8 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



from blemishes and insects, the roots fed with 

 a rich compost, and the water witli wliich they 

 are showered warmed by steam to the proper 

 temperature. Tliere is not only art in culti- 

 vating the rose, but also skill and experience 

 in bringing the buds into market in a salable 

 condition. A full-blown or even a half-blown 

 rose has no market value. It is only the bud, 

 just ready to open, that finds many admirers. 

 We may well imagine, then, that the plant is 

 carefully watehed, and the bud cut the mo- 

 ment it is sufficiently developed. When cut, 

 it is put into a chest, where it can be kept 

 moist and at a low temperature till it is time 

 to pack the daily yield in moss and cotton and 

 forward it to its destination. Treated in this 

 way the buds will appear on the dealer's 

 counter in a distant city as fresh as when cut 

 from the parent stem. 



Some of the Favorite Roses. 

 Additions are made every year to.the list of 

 popular roses, which soon give way to others. 

 Comparatively few run through a succession 

 of years. Here and there one comes into no- 

 tice with qualities that enables it to hold its 

 own against all competitors; the Noisette 

 roses, Marechal Niel and the Gloire de Dijon, 

 for example; the one yellow and the other 

 buff', which, though they have been known 

 for a number of years, are in such demand 

 that they readily sell at twenty five dollars 

 per hundred at wholesale. Some of the old 

 favorites that are still marketable at fifty or 

 sixty cents per dozen, are the Bon Silpne, a 

 pink bud; Pauline Labout, flesh color; Isabella 

 Sprunt, orange yellow; Madame Falcot, or- 

 ange, and Niphetos, pale lemon to white. 

 Some of the choicest new varieties are the 

 Prince Camille de Rvkan, a rich dark maroon; 

 Monsieur Paul Venin, a pale soft rose, of 

 great size and very full; Madame Lacharme, 

 the most popular white hybrid, and CajJtain 

 Christy, tlie best blush hybrid. These all sell 

 readily at twenty-five dollars a hundred. Of 

 tea roses, the favorites are the Duchens of Ed- 

 inburg, very pale flower, and quite new; Em- 

 press of Russia, pule pink; Perk, de Lyon, so 

 large and fine that it requires a good judge to 

 distinguish it from the Marechal JSiel, Corne- 

 lia Cook, a large white rose, and Jean Ducher, 

 a large and fine salmon, inclining to yellow. 

 These command twenty dollars per hundred. 

 The Rose in History and Tradition. 

 In certain districts in Italy the red rose is 

 looked upon as emblem of early death, and to 

 scatter its leaves on the ground is tliought to 

 be an evil omen. In the reign of Henry 

 VIIL, "to smell the Redde rose and to washe 

 the temples with the water of the Redde rose" 

 was accounted "an evell to the brayne;" 

 which superstition probably grew out of the 

 belief that the oil of the red rose was an as- 

 tringent and that of the white rose a laxative. 

 On the 10th of June the Jacobites wore a 

 white rose in their button holes to mark the 

 birthday of the Pretender — a custom that was 

 continued down to a very late date. The 

 rose was once used as a token of office, and 

 as such was worn by ambassadors, as ap- 

 pears from the state papers of Edward VI. 

 Violets. 

 There are many varieties of the violet 

 known to the fiorists, but the Neapolitan is 

 the favorite for winter culture. It is a 

 strong, healthy grower, very prolific, and of- 

 fers a full double flower, highly scented. Its 

 treatment is very simple, but withal it is ex- 

 acting, and if its requirements are not met 

 the returns will be small. It needs light, 

 some warmth (bottom heat is best) and a dry 

 air. Dampness is fatal to it. When coming 

 forward, preparatory to blooming, it should 

 be watered, but when in flower it does better 

 if the surface of the soil is kept dry. Air it 

 needs, and it is usual to give it an ample sup- 

 ply when the temperature will allow. At no 

 time after it begins to bloom should the light 

 be shut off. Wlien, in the spring, the rays of 

 the sun become so powerful as to fade out the 

 color, .some judgment must be used in screen- 

 ing it at midday. If violets are left immers- 

 ed in water for a time, they will throw off 



their fragrance and impart it to the water; 

 and an ancient Gaelic receipt makes the vio- 

 let even more potent: "Anoint thy face with 

 goat's milk in which violets have been infus- 

 ed, and there is not a young prince upon earth 

 who will not be charmed with thy beauty." 

