124 



• GARDENING. 



Jan. /, 



To be successful in grafting, the outer 

 bark of the cion must exactly meet the 

 outer bark of the stock and the cion must 

 be cut as true as possible, that the parts of 

 each may fit each other closely. Some- 

 times when the stock is of much larger 

 diameter than the cion, two cions are 

 used, one on each side of the stock, and it 

 is a very good arrangement. 



It is not often that branches over an 

 inch in diameter are used for stocks. 

 Those of three quarter inch diameter are 

 very good. The larger ones will usually 

 hold the cions by their own spring, with- 

 out having to tie them, but those of lesser 

 diameter are the better for being tied, to 

 hold the cions firmly in place. After this 

 there is still to be applied some material 

 to keep dampness and air out. In olden 

 times clay was used, but at the present 

 time what is called grafting wax is used 

 nearly altogether. This can be bought 

 cheaply ready for use at any large seed or 

 horticultural store. Those who prefer to 

 make their own can do so by melting to- 

 getherone pound rosin, one-fourth pound 

 beeswax and two pounds tallow, to be 

 warmed up and applied with a brush, 

 just enough to cover all the cut parts is 

 sufficient. A liquid mixture is made as 

 follows: one pound rosin, one ounce beef 

 tallow, when cool, after melting, add 

 eight ounces of alcohol, and keep it in a 

 bottle. 



I should have said when speaking of 

 the branches to be grafted, that they 

 should be cut back to within three or four 

 inches of where they start from. Grafts 

 should not be placed on the ends of long 

 branches. 



After grafting there is no more to do 

 except to cut the strings of those that 

 have been tied, as soon as growth has 

 well started, to permit of the swelling of 

 the parts as they expand. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



FEflGH-BORERS. 



For several years we have adopted the 

 plan of banking up a small mound of 

 earth around the base of peach trees 

 about nine inches high with invariable 

 success. If done in Mayor June before the 

 female insect lays its eggs she either goes 

 elsewhere to deposit them or if laid on 

 the top of the mound the firm bark of the 

 trunk is uncongenial and if it hatches 

 after working a little way toward the 

 roots it dies before it has accomplished it. 

 The work is easily done and needs but 

 little attention to keep up the small 

 mound through the tree's life. It is an 

 old practice and the wonder is that it is 

 not more known and practiced. 



There is no pleasure more sweet to the 

 horticulturist than to enjoy plenty of fine 

 fruit of his own growing and to watch 

 the growth, budding and fruition of some 

 superior new fruit, perhaps his own pro- 

 duction. To know the fruit, to realize all 

 his expectations or its recommendations, 

 none can experience its joys but the fruit 

 grower. We do not realize our hopes 

 always, failures often, but success when it 

 ^ comes heightens the enjoyment. 



The writer does enjoy the luscious 

 strawberry and other fruits in their suc- 

 cession, even past fourscore, but none of 

 these can compare with the pleasure of 

 possession of a fine beautiful crop of 

 peaches ripening from the earliest to the 

 last. We do not tire in picking and tak- 

 ing to the house a basket of fine Oldmix- 

 ons or Susquehannahs and other varie- 

 ties in their season, and while we are 

 handling them the examination of their 

 quality, perfection of the flavor and pro- 

 ductiveness of some new splendid kind, 

 adds very much to the interest. Besides 



having plenty for home use there is the 

 pleasure of giving to a friend or to some 

 not in affluence to make their hearts 

 rejoice and the eye of the little ones 

 sparkle with joy. 



Last spring we had some severe frosts 

 when the trees were in full bloom and 

 thought all the blooms were destroyed, 

 but we found four very thrifty trees 

 marked Champion had a goodly number 

 of the best large sweet white fruit we 

 ever saw so soon in the season. It real- 

 ized all claimed for it. Although it is 

 said the Susquehannah is a shy bearer 

 we have found it to be the most prolific 

 and largest peach and most valuable for 

 canning of the yellow-fleshed peaches we 

 have grown. We may add we only grow 

 for home use. Crosby had only one poor 

 peach. Isaac Hicks. 



Long Island. 



GOOSEBERRIES. 

 J. Meehan is correct in reference to 

 gooseberries. We have known a variety 

 of English that were shaded by a fence 

 and mulched every year with salt hay 

 that bore fine crops every year. We have 

 no trouble with the Industry, it never 

 has mildewed. It is a little shaded by 

 adjacent trees. Isaac Hicks. 



