84 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



Jacqueminot — Fame in a Rose. 



Who Is there now knows aught of his story ? 



What is left of him but a name?— * 

 Of him who shared in Napoleon's glory. 



And dreamed that his sword had won him his 

 fame! 

 Ah! the fate of a man is past discerning! 



Little did Jacqueminot suppose, 

 At Austerlitz or at Moscow's burning, 



That his fame would rest in the heart of a Rose. 

 —Bessie Chandler in American Magazine. 



The Elm and the Apple. 



The Elm in all the landscape green. 



Is fairest of God's stately trees, 

 She Is a gracious-mannered queen 



Full of soft bends and cui-tesies. 



And though the robins go, as gue.sts, 



To swing among the Elm's soft leaves. 

 When they would build their snug, round nests. 



They choose the rough old Apple trees. 

 The Apple has no sinuous arras. 



No smooth obeisance in her ways; 

 She lacks the Elm's compliant charms. 



Yet she commands my better praise. 



— Wid^ A wake . 



Tree-Snow. 



The Beech is bare and bare the Ash, 



The thicket's white below. 

 The Fir-tree scowls with hoar moustache — 



He cannot sing for snow. 



—Bayard Taylor. 



Hake up a label supply. 



Taste may be cultivated. 



Get sanshine to the plants. 



Add to the Celery pit cover. 



Sqoiirels are great Nut planters. 



Why not scrape the tree trunks now? 



Herb-trinity was the old name for Violet. 



A Popular Act: Subscribing for this journal. 



Hardy shrubs are becoming more appreciated. 



The bark of Magnolias is enticing to rabbits. 



For a shipping market dark Cherries are the 

 best. 



Flanta have the "blues" in these short, dark 

 days. 



The Cucumber Uagnolias can be easily raised 

 from seed. 



Oood drainage is the best aid to winter 

 protection. 



The manure pile should now be making its 

 best growth. 



Pot Hyacinths should be opening the 1889 

 flower season. 



We don't dote on chip diit for plants. Rotted 

 turf with manure is better. 



The florist will tell you that the size and beauty 

 of flowers depend on good culture. 



The Cherokee Bote so common to the south is 

 not a native but Is of Chinese origin. 



Has any reader bad successful experience in 

 butting instead of lapping greenhouse glass? 



If the leaves of Hyacinths grow faster in water 

 than the stalk, cut off a third of the roots.— H. S. 

 French. 



Insects numerously found in the greenhouse 

 are a sure sign of shiftless management; no 

 excuse for that! 



Are We to Have Blue Oladiolus^ Now comes 

 word that that expert hybridizer, Monsieur 

 Lemoine of France, has raised a Gladiolus of a 

 positive blue color. 



An investigation of the seed purchasing 

 business of the Department of Agriculture is on 

 the boards as part of the work of the Senate 

 Agricultural committee. 



Evergreen Trees. Lift the beautiful ever- 

 greens that are in near view from the writer's 

 window and the greatest charm of the winter 

 landscape would be gone. 



On the Popular Oardening Farm winter closed 

 In with the fall plowing, subsoiling and under 

 draining not so far on as we would like, owing to 

 an excessively wet October and November. 



The Keiffer Pear. One tree of this variety 

 planted in the spring of 1887 ripened seven large 

 Pears. We consider the quality very gO(jd, hav- 

 ing ripened them in a cool room.— i?Von(c Ailtin. 



Phylloxera in Spain. A royal decree ad- 

 vises the importation of American Grape vines 

 and periodical inspection of \iney ards by officers 

 as a safeguard against the further spread of this 

 scourge. 



AHint for Florists Tasteful arrangement with 

 cheap flowers can make better for trade and rei>. 

 utation than poor arrangement and the most 

 costly blooms. Aim first of all for simple, taste- 

 ful arrangement. 



Hake Home Beautiful. A good season this to 

 study the landscape from the windows of the 

 living rooms and decide on where one or more 

 clumpsot Evergreens could next spring be intro- 

 duced with the best effect. 