 Athens was called the "violet-crowned city," 

 and Napoleon was known not only as "the 

 Little Corporal," but also as "Papa la Vio- 

 lette." Violet is the flower of the Napoleon 

 family, and is worn by its supporters. So 

 great was the demand for violets at Chisel- 

 hurst at the time of the death of the late Em- 

 peror that the ordinary penny bunch sold 

 readily for six pence and even a shilhng. Of 

 native violets there are eight or ten varieties 

 in this country, and while they are more or 

 less fragrant their odor is not to be compared 

 with that of tlie cultivated plant. One has 

 little difficulty in finding in the moist places 

 in the woods in early spring the spade leaf, 

 the hood leaf, the arrow leaf, the white and 

 other varieties with which we have been fa- 

 miliar from childhood. 



Carnations and other Flowers. 

 Mrs. Quickly said of the dead Falstaff that 

 he did not like carnation ; possibly he felt that 

 it did not suit his complexion. There are 

 many varieties of carnations, but they may all 

 be classed under three heads — Flalce, Bizarre 

 and Picotee. The Plal-es are striped in two 

 colors on a white ground ; as, for example, 

 the Attila, which is scarlet and white. The 

 Bizzarre has irregular stripes on a plain 

 ground, and the Picotecs have a border with a 

 narrow margin of a darker color, or one pro- 

 fusely dotted with small spots. Its edge is 

 serrated, or cut. In colors we have the Bella 

 Zora, or salmon pink, striped and mottled 

 with crimson ; the Cassandra, a bright cerise ; 

 the Union, a crimson and white, and many 

 others. To have the carnation in perfection 

 the petals must be symmetrically arranged, 

 the colors bright and clear, the contrasts 

 strong and marked, and no blending of color 

 with another. The white, wherever it ap- 

 pears, must be of spotless purity, and there 

 must be no splitting of the full and well-de- 

 veloped pod. This last is difficult to manage. 

 Cultivators who raise but a few may tie the 

 pod to prevent the splitting when it is ready 

 to bloom ; but this cannot be done where car- 

 nations are raised in considerable quantities. 

 The lily of the valley blooms readily in 

 winter under proper treatment. The bulbs 

 are kept in a dark place till wanted, and 

 when brought out they must be gradually 

 accustomed to the light, for a sudden exposure 

 injures them, A week is required to bring 

 them from the darkness of a cellar to the 

 strong light of the forcing house. When they 

 are wanted they are subjected to a bottom 

 heat of sixty or seventy degrees. The art of 

 raising lilies for market in winter is so well 

 understood that a florist can take an order for 

 a given day with the certainty that he can fill 

 it, for he knows exactly how long it will take 

 for the bulbs to blossom. It is only the 

 flower that we get in forcing lilies of the 

 valley, for the leaf does not come forward 

 when the jilant is subjected to this treat- 

 ment. 



But something green is wanted to bind up 

 with flowers, whether lilies, roses or carna- 

 tions. To this end the rose geranium is cul- 

 tivated, for its leaves attbrd a delicious per- 

 fume with the desired color. Smilax is also 

 highly esteemed, for it is very graceful and 

 has a bright, fresh color. At one time there 

 was a great demand for smila.x, not only for 

 ordinary use, but also to loop up dresses, 

 wreath the hair, and add to the charm and 

 grace of baskets of cut flowers. It will not 

 easily go out of fashion, for its place cannot 

 be filled, but it is not so much called for as it 

 once was. The culture requires care and at- 

 tention, for every shoot must have a string 

 on which to clhnb, otherwise the vines .would 

 soon become hopelessly tangled. Attention 

 is also paid to forcing lilies, callas and azaleas 

 — all white flowers — for wliich there is at 

 Easter a great demand. They are all beauti- 

 ful and fragrant, particularly the white Uly, 



which will fill a house with its perfume. — 

 Champlin. 



