DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



535 



Burgess, John M. Howland, Henry S. Packard, 

 Philip Anthony. 



On Exchange of Fruits and Flowers. — Albert 

 D. Hatch. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 Paint and Sand.— E., (Balfray, N. C.) 



Mr. Wheeler's durable paint for outside work, 

 referred to in the August number Horticulturist, 



is as follows: "take 50 lbs. best white lead; 

 ten quarts linseed oil; £ lb. dryers; 50 lbs. finely 

 silted clean white sand; 2 lbs. raw umber. Tho- 

 roughly mix, and dilute the whole with the oil, 

 adding a very little (say half a pint) of turpentine. 

 Lay it on with a large brush. I use a wire brush, 

 which does not cut through with the sand." 



Pomological. — T. Boardman, (Trumansburgh.) 

 The Pomological Congress Report will, we under- 

 stand, be ready about the 1st of May. Copies 

 may be had at the publication office of the Horti- 

 culturist, (407 Broadway, Albany.) or at Mr. 

 Breck's Agricultural Warehouse, North Market 

 street, Boston. The report will be sent by mail 

 to all persons who attended the Congress at Cas- 

 tle Garden, and entered their names. You will 

 find Bullock's pippin described at page 131 of our 

 Fruit Trees. The Diana grape cannot be pro- 

 cured at any price now — but several nurserymen 

 are propagating, and will, we presume, have it for 

 sale in the autumn. 



Manures. — A Long Island Subscriber. Try 

 the Poudrette of the Lodi Company, New- York. 

 We can recommend it, from experience, as the 

 safest, cheapest and most easily used of all ma- 

 nures for the nicer gardening purposes. It will 

 not burn up your plants or seed, (as guano will in 

 the hands of novices,) and is at the same time a 

 most active and vigorous stimulant. 



Imported Trees. — /. Jackson, (Boston.) Im- 

 ported fruit trees are not, in our estimation, quite 

 equal to those grown here, but nevertheless they 

 succeed well, and make sound and healthy trees. 

 We have not found them more tender than the 

 same sorts grafted in this country. It is only by 

 raising trees from seed grown here that they be- 

 come hardier. 



Yerbenas. — Viola, (Holyoke, Mass.) Nothing 

 is easier than to cultivate verbenas. They will 

 generally grow well in any rich, deep garden soil, 

 but if you find any difficulty with your soil, procure 

 a couple of wheelbarrow loads of good sods, char 

 or burn them by mixing them with refuse brush or 

 combustible garden rubbish, and setting the heap 

 on fire. Take these charred sods, chop them up 

 finely, make a bed of one-third of them, one-third 

 garden soil, one-third with rotted manure. If the 

 soil is heavy, add some sand. In this, plant your 

 verbenas, any time during the month of May. 

 They always look best in a bed or mass, and half 

 a dozen plants will creep over and cover a bed 

 three or four feet in diameter. The spot for the 

 bed should be in the open sunshine, and away from 



the shade of trees. To propagate the verbena is 

 thr easiest possible thing of the kind. You have 

 only to plant cuttings in a pot with a little sandy 

 soil, and turn a large bell ;_ r lass — or tumbler if you 

 have nothing better — over them. Water the pot 

 of cuttings every evening, and remove the tum- 

 bler lor a few hours — taking care to replace it be- 

 fore the sun shines. In ten days or a fortnight 

 they will be rooted, and may be turned out of the 

 pot and set out in a bed. watered and shaded for 

 three or four days, when they will be established. 

 Xou may propagate them in this way at any time 

 — but cuttings are usually made for next 

 steek in the month of August. The pot can be 

 stuck full, and may remain so till early in the 

 spring, when they should be separated and put in- 

 to separate pots to get established before it is time 

 to turn them into the open border. They must 

 be kept in a green-house or room where there is no 

 frost through the winter, and watered rather spa- 

 ringly till spring opens. Among the best sorts are 

 the following: Beautc Supreme, pearl blossom; 

 Robinson's Defiance, scarlet; Rosy Morn, light 

 rosy crimson; Satellite, orange scarlet; Queen, 

 white. 



Miscellaneous. — E Wilcox, (New-York.) 

 Spent tan-bark will do very well for mulching all 

 but very delicate trees or shrubs. The Bartlett 

 would be afar more profitable pear than the White 

 Doyenne, in your New Jersey soil. We art doubt- 

 ful of success in grafting the beach plum trees you 

 speak of, but it is worth a trial. (Your letter 

 miscarried.) 



Guano. — TV. P. A., (Detroit.) This is a most 

 valuable manure if used judiciously. To dig it in 

 around the roots of tender plants, or mix it with 

 soil in which seeds are to be grown, amounts, gene- 

 rally, to burning up these plants or seeds. We 

 prefer, therefore, to apply it in the fall, ploughing 

 or digging it in when the roots are dormant, so 

 that it becomes incorporated with the soil before 

 the plants are affected by it. The true way to use 

 guano, at this season, is to compost it with char- 

 coal, peat, or swamp muck, mixing about one hun- 

 dred pounds of guano with a cart load of charcoal 

 dust or a waggon load of decomposed peat, and 

 letting it be a fortnight before using it — turning it 

 over once or twice in the interval. This econo- 

 mises the value of the guano, and the carbon, 

 taking up the more active elements of the guano, 

 and giving them out slowly, prevents the injurious 

 action which they often have on tender plants. 



Tobacco-water. — A Beginner, ( Natchez. ) 

 To destroy the aphis or green insect that infests 

 young rose shoots, the following recipe, if followed, 

 will prove most effectual: '"Pour one epiart of 

 boiling water upon one ounce of shag tobacco; 

 let it 'tand until cold, and then strain and bottle 

 it for use; it will keep good for a year if not want- 

 ed. One sprinkling of this will destroy the green 

 fly upon any plant, without the hast injury to the 

 plant itself. The best method of applying it, is to 

 take the plant in one hand, and holding it with its 



