FOREST AND STREAM 
149 
ffoodhnd, %nwn md garden. 
FORM OF CITY*GARDENS—PLANTS FOR 
EFFECT—THE CIRCLE. 
T HE arrangement of a city garden must always depend 
more or less for the beauty of the same on its limited 
size. Every one well understands the possibilities and im¬ 
possibilities of the effects obtained. In a limited space, as 
found in most city gardens, we have but little room in 
which to make what so many of our lady friends so much 
delight in—a “city flower garden.” We will, however, 
give them the benefit of our practical experience in the 
laying out or arrangement of city gardens within a small 
space. And herein will be found the principal obstacle to 
a good show of flowers, viz., too small a space for the de¬ 
velopment of choice flowers. Therefore, we shall in this 
case only give such instructions as shall be best adapted to 
small plats in front or rear of the dwellings found upon the 
majority of Hew York or any other city streets. 
We prefer always to see—especially in cities—for a gar¬ 
den finish a well laid green sod or swarded lawn, be it eight 
by ten feet or five times that dimension. Green, closely 
trimmed lawn, large or small, is always a pleasing and re¬ 
freshing feature for the eye to rest upon. We know very 
well that many will "say “that is too severe in taste, etc.; 
we must have some flowers; do give us a few.” All we 
can do to gratify your wishes we will assuredly do, and if 
our suggestions shall in any way aid the inexperienced in 
their work we shall not have written in vain. But we can¬ 
didly assert we would rather improve an acre than two 
square rods. In front of bay windows should never be 
massed large trees, particularly if the space is confined to 
feet instead of rods. 
We will suppose you have determined in your own mind 
to have a flower garden. Then the style is first to be con¬ 
sidered. What shall it be? The geometric, the artistic, or 
the simpler form. We take the simpler for this paper, and 
you are expected to lay it out entirely yourself. Yes, en¬ 
tirely; do all the work, reap all the honors, and receive all 
the rewards in the shape of fine boquets of your well mer¬ 
ited industry. 
We will also suppose your plot of ground to be, say forty 
feet square, and is now laid down in green sward. If this 
was my own I think I should be well content to keep it 
nearly all green, and if I broke the sameness" or monotony 
of this little lawn I should prepare a circular bed by 
striking a circle of ten feet in diameter in the immediate 
centre of this plat. You will please notice the manner by 
which I obtain my circle, and then, as I shall give you 
practical working instructions, and not plans, you can 
readily make just as correct an outline as myself. Re¬ 
member, what you learn here embodies the very first cor¬ 
rect principles of the art of laying out larger or smaller 
grounds. Commencing with the simplest of all forms, 
without any pretensions to elaborateness, we will show you 
a pleasant form of garden, intended for the display of an¬ 
nuals and bedding plants, and which can also be adapted 
to plants of another class, color, and habit. 
In order to obtain a correct circle of ten feet in diameter, 
you will first procure a pole for your measuring rod, say 
three inches wide by six feet in length. This may be 
marked off into feet, and divided and numbered from one 
to five, like an ordinary ten foot measuring rod. Near one 
end of this pole you will bore an inch hole, and into this 
hole you will have to fit a smooth pin of eighteen inches in 
length, sharpened at one end. At the figure five on this- 
rod or pole you will have another hole of the same size as ' 
your first. Into this hole you will insert another pin, of 
either wood or iron, which lias a vefy sharp point; this pin 
should enter the hole quite firmly, for with it you work out 
the outline of your circular garden. You will first fix your 
rod upon the ground and drive the pin near the end firmly 
into the ground; then you will attach the pin at figure five, 
and you have a half diameter of your circle in your ad¬ 
justed rod. How carefully draw your complete circle, 
which will be of ten feet in diameter on the green sward. 
You now have your outline perfected, and removing your 
rod you will cut through the sod to a depth sufficient to re¬ 
move the same entirely from the enclosed circle, leaving 
the smoothly cut edges clean and true. Ho particular in¬ 
structions are necessary here in regard to the preparation of 
the soil for the flower garden, as they have already been 
given in other papers relating to the same—a good, deep, 
rich, finely pulverized soil always constituting the basis of 
a flower garden. 
The centre of this bed may be planted with any tall 
plants you may choose, such as zinnias, astors, marigolds, 
balsams, heliotropes, or two or three cannas and a calla- 
dium or two. Hext to these you can place a row or con¬ 
tinued circle of bedding plants, say phloxes, portulaccas, 
Chinese pinks, and the low pinks of various kinds obtained 
of the florist. In the row next the edge of the circle you 
can place the zonole geraniums, and in the row next to 
them the silver leaved geraniums. This will give you a 
fine show at a very trifling expense. We should say here 
that the bed should be raised one foot in the centre. 
