1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



205 



to the conclusion that this popular variety 

 is not put to as great advantage as it might 

 be. Everyone wlio lias grown it knows, and 

 many to their chagrin, that the Mareehal 

 Niel is a comparatively short-lived Kose. 

 It is In good health this weel<, and by next 

 week it may show signs of sicliness, which 

 eventually will end in death. How many 

 readers of this paper have not seen their 

 Mareehal Niels produce an abundance of 

 lovely blooms in one particular season, and 

 then, from sheer exhaustion, as it were, 

 gradually sicken and die, and leave them 

 without a Rose ? Too many have experi- 

 enced this ; but why do so, when there are 

 so many ways of averting this stat« of 

 affairs? 



For years I grew a large number of Mare- 

 ehal Niels from cuttings annually, inserting 

 them in heat in spring, and blooming the 

 following winter. It is a method that those 

 who have heat at their disposal will do well 

 to adopt. As has been said, the cuttings 

 where Inserted in spring about March. They 

 were slips of young wood taken from an 

 old Mareehal Niel that was growing in an 

 early vinery, and this, being started in 

 November, would produce blooms by Feb- 

 ruary. The cuttings were made about three 

 inches in lengtii, and inserted in .5-inch pots, 

 placing six or seven around the sides of the 

 pots. A compost of loam, leaf-mould, and 

 sand was used, and a layer of the latter 

 placed over the surface. When inserted the 

 cuttings were watered with tepid water, 

 sufficient to soak the whole of the soil ; and 

 then the pots were plunged into a brisk 

 bottom-heat and covered with bell-glasses. 



A slight shading was afforded when the 

 sun was bright, and the cuttings were 

 sprinkled occasionally. In about a fort- 

 night they wereinvariably rooted sufficiently 

 to enable them to be removed to a more 

 open position, and after remaining there 

 for another week I usually put them in 

 small pots, those three inches or four inches 

 in diameter being selected. For this potting 

 rather a sandy compost was used, and the 

 young plants afterwards replaced in a 

 strong heat, and grown on precisely in the 

 same manner as pot vines are. Subsequent 

 repottings were, of course, necessary, at 

 which fibry loam and half-inch bones were 

 used, and these were given at frequent in- 

 tervals so that the young plants could not 

 receive a check in their growth. 



In following out this method of treating 

 the Mareehal Niel it will be found that tine 

 young plants, with one long shoot each, 

 eight feet or ten feet in length, and nearly 

 as thick as a man's little finger, will be ob- 

 tainable, and it these are properly ripened 

 they will produce a very tine bloom at every 

 bud. The way I treated the plants was, as 

 soon as they receive their last potting, which 

 usually was in 7-inch or S-inch pots, to train 

 them to the roof of a stove and encourage 

 them to make as much growth as possible 

 by judicious watering and syringing untU 

 the end of August. At that time they were 

 removed to a cooler house for a few days, 

 and eventually placed out-of-doors on the 

 sunny side of a wood fence facing south. 

 The long shoots I tied loosely in a perpen- 

 dicular manner, and there they ripened 

 beautifully, which to a great extent is the 

 secret of the success in growing the Mare- 

 ehal Niel. 



In October the plants were removed to a 

 cool vinery, and after cutting off the soft 

 points the long shoots were twisted round 

 three stakes, which had previously been 

 thrust into each pot, and tied loosely in 

 position. Beyond this nothing except a top- 

 dressing of loam and bone-meal was given 

 the plants— nor, indeed was it necessary; 

 for they were ready to be placed in heat at 

 any moment, where they never failed to 

 bloom in a satisfactory manner. 



It should be clearly understood that at no 

 period from the time it is inserted until the 

 soft points, as above said, are removed in 

 the autunm, must the cutting be stopped, 

 l)ut rather encouraged to make as much 

 growth in one shoot as possible. 



After flowering in winter or early spring, 

 the shoots may be cut back close to the soil 

 — just as one would cut back a one-year-old 

 pot-vine — and placed in heat again. If 

 properly treated, the old stump will quickly 

 start into growth, and will in all probability 

 make a stronger and longer shoot than it did 

 the first year. This is a simple mode of 

 growing the Mareehal Niel, and one which 

 should be universally practised by those 

 who have facilities at their command. — C. L. 

 in Gardening Illustrated. 



Improved Tools of Tillage. 



Every year adds new implements to our 

 already large list of tools of tillage, and 

 brings our older ones to greater perfection 

 by more or less important changes. Some- 

 times we think we have a tool as near per.- 

 fect as we can expect to have it, when, lo, 

 the next year brings us little changes or 

 attachments which fit the original tool for 

 new purposes and uses. Such a case has 

 come to our notice with reference to the 

 Planet Jr. horsehoe, which, like almost all 

 other Planet Jr. goods manufactured by S. 

 L. Allen and Co. always stood very high in 

 our estimation. 



