10 SHARPEN YOUR AXES. [May 



with a brace and bit and a sharp hatchet, will fix seventy to a 

 hundred of them in an hour. 



The Advantarjc of Boxes for Young Plants. — When young plants 

 are raised in pots, their roots become root-bound, or twisted 

 into a tight mass ; if at planting time we undo these balls of roots, 

 it will for a short time materially check the growth of the plants, 

 and if we set out the plants without unfastening their roots, the 

 roots never become uncoiled, and although the plants may wilt less 

 at the time of setting out, they do not afterward grow as thriftily as 

 those do whose roots were not coiled into a mass ; and, too, they are 

 more susceptible to injury by drouth. And more especially, as for 

 one-season plants, like geraniums and coleuses, should we avoid pots 

 for young perennial plants, as hollyhocks and pentstemons. Plants 

 in boxes need less care in watering than do those in pots. In 

 moviu'^ boxes from one place to another, we move 100 plants with 

 as much ease and as quickly as we would six or seven in pots." 



SHARPEN YOUR AXES. 



THEEE now lie before us an assortment of " Tam o' Shanter " 

 Hones, manufactured by Mr. John C. Montgomerie, of Dal- 

 more, Ayrshire, admirably adapted for this, as well as for giving a 

 workman-like edge to the divers implements used by joiners and 

 carpenters, foresters, sheep-shearers, as well as those who forswear 

 the beard movement, or who, despite ensnaring advertisements, eschew 

 steel pens. The Water of Ayr stone, probably an altered argil- 

 laceous shale, is one of the unique beds in the British strata, pos- 

 sessing the requisites of a Hone stone ; and Mr. Montgomerie has 

 made his manufacture a speciality — both in the selection of stones 

 of varied grain just suiting the special tool requiring sharpening, 

 and in the beautiful ornamental polished wood cases in which the 

 manufactured products are enclosed. 



French Sylviculture. — In the section of Sylviculture of the 

 Society of French Agriculturists it was determined to offer a prize 

 for the best means of utilizing accessory forest products in such 

 ways as paper pulp, black alder charcoal for powder works, %yool 

 from pine scales, and vine props from injected j)ine-wood. Another 

 prize is also to be offered for a memoir indicating the various 

 circumstances needed to make a definite forest region give the best 

 sylvicultural results. 



