74 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



cellar well stocked with fruit and vegetables, 

 what do we care for the gayeties of city life? 

 not a bit. On pleasant clear days this large 

 window would get too hot hut the door is 

 left open, and the heat nearly supplies the 

 place of fire in the stove. Just now, nine 

 o'clock December 8, the mercury in the 

 shade stands 65° and we had it down to 10° 

 a few weeks ago. Is not this a pretty great 

 range? But Missouri can beat any place 

 for that. Sitting in the shade of a 40 feet 

 Norway Spruce, and a gentle breeze from 



fly- 



over which a sheet iron damper slides. 

 When I start my Are, I pull out this damper, 

 allowing the draft to pass directly up the 

 chimney from the hole in the furnace. 

 When the chimney becomes heated, I slide 

 the damper in, and the draft then pisses 

 around the entire flue. By this means I 

 avoid the smoke which I always had before 

 the flue would get warmed at the back end 

 sufficient to create a good draft. Those who 

 have used the ordinary flue know full well 

 how they smoke iu starting a flre in damp 

 weather. 



Comhiiied BricH and Tile Flue for Heating SmaE Greenhoxise 



the west, I find it all perfectly pleasant. 



Plenty of books, periodicals and news- 

 papers around, and some pretty fair paint- 

 ings hanging on the wall. Now this is a 

 little of the medley order, but as some write 

 for others to read who do not write, this 

 may not be amiss and will give some of the 

 wealthy readers in the cities and towns an 

 idea of how an old man is situated in the 

 wilderness. 



I say wilderness; because the forest extends 

 from the river for miles back, with lofty 

 cliffs and quite respectable gorges, with 

 small vales to cultivate. But the hill land 

 produces as fine fruit as can be found any- 

 where. I recently bought 80 acres adjoining 

 me here all in forest, this will be cleared of 

 all the small underbrush and small trees, 

 and wherever a place suitable for an ever- 

 green is left, there it will be planted: several 

 hundred of which are now in nursery rows 

 for that purpose. 



This much for my idea of forestry, a sub- 

 ject that at this day demands our serious 

 attention. My idea of leaving one-third 

 of the forest stand and cultivate the balance 

 properly is there can be more grown than if 

 all is cleared off. Then we have the pro- 

 tecting influence, besides preventing much 

 of the rainfall from running off the surface 

 which should go into the ground. 



In this we must change our plans if we 

 wish to keep our soil on the hills. Dams 

 and wells in the ravines ; ponds in the 

 sloping fields, will do much towards help- 

 ing up a humidity in dry seasons. It is not 

 only the water that falls on plants that will 

 keep them fresh, but the evaporation from 

 stream and lakes. It has been so dry here 

 some seasons that any distance from water 

 even the dews were denied us. 



Heating Greenhouse by Flue. 



W. 8. STANTON, UNION CO., IND. 



The brick-flue, a plan of which I here pre- 

 sent, proves to be a perfect success, and I 

 like it much better than any flue I ever tried. 

 It is built on the ground under the propa- 

 gating bench, and supplies plenty of heat 

 for my house, 14x40 feet. It is a double re- 

 turn flue, the lower part brick, three brick 

 high, laid edgewise, and wide enough for a 

 brick to reach across the top to cover it. At 

 the back end I inserted an elbow of 6-inch 

 sewer tile (unglazed is best), and connected 

 with this a flue of the tile running back on 

 top of the brick flue to the throat of the 

 furnace on which the chimney stands. 

 From the throat of the furnace up into the 

 chimney is a hole the size of the sewer tile 



Hints on Growing Potatoes. 



SUBSCRIBER, BEROEN CO. N. J. 



I would advise early planting. Last year 



I plowed my ground during a snow storm 



in March. The piece had been plowed but 



twice in eleven years, the last crop being 



fodder Corn and very poor 



at that. 



I applied no stable ma, 

 nure. The old sod turned 

 up very nicely. With a 

 common plow I made 

 drills, three feet apart, 

 and about five inches in 

 depth. Mapes' special 

 Potato manure was put freely in the drill 

 and covered with a little soil. The Potatoes 

 were planted about one foot apart, and 

 covered even with the surface. In April I 

 went through the rows with cultivator, 

 then gave another application of the ferti- 

 lizer, scattering it around the plants, and 

 covering with a little fresh soil. As a 

 result of this I had large nice Potatoes from 

 my garden June 22d. The patch was the 

 admiration of all who saw it, although, at 

 time of plowing and planting so early, my 

 neighbors gave me an amused look, as 

 much as to say — too early, and no show in 

 that poor soil! The smile was on my side 

 when I harvested at the rate of over 400 

 bushels to the acre of Burbanks and Early 

 Rose. They ripened before the blight, and 

 were free from rot; fine, large and mealy, 

 all marketable Potatoes. 



