SUCCESS AND FAILURE WITH HOUSE PLANTS. 397 



deserving of much better treatment than they sometimes get. I 

 dearly love to see, as I ride along the street, a window full of thrifty 

 geraniums in full bloom, and I am always watching for them. I 

 never have nice ones myself indoors. I don't seem to have luck with 

 them. I don't know^ why, perhaps I fuss with them too much, for 

 they surely are not fussy plants. When I am bending over some 

 of my plants scraping oft" the scale and washing them until my back 

 is ready to crack, I many times say I wish I could be satisfied with 

 geraniums only. I would consign the whole outfit to the flames and 

 confine myself to one window full of geraniums. But I have never 

 been able to make the sacrifice. If I could have but one plant it 

 would be a rose geranium. It is far better to have but a few plants 

 and good ones, fine specimens, than a large collection, crowded to- 

 gether, ungainly in shape and untidy in appearance. We should 

 never keep more plants than w^e can and will properly care for. 

 This is sound doctrine and good advice. But I assure you I am like 

 many D. D's. and M. D's., — do not practice what I preach, nor like 

 to take mv own medicine. 



Winter Cauliflowers. — Experiments at the New York Cornell Univer- 

 sity Station are reported by L. H. Bailey iB. 55 ) as showing that cauliflowers 

 succeed well in a forcing house, if they are kept in a vigorous and uniform 

 growth. They need a rich soil, careful attention to watering, cultivation and 

 ventilation, and a cool temperature like that employed for lettuce. They ap- 

 pear to thrive better without bottom heat than with it. The early Snowball 

 and Erfurt strains force well. Plants should be set in the beds when from six 

 weeks to three months old, according to the season of the year, and from four 

 to five months elapse before the first heads are fit for market. The heads or- 

 dinarily require no bleaching, and they are ready for sale when from four to 

 six inches in diameter, which is a convenient size. — Am. Agri. 



Sunflowers. — As a shelter belt against the Russian thistle the Russian 

 sunflower is advocated by S. D. Cone and others in South Dakota. Mr. Cone 

 intends to plant a hundred acres in sunflowers this season. He recommends 

 farmers to sow a row of sunflowers around the borders of all their fields as a 

 hedge to stop the rolling thistle. The sunflowers are very rapid in growth, and 

 there is little doubt that they would serve a useful purpose as suggested. 



Besides that, they will constitute a profitable crop in themselves. The 

 yield of seed is from thirty to fifty bushels per acre, and when pressed this 

 seed produces a gallon of oil per bushel. The oil is used as a substitute for 

 olive oil and is quite valuable. The pressed seed makes good stock food. It 

 is better than flax seed cake. The sunflower stocks also are useful, for they 

 amount to five or six cords of fuel per acre, worth $2.00 to $3.00 per cord. 



What is especially important in South Dakota is that sunflowers will 

 stand drouth better than almost any other plant. — N. W. Agriculturist. 



