$II)c farmer's ittemtl)ln ilisitor. 



77 



Family Gardening. 

 The great secret of getting rich is to make the 

 most of what we have ; uml whether this applies 

 to money, to lime, or to land, it is the Kinif. 

 You may almost tell what a man is by the ap- 

 pearance of his garden. Does he make the 

 most of his ground ? then there is some hope he 

 is prudent. Does he make the most of Ids la- 

 bor? he will rarely want. We do not mean that 

 such men are never unfortunate, that they have 

 not their troubles and trials like oilier men ; but 

 under every kind of visitation such men are bet- 

 ter prepared, and therefore suffer less than care- 

 less reckless persons. In a garden no rod of 

 ground should be ever idle. If a man who is 

 naturally lazy has not kept his ground well crop- 

 ped, he may have his excuses about laying fal- 

 low, ridging it in winter to mellow the soil, or 

 leaving it rough that the frost may get into it ; 

 but there is no occasion for all this, — the soil 

 need on no occasion to be at rest; change of 

 work is a holiday to man, and change of crop is 

 all that any ground needs; for no two crops re- 

 quire the same kind of feeding, and consequent- 

 ly, by changing from one which requires high 

 feeding of one kind to another that requires no 

 feeding, or feeding of another sort, the ground 

 continues at work without being exhausted. If 

 ground has been used for carrots, parsnips, or 

 beet roots, it may be immediately cropped with 

 lettuces, or some crop which has no tap roots. 

 Turnips, also, and potatoes, may be followed by 

 peas. Very little attention (if that be properly 

 devoted) will be necessary to prevent ground be- 

 ing wasted, or crops being out of place. 



Carrots, parsnips and beet roots. — All grounds 

 are not suitable for these crops, for they require 

 fifteen inches of good, rich, light soil, free from 

 gravel and stones. The soil should be trenched 

 and well broken. When the plants are up, they 

 should be hoed to leave them eight or nine inch- 

 es apart, nor should a single weed be allowed to 

 grow. For early carrots, the best is the Early 

 horn and its varieties; the best for the late is the 

 Altringham. For storing they ought not to be 

 taken up until the foliage turns yellow. 



Onions. — The principal art ill their culture is 

 to well dress the ground; well decomposed night 

 soil, a good two-inch thickness all over the soil, 

 forked into and well mixed with the top six inch- 

 es of mould, will be found an excellent dressing; 

 but it must be well decomposed, or it will be too 

 strong. The surface should be well levelled, the 

 lumps well bruised, and the seeds sown thinly 

 and equally over the bed ; this should be rolled 

 in or trodden in solid, and raked smooth and 

 even. Where they come up close together, they 

 should be drawn by hand, so as to leave only one 

 in a place at a distance of six inches apart, and 

 they must be kept clear of weeds all through 

 their growth. When the foliage begins to turn 

 yellow the bulbs are ripe, and may be lifted and 

 left on the surface of the ground to dry out 

 some of their moisture; they should be preserv- 

 ed in a cool, dry, airy place. 



Cabbages. — Of all green crops this is the most 

 valuable. It stands almost any frost. It is eata- 

 ble from the lime it is large enough to handle 

 ■mil it has acquired a hard, close heart. It is a 

 crop to put on every bit of otherwise idle ground ; 

 it can be planted between rows of any thing and 

 every thing, either to be eaten as greens when 

 large enough, or left to cabbage on the coming 

 off of other crops. Nor is the use of this < gcel 

 lent vegetable over when the lull grown cublmgt 

 is cut, for the i-prouts which follow are egtially 



good. Planted out to cabbage, they should he 

 eighteen inches apart in the rows, and the rows 

 two feet asunder. When the best part of the 

 cabbage is cut, other crops may be planted be- 

 tween the rows, the ground being first dug, and 

 the stumps may be all taken up and be planled 

 close together in some otherwise useless spot, 

 and yield a mass of greens when scarcely any 

 thing else is to be had. The seed is but little 

 object ; sowing, therefore, to provide at all times 

 plants to put out is a necessary precaution. The 

 best sorts are new Early nonsuch, Wheeler's 

 imperial, Sprotsborough, Nonpareil, and Early 

 York ; the Battersea is not to be despised, 

 though it grows to a large size and wants plenty 

 of room. 



Red cabbage. — Few people know the worth of 

 this, except for its use as a pickle, but a mo- 

 ment's consideration will convince any thinking 

 person that the immense number brought to 

 market can never be consumed for that alone. 

 It is used raw as a salad, and is excellent. When 

 grown well, loo, and cut at the right time, the 

 red cabbage will store the best part of the win- 

 ter, merely losing two or three of the outer 

 leaves. As a salad it is economical and capable 

 of being eaten by itself, and only requires to be 

 cut into the thinnest possible shreds. When 

 the plants have established themselves after final 

 setting out and begun to grow, the earth should 

 be drawn up to their stems, and they may re- 

 main in the ground until they are hard and 

 solid, for in that state they will keep for months. 



