3S4 



JOUBNAL OF nORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 21, leC9. 



over the Delaware Railroad lo New York, on ono day ; Laurel. 

 1 car load ; Seaford, 2 ; liridgtville, 4 ; Grocnwood, 2 ; George- 

 town, 2; Milford, G; IIarriii;rton, 6 ; Canterbury, 2; Camden, 

 10; Mooreton, .'J ; Dover, 8 ; Urenford, 3; Clayton, and stations 

 on the Delaware .-uid Murjlarid Road, 20 ; Saesafr;;s, 4 ; ]51ack- 

 bird, 1 ; Townscnd, and from stations on the Kent and liucon 

 Anne's Road, 11; Ginnues, 2; Middletown, 10; Armstrong, 6 ; 

 Uount I'lcasant, 3, and Willow Grove, 1 ; making a total of 

 103 cars, each carrying 16,000 lbs , each basket weighing about 

 32 lbs. 



Since the commencement of the present Peach season, about 

 700 cars have passed over the road, conveying to market over 

 11,000,000 pounds of Peaches. Each car carries 500 baskets, 



each bosket holding about fiTO-eightha of a bu."-hcl. In ad- 

 dition to the Peaches sent fnm this State by rail, thou- 

 Bands of baskets arc sent to Philadelphia and olUor places by 

 steamers pacing through the canal, which pusses near to some 

 of the orchards, and by vessels plying in the rivtrs and creeks 

 throughout the State. The whole yield this season throughout 

 the Poach-gTOwing region is estimated at 5,000,u00 baakets. 

 Notwithstauding this immense amount, it is said tliat a large 

 number of acres of ground now devoted to ogrimltural purposes, 

 will be planted in Punch trees next fall, as it ie thought new 

 markets will be opened at more distant points, as railroad facili- 

 ties offer, and improved mcthr>ds of keeping Peaches are intro- 

 duced. — {Philadelphia Ledgtr), 



SOMETHING ABOUT HYACINTHS. 



In one of Thomas IIops's gossiping books about florists' 

 flowers, published about 1822, he devotes a chapter to the 

 Hyacinth, and at the close of it gives a list of IS.'J sorts as 

 representing the best flowers in caltivation, and of those l."3 

 flowers 124 were double, and only 31 single. At that time 

 the popular taste ran after double flowers, and it is only within 

 the last fifteen or twenty years that the sicgle flowers, with 

 their much denser and larger spikes, have come to be better 

 regarded than the less symmetrical spikes of the double kinds. 

 In the list of the double kinds I And many that are to be met 

 with still in some of the old-fashioned bulb lists of the pre- 

 sent day, bat of the thirty- 

 one single kinds only very 

 few. Within the last ten years 

 there has been a perceptible 

 difference in the number of 

 double flowers imported into 

 England, as they have fallen 

 off considerably ; while the 

 increase in the demand for 

 single kinds has raaltipliad 

 to a large extent. If anyone 

 needs a proof of this, let him 

 look over a stand of twenty- 

 fonr or eighteen Hyacinths 

 staged by Mr. W. Paul, or 

 Messrs. C'ntbush & Sons, and 

 not more than three or four 

 doable varieties will be found 

 among them. The single va- 

 rieties, as a rnle, have tlin 

 largest, the fullest, and tl;i 

 showiest spikes of blossoms, 

 while they are generally more 

 decided in point of colour, 

 having more attractive and 

 definite hues. It is for these 

 reasons the single kinds arc 

 preferred to the double. 



Just now — 



*'^Vhen sad aatamn comes 

 stealthily creeping. 

 With its ruin of russet and 

 grey "— 



IB a fitting time to present a 

 few words respecting the cul- 

 tivation of the Hyacinth in glasses, Ac. Well and truthfully 

 has it been said, that " of all the delightful recreations that can 

 dispense their kindly charm through the domestic circle, there 

 18 scarcely one so pregnant with the highest and purest enjoy- 

 ment as the cultivation of a few Hyacinths in water. From 

 the commencement of the pleasant process till the last flower 

 decays, it is an almost daily recurrence of joyous surprises — 

 the ceaseless unfolding of new beauties." I cultivate a number 

 in glasses yearly, and from the lime that the autumn's 



" Ked leaves fall in sorrow around us,"* 

 the sure precursor of winter's approach, and through the period 

 of its sometimes blustering and fierce, and yet necessary reign, 

 up to the time that young spring comes forth to 



' Write love's fair alphabet upon the sod 

 Id many-coloored flowers," 



each day may be said to bring its special interest ; for in their 

 contianouB development there is so much of fresh revelations 



of undreamed-of charms, that \.he tnsk cf tending th£m, io 

 one touched by a genuine and genial love for flowers, never 

 falls to the low level of irksomeness. 



I annually grow about eighteen Hyacinths in glasses, and 

 invariably place them all in water at the same time. I have 

 tried difjferent times in the hope of insuring a succession of 

 bloom, but it has happened that these placed latest iu the glass 

 were among the first to bloom. I have also ceased to put the 

 bulbs in the water so early as I used, and now do not think 

 of putting them in till the middle or end of October. Fresh 

 rain water is to be preferred, and the glass should be so filled 



that the water only just 

 touches the bane of the bulb. 

 Rain water should not be 

 employed unless it is quite 

 fresh, or otherwise it soon 

 becomes putrid, and caases 

 the roots of the bulbs to de- 

 cay. If there is no alterni- 

 tive bnt to employ hard water, 

 if it can be exposed to the 

 action of the sun or external 

 air for a time, so much the 

 better. My experience has 

 taught me that hard water 

 used directly it is taken from 

 a well is apt to cause the roots 

 to become a mass of pulp, 

 highly offensive, and, fatal in . 

 its effects. Two or three 

 lumps of charcoal placed in 

 the glasses about two or three 

 days before they are occupied 

 ly the bulbs, in order to allow 

 of the charcoal becoming sa- 

 turated and sinking to the 

 bottom, will keep the water 

 from turning rank, and pa- 

 rent the necessity for its 

 being often changed. Some 

 of my best flowers have been 

 in glasses, the water of which 

 was not once changed. Place 

 the glasses in a dark and 

 rather cool situation until the 

 roots have nearly reached the 

 bottoms of the glasses, when they can be brought to the Ught. 

 A month or six weeks' imprisonment will bring the roots to 

 this stage of development. The most airy and lightest part of 

 a sitting-room, but as far from the fire as possible, is the best 

 position for them. When the biilbs have been iu the water 

 about a week or ten days, the base of each should be examined, 

 and any decaying or slimy substance removed. As the shoot 

 of growth increases in size, evaporation will take place, there 

 fore the water should be replenished at intervals, care being 

 taken that what is supplied is not lower in temperature than 

 that in the glass. The foliage of the plants should be kept 

 scrupulously free from any dust or dirt; a small piece of 

 sponge will remove this with but very slight trouble. A^ hen 

 the flower spikes begin to show themselves the glasses should 

 be kept filled to the rim with water, as at the point of flower- 

 ing the bulbs absorb a great quantity of moisture. 



I need scarcely mention, that as the Hyacinths grow they 

 mnBtlhaye all the light and air poBsible, to prevent them 



