FOREST AND STREAM. 



25 



^Joodlmd, gnrm mul §nrdeth 



FASHION IN GARDENING. 



THE higher the point of civilization at which a country 

 es, 1 lie more its inhabitants become the votaric o 



[i, and that we in this counlrj enjoy no immunity Eroni 

 the intlietion is everywhere evident. It this did not extend 



id sin indulgence in tin' luxuries of everyday lite it 

 would be of less consequence, but when the intlietion spreads 

 to matters of such in horticulture and arboricul- 



ture it behooves those who take an interest in these pursuits 



', the matter fully in the face. It may he suiil thai ga 

 dening, as it exisls at the present day, is a luxury, and that, 



fluently, it must be governed by such fanciful laws as 

 rule matters of a kindred character. This, it. must fie admit- 

 ted, is correct so tar as it relates to the purely decorative ele- 

 ment, hut here if does not stop. The introduction of 9 ae-1 

 of plants, or the resuscitation of an old and in many 



hi undeservedly neglected one. appears to be the signal 



for a universal mania in favorof the favorite of the horn. 



comparative neglect of other things. When a useful llower- 



bedding plant, such as a. Gladiolus or Coleus, makes its 



ance, why should we for years run after varieties of 



them by the hundred, that, have barely an infinitesimal dilYor- 



t'om each other? In the case of new roses there might 



use, for any improvement relating to the Queen 



of Flowers is sure tube hailed with delight, (live, us the true 



fragrance in a climbing rose, or bright color, combined 



with good habit and free flowering in a tree rose, and we 



all rejoice ; hut how often are our expectations realized 



in proportion to the disappointments we experience ? At 



hi Lilies seem to share, the general favor with the Rose 

 and Gladiolus, and this may be looked upon as simply the 



I honorable for the neglect into which this flower 

 has been allowed to fall. In flowering plants, Verbenas have 

 had their day. Zonal Pelargoniums now take the lead, 

 but for the flower garden or parterre, far ahead of them 

 come the "foliaged plants," the Coleus and Alternanthera, 

 the Centaurea and Lineraria, the white edged and bronze 

 leaved Zonal, and other plants of a like character. In mat- 

 ters connected with the more essential and indispensable 

 branch of gardening, let us notice the rage for new va- 

 rieties of Potatoes, Tomatoes and Corn, nine-tenths of which 

 are deficient in general properties compared with others they 

 are intended to supplant. In fruits it is even Worse. IIow 

 much disappointment has been experienced by those who have 

 supplanted old and well tried varieties of Grapes, Peaches or 

 Strawberries with newer varieties, which, after a trial, have 

 in many instances been either rooted out altogether or, headed 

 over, made to do duty as stocks? These are a few of the posi- 

 tive, inflictions which fashion imposes on us in ma ters tiorti 

 cultural. Those of a negative character are equally baneful. 

 What have we to compensate us for the neglect into which 

 numbers of old and tried friends among herbaceous plants have 

 been allowed to fall ? Nothing except blazing stripes and cir- 

 cles of red, white and yellow, the glare of which is, fortu- 

 nately, short-lived, for their repetition becomes a positive in- 

 fliction on the eye. Let it not be understood that we would 

 discountenance healthy progress in any thing appertaining to 

 horticulture, for in it, as in other matters, it is human to re- 

 quire novelty and change. But the evil is that whatever be- 

 comes fashionable, either in any particular family of plants or 

 in the manner in which we employ them, we for a time lose 



of others of far greater importance. Again, if we look 

 to arboriculture we find that fashion has inflicted something 

 'more serious than a passing disappointment. Both in the vi- 

 cinity of the villa and in that of the more extensive country 

 seat it is desirable to get as much variety as possible j this no 

 one will attempt to deny : but have our planting operations 

 been judicious? Have they not been governed to too great 

 an extent by a rage for novelties iu the shape of Coniferous 

 plants, numbers of which are unsuited to the situations in 

 which they have been planted and are incapable of withstand- 

 ing our severe winters, leaving blanks that take years to All 

 up. Think of the numbers of grand deciduous frees and flow- 

 ering shrubs that, comparatively, have been cast unto the 

 shade by these new-comers. Let us then encourage planting 

 the more serviceable oak, ash, or hickory in our parks and 

 hedge-rows, trees that are ever increasing in value; above all, 

 let us not be carried away by the fashion of the hour for one 

 or another particular kind of plant or flower, but, remembering 

 the more useful and tried friends that are always beautiful, 

 thoroughly test the iiewr.omers before we give them a prom- 

 feient place in our gardens or pleasure grounds. . 



ii-oTroH Stings.— Mrs. Henry "Ward Beeehersays that 



wet tobacco is a, certain remedy for the sti ngs of bees, wasps, 

 hornets, etc.. The application of moistened tobacco should lie 

 immediate, and the resulting relief is sure and speedy. 