Christmas Blossoms. 



In the interesting letter concerning the 

 flower trade between Newport and this city, 

 which we iirint to-day, the writer says that 

 "it is only the flower that we get in forcuig 

 lilies of the valley, for the leaf does not come 

 forward when the plant is subjected to this 

 treatment." This reminds us of the result of 

 a recent experiment in floriculture in thiscily. 

 About two weeks before Christmas one of our 

 German fellow citizens cut one or two branch- 

 es from a lilac bush growing in the neighbor- 

 hood of the High Bridge. These branches he 

 brought home with him and placed them in 

 his living room, in water, which was made 

 warm tlu'ee or four times a day. Under this 

 treatment the lilac branches put forth several 

 bunches of blossoms, and by Christmas day 

 these had assumed all the characteristics of 

 the familiar lilac fiower except tlie color — the 

 purple was lacking, the flowers being wholly 

 white. No leaves, however, strange to say, 

 had appeared — the forcing process in this 

 case, as in the case mentioned by our corres- 

 pondent, aft'ecting the flower sooner than the 

 leaf. 



By the same method our friend also pro- 

 duced cherry blossoms, thus adding the 

 charm of nature to the artificial devices by 

 which our German fellow-citizens add so 

 much to their celebration of the day of 

 "Christ Kindel."— -Editor Post. 



FRENCH LAND OWNERS. 



In France, an area about half as large again 

 as the United Kingdom is owned by nearly 

 5,500,000 proprietors of agricultural land, of 

 whom 5,000,000 of peasant farmers own one- 

 third of the whole area, with what result is 

 every day becoming better known and more 

 fully recognized in this country. The indus- 

 try and thrift of these peasant owners are 

 marvelous, and spread their effect through 

 the whole society of France. The gross farm- 

 ing ]iroduce of France may not be so great as 

 in England, but this is equally observable 

 when comparing the large farms of France, 

 of which there are more than 130,000, with 

 the large farms of this country. As compar- 

 ed with the small farmers of France, hiring 

 the lands of others, the small owners unques- 

 tionably are vastly better in every i-espect, 

 and they hold their own even beside the large 

 farmers. There may be some defects in the 

 system of small owners; the process may be 

 carried too far in France; but at least it has 

 raised the status of the lower classes there, 

 has almost abolished pauperism in the rural 

 districts, and has endowed the people with 

 such universal habits of thrift as are almost 

 unknown in the people of the same class in 

 this country. It is not the fact, as commonly 

 stated, that the peasant proi)rietors of France 

 are loaded with debt ; the average mortgages 

 on these farms are known to be no more than 

 10 per cent, on their value ; while the best 

 evidence that they are able to accumulate 

 money, is to be found in the fact that the 

 peasants have been the main subscribers to 

 the great loans which have been raised in 

 France, and that at the present time the 

 French debt to the amount £1,000,000,000 of 

 our money, is held by 4,000,000 of persons, 

 while British consols to the amount of £700,- 

 000,000, are held by not more than 250,000 

 persons. It will be said, of course, that the 

 climate and soil of France differ from Eng- 

 land so much that no comparison can be 

 drawn between them. This may be admitted 

 as regards the central and southern parts of 

 France, where the cultivation of the vine and 

 olive is specially suited to peasant owners ; 

 but its northern and western provinces are in 

 no way different from the greater part of Eng- 

 land. The garden of France is unquestion- 

 ably Normandy, the climate and soil of which 

 differ in no essential quality from those of the 

 south of England, and which especially resemble 

 such counties as Kent and Somersetshire. In 



