13
Using the Airplane to Destroy Insect Pests
lj Jl3l ' '
Airplane spreading insecticide over a rove in Ohio. Photo taken from another airplane.
U0 much advanced has become the various phases of
P human activity to which the airplane has been associated
is attested by an experiment in Ohio a short time ago A
farmer near Dayton had been busy trying to devise a plan for
saving from destructive insects thousands of trees in a grove
which he owns. lie labored hard to achieve his purpose
Without success. Ha was able to spray the lower limbs of
the trees, but the tops, where much of the harm was being
done, remained virtually untouched by his efforts. The state
agricultural experiment station at Wooster. Ohio, was com
municated with. Officials of that institution suggested that
the use of the airplane might result in putting a stop to the
damage being done to the trees. At any rate, it was worth
the effort. The McCook Experimental Post at Dayton, where
all engineering work with government airplanes is carried on
was communicated with and fell in with the plan. The result
was that Lieutenant John MacCready volunteered to help the
farmer. He took one of the experimental airplanes from
the field, attached a box of insect powder beneath the body
of the ship, flew over the grove and distributed, through a
process of sifting, 100 pounds of insecticide. The device op
erated on the principle of a flour sifter and it worked per
fectly. The McCook Field has announced its willingness to co
operate with all farmers who may be needing an agency to
relieve them of insects. The airplane, it is said, fits in ad
mirably with this new process. Lieutenant MacCready had
to fly low and skim over the tops of the trees, but his skill
enabled him to do this without more than ordinary daneer
to himself. 6
Estimating Your
Vocabulary
Americanizing the Art of Dancing
THE average adult is supposed to have a vocabulary
of 11.700 words and the superior adult one con
taining 13,500 words or more. Experiments made by
specialists at various universities have shown that by
using a test, like the one given below, requiring only
a half hour or less, the vocabulary of a person may be
gauged so accurately that the margin of error does not
exceed five per cent.
The method used to arrive at this result is that
known as sampling. The last word in every sixth
column of a dictionary containing 18.000 words is se
lected for the test. A list of 100 such words is com
piled. A dictionary with 18,000 words i- presumed
to contain only the common term- in ordinary use.
The person taking the test is asked to tell the
meaning of the words in this list. The number of cor
rect answers multiplied by 180 indicates the size of
his vocabulary. If he possesses average intelligence
he should be able to give correct definitions of 65 out
of the 100 and his total vocabulary would equal 65
times 180, or 11.700.
If you stood by the side of a leading highway and
for half a day tabulated the different makes of auto
mobiles that passed, you would be able to estimate pretty
closely the number of machines of each make in the
county. You would exclude machines with license
plates from other states. You would express your
results in terms of percentages, then get figures from
the license board on tin total number of machine
registered and then you could compute your final figures
on the assumption that the distribution of makes in
the county as a whole would be the same as on the
stretch of road you had under observation.
Professor Lewis Termau's vocabulary test is the
one most widely used. We give only every other one
of his 100 words, so you will multiply your correct
answers by 360 and thus obtain the figure showing the
size of your vocabulary. You are not expected to gWt
a precise dictionary definition, but merely to show
that you know the meaning of a word with reasonable
accuracy.
1. Orange
2. Bonfire
3. Straw
4. Roar
5. Haste
6. Afloat
7. Guitar
8. Mellow
9. Impolite
10. Plumbing
11. Noticeable
12. Muzzle
13. Quake
14. Reception
15. Majesty
16. Treasury
17. M isuse
18. Crunch
1. Forfeit
20. Sportive
21. Apish
22. Snip
23. Shrewd
24. Repose
25. Peculiarity
26. Conscientious
27. Charter
28. Coinage
29. Dilapidated
30. Promontory
31. Avarice
32. (ielatinous
33. Drabble
J4 rhilanthrophy
35. Irony
36. Embody
37. Swaddle
38. Exaltation
39. Infuse
40. Selectman
41. Declivity
42. Laity
43. Pen
44. Sapient
45. Cameo
46. The.ophy
47. Precipitancy
48. Palclogy
49. Homunculus
50. Limpet
By JOHN B. WALLACE
DANCING as a branch of the fine arts is of com
parative recent origin in America. Strictly
speaking, we have no national dance, as we have
no national music. The nearest approach to it is the
primitive war dance of the American Indian. We also
have adopted and elaborated the buck and wing and
shuffle of the Negro.
