DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



437 



anil bloom during the winter; or, simply to pro- 

 tect them from the frosts. Our first criticism is, 

 that these two separate objects are, to a great ex- 

 tent, improperly united. Tables and window- 

 stands are crowded with plants which ought to be 

 in the cellar or in a pit. Plants which have 

 bloomed through the summer will rest during the 

 winter. To remove them from the heat and dust 

 of the parlor — to iilace them in a ilry, light, warm 

 cellar, will certainly conduce to their entire rest, 

 and the parlor will lose no grace by the removal 

 of ragged stems, falling leaves, and flowerless 

 branches. When a large quantity of plants are to 

 be protected, and cellar room is wanting, a pit 

 may be prepared with little expense. Dig a place 

 eight OF ten feet square, in a dry exposure. The 

 depth may be from five to six feet. Let the sur- 

 face of this chamber be curbed about with a plank 

 frame, the top of which should slope to the south 

 at an inclination of about three inches to the foot. 

 Tliis may be covered with plank except in the 

 middle where two sash may be placed. The out- 

 side of the plank may be banked up with earth, 

 and if light brush or haulm be placed upon the 

 top, in severe weather, it will be all the better. 

 The inside may be provided with shelves on every 

 side for the pots, and thus hundreds of plants may 

 be effectually protected. During severe freezing 

 weather the sash should be covered with mats, old 

 carpet, straw or any thing of the kind; and in very 

 cold weather this should not be removed during 

 the day time: for if the plants have been touched 

 with frost the admission of light will destroy or 

 maim them, whereas, if kept in darkness, they 

 will suffer little or no injury. Several families 

 may unite in the expense of forming a cold-pit 

 and thus fill it with plants at a small expense and 

 very little inconvenience to each. Very little if 

 any water should be given to plants thus at rest. 



Even where plants are wanted to bloom in the 

 parlor late in the winter, it is often better to let 

 them spend the fore part of the winter in the cel- 

 lar or pit. 



Our second criticism respects the character of 

 winter collections. 



The most noticeable error is the strange crowd 

 of plants often huddled together as if the excel- 

 lence of a collection consisted in the number of 

 things brought together. Everything that the 

 florist sees in other collections has been procured 

 as if it would be an unpanlonable negligence not 

 to have what others have. Hence we sometimes 

 see scores of plants, very different in their habits, 

 requiring widely different conditions of grovi^th, 

 reduced to one regimen, viz : a place near the win- 

 dow, so much water a day, and one turning round. 

 This summary procedure, of course, soon results 

 in a vegetable Fals-taff's regiment — some plants 

 being long, sprawling, gangling, some dormant 

 and dumpy; some shedding their leaves and going 

 to rest with unripe wood, some mildewed, a few 

 faintly struggling to show here and there a bewil- 

 dered blossom. In such a collection the eye is 

 pained by the entire want of sympathy arising 

 from jumbling together the most tli^similar kinds; 

 from the want of robust health, and from the en- 



tire disappearance of that vivid freshness and 

 sprightliness of growth, compact while it is rapid, 

 which gives a charm to well-managed plants. 



All plants which are not growing, or for whose 

 growth your parlors ate not suitable, should be 

 put into the cellar, and should there be allowed to 

 stand over in a state of rest. According to your 

 accommodations, select a few vigorous, symmetri- 

 cal, hearty, healthy plants for the Avindow. One 

 plarit well tended, will aflbrd you more pleasure 

 than twenty, half nurtured. 



In our dwellings, one has to make his way be- 

 tween two extremes in the best manner that he 

 can. "Without a stove our thin walled houses are 

 cold as an ice-house, and a frosty night sends sad 

 dismay among our favorites. Then, on the other 

 hand, if we have a stove, the air is apt to be 

 parched and unwholesome, fit for salamanders, fat 

 and torpid cats and dozing grandmothers. There 

 is not much choice between an ice-house and an 

 oven. There can be no such thing asjloral health 

 without fresh air and enough of it. This must be 

 procured by frequent ventillation. — ,i est. Farm. 

 and Gard. 



Treatment of Carnations. — In your second 

 number of the Horticulturist, a correspondent has 

 given directions for raising carnations in pots. In 

 England this plan is undoubtedly the best; but in 

 our hot and dry summers, unless great care is be- 

 stowed in shading the pots by surrounding their sides 

 with moss, and watering them most assiduously, 

 the hopes of the amateur will be generally defeat- 

 ed; and even with all the care that can be bestow- 

 ed, the plants will often wither and die, without 

 any apparent cause. Will you permit me to give 

 you the results of my small experience. In laying 

 the carnation, I prefer cutting offa part of the heel 

 just below a joint. From this square cut, 1 have 

 found larger roots produced, than from the slant- 

 ing heel represented in the cut. Instead of potting 

 the layers for winter, I fill in the framewith about 

 six inches of rather sandy loam, and taking up each 

 layer with a small ball anil planting them in the 

 frame in rows. When I have kept them in pots, I 

 have generally found the pots burst by the frost be- 

 fore spring — and frequently fallen all to pieces, 

 leaving the roots of tlie plants exposed. If set in 

 the Irame by the first of October, they will get firm 

 hold of the ground before winter, and keep admi- 

 rably, and give very strong plants for spring use. 



About tlie 20th of April, if the ground is drj-and 

 the season well advanced, I make my bed by dig- 

 ging in deeply a large Quantity of partly rotted 

 dung from the hog pen — the grounii is then rakeil 

 and laid out in double rows, two feet apart, and 

 four feet between the rows; holes are then made 

 with a scoop-trowel two feet apart from centre to 

 centre in the rows. The holes to be nine indies 

 deep and nine inches across at the to]); these holes 

 I fill with the following compost: three jiarts good 

 strong garden loam, three parts hot-bed manure 

 two years olil, three parts coarse river sand, two 

 parts dry manure from the hen-house sifted, and 

 two paits soot from a wood fire; with this compost 

 when carefully incorporated I fill the hole to about 