Rhubarb. — This has become so general a fa- 

 vorite from its wholesomeness and flavor, in sea- 

 sons when fruit cannot be had, and is moreover 

 so strongly recommended lo families, that a por- 

 tion of the garden ought to be devoted to a few 

 good toots — a dozen will be found enough lor a 

 moderate family, and they ought lo be two feet 

 from each other every way. The ground should 

 he well dressed, the plants young, the season 

 autumn. They should be planted without bruis- 

 ing their roots, and tliey will do all themselves. 

 II" wanted earlier in the spring than they will 

 come naturally, put a box, or rather a wooden 

 trough, two feet high and one foot diameter, over 

 a plant, cover the open end that is uppermost 

 with a fiat tile or a proper cover, and surround 

 the whole with dung or leaves; it will hasten 

 the growth: or pot up a strong root or two and 

 put them ill a warm cellar, or a kitchen cup- 

 board, or a green-house, or any other place 

 where the temperature is raised; but it is never 

 so good as from the natural ground, grown in 

 the natural way. — London Horticultural Magazine. 



Clf.assi.ng the Bark ok Fruit Trees. — This 

 operation should be performed in early spring, 

 as well as in mid-summer. The rough, loose parts 

 uf the bark should he scraped off, as well as 

 moss and other parasites. The bark should be 

 covered with the following mixture, as high as 

 the operator can reach, with an ordinary long- 

 handled while-wash brush: 



Five pounds whale oil soap, 



One pound line salt, 



One pound fine sand, 



Two pounds potash, 



Two ounces nitrate of soda, 

 dissolved, or mixed with water, to the consist- 

 ency of cream, and thoroughly rubbed upon the 

 bark. 



Many kinds of insects are kept from trees by 

 a solution of whale oil soap alone, and many 

 such as are resident in the crevices of the hails, 

 arc destroy, d by salt. The finest sand is intend- 

 ed during the rubbing to scratch tin- outer coal- 

 ing of the hark, and thus assist the other ingre- 

 dients lor more perfect action. The potash and 



nitrate of soda will decompose or soften the 

 bark, so that during the summer they will be 

 thrown oft' by the healthy action of the glowing 

 hark. If the above mixture be applied in dry 

 weather, it will become so hard as to remain 

 during several showers, and thus have time lo 

 perforin its office Trees with smooth bark, 

 such as the plum, many of the cherries, &c, 

 should In; rubbed with a wet rough woolen cloth 

 in a lew hours after applying the mixture; this 

 rubbing will cause the Band to clean the surface 

 so perfectly as to give ihe hark an improved and 

 more healthy surface. Trees so cleansed are 

 not as likely to be re-visited by insects as those 

 left with their natural surfaces, nor are they as 

 likely to become bark-bound. 



A word to Apprentices. — Stick to your trade, 

 boys, and learn how to work, if you wish to be 

 truly independent. There is no more pitiable 

 sight than a half-learned mechanic applying for 

 work, lie is always at the foot of the hill, and 

 labor as he may, unless he has become perfect 

 in his trade before he attains the years of his 

 majority he never will be perfect, and can calcu- 

 late on poverty as his portion with a good deal 

 of safety. 



We have in our mind's eye a man of eighteen, 

 who a few months ago was at work in this office 

 at fair wages; but his parents encouraged him 

 in the idea that he was a man, and should have 

 a man's pay. 



He left us with the feeling that he could get 

 rich faster in Boston, and since that we have 

 learned of his having been engaged for a short 

 lime in three different offices in three several 

 cities. 



Of course with his slight knowledge of busi- 

 ness, he could not have permanent employment, 

 and so he hits taken up a new trade. He joined 

 a company of corps dramatique, and the last no- 

 tice we bad of his whereabouts was from a 

 handbill announcing his appearance before the 

 citizens of Worcester for a benefit, in the char- 

 acter of the "Irish Tiger." 



Parents, if you wish well to your children, urge 

 them to learn their trades perfectly. 



A neglect of this counsel makes" Irish Tigers," 

 and Yankee mutton-heads of thousands of blight 

 hoys every year. — Christian Citizen. 



Dissolving Bones by Steam. 



A statement litis lately been made to the High- 

 land Agricultural society, in relation to pulveriz- 

 ing bones by steam. It was slated that bones of 

 any size rotdd be reduced lo a soft mass by this 

 agency alone. A small boiler with a steaming 

 vessel connected with it, capable of standing a 

 pressure of twenty-five to thirty pounds to the 

 square inch, was all that was required. If the 

 vessel was filled with bones, and subjected to the 

 action of steam above the level of the boiler (as 

 they will not dissolve if covered with water.) at 

 twenty-five pounds pressure for a few hours, 

 they will become quite dissolved — thus saving 

 all the expense of grinding, and the sulphuric 

 acid commonly used, which amounted to double 

 the price of the rough bones. All the hones 

 were so much softened, that t lie largest |Heres 

 found could be easily crushed fine by pressure 

 in the hand. Dr. Anderson, the chemist of the 

 society, thought the steaming would be cheaper 

 than grinding. Prof. Tiaill thought the steamed 

 hones would be preferable to those dissolved 

 with sulphuric acid, because when the acid was 

 added to hones, there was a destruction, in part 

 at least, of the animal matter. The gelatine, 

 which was of itself a valuable manure, would 

 he 6aved by die steaming process.— Albany Cult 