— English butchers have invented a method of butchering 

 imals by the, explosion of a small primer of dynamite, 

 rich is attached to the forehead of the animal to be slaugh- 

 ■ed, and is exploded by means of an electric fuse. 



—The mean mid-day temperature at New Smyrna, Florida, 

 fur the month of July was 87 deg. 23 m. Maximum, 96 deg.; 

 mnimum, 77 deg. 



• , ,;,, ., | ',,.,-er ■, [lis] m ild greenhouse favorite, 



much thougl I 1 to former tlayi wieners used to 



T,d feet through, each shoot being 

 furnished at its summit with a, broad truss of waxy-scarlet 

 flowers, showy and sweet-scented. The. plant, also grows out 

 of doors freely in summer, and when in flower makes one of 

 the most brilliant and effective of beds. This plant is known 

 nowadays as Kalosanthes. To flower it well it requires to 

 he grown in hot, dry quarters. Cuttings, which strike, very 

 fie made from the young shoots which have not 

 flowered in August or early in September. Make the cuttings 

 about i Inee inches long ; do not, stop them, but divest them 



w of their bottom leaves, and pot each singly and firmly 

 in a three-inch pot, using a light, compost of sand, leaf mould, 

 loam, and pounded bricks Or' crocks. They will soon root, if 

 placed near the glass in a warm pit, or an intermediate house 

 shelf, if they are not damped loo much at top or bottom. 

 W ben rooted remove them to a cool dry greenhouse for the 

 winter, and give scarcely any wafer fill spring; the object at 

 this time is simply to keep them at rest. About the begin- 

 ning of March the plants may be potted in 8-inch or 9-inch 

 pots, which is a suitable size for plants intended to have six 

 i shoots. A little heavier compost should be used for 

 this, the final potting, and with it plenty of broken crocks or 

 bricks, taking care also to drain the pots thoroughly. After 



. the plants should have a growing temperature near 



-ill,. A warm greenhouse or pit will do, but do not 

 give i no much wafer at any time. 



At this stage some of the plants will break up into a num- 

 ber of shoots at the top, and the others will keep to a, single 

 slio.ii only. The former should be thinned out to six or eight. 

 shoots, and the latter pinched at the top to make then break ; 

 also the young shoots secured in this way will bear the flow- 

 ers. By May the plants will, be growing fast, and at, this time 

 they may, in warm localities, be plunged out of doors in a 

 warm corner. In front of a hothouse is a good place for 



i nd it is a common practice to plunge them in sand, 

 which gets hot with the sun; otherwise they need not be 

 pluuged at all, but, simply set on a hard surface. In cold lo- 

 it is better to grow the plants under glass all summer, 

 with plenty of air anil sun. Whichever plan is adopted, let, 

 the plants from this lime grow uninterruptedly, ami before 

 cold weather sets in take them into any house where the tem- 

 perature is genial and dry. Here they will show flower, if the 

 t rus8ea are not already in an advanced state, and the season of 

 flowering may lie prolonged by keeping the plants in cool 

 houses. If the plants are intended for planting out, they 



imply be wintered in a cool house, and not permitted 

 to (lower, and planted out, the following Season, where they 

 will be certain to flower and make a bright display. — J., in the 

 " Garden," London. 



