60 



The HorticuUurist and Journal 



room. We keep ours in the cellar, packed 

 in shallow boxes, with close lids, the fruit 

 room being separated from the other cellar 

 apartments by brick walls, and the bottom 

 and sides cemented with water lime, which 

 keeps the room dry, and admits of keeping 

 it clean. The ventilating windows are 

 opened during cold nights, and closed when 

 the weather is warmer. 



Profits of Fruit Culture —In conversa- 

 tion a few days since, a gentleman stated 

 that Mr. Walbridge, of Baraboo, for the 

 past ten years, has realized an average of 

 $100 per year from eight apple trees of the 

 variety now known by his name, and which 

 promises to be a very valuable acquisition 

 to our long keeping varieties. Another 

 gentleman jestingly said this furnished a 

 good basis for a calculation as to profits, 

 and proceeded to compute the enormous 

 profits which the farmers of Wisconsin might 

 secure, if each had 160 acres set with trees 

 each yielding as large a profit as these. 

 Absurd as this seems, it is no more so than 

 many calculations which are made by writers, 

 who take a single case of large profits, and 

 from that proceed to apply the same rate to 

 the whole field. — Western Farmer. 



Medical Value of Asparagus.— A med- 

 ical correspondent of an English journal 

 says that the advantages of asparagus are 

 not sufficiently estimated by those who suffer 

 with rheumatism and gout. Slight cases of 

 rheumatism are cured in a few days by feed- 

 ing on this delicious esculent, and more 

 chronic cases are much relieved, especially 

 if the patient avoids all acids, whether in 

 food or beverage. The Jerusalem artichoke 

 has also a similar effect in relieving rheum- 

 atism. The heads may be eaten in the 

 usual way, but tea made from the leaves of 

 the stalk, and drank three or four times a 

 day, is a certain remedy, though not equally 

 agreeable. 



Grape Trellis. — A correspondent of the 

 Fruit Recorder makes a wire trellis, with a 

 contrivance for compensating for the expan- 



sion and contraction from changes of the 

 weather, by simply attaching a spiral spring 

 to the wires, which requires no attention or 

 adjusting, but always regulates itself. We 

 do not see why this spiral spring may not 

 be made of the trellis wire, the only care 

 required being to make the coils short enough 

 to give them stiffness, and sufficiently nu- 

 merous to allow considerable expansion or 

 stretching. 



Flowers from Seed. — A writer in the 

 Rural New-Yorker obtains the best and 

 earliest plants from the seed accidentally 

 scattered on the ground from the plants of 

 the previous year's growth, taking care not 

 to disturb the surface in spring till these 

 plants are removed. He obtains a good 

 supply of geraniums from his beds of the 

 previous year, and in one instance had a 

 geranium flower in four months from seed. 

 He also obtains, in the same way, an abund- 

 ant supply of petunias, mignonette, candy- 

 tuft, Dianthus, Delphiniums, pansies, etc. 

 We have been successful with some of these 

 in the same way. This suggests the ad- 

 vantage of autumn sowing hearty flower 

 seeds, with, perhaps, some protection. 



Training Petunias.— A writer in the 

 London Garde7i says that a fine efi'ect is ob- 

 tained by this method of training petunias. 

 He procures a number of hazel rods, each 

 about two feet long, bends them like hoops, 

 and drives both ends into the bed, placing 

 them at suitable intervals all over it. On 

 these he ties and trims his petunias, which 

 blossom more abundantly than usual under 

 this treatment. Petunias have been suc- 

 cessfully treated as if sweet pea vines, and 

 trained on a slanting trellis. The trailing 

 habit of this plant, especially late in the 

 season, is not always sufficiently considered. 



Pear Blight. — The Rural Messenger 

 says a correspondent checked pear blight by 

 digging down to roots of his trees and throw- 

 ing a quantity of scrap iron, and covering 

 all over. 



