28 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



The annexed list contains all the newest and best 

 Belgian varieties, which we doubt not will soon find 

 their way into every good collection in the country. 

 Planted in a lawn, in clumps or rock -work, they 

 produce a beautiful effect, particularly when a large 

 number of plants of one color can be planted in a 

 mass. They are all perfectly hardy, originating 

 from American stock : — 



Arsina — White, with delicate purple tinge, and dark eye. 



Alba Glumerata — Pure white ; very fine. 



Anais Cliauveri — Pure white, with deep pink eye ; large 

 and superb. 



Blanche de Neul/y — Beautiful white. 



Cardidissima Nova — Pure white, very large heads of 

 flowers ; a superb variety. 



Delecta — Showy purple, with dark eye. 



Cromwell — Lilac, with purple stripe; a very striking 

 variety. 



Fleiir d'marie — Pure white, with showy pink center; 

 very fine. 



Goethe — White, striped and dashed with lilac. 



Herman Kezel — White, with distinct eye. 



Invincible — Rose shaded, striped with pink. 



Lilacina Grandi flora — Blush striped and dashed with lilac. 



Marianne — Pink eyed, with white; fine. 



Mazeppa — Pink, with dark eye ; very striking. 



Macrantha Speciosa — Pink, striped with white ; large and 

 fine. 



Nymphea Alba — Pure white, immense heads of bloom; fine. 



Oiel de Lynx — White, with bright pink eye ; superb. 



Pott si — White, tinged delicately with flesh. 



Picta — White, with purple eye ; distinct and very fine. 



Rosea F/tperba — Delicate beautiful rose ; distinct. 



Hippo — Pink, with deep stripes and large dark eye ; 

 very fine. 



Reine Louise — Pure white, flaked with rosy pink like a 

 carnation ; superb. 



Standard of Perfection — White, tinged and striped with 

 bluish purple, fine pyramidal heads of flowers ; one of the 

 very finest. 



Tricolor — White, pink and purple striped. 



Van Houltii — Striped, purple, white and crimson; superb. 



There are several other fine varieties which we 

 will describe in a future number. G. E. 



PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 

 BY "AN OLD DIGGER." 



You may transplant, all winter, when the ground 

 is not frozen — only take care not to expose the roots 

 to frost while not covered with soil. In winter- 

 planting, it is best to pile up a mound of earth 6 or 8 

 inches around the trunk of the tree. This keeps it 

 steady, and protects it, partially, against severe frost. 



When a tree brought from a distance has been a 

 long while out of the ground, and looks quite dried up, 

 don't plunge it into a tub of water ; that would be 

 well-nigh as fatal as giving a gallon at a single drink, 

 to a man nearly dead of thirst. Moisten the roots, 

 and after shortening the branches severely, bury the 

 whole tree in the ground for three or four days. 



When you prune a small branch of a tree, always 

 see that a bud is left opposite the cut ; this will help 

 it to heal over quickly : and you will assist the matter 

 still more, by making the cut always a sloping one. 



Don't let insects of various kinds overrun your 

 orchard m- garden, and then lazily fold your anus" and 

 say, "it's no use, this trying to raise things, now 

 that so many vermin are about." Spend three days, 

 industriously, in the early stage of the matter, in 

 putting down the rascals, and then look around you 

 and see if a little industry is not better than grumbling. 



If you want early vegetables, set yourself, in 

 winter, about making some boxes to protect them. 

 A few cheap boxes, a foot square, with a pane of 



glass in the top, to put over tender things at night, 

 will cost you but a trifle, and will give you ten days 

 start of the open ground. 



To have good currants, gooseberries, or raspberries, 

 the old plants should be dug up at the end of three or 

 four good crops, and their places supplied by young 

 ones. If you plant a few cuttings of the two former, 

 as you should do, every spring, you will always have 

 a supply of fresh plants ready at all times : always 

 cut out all the eyes (buds) of a cutting, on that part 

 which goes in the ground — otherwise you will be 

 troubled by their coming up, year after year, in the 

 form of suckers. 



If you have a tree that grows "apace," but won't 

 bear, dig a trench round it, and cut off a third of the 

 roots. This will check its growth, and set it about 

 making fruit-buds. 



Never buy fruit trees in the " market-places," of 

 unknown venders, who have no character to lose. 

 You cannot tell by "examining the article," whether 

 they cheat you or not ; and you get your tree at half 

 price, only to wish, when it comes to bear, that you 

 had gone to an honest dealer and paid ten times as 

 much, for something worth planting. " Hog-Peach" 

 trees are dearer at a penny, than "George the 

 Fourths" at a dollar. 



If you don't love flowers yourself, don't quarrel 

 with those who do. It is a defect in your nature 

 which you ought to be sorry for, rather than abuse 

 those who are more gifted. Of what possible " use" 

 is the rain-boiv, we should like to know ? And yet 

 a wiser than you did not think the earth complete 

 without it. 



Do not grudge the cost and labor necessary to 

 plant a few of the best shade-trees round your house ; 

 and if you have any doubts about what to plant, stick 

 in an elm. There are few trees in the world finer 

 than a fine sweeping elm ; and two or three of them 

 will give even a common looking dwelling a look of 

 dignity. If you plant fruit trees, for shade, they are 

 likely to be broken to pieces for the fruit, and they 

 grow unsightly by the time that forest trees grow 

 spreading and umbrageous. 



There are very few men whose friends build so 

 fair a monument to their memory as they can raise 

 with their own hands, by planting an elm or maple 

 where it can grow for a century, to be an ornament 

 to the country. — Horticulturist. 



Grape Culture in Missouri. — Farms in the 

 neighborhood of Hernann, Missouri, have risen very 

 much of late, in consequence of the increased cul- 

 tivation of the vine. A Mr. Poeschel, who has a 

 vineyard of not quite one acre, which was planted 

 with Catawba grape in the spring of 1845, made 

 from it this year one thousand gallons of wine, and 

 the value of the whole produce of the vineyard was 

 seventeen hundred dollars. 



The forcing of plants into flower early by heat 

 should be managed carefully ; begin cool, and gradu- 

 ally increase it week after week until it will bear the 

 stove. Too sudden a change of temperature destroys 

 the beauty and sometimes the plant. 



Always clip hedges, to keep them down, and 

 make them grow close. If you neglect this, they 

 grow open and naked at the bottom, and keep off the 

 air, and sometimes the sun, by their overgrown tops. 



