THK CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Now, for the purpose of helping avoid this evil and maintaining a better 

 degree of moisture at the roots, during a period of severe weather when 

 strong fires have to be kept up to maintain the required temperat\ire, it is a 

 good plan to cover the surface of the pots, or if growing in shallow benches, 

 the surface of the bed, with moss, which may either be the green moss found 

 growing on stumjis and stones in moist parts of woods, or sphagnium moss 

 found in swamps ; this latter is the kind I generally use, but the other is 

 the {)rettiest for house plants. Peter Henderson recommends mixing bone 

 dust with the moss as a fertilizer to the plants. For plants somewhat 

 exhausted from being a good wiiile in pots, this is very desirable, and for 

 the last year during which I have adopted this plan, I found it very beneficial 

 for recuperating plants which make feeble growths from being long in pots. 

 The moss, from its moistness, brings the roots to the surface, and if food is 

 supplied them, a fresh and vigorous growth is the consequence. 



Instead of mixing the bone dust with the moss, I often mix it with a 

 little soil, and sprinkle it on the surface of the pots before putting on the 

 moss. This is the better way with house plants, as it keeps the bone 

 covered, and tlierefoi-e prevents any disagreeable! smell from arising. Ferti- 

 lizing house plants has generally been a difficult matter with window 

 gardeners, but the above method overcomes most every objection formerly 

 met with, and will be found as beneficial as any method generally recom- 

 mended. 



All my bouvardias, heliotropes, roses, and other plants growing in pots 

 for winter flowering, I had covered .shortly after placing them in their winter 

 quarters — the result being more flower, larger trusses and buds, and I think 

 better colored, than when grown without any covering on the surface. 



— M. Milton, in Country Gentleman. 



THE MANUFACTUEE AND USES OF GRAPE SUGAR. 



"We clip the following article from the Breeder's Live Stock 



Journal, and ask, if the manufacture of glucose or grape sugar ia so 



profitable, what is there that prevents its manufacture in Ontario, to 



the benefit of the producer of the corn and the consumer of the sugar, 



and the establishment of another home industry. The manufactory 



that consumes two thousand bushels of corn per day, or about six 



hundred thousand bushels a year, would help to steady the price of 



corn. The article is as follows : — 



Not long since Mr. John L. Alberger, of Buflfalo, N. Y., one of the 

 original inventors of the process of making glucose and grape sugar, brought 

 suit for $450,000 against the Buffalo Grape Sugar Co. Mr. Horace 

 Williams who, it is claimed, understands the question thoroughly, testifies- 

 as follows iu that suit: 



