154 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



Window Plants. 



When dainty Spring with awakening wand 



Unchains tlie prisoned flowers. 

 And trips about witli glances fond 

 To And each tender bud and frond, 

 The house-plants sigh with longing eye. 

 To gather 'neath the open sky 



And feel the freshening showers. 



How eageiiy they drink the light !— 

 While others froUc full In sight.— 

 They struggle for withheld delight. 

 And press the pane with might and main, 

 ■ Sweet Freedom's boundless cup to drain. 

 Impatient at delay. 



—Good Housekeeping. 



The First Snowdrop. 

 But when the modest Snowdrop lifts its head 

 Upon the Grass or in the garden bed, 

 Hope dawns— we fancy spring Is near 

 That in the copse the blackbird's note we hear. 



As white and cold in winter-time it blows 

 (And lacks the fragrance of the summer Rose), 

 From arched and slender stalk the pure brave flower 

 O'er Nature's wreck droops down— a living power. 



The crystal snow is pure and knows no strife. 

 The Snowdrop breathes of spring and teaming life. 

 Fears not, though frail, with wintry storms to cope. 

 Speaks to the heart of cheerful trust and hope. 



— S. Lydia Ewbank. 



Ring, happy bells of Easter time! 

 The world is glad to hear your chime. 

 Across wide fields of melting snow 

 The winds of summer softly blow. 

 And birds and streams repeat the chime 

 Of Easter time. 



Youth's Companion. 



EoU the lawn early. 



Air the hot-bed plentifully. 



Easter will bring sunshine and flowers. 



Plant something for ornament. It pays. 



Of Boses you should have a dozen, by all means. 



The first toad we come across shall go to our 

 hot-bed. 



The rake on beds occupied with bulbs, before 

 the plants appear. 



Arbor Day is a day of blessing; all judicious 

 planting is a blessing. 



Wire netting makes an excellent support for 

 Pea vines and Lima Beans. 



Conple snbioiling with surface stirring, and 

 you may laugh at drought. 



Horticnltore more than any other art may 

 combine business with pleasure. 



A shady corner, all by themselves, and with a 

 moist soil, is what the Pansies lilie. 



The English sparrow, in some localities, in- 

 ]iu-es Currant buds more than the growers like. 



They are Good Plants. There is every sign 

 that Pa^onies are rapidly increasing in popularity. 



No worms wanted in pots, except when con- 

 verted into plantfood by soaking the soil with 

 lime water. 



Lncretia Dewberry. The way to make it 

 tiseful, and not a nuisance, is by staking and 

 firmly tying. 



Would you have an abundance of Sweet Peas 

 next summer? Then wait no longer, but plant 

 the seed right away. 



Early and often is a good maxim for sowing 

 Peas, Radishes and the like. We want our "sass" 

 early, and we want it right along. 



Preparing for more— yet we have already 

 over a hundred varieties of Strawberries on our 

 grounds ready to bear this season. 



The Single-flowered Chrysanthemum (Nogiku) 

 is prized by Japanese horticulturists for its very 

 simplicity, and usually planted at the foot of 

 rocks, intermingled with Grasses, to give the 

 landscape design a naturalistic air. 



Chisel as a Pruning Tool. For cutting off 

 limbs up to the size of two inches, I have never 

 used any tools as good as a two-inch paring chisei 

 and a mallet. The limbs can be cut much quicker 



than with a saw, and it leaves the wound 

 smoother. The chisel should he kept as sharp as 

 possible.— E. ir. Dtinhar, Mc. 



Not the Place for a Stone Honnment- A pile 

 of small stones put around the foot of fruit trees 

 is very far from being a benefit to the trees. The 

 roots are much better off reasonably deep in the 

 soil than when coaxed up to the surface by the 

 moisture which the stone mulch provides. 

 Exposure of the roots to frost, and injury to the 

 tree will invariably result therefrom. 



A Freak. Argynnis sends us a sketch of 

 flower truss of a white Geranium. There are a 

 number of flower stalks with secondary trusses 

 growing on her plant. It is hardly a rare occur- 

 rence that one or more secondary trusses spring 

 from a primary truss, and many of our readers 

 have undoubtedly seen Geraniums with flower 

 stalks such as shown in engra\ing on next page. 



