36 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



November, 



Garden Chrysanthemums. 



My bright-faced darlings by the garden path 



Standing almost alone, nor asking why, 

 Meagre the sunshine that thy small life hath, 



Born under Autumn's chill and changeful sky. 

 Ye never knew the Roses white and red 



That overflow the Summer bowers with bloom; 

 No loving Violets with the Mosses red 



Pours at thy feet its purple, faint perfume. 

 For thee are only withered, falling leaves 



And stricken grasses, turned from green to gray; 

 The Itindly spider in the sunlight weaves 



Her silver bars across thy desolate way. 



—iTUer-Ocean. 



The leaves are crisp and russet. 



The Sumac's blazing red. 

 The Butternut descending 



Is cracked upon your head. 

 The butterfly's departed. 



Likewise the belted bee, 

 The small boy in the orchard 



Is up the apple tree. 

 The trees wear lovely colors 



In beautiful excess; 

 All nature seems to rustle 



Just like a new silk dress. 



^Harper^s Bazaar. 



Sing a song of snow-flakes, 



Icicles and frost; 

 Four and twenty snow birds 



In the woods were lost. 

 When the storm was ended, 



Happy birds were they. 

 By some crumbs befriended, 



They lived to fly away! 



Which premiam will you have? 

 ■ Dusty plants can not be real healthy. 



Sheltered spring bulbs flower the earliest. 



To Our Subscrihers: Club us as we deserve. 



Beans were not known in England until 1509. 



Any bulbs yet to go in? The season's days are 

 closing. 



Many pot Geraniums are killed by over 

 watering. 



Whoever induces a friend to become a reader 

 of this journal does that friend a favor. 



Would you have strong Mauraudias for next 

 spring? Then sow before the holidays. 



In looking^ over the fascinating premium offers, 

 remember that they are for dollar subscriptions. 



The use of bulbs in bold groups is capable of 

 creating a much better effect than a similar 

 number planted in precise lines. 



That Strawberry bed, made from potted plants, 

 on our experiment farm lately, and referred to 

 last month, has shown better for some weeks 

 now past. 



Why Not % Some one has been at work devel- 

 oping the purplish crimson type of Pigweed, and 

 is about launching forth, as an ornamental plant, 

 the results of his work. 



How Grand it Uust Be. An effective corsage 

 bouquet arrangement is said by an authority to 

 be in the form of a letter V, full at the neck, tap- 

 ering to one flower at the waist. 



A Mew Seed House, Mr. W. A. Morehouse, for- 

 merly general manager of the Hiram Sibley & 

 Co. seed house, Kochester, N. Y., will embark in 

 the business for himself shortly. 



Weed Killing in Winter. An excellent way 

 to kill perennial weeds in the Raspberry rows, is 

 to smother them with a heavy coat of manure, 

 which may be used to advantage in this way 

 even if somewhat coarse.— D. N. L. 



A LeConte Pear Orchard. I have an orchard 

 of 125 trees five years old from cuttings, being 

 therefore on their own roots. Some of them have 

 made a growth of six feet of well matured wood. 

 — Wm. M. Jeffrey, Randolph Co., III. 



For wintering Celery for home use, a frost- 

 proof cellar, rather dark, but with fair ventila- 

 tion, serves admirably. Dig the plants with as 

 much dirt as possible, store close together on the 

 cellar floor, and it will continue to grow and 

 blanch until used. 



Now is the time for soil to be gotten under 

 cover in shed or cellar. It should be of good 

 quality for use in hot-beds and starting-seed 

 boxes next spring while the ground is yet frozen. 

 By filling the outside frames with leaves, and 

 covered over, the soil will not freeze so hard. 



The premium pages were brought into the 

 most conspicuous and safest part of the present 

 paper, in part to accommodate the binder of the 

 paper. If when the annual volume is completed, 

 or at any time it might be preferred to take them 

 out, the removal of the stitches will release these, 

 leaving the regular matter intact. 



As window plants in winter, but few are so 

 easily grf)wn as the Nasturtiums and especially 

 the dwarf form which comes in every shade f rora 

 creamy white to orange and dark crimson. 

 Branches of these readily grow, if placed in a dish 

 of water, and make finely blooming specimens, 

 the vessel becoming filled with roots. It should 

 be kept in the sun.— E. E. S. 



The Winter Coverings of Straw. As far as pos- 

 sible every thing about a garden should partake 

 of a neat and orderly appearance. The French 

 gardeners appreciate this point very well. From 

 a sketch made in a garden in France we have 

 prepared our illustration of a tripod of sticks, 

 supporting on its upper side a sheltering cap 

 of straw, over the plant below. 



It is Not a Bare Freak, This in answer to 

 E. W. L., Schenectady, N. Y., who has mailed us 

 a Carnation flower which has a new bud stand- 

 ing out immediately from the center of the 

 bloom. We have seen hundreds of them in Car- 

 nation forcing houses, nearly to the dismay of 

 the growers who desired the crop for market, 

 and for such a purpose it was almost a failure 

 because of this peculiarity. 



An Insectary. What is It? It is a green- 

 house-like structure erected at the Agricultural 

 Experiment Department of Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., for the novel purpose of breeding 

 insects, thus allowing of a more complete obser- 

 vation of their habits. Prof. J. H. Comstock, 

 the entomologist, writes that he hopes soon to 

 furnish our readers with an illustrated sketch of 

 the building, and their methods of work. 



