288 



DOMESTIC NOTICES 



now be put in some dry place, out of sight in the 

 green-house, or in the cellar, if you have one 

 quite free from frost. If you dry your Dahlia 

 roots, by. letting them stand in an airy place for a 

 few days before you put them away, you will not 

 lose any. They will keep perfectly well after- 

 wards, upon a shelf in the cellar, or on the top of 

 potatoes in the bin, if no frost gets there. 



Dry Cellarj. — W. Avery. Of course, in build- 

 ing, you must provide a drain to the basement j 

 and if you wish to make the walls perfectly dry, 

 in a damp sub-soil, you had better lay them up 

 with mortar, made with Hydraulic cement, instead 

 of common lime. Of course, you will fur-off before 

 lathing the inside walls. 



A FEW GOOD Fruits. — P. R. S. (Baltimore.) 

 Plant the following in your limited grounds: Ap- 

 pies — Early Harvest, Porter, Yellow Bellefleur, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Newtown Pippin. Pears 

 — Dearborn's Seedling, Rostiezer, Bartlett, Seckel, 

 Paradise d'Automne, Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre 

 d'Aremberg. Winter Nelis. Cherries — May Duke, 

 Black Tartarian, Elton, Black Eagle. Downer's 

 Late. Belle Magniiique. Peaches — Early York, 

 George IV, Olumixon Free-stone, Snow, Bergen's 

 Yellow, Heath Cling. Plums — Rivers' Early Fa- 

 vorite, Yellow Gage, Green Gage, Jefferson, Pur- 

 ple Favorite, Smith's Orleans, Coe's Golden Drop. 

 A Good Lawn.— IF., (Philadelphia.) "The 

 matter" with your lawn, that it turns brown in 

 summer, is that the soil is thin, and does not bear 

 the drouth well. If you will break it up and 

 trench it 21 feet deep, you may have a deep green 

 lawn all summer. The roots must be able to run 

 down below the reach of parching mid-summer 

 heat, or you cannot expect the turf to remain 

 fresh. 



Old Pear Trees.— ^. M'J., (Buffxlo.) Don't, 

 for the world, cut down your pear trees. You are 

 lucky to have them, though " they are 30 years 

 old, and the fruit is universally sour." You should 

 graft their tops all over with Bartlett, Ononda- 

 ga, and Oswego Beurre, or some other good sorts 

 that suit your climate ; and in three or four years' 

 time you may gather bushels of the best fruit from 

 those very trees. April is the time for grafting, 

 and the trees will do best if you graft the top or 

 highest part of the head next spring, and the side 

 branches the following season. It is better to put 

 but one sort upon a tree, though there is no diffi- 

 culty in grafting a dozen or more, if you desire it. 

 W. F., (Boston.) You have not succeeded in 

 renovating the old Seckel pear trees in your gar- 

 den, because you have thought it sufficient to give 

 them top-dressings. Dig a trench all round the 

 tree, remove as much of the soil as possible, and 

 replace it with new soil, air-slaked lime, bone 

 dust, &c., and you will meet with your reward. 



Vines for Verandas. — A Lady Reader, (Lou- 

 isville, Ky.) We recommend the following: Chi- 

 nese Twining Honeysuckle, Chinese Wistaria, 

 Queen of the Prairies Rose, Sweet Scented Cle- 

 matis. If you wish to cover the long shed, use 

 Virginia Creeper and the Trumpet Flower (Big- 

 nonia.) 



Green-house Plants. — A Novice, (Pittsburgh.) 

 Your Fuchsias, which have flowered finely all 

 summer, and have now lost their leaveS; will be 

 much better off if you allow them to rest all win- 

 ter, than if you excite them into new growth. If 

 you have a dry cellar, where the frost does not 

 enter, carrj- the plants there, and set them upon 

 a shelf out of the reach of rats or mice. Let them 

 go quite dry, — watering them only two or three 

 times all winter. They will not mind cold, or 

 even a slight frost, if quite dry. When they show 

 signs of starting again, towards spring, take them 

 out, pot them afresh, put them in the green-house 

 or frame, and they will bloom much more abun- 

 dantly than this year. — j1., (Chicago.) To give 

 more gaiety to your little collection, you should 

 have a stock of Chinese Primroses, Hyacinths, 

 and Cinerarias, which will bloom continually from 

 November to May. The first and last are easily 

 reared from seeds, to be had at the seed shops. 

 Sow them about June or July. Your Daphnes are 

 yellow, from the want of the right soil. Take 

 some sods, and roast or burn them on a brush 

 heap, and chop them up fine; add to one part of 

 this an equal part of decayed leaf-mould from the 

 woods, and half as much fine sand. Turn the 

 plant out of the pot, loosen or break the ball of 

 earth, tlirowing away a good part of it. Re-pot 

 it in the new compost, and it will soon put on a 

 different aspect. 



Stiff Clay Soil. — T. Williams. (Brooklyn.) 

 Your garden soil, which is so stiff and unmanagea- 

 ble, may be much ameliorated, if at this season 

 you will throw it up into ridges, and expose it 

 thus to the action of frost all winter. Hard-coal 

 ashes are an excellent dressing to make it light; 

 and if you can get fresh stable manure, mixed 

 with litter, have a good coat spread over the sur- 

 face before ridging it, by which means it will be- 

 come mixed with the soil, thus keeping it more 

 open to allow the frost to penetrate, enriching it 

 at the same time. 



Edgings. — R., (Poughkeepsie, N. Y.) One 

 of the prettiest edgings is made by planting cut- 

 tings of the variegated-leaved Euonymus, — a 

 shrub from Japan that is quite hardy here, and 

 may be had in any of the nurseries. It is 

 evergreen, and grows very thriftily. The leaves 

 are green, edged with silver; it may be kept 

 low by clipping, and is much less stiff than 

 box. 



