232 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



vitality of the most vigorous plants. Another ugly 

 customer is the rose-bug, melolontha subspinosa, 

 a real "hard shell." With his long snout he is a 

 regular bore, pitching into the flower and in a very 

 short time destroying its beauty. Preferring as 

 he does the white flowers, he is often found in a 

 trap. The vqrious spireas, and especially the Si- 

 berian, and also the Valeriana phu are favorite re- 

 sorts of his, and if taken before he is off" his perch 

 in the morning (he rises with the sun) he may be 

 treated "hydropathically" with marked success, by 

 simply holding a dish of cold water under him and 

 make an "advance." He at once keels off", expect- 

 ing no doubt to land anywhere but in water, and 

 being chilled, cannot crawl out and fly away. A 

 few mornings' hunting will very sensibly diminish 

 their numbers. The remedy for the two first named 

 is also hydropathic, but differently administered, 

 and is also a remedy for nearly all the other and 

 minor troubles of the rose. It consists of a solution 

 of whale oil soap, at the rate of one pound to sev- 

 en gallons of water. This is found to be of suffi- 

 cient strength to destroy all insect life except hard 

 shells, and will not injure the foliage. The best 

 way is to dissolve it in boiling water, and then di- 

 lute to the proper strength, strain it to take out 

 foreign substances and insure thorough solution, 

 and apply with a garden syringe near or after sun- 

 set, being careful to thoroughly wet the foliage on 

 both upper and under sides. If applied with suf- 

 ficient force to knock the enemy off, so much the 

 better. The plants may be syringed with clear 

 water in the morning, but it is not very import- 

 ant. By commencing this process soon after the 

 opening of the leaf buds, and following it up at 

 intervals of four or five days, until the blossoms 

 unfold, a healthy foliage may be maintained, with- 

 out which no plant can thrive. 



To protect from winter-killing, hill up late in 

 the autumn with old manure, and shade with ev- 

 ergreen boughs. 



Let no one think these operations too trouble- 

 some, but remember that if flowers are worth hav- 

 ing, they are worth caring for, and also that if 

 "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," so it may 

 be of flowers ; and as the fond mother feels the 

 strongest attachment to that child whose tender 

 years have caused her the most solicitude, so shall 

 those flowers that require at our hands the most 

 care and Avatchfulness reward us with a proportion- 

 ate meed of pleasure. I append a list of a few va- 

 rieties generally approved : 



George the Fourth. 



Augustic Mie. 



Baronne Provost. 



Giant ties Battells. 



La Reine. 



Leon des Combats. 



rriuce Albert. 



SouTcnir Levisson Gower. 



Pius IX. 



Jaquea LafiUe. 

 Count Beaumont, 

 llailam Plantier. 

 Madam Laffay. 

 Cristata. 



FOR CLIMBEBS. 

 Prairie Queen. 

 Bourflault. 

 Baltimore Belle. 



A Hundred Eggs from a Python. — In the 

 Zoological Gardens at London they have had a 

 large serpent of the Python species, from the West 

 Coast of Africa, for many years. This reptile is 

 nineteen feet long and twenty inches in circumfer- 

 ence. About three years ago another snake of the 

 same kind was introduced to its den, and they have 

 lived together ever since. On the morning of the 

 12th of January the men in charge of that depart- 

 ■lent were much surprised to find that the larger 



serpent had laid about a hundred eggs as large as 

 those of a goose. The skin of the eggs was tough 

 and leathery, their color, dirty yellow. When first 

 seen the eggs were in a heap, but the serpent laid 

 them all on a level, and then coiled her body over 

 them. During the week after she laid them, the 

 serpent came off" them twice for short periods* 

 She is covered with a blanket while thus upon her 

 eggs, and has not fed for the last twenty-one weeks. 

 This interesting fact establishes the fact that this 

 species of serpent hatches her young by incuba- 

 tion, and it is believed that she will bring some 

 snakes from the great nest of eggs she has laid. 



SQUASHES AMONG POTATOES. 



It has been generally supposed by farmers that 

 in order to raise good squashes, they must be 

 planted on ground specially prepared for them, 

 and then cultivated with great tenderness and 

 care. A piece of rich land is usually selected, 

 plowed and thoroughly pulverized and manured, 

 and the squash seeds planted in raised hills. In 

 this way they are cultivated in masses, and hold 

 out the most tempting invitation to all the bugs in 

 the neighborhood to come and feed upon them. 

 Under these circumstances the utmost vigilance Ss 

 necessary to preserve even one plant from de- 

 struction, — and those that remain with the breath 

 of life in them, are generally so disfigured and 

 poisoned as to require about half of the growing 

 season to recover from such blighting influences. 



Attended with all this labor of the preparation 

 of the soil, and the subsequent care which the 

 squash yard requires, it is rarely the case that 

 squashes do not cost the farmer altogether too 

 much. 



There is a cheaper and better way of raising 

 this delicious and wholesome article of food. It 

 may be common to others, but it came to our 

 knowledge through the necessity of finding some 

 more certain way of obtaining a crop than by tl» 

 "squash yard" process. Several experiments were 

 made, and among them one has resulted in giving 

 us the greatest abundance of excellent squashes, 

 almost without cost. 



We plant our field potatoes in hills at a distance 

 of tliree by three and a half feet apait, and drees 

 these hills or holes, with strawy, unfermented ma- 

 nure. Into these hills we drop occasionally a 

 squash seed with the potato — but these are in- 

 tended for earli/ use — for the young Marrow at 

 Hubbard squash is as delicious as the true Sum- 

 mer squash. At the first hoeing, seeds are pushed 

 into the potato hills, pretty near the potato plants, 

 where the plants are slightly sheltered while 

 young and tender, and soon begin to stretch away 

 into the open spaces between the rows and hiUs, 

 and grow with great vigor and luxuriance. All 

 our hilling of the potato is done at the first hoe- 

 ing. The cultivator ia passed through the rows 



