No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 351 



the early bloomiug perennials were, and you will have a lawn that 

 will cost but a trifle, and will alTord you untold pleasure, and your 

 neighbors no end of satisfaction in seeing (he (lirifty and pleasant 

 surroundings of their friend. 



I have just one more suggestion along this line, your garden would 

 not be complete without a bed of pansies and verbenas. Two years 

 ago, when I was on the mountain, I saw a bed of pansies there, which 

 excelled in beauty any I had ever seen. It was about eight feet 

 square, and was one mass of bloom. My trouble had always been 

 to keep the plants from matting together and destroying each other, 

 but this bed was covered with chicken wire about four inches from 

 the ground, and the plants had run up through the meshes of the 

 wire, and were thus held in their places. I made some inquiries and 

 found that the bed had been prepared and the seed sown in the 

 usual way, so I concluded that the secret was the chicken wire. 



There is nothing in which we engage that is all sunshine; we will 

 find that we have enemies to fight, even in our flower garden and 

 front dooryard, and those having the best material to fight with are 

 the surest and sooner the victors. This brings us to the second 

 part of our talk, viz.: 



Salt, Soap-suds and Turpentine. 



Few farmers realize the value of salt on their farms. Sow your 

 fields with salt and the cut worm will not destroy your corn, nor the 

 grub worm your potatoes. Make your cabbage patch look as if a 

 skiif of snow had fallen on it, a few dajs before you plant your cab- 

 bage, and you will not be troubled with club-root nor cabbage 

 maggot. 



Let the flower bed I have spoken of be well salted very early in 

 tbe spring, and it will destroy germs of many insects that prey upon 

 the foliage later. Dig around the roots of your trees and shrubs, 

 &vd salt the ground well, and you will leave no place for the enemies 

 that lie there read}' to take the life of your plant as soon as an 

 opportune time arrives. 



Buy salt, buy it in large quantities; use it on your fields, in your 

 giirden, on your meadows and orchards, and you will find it the 

 cheapest and best fertilizer you can get, and it will rid you of many 

 of the numerous pests that prey upon your crops. 



Soap suds will do more for grow ing plants than many of the costly 

 fertilizers, and not one bucketful of it should be wasted, if you have 

 a delicate tree, throw the suds from the laundry around it, and you 

 will be surprised to see how soon it will take on new life. 



My main object in bringing this matter to your notice to-night is 

 for the purpose of making an earnest appeal for our orchards. Our 

 dealers ask us 50 cents a peck for apples, and when we complain, they 

 say : ''Oh, but they are New York apples, or Michigan apples." Why 



