258 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



September. 

 Have you seen the pretty fairy 

 Walking wltii a manner airy 



Through the earth. 

 Gilding vines on hut and castle, 

 Lingering where the Corn-stalk's tassel 



Nods in mirth? 

 She's a dainty little creature, 

 Fair in form and every feature ; 



Shaded blue 

 Is the dress her form adorning— 

 'Tis a glory of the morning, 



Sprent with dew. 

 Silvery Luna's beams her hair Is, 

 And within her hand she carries 



• Golden rod. 

 Touching with It fruits by magic. 

 While the leaves in ending tragic 



Strew the sod . 



—Culumbus Dispatch. 



Apple-Tree Inn. 



When in the country, and I would dine 

 Of the best inn I know the sign ; 

 A golden Apple swings in the breeze. 

 Inviting me there to rest at ease. 

 Under the good old Apple-tree- 

 There is the jolliest inn for me. 

 The kindest host and daintiest food, 

 The sweetest drink and all that's good. 

 And under that roof of purest green 

 Many light- winged guests are seen ; 

 By the landlord's self is a bed for me made. 

 And he covers me over with coolest of shade. 

 And when I ask what I have to pay. 

 He shakes his head in a curious way. 

 How quickly he knows a poor poet like me~ 

 In that inn freely welcome — the Apple-tree. 



—From the German by Geo. Birdseye. 



It is Aster time. 



Stake the Ricinius plants. 



Tie up the plants as they need it. 



DuBt is iii't relished by the pot plants. 



Oh! Jack Frost, how we detest your visits. 



Hyacinths must be started at once to flower at 

 ■ (^'hristmas. 



How grateful the Roses seem to be for a little 

 hoeing amc^ng the beds ! 



For a delightful arbor the Weeping Elm or 

 A.sh is well nigh matchless. 



If winter bloom is desirable, hold some of the 

 flowering plants in check now. 



Nitrate of soda this year has given us little or 

 no effect on Tomatoes and Potatoes. 



Toads cat Potato beetles. Squash bugs and 

 other disgusting, niah:)dorous creatures. 



The Garden Carpet. How soft an even, vel- 

 vety lawn feels under our feet, and how hard the 

 gravel walk! 



The Inter-state Fair at Trenton, N. J., will be 

 held September :.".* and HO, and (October 1, 2 and 

 3, of this year. 



A Secret of the Trade. The largest Chrysan- 

 themums for exhibition are grown where only 

 one bud is left on each branch or shoot.* 



The nnfermented Juice of the Grape as a bev- 

 erage is gaining in popularity. We hope its in- 

 troduction and use will t)ecome general. 



Bnssian Sunflower seed, as almost all seeds of 

 an i>il.v nature, will tempt rats and mice, when 

 other bait fails t<i induce'them to ent<?r a trap. 



Seeds of the Yellow Locust are quite sure to 

 germinate even if sown by inexperienced people. 

 For planting on land claims this tree is therefore 

 one of the best. 



The Japanese Snowball when seen in the height 

 of the blooming season, makes many people 

 thiiik of planting one in fall or spring aft«r. 

 Such good resolves should now soon be fulfilled. 



The Cortland Orape, which originated in 

 Canada, is claimed to be the earliest of all native 

 vaiieties— three to four weeks earlier than Con- 

 cord, and similar to it in appearance and quality. 



Prepare support for the Gladioli either a 

 trellis to which they can be fastened or plant the 



bulbs in a square with a strong stake in the 

 center to which the top-heavy stalks can be tied. 

 — Argiinni!*. 



Hardy Bhododendrons. The following are 

 named by Mr. Meehan as among the best, quite 

 hardy and affording a good variety of color: 

 Rhodndendron elegana, white; B. cuerentianum, 

 rosy lilac; R. roseum cUgan.'t, rosy pink; E. Chan- 

 cellor, purplish rose; Mrs. Milner, crimson; R. 

 purpurcum gramlitlonim, large purple. 



