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Culture of Ginger. Wine Drinkers. 



Raising Mounds. 



BY R. L. BLAIR, DES MOINES, IOWA. 



ED. Western Horticulturist : — I was 

 much amused over " Storm Cliff's " first 

 attempt at sub-tropical gardening on a 

 mound, as related in the Floral Cabmet for 

 October, and presume such to be the expe- 

 rience of every one who tries to do the same 

 thing. I have often wondered why any one 

 can be so foolish as to follow such a foolish 

 practice, which is sure to result in disap- 

 pointment and failure; yet every year we 

 see people doing it. Mounds may be neces- 

 sary in a situation where good drainage is 

 required, or in a country not so hot as ours 

 in midsummer, but here in America we 

 don't need them. Now, a mound would 

 undoubtedly be a pretty object, if the sod- 

 ded sides could always be kept green, and 

 the center did not need to be constantly 

 deluged with water when the hot suns and 

 scorching winds of July and August come ; 

 but with us it is impossible to keep a mound 

 in fine condition. The practice probably 

 came from "over the sea," where they find 

 it necessary to heap up raised beds to obtain 

 drainage and more warmth to the soil, and 

 is still kept up in many gardens here by 

 those who know no better. Besides their 

 ragged ugliness, these mounds are trouble- 



some and laborious to make. Every spring, 

 about the time when all get the gardening 

 fever, do we see men, women, children and 

 the hired man with wheelbarrow, spade, 

 rake and shovel, gathering up brickbats, old 

 boots, condemned tin pans and broken crock- 

 ery from the back yard, to make the founda- 

 tion for a mound ; then earth must be 

 brought, sods cut, trimmed and put in place ; 

 then, when the "thing" is finished, all ad- 

 mire it and anticipate much pleasure when 

 the plants will bloom ; but, when dry 

 weather comes, and the sods die, and the 

 dwarfed plants shrivel, then the mound be- 

 comes an eye-sore, and all wish it resolved 

 into its original elements in the rear alley ; 

 so it is abandoned to its fate, and becomes a 

 wallowing place for the hens. If, instead of 

 all this trouble of making a mound, the 

 same energy had been expended in cutting 

 a neat bed on the lawn, or in the little front 

 yard, the ground deeply spaded and en- 

 riched with well-rotted manure, anybody 

 can have a flower bed that will require but 

 little labor in planting the seeds, keeping 

 out weeds and grass roots, and an occasional 

 watering, when the drought of midsummer 

 comes. 



Culture of G-inger— In reply to a cor- 

 respondent concerning the culture of ginger, 

 the Pacific Rural Press says : " It is gen- 

 erally cultivated by divisions of the green 

 roots, which can be obtained of the Chinese 

 merchants in this city. Divide the roots as 

 you would dahlias, and plant two and a half 

 feet apart each way : keep the surface of 

 the soil loose and free from weeds by re- 

 peated hoeing, if necessary. 



It is safe to assume that the roots are 

 fully grown when the stalks begin to wither ; 

 they should then be taken up, except those 

 intended for planting, which can remain in 

 the ground, where they would not be injured 

 by frost." 



Wine Drinkers.— We have always con- 

 sidered anything like a regular use of wine 

 a sure stepping-stone to the drunkard's plat- 

 form, by far more insidious in its effects 

 than the use of strong beer, about which 

 there is so much clamor. The California 

 Agriculturist says of the effects of wine- 

 making and drinking in that State: "Those 

 who have been longest in the wine manufac- 

 turing business are the poorest ; and, be- 

 sides, many of them, with their sons and 

 daughters, have contracted a taste for 

 strong drink which is fast bringing them to 

 destruction — that wine can be bought in many 

 of the older wine-producing districts for the 

 cost of the cask in which it is stored." 



