1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



385 



former, would make it sufficient for a sleeping 

 room for a man or boy. 



These plans are drawn, as before remarked, to 

 an enlarged scale. The height of this story, in the 

 clear, is eight feet six inches, and the walls are 

 thirteen feet from the underpinning to the under- 

 side of the plate, by which the charnbers are made 

 airy, and each room of proper height upon the 

 wails. 



The space upon the second floor is used m the 

 most economical manner, as the plan testifies. 



The staircase leads to a small hall, from which 

 doors conduct to a large chamber, No. 1, in one 

 end of which is a recess for the bed, leaving space 

 in the remainder of the chamber for a second bed, 

 if the number in the family required. No. 2 is the 



For the New England Farmer. 



MY GARDEN. 



Its Weeds— Its Insects— Its Birds— Its injury by the last Win- 

 ter— An experiment of the fall planting of Potato a fail- 

 ure, and why — Office of the Seed Potato. 



1. Weeds. The worst kinds to exterminate, I have 

 been taught to call chickweed and quack grass. 

 Perhaps others call the latter witch grass. The 

 chickweed spreads over the ground, in small vines, 

 with small leaves, rooting itself as it extends in 

 every direction. It is perennial, having great vi- 

 tality and fecundity. It blows and seeds early and 

 late, till frost binds the ground, and no cold ever 

 kills it. Any minute part left in the ground prop- 

 agates itself, and let alone claims the whole of it. 

 I Drought is no terror to it. It will live forever when 

 it has fairly taken ]50Ssession, as in the 

 shade of trees, or in any plot not culti- 

 vated. Quack grass sends forth trails 

 of roots near the surface, and sends up 

 a constant thick set of spires to usurp 

 the soil. Tne propagating power of this 

 grass is remarkal)le, and it is a sore ari- 

 noyance to the gardener. Summer weeds 

 propagated only by seed are easily sub- 

 dued, but I would fain learn how to kill 

 all setcis in vegetable compost. 



2. Insects. The curculio is verj' de- 

 structive this season. The black flea 

 begins his work early upon cabbages 

 and cauliflowers, and kills the young plants and 

 stunts them when transplanted. He riddles with 

 his punctures leaves of potatoes till they blos- 

 som, perhaps later. The cutworm fells young cab- 

 bages, onions and even potato stalks, as well as 

 beets, and depredates through May and June. The 

 yellow bug and his offspring are very mischievous. 

 For want of cucumbers and melons perhaps, he at- 

 tacks, on my premises, the potato vines, and fares 

 sumptuously till the present time, July 9th. Very- 

 voracious and prolific, this insect breeds a multudi- 

 nous succession of broods of slugs, which consume 

 as they go the leaves, leaving but the coarse fibres 

 which, unless properly aired and attended to, are' often, and thus preventing the healthy development 



CHAMBER FLOOR. 



second chamber, and No. 3, adjoining it, is of 

 diminished size. Above the doors of each room, 

 are apertures for the circulation of air, and in the 

 skirting-board of each, opening on the well of the 

 staircase, or the upper hall, are left registers for the 

 admission of a current of air above the floor. _ A 

 large window is provided upon the stairs, which 

 should drop at the top as well as bottom sash, and, 

 when open, would from its position fully ventilate 

 the air in the upper floor of the building ; inner 

 windows are also provided in rooms 1 and 2, open- 

 ing to the well of the stairway. 



Space would not permit the provision of closets, 



nests for vermin in such small dwellings. If need- 

 ed, however, the recess at the end of room 

 No. 1, could be inclosed so as to form a large store 

 closet, and having a swing window inserted therein 

 towards the well of the stairs, could easily be kept 

 sweet. These simple arrangements for securing a 

 circulation of air in the sleeping rooms, would ren- 

 der them healthful and pleasant, and should, on no 

 account, be lost sight of in the erection of the 

 building. 



The outside finish of the cottage is so simple 

 as to render remark unnecessary. The walls, being 

 unbroken by any projections, can be constructed of 

 concrete, adobe, or any other material that local 

 circumstances render most economical and desira- 



The chimney shafts are of brick, built so that 

 ble. 



the flues are set diagonally to the base, by which 

 means increased beauty of effect is gained and the 

 current of air is broken. 



The verandah is cheaply formed, and the roofs 

 are finished merely by the extension of the timbers 

 beyond the outer face of the walls. 



The cost of this double dwelling would not ex- 

 ceed one thousand dollars, and under favorable 

 circumstances could be erected for less. 



of the plant. Its blows are almost uniformly pre- 

 vented from expanding in my garden, and of course 

 few seed balls are formed. The stalks grow sickly 

 in consequence, and though new ones start from 

 the bottom, they cannot retrieve the damage of the 

 parent stalk, nor do their office in their late growth 

 of aiding in the formation and growth of the tu- 

 bers. I wonder not that they have consumption 

 and dropsy, for these and other insects, in my ex- 

 per'ience, fatally prevent the development and proper 

 functions of the essential part of the plant thai ex- 

 pands in the air. The stalk-borer does a share of 

 the same mischief, entering and drilling and killing 

 the stalks he attacks. He is a fellow of black and 

 white stripes, of length and size according to his 

 age, ever found in the centre of each stalk that 

 wilts. 



3. Birds. The robin, oriole, chipping bird and 

 yellow bird are kind in destroying many slugs and 

 other accessible insects, but they soon get cloyid 

 and desist. 



4. The past Winter. It killed my peach trees 

 many extreme branches of the cherry of last years' 

 growth, and greatly injured plum trees, and the Is- 

 abella grape. 



5. I planted a row of potatoes in November, 