A Gardening Pastime. Procurea largesponge, 

 wash it clean, scatter grass or other seeds thickly 

 over it, hang it in a warm window, moisten the 

 sp(Uige daily and enjoy the result of a bit of nat- 

 ui'al winter greenery.-fiHima L. Wales. 



As to the Matter of Weeds, One of our 



exchanges encourages the idea of composting 

 weeds and thus reap some benefit from them. 

 Perhaps all right it you have weeds, but good 

 gardeners don't need any such suggestions for 

 they don't grow weeds. 



Cosmos hybridus, bearing pink and white 

 flowers, is one of the most floriferous of iilants, 

 either in the window or greenhouse, and is wor- 

 thy of being extensively grown. Sow the seed 

 in early spring and keep the plants closely cut 

 back during the summer.- B. B. S. 



The Feet at Work. Mr. Peter Henderson 

 never tires of discoursing on the use of the feet 

 in seed sowing through firming the soil over the 

 drills. For winter Popular Gardening sug- 

 gests a similar use of the feet In firming the 

 snow against orchard trees to prevent the 

 attacks of mice. 



It might be Tried. An amateur in England 

 recommends the immersion of plants— that is 

 their tops— in cold water for from 20 to 10 or more 

 hours as a cure for plant scale and other insects. 

 He says: '• Garderuas thus soaked for 48 hours 

 were none the worse for it while the insects 

 were used up entirely." 



Some Noted Trees Destroyed. President Gar- 

 field's memorial tree, a Locust in the Botanic 

 Garden at Washington was, by the severe storm 

 last fall, overturned; at the same time also, 

 Vice-President Hendrick's Buckeye or Smooth- 

 fruited Horse Chestnut was uprooted. Consid- 

 erable other damage of the same nature was 

 sustained. 



Mice and Peach Trees, A near neighbor of 

 the editor at "Woodbanks" successfully diverts 

 the attacks of mice from Peach trees by strewing 

 the ground here and there in the orchard with 

 superfluous branches cut from the trees. The 

 mice win never trouble old trunk bark if they 

 can get that which is young and tender. In ten 

 years this remedy has not failed him. 



Agricultural Education East and West. 

 A recent report of the number of students at 

 the .\gTicultural College of California would not 

 Indicate a great hunger for an advanced agri- 

 cultural education among California youth. 

 There is but one student each for the halt dozen 

 professors at their Stjite College; while at the 

 Michigan Agricultural College there is an attend- 

 ance of over three hundred students. 



Beader have you had a share in extending the 

 acquaintance of this Journal among those who 

 know it not, or in swelling its circulation thi'ough 

 forming a club? The more .subscribers we have 

 the better paper we can make. This is why we 

 offer such liberal premiums for new names. A 

 lift from you here is a lift for an improved 

 American Horticulture. This is the time lor 

 good resolves and for entering upon and car- 

 rying them out. 



Natural Gas and Insects. Our esteemed 

 friend of the Indiana Farmer, we fear, ma.y be 

 jumping at a hasty conclusion. He is disposed 

 to link the fact of a noticeable decrease of insects 

 on fruits in certain towns where natural gas is 

 used as fuel, to the presence of this gas. It now 

 seems to be accepted that most kinds of insects 

 destructive to fruit were less prevalent every- 



^^-^^^ 



-1 Convenient Ther. 

 mometer Box. 



-S. T. 



where during the past season than for some 

 years previously. 



"Our Rose Hedges have done remarkably>ell 

 this past season," writes Mrs. Wade Burden 

 from southwest Missouri, "some varieties like 

 Madame Chas. Wood, Appolina, Louis Odier and 

 Hermosa blooming almost continuously. A 

 recent fall wedding brought out a most conspic- 

 uous design composed of Nasturtium flowers and 

 leaves combined. A fine funeral decoration 

 consisted of a flat wreath on casket, surrounded 

 by loose bunches of blooms, 

 nearly covering the lid." 



