268 TRANSACTIONS OP THE HORTICULTURAL 



The calla is another beautiful plant that pays well for good 

 care. To make it thrive and bloom, set the plant every day in 

 scalding water, and pour some over the roots. It requires to be 

 pretty wet all the time. 



Do not crowd your window. One handsome plant is worth a 

 dozen crowded into the space one should occupy. Never turn 

 your plants, if you want them to be strong and nice-looking, and 

 never move from one window to another. Do not wash them to 

 death. Do not make the mistake so many amateurs make, of 

 putting in too large pots. Give them, as near as you can, their 

 natural condition, and let them alone. 



FRUIT AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 



BY MISS LUCY GASTON, LACON. 



I know a lady who has the reputation of having not only a 

 single hobby, but a whole stable full of them. A hobby is not a 

 bad thing to have, in the modern acceptation of the term. One 

 who is not specially interested in one thing or more, as the case 

 may be, cannot accomplish the results of the more interested 

 neighbor. The writer has been charged with having a hobby, and 

 we will now enjoy a canter along a road which has but few 

 travellers. Many questions likely to be discussed in a Horticul- 

 tural Meeting are of special interest to those only who are en- 

 gaged in fruit growing, but those questions which relate to fruit 

 as an article of food are of interest to all. 



Upon the quantity and quality of our food depends, in a great 

 degree, our being, as well as the condition of our health, both 

 physically and morally. Let us suppose a man surrounded by 

 natural influences ; let him have access to all fruits and grains for 

 food, and also have at his command small animals. To him the 

 use of these animals would never occur; every sense of the body 

 and mind would attract him to the fruits and grains, and in them 

 he would find his highest satisfaction. Compare an orchard, or 

 vineyard, or the waving fields, with cattle and pig pens; from 

 which would we naturally choose our food? View with me 

 baskets of apples, peaches and pears, or go to the leafy bed where 

 the strawberry hides its radiant face. Now let us go to the 

 slaughter pens. Man can live without orchards or vineyards, but 

 without slaughter pens, never. Hear the dull thud as the indo- 

 lent porker or the gentle sheep pays the penalty of being good to 

 eat. Perhaps, if we go to the butcher shop the flesh will be more 

 appetizing as it is there displayed for sale. Here in array are 

 displayed those mysteries of childhood days — sausage, head- 

 cheese, (which accomplishes the purpose of making cheese of the 

 head that partakes of it) and bologna, the whole family of which 

 we would be glad to see confined to its native land. If left un- 

 biased by previous habits, which would we take? Both, do you 



