1 888. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



177 



Soil and its preparation. Any soil may l)e 

 worked into the proper state for Hoses by careful 

 treatment. The soils naturally best are those of 

 tenacious character, or siich as are not likely to 

 dry quickly; but any good soil, properly trenched, 

 after being well drained and thoroughly sub- 

 soiled, will be likely to jiroduce the desired resiilt. 



Autumn is the best time for trenching. In 

 doing this take a given amount of ground, dig a 

 trench at first a spade in dei>th, and half that in 

 width, removing the soil to the other end; then 

 turn up the subsoil at the bottom of the trench, 

 place on it a plentiful supply of manure, not 

 stirring it in; c()ver with the soil from the next 

 ti^ench, and so on till till is comi)lete. Half-de- 

 cayed leaf mold, spent hops or fresh manure will 

 answer the purpose, and the manure wiU be in 

 good condition for the plants* by the time the 

 rootJS reach down to it. 



Planting. A space of three feet between the 

 rows and two feet between the plants is a suitable 

 distance, as the plants can then be easily banked 

 with soil for protection in winter— quite an essen- 

 tial matter with Teas. 



In planting, dig the rows about twelve inches 

 wide and from sixteen to eighteen inches deep, 

 riacf in the trench a liberal supply of well-rotted 

 manure, with a little ground bone, all to lie 

 turned under with a garden fork. In this trench 

 set the plants, and firmly press the soil about the 

 roots— a \ery important part of the ojx-ration. 



If it were possible to keep our Roses covered 

 from the middle of December to the middle of 

 March with a blanket of snow, what splendid 

 plants we should see in earlj' spring, instead of 

 the pinched and withered stems that are fre- 

 (luently found ! A Rose does not like coddling; a 

 uniform cool temperature, free from drying 

 winds, is the most congenial to the plant. In 

 autumn planting (which is the best exceiit for 

 Tea roses and their allies) there is no danger from 

 drought, whereas in spring, if the weather is dry, 

 newly j»lanted Roses suffer from excessive evap- 

 oration, though frequent sprinkling will check 

 this in a measure, and if the plants are mulched 

 with manure on the surface, it will tend to pre- 

 vent excessive drying of the fine roots. 



Stocks. Roses, if not on their own roots, are 

 worked eitheron Manetti, Briar cutting, seedling 

 Briar, or De la Grifferaie, and it is a matter of 

 much dispute among cultivators which is best. 

 This difference is likely to continue, as the finer 

 varieties cannot be had except worked on one or 

 the other of these stocks. 



The Manetti. for rapid increase and early 

 maturity, is b.V far the best, especially on light 

 soils, though it will flourish on almost any soil. 

 The leaf of the Manetti is not very easy to dis- 

 tinguish from the ordinary rose leaf; the stem, 

 after attaining a little size, is of a i-eddish tinge, 

 the suckers coming up about the stem. 



The Briar seedling is suited to wet soils, pro- 

 ducing its roots in a thick cluster at the base of 

 the shoot, while the Briar cutting is best for dry 

 soils, as its roots are produced from the surface 

 to the bottom of the stem. 



In the Briar unlike in the Manetti the sucker is 

 likely to appear some distance from the main 

 plant. This stock starts late in spring, which 

 causes the plant to flower later, and perhaps 

 rather more freely during the season. It is well 

 adapted, for this reason, tf> the Tea rose, which 

 is grown almost entirely in this way in England, 

 and is admirable for bedding i)urposes, growing 

 with great vigor. 



Art Unpatented Planter. 



The Grifl'craie st^ck is strong and well adapted 

 lor this purpose: it is in itself a Rose of great 

 \igor and hardiness, a very free bloomer, and 

 quite distinct in color— so much as to be noticea- 

 ble in a collection. 



Plants on their own roots are of slow growth, 

 making very fine roots and re<iuiring from two 

 to three years, or more, to become good substan- 

 tial plants, equal to those rooted on Manetti 

 stock, at one-third the age. In using the Manetti 

 stocks if planted two or three inches below the 



collar or junction of the bud with the stock, th<' 

 Hose will throw out roots of its own, and with 

 this addition will produce j)lants of remarkable 

 vigor. A very good method of clcvcl<)ping the 

 roots rapidly is to tongue rhe collar (»f the bud 

 by paring up a strip of the bark about tme inch 

 long oil each side of the collar, and planting this 

 below the surface. 