Miscellaneous. 



FLOWERS IN THE HOUSE. 



Everybody loves flowers, some in 

 greater degree perhaps than others, but 

 everybody loves them in some degree. 

 There is great diversity of opinion, how- 

 ever, about the best way of arranging 

 them. The florists havetheir ways, which 

 may be called the professional ways, and 

 amateurs have other ways. If a word 

 from one who buys flowers and loves 

 them dearly, but is not of the profession, 

 will be of interest to readers of Garden- 

 ing, I should like to speak about the 

 arrangement of flowers for various pur- 

 poses and occasions. 



I like best flowers used with their own 

 natural foliage, with stems cut of gener- 

 ous length and always unwired — wiring 

 stems is fatal to artistic effect. 

 Cut flowers are at their best placed in 

 undecorated glass 

 vases, the mouths of 

 which are smaller than 

 i the part holding the 

 I water as shown in 

 Fig. 1; or a cylinder 

 shaped jar of glass al- 

 ways shows the flow- 

 ers to good advantage; 

 (see Fig. 2) the stems 

 showing through the 

 rig. I. clear glass, and the 



foliage that which belongs to the flower. 

 I like too for coarse flowers a rough vase 

 of pottery or terra 

 cotta of neutral 

 shade, always with- 

 out decoration. Dec- 

 oration on a vase 

 used for cut flowers 

 spoils the artistic 

 effect and detracts 

 from the flowers. I 

 have found the flar- 

 ing vase which tap- 

 ers down to a point 

 as seen in Fig. 3, the 

 most difficult of all 

 to arrange. This 

 flaring vase it seems Fig. 2. 



to me should never be used in large size, 



Fig 3- 

 All dinner 



and in small size should hold but one or 

 two flowers. 

 The very prettiest and most effective 

 . that I have ever seen is a 

 plain dark green globe- 

 shaped glass vasefFig. 4), 

 which I have found in four 

 sizes and wish very much 

 I could find some of still 

 larger size than these. The 

 rich green harmonizes per- 

 fectly with everything I 

 have put in it. Flowers 

 look well arranged in sil- 

 ver dishes and vases, if the 

 vasts are plain, of simple 

 outline and artistic in de- 

 s ; gn. Ordinarily vasesare 

 better if clear or of neutral 

 tint, 

 table decorations should be 

 either very low or very 

 high — low enough to 

 look over from one side 

 of the table to another, 

 or high enough to look 

 under. Nothing is more 

 annoying to one seated 

 at table than to dodge 

 about a mound of flow- F'g- /• 



ers to catch a glimpse of one's opposite 

 neighbor. 



VVhere ribbons are used they must 

 always match either the flowers or the 

 foliage. They may be a lighter or a 

 darker shade, but the color must be the 

 same. G.lt and tinsel are in bad taste, 

 and in fact I have never seen either tinsel, 

 gilt or ribbon used on a dinner table with 

 good effect. A common mistake is in 

 crowding the table with flowers and ferns, 

 leaving no place for the service. 



The prettiest dinner table decoration I 

 have ever seen was this. The table was 

 long enough to seat twenty-four guests; 

 it was six feet wide and had oval ends. A 

 margin of eighteen inches of pure white 

 damask was left all around the table upon 

 which to lay the service, and a set of pans 

 an inch deep was made at the tinsmith's 



to entirely cover the oval center left after 

 reserving the eighteen inches of margin. 

 These pans were made in sections so that 

 they could be used again upon smaller 

 tables. The pans were filled with little 

 plants, ferns, palms, lycopodiums, etc., 

 none of which were over nine inches high. 

 The shallow pans being in sections were 

 readily arranged first, and then placed 

 upon the table. They also protected the 

 table linen, for the little plants were grow- 

 ing in their own earth and were simply 

 lifted from the pots and arranged in the 

 pans with the higher ones in the center 

 and the lycopodiums, etc., drooping over 

 the edge. In among these were placed 

 some delicate cut flowers, violets, lilies of 

 the valley, small roses, etc. 



The only objection to this arrangement 

 was its expense. The day following the 

 dinner the plants were taken back to the 

 greenhouse unhurt by exposure and un- 

 checked in their growth. The whole 

 arrangement was simple, natural and 

 refreshing, and appeared a little garden of 

 thrifty growing plants. It did not ob- 

 struct the view across the table. 



The late Celia Thaxter in her charming 

 book "At: Island Garden" tells how she 

 [Concluded Page 126.] 



