4i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 24, lii 



mountain farms. It attains a height of thirty or thirty-five 

 feet, with a trunk sometimes eight inches in diameter, wide- 

 spreading branches and a true arborescent habit. One of 

 these large specimens, crowned with its enormous panicles 

 of black fruit, is an object of remarkable beauty. The flowers 

 are deliciously fragrant, recalling those of the common Lilac, 

 and are highly valued f>y the mountaineers for their honey- 

 yielding qualities. 5. 



The Seedless BarL)ei'r\' i^Bcrbcris vulgaris aspei-ma) I ne\'er 

 saw in such perfection of fruit as I saw it to-day in a Hamp- 

 shire garden. It was one of the most lieautiful sights I ever 

 enjoyed in an autumn garden. There was a dense bush, 

 eight feet high and as many in diameter, and every branch was 

 loaded with hanging clusters of long berries of the most bril- 

 liantscarlet, which, with the foliage yet green, made a striking 

 contrast. This seedless Barberry, though nothing more than 

 a form of the common Barberry, is very superior in berry to 

 any other. These are without seeds, very succulent, and make 

 a better preserve or jelly than the other sorts. But as an 

 ornamental shrub of the highest merit I would direct atten- 

 tion to it, for I can imagine nothing more beautiful on a lawn 

 on a gray October day than such a bush of it as I saw to-dav. 

 It is an old variety known in the days of Philip Miller, who 

 named it, and also liy DuHamel, who, according to Loudon, 

 spoke of the merits of the fruit for preserving. It is from 

 this fruit that the celebrated Confitures d'Epiiw vinette are 

 made at Rouen. If is not common in English gardens, and 

 seldom seen in nurseries. 



The Missouri Currant [Ribes Missouriensis) is at this season 

 more conspicuous than at any other, for now its foliage, on 

 the point of falling, is dyed with the most brilliant hues of 

 crimson, blood-red and yello\\'. R. aun'uin also colors well, 

 but is not so striking as the other, which is now g-rown 

 largely at Knap Hill by Mr. Waterer expressly for planting for 

 autumn effect. IV. G. 



London, October 3d. 



Cultural Department. 



Manure. 



JUST as soon as crops are cleared off the ground we should 

 cart or wheel out the manure on to it. When only a part 

 of the ground can be cleared at one time, we can draw out 

 the manure on to that part, and at the same time leave a heap 

 of manure where it will be handiest for the yet uncleared 

 part. So far as kitchen garden crops are concerned it matters 

 little what sort of farm-yard manure is used, but for the cab- 

 bage tribe truck-gardeners have a prejudice against hog-pen 

 manure, as they think club-root is more prevalent in land so 

 manured than when cow or horse manure is used. Cow 

 manure is preferred for light land and horse manure for 

 heavy land. On light soil, hen orpigeon manure should be used 

 very thinly, and always composted with earth or other al)soi-b- 

 ents, and rather in spring after growth commences than m fall. 

 We use a large quantity of New York City stable-manure and 

 find it excellent. As manure accumulates during the summer 

 months we pile it up into solid heaps of any convenient length 

 and breadth, but not over four or five feet deep, and drive 

 the carts or wagons over the heap to compress the manure 

 and save it from burning. Five feet may seem very deep, 

 but as the manure rots it shrinks, so that what is five feet in 

 May will probably be nearer three feet in October. The 

 burning dries and deteriorates the manure, hence the ad- 

 vantage of shallow piles which catch and hold the rain. 

 The manure-piles should be covered in summer with loam, 

 when it can be conveniently procured. The horse-stable 

 manure that accumulates during the summer we treat differ- 

 ently, having an eye to mushrooms in winter and hot-beds in 

 spring. The main object is to keep it dry, to prevent heat- 

 ing and rotting. We clear it away every day from the staliles, 

 therefore, and heap it into a high conical pile, which will shed 

 tlie rain, so that the manure will turn over in fall almost as 

 dry as straw in the barn. In fall we.shake out the droppings, 

 wet them, and treat them for mushroom beds. They will 

 heat violently and make good material for that pm-pose, 

 though not as good as manure that has accumulated in a 

 stable-cellar or has been kefjt under the horses' feet in lio.x- 

 stalls for several days, so as to be well soaked with urine. 

 Now this strawy litter that liad once been wetted in the 

 stable, then dried and kept dry in the pile, will, if wetted, piled 

 and turned, make capital heating material for hot-beds ; in- 

 deed, if we did not save the summer nianure in this way we 

 should be very short of hot-bed manure in spring. True, tree 

 leaves, if gathered in fall, stored dry and kept drv over winter. 



then wetted and heated in spring, are useful for hot-beds after 

 the middle of March, thougli they have not strength enough 

 for earlier beds. 



Before carting out the manure on the land, we always turn 

 it over and break it up fine, so that it shall spread well and be 

 easily dug or plowed into the ground. 



It is also well now to prepare manure and compost for 

 mulching lawns and trees. Pretty well rotted farm-yard 

 manure turned over loosely and broken up fine is capi- 

 tal top-dressing material for ordinary purposes, but in the 

 case of impoverished lawns compost is better than plain 

 manure, and should be applied in double or treble the quantity 

 that we should use of manure. This compost consists of 

 good loam and well-rotted, broken up manure in equal parts, 

 or a little more of the loam than of the manure. Prepare a 

 heap of this now by throwing the loam and manure on the 

 pile together, then before it is used, say in November 

 or December, turn it over to thoroughly mix and break it 

 up. Some people have a strong repugnance to the use of 

 manure or compost as top-dressing for lawns, claiming for 

 it unsightliness and a bad smell, and they urge the use of 

 commercial fertilizers instead. Now, no one would think of 

 using fresh hog-pen or other malodorous manures as top- 

 dressing. In the case of well prepared manure or compost 

 a bad smell is barely perceptiljle, and after the first snow or 

 rain there is no smell. The other ol)jection on the ground of 

 unsightliness is amply outweigiied by the lienefit of the top- 

 dressing to the lawn. The dressing not only acts as a fertil- 

 izer, but also as a protection in winter, a consideration of the 

 utmost importance in the case of short-cropped lawns, suljject 

 to freezing and thawing. We have many acres of lawn, the 

 surface soil of which is little other than well-manured sand 

 with a somewhat loamy skin which has been formed by re- 

 peated top-dressings of compost, and the subsoil is sand. 

 This lawn keeps a sod of grass that could not be retained by 

 means of artificial manures. On a lot of eight acres, also of 

 very sandy soil, which was formerly top-dressed with manure 

 everyyearandcut for hay, there has always beenafairfirstcrop, 

 and in the event of a moist summer, a good second crop. For 

 two years we have pastured this lot, and the crop of grass — 

 Red Top, mostly — it bears is extraordinary. Proper artificial 

 manures tire e.xcellent in their wav, especially in giving a brisk 

 start to grass on loamy land, but for light or sandy land barn- 

 yard manure seems to be preferable. 



Glen Cose, N. Y. 



IJ'iii. Falconer. 



Roses. 



nPHE hybrid Tea Rose, W. F. Bennett, seems to be coming 

 -*- into favor in some Ibcalities this season, though many 

 growers, after giving it one season's trial when it was first 

 introduced, were ready to discard it. But it is probable that its 

 peculiarities were not thoroughly understood, and that the 

 general failure with it during its first season was due to that 

 fact. 



The present opinion seems to be that this variety requires 

 a special treatment, and that when properly handled it will pay 

 for the trouble. When in good condition it certainly is a 

 beautiful Rose, l>oth in form of bud and in color. 



It has been found that two-year-old plants almost invariably 

 produce better flowers and have stronger and more rapid 

 growth than yearlings, and in view of this fact a different sys- 

 tem has been practiced with the Bennett, in several instances, 

 from the usual mode of forcing Roses, and with better results. 

 As is well known, in many of the large Rose establishments, 

 all, or nearly all, the houses, are replanted each year. The 

 Bennett should be treated on the same plan, with this marked 

 difference, that with the majority of varieties young stock 

 struck during the preceding winter should be planted ; but 

 with the Bennett the old plants may be lifted out of the beds 

 or benches in which they have been growing for one season, 

 and potted up into four-inch, five-inch or six-inch pots, as the 

 size of the plants may require. This lifting operation should 

 take place aliout March, and the plants grown afterward in the 

 same manner as young stock, imtil the usual planting season 

 arrives, when they should be replanted in fresh soil in the 

 beds. With reasonable attention, they will make better growth 

 and produce correspondingly better flowers than they did 

 during the first season. 



It may not be advisable to repeat this treatment with the 

 same plants after the second year, as the plants may be too 

 much exhausted after having been forced for two successive 

 seasons to respond to a third trial. Of course it may be said 

 that there is nothing new in this operation, and that it has been 

 long practiced by a certain class of florists. 