Vet America is a dancing nation. Imbued with the
vigor and health that comes from plenty of good food
and sanitary environment, it is but natural that we
should turn to the dance to work off our surplus
energy. It is that superabundance of physical energy
that has made the one-step and the two-step so popu
lar with our younger generation. As they become
older, however, they turn to the waltz, the one ball
room dance of perfect rhythm.
While dancing as a form of amusement always has
been popular in America little attention has been paid
to it as an art. There has been
for a number of decades, it is
true, sporadic attempts to popu
larize so-called esthetic dancing,
but it was not until recently, espe
cially since the revolution in Rus
sia, that this form of physical ex
pression has come into vogue.
Now dancing is even taught
in our public schools. Not only
has society adopted it, but it has
percolated down to our humblest
citizens, thus insuring its per
manence as an institution and not
a mere fad.
While credit for the recent
popularity of what might be called
artistic dancing to distinguish it
from the ballroom type must be
given largely to the influx of Rus
sian dancers, who undoubtedly are
of all nations the greatest mas
ters of this art, yet it is doubtful
if the teaching is left entirely in
their hands the art can long sur
vive in America. This is because
nrt nf the Russians, while wonderful in technique
and expression, is essentially an appeal to the
America, a melting pot of all the nations of the
is yet predominantly nglo-axon in us hk
.ite of neither prude
tan it fails to ret Jmhusiastically to the manifesta
tions' of either the Slavic or Latin temperaments
Therefore to preserve this wonderful art until we
can evolve a distinctive American dance it must be
horn largely of its physical appeal, for wMd."U.th
substituted apnea to the mind. Love, the foundation
al art a it U basis of all human efforts provides
o motivitv for the dance It cannot be e.imma.ed
without destroying the appeal of the dance. But it can
h, snirit. ili-e.l Instead of depicting what predomt
n ate! in K S and other European dances there can
b ' ortratd ,h. km of homo, of mother, of brother,
" fa i rs ss tt'vU ship,
who in pr,"a. ' C f
V Shipp? Kentucky girl, who started, out to
Miss Snipp " i Vhje study,ng in New
MARIAN VIRGINIA SHIPP
senses.
earth,
ideals. While
;s nor Pur-
teachers in New York, including the famous Menzeli.
She now has a large studio in Los Angeles, where she
has under instruction many of the daughters of the so
ciety leaders of that city.
Every year she gives what she calls a dance-drama
in one of the larger theaters of Los Angeles. These
productions are entirely original with Miss Shipp, who
not only arranges, composes and directs, but designs
all the costumes and scenery. Miss Shipp, although she
borrows a little from all schools of dancing, may yet be
said to have created a distinct school of her own. All
her productions are distinguished by marked originality.
So successful has she been in developing talent that
many of her pupils have received flattering offers to
enter the professional ranks.
Her dances, while beautiful in their grace and
grouping, make a distinct appeal to the mentality of the
audience rather than to the senses. Her pupils are
taught that the body is but the in
strument for the expression of
the idea. In fact, the conscious
ness of physical being is taken
from them so that in acting their
parts in one of Miss Shipp's dance
dramas they become literally iden
tified with the idea which they are
representing, just as a great actor
becomes merged in the character
he is playing.
Miss Shipp also has original
views on the relation of the dance
to the other arts.
"I am a believer," she says, "in
but one art, and that is the unity
of all arts in giving forth one
great beautiful thought or idea of
beauty and truth."
"I do not consider music
greater than literature, nor sculp
ture greater than the pictorial
arts, nor any of them worth more
than dancing. Each and all these
expressions are inspired by the
Master Builder, and in proportion,
as an artist or a group of artists combine their faculties
for expression and seek to portray or to reflect life's
perfect unity and beauty, docs art become worth while."
Miss Shipp carries out this creed in her dance
dramas, in which music and design are given an equal
place with dancing, combining the three to make one
harmonious whole.
She believes that dancing should be used only where
it is the natural medium of interpretation for an idea.
In this she differs from the European school. Conse
quently an audience is not compelled in viewing her
production to draw on its imagination to the lengths
often carried to absurdity in Russian and French ballets.
Two years ago she engaged one of the largest thea
ters in Los Angeles to stage one of her productions.
Not only did a group of Jewish stage hands annoy in
every possible manner but when she came to settle the
bill she found that they had charged for the services
of 20 men for each rehearsal, although three men had
actually done the work required. Miss Shipp has
plenty of good American spunk and she refused to be
gouged. As a result her productions have been boy
cotted in every theater in the city and she is compelled
to stage them at a club, which is far too small for the
productions she has planned.