California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



How to Take Care of Bulbs. 



S soon as their beauty of flower is over, 

 we always cut off the flower etema just 

 below the lowest flower, and for this 

 reason: the hyacinth and tulip both 

 seed freely, particularly the latter; if 

 the bulb is forming seed, its strength is in a 

 great measure wasted by that process; whereas 

 if the flower-stem is cut ofl', the bulb has no- 

 thing to do but to prepare itself with vigor 

 for blossoming the ensuing year. We pay 

 gi-eat attention to the protection of the leaves 

 of both hyacinths and tulips, and never allow 

 them to be interfered with iintil nature indi- 

 cates, by the decay of their points, that the 

 bulb is preparing for rest. We then foUo-v a 

 course with both hyacinths and tulips which 

 we believe many do not; that is, we take them 

 up before the leaves are quite decayed, and 

 for this reason: we believe that both of them, 

 after the bulbs have attained this period of 

 growth, are only weakened by remaining in 

 ground, because the ofl'sets are living upon the 

 parent bulb, and conseqiaently weakening it 

 for the flower of the following year. If a cul- 

 tivator wishes for stock, he should let his 

 bulbs remain until the leaves are quite de- 

 cayed. If he wants his bulbs to flower in 

 beauty again, he should follow the practice 

 above mentioned. When taken up, the bulbs 

 should be removed to a shed sheltered from 

 the sun but free to the air, and any earth ad- 

 hering to the fibres or roots should remain for 

 some little time; after two or three days they 

 should be looked after and the loose earth 

 shaken from them; and, as the leaves decay, 

 they should be occasionally removed. We 

 have generally placed our bulbs at first on the 

 ground, iu the tool-shed, and as they got dry 

 removed them to an airy shelf. When the 

 leaves are nearly decayed, we place them in 

 very shallow baskets, and allow as much air 

 as practicable to be between each root to 

 harden them, turning them every two or three 

 days. By this treatment, and rubbing off 

 any portion of mold attached to the bottom 

 and sides, they are iu a fit state to be placed 

 for the summer in a dry room; and by a little 

 occasional attention, the rough and outside 

 coat will, by a gentle side-pressure of the 

 thumb, be eflectually removed, and exhibits 

 the appearance of the bulb clean, smooth, and 

 in good condition. This latter operation is 

 best performed in the end of August, and at 

 the end of that time remove the remains of 

 such jiarts of the root of the former year as 

 may have droj'ped off previous to this time. 

 It is hardly necessary to state that any bulb 

 in an unsound state, either from apjjearanfe 

 of decay or from having been injured in tak- 

 ing up, should not be put with those intended 

 for future planting. — The Garden. 



Tuberose Bulbs — How to Pkeseeve Them. 

 There are a few rules that the novice in these 

 matters must bear in mind. Do not under- 

 take to dry the bulb with all the top on; do 

 not cut it off too near the crown of the bulb. 

 Either proves injurious. The first, because 

 there is such a mass of green, succulent 

 growth to wither up, and consequently to en- 

 gender decay; and the latter because there 

 will be great danger of destroying the germ in 

 the center. I have seen bulbs to all outward 

 appearances sound and healthy, but when I 

 examined this vital point I found it gone be- 

 yond recovery, and the bulb was necessarily 

 worthless. My practice is to dig them as 

 soon as the first frost injures the leaves, cut 

 them down to say three inches of the bulb, 

 and then spread them thinly on a shutter, or, 

 what is better, a shitted frame, and place them 

 in the sun or near the fire heat, until every 

 vestige of moisture has dejiarted. It is really 

 wonderful how much vitality there is in the 

 leaves of this beautifnl flower, for not urifre- 

 (jueutly one has to wait for several weeks be- 



fore they are ready to store away. When 

 once thoroughly dried, I simply place them 

 iu a box without auy packing material what- 

 ever, and keep them in a warm and perfectly 

 dry place. The cellar near a furnace -will 

 answer, provided there is no dampness iu the 

 air. It is a good plan to examine them care- 

 fully during the winter to see if there is any 

 moisture present, and if it is detected, take 

 them out at once, and again spread thinly 

 over the top of a furnace or other sm'face, to 

 remain until dry once more. — Ex. 



(!;duc«iti0uul 



What Should Young People Read? 



i& 



J;T is very hard for boys and girls between 

 ten and twenty to believe what older 

 peojjle tell them concerning the selection 

 of reading matter. If a book is interest- 

 ing, exciting, thrilling, the- young folks 

 want to read it. They like to feel their hair 

 stand on end at the hairbreadth escapes of the 

 hero, and their nerves tingle to the ends of 

 their fingers at his exploits, and their faces 

 burn with passionate sympathy iu his tribu- 

 lations — and what harm is there in it? Let 

 us see what harm there may bo. You know 

 very well that a child fed on candy and cake 

 and sweetmeats soon loses all healthy appe- 

 tite for nutritious food, his teeth grow black 

 and crumble away, his stomach becomes de- 

 ranged, his breath otteusive, and the whole 

 physical and mental organization is dwarfed 

 and injured. When he grows older he wiU 

 crave spices and alcohol to stimulate his ab- 

 normal appetite and give pungency to taste- 

 less though healthful food. No man grows 

 up from such childhood to have positions of 

 trust and usefulness in the communily where 

 he lives. The men who hold those positions 

 were fed with milk and bread when they were 

 young, and iipt with trash. 



