DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



343 



The Season. — The past autumn, and the early 

 jiart of winter, have been unusually tine and mild 

 with us. With the exception of three days of severe 

 frost, at the close of October, the season has been 

 sir^ularlv genial and warm, and the atmosphere 

 remarkalilv clear and brisht. 



On the 2dih of November, we had in our grounds 

 pansies, niijrnonette, sweet alyssum, and some other 



Slants still bloominfr finely. As late as the 12th of 

 •ecember, the weather was so mild, tliat vegetation 

 ■was kept up in all late-growin<i plants ; and we 

 observed that a few blossoms of the Mezereum, one 

 of the first vernal shrubs, excited by the spring-like 

 warmth, began to make their appearance. 



New-Haven Pomological Society. — A number 

 of gentlemen in New-Haven, devoted to the culture 

 of fruits, formed themselves, some time ago. into a 

 society under this name ; and, we have no doubt, 

 in connexion with the zealous Horticultural Society 

 of that city, will accomplish much towards that 

 end, which now occupies so prominently so many 

 horticulturists — the collection of fine fruits, and the 

 attainment of something like accuracy in pomology. 

 Meetings are held weekly at the houses of the dif- 

 ferent members, where specimens are exhibited, etc. 



If societies of this kind, in different parts of the 

 country, would carry on a system of exchanges in 

 the products of the fruit garden and orchard, pecu- 

 liar to their districts, a great deal of useful informa- 

 tion might be accumulated and disseminated. 



To DESTROY Cockroaches. — If your correspon- 

 dents will try the following simple plan, I will 

 warrant them that every beetle and cockroach will 

 shortly disappear, and that the kitchen will not 

 again be inl'ested. Add about a teaspoonful of 

 powdered arsenic to about a table-spoonful of 

 mashed boiled potatoes ; rub and mix them well 

 together, and then crumble about a third of it, every 

 night at bedtime, about the kitchen hearth : it will 

 all be eaten up, or nearly so, by the following 

 morning. The creature is very i"')nd of potatoes, 

 and, devouring them greedily, crawls again into its 

 hole and perishes. I had occasion to have some 

 alterations made in the kitchen stove, six months 

 after I pursued this plan, and found hundreds of 

 wings and dried mummies of tlefunct cockroaches. 

 Their disappearance was not attended with the 

 slightest percei)tible smell ; and though five years 

 have elaj)scd, not one has again been seen in my 

 kitchen. In putting it into practice, any remaining 

 crumbs should be swept up the next morninsr. — 

 F. H. Horner, M. D. [ We have tried the fore- 

 going, and found it perfectly elfectual. Ed.] 



The Flower Trad?:. — Some of your readers, 

 who are " plain farmers," are, no doubt, in the 

 habit of putting down flowers as '' idle things, of 

 little profit." Now I have been this morning making 

 a little tour around among the^ principal florists ; 

 for I love to look at their treasures in the various 

 pits, greenhouses and hothouses, that cluster thick- 

 ly around the outskirts of a city like this. I will 

 not weary you with the detail of all that I saw, nor 

 even the names of the florists themselves, who 

 appear to me to multiply every year as rapidly as 

 their choicest cuttings, " struck in sand under bell- 



glasses." Messrs. ThorburnSc Co., Dunlap, and 

 Hogg, are still, however, the great purveyors of 

 this kind of luxury ; though there are many others 

 who grow plants, in a wholesale way, more exten- 

 sively than they — such, for example, as Mantel, 

 Bali., Monk, &c. 



The great points kept in view by the city florists, 

 are, growing a great quantity of the most popular 

 flowers in pots, for the market sales in spring ; and 

 growing flowers for winter bouquets. The bouquet 

 business is one of no small moment, and I am 

 pleased to see it is every day increasing. I look 

 upon it as a mark of the refinement of our people ; 

 for what gift can be more universally acceptable, 

 more refined, or more touched with sentiment, than 

 a fresh bouiiuet of lovely flowers? Truly our citi- 

 zens think not. Not a ball can be given, that do- 

 zens of bouquets are not immediately wanted. The 

 young gallant who makes his first timid ofrerin<T, 

 goes to IJuNLAP for his bouquet of roses and violets ; 

 and the millionaire who wishes to delight and asto- 

 nish Madame, sends to Thorburx for his rich ar- 

 rangement of camellias. Opera-goers also provide 

 themselves with wreaths and huge bouquets, to re- 

 ward the successful prima donna ; and tlie chamber 

 of the valetudinarian is brightened by a daily offer- 

 ing from the hands of true friends. So that, as you 

 see, every body is forced either by love, friendship, 

 or vanity, to employ the beautiful language of 

 flowers ! 



Well, you may suppose there must be a somewhere 

 to produce all this wealth of Flora. If yo\i go to 

 Thorburn's, (his garden, at Astoria, I mean,) 

 you will find quite a forest of camellias. At Man- 

 tel's, I saw immense beds of sweet-scented violets 

 and primroses, covered with glass, and in full 

 bloom; while long cheap glazed structures, in all the 

 florists' gardens, are filled with heliotropes, dwarf 

 cape jasmines, stevias, ro.ses, daphnes, heaths, and 

 fifiy other plants to supply the winter demand. 

 One ol the leading florists told me that he sold 

 $2500 worth of bouquets last winter ! When I say 

 that there arc, of one grade and another, at least 

 fifty florists who devote themselves to this branch 

 of gardening in and about New- York, you will see 

 how much of a tax is most cheerfullv paid in our 

 metropolis, for the enjoyment of beautiful floweis. 

 What we need, to complete the thin<T, is a Flower 

 Market, like that of Paris, where all the products 

 may be seen assembled together in one brilliant 

 coup-d'ceil. Rus in Urbe. New- York, Dec. 1847. 



Value of Lvorgamc Manures. — We quote the 

 following from one of Mr Horskord's interesting 

 letters to the jllbani/ Cultivator. It was written 

 from Giessen — Mr. H. being enixaged in chemical 

 studies under Liebig ; and its significance will be 

 the better understood by those who have perused 

 the leading article in this number. Ed.] 



" In the spring preceding my arrival at Giessen, 

 Professor Liebig planted some grape scions un- 

 der the windows of the laboratory. He fed them, 

 if I may use the expression, upon the ashes of the 

 graj)e vine, — or upon the proper inorganic food of 

 the erapc, as shown by analysis of its ashes. The 

 growth has been enom.ous; and several of the vines 

 boro large clusters of grapes in the course of the 



