Vol. X — No. 3. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



21 



the alert ; and ifasiifBci'iiit number of tliem are 

 put ill a garden, tliey will protect the cabbage. — 

 But it is during the inonihs of July and August 

 that these aniuiai.s will be found of the greatest 

 use to the gardener. Although the melon, cu- 

 cumber and squash vines during these months, 

 are of that size that the yellow bugs cannot en- 

 tirely destroy tliem, yet they continue to feed and 

 multiply i>pon iliem in a compound ratio, and in 

 this neighborhood the large black brown bugs, of- 

 ten become .so numerous upon squashes as entire- 

 ly to cherk the growth of the vine. Where gar- 

 dens are fenced with boards and tight, a few toads 

 put in will entirely destroy those bugs, which if 

 left would be sure to appear in an abundance the 

 following spring. 



It has been recommended to place small pieces of 

 boards about one inch from the ground supported 

 upon small stones, in that quarter of the garden 

 where the labors of these animals are war.tcil, as 

 they will take shelter from the sun, under them ; 

 but after cabbage leaves have attained their size, 

 thej' afford them sufficient covering. 



It is of as much importance and benefit to the 

 succeeding crop that insects should be destroyed 

 ns weeds, for although insects are furnished with 

 wings, there is reason to believe that they deposit 

 their eggs near the place where they feed, as we 

 frequently observe that fielils which have been a 

 few ye^ii's in grass, when ploughed and planted 

 with vines, that they are not eaten with bugs al- 

 though contiguous to gardens or old fields where 

 they are very injurious. 



NEW COMPOST FOR FLOWER POTS. 



I have from my childhood been passionately 

 fond of horticultural pursuit,— have devoted much 

 time to ornamental gardening ; and in my travels 

 I have gleaned all the information in my power 

 on the subject of fertilizing the soil. Tn the sum- 

 mer of 1821 I was in Albany, and visited Judge 

 Buel's plantation, which was in the highest state 

 of cultivation, and which as every one knows, is 

 indebted to art alone for its fertility, — having been 

 cut and made from an entire swamp. I walked the 

 Avhole ground over with the judge and his lady 

 and treasured up many curious facts relative to 

 gardening, which I have since practised upon in 

 in a small away, with great success. Since that 

 time I have also visited the most celebrated gar- 

 dens in anil near Boston, Hartford, New York, 

 and Philadelphia ; but in those places they have 

 the advantage of naturally good soil, and do not 

 require so much artificial aid to produce large, 

 growtli of either esculent or ornamental plants 

 which is necessary, in order to procure the same 

 growth from the less fertile soil, in and around 

 Baltimore. 



Last winter, soon after my arrival in Baltimore, 

 a friend presented me with an Oleander, which 

 had spun up to an unwieldy height, but the leaves 

 were very dwarfish ; and yet small as they were, 

 the stalk was so slender, as scarcely to be able to 

 support the scraggy top. It looked so little like 

 the broad leafed Oleanders I had seen at the 

 north, that I almost doubted its being the same 

 species of plant. About this tUno I saw in 

 JFassrs Calvert and Ducatel's (laper directions fiir 

 obtaining largo growth of cabbages, and I re- 

 solved to try the experiment on my dwarf-leafeJ 

 Oleander. Accordingly, as soon as the spring 

 opened, I procured some common red earth, 



which was of a very tenacious clayey consistence 

 — spread it upon a vviile board — overlaid it with 

 a strata of lime, which I slaked — not with sea- 

 water according to the directions, because I could 

 not procure it — but with rain water into which 

 I had previously put sufficient common salt to 

 make it about like seawnter to the taste. I then 

 laid another strata of earth, and then again of 

 lime, making two of each, and the whole made 

 moist with salt water. I then added four quarts 

 of river sand as an improvement of my own ; 

 for, although the receipt did not name it, I took 

 the liberty to judge that so much clay as the earth 

 contained would adhere again in a mass without 

 the aid of sand or something to se|)arate its par- 

 ticles. The whole measured about two thirds of 

 a bushel, one third of which was lime and sand. 

 A servant .stirred it regularly for ine every day 

 until the ingredients were well incorporated, and 

 in three or four weeks it had entirely lost its red- 

 dish color and had become quite black. About the 

 miihlle of April I cut off the top of the Oleander, 

 down within tivo feet of the roots and trimmed 

 otT all the ground shoots and some of the branch- 

 es. 1 did not transplant it, as it grew in a large 

 tub, but removed all the earth from the top and 

 sides of the roots — at least half a bushel of it, 

 and filled up the tub with the new preparation. 