Cucumbers m Rtjssia.— On my way home from the fair of 

 Hi jni -Novgorod, says a correspondent of the Daily News, I 

 was again struck with what I often remarked before, viz., the 

 profusion of w T ater melons and cucumbers, which were being 

 everywhere offered for sale. Pyramids of melons and water- 

 melons, like cannon balls in an arsenal, were heaped up in 

 e i direction, and as for cucumbers, you couldn't help 

 fancying that a plague of encumbers, like locusts, had 

 descended upon the earth. All along the Volga, from Astrak- 

 han to Nijni, the whole population seemed engaged in eating 

 water melons. Their price being three sopeks, ecmivalent to 

 one penny, put them within the'reach of even the moderately 

 wealthy. At every wood station that we stopped at, the water 

 melon and its rival, the sunflower, were the subject of a lively 

 traffic. Saratov seemed to be the headquarters of this latter 

 fruit, but we had outposts all along the line. But if the water 

 melon and the sunflower are luxuries and pastimes, the, cucum- 

 ber is a law and a necessity. You never see a Kussiau peasant 

 at dinner but you see the lump of black bread and the cucum- 

 ber. A moujick's dinner may be said to consist of x plus cu- 

 cumber. The * will consist of his favorite cabbage soup 

 (schtchi), with or without meat in it, and sometimes in addi- 

 tion to it the equally famous grit porridge (kascha). Some- 

 times the kascha is without schtchi, and sometimes the schtchi 

 is without the kascha, but whether in separation or combina- 

 tion, the cucumber, at least, is always there; and should a 

 equal zero, as I am afraid it sometimes does, then the ever- 

 faithful cucumber does duty for all the rest. Cucumber seems 

 certainly a singular dish to be so national in a country with a 

 climate like Prussia's. It is the last that one w T ould select a 

 priori for the post; but this is only one of a great many singu- 

 larities one meets with. The cucumber costs the thirtieth 

 part of a penny about the Volga ; perhaps this fact will ex- 

 plain the anomaly. 



Budding Fruit Tubes. — P. T. Quinn, in the mid-summer 

 8»rilmer'.<i, gives these directions for budding orchard tree: 



The proper time for budding exl ends from the middle of July unti 1 



tile lirst of September, whenever the bai'K separates easily from the 

 wood, the buds may be set, wilh lair chances of success. Tlieouttit. 

 for budding consists of some narrow strips »l bass matting, such as 

 comes on tiic inside, of coffee-bags, and a poc.kef-knile wit.ii a, single 

 blade, with a small piece of ivory lusicueil in the end of the handle. 

 When flic incision isma.de the ivory is used to raise the ba.rU up on 

 i'ii'. -i i inn l ! "- bud may be pressed inio place. The buds to be 

 inserted should be cut Iroui young, healthy trees, and always of the 

 pr-st-m .'. ,ii- , ,,at are must matured being selected. 



These 



expos i 



I he 



v prove fatal. 



of it is to be budded over, select t 



Ji the branch, not too large, say in 



nigh 

 tn 



flie bud 



bark from the wood wiih the tvoryon tile handled die kill 



I iv i iic. lie pressed into place, -inline oil' square the purl 



above the cross incision. Then with a strip of the bass matting wrap 



firmly around the branch above and beiow the eye, fastening- the end of 



In- ::'.ij i|i bv a slip-knot. 



Transi'IvAnting Forest T kicks.— Pioneer, in the Prairie 

 Farmer, says, in regard to transplanting forest trees : 



Before caiting up a tree, mark it in some manner so you will know 

 which is the north side, so as to he aula to reset it in exactly the posi- 

 tion it grew in the woods, This may seem to many of no Importance, 

 but. to those who know that, there is iu the leu k and wood of all trees a 

 radical difference between the north and south sides, i 

 being doh-c grained ami tOUgn, while the south side is invariably more. 

 up en grained and brash, or soft, the importance will he seen. If this 

 la done, your tree does not nave ho undergo:-''' ■■ in all 



the parts, and in ready to start off and grow at a proper time as readily 

 as though It had not been moved. 



A,si\\i:,uir:s in Old Times.— At Ravenna tin 



h most extraordinary results, the stems 

 weighing three pounds each. The. same as to-day, they allowed 

 it to boil but a .short time, as it, was a favorite expression 

 with Augustus, when he wished a thing accomplished quickly, 

 "Let that be done quicker than you would cook asparagus." 

 The Roman cooks chose the finest heads of asparagus and 

 dried them. When wanted for the table', they put them in 

 hot water and boiled them a few minutes, a plan good enough 

 to be followed at the present day. P. 



An Old Rose.— -Never give up a decaying rose bush till you 

 have tried watering it two or three limes a, week with a soo 

 tea. Make the. tea with boiling water, from soot taken from 

 the chimney or stove in which wood is burned. When cold, 

 water the bush with it. "When il is used up, pour boiling hot 

 water on the soot a second lime. Rose bushes treated in this 

 way will often quickly send out thrifty shoots, the leaves will 

 become large and thick, and blossoms will greatly improve in 

 size and be more richly tinted than before.— Exeter News Let- 

 ter. 



— An ice machine in Dallas, Texas, just finished, produces 



ice cakes thirl y feet long and six feet wide, weighing from 

 10, 000 to 12,000 pounds each. They are formed by in 

 line rain or spray. When the freezing is done the bottom and 

 sides of the cake are thawed loose from the inclined plane, 

 and the cake slides out upon a platform, where it is cut into 

 pieces six feet square. Pour cakes a day are frozen. The 

 works cost $30,000. 



