8
THE BATTALION.
stone, and to the rural pursuits among
which they have been reared.” It has
also been said that the “hope of Amer
ica is in the homes of America.” What
soever adorns ones home, be that in town
or county, and enobles his domestic life,
“strengthens his love for country and
nurtures the better elements of the nature
in those who are thrown in tontact with
such improvements.”
To promote a love for trees, shrubs,
vines and flowers by cultivating and
studying them, develops in children a
love for the beautiful in nature, in art,
and still more in character. “Nothing is
truer than that the love of nature
sharpens the senses and quickens all the
intellectual faculties.” Were parents to
provide to the fullest practical degree,
the simple means for encouraging the
love of ornamental gardening, and of the
study of botany, and other closely allied
sciences, at home, “they would early se
cure for the young a source of high en
joyment, that is unknown elsewhere, one
which elevates the mind and tills it with
high aspirations. Besides these things,
“the mere spending' of time on the part
of all, and especially, children and
women, in the exercise and enjoyment
ment that comes from associating with
and caring for plants, is highly condu
cive to health.”
These things make whole communities
happier, healthier, better and nobler.
Those who establish flower gardens and
parks, their work will stand as endur
ing monuments, “keeping fresh for all
time the name of each benefactor,” for
they establish a place where the tired
and sick of a crowded city may come for
recreation, comfort, beauty and health
fulness at twilight when approaching
nightfall softens the outlines and casts a
mellowness and quietness over the land
scape scene, where they can breathe a
purer air, heavily ladened with the
scent of roses and the perfume of mag
nolias. B. H. Price.
EDITORIAL EEE^RTMENT.
Kn Oblate Sphenoid.
We are taught that the earth is not
spherical, but an oblate spheroid. In
other words it is flattened at the poles,
but not so greatly flattened that it does
not resemble a sphere. It is compared
in shape to an orange that has been
slightly flattened at both the stem and
flower ends. Now the fact is that no
orange can be found that is so near a
jierfect sphere as this earth. Now the
flattening at each pole is but 11 miles;
which is about one seven-hundredth
of its diameter. In an orange of ordi
nary size the flattening would be less
than the thickness of tissue paper, and
actually insensible to the eye, and could
only be detected by the most delicate in
struments, and the surface of the earth
with its towering Alps and deep canyons
is actually smoother than any orange
that ever grew, and to an eye capable of
grasping an entire hemisphere at one
view, would appear as round and smooth
as a billiard ball. The tallest peak of
the Himilayas is but one-fourteenth
hundreth of the earth’s diameter. The
smallest speck of dust on a billiard ball
would represent, in comparason to the
size of the globe, the tallest mountain.