134 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



May, 



Lilac Time. 



While the Lilacs are in bloom. 

 Call me not from othertvhere 

 From the Lilac-scented air. 



While the Lilacs are in bloom ! 

 Oh ! to lose their beauty's spell, 

 This, my friend, were never welL 

 While tho Lilacs are in bloom ! 

 Oh ! the city stones will stay- 

 Soon the Lilacs pass away. 

 While the Lilacs are in bloom. 

 Heart, my heart, go not away ; 

 Keep, oh, keep the Lilacs day. 



-Ida A . Ahlborn, 



Dropping Corn. 



sturdy, helpful. little Bin, 

 Trudges slow from hill to hill. 

 Where the brown-backed com-fleid lies 

 Underneath the sweet May skiew ; 

 Drops the seed with patient care. 

 Just enough and none to spare— 

 ' One for the black-bird, one for the crow, 

 One for the cutrworm and two to grow." 



—Mrs H. O. Rowe. 



Now nature hangs her mantle green. 



On every blooming tree , 

 And spreads her sheets o' Daisies white 



Out o'er the glassy lea. — Burna. 



Make straight rows, 



Nature dons her new suit. 



Get the vine baskets around. 



Mossy lawns require fertilizing. 



Catch and punish the plant thieves. 



Delay in tree planting is now dangerous. 



Apply the remedy before the mischief is done. 



Plants in flower should not be watered overhead. 



African Marigolds are not African but Euro- 

 pean. 



Hubbard Squashes do well planted among early 

 Potatoes. 



For supreme pleasure seek the garden at early 

 morning. 



No Strawberries are so fine as those of one's 

 own raising.— Mep. 



For brilliancy we think the Tulip called Stand- 

 ard Gold excels all others. 



The Strawberry is at home in almost every in- 

 habited part of the globe. 



Verandas are health givers, inducing people 

 to live more in the open air. 



Agapanthus. Lack of free airing forthesenow 

 is not conducive to the best colored flowers. 



The Chinese look upon the Peach as an unwhole- 

 some fruit. Now we know they are queer chaps. 



*' The finest fruit under the sun '" is what Editor 

 Robinson, of the English Garden, calls our Ameri- 

 can Apple. Right. 



In the Arnold Arboretum at Boston trees are 

 planted in pits of good soil ten and twenty-five feet 

 square to insure long life. 



To keep our different sorts of Peas from mixing 

 on our small place, we plant them respectively at 

 the four corners of an oat field, writes J. W., Hatch 

 Hollow, Pa. 



One thing we would like to see, namely, our 

 subscription list largely increased during May. It 

 is work in which every member of the family could 

 help very much. 



Proclaim the Secret. One who is very successful 

 at Rose culture when asked for her secret replied 

 that it lay mainly in manure, pruning knives, atten- 

 tion and sunshine. 



Rainfall per Acre. People scarcely understand 

 by rainfall in inches, what it really means, but an 

 inch of rain means a gallon for every two square 

 feet, or one hundred tons per acre. 



A thick soft-soap wash Is disliked by the borers 

 that affect some trees; apply it to the bark a few 

 times in the spring of fruit trees and such ornamen- 

 tals as the Mountain Ash and Rose Acacia. 



Assuming that the Apple is the king of fruits 

 the American Cultivator would accord to the 



Peach the place of queen, because queens are 

 popularly supposed to be clothed with velvet. 



The Blueberry fraud, formerly conducted by 

 Delos Staples, West Sebewa, Mich., seems still to 

 exist under a change of name and address, as 

 " L. D Staples. Portland Co., Mich." It is a thing 

 to be left alone. 



Caterpillars on Gooseberries. For several sea- 

 sons I have tried a simple remedy for these, with 

 such excellent results that I think it should be 

 widely known. It is to spread some dry slacked 

 lime half an inch deep under the bushes some way 

 from the stem. This we do in May.— .B. Ligg. 



Flower Growing a Key to Character. " Sister 

 Gracious." of the Popular Gardening family, re- 

 ports that a discerning census taker out her way 

 paid a tribute to flower growers as follows; I 

 always found the folks who had even asmallflower 

 bed in their front yards, or a solitary window box 

 filled with thrifty plants, much more intelligent 

 and accommodating than those houses entirely 

 bare of floral adornments. 



A Large Vine. What is supposed to be the 

 largest Grape-vine in the world is thus spoken of: 

 It is growing at Oys, Portugal, and has been in 

 bearing for more than eighty years . Its greatest an- 

 nual yield was in 1864, in which year it produced a 

 sufflcient quantity of Grapes to make 165 gallons of 

 wine; in 1874, 146 1-3 gallons: in 1884 only 79 1-4 gal- 

 lons. It covers an area of 5,315 square feet, and 

 the stem at the base measures 6 1-2 feet around. 



The Best Annuals, Mr Henry Ross, of Mid- 

 dlesex Co., Mass , calls attention to the Dwarf An- 

 tirrhinum as a most beautiful one. The Dwarf 

 Sweet Alyssum is also desirable. He means to 

 grow Verbenas from seed, for they have been 

 brought to such perfection that one is pretty sure 

 to get good ones, and seedling plants are not dis- 

 eased like those raised from cuttings. Petunias 

 raised from good strains of seed make one of the 

 most beautiful shows in the flower garden. 



The Unpleasant Side. Growers of magnificent 

 Roses and other choice winter flowers, are some- 

 times congratulated on being engaged in such a 

 delightful occupation. Congratulations of this 

 kind usually come from those whose only point of 

 view is the perfect blooms. These persons do not 

 see the close attention, day and night, the stoke- 

 hole operations, the liquid manure tanks, which 

 play such important parts. Said one overworked 

 florist, in response to the compliments of a visitor, 

 " Madam, when you come to know them as I do 

 flowers are as disgusting as any other business." 



