It is an interesting fact that the mirrors of bulls (which are much like those of cows, but less extensive in every direction) are reflected in their daughters. This gives rise to the dangerous custom of breeding for mirrors, rather than for milk. What the results may be after a few years it is easy to see. The mirror, being valued for its own sake--that is, because it sells the heifers--will be likely to lose its practical significance and value as a milk mirror.
We have a striking photograph of a young Jersey bull, the property of Mr. John L. Hopkins, of Atlanta, Ga., and called "Grand Mirror." This we have caused to be engraved and the mirror is clearly shown. A larger mirror is rarely seen upon a bull. We hope in a future number to exhibit some cows' mirrors of different forms and degrees of excellence.--Rural New Yorker.
TWO GOOD LAWN TREES.
The negundo, or ash-leaved maple, as it is called in the Eastern States, better known at the West as a box elder, is a tree that is not known as extensively as it deserves. It is a hard maple, that grows as rapidly as the soft maple; is hardy, possesses a beautiful foliage of black green leaves, and is symmetrical in shape. Through eastern Iowa I found it growing wild, and a favorite tree with the early settlers, who wanted something that gave shade and protection to their homes quickly on their prairie farms. Brought east, its growth is rapid, and it loses none of the characteristics it possessed in its western home. Those who have planted it are well pleased with it. It is a tree that transplants easily, and I know of no reason why it should not be more popular.
For ornamental lawn planting, I give pre-eminence to the cut-leaf weeping birch. Possessing all the good qualities of the white birch, it combines with them a beauty and delicate grace yielded by no other tree. It is an upright grower, with slender, drooping branches, adorned with leaves of deep rich green, each leaf being delicately cut, as with a knife, into semi-skeletons. It holds its foliage and color till quite late in the fall. The bark, with age, becomes white, resembling the white birch, and the beauty of the tree increases with its age. It is a free grower, and requires no trimming. Nature has given it a symmetry which art cannot improve.
H.T.J.