196 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



June, 



The Dandelion. 



A little child was playing. 

 Her eyes her joy betrayiug. 



And cheeks so rosy; 

 When all at once, beside thee, 

 She cunningly espied thee. 



And lisped, "A Posie ; " 

 A gard'ner who was hoeing. 

 And felt hlni weary growing. 



Sat down to rest; 

 At once he 'gan to hate thee, 

 To threaten and berate thee. 



And growled, "A pest ! " 



Black Cherries. 



Thick as rain-drops hang the satin Cherries 

 On each bough of huge, o'erladeu trees, 



Leafy weight, that half the fruitage buries. 

 Set against the warm, caressing breeze. 



Ardent fruit of ardent heat— a yearning 

 Fills my heart at all this bra\'e array. 



—Mrs. Goodale, 



You love the Roses— so do I. I wish 

 The sky would rain down Roses, as they rain 

 From off the shaken bush. Why will It not ? 

 Then all the valleys would be pink and white. 

 And soft to tread on. They would fall as light 

 As feathers, smelling sweet ; and It would be 

 Like sleeping and yet waking all at once. 



—George Eliot. 



Bag the Grapes. 



" Woodbankg " on Niagara. 



There is beauty in a curve. 



The editorial office lias been moved. 



Tree Faeonies are too seldom grown. 



Have you planted some Nasturtiums? 



Mildew is one sign of an exhausted soil. 



The sun ^'n wet leaves may cause blisters. 



The Mulberry is propagated from fall set cut- 

 tings. 



Annual Chrysanthemums come better in a 

 rather poor soil. 



Any management that e.xcludes common 

 tlowei's is faulty. 



To cut off flowers as they begin to fade will 

 promote freer bloom. 



Grow some tree, plant or crop so well that .von 

 may well be pi-oud of it. 



The same vegetables should not be grown on 

 the same plat for successive years. 



To pinch all flowers from .Sti'awberry plants is 

 one way of increasing layer pr(»pagation. 



The Ohio Ever-bearing Raspberry is unques- 

 tionably the favorite throughout Niagara Co. 



To be most effective the Persian insect powder 

 should be applied when plants are dry.— T. H. L. 



No Quarter, A steel rake witli sharp teeth and 

 handled by an active man leaves little chance 

 in the garden for weeds. 



Every suUsciiber is sure to derive benefit 

 from the Popular (Iakdenino Experimental 

 (rroiuids. Now is the time to subscribe. 



The Tansy plant, with its very ornamental 

 leaf, may be rendei'cd decidedly handsome by 

 cutting out the tlower shoots as they appear. 



Treating the Ice Plant, This plant, McMmhrj/- 

 anthemuin crystaUinium, is quite effective for 

 vases if the buds are kept down. — Mrs. Lnvcjiyy. 



Deformed or "Bull-head" Ferle Boses, Mr. 

 W. J. Palmer of this <.'ity says that such are pro- 

 duced only on young plants; his old ones yielding 

 I>erf ect flowers. 



We like bone meal for pot plants. It is effec- 

 tive as a top dressing or mixed with the soil. It 

 is odorless. It can be bought for 4 centsajjound 

 in fifty pound lots. 



To the Trade and the Public. This joiirnal's 

 new grounds are not commercial in their charac- 

 ter. Not a tree, plant or seed shall be advertised 

 and sold from them. 



Boses should not stand in sod. If the reader's 

 bed is so situated, let him now invert the sod, and 



from henceforth give free culture, with a liberal 

 dressing of f)ld manure yearly. 



A Rose jar, says the American Cultivator, may 

 be made of Kose leaves gathered in their prime 

 and free from moisture. Mix with them the 

 essential oils of lavender or rosemary. 



Sport in a Fern-leaved Beech There is a curi- 

 ous case of sporting on one of the branches of 

 my Beech. The branch is two or three feet above 

 where the improved part was budded on the 

 stock, but the leaves are not cut at all.— fV. S. L. 



The Best of All, Of the numerous important 

 steps taken b,v this journal at intervals since it 

 was founded, to increase its circulation and 

 influence, our readers, we think, can easily 

 agree with us that none other can compare in 

 significance with that of purchasing and con- 

 ducting a fruit farm, garden and expeiimental 

 grounds in the sole interests of the paper and 

 its readers. 



Lime for Grape Bot, For three years I have 

 kept my Grapes from rotting b.v scattering air 

 slaked lime over the vines and Grapes every two 

 or three weeks. Scatter any time after the Grapes 

 are formed, or when the rot begins, I have vines 

 sixteen years old; the Grapes had always rotted, 

 but lime has made me three crops of splendid 

 Grapes. With me it appears to be a panacea for 

 all Uls.— R. S. Martin, Clark Co,, Ohio. 



Eating Strawberries. We hardly need in- 

 structions on this point, and yet it may be well 

 to observe that an English mode of serving this 

 fruit at the table is to take it freshly picked, with 

 all its sheen of shining dewy, perfect ripeness, 

 and taking it by the stem, severing it with the 

 thumb nail, thus presenting it in its full beauty. 

 The eater then takes the berry by the stem, dips 

 its moist and glowing crown in powdered sugar, 

 and thus obtains and enjoys to the full all the 

 aroma of its then abundant juice. 



The Norway Spruce. If Mr. Charles A. Dana, 

 of New York, wiU honor us with a brief visit we 

 think we can show him such specimens of the 

 Norway Spruce as will force him to see the weak- 

 ness of this fling at a valuable tree, and which 

 recently appeared in Garden and Forest: " Fin- 

 ally, I have one piece of advice for the young 

 planter, whether his purpose be aesthetic beauty 

 or material profit, and that is, never to plant a 

 Norway Spruce. One of the great misfortunes 

 that have happened to the gardens and pleasure 

 grounds of our Northern States is the Introduc- 

 tion of this ugly and useless tree." 



Applying Hellebore, etc. For years I have 

 applied Hellebore to Kose and Currant bushes, 

 and Paris Green to Potato vines, etc., with great 

 Siitisfaction by the use of a very simple home- 

 made sifter. This consists merely of a common 

 kitchen-salt bag to serve as the sifter, and at- 

 tiiched to a wire or reed that is bent in a circle 

 and fastened to a short handle. Such salt bags 

 usually have meshes about right for this purpose, 

 and by placing the dust poisons in one of these 

 and shaking it on the plant, the operation may 

 Ik- easily, safely and well performed.— D. JV. L. 



Roses in Iowa, The old fashioned Cinnamon 

 and Scotch Httses are the only Koses that will 

 withstand our wint<'rs without covering. Even 

 the so-called " Hardy as an Oak " Kose, Madam 

 Planlier, will kill to the ground if left unpro- 

 tected. All those Koses that approach perpetual 

 flowering, like Alfred Colomb, Coiiuette des Alps, 

 Capt, Christy, Jacqueminot, Mad Chas. Wood, 

 Paul Neyron, and many others, must ha\e extra 

 protection here in Northern Iowa. It has been 

 au expensive experience for me to reach this in- 

 formation, for I depended upon the catiilogues, 

 which .said these varieties were hardy.— Mrs. T. 

 H. L., MitfUell Co., Idwa. 



Spiders and Plant Insects, Kepiilsive as Spi- 

 ders are to most i>crsons, they perform, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Keller 4>f Zurich, an important part in 

 the preservation of forests, by defending the 

 trees against the depredations of aphides and 

 insects. He has examined a great many Spiders, 

 both in their \'iscera and by feeding them in 

 capti\ity, and has found them to be voracious 

 destroyers of these pests ; and he beUeves that 

 the Spiders in a particular forest do more effect- 

 ive work itf this kind than all the insect-eating 

 l)irds that inhaliit it. He has verified his views 

 by observations on coniferoustrees, a few broad- 

 leaved trees and Apple trees, 



A Word on Blanching Celery, The main ob- 

 ject of banking Celcr.\- is to keep the stalks 

 upright and exclude the light; anything else that 

 will do this maj- answer as well or lietter than 

 soil. If some extra clean and bright ('elery is 



wanted to exhibit at your fair next fall, secure 

 a suppl.v of tea chest matting at the grocer's now 

 and at the usual time of handling wrap each 

 plant in a double thickness of this material, keep- 

 ing it in place by drawing a little soil around the 

 bottom and tying above once or twice with bass 

 or other string. Add more matting when neces- 

 sary, keeping the plants covered to the top. The 

 result should be satisfactory at the end of three 

 weeks, more or less,according to variety, — F.H.M. 



Roses in the Autumn, The most certain way 

 of securing these is to plant out Tea and others 

 of the ever-blooming kinds in spring. By pro- 

 curing strong plants in three-inch pots, and at a 

 cost of from $1..50 per dozen and upwards, setting 

 these in well enriched ground, kept well culti- 

 vated and well watered in dry weather, there 

 should be loads of fine flowers from August until 

 near November. Two common mistakes made 

 with these plants is in setting out such as are too 

 small, and in trying to make the same plants do 

 full duty both as winter pot plants and as summer 

 bedders. In a well drained soil many of this 

 class of Roses can safely be wintered in the beds 

 where they have grown by bending them to the 

 ground and covering with sods or earth at the 

 approach of winter. 



Some Simple Tools and their Use. For setting 

 Strawberry plants use a common plasterer's 

 trowel. Striking into the mellow soil, pressing 

 towards you, and insert the plant with the left 

 hand, spreading the roots with the thumb and 

 fingers; withdraw trowel and with it push soil 

 against the roots, pressing flrmlj'. For trimming 

 Raspberry bushes use a pair of shears made by a 

 blacksmith,— blades 1 inch wide and 10 inches 

 long, bolted to light, strong 2-foot handles. For 

 cutting out old wood use a bill hook, with blade 

 IJ^ inches wide and bolted to a scythe snath. 

 For the first workings of garden stuff with a 

 horse, nothing equals an expanding cultivator, 

 with frame thickly set with V or diamond shaped 

 harrow teeth. For fining soil after the harrow, 

 a good clod crusher will do the work, — A. M. 

 Nicfwls, Licking Co., Ohio. 



Thinning Fruit. Let it be put down that a 

 medium-sized crop of perfect fruit is invariably 

 worth more than an abundance of inferior speci- 

 mens. The former is always in demand even 

 when the latter as a drug finds no sale. To secure 

 the better quality, thinning should be resorted 

 to. Mr. Hoopes remarks in the Philadelphia 

 Press that in the case of small trees. Grape-vines 

 and small fruits, the secondary specimens may 

 be pinched or clipped off without trouble; with 

 large old trees the difliculty is to reach the top- 

 most branches. Although a crude practice, pol- 

 ing off a portion of the crop is better than allow- 

 ing all to remain on. Nipping off a part of the 

 fruit with pole-shears is rather tedious, but with 

 the finer varieties it pays. The owner of a fine 

 vine who does not pinch off one-half the clusters 

 of a prospective heavy crop does not deser\^e 

 good Grapes, 



Clayed Ponds, An artificial pond for the 

 growth of aquatics or other jjurposes may be 

 readily constructed by the claying process, 

 wherever a tenacious clay is procurable. This is 

 <lone by first excavating to the desired form and 

 ramming the foundation somewhat firmly. Up- 

 on this surface a layer of from three inches to 

 six inches, if the pond is large, of worked clay 

 should be placed. Men who do this work take 

 up lumps of clay in their hands when it has been 



well worked, and dash it against 

 the sides of the pond, working 

 backwards, so that they do not 

 go on the clayed portion with 

 their feet. It is merely made 

 smooth with the back of a spade 

 after being thrown down. The 

 clay should be covered with a 

 Bag for Belle- thin coating of sand to save it 

 bore and other from freezing above the water- 

 Poisoiui. jjjjp^ i^j. from cracking in sum- 



mer. Dipping places should be protected with 

 wood. 



Rock Work. Sometimes a touch of wild nature 

 introduced into a lawn or flower garden has a 

 charming effect. In a shaded corner a piece of 

 rock-work appears to good advantage, and is 

 easily made by forming a mound of good soil, 

 and inserting rocks around and on top, leaving 

 pockets for rich soil, in which to plant ferns and 

 some delicate vines, such as Maurandias, Thun- 

 bergias, etc., but no luxuriant or compact grower, 



