I 149. 



TllH GKNESKK r.Ml.MKIl. 



25 



IL0BT1CULTOBAL DEPARTMENT. 



E DITED BY P M\RRY. 



The Editor of this Department is now absent on 

 a Horticultural 'Pour in Europe. This wi'l be a 

 sufficient explanation, we trust, should any deficiency 

 be apparenl la the mat uer or matter of these pages. 

 We expect some interesting correspondence from 

 him, for publication in the February number. 



FOMOLOGICAL REFORM. 



We have received an article on this subject, 

 written by " Erie." but owing to its length we are 

 obliged to defer it for the February or March number. 

 The author has been one of the foremost in " Pomo- 

 logical Reform" in Western New York. We shall 

 be happy to hear from him in the manner suggested 

 in his private note. 



The article before us is. we believe, written for 

 the benefit of the many. The following is its con- 

 clusion — to which we doubt not every true son of 

 the -Empire State" will subscribe: — 



'• We sincerely hope and trust the lovers of fine 

 fruits, the amateur, and the honest, (and Iwould by 

 no means infer there are but few) nurserymen — the 

 tanner, and all who love rural works, and rural labors 

 — will come up to the work with heart in hand, and 

 with a hearty desire to promote the good that can in 

 this wise be accomplished. Let us of the State of 

 Xew York, at least, honor and sustain our noble 

 institution, the New York State Agricultural Society, 

 whose labors and benificence is doing more to elevate, 

 to ennoble and enrich the tillers of the soil, than does 

 perhaps any other institution existant among us." 



A WORD ABOUT GARDENING. 



ORNAMENTAL FLOWER STANDS. 



No one can be truly said to live who has not a 

 Garden. None but those who have enjoyed it can 

 appreciate the satisfaction — the luxury — of sitting 

 down to a table spread with the fruit of one's own 

 planting and culture. A bunch of radishes — a few 

 heads of lettuce — taken from the garden of a sum- 

 mer's morning for breakfast ; or a mess of green 

 peas or sweet corn, is quite a different affair from the 

 same articles brought in large quantities from market 

 in a dying condition, to be put away in the cellar for 

 use. And a plate of strawberries or raspberries 

 lose none of their peculiar flavor by passing directly 

 from the border to the cream without being jolted 

 about in baskets until they have lost all form and 

 comeliness. And yet, how many in the smaller 

 cities and villages of our country, possessing every 

 facility for a good garden, either through indolence 

 or ignorance are deprived of this source of comfort ? 

 And how many farmers, with enough land lying 

 waste to furnish them with most of the luxuries of 

 life, are content to plod on in the even tenor of their 

 way, never raising their tastes above the "pork and 

 beans" of their fathers. 



It shall be our business in Volume Ten of the 

 Farmer to remove as far as possible these causes, 

 and to show not only that health, happiness and good 

 living are the legitimate products of well cultivated 

 gardens — but to give all who read its pages such 

 information as the season may require— so that he who 

 has no garden, or one of which he has reason to be 

 ashamed, shall not be able to present, as an excuse, 

 his lack of knowledge. 



Those who admire flowers in the hall or in the 

 drawing room, should always provide such stands as 

 will enable them to keep the pots without pans, for 

 the water in b pan is ruin to all plants standing in 

 them, and this can easily be proved bj reference to 

 the thousands and tens of thousands that are killed 

 daily, in all the manufacturing towns and populous 

 cities in the empire. They arc watered by filling 

 the pans. This water is soon mischievous, because 

 the roots are easily rotted by stagnant moisture. 



The stands for flow- 

 er pots should there- 

 fore be provided with 

 a receptacle for the 

 superabundant mois- 

 ture, lor it is impos- 

 sible to prevent wa- 

 ter from running 

 through the pots. — 

 This receptacle may 

 be a groove round 

 the outside, or near 

 the outside of the 

 solid bottom, form- 

 ing a gutter into 

 which the surplus moisture might run, and from 

 which it is easily taken up by a sponge. The bottom 

 must of course slope towards the outside, or have 

 grooves or gutters leading from the center to the 

 outside. This does away with the necessity of using 

 pans, and the danger of injuring the plants by stag- 

 nant water. 



With regard to the form of these stands, they may 

 be various, according to the places they are to occupy, 

 and the number of plants which they are to accom- 

 modate. There is good room to exercise a little 

 taste upon the subject. When the stand is for a 

 single pot, there must be a sort of cup for it to stand 

 over ; not to stand in, so as to touch the water, 

 because that would be as bad as a pan. These stands 

 require to be emptied occasionally, because every time 

 the plants are watered, some would go into the gutters, 

 which, if not attended to, would overflow. These 



stands are made 

 variously of iron 

 or wicker, as the 

 case may be, and 

 may be had of al- 

 most any form, in 

 w r ood of the rustic 

 seat makers and 

 verandah builders, 

 and in iron from 

 the general wire- 

 workers. Some 

 are cast, but, rich as they look, they are not adapted 

 to move up and down or about a house. — London 

 Horticultural Magazine. 



We saw at the Fair of the American Institute a 

 great variety of very pretty rustic stands, but we are 

 not aware that any of them were constructed with a 

 receptacle for the superabundant moisture that neces- 

 sarily flows from the pots. This, it will at once 

 appear to any one, is a great improvement on the 

 usual mode, and we recommend it to the attention 

 of the ladies, who are especially interested in the 

 management of house plants, and who are the best 

 judges of matters of taste and ornament. — Ed. 