How Crops Grow. A revised edition of this 

 most excellent treatise on the chemical compo- 

 sition, structure and life of the plant, by Samuel 

 W. Johnson, M. A., has just been published by 

 the Orange Judd Co., of New York City. It is a 

 work calculated to assist those who desire to be- 

 come more intimately acquainted with the mys- 

 teries of agricultural chemistry. 416 pages. 

 Price $2.00. 



Frosted Grape Vines. Grape vines frequently 

 have to run the gauntlet of a late freeze. If badly 

 injured, the right way to treat them is to cut 

 them back to the first or second bud. This will 

 throw all the strength of the roots into the new 

 wood for next year's bearing. It is hopeful, 

 however, that such a casuality will be spared us 

 this year. We are not any too sure of a bounte- 

 ous crop of fruit, otherwise, and we could ill 

 afford to lose our Grapes. 



Copper Labels. A new style of label, and ap- 

 parently a very serviceable one, is made of pre- 

 pared copper cut to suitable form, with attach- 

 ment of same material, all in one piece. The 

 name is written or indented on the label easily, 

 legibly and ineffaceably with a lead pencil or 

 other pointed instrument, holding the label on 

 the flat surface of an ordinary pocket book. 

 These labels are sold by Johnson & Stokes, Phila- 

 delphia, and perhaps others, at 31.50 per gross. 



Fruit Industry of Califomia. The magnitude 

 of California's fruit and Nut products may be 

 seen by the following figures, which represent 

 the quantities produced in 1889, viz : Raisins, 

 900,000 boxes, 18,000,000 lbs.; Raisins, sacks, 1,000,- 

 000 lbs.; Dried Grapes, sacks, 2,000,000 lbs.; Prunes, 

 French, 15,000,000 lbs.; Prunes, all others, 300,000 

 lbs.; Peaches, unpeeled, 2,500,000 lbs.; Peaches, 

 peeled, 2,000,000 lbs.; Peaches, sun-dried, .500,000 

 lbs.; Apricots, 200,000 lbs.; Apples, evaporated 

 400,000 lbs ; Apples, sun-dried, 100,000 lbs.; Necta- 

 rines, 200,000 lbs.; Plums, pitted, 200,000 lbs.; Figs, 

 black and white, 100,000 lbs.; Pears, 50,000 lbs.; 

 Almonds, 500,000 lbs.; Walnuts, 1,.500,000 lbs.; 

 Honey, 2,200.000 lbs. 



Potash for Fruits. Plenty of potash makes 

 firm and sweet fruit. That is why we recom- 

 mend the liberal use of wood ashes, and of Ger- 

 man potash salts in orchards, vineyards and small 

 fruit patches. Our fertilizer manufacturers also 

 recognize the usefulness of potash for such pur- 

 pose. The special *' fruit and \"ine manure " made 

 by a leading firm, for instance, is guaranteed to 

 contain 10 per cent of potash, and in reality 

 usually analyses still higher, or nearly as high as 

 an average sample of kainit; whde for special 

 manure for Potatoes, a crop which also loves 

 potash, six per cent or very little more is consid- 

 ered fully sufficient. In short, there is very little 

 danger of using too much potash for fruit crops. 



The Bural New Yorker has been sold to Messrs. 

 Lawson Valentine and E. H. Libby. We know 

 that Mr. E. S. Carman whose genius has pushed 

 (he Rural to the front rank, and made it one of 

 the most successful, popular and influential agri- 

 cultural periodicals ever published, was anxious 

 to be relieved of the arduous duties of its busi- 

 ness management, and we congratulate him on 

 baring secured the object of his wish, but we 

 must also express our satisfaction on learning 

 that Mr. Carman is to retain editorial control of 

 the paper, and will be assisted, as heretofore, by 

 Mr. H. W. CoUingwood. While the editorial de- 

 partment is thus taken care of, and the active 

 business management in good (Mr. Libby 's) hands, 

 the continued success and prosperity of the Rural 

 is put beyond doubt. 



Different Conditions— Different Treatment, 

 The management that plants require when grow- 

 ing in greenhouse is rarely practicable or possible 

 in a living room; but a treatment varying from 



that in certain points may enable the amateur 

 to grow many plants not usually cultivated in 

 living rooms. As an illustration the advice to 

 use small pots causes as much or more harm to 

 the amateur as does his potting in sizes much too 

 large. In a high living-room temperature small 

 pots should not be used; even transplanted seed- 

 lings, if to be potted at all, should have at least 

 four-inch pots at first. There are amateurs who 

 have great success with Gloxinias, grown in six- 

 inch pots as soon as the bulbs have attained the 

 size of a Hazel nut, who could scarcely make 

 them live in four-inch pots.— H. C. G., Milicauhee. 