Halliday's Practical Azalea Culture. This is a 

 work the name of which is in no sense a misnomer. 

 It is simply a plain, straightforward account of the 

 propagation and culture of this favorite plant, from 

 the cutting through all the stages to a plant thirty 

 years old, as told by a practical and experienced 

 florist, Mr. Robert J. Halliday, of Baltimore, Md. 

 The language is direct and to the point through 

 all the thirty-one chapters embraced, while the 

 text is in itself remarkably clear and free from 

 needless words. It is accompanied by some thirty 

 odd engravings illustrating operations of culture 

 throughout, and all designed to make the work one 

 of great value to the inexperienced florist and ama- 

 teur. Mr. Halliday is his own publisher. 



Flower Pot Hand-glass. Your engravings of 

 hand-glasses recently, leads me to send this rough 

 drawing of sever- 

 al home-made 

 glasses I have In 

 use. They are 

 simply large flow- 

 er pots, with the 

 bottom broken 

 out by the aid of 

 a cold-chisel and 

 hammer,and cov- 

 ered with a pane 

 of glass each. I 

 find them very 

 effective for pro- 

 A Simple Hand-Glass. tecting the tender 



plants. I imagine that the porous sides have some- 

 thing to do with their value —Mrs. W.B..KentCo.Del. 



Degeneration. Concerning the degeneration of 

 fruits and vegetables Mr. W. H. Hills, of Massachu- 

 setts, reports that he has made manj' obs^^rvations 

 bearing upon this matter. When the Early Rose 

 Potato was introduced he bought two pounds and 

 raised 240 pounds from that quantity, and though 

 some consider the variety degenerated, he thought 

 that with the same care he could get as good results 

 to-day. His Baldwin Apples were so small last 

 year that he felt some alarm lest they had deterior- 

 ated, but he found they were as large as any one's. 



Disease is distinct from degeneration The Flemish 

 Beauty Pear cracks; is this degeneration or disease? 

 Apples crack more every year, and thoiigh the 

 crack seems to heal, inside the fruit is still worth- 

 less; he thought this was disease. The manner of 



A TRI-COLORED GERANIUM. 



cultivation and peculiarities of the seasons are con- 

 tinually affecting fruit. 



Peas and Potatoes, Subscriber ''H. H.," of 

 Erie Co., Pa., sends in the following practical note 

 on planting these vegetables together: " In every 

 hill of Potatoes we put also from two to four Peas, 

 using some fertilizer at the same time. The Pota- 

 toes afford all the support the vines need, and it is 

 very little trouble to move the latter enough to get 

 at the bugs, and Paris green for them does not hurt 

 the Peas in the least. The Peas are easily picked 

 without injuring the Potato vines. My husband 

 thinks if he had acres of Potatoes be would have 

 acres of Peas. We have tried this for years, and I 

 always sell from fifteen to twenty-flve bushels of 

 green Peas, and in that way save considerable 

 pocket money. The Peas seem in no wise to de- 

 tract from the Potato crop, while the culture be- 

 stowed results in an immense yield of the former. 



Mulching and Pruning Raspberries. We 



mulched some of our Ohio Raspberries in the 

 spring of 1886 with manure direct from the street- 

 car barn. The result is that the canes on the plot 

 .mulched were injured quite extensively by the past 

 winter, while the canes in the adjoining rows of the 

 same sort are in perfectly good condition. We 

 have always advocated and practiced cutting out 

 the old wood and surplus canes as soon as berry - 

 picking was over, hauling off and burning at once. 

 Last season we decided to let them remain until 

 this spring. Many canes show that borers have 

 matured in them, and as they are not now present 

 they must have survived to do us damage this 

 year. We shall hereafter try to do our ''mulching" 

 with the cultivator and burn the useless wood of 

 Raspberry plantations as soon as it becomes a 

 nuisance.— i*'. E. Skeelif, Kent Co., Mich. 



A* Productive Onion Patch. Last fall I con- 

 cluded to try a small piece of land and see if I could 

 raise Onions to advantage. I measured off one- 

 seventh of an acre of land * which had been well 

 worked the year before), spread a heavy coat of 

 horse manure on it, and plowed it under; this 

 spring I plowed again and spread on 10 barrels of 

 hen manure mixed with about 15 barrels of sandy 

 loam, harrowing it well in, My Onion seed rows 

 were 12 inches apart, and the result was 149 bushels 

 of as flne Onions as one would care to see (1043 

 bushels to the acre). I do not think there were 10 

 bushels of small ones and scullions in the lot. I am 

 selling my Onions readily at $1 per bushel at my 

 door. I shall prepare one acre of land in the same 

 manner for next j'ear, and although I can hardly 

 expect such a yield again , I hope my one acre of 

 Onions will compare well with other growersMn quan- 

 tity and quality.— F. S. Smith, in Farm and Home. 



Easy Science in Watering. Fiom the mo- 

 ment that the soil becomes so far dried that the 

 fibers of the roots cannot absorb moisture from it, 

 the supply of the plant's food is cutoff and it begins 

 to suffer. Some plants can bear this loss of water 

 with more impunity than others; some are in this 

 way soon destroyed. The object in watering should 

 \ be to prevent this stage of dryness being reached, 

 at least during the time a plant is growing, and at 

 all times in the case of those of very rigid struct- 

 ure; at the same time, that excess which would 

 sodden the soil and gorge the plants is also avoided. 

 Within these limits the most inexperienced persons 

 may follow sound directions for the application of 



