CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. 



21 



is eight inches below the other. The walk 

 should be three feet broad, and a small 

 front level stage over the flue should be two 

 feet broad ; this stage being two feet from 

 the glass, would be a convenient place for 

 a few calceolarias, cinerarias, or other plants 

 that require the same treatment as the Pe- 

 largoniums. In propagating the various 

 varieties, it will be found that a spent hot- 

 bed is the best place in which to plant the 

 cuttings. They may be taken from the old 

 plants anv time during the months of April 

 or May. After planting them in the soil of 

 the old hotbed, they should be well water- 

 ed and kept shaded during the day. As 

 soon as they are avcU rooted, which will be 

 in a few weeks, pot them into four inch 

 pots, in sandy loam, place them on the front 

 stage. The most important point now is, 

 the pinchiyig off the ends of the shoots, so 

 that the plants will make plenty of side 

 shoots. This attended to, gives fine round 

 bushy heads ; neglected, gives lean, starved 

 trees. Water the plants only moderately 

 in winter. In March, when the plants be- 

 gin to grow, pot them into six inch pots, in 

 rough rich loam — that made of old pasture 

 sods, well rotted, is the best. In May take 

 the young shoots off for cuttings, treating 

 them as I have already mentioned. When- 

 ever you observe any tendency to long, un- 

 sightly branches, correct it by pinching off 

 the ends of the shoots, so that the plants 

 will be bushy. The plants in the pots 

 should be allowed to remain in the open air 

 all the summer, in a somewhat shaded as- 



pect, and not plunged in the ground, but 

 set upon a floor two or three inches thick of 

 coal ashes. They should be put into win- 

 ter quarters before the season of the first 

 frost. During the winter keep the house 

 moderately cool, and the plants rather dor- 

 mant. About the first of March, begin to 

 keep your house warmer during the night, 

 giving plenty of air everj- favorable day. 

 When the plants begin to grow finely, put 

 them into eight inch pots, with plenty of 

 drainage at the bottom (bits of charcoal are 

 the best drainage ;) and the plants, if well 

 grown, will require no tying up to stakes, 

 but the lowest branches will fall gently on 

 every side, half concealing the pot, and 

 forming rich bushy masses of green leaves- 

 Plants in this condition maj'^ be allowed to 

 bloom all the buds they will form. 



The house once a week should be fumi- 

 gated with tobacco, to destroy the green 

 fly. Syringing over the leaves in tlie morn- 

 ing, will greatly add to the health and lux- 

 uriance of the whole collection. 



Those who do not possess a green-house 

 of any sort, may, with the aid of a couple 

 of hot-bed lights and frames in which to 

 strike the cuttings, and by following the 

 simple hints I have thrown out, grow a suf- 

 ficiency of specimens, much more compact 

 and robust than are usually seen, to adorn 

 the parlor, plant stage, or the windows of 

 any well lighted apartments, hee fromfroft 

 and not too loarm. 



Yours, Pelargonium. 



Philadelphia, 1847. 



Peach Crop. — It would be an interesting 

 statement to know how often the peach 

 crop fails, on the most favorable sites, in 

 different parts of the country. The opinion 

 of H. N. Langworthy, a very successful 



peach raiser of Rochester, as stated in the 

 Genesee Farmer, is, that there is not an en- 

 tire failure oftener than once in ten years, 

 in Western New- York, or between Lewis- 

 ton and Sodus bay, on Lake Ontario. 



