the plant than it is to drive them off. Keep the plant healthy by caring for the roots 

 and a comparatively little syringing with tobacco water would make the foliage of such 

 a plant an undesirable habitation for Mr. and Mrs. Bug. To remove scales from the 

 ivy, orange tree or any other plant, make a wash of whale-oil soap and add a vi-ry little 

 carbolic acid. A small, flat paint brush is a convenient implement to apply it with. If 

 scales stick too tight, get a splinter of wood and gently scrape the branch, but do not 

 break through the bark. Syringe with water in about two hours after applying wash. 



Good soil for pot plants is very essential. Those living in cities and having no gar- 

 dens would better get it from the florist. Those having a garden should keep a pile on 

 hand. Never waste the leaves of trees. Make a heap and rot them down. Leaf mould, 

 with common soil, makes the best of potting soil. Have a pile of rotted sod on hand. 

 To make a soil that will do for all pot plants, mix one-half rotten sod or good garden 

 soil with one-fourth well rotted manure and one-fourth decayed leaves. This will never 

 "bake." These are the main points that will lead to success in pot -plant culture ; the 

 little variations and details you will learn by observation and application. 



THE GRAPE-VINE. 



So much has been written concerning the grape that it seems everyone would know- 

 how to cultivate it. Instead of this, it is blunder and fail in the majority of cases of 

 attempts to grow it. Some years ago, an acquaintance of mine requested me to fix up 

 his three vines so that they would bear. Examination revealed the fact that they had 

 been " butchered'" five years in succession. Some fellow, in order to make a dollar, had 

 posed as a "professor " of vineyards. He had followed the stupid custom of cutting all 

 the branches back to " two eyes." The vines were run on a trellis, some thirl}- feet in 

 length, and were very strong. This grape-destroyer had actually cut off and thrown 

 away about ninety-nine-hundredths of the fruit-buds ! The roots, being very vig- 

 orous, had forced the remaining fruit-buds into strong wood to repair the damage of the 

 destroyer. This had been continued for five years, resulting in no fruit. We took the 

 vines from the trellis, spread them out, cut away all dead wood and weak branches and 

 preserved the robust canes over twenty feet in length, which were retied to the trellis, 

 spread out so that the light and air could play around them. The result was, six bushels 

 of grapes ! Grape-vines, by the hundreds of thousands, have been practically destroyed 

 by this " two-eye " folly. The error originated some thirty or more years ago by a sug- 

 gested plan to throw all the force of the vine into one branch and then run this on a 

 \v\re, form fruit-spurs at every bud, and then keep the new wood at those joints cut back 

 to two eyes. That system works all right if people know how to do it. This found its 

 way into the newspapers and a rage commenced. " Two eyes," " two eyes," in every 

 newspaper. If nature had not asserted her power and persisted in living in spite of the 

 \inz-butcher, there would not have been a grape-vine left with one eye. 



As all who grow grapes for the market are supposed to have informed themselves on 

 the various systems of cultivating and training the grape, a few suggestions to the ama- 

 teur is all that is needed. 



In pruning, cut out all old wood and strip off old bark. Cut out all weak brain-In s 

 and preserve only the vigorous ones, and tie these up where they will be spread out to 

 light and air. 



In England the grape is grown almost entirely under glass (in "graperies "). Some 

 twenty years ago I became acquainted with an Englishman who had just come over the 

 "pond." He was a fairly well-trained gardener and hired out to a gentleman of con- 

 siderable means. He followed the English method of summer pruning of a grape fas- 

 tened against a brick wall on the south side of a building. He cut away the loaves 

 severely to admit light and air, and he succeeded ! He let in enough sun to heat the 

 bricks scalding hot ! The intense heat was reflected on the under part of the leaf and 

 scalded the epidermis. The outer edges of the leaves commenced to curl back and 

 shrivel. In a few weeks the wail went up, " The grapes are blasted and covered with 



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