THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



the Chestnut would pay quite as well for the
time and care bestowed upon them, and for
the space they occupy, as any fruit trees that
are raised-to say nothing about the increased
beauty of our homes and the grateful shade
afforded by them. Blending with the various
kinds of fruit trees and shrubbery, they soften
into beauty the more rugged forms of the
merely useful, and thus, by quickening our
perceptions of the beautiful in God's works,
they become really useful.
  Don't neglect this matter. If you are too
busy in the spring, do it this fall. Select your
trees now, or find where they may be procured
and contract for them.  It will pay in dollars
and cents, as well as in comfort. *

    Plants Consecrated to Heathen Deities.
  The ancients delighted to idolize and to sym-
bolize objects. They placed gods and goddess-
es in the cups of flowers; and we may trace
in our sympathies toward certain plants the
still lingering remains of heathen mythology.
The fig tree was in the early ages dedicated to
Saturn, the oak to Jupiter, the ebony to Nep-
tune, laurel to Apollo, thyme to Mercury, the
vine to Bacchus, the poplar to Hercules, reeds
to Pan, the lotus to Harpocrates, the God of
Silence; poppies to Morpheus, whence the act-
ive principle of poppies, or opium, is now
called morphia; the lily was dedicated to Ju-
no, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus,
corn to Ceres, garlands of flowers and nose-
gays to Flora, orchards and fruit trees to Po-
mona, the white rose to the nymphs, sea-weed
to the Nereids, separate trees and trunks of
trees to the lHamadryads and Dryads, the lilac
to Hebe, the Crocus or saffron to Sickness, the
laurel and palm to glory and courage. The
violet, the forget-me-not, and many other flow-
ers have still their symbols.-Septimus Piesse.

  PLANTING GRAPE VINEs.-Geo. Campbell
says: ,I have found very little difference in
the growth of vines, whether planted in fall or
spring. When planted in the fall and slightly
protected during the first winter, an early start
and usually a more vigorous growth may be
expected, than from vines transplanted in
spring."



MECHANWCAL & COMMERCIAL.



              Business Rules.
  1. Do not undertake a business with which
you are not perfectly acquainted, any sooner
than you would attempt, it blind, to survey a
city. First thoroughly understand what you
propose to do. Serve an apprenticeship before
taking a single step involving risk.
  2. Never attempt a business for which you
have no tast or tact. Seek to do that for which
you have a natural faculty and relish. Don't
aspire to be a merchant when you should be a
farmer, a mechanic, or a day laborer.
  3. Never connect yourself in partnership
with those in whom you have not perfect confi-
dence-with those to whom you would not be
willing, sick or well. at home or abroad, living
or dead, to entrust all your business affairs.
  4. Never attempt to do more business than
you can safely do on your own capital.
  5. Avoid the taking of extraordinary risks
of long credits, no matter what profits are in
prospect.
  6. Give no credit whatever to any one who
does not possess a good moral character.
  7. Supervise carefully your own business,
(not your neighbor's,) and look after your
clerks and see that they are faithful in the per-
formance of all their duties.
  8. Let all those with whom you have dealings
or intercourse, understand distinctly, that you
will not lend yourself, for sake of trade, to do
any mean thing-anything which your con-
science will not approve.
  9. Never lend your name by endorsement or
otherwise, except under most extraordinary
circumstances, and then let the act be guarded
with every possible security.
  10. Never allow yourself or your partners to
draw a dollar from the concern to invest in
any " outside operation " whatever.
  11. In forming a copartnership, insist that a
limited, fixed sum only shall be drawn by each
partner for personal expenses.
  12. Under no circumstances whatever, deal
in stocks. Don't believe any one of the thou-
sand marvellous tales of a fortune in that di-
rection. They are a trap and a lie.
  13. Keep all your accumulated profits in
your business so long as you owe a dollar.-
When you have more capital than you can use,
then it will be proper to invest outside.
  14. Never borrow of banks or other sources,
if you can avoid it. If temporary assistance
is needed, seek it from a tried friend, or from
a sound banking institution, and then return
the loan, on the day fixed, with the most rigid
punctuality.
  15. Have an eye on the condition of the
country, its crops, and the general prospect
for business, and look out sharp for the move-
ments of politicans, who, in nine cases out of
ten, care more for a re-election than for our
commercial interests or our national pros-
perity.



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