For the coming season the manufacturers 

 have added new features, which seem to 

 siirpass in number and importance those 

 made in the aggregate during the past three 

 or four years. We here illustrate one of 

 them. This is the "Lever Expander" by 



Planet Jr. Horsehoe— Improved. 



means of which the width of cultivator 

 can be changed a few inches at a time, or 

 all the way from narrow to wide or lu'cc 

 versa, or narrow on one side and wide at 

 the other, at an instance, and while the 

 horse keeps going. 



Another new feature is a Hiller andCelery 

 Farther, an implement complete in itself. 

 Its object is plain enough, and it looks to us 

 like a good thing. Among other new at- 

 tachments to the Planet Jr., there is a "Vine 

 Turner," a " Furrower and Marker," a 

 " Rake-covering attachment," a " Roller- 

 covering attachment," and a " side adjust- 

 ment for the handles." There is little doubt 

 that some if not all of these new features 

 wUl prove of value, and we hope they will 

 be thoroughly tested the coming season. 



Protect the Birds. 



Every accused should be given the benefit 

 of the doubt. This is not often done with 

 many of our small birds which are usually 

 adjusted guilty of grave offences on mere 

 suspicion, and frequently maltreated, poison- 

 ed or shot at for injury done to crops when 

 in fact they have done more to protect them 

 by waging a war of extermination against 

 the insect enemies of such crops, than they 

 have done damage by taking an occasional 

 bite of fruit or vegetable. 



An instance of this kind is told by L. N. 

 Bonham of Ohio, in one of the western 

 papers. My field of Corn was in full roast- 

 Lug-ear, he says, and the blackbirds were 



swarming in it. My hired man told me we 

 must get some boys with guns to shoot 

 blackbirds, or they would ruin our Corn. 

 He added, " The neighbors are all in their 

 Cornfields shooting to drive away the black- 

 birds." I told him to wait until I had time 

 to see what the blackbirds were doing. On 

 entering the field there were enough black- 

 birds in sight to have ruined the field of 

 Com in a short time. I spent an hour or 

 more in the field of twenty-four acres, and 

 did not find an ear that showed the birds 

 were eating the Corn. The birds would 

 light on the ears, and spend but a short time 

 there and pass to another ear. I noted ear 

 after ear on which a bird appeared, always 

 waited until the bird had finished his 

 work. I found on every such ear the marks 

 of the boll-worm. They were developed 

 enough to have begun eating the grains. 



There were the evidences that the worm 

 had been there, and I saw the blackbirds 

 there and making passes as if picking out 

 the worms, and after the bird had left the 

 ear I could find no worm. The birds seemed 

 to be busy hunting and eating this destruc- 

 tive and disgusting pest. I left the field 

 pleased and grateful to the blackbirds, and 

 told my hired man not to waste any time or 

 powder on the birds. They were welcome to 

 hunt worms, and could take what Corn they 

 wanted to make a variety. 



Poisonous Plants. 



Now that all nature again clothes itself 

 with verdure and bright gay colors, and old 

 and young delight to roam through fields 

 and forests, a word of caution may not be 

 out of place. Not all that glitters is gold ; 

 not all leaves and berries are good to eat, 

 safe to chew, or even to handle. 



Young children often acquire a bad habit 

 of picking, chewing, and perhaps eating 

 any green thing, or nice looking berry they 

 may happen to come across, and for then- 

 own safety should be taught not to eat any 

 leaf or berry without first showing it to 

 their parents, or some grown person. Many 

 serious and sometimes fatal results have 

 occurred from a neglect of this precaution. 



The American Cultivator enumerated the 

 following poisonous plants : The Butter- 

 cup, so common in fields, should never be 

 put into the mouth. If gathered, it should 

 always be held by the stem, as the petals 

 are very caustic and will quickly excite in- 

 flamation. The Oleander contains a deadly 

 poison, both in its leaves and flowers, and 

 special care should be taken to exclude 

 them from bouciuets for the parlor or dining 

 room. The leaves of the Meadow Saffron 

 and of Aconite, or Monkshood, seem to 

 possess for children the fascination of the 

 rattlesnake, but should be avoided carefully. 



During the month of August there is, per- 

 haps, no plant so common in the fields, by 

 the seaside and on mountain-tops, as the 

 Meadow-Hemlock, of whose fatal decoction 

 it is said that Socrates drank. Its tiny white 

 flowers are indeed beautiful, and are often 

 gathered in large quantities by ladies and 

 children who have little idea of their poison- 

 ous qualities. 



But it is those poisonous plants which so 

 closely resemble common vegetables that we 

 need specially to shun and to warn children 

 against eating. The common Dropwort, be- 

 fore it flowers, is so much like Celery that 

 the former is often eaten with deadly effect. 

 This plant contains a virulent poison, which, 

 taken into the stomach, causes convulsions 

 and often death. Another plant, almost 

 equally dangerous, is Fools' Parsley; this is 

 often mistaken for Turnips. Water-Hem- 

 lock, or Cow-bane, resembles vei-y much the 

 common Parsnip. Ivy and Dogwood, though 

 not eaten, are often gathered because of 

 their beautiful twining leaves. These, to a 

 large number of people, are poisonous. 



