ever, the pages of honor wore their full dress both about the Court and in the street. This full dress, now only worn upo state occasions of the first im- portance, is of a@ most picturesque and handsome appearance. The principal garment is the long full skirted coat of bright scarlet cloth, faced with gold. The buttons are of gold, and bear the royal mono- gram. Under this is worn a vest of white satin, over which falls A RUFFLE OF REAL LACE. The breeches are likewise of white satin,.as are the shoes, the stockings being of white silk. The hat is a three cornered one of white felt, with one large white ostrich feath- er. Their duty in a procession is to bear the King's train; and upon such occasions as the state opening of Parliament, a court or the recep- tion of a foreign sovereign, or upon any other occasion when his Majesty wears his robes of state, the whole of the four pages are upon duty to attend him. Very general confusion appears to exist between the pages of honor, who are in regular attendance upon at all state functions aad SOME CURIOUS TIPPLE! If You Think You Could hem Try Them. Some men boast of knowing taste of every drink except ¥ They do not. One tipple they hay never sampled is 'acorn cup," "the liquor,"' the stuff in whit from oak bark and acorns and acofl cups, it has a sharp, bitter ta that is anything but agreeable the ordinary palate; but the men engaged in some tanneries habitual ly drink it in small quantitiee--a. wine-glassful at a time is the limit-- as a pick me-up. Another drink unknown to the general tippler is a favorite among: iron-stone workers. It isa natu product of a very curious kind. the best sort of such stone are found or white in color. Strangers sel- it with avidity. here are, too, many kinds alcoholic products which are rarely, if ever, tasted outside particular trades. Methylated spirit is drunk, not only by furniture polishers, but hatters and others who use it to make it so vile that they cannot swallow it. A man engaged in' one of the shops of "a London ware house was found to be drinking con- siderable quantities of methylated spirit, whereupon the remainder of the stock was with that noisome drug, asafoetida, which, it was thought, would make the stuff undrinkable. But the spirit actual- ly disappeared faster then ever! In the same way some of the aloo- hol used-in scent works isdrunk by those who have the handling of it, and some men engaged at drug warehouses get into the dangerous habit of taking "nips" of essences and the like. Not long ago a man employed by a large firm of whole- sale chemists was seriously ill through long indulgence in practice. ys PHONE SYSTEM. THE KING'S He Can Reach Any Court Official From Buckingham Palace. Although his Majesty's telephone number, "832 Westminster," can be duly rung up by any of his sub- jects, it does not follow that they will be able .to speak to George direct. Asa matter of fact, the arrangement in the palace make is impossible for anyone to call up his Majesty. All the high functionaries, from Lord Knollys upward, to say nothing of minor of- ficials and servants, are, however, in touch with his Majesty, who can speak to them in their own apart- ments of. private residences. . Every lady and gentleman of the Royal Household, every function- ary, can be reached in a twinkling. Then there are, of course, private lines to Marlborough House, - St. James' Palace and York House. Even the school-room of Bucking- ham Palace is "on the wire." There are three fifty-line switch- boards in Buckingham Palace. G are used for the day service and one for night purposes, and during the The transfer of the lines from the day to the night service is accom- plished by means of a change over switch, either in the palace r..st office or the palace itself The King possesses an. extension from the switchboard to his private apartments, and in addition, his Majesty has a private exchange line to his own apartments. This is used for special communications ef a private nature in connection with State affairs. Queen' Mary has a private line and also an exchange line. The latter facility Princess Mary alse enjoys; she can converse with he parents or with the occupants of img school-room. Miss Knollys has which she can converse with Queen Mary or Queen Alexandra. be ad ' SOCIAL DISTINCTION. In some parts of the south the style country dance in a big with fiddlers, banjoists, and other musicians on the platform at one end. At one such dance held not long ago in an Alabama town, when the fiddlers had duly resined thelr bows and taken their places on the platform the floor manager rose. nea' hides are tanned into leather, me = hollow pieces, inside which is about. a pint of "mush" a cold liquor with © a sweet, sharp taste, and either red. dom want more than one sip of | "mush,'? but the workmen quafft -- their work, and it seems impossible 24 hours the staff works in sections. | telephone in her sitting-room, from . darkies aro st'll addicted to the old -