Garden Bag. For all around garden work one 

 needs, knife, shears, string, labels, and in put- 

 ting up climbers tacking material. The idea of a 

 garden bag of leather for carrying such arti- 

 cles, and flgured on this page is from the English 

 suppl.v house of Osmond ,Jt- Co. .London, England, 

 who keep the bags in stock. 



Mushroom Growing Profitable. Wm. Falconer 

 some time ago heard of a man in New Jersey 

 " who grows Mushrooms in cellars and has made 

 lots of money at it." An.tious to see the man, 

 and learn all he could about it, he called at the 

 house; but although he talked his prettiest, and 

 used every persuasion and persistence, the family 

 would not only refuse to let him see inside the 

 cellars, but they would not even let him see the 

 man himself. "What is the meaning of all this 

 secrecy?" he says. " There is money in it." 



The California coyote is going to be bred in 

 Australia as a rabbit exterminator. The Cali- 

 fornia fruit grower comments on this in a hum- 

 orous strain. Who knows, it says, but what the 

 coyote under the influence of the Australian 

 Government may develop admirable traits of 

 character, which were never even suspected in 

 his old home? Australia gave us the lady bug, 

 which is a quiet, respectable, thrifty insect We 

 reciprocate by donating to our sister country the 

 festive coyote, with the howl thrown in. If 

 .•Australia can breed a new tune for her parasite, 

 it will tend to greatly enhance its popularity. 



Geranium cuttings are easily injured by over- 

 watering. The method practiced at Lincoln Park, 

 Chicago, is to take cuttings from bedded plants 

 in latter part of .September. They are then 

 properly trimmed and placed in the sand beds in 

 the greenhouses, the sand having first been well 

 wet down. More water is applied to settle the 

 sand around them, but no more water is given 

 them for about ten days, or until the cuttings 

 are calloused. In bright days they are occa- 

 sionally syringed if the foliage shows signs of 

 wilting. The aim is to give them as little water 

 as possible until bottom heat is supplied, and 

 more liVieral waterings are necessary. 



The Public Boads. The common errors in our 

 road building are (1) rounding the road into a 

 ridge with the notion of securing drainage. The 

 result is ruts, because all wheels move nearly in 

 one track. Widen out your road track. (2) Dirt 

 roads are alwa.vs patched and never made. You 

 cannot mend a road to advantage till you haNe 

 first made it. Do your work thoroughly as far 

 as you go. (3) The grade is in almost all cases 

 too steep. Three inches for a wide road bed is 

 enoiigh. But an association in each county would 

 soon revolutionize the land. Our American roads 

 are our shame. They are our costliest public en- 

 terprise, because all expenditures on them go to 

 wast^.— B. P. Pou'ell. 



For a continual display of flowers, the garden 

 should be supplied with jierennials and hard.v 

 bulbs in abundance. Many of the earliest flower- 

 ing plants can be procured from our woods, are 

 perfectly hardy, and repay culture by increased 

 size and abundance of bloom. C)f these we raa.v 

 name, Erythronium, Cypripedium, Mertensia, 

 Dicentra cucularia, Polemonium, Wild Ger- 

 anium, Violets, and Ferns in variety, and many 

 othei'S. The beds containing Tulips, Erythi'oni- 

 ums and others that die down to the ground 

 aft<.'r flowering can be planted with various 

 anntmls, those that do not have long roots being 

 bettt'r for this purpose, as then the bulbs are 

 not disturbed.— .4 rffj/)i»i.s. 



Elm Types. Have you ever noticed how many 

 different types there are of the common White 

 Elm? I wonder if any nurseryman has ever tried 

 to propagate any given type. There is as much 

 difference in Elms as there is in Apple trees; and 

 the different kinds of Apple trees all grow after 

 a fashion of their own. Xo one who knows any- 

 thing about them w(<uld mistake a Willow Twig 

 tree for a Red Astrachan, and 1 frequently see 

 two Elm trees growing side by side that are just 

 as different in habit. It would cost but little 

 more to bud the trees than it does to grow them 

 from seed simply, and with a judicious selection, 

 their value for average purposes would certainly 

 be doubled.— .S. W. M., IHs State Experiment Sta. 