Henderson's Handbook of Plants. A copy of 

 the last work from the pen of our departed 

 friend, Mr. Peter Henderson, has been handed to 

 us. Although sent out as a new edition of the 

 " Handbook of Plants " published in 1881, it 

 might properly be considered an entirely new 

 and independent work. It gives an account of 

 all plants under their botanical as well as their 

 common and local names; is profusely illus- 

 trated, and enlarged to .528 pages. In a single 

 volume, and costing S4; it is to Americans what 

 Gardeners' Dictionary with its eight volumes, 

 price ¥2.5,00, is to England. In a work of such 

 merit, however, we are sorry to see an illustra- 

 tion of the lower-catalogue order, one which 

 might properly be submitted to the committee 

 of the Society of American Florists on exagger- 

 ated cuts. We refer to the Watermelon cut on 

 plate 492. This is a blemish, but fortunately the 

 only one we have found in the volume. 



Ancient Vegetable Bemedies. An Egyptian 

 Paprus in the Berlin Museum enumerates fifteen 

 vegetable remedies, and another mentions over 

 fifty used by the doctors of antiquity. Mineral 

 remedies were also used largely; the vegetable 

 list not only includes herbs, but fruits, and even 

 chips and sawdust of special trees. Incantation 

 seems to have been practiced as a help to make 

 the medicine work; but the physician did not 

 rely on mummery as much as has been supposed. 

 Ebers, the Egyptologist and novelist, says that 

 physicians of the sixteenth centurj', B. C, could 

 and did, carefullj- write complex recipes. Some 

 of their recipes are as good as the best we get 

 now. Castor oil was in common use, as well as 

 Senna; and they were understood and used as 

 now. The use of outlandish and ridiculous pre- 

 scriptions has been common also in all ages. In 

 New England sheep-droppings were given for 

 measles as late as the middle of our century. — 

 E. P. Powell. 



A Paradisic Spot. The State of Georgia gave, 

 as a reward for his services in the Revolution, to 

 Nathaniel Green a portion of an island off the 

 coast and near the Florida line. Here the General 

 resided and laid out a remarkable garden famous 

 for its tropical fruits and flowers. Probably 

 North America holds no more beautiful spot than 

 this estate of Dungeness. The garden alone com- 

 prised twelve acres enclosed by a wall of Coquina, 

 and wholly tropical in its character. On the ter- 

 race before the house, grew only Sago Palms and 

 Crape Myrtle. Below this was a terrace of Olives. 

 Roses abounded everywhere. The fields about 

 were devoted to Sea Island Cotton and Sugar 

 Cane. Bear, deer, wild turkeys and water fowl 

 abounded as game near by. The grandest feat- 

 ure of the island is, however, said to be its Live 

 Oaks. This comes the nearest to being the Eden 

 of America of any spot we know. But there are 

 thousands of places in our states north and south 

 where we can create paradises.— £. P. PoweU. 



Substitutes for the Potato Wanted, It is hardly 

 possible to get at any accurate estimate of the 

 relation of the common Potato to human life and 

 comfort in the temperate zone. It is the vegeta- 

 ble above all others upon which the millions 

 depend. It is the staple food of the poor. High 

 prices for Potatoes means half food for the mil- 

 lions of people. There is, however, a lack of 

 foresight in allowing this to become a fixed and 

 settled dependence. The (Colorado beetle and 

 the Potato rot have shown us that our dei>end- 

 ence is very unsafe. Now a new enemy attacks 

 this esculent— a parasitic worm; and in some 

 sections, a second enemy in the form of a fly. 

 The use of Paris green to destroy the beetle is 

 working some chemical changes in standard var- 

 ieties that render them semi-poisonous. The in- 

 troduction of new varieties of esculents is always 

 to be hailed with enthusiasm. It is a short-sighted 

 policy on the farm to be dependent on any one 

 or more articles for food or market. The vast 

 increase in the varieties of fruit point the way to 

 a larger area of fruit culture, and an increased 

 use of fruit for food.— E. P. PoweU. 



