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POPULAR GARDENING. 



March, 



The First Violet. 



A Violet dainty and fair 



Crept out of Its mossy nest. 



And lifting its face with a modest air 



It gazed on the rosy West. 

 The dew on it turned to'ice, 



And it trembled with chattering chill- 

 The Violet longed for its paradise 



Afree from malarial ill. 

 It curled up its toes and died 



To the sob of a dismal lay. 

 The Violet should have stayed inside 



And waited s'mother day. 



— Detroit Free Press. 



Though the Ground Hog and Crocus creep into their 

 holes 

 It's spring, and the almanac shows it. 

 Though a polar wave over the universe rolls 

 It's spring, and we don't care who knows it. 



—Robert J. Burdette. 



Set some trees every year. 



Have you a Weigela bush ? 



To pot loosely is a poor plan. 



Have you made out your stock list'i' 



Clubs of subscribers are our delight. 



Cremation for tent worm egg clustei-s. 



Plant some Gladiolus bulbs very early. 



Plant diseases seldom start in good soils. 



A quick growth for dehcious vegetables. 



Hanging baskets are often overcrowded. 



Trim Evergreens either in March or June. 



As plant growth increases Increase the air. 



March sunshine gives the pot plants a fine lift. 



For droughty sections Petunias are safe flowers. 



Asparagus is not a success as an evaporated 

 vegetable. 



The neatest support for Sweet Peas is a low 

 wire netting. 



For pets, house plants are infinitely ahead of 

 dirty lap dogs. 



In Onion culture the early planted seed always 

 give the best results. 



'Wanted, Yet more items and articles on the 

 expeiience of our readers. 



The planting of evergreens tempereth the 

 winds to the country home. 



Good feeding must attend lapid growth, in 

 trees and plants as well as in animals. 



Bad drainage has killed more pot plants than 

 growers have perhaps ever suspected. 



Last summer we saw a handsome hanging vase 

 consisting of a Goui'd rind as the soil holder. 



The more subscribers the better can this paper 

 be made; a hint to every reader to recommend it 

 to their friends. 



Not how much ground to be covered but how 

 well should be the controlling question in decid- 

 ing on the size of the garden. 



A Delicious Apple. We would advise planting 

 a tree of the Mother Apple in every amateur list 

 for its excellent eating qualities. 



If you have a rockery, and the Mountain Pink, 

 Phlijx suhulata, is not one of the plants upon it, 

 order a piece of it this spiing by all means. 



Victoria Aster, " Light Yellow." Although 

 not strictly yellow it is a near approach to it, and 

 a desirable addition to Aster colors.— i. H'. G. 



The Pocklington. An intelligent cultivator 

 writes that he had resolved to throw it away, 

 but 18S7 has determined hira to plant a few more. 

 With the futtire tiee in the mind's eye, when 

 setting J oung stocks and pruning, delicately but 

 with judgment, there will be no necessity of 

 murdering the tree in after years with the saw. 

 Lightening the Soil. 1 have seen a ten rod 

 garden, the soil of which was heavy, made light 

 and friable by the addition of a dozen loads each 

 of pit sand and coal ashes, and ten loads of good 

 manure.— C. C. G. 



AS tor ezpostue, a north, northwest, or north- 

 east one is the best for the Apple, and indeed, for 



any fruit except the Grape; give that all the 

 sunshine you can. For the vegetable garden 

 choose a southeastern exposure. 



In Woodsdale, Kansas, the planting of street 

 trees is to be consistent with the names of streets, 

 to an extent, thus : Elm street will be planted 

 with Elms; Locust, with Locust trees; Poplar, 

 with Poplar trees; Cherry, with Cherry trees, etc. 



Early turning of the soil has the advantage 

 even for crops planted in May, that late freezes 

 will yet serve somewhat to mellow it, and it will 

 be in better shape from the spi'ing rains for 

 withstanding the early droughts that sometimes 

 prevail in May and June. 



What to plant is as important to know as how, 

 when and where to plant. A careful perusal of 

 our advertising pages in this and every other 

 issue will throw much light upon the former 

 subject. The index to advertisements on the 

 second page renders this department almost a 

 complete directory of garden supplies. 



The Post Office or Corner Grocery, Which^ We 

 think better of our readers than to suppose that 

 a single one of them patronizes the corner-gro- 

 cery seed boxes, when they can purchase of all 

 seedsmen whose cards appear in this paper, b.v 

 going no further than the post office to trans- 

 act the business. But to patronize the latter 

 class may need a little advance action. Good 

 gardeners calculate ahead. 



Seedling Baising. Some years ago E. S. Car- 

 man got together all manner of Geraniums, 

 every kind he could, both at home and abroad, 

 and devoted two years to cross-fertilizing and 

 raising new varieties from them. At one time 

 he had 3,.500 of his seedlings growing in his ex- 

 periment grounds. And he frankly admits that 

 not one of them was superior to soits already 

 at that time in cultivation. 



Test of Novelties. A reader whose name be- 

 came disconnected from her manuscript, else 

 we would give it, thus comments on a few nov- 

 elties : " I found the much lauded ' Turner Hy- 

 brid ' Tomato and the ' Mikado ' to be identical, 

 and a beautiful early fruit. Of Tea Roses I had 

 60 varieties the past summer, all bedded out. 

 I find ' Bennet ' not an outdoor Kose. It will 

 not grow bedded out with me." 



Snow as a Winter Cover. Nothing equals it. 