Easy Bose Propagation. Last 

 August I made a six inch cut- 

 ting of the Hybrid Perpetual 

 Magna Charta and inserted It 

 into the ground at a depth of 

 two Inches in a partially shaded 

 spot covering it with a glass 

 fruit jar. I kept the cutting 

 well watered. About the mid- 

 dle of October it was callu.sed 

 and putting it in a two inch 

 pot I removed It to the house. 

 It has now (Nov. 9) a shoot on 

 it two inches long and looks 

 very healthy. Another year I 

 shall try my cuttings in July 

 for this certainly is a very sim- 

 ple method fif increasing Hybrid Roses.- 

 Whnc.Kinvs Co.,N. Y. 



Potato Blight and Bot. This disease appears 

 when rain follows a drouth or when cold damp 

 weather follows hot weather. Brown spots ap- 

 pear all over the leaves and soon they look as 

 though frosted and dry up. The diseased top is 

 disastrous to the tubers unless they are dug at 

 once. The sap flows back carrying the germ to the 

 tuber where it begins its work and which nothing 

 can then stop as it works on the inside, the very 

 opposite to dry rot, which latter may be stayed 

 by dusting thoroughly each basketful with a 

 handful of dry air slaked lime.— H'. T. Alan, 

 Mercer Co., Pa. 



The Horse Chestnut is not such a bad or value- 

 less luit after all as Is generally supposed. In 

 this country, according to a recent report of the 

 Agiicultural Department, bookbinders make a 

 paste from the flour that is prepared from these 

 nuts, the bitter principle in it serving to prevent 

 the attack of insects on the paste before and 

 after use. In France a number of uses are made 

 of this fruit among which may be mentioned : 

 A charcoal from the skin of the nut forms the 

 base of different printing inks, a sort of soap, 

 yellow matter for dyeing, potash, as a substitute 

 for chinchona and for bleaching various fibers. 

 Perfumery Humbuggery. Have you walked 

 along the street of some city and observed the 

 fragrance arising from the baskets of certain 

 "Rose seed" or "Lavender bloom" venders? 

 Well when you do see them don't invest in these 

 wares unless you enjoy being fooled. The arti- 

 cles are offered for placing among clothes and 

 are " warranted " never to lose their fragrance, 

 but a dozen times a day the venders retire for a 

 bit and in some unobserved place squirt perfume 

 over their stock to keep an odor about it; any- 

 thing that rattles in the envelopes does duty for 

 the seeds or dry leaves. 



The Strelitzia regina, or Bird of Paradise 

 Flower as it is sometimes called, is well adapted 

 for common gi-eenhouse culture and also for the 

 window garden; its brilliant orange and purple 

 flowers, produced from a hoi-lzontal sheath, one 

 above another, together with its ornamental 

 leaves, form a most striking object well worth a 

 place in any collection. Its culture is not diffi- 

 cult, as a temperature from 55° to 65° is needed. 

 The plants require rich, sandy loam, plenty of 

 pot room and a light situation, being kept out 

 doors duiing July and August. Propagation is 

 slow but is most easily performed by means of 

 suckers or dividing the old plants. 



A Simple Feat in Flo'wer Forcing. Try it, A 

 year ago in January 1 placed some Cherry 

 branches having fruit buds in water and set them 

 in a light window. In two weeks the branches 

 wei-c covered with the beautifid white blossoms 

 which lasted some time. Of course any shrub 

 that naturally flowers as early or nearly so in the 

 spring as does the Cherry, will be likely to do as 

 well. I have seen the statement that the Andro- 

 medas, both the dwarf foot-high shrub, so fa- 

 miliar to Cranberr.v men, or the Southern 

 (.4. fliinbumla) will, if treated as above, in a 

 short, time put forth its Valley-Lily-like flowers. 

 Our popular yellow flowering Forsythia should 

 do as well.— JBemic. 



