The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-10-12
BILL ARPS TALK TO BOYS.
a knowledge Of Everything Is Essen
tial-What Trees are Best for Va
riOus Purposes.

: Here is letter for the boys.
| oeileVe that even an imrerfet
knowledge Of many callings renders
man happier than perfection in an
one aud comparative ignorance OF a
; the r"st. Great scientists, discOverer
End inv ntors seom to BE- necessary ia
the worlds progress ard the good {
mankind, but their work is general
at the expense Of their health an
happiness. Sir Isaac Newton in hi
last days exclaimed with sigh, GO
have made slave of myself" Hi
great mind was always on u strain il
one direction. 1t is said OF bin tha
he had "a hole cut in the lower part O
the door for his favorite cat to ente
and exit, and when she had q pair o
kittens he had two smaller boles cut fo
them. The mind is like the body. L
must have q variety Of food. 1t is lik,
the muscles in the arms or legs. |
only one set are used tho others become
weak and will gradually perish away
| was talking not long ago TO learn
ed Judge, man OF fno judicial mind
and literary attachments, but who &C
knowledged his very limited know
ledge of nature and natures laws. 81
hardly know one tree from another, u
said he excepting, OF course, the
CT estnut, hickory nut and walnut
Yes, of course, | know the pine and tn .
oak. Indeed | have never had any oc-
casion to know more for | was raised
| in town and books have absorbed me, y
was Illuminating ABOUT this because
our little girls mother is teaching her
to draw and to paint, aud asked her
| to draw me chestnut tree, an oak tree
and maple tree. She is working on
! them now and has to go out and look
at them and examine the bark on the
trunk, and the shape Of the limbs and
the leaves. | wonder how many bows
and girle can draw a hickory leaf with
out looking at one. | should like to
see their specimens. Thousands of
boys, especially country boys, know all
the common trees OF their neighbor-
hood, but 1t re roquires close and careful
observation to describe them aud point
out the difference. Now there are ten
different kin Is Of oaks in this country,
but very few town raised people can
name half Of them. Then there are
different kinds Of hickories and pines
and ash and elm trees, besides the
blackberry, box elder, poplar, beech,
locust and cottonwood. Eugene lie
Hardy was very learned and scienti-
fic French man, but thoug ht that Ameri-
can cotton grew on the cottonwood
trees and that we gathered it by using
III,
of Atlanta, is trying to introduce the
ladder kind now and has got the trees
up to fourteen feet high.
The study Of the trees and shrubs of
this Southern country Is sadelightful q and
instructive recreation for young peo.
pie, and | wish they would pay more
attention to it. or course this study
requires some knowledge Of botany,
but that is easily acquired. This kind
OF knowledge is more useful and more
comforting than a college smattering
OF calculus and comic sections and
rhetoric and logic. | do not believe
there are ten men in Barlow county
who would know ginseng il they were
tC see 1t. Not many more know what
Is father grcybeard or white ash, the
medicinal shrub from which old A. Q.
Simmons first made the original Sim
mons liver medicine in Gwinnett
county. | know about that, for when
was q young merchant [ sold the first
he ever made and continued to sell it
for him for several years and be told
me what it was made Of. | think,
though, that the father gray beard
gave out about the time the old man
died.
| wish that our young people would
acquire habits of observing things
more closely as they journey along
through life. Some people see every
thing and some see nothing hardly.
When should trees be cut down that
are wanted for wood? What kind of
wood is the strongest and will bear the
greatest burden? What kind is the
most elastic? What kind the hardest
to split? What kind will last the long
est in the ground? What kind most
suitable for pianos, chairs, furniture or
w Woiponntipn 1t f,>.
wedges or canes? DR.. Oliver Holmes
must have studied all about these when
when he wrote the 'One Hoss Shay"
$50 the deacon inquired of the village
folk
Where he could find the strongest oak
That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke :;
That was for spokes and floor and sills
lie sent Tor lanceWood to make the thills ::
The crossbars were ash from the straightest
trees;
The panels were white wood that cuts like
cheese,
And the hubs of logs from the settlers
elm"
But perhaps DR.. Holmes got 1t all
| from some old honest wagon maker,
| for they know. I'll bet MIR. Bradley,
Of our town, can answer every question.
The boys ought to find out that black
locust and chestnut and Usage orange
make Ine DeSJ pOsJS, ana OlaCk gum
the best hubs, and persimmon the best
wedges or gluts, and sassafras the best
| bows, and ~hite oak the best baskets. In
! England it Is claimed that yew tree
post will last longer than an iron one.
The boys ought to know that the barks
OF all trees are nonconductors OF heat
and cold and keep them cool in sum
mer and warm In winter, and the green
leaves are the | ings that inhale the
carbon from the air and not only make
wood for the tree, but rurify the at.
mosphere that we br athe And
hence every habitation ought to have
some trees about it.. The boys ought
to know about those beautiful islands
in the sea that are of coral formation
and kept growing until they got above
the water, and then some cocoanuts
came floating along and lodged there
and sprouted and grew ana the leaves
OF the trees fell down and rOtted anC
made soil for more cocoanuts, and In
course OF time the island became 6
paradise. That is the testimony of the
rocks. The boys should watch the
little gassomer ball that floats away II
the air from the sweet little dandeiior
plant. So light and feathery that 4
would take thousand OF them Il
weigh an ounce and yet the seed are
there for more plants and they are
wrapped, as 1t were, in blanket t.
| nrDtect than from tba ,uinto,,, ,ol, Il