The Water Supply and Irrigation.— Irrigation 

 is spoken of as a system applicable only to the 

 western lands ; but it is quite as valuable applied 

 to our eastern States. We are liable to loose 

 about one crop out of four or five by a dry spell. 

 We have no provision against this. It would be 

 a simple and inexpensive affair with man.v far- 

 mers to have provision made to utilize brooks 

 to prevent 'serious loss. If you investigate you 

 will be astonished to see how few farmers have a 

 proper supply of wells. I have three and will 

 soon have four ; and none to many. When 

 brooks fall, the cattle suffer. Wells will'not 

 cost one hundreth part the loss from shrinkage 

 of milk and time wasted in driving cows to 

 larger streams.— E. P. P. 



Bue Anemone. Anemones are just now claim- 

 ing considerable attention. One of the prettiest 

 as well as one of the most common of this inter- 

 esting genus, is the pretty Rue Anemone of our 

 woods I Anemone thalictroides). Putting forth 

 its elegant leaves, soon followed by the delicate 

 pink and whit« flowers in early spring, it well 

 deserves a shady nook in our garden where it 

 will thrive as contentedly as in its native haunts. 

 The number of sepals in the corolla of the little 

 plant varies. Often one can be found double, 

 nearly to the centre, but the number is more 

 often five or six. In beauty of foliage it cannot 

 be surpassed, and the flowers are as lasting as 

 almost any of our cultivated species. In April 

 and May our woods are full of these little *' har- 

 bingers of spring" vielng with the creamy 

 flowers of the Bloodroot, the graceful sprays of 

 wild Dicentra, and the showy Crowfoot and 

 Phlox.— Aruynnis IbetTiile. 



Fine Gardening Contagious. Mr.R.Hager, one 

 of our subscribers who lives in Buffalo, visited 

 the Popular Gardening Grounds a year ago 

 this summer. He was so favorably impressed by 

 a bed on our lawn occupied by plants having 

 foliage of a showy color, that he not only set out 

 a similar bed on his own grounds the past spring, 

 but he is now warmly urging the superintendent 

 of the Buffalo parks, Mr. McMillan, to do like- 

 wise to the extent of a large bed of the same at- 

 tractive character, at some point in the parks. 

 What are the growths in the bed referred to? 

 Tender Coleus, Centaureas or similar plants on 

 which It is generally supposed we must depend 

 for such effects? The stock in the bed consists of 

 a dozen shrubs of the magnificent Blood-leaved 

 Plum iPrunnx Pisxm'di) at the center and sur- 

 rounded by twenty others of the Variegated- 

 leaved Cornelian Cherry (('orniis mascula fol- 

 var.), a plant with leaves, the surface of which is 

 more than one-half white. Both of the growths 

 are inexpensive and entirely hardy; once they 

 are planted they will thrive and be handsome 

 for many years to come. Our subscriber's sug- 

 gestion to the park superintendent is a good one. 

 Such a bed won Id be an attractive feature in any 

 public garden, and no less so in private grounds. 



Care of House Plants. One of the most fre- 

 quent queiies adderessed to us for replj'isthat 

 about cause and cure for the dropping of the 

 leaves of hou.se plants. Wherever this occurs, 

 we may be sui-e, the health of the plant is im- 

 paired in some way. The plant may have been 

 kept too warm, or too cold, given too 

 much water or not enough of it; it may have 



LEATHER GARDEN BAG. 



been injured bj" crowding or with strfing stimu 

 lauts, or allowed to become pot boinid. The first 

 thing to be d(meis tomake a thorough e.vamina- 

 tion. Knock the plant out of the pot and see if 

 the soil is too dry or too wet, or whether the 

 feeding roots are destroj'cd. Injudicious water- 

 ing or applications af strong liquid manure— the 

 ti'eatment usually given without further exam- 

 ination—may result in the death of the plant. 

 Sick people cannot be cured by crowding them 

 with victimls. Repotting in light and rich, rather 

 dry soil, especially if a new or freshly cleansed 

 pot is used, will give relief in most cases. The 

 pot need not be larger than to give about an 

 inch of soil around the ball of roots. Plunge it 

 into a half shady bench, or a box of soil, water 