—Eagle Island, near Newburyport, Mass., has a com 

 raised from seed smuggled during the time of the embargo. 

 The tree bears, but the berries do not ripen, and have very 

 little of the coffee taste. 



—In the Luxembourg Gardens of^Paris are eighty lilac trees 

 in full bloom, which were planted by Marie de Medicis two 



hundred and fifty years ago. 



—An eagle shot in Wisconsin the other day was found to 

 have twelve bullets in him. It must have been it balled eagle 

 — Ex. 



G-Axk's Patent Tents.— Rev. P. Savage, of Albany, wide- 

 ly known as a camper-out in Florida and the Adirondacks, 



writes as follows : 



July 31, 1877. 

 Gale if- Co., Boston ; 



Sirs- I have just returned from a three week's camping expedition 

 in the Adirondacks, and have had the three (3) tents bought from you 

 put to the severest, tests of exposure, both as to wind and storm, and 

 do most unhesitatingly say they are the most complete, thing of the 

 kind I ever used. 



1. They are easily put up and taken down. 



2. They are perfectly waterproof. 



3. They are a good height and all the room is available. 



Our party asked for no better. They were admired by all who saw 

 them, and one party insisted on buying one of ours that was to spare. 



Kev. Dr. Duryea, of Brooklyn; and Rev. Dr. Irwin, of Troy, both of 

 whom used your tents, endorse all I say about them. With kind re- 

 gards. 



Yours truly, F.B.Savaok. 



-[Ann. 



A New Mineral Watkr.— Mineral water is (irmly established as an 

 indispensable summer drink. The average man, who formerly t tied in 

 vain to quench his thirst with soda-water, or some one of the many ilia 

 bobcat compounds labeled "small-beer," and had a headache and an 

 uneasy stomach afterward, now calls for some kind of mineral water 

 to stop his thirst and aid his digestion. But even in mineral waters 

 there is a preference to be had. If none of them are absolutely injurious 

 some ol them are vastly more beneficial than the others. A compara- 

 tively new spring has been discovered, which seems to belong to the 

 desirable class which has all of the health giving propel-ties, with no im- 

 parities whatever, and what is of almost equal importance, has a 

 pleasant Havor also, it is called the Apollinaris NatnralMinera] Water. 

 It comes from a natural spring near Nenenalir, in Khenish Prussia. 

 The yield of this spring is something enormous, being estimated at 400 

 quarts every four minutes, aim at 4u,0Ui),i)HU quarts a year. 



If is especially urged in favor of the Apollinaris Water that it contains 

 a larger amount of carbonic acid than any other water, either natura 

 or artificial. It is estimated that more than 99 per cent, of the gases 

 eoutaiued in it, are carbonic acid, which gives it that strong effervescence 

 which causes if, to remain fresh and brisk long after the cork is with- 

 drawn. The mild alkalinity of the water gives a soft ami pleasant tone, 

 to this effervescent aud refreshing beverage, more agreeable to most 

 palates than the very marked and saline flavor of other springs. I'ne 

 veidict, of the mouth is confirmed by the whole digestive tract. The 

 too acid condition of the stomach, from which many sailer, is happily 

 correct ■ I by this alkaline wafer, ami it is entirely free from poisonous 

 metals, as lead, copper, etc., as well as organic Impurities. 



Dr. William A. Hammond says: "For several months past I have 

 made extensive use of the Apollinaris water in cases of nervous irrita- 

 bility attended with dyspepsia and ln.hic acid or oxalic acid den 

 and always with good effect. It appears to me to be indicated in ail 

 cases in which the Vichy Waters have been heretofore prescribed 

 daily beverage, alone or with wine, it is, iu my opinion, far superior to 

 Vichy, Seltzer, or any other mineral water.'' Dr. Kordyce Baker is 

 scarcely less emphatic, saying- : "I have made use. of theAp,, 

 Water tor six pr eight years past, aud regard It as by far the most 

 agreeable of all the mineral waters a- a beverage for the table, whether 

 drank alone or mixed with claret, sherry or champagne. It is light, 



park i, i gaud easy of digestion, and I am convinced of its.it iiii.y in cer- 

 tain catarrhal conditions of the mucous membranes, especially of the- 

 se imach and bladder, and in those person; ■ iiirdiseo-oi , , gmu in its 



lis I o-edom from metallic poisons, already referred to, enables the 

 ,, telde with eminent medical authorities in c 

 ■ i io ilol ely pure, wholesome, as well as pleasant mineral 

 superior to all others as a daily beverage,— [gee adv. 