 It was then placed in the yard in a southern ex- 

 posme where it has ever since reinained subject 

 to the sun and rain, and copious waterings, 

 from the pump as often as the earth became dry, 

 — and such a rapid and luxuriant growth 1 never 

 witnessed. My friends told me at first that I had 

 killed my Oleander — and I confess I had some 

 misgivings as to the success of the experiment ; 

 but in less than two weeks after the application 

 of the new earth, new leaves began to put forth 

 surprisingly, and their enonnous size and bright 

 green lustre have been the subject of much com- 

 ment among its numerous admirers. It is now 

 in blossom, and on measuring the new growth 

 which is easily ascertained by the increased size 

 and brilliancy of the leaves, I find it to be, now 

 the first week in July, just 16 inches. The main 

 stalk and limbs have also increased in the same 

 ratio. 



LOTTERIES. 



We wish our readers first to understand, that 

 lotteries can never add one centto the wealth of 

 the country. They do not even profess to do it. 

 They Only transfer money from one nu\u to anoth- 

 er. If all who are engaged in the traffic were to 

 quit it and go to raising potatoes, the amount of val- 

 uable propety in the country would be increased. 

 Lotteries deprive the country of all that they 

 would otherwise earn. 



Consider next, the influence of lottery gam- 

 bling on a man's habits. His object is, to get 

 rich suddenly and easily — more suddeidy and 

 more easily than he can by industry and economy. 

 Keeping a man's mind agitated with hopes of be- 

 coming suddenly rich without labor, nuist make 

 him more and more dissatisfied with the sure and 

 steady gains which are the reward of industry — 

 must render bis ordinary business insipid and tire- 

 some, and lead him so to neglect it, as to become a 

 baniu-upt. This is the history of most of those 

 who are imluccd to speculate in lotteries. 



Consider, again, what sort of men lottery deal- 

 ers expect to prevail with. You may learn this 

 by considering the argmnenls they use. If it were 



in our power we would here insert some of the 

 cuts, with which lottery advertisements arc deco- 

 rated. You may see them, however, in other 

 papers. Look at them. Look at the whole pa- 

 rade of dancing goddesses, and missha|)en, grin- 

 ning dwarfs, with money bags as bio- as them- 

 selves. What powerful arguments these I How 

 well adapted to persuade reasonable men ! The 

 tichet seller hopes that you are silly enough to be 

 induced to buy a ticket, by looking at the su- 

 premely silly giggle on that face in the newspaper. 

 If you are not silly enough for that, he has no 

 hopes of you. He does not atteiupt, for he does 

 not think it possible, to gain custom from any but 

 tlic silliest part of the community. In this, he 

 doubtless judges correctly. 



Look at the published schemes of lotteries. 

 You will find — so many prizes, amounting to so 

 much — a very splended parade of temptation ; but 

 will not find how many blanks. The dealers 

 know, that if they should tell you that, you would 

 not buy their ticket. 



Do not suppose that all the money which is 

 paid in for tickets is paid out again in prizes. No 

 such thing. Fifteen per cent on the prizes goes 

 at once to bear the expenses of the lottery, i. e. 

 into the ])Ockets of the mawagers, — where it stays, 

 till a little of it is screwed out ol them for some 

 public object, by a legal examination, which they 

 know very well how to evade. And then the 

 price of tickets is just what the dealers can get. 

 A writer in the Vermont Watchman shows, that 

 on the sixteenth class of the N. Y. consolidated 

 lottery, there is left to the managers and dealers, 

 the nice little smn of $131,641 GO. One such 

 lottery in sis weeks would amount to S"87,113 60 

 in six luonths, and 84,722,681 GO in three 

 years. Besides all this, Mr Canfield, formerly a 

 manager and extensive lottery dealer, has shown 

 that the business may be so managed, that the 

 tickets which remain unsold in the hands of the 

 managers and ilealers shall have the best chance 

 to draw high prizes; and observing luen have no- 

 ticed, that high prizes are seldom draw-n by any 

 but those who are concerned in managing and 

 selling. 



Besides, if you should draw a prize, how do 

 you know that you shall ever get yoiu- money? 

 One dealer somewhere on the Hudson, a few 

 years since, sold nineteen quarters of one ticket. 

 It drew a jirize, and he ran away. If it had been 

 a blank, the fraud never would have been known. 

 How do you know, when you buy a *cket, thgt 

 the same number is not sold to twenty others, and 

 that, if it draws a prize, some of them will not 

 receive it instead of you ? Indeed, how do you 

 know that the fact will not be concealed from the 

 public altogether ? — Verily if there is such a 

 thing as legalized swindling in the world, this 

 lottery business is the thing. And we are aston'- 

 ished to see how many printers, for the paltry 

 consider.iiion of five or ten dollars, will help lot- 

 tery dealers to swindle the public, by inserting 

 their advertisements. How such printers must 

 love the ' dear people ! !' — If'indsor VI. Chronicle. 



To destroy Musquetoes. — Take a few hot coals 

 in a shovel or chaffing dish, and burn some brown 

 sugar in your bedrooms and parlors, and you ef- 

 fectually destroy the musquetoe for the night. 

 The experiment has been tried by several of our 

 citizens, and found to produce the desired effect — 

 .Yeiv York Evening Post. 



