Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-05-04

, back up worse than ever, and the audience
cheered him, until one leg of the pant
got loose and hung down, when the,
broke him all up again. Tom now wear
an old peach basket for hump, in tina
character, and it gives universal satisfac
ton.
IL SIGNS AND LESSONS.
some Alleged Ways of Forctclling tho
Il Weather.
| From the Ccnuryl
To what extent the birds or animals
can foretell the weather is uncertain.
When the swallows are seen hawking very
high it is good indication the insects
upon which they feed venture up there
only in the most auspicious weather. Yet
bees will continue to leave the hive when
a storm is imminent l am told that one
have down in Texas is afforded by the
ants. The ants bring their eggs up out
of their underground retreats and expose
them to the warmth of the sun to be
matched. When they are seen CARRYING
them in again il great haste, though there
be not cloud in the sky, your walk or
your drive must be postponed storm
Is at hand
Observe the lilies of the field Sir
John Lubbock says the dandeion lowers
itself after Towering, and lies close to
the ground while ii is maturing its seed,
and then rises up. My dandelions con-
tinue to grow after the flower has drop
ped, the stalk lengthens daily, keeping
Just above the grass till the fruit is ripen-
ed, and the little globe of silvery down
is carried many inches higher than was
the ring of golden flowers. And the rea-
son Is obvious. The plant depends upon
the wind to scatter its seeds, every one of
these little vessels spreads sail to the
breeze, and 1t Is necessary that they be
launched above the grass and weeds.
amid which they would be caught and
held did the stalk not continue to grow
and outstrip the rival vegetation. 1t is a
curious instance OF foresight in weed.
People live in the country all their
lives without making one accurate obser-
vatlon about nature. The evergreen trees
Iii front OF their doors-what do they
know about thcir habits? Do the pine
and tine hemlock shed their leaves Not
III any strict sense. In the dociduous
trees the new leaves take the place of the
old they come out in the nyils of the
old leaves, and .hc branch is reclothcd
each spring, even if no new shoots ap-
pear. Not SO with the pine or the hem
lock they turn over new leaf only when
they turn over new growth of wood.
The white pine usually sheds its leaves
III midsummer, though | have known all
the pines to delay till October 1t is on
with the new love before it is Off with the
old From May till near autumn it car
rles two crops of leaves, last years and
the present years. Emerson's inquiry,
-"how the sacred piue-ree adds
To her old leaves new myriads,'
is framed in strict accordance with the
facts. 1t is to her OLD leaves that she
adds the new. Only the new growth, the |
outermost leaves, are carried over till the |
next season, thus keeping the trees al |
ways clothed and green. As its molting
season approaches, these old leaves. ali |
the rear ranks on the limbs, begin TO
turn yellow, and careless observer might |
think the tree was struck with death but |
II Is not. The decay stops Just where the |
growth OF the previous spring began, |
and presently the tree stands green and |
vigorous, with newly-laid carpet of fal. |
len leaves beneath it. But the same is
not true OF the hemlock, or the spruce,
or the red cedar. These trees do not shed
their leaves periodically, hut outgrow
them gradually, as they do their bark, or
as n person outgrows or wears out his
clothes, here shred and there shred n
bit to-day, or a bit tomorrow, and were
it not for the new growth made each
spring, they would, in time, become quite
naked. The winds and storms whip them
on, and as the branches grow, the old
leaves gradually disappear, leaving
naked stem. But none of the coniier.e
renew their leaves as do the decluous
trees. New leaves come only upon new
wood. Ii the tree were to cease to grow
1t would probably (though of this i am
not certain) cease to shed its leaves. The
pines and frs and spruces differ still
more radically from the decduous trees.
They have less scope, less versatility.
fewer resources. They never spront'
Cut them down, and that is the end Cnt
off limb, and it is never renewed by n
new shoot. Trim II pine or hemlock
closely and it will die it has no power
to start Il branch dc moro, to burst the
bark with new shoot A sort of fatal
ISM is characteristic of these trees. The
limbs OF the white pine tend to recur in
regular intervals, like the rounds of n
ladder. As it shoots upward in the forest
It pulls this ladder up after it, SO that the
lallest trees are limbless for eighty or
ninety feet.
When you cut off the top of pine or
spruce, removing the central and leading
shaft, the tree does not develop and send
forth new one to take the place of the [
old, but branch from the next in rank
that is, from the next whorl of limbs. is /
promoted to take the lead. ,
The good observer of nature holds his l
eye long and firmly to the point, ms one /
does when looking at n puzzle picture. {
md will not be bailled. The cat catches ,
the mouse, not merely because she 4
watches for him, but because she is arm
ed to catch him and is quick. SO the OBJ
server hnally gets the fact, not only be-
cause he mas patience, but because his
eye is sharp and his Inference swift. Many
shrewd old farmer looks upon the milky ,
way as KIND OF weather-cock, and will !
.eii you that the way 1t points Mt night I
indicates the direction of the wind The y
following day. So also every new moon
ID dry moon or wet moon-dry ii
powder-horn would hang upon the lower ,
limb, wet If it would not forpettinr tbe Z
TACT that, as a rule, when it il drv in one :
part OF the continent it is wet in some {
other part, and rice rcrsa. When he {
Kills his hogs in the fall if the pork be /
very hard and solid he predicts a severe
winter II soft and loose, the opposite
again overlooking the fact that the kind ,
OF food and the temperature of the fall
make the pork hard or make it soft. SO
with hundred other signs, all the result
OF hasty and incomplete observations. In
most OF the operations of nature there is
one or more unknown quantity to find
the exact value of this unknown factor ia
not SO easy The wool Of the sheep, the