 When but three or four inches deep it takes a 

 long time for the severest cold to penetrate to 

 the soil below. This is the secret why many 

 plants that come from places far north, like 

 Siberia, but where the ground in winter is per- 

 petually covered with snow, often fail to survive 

 the winters of much warmer regions. A striking 

 Illustration of the compensations of Nature. 



A Eose Hedge, It makes a beautiful embel- 

 lishment. It is easily prorided. Employ an 

 ordinary wire fence with posts at eight feet apart 

 for the frame work. For plants, use in the north 

 the Prairie Queen and Baltimore Belle Roses to 

 cover it, setting the plants two feet apart, in 

 well prepared soU. In the south the Cherokee 

 Rose is i-ight for the purpose. With but little 

 attention annually to training and pruning, such 

 hedges will soon become very attractive. 



Footprints on a La'wn after Snow. When one 

 walks over the snow, it is trodden down firm in a 



very severe weather with no snow on the 

 ground. My entire stock was killed, and since 

 then I have kept on the safe side by lifting the 

 greater part of my bulbs. 



David W. Judd, president of the O. Judd Co., 

 Agricultural Book publishers, etc., of New York, 

 died of pneumonia on February U, aged 50 years. 

 He was a graduate of Williams College, Mass., in 

 1860. Enlisted at the outbreak of the war, and 

 rose to be a captain. Member of the New York 

 legislature in 1871. He was editorially connected 

 in succession with the New York Commercial 

 Advertiser, the defunct Hearth and Home, and 

 later with the Agriculturist. He was the author 

 of several books, and was never married. 



Testing Seeds. A convenient, sure, and neat 

 way of testing the germinating qualities of seed 

 is to take a piece of cotton or woolen cloth, about 

 the size of a pocket handkerchief; wet in water, 

 wring out and fold once or twice, then lay on the 

 seeds and roll up the cloth and fasten with a pin. 

 Keep moist by watering a little once a da.v. 

 Most seeds wUl sprout in from two to ten days, 

 and when treated in this way they can be easily 

 examined from time to time, it being only neces- 

 sary to unroll and roll up the cloth.— TF. C. Jen- 

 nison, Middlesex Co., Ma»s. 



Potting Soil Always Beady. How I prepare 

 soU for house plants is this: Great heaps of 

 leaves are raked up in the fall, avoiding those of 

 the oak, which are said to contain too much tan- 

 nin. These in spring, much reduced, are trans- 

 ferred to a bin in the cellar holding three or four 

 bushels, and composted in this way: to each 

 bushel of leaves was added about half a bushel 

 of garden earth, a peck of sand, and a peck of 

 old manure, all occasionally stirred; once or twice 

 in summer a pail of hot, strong suds added. By 

 fall it was like meal, and suited most plants. 

 Reserves of sand and manure are kept for special 

 cases.— F. E. Briggs. 



Honey from Apple Blossoms. Prof, Cook says 

 in the New York Tribune that but few kinds of 

 honey are superior to this. The color is light 

 amber, and though not quite equal in appearance 

 to that from clover or basswood, it is not so dark 

 as to be objectionable. The flavor is very char- 

 actei-istic and reminds one of Quince preserves. 

 He has had it sampled many times and no one has 

 ever expressed anything but admiration of its 

 quality. The fact that so early in the season 

 there are very few bees in the hives, as there are 

 yet but few pleasant working days, accounts for 

 the fact that we usually get very little honey 

 from the fruit blossoms. 



Several forms of plant frames after English 

 patterns are shown on this page. The one to the 

 left is peculiar in being double roofed, having 

 narrow lifting sashes at the back, and in having 

 a device for holding up the sash, which obviates 

 the danger of its falling, as would be liable if it 

 was propped open with a stick. This sash sup- 

 port is made of rod iron and turns down Inside of 

 the frame and out of the way when the frame is 

 closed. The sash lifted, and the support is pre- 

 vented from falling by several hooks on the 

 underside of its frame. The frame to the right 

 is simply one of small size, covered with a hinged 

 sash. A frame Uke either of these would be 

 found a very tisef ul affair in almost any garden 



SEVERAL FORMS OF PLANT FRAMES AFTER ENGLISH PATTERNS. 



soUd compact mass, so that if frost follows, it 

 becomes a block of ice. It is in my opinion the 

 contact of the frozen snow with the grass that 

 causes the discoloration that ensues. The weight 

 of the human body presses it firmly down upon 

 the grass, fracturing the blades, and frost turns 

 them brown. That is my theory, but it may be 

 that a better one can be propounded.— R. D. 



Hyacinthus (Galtonia) Candicans. Concern- 

 ing this plant, which was figured last month, 

 Mr. W. E. Endicott, Norfolk Co., Mass., writes : I 

 raised this fine bulb twenty years ago from seed, 

 and for many years allowed it to remain in the 

 ground, where it flowered finely every year. At 

 last came a winter when we had several days of 



during the winter for protection and in the spring 

 for hastening vegetation. 



Golden Dwarf Celery, This variety iUustrated 

 oppsite is planted more largely than any other 

 in the great Celery region about Kalamazoo, 

 Mich. As our correspondent, J. Von Bochove, 

 pointed out in these columns last month, it is 

 prized more for its fine quality than for the size 

 it reaches. If thus it is more desirable for market 

 purposes, it should certainly be all the more a 

 favorite for family use, where quality coupled 

 with productiveness are always looked upon as 

 chief points of merit. The \aiiety may, on ac- 

 count of its under size, be planted at four inches 

 apart in the rows, with these four and one-half 



