30 



lilK C.ARDKNKRS' MONTHLY 



[January 



margin of our Knglish streams. About a hundrecl 

 years ago Lord Rochfort imported from Turin the 

 first cuttings of the Lombard)- Poplar, which in- 

 troduced here the novelty of a pole clothed with 

 foliage. 



Travels of riiii Indian Corn or ALa.ize. — 

 The Gardenet-s Chronic/e notes that "it is not sur- 

 prising, therefore, that this prolific grain should 

 have accompanied the colonists of various nations 

 over the whole of America from Chili to the chain 

 of lakes. It was introduced into gardens on this 

 side of the Atlantic within fifty years of the first 

 voyage of Columbus. It entered the Mediterra- 

 nean by way of Spain, and before the death of 

 Queen Elizabeth and her counsellors — two of whom 

 were noted gardeners, it reached the Levant, 

 where it became an important item in the trade of 

 the Venetians. It afterwards passed up the Dan- 

 ube to Hungary, and traveling eastward with the 

 merchandise of caravans, it gradually entered the 

 rice countries, and reached China and Japan." 



Industrial Schools. — In a recent address in 

 Philadelphia, the Hon. Richard Vaux said : "The 

 time will come when the people will demand that 

 appropriations shall be made for the estabhshment 

 and maintenance of mechanical schools, so that 

 from them may be graduated young men whose i 

 diplomas will show that they are educated and { 

 skilled in the arts, and the peers of any other men, 

 no matter what their profession." 



The fact seems to be overlooked that \ery few 

 lads come to love the trade or pursuit in which 

 they have been trained. We have agricultural 

 schools, and it is a well known fact that a very 

 small percentage of those who go to these schools 

 ever become farmers. Nurserymen know that of 

 the great number of those young boys who are 

 placed by their parents, or who get opportunities 

 to learn the business, it is extremely rare to find 

 one who finally cares for it. The great bulk of the 

 most successful in any employment are those who 

 took to it in comparatively later years, from the 

 love of it and not from early training. 



So far as systems of education shall permit of 

 the development early in life of a love of industry 

 and mechanical pursuits in a general way, Mr. 

 Vaux's idea is well enough. Those who love 

 labor will soon find how to put it into useful prac- 

 tice. 



Free Railroads and Canals. — It may be 

 well worth considering when we suffer whether 

 the remedy is not worse than the disease. There 

 are few people who suffer more from what appears 



to them unjust raih'oad discriminations, than farm- 

 ers and gardeners. But it may be questioned 

 whether this is to be remedied Ijy some methods 

 proposed. New York State has resolved to try 

 the experiment of free canals. Instead of the 

 people who use them paying for tlieir use, about 

 one million dollars will have to be annually raised 

 by taxation to pay interest on bonds and running 

 expenses. This is intended as a blow at "rail- 

 road monopolies." This good, however, will re- 

 sult that we shall have a chance to see by experi- 

 ment how the rule of free roads in the hands of 

 State politicians actually works. 



New Chicago Florists' Holsks. — Mr. E. 

 Sanders describes in the Praifie Farmer, the new 

 houses of Mr. F. F. Cauda, all heated with hot 

 water in the best manner, using two pipes or steam 

 boilers and some 7,000 feet of four-inch pipe. The 

 houses, three in number, are built east and west, 

 1 50 feet long by about 20 feet wide, and attached 

 with a fine take of roses and carnations, along with 

 a smaller stock of a mixed class of plants. 



Miller & Hunt, of Chicago. — Mr. E. San- 

 ders says in Prairie Farmer : " Miller & Hunt, on 

 Halsted street, in Lake View, have acres under 

 glass, including eleven new houses erected this 

 year in Terre Haute, Ind., on purpose to get into a 

 good rose growing soil. Their houses are part 

 north and south, six in number and about 250 feet 

 each. Then a range lot of several more at right 

 angles to these, and some 300 feet in length. The 

 iTiost of the heating is done here by steam, although 

 a portion is hot water, and the great forte is 

 roses." 



The Floral Cabinet — Published by the La- 

 dies' Floral Cabinet Company, of New Y'ork. We 

 noted some time since that Mr. C. L. Allen had 

 accepted the editorship of this magazine, now in its 

 ninth volume, and that this fact promised a new 

 lease of life in a magazine that had already done 

 good service. It has now changed its form to one- 

 half less, with the same amount of reading matter, 

 and has been changed in other particulars, which 

 more than ever adapts it to the floral wants of 

 ladies of culture and refinement. It promises to 

 be a very useful aid in the progress of intelligent 

 gardening. 



Pennsylvani.a. State Horticultural Asso- 

 ciation, 1882. — From E. B. Engle, Secretary, 

 Chambersburg, Penn'a. This is one of the best 

 reports which come to our table, chiefly because 

 the secretary happens to be one who seems to have 

 the rare knack of catching the point of a speaker's 



