wrong, you will not only lose the seed, but the benefit of experience. It will not help the 

 matter to say that seeds of your own growing came up in the same beds, unless you had just the 

 same varieties. As a general rule, the finer the varieties of flowers the less vitality in the seeds. 

 One may grow almost anywhere and anyhow, another require the most favorable circumstances 

 for its germination. This is particularly the case with most double flowers, even of the same 

 species or variety. A single Aster will give more seed than a hundred of double, and the seed 

 will be larger, and produce earlier, stronger plants, and will grow under unfavorable circum- 

 stances, where the seed from the double flower would decay. Hence, if there happen to be 

 three seeds from a single plant in a package, and all should grow, these three plants would produce 

 flowers before any others, and those not acquainted with the facts would say at once, " all my 

 Asters are going to be single." If, through a bad season or soil, all the Aster seed from the 

 double flowers had died, and only the more robust from the single flower lived, of course, the 

 complaint is, " I had only three plants from a package of seeds, and that was plenty, for they 

 were very poor flowers." A beautiful flower is often obtained at the sacrifice of the vigor, and 

 not unfrequently the constitution, of the plant. After laboring long and anxiously to secure 

 some desired improvement, it is not uncommon, just as success seemed about to crown our 

 labors, to find all our hopes blasted on account of some defect in the plant a grand flower 

 secured and a healthful plant ruined. 



THE LAWN AND GARDEN. 



WALK STAKED OUT. 



Man may be refined and happy without a garden ; he may even have a home, I suppose, 

 without a tree, or shrub, or flower; yet, when the Creator wished to prepare a proper home for 

 man, pure in all his tastes and made in His own likeness, He planted a garden and placed this 

 noblest specimen of creative power in it to dress and to keep it. A few suggestions on the 

 Improving of Grounds and the Adornment of Rural Homes may be useful, and prevent a great 

 many expensive and troublesome mistakes. 



MAKING LAWNS AND WALKS. 



In the first place, the space in front of the house, and generally the sides exposed to view 



from the street, should be in grass. No arrangement 

 of beds, or borders of box, or anything else, will 

 look so neat and tasteful as a well kept piece of 

 lawn. It can also be kept in better order at less cost 

 than in any other way. Mixed beds of flowers or of 

 shrubbery in the most conspicuous part of the garden 

 are always unsatisfactory. Get a good plat of grass, 

 and dry, neat walks, and all other things will soon 

 follow with but little trouble. 

 The very first thing needed in improving ground is to obtain good drainage. Have good 

 drains made to carry off all waste water from the house and surplus water from the soil. These 

 can be made of stone, laid in any way that will leave an open and secure space for the water to 

 pass through, though where drain tile can be obtained they are as good as anything and 

 usually cheaper. The drains should be from two to four feet deep. Have the work well 

 done, for this is the foundation of all improvement, and 

 the correction of any failure is made only with a good deal 

 of trouble and expense. This secures a dry soil at all seasons 

 of the year, and a healthy growth of plants or trees. 



The next thing is to prepare the soil and make the 

 walks. Make no more roads than are absolutely neces- 

 sary, as many walks divide the lawn and greatly disfigure 

 it. Of course, there must be a bold walk to the front door, 

 and one passing from this to the rear of the house, and in 

 general no more will be necessary. These must be PLANTING FOR CURVED WALKS. 



made in the most convenient places in those one would naturally take in going from one 

 place to another. The curved line is the line of beauty, yet we often see attempts at curved 



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