A sure plan for obtaining own-root Roses is to 

 take those plants that have mad*i strong growth 

 one seascm in the ground and were lifted in au- 

 tumn, potted in four-inch pots, and kept in a<-oid 

 frame free from frost during the wint:4_'r and 

 started on in March in a little heat. These make 

 fine stock for planting in the ground in .hinc and 

 on until August— perhai)s the most satisfactory 

 way to procui'e own-root plants with success. 

 {To be Conrlndetl.) 



CONDENSED CLEANINGS. 



Managing the Manure. It will pay wherever 

 stock is fed to have the manure heap un<lor cover 

 so that rain will not wash away the best ingre- 

 dients. Under such a manure shod a tank could 

 be constructed to catch the liquids, and these 

 pumped over the heap would wonderfully im- 

 prove its (luality. Manure too dry will lose as 

 much quality as when kej)t too w€it. If ujoisture 

 is not present during fermentation the manure 

 becomes overheated or " fire-fanged," and a stni- 

 ous escape of ammonia takes place. Ammonia 

 in farm yard manure, says a noted chemist, may 

 be produced in tw(t forms. It may be associated 

 or combined with decaying vegetable matters us 

 organic acids; and in this condition, while it ma.v 

 be washed away by water, it cannot be di'awn 

 into the air, as it is not then volatile. If, how- 

 ever, these acids have, by reason of a scarcity of 

 water or otherwise, changed into carbonic acid, 

 and have combined with the ammonia in this 

 form, then the ammonia is exceedingly volatile. 

 Fermentation ma.\' be regulated. If air be ex- 

 cluded, as by the manure being packed down 

 close by animals on it, it goes on very slowly, 

 whereas it is quickened by a proper admission of 

 air, as by turning manure and throwing it to- 

 gether lightly in a heap. Practice hasshown that 

 gypsum is the farmer's best medium for fixing 

 ammonia. For this purpose it is sprinkled in the 

 proportion of one ton to every UHl tons— or 1 per 

 cent— f)f manure as the heap swells in size. While 

 the manure is fresh, even fresh lime may be ap- 

 plied with imi>unity. The action of lime is to 

 hasten the convereion of ammonia into nitric 

 acid, from which nitrate of lime is formed. The 

 idea in decomposing manure before its applica- 

 tion to the soil is to make it immediately active 

 as plant food. Where it is plowed into the land 

 fresh, decomposition has to take place there 

 before the plant food is set free, hence the action 

 of the manure is tardy. — Farmers' He\'iew. 



An Unpatented Planter, The construction of 

 the Potato planter attachment to a sulky Corn 

 plow, shown in the figure, is very simple. The 

 hind shovels are changed from the outside to the 

 inside of the beams; the front ones are taken off 

 and one of them is put on an extra beam between 

 the regular <mes. To the back of this shovel is 

 attached a pipe made ()f heavy sheet iron front 

 and sides and wooden back. The space between 

 the seat springs is fitted with a feeding board 

 with a hole in it From this hole a hose, made of 

 an old rubber boot leg pieced out with a piece of 

 grain bag, reaches down into the pipe, as shown. 

 A seed box is fitted between the standards, with 

 an opening at the back, so that the jtirces will 

 work out on the feeding board .just in front of 

 the hole. A spring, not shown in the cut, is fas- 

 tened to the axle to rap on the spokes of one 

 wheel as the wheel revolves. Then the man who 

 does the dropping pokes a piece down the hole at 

 every rapof thesi>ring. The spokes are one foot 

 apart, and for a longer distance wire nails are 

 driven into the hub for the spring to strike on. 

 Of course, the team must walk slowly and 

 steadily, and by driving one wheel in the furrow 

 mmie by one covering shovel the time before, 

 the rows will be about three feet apart. I have 

 used this "rig" for two years. Itgivi'S good sat- 

 isfaction, putting the seed in the moist earth 

 without drying it in the hot sun and wind— with 

 it I can plant three or four acres a day .--<>orr. 

 Rural New Yorker. 



Lettuce Culture. I tried experiments last season 

 to determine how old and how large plants should 

 be before the final setting. Seed planted in Sep- 

 tember and the plants wintered o\ er in flats in 

 my winter cellar did not make heads as large or 

 as quickly as those from seed sown in the green- 



house in neccmber. pricked out into Hats and s<*( 

 out at the siune time to the hot-beds in February. 

 In a lat<^r trial for open-air Lettuce, i)lants set 

 under glass in cold frame :ix4 inches apart, and 

 left there till they could be removed to the open 

 ground, being one-third grown, were notso(mrly 

 Its plants that wc-rc set from th*' same seed bed 

 into the iipcn ground; thr latter suffered from 

 cold, but nnide h(uids at last before the others, 

 much to my surprise. I think I let them grow 

 too large In too rich soil, the roots were rather 

 poor, the earth rli<l not stick to them. In another 

 trial idauts pricki-d out into poor sand, fertilizeti 

 with connnercial manure, made abundance of 

 ro(it and small leaf growth, were slow in coming 

 to suitable si/e for transplanting, but wh{;n 

 finally transferred to rich sinl, they grew without 

 wilting or loss of time and with great rapidity. 

 The conclusion seems to be that IjCttuce seed 

 sown thinly in the seed bed and afterward trans- 

 planted, when the plant has four or five leaves, 

 directly into the spot where they are to grow, is 

 good treatnient.-N. Y. Tribune. 



End Posts of Fences and Trellise. These should 

 be esixicially strong and ilurable, since they arc 



Bracuig End Posts of Frames and TreUUt. 



the foundation strength of all wire fences. Braces 

 holding against the regular tension of the wires 

 tend to lift these posts out of the ground, on 

 which account they should be extra long and set 

 :^2 to ■iXi feet deej) and tramped with great care. 

 The usual way of bracing, shown in the upper 

 figure, is quite faulty, the brace being too high 

 up on the post and standing too vertical. It 

 shimld rest nearly against the center of strain on 

 the post and more nearly in a horizontal i»o8ition, 

 as shown in figure 2, where it meets the post 

 near the middle wire, so as not to Uft the post 

 out of the ground. A wire connecting the top of 

 the second post with the bottom of the end post, 

 see Fg. 'Z a, preventj:^ the brace from pushing it 

 over. A \'ery good waj- is to bring the lower 

 wire around the end post and instead of attaching 

 it here cairy it back to the top of the second 

 post, where it should be fastened. In case a brace 

 like the first one is repeated between posts two 

 and three, then the second wire may be brought 

 ar()und in the same way as the first one was and 

 passed to the third post for fastening. Braces 

 can be secured so as to not slip from the post by 

 nailing a loop of wire securely across and to the 

 post, as at .r in Fig. 3.— Prairie Farmer. 



Liquids for Chrysanthemums. Two very essen- 

 tial things to have close to the summer (juarters 

 is a lii]uid manure tub and a lime-water tub. A 

 perfectly safe lifpiid manure is made from fresh 

 cow-dung and soot. Into a tub, the size of a par- 

 alfin cask, I should put a large pailful of cow- 

 manure and half a pail <if soot t-ogether in a 

 coai"se can>"as bag. The bag should be tied, and 

 when well soaked poked with a stout stake to get 

 the essence out. I shtmld commence giving ma- 

 nure water to the plants as so<m as the flowering 

 pots are fairly full of roots, giving it weak at 

 fii-st, and as the buds are set incivase the strength. 

 gi>e manure wat<'rat every wat^'ring. Replenish 

 the manure in the sack as soon as it is exhausted. 

 Keep on up till the time they are in flower. For 

 lime water, put into a cask one pailful of new 

 kiln lime. Let it settle and it will be fit for use. 

 Worms do great injury to the roots of Chrysan- 

 themums. .\ny jiots that contain worms should 

 have a watering of lime water to kill them. The 

 disturbed state oC the soil, or the ciists on the 

 top, will show where they are. It will not hurt 

 the plants.— George Stevens' Catalogue. 



Home-grown Huckleberries. The best \arie- 

 tii'sand r-pei-ics of Uucklcltcrry should lie f<mnd 

 in every garden where HlackU'rries and Rasp- 

 berries are cultivated. In a wild stiit<^^ the bushes 

 of even the "Swamp Huckleberry" are fre- 

 qnently found on high, dry sandy soils, and such 