Spiraea, The large number of beauti tul flower- 

 ing shrubs under this head, vary greatly both in 

 bloom and foliage, flowering from May until late 

 in August, when the one known as Hard hack 

 or Steeple Bush (S. tomentosa) shows its rosy- 

 pink flowers. From being so common this 

 species is seldom planted, but handsome low- 

 growing shrubs like it are not plentiful enough 

 to warrant this being so greatly overlooked. Its 

 lateness also is in its favor, and it grows well on 

 almost any soil. — T. R. Murray. 



This ailment is growing alarmingly common. 

 So says Supt. Doogue, speaking of the deadened 

 appearance of young Maple trees in the PubUc 

 Gardens of Boston, Mass., and that the only cause 

 he could ascribe for the ailment, is a premature 

 development of the foliage occurring early in the 

 season, which was then suddenly withered by 

 a few days of extreme heat, gi\'ing the trees a 

 blighted look although the trunks seem perfectly 

 healthy. The Maple trees about Buffalo have 

 for several years been affected similarly to this. 

 We believe it is a disease. 



Every reader could secure from one to fifty 

 new subscribers to this journal before the holi- 

 days if they would go about it with a will. If 

 you think well of the paper call the attention of 

 your friends to it, that they too may receive its 

 \-lsits. With 20,000 more readers we can make a 

 vastly better paper than now, and yet keep the 

 price at one dollar a year. That number of new 

 subscribers should come to us within six weeks. 

 They will come if you, and you, and you, kind 

 readers, will only get at the import of our liberal 

 premium offers, and act accordingly. 



How do You Treat Your Fernery? To have a 

 Fernery do well requires only simple treatment, 

 but the attention needed must be regularly and 

 fuUy given. Drainage is of prime importance; 

 the easiest way to secure it being to have a 

 double bottom, the upper one coarsely perfor- 

 ated, the lower being like a water tight pan that 

 can be emptied. The soil should be light and 

 fibrous. Do not crowd the plants, and sunshine 

 may be allowed on the case, being sure that 

 moisture is never lacking. Airshould be appUed 

 dally by raising one side and then the other of 

 the cover, an inch or so for an hour. 



The Wild Bhododendron. It grows in shady 

 l>laces, and prefers damp or sandy footing, often 

 running up to a height of 20 feet. Its branches 



are bent and twisted in the strangest most fan- 

 tastic ways imaginable, and bear up lauced- 

 shaped evergreen leaves woolly underneath and 

 resembling the Kalmia. Amongst the wrangling 

 branches and sober setting of leaves gleam great 

 bunches of pale pink blossoms. The buds are 

 bright rose color, in compact heads, and last a 

 long time; opening slowly when put in water in 

 the house, to as fine 

 flowers as if they 

 had been left on the 

 s h r u b 3. — H e m ! e, 

 Newport Co., R. I. 



Catalpa leaves, as 

 a protection for 

 summer set Straw- 

 berries, was a new 

 idea to me, but that 

 is the use I saw them 

 put to on the fruit 

 farm of W.W.Farns- 

 worth, of Lucas Co., 

 Ohio. Over each 

 plant newly set, a 

 Catalpa leaf was 

 placed with enough 

 soil on to prevent its 

 being easily blown 

 off; in a few days the 

 leaves are dried up 

 and many are blown 

 away, leaving the 

 plants bright and cheerful in their new home and 

 ready for business. The leaf is better than grass, 

 because it has a tendency to keep the space 

 covered in a sweated condition, which is very 

 favorable for young plants recently moved. — 

 E. H. ntshman, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. 



Coronillas. These are very distinct looking 

 plants, easily grown, and amongst the freest of 

 bloomers even when quite small. They succeed 

 well with ordinary greenhouse warmth, coming 

 in during the summer season, according to the 

 temperature they have during the early spring 

 months. Cuttings, consisting of the present 

 season's shoots several inches long, inserted in 

 pans or pots, filled with sand and covered with 

 glass, strike freely any time from spring to 

 autumn. If put in now the little plants will 

 through next summer be much in advance of 

 such as are not rooted before spring. Pot them 

 singly ,and through the winter have a night tem- 

 perature of about 50 degrees.— Maiiory. 



Fine Tomato Growing. I have tried to get 

 early, smooth and large crops of Tomatoes out 

 of good garden soil for 20 years, whUe not a fail- 

 ure has been made entirely. No such crop has 

 ever been reached as I had the past season on a 

 stiff yellow clay soil sloping gently toward the 



A Winter Shelter for Small 

 Trees, Sht^bs and Plants. 



A Haul'Up ^YaUrinQ Pot. 

 north. It was planted in Potatoes last year and 

 well manured then, no manure this season hav- 

 ing been used. I have Mikados weighing 26 

 ounces. This kind is smooth, early and enor- 

 mously productive, though other varieties arc 

 nearly as good. Very rich soil is not very good 

 for the Tomato, as where they are native they 

 grow on the hillsides, not in the rich valley 

 bottoms.— -i. C. Bates, Kankakee Co., Ind. 



Watering Plants. The slopping work of plant 

 watering does not impress most growers as the 

 most agreeable part of plant culture, either in 

 the window or the plant house. As we cannot 

 get rid of it, the plan herewith figured is, for 