History of the Chrysanthemum. 



Mr. Joseph Sabine, Secretary of the Horti- 

 cultural Society (England), in a paper pub- 

 lished in 1822, tells that single specimens 

 of the Chinese Chrysanthemums, then 

 known under the name of " Matricaria In- 

 dica," have been shown in England even 

 previous to 1764, and a tolerably correct ac- 

 count of the variety and beauty of this class 

 of plants as appearing in China and Japan 

 was given by Kai'mpher as early as 1812. 

 Our reduced illustration of a variety of 

 Chry.santhemum Indicum, p. 77, which was 

 figured in Mr. Sabine's paper, gives a pretty 

 good idea of the general habits of the plant. 

 At this early time the Chrysanthemum had 

 not yet obtained a permanent foothold iu 

 Europe, although some varieties were known 

 in Holland some 300 years ago. 



For its re-appearance, as far as its present 

 existence is concerned, we are indebted to 

 Mr. Blancard, a merchant of Marseilles, 

 who in 1789 imported three plants from 

 China, one with purple, one with white and 

 one with violet flowers. He lost the two 

 last; the first lived. This was the " Kiku " 

 figured in Botanical Magazine, and shown 

 in our reduced illustration. The surviving 

 specimen was sent to the Jardiu du Roi at 

 Paris in 1791. This is the purple variety; it 

 had been transmitted to England from 

 France in 1790, and after its arrival there 

 the changeable white was obtained from it 

 by cultivation. Between the years 1798 and 

 1808, inclusive, eight new varieties were im- 

 ported from China to England in the follow- 

 ing order: The Rose and Buff, together, in 

 1798; the Golden Yellow and the Quilled 

 Yellow, together, in 1802; the Sulphur Yel- 



low, at the;iatter end of the same year; the 

 Spanish Brown, in 1806; and the Quilled 

 White and Large Lilac, together, in 1808. 

 Later importations gave the Tasselled White 

 in 1816 and the Superb White in 1817. In 

 1819 three more varieties were imported. 

 Mr. Brooks who brought some of these 

 varieties from China at that time, some time 

 after emigrated to America, settling at 

 Chicago, where he was known as the pioneer 

 florist of that town, and died in 188.5 or 

 1886, at the ddvanced age of 93 years. At 

 the time of his death there was probably no 

 other man who could claim to have been 

 acquainted \vith the Chrysanthemum for so 

 long a period. 



A large importation in 1822 was lost on the 

 way,butgreaterefforts to bring these flowers 

 to Europe were made with better success 

 the following year. The autumn of 1825 

 was the occasion of a brilliant display at 

 Chiswick. Plants grown in pots to the 

 number of 700 were flowered in one of the 

 Society's greenhouses. The exhibits proved 

 a perfect success, and much interest was 

 taken in the show. The Society's collection 

 at this time was already composed of 48 dis- 

 tinct sorts. 



In 1826, Mr. Bernet, a retired infantry 

 officer of the French Army and a Chrysan- 

 themum enthusiast, began raising the first 

 seedlings, which soon came in possession of 

 a not over-scrupulous nurseryman, who 

 speedily propagated them for sale, so that 

 they were widely distributed at home and 

 abroad between 18:ri0 and 1836. Seedlings 

 were also now raised in large numbers by 

 English growers; rapid progress in the de- 

 velopment of the flower was made, and in 

 the autumn of 18.50 the Chrysanthemum had 

 fairly acquired its position as an exhibition 

 flower. Many shows were now held; the 



One iif the Earlier Chrtisanthemums. 



fame of the flower spread rapidly, and the 

 interest in its cultivation became general. 



In the year 18.56 Colchester held its first 

 annual show. The 12 best large-flowered 

 Chrysanthemums at this date, according to 

 Mr. Holmes, were Aregina, Beauty, Dupont 

 de I'Eure, Hermione, Nonpareil, Plutus, 

 Queen of England, Stafford, Themis, Trilby, 

 Versailles, Defiance and Vesta. 



Mr. Salter in autumn, 1859, claimed to 

 have 900 named varieties, besides many 