I do not deem it necessary to name for these circles all 
the plants, but rather let your, own taste assist your selec¬ 
tion. One of the finest beds of this style I have ever seen 
had for its centre three calladiums, two calla lilies, and two 
Indian shot, or cannas. The rest of the bed was filled en¬ 
tirely with silver leaved geraniums. 
Thus we have given you in this paper one of the plainest 
of the simple forms of city gardens, and one from which, 
as your confidence in your own ability increases, you can 
elaborate and extend into many beautiful forms of fine and 
unique design. Ollipod Qtjill. 
Spring Radishes. —The great charm of a good radish is 
in its mildness, and this can only be secured by growing it 
in a rich soil. For a spring radish, indeed, the soil can 
scarcely be too rich. This hurries it up. A slow grown 
radish is sure to be hot and stringy. The round radishes, 
or turnip rooted, are the best, and the while generally more 
acceptable than the red. The long rooted radishes some¬ 
times are in eating a little earlier, but to most tastes are 
not so grateful as the others. 
In sowing radishes a common error is to put the seeds in 
too thick. It is thought that they can be weeded if they 
all grow, but they are seldom thinned out, and when left 
thick are never so good in quality, besides being later in 
coming into use. 
Most people sow thick because they have no faith in the 
seedsman. It is rarely we have seeds to fail. When they 
do it is generally through deep planting. Radish seed par¬ 
ticularly likes to be kept near the surface. If the seeds are 
sown while the ground is still moist from the digging and 
preparing, the seed may be merely sown on the surface 
and rolled or beaten in. Then every seed will grow, and 
only those seed may be sown first where a plant is to come 
up to mature.— Germantown Telegra/ph. 
-- 
Forest Trees and Culture. —The Lincoln (Neb.) Led¬ 
ger gives the results of the system of tree planting inaugu¬ 
rated by the Burlington and Missouri Railway Company 
along its line for a distance of 120 miles, between Lincoln 
and Lowell. This latter experiment is of special interest 
to the farmers of Hebraska and many of the territories, 
showing, as it does, not only the method pursued in plant¬ 
ing, but also the kinds of trees selected, and the percentage 
of loss in the case of each variety. 
The prairie was broken up the year previous to planting, 
a portion of it as late as the month of Hovember. In the 
spring the ground was again plowed and made mellow. 
The trees are planted in a variety of ways, according to 
their age and condition, but many were laid in a trench 
made by plowing. The following is a list of the number 
and variety of forest trees planted:— 
Ash, two years.:. 20,000 
Box elder, two years. . 11,000 
Honey locust, one year, set for hedge. 144,000 
Soft maple, one year. 17,000 
Soft maple, two years.:. 60,000 
European larch, two years. 72,000 
Scotch pines, transplanted and root burned. 20,000 
Norway spruce, transplanted and root burned. 6,000 
Norway spruce, root burned. 8,000 
Cottonwood sprouts. 28,000 
Cottonwood cuttings. 82,000 
White willow cuttings . 62,000 
Total.560,(DO 
A subsequent careful examination of the trees gives the 
following percentage alive and in a thrifty condition:— 
Ash, 98box elder, 92; honey locust, 92; soft maple, 83; 
European larch, 82i; Scotch pine and Horway pine, each 
80; cottonwood cuttings and sprouts, 72; white willow cut¬ 
tings, 75; giving an average loss of about fifteen per cent., 
most of which was suffered in the evergreens and cuttings, 
and may easily be prevented under ordinary circumstances. 
It will be seen that the lowest percentage of loss was found 
among the ash trees, amounting to but If per cent. The 
railway company, on this account, and for the value of the 
timber, have decided to refill with one or two year old ash 
trees, and have let the contract to replace the trees that fail 
to grow and cultivate them next season. 
—House plants ought to be stimulated geutly once a 
week. Rain water, so refreshing to summer flowers, al¬ 
ways contains ammonia. If you take an ounce of pulver¬ 
ized carbonate ammonia, dissolved in one gallon of water, 
it will make spring water even more stimulating to your 
plant than rain water. Keep the soil in the flowers pots 
loose. 
—Minnesota pays a bounty of $4 an acre for tree culture 
on the prairies. _ 
Batumi l§tetorfj. 
L -♦- 
QUADRUPEDS OF ARCTIC LANDS— 
A RTICLE II. 
BY ARCHER. 
Germs Alces. —the Elk. 
T HE elk is another of the cervine race peculiar to the 
marshy forests of the north. In size it is far superior 
to the stag, ( Germs Elaphus ,) but cannot boast of an elegant 
shape, the head being disproportionately large; the neck 
short, thick and somewhat maned, and immense horns of 
from fifty to seventy pounds in weight. These antlers are 
at first of dagger shape, and then divided into narrow slips; 
at the age of five years they assume the forms of a triangu¬ 
lar blade with tooth-like projections on the outer edge; 
these increase with age, so that at last the horns have four¬ 
teen or more branches proceeding from each expanding 
portion; an expanse of six feet between tips is not uncom¬ 
mon ; another peculