30 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



I 7. In the fall of 1843, I took up the bulbs of tuberoses, 

 and wintered them safely upon the top of book-cases in a 

 warm study. Having a better and larger stock in 1844, I 

 would fain be yet more careful, and packed them in dry 

 sand, and put them in a closet beyond the reach of frost. 

 On opening them in the spring all were rotted save about 

 half a dozen. Hereafter, I shall try the book-case. 



8. We are told that glazed or painted flower-pots are not 

 desirable, because, refusing a passage to superfluous moist 

 ure, they leave the roots to become sodden. In small 

 stove-heated parlors, the evaporation is so great that glazed 

 or painted flower-pots are best, because the danger is of 

 dryness rather than dampness in all plants growing in 

 sandy loams or composts. 



9. I have resolved every summer for three years, to cut 

 pea-brush during the winter and stack it in the shed ; and 

 every summer following, not having kept the vow, I have 

 lacked pea-brush, being too busy to get it when it was 

 needed, I have allowed the crop to suffer. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



MANY county societies were formed in 1836 and for some 

 years flourished ; few of them, we believe, exist now. We 

 hope that the day has come for them to revive ; and, that the 

 experience of the past may not be lost, it is well to record 

 the reasons why these county societies declined. 



1. Just after their birth, came on the fatal years of ficti 

 tious prosperity ; when every man expected a railroad on 

 one side of his farm and a canal on the other and when 

 everybody was about to be exceedingly rich ; not by legiti 

 mate business ; not by producing wealth ; but by the rise 

 of property. Now the wealth of a farming community is 

 always to arise from the products of the farm. Whatever 