Now, the mind, like the body, grows by 

 what it feeds upon. The girl who fills her 

 brain with silly, sentimental, love sick stories 

 grows up into a silly, sentimental, lackadaisi- 

 cal woman, useless for all the noble and sub- 

 stantial work of life. The boy who feeds on 

 sensational newspapers and exciting novels 

 has no intellectual muscle, no commanding 

 will to make his way iu the world. Then, 

 aside from the debilitating etfeet of such read- 

 ing, the mind is poisoned by impure associa- 

 tions. These brilliant stories have always 

 murder, or theft, or lying, or knavery as an 

 integral jjart of their issue, and boys while 

 reading them live in the oomjjanionshiiJ of 

 men and women, of boys and girls, with 

 whom they would be ashamed to be seen con- 

 versing, whom they would never think of in- 

 viting to their houses and introducing to their 

 trends, and whose very names they would not 

 mention iu polite society as associates and 

 equals. Every book that one reads, no less 

 than every dinner that one eats, becomes part 

 and parcel of the individual, and we can no 

 more read without injury an unwholesome 

 book or ijcriodical than we can eat tainted 

 meat and not sutt'er thereby. Just as there 

 are everywhere stores full of candy and cake, 

 and liquor, and tobacco, and spices, so there 

 arc everywhere books, newspapers and maga- 

 zines full of the veriest trash, and abounding 

 iu everything boys and girls should not read. 

 And just as the healthful stomach, jiassing all 

 these pernicions baits, will choose .sound ali- 

 ment, so the healthful mind will reject the 

 unwholesome literature current everywhere, 

 and select such as is intrinsically good. 



The other d.ay we picked up a popular 

 juvenile weekly, and presently found ourself 

 knee-deep in slang, ov<'r our head in vulgar 

 allusion, and in the midst of a low-lived met- 

 ro|>olitan crowd, where cock-fights, dog-fights 

 and man-fights were the condiments oflfered to 

 whet the appetite for reading; and yet we 

 know families where that pajjcr is regularly 

 taken. Do the parents read itV Do they 



know what company their children are keep- 

 ing? 



But, says the young inquirer. What shall 

 we read, and how shall we know if books are 

 suitable? Head such books as give you valu- 

 able information, works that are approved by 

 people of correct judgment. Our leading 

 magazines contain a vast amount of reading, 

 interesting alike to young and old. Do not 

 read what renders distasteful the duties of 

 life, or renders vice atti-aetive, or makes you 

 long for an impossible and romantic career. 

 A correct taste, once formed and carefully con- 

 sulted, will enable you to select the good and 

 eschew the pernicious. 



"Might I give counsel to any young bearer, ' ' 

 says Thackery in his lecture on Prior, Gray 

 and Pope, "I would say to him, try to fre- 

 quent the company of your betters. In books 

 and life that is the most wholesome society; 

 learn to admire rightly, the great pleasure of 

 life isiu that. Note what the good men admire; 

 they admire good things; narrow spirits ad- 

 mire basely and worship meanly. — A'. T. 

 Tribune. 



It is often said" that students of agricultural 

 colleges do not, in after hfe, pursue agricul- 

 ture as a profession; but this cannot be ai>- 

 plied to the college at Lansing, Michigan. 

 According to President Abbott, at least forty- 

 two per cent, of the living graduates of that 

 institution are engaged in farming or garden- 

 ing. If all our agricultural colleges can make 

 this kind of a showing, there will be less 

 cause for growling about them than people 

 suppose. — Frairie Farmer. 



One of the most important errors in educa- 

 tion is the idle vanity that looks for every- 

 thing before its time, and will have fruit be- 

 fore flowers, in order to enjoy the surprise of 

 the guests at seeing the table decked with the 

 evidences of Summer when the earth without 

 is covered with ice and snow. Such things 

 are always pleasing to the eye, even when the 

 growth is not natural. A precocious child, 

 however, seldom grows up into a valuable 

 man. — Jacoha. 



The line of conduct chosen during the five 

 years from fifteen to twenty, will, in almost 

 every instance, determine the character for 

 life. As a young man is then careful or care- 

 less, prudent or improvident, industrious or 

 indolent, truthful or dissimulating, ignorant 

 or intelligent, temperate or dissolute — so will 

 he be in after years; and it needs no prophet 

 to cast his horoscope or calculate his chances 

 in life. 



< o > 



Thinking. — Thinking, not growth, makes 

 perfect manhood. There are some who, 

 though they have done growing, are still only 

 boys. The constitution may be fixed, while 

 the judgment is immatiwe; the limbs may be 

 strong, while the reasoning is feeble. Many 

 who can run, and jump, and bear any fatigue, 

 can not observe, can not examine, can not 

 reason nor judge, contrivB nor execute — they 

 do not think. 



Accustom yourself, then, to thinking. Set 

 yourself to understand whatever you see or 

 read. To run through a book is not a dilfi- 

 cult task, nor is it a very profitable one. To 

 understand a few pages only is far better than 

 to read the whole, where mere reading it is 

 all. If the work does not set you to thinking 

 either you or the author must be very de- 

 ficient. 



It is only by thinking that a man can know 

 himself. Yet all other knowledge without 

 this is splendid ignorance. Not a glance 

 merely, but much close examination will be 

 requisite for the forming of a true opinion of 

 your own power."i. Ignorance and self-con- 

 ceit always tend to make you overrate y(mr 

 jiersonal "ability — as a slight degree of know- 

 ledge may malie a timid mind i>ass upon him- 

 self too huiul)le a judgment. It is only by 

 thinking, and much impartial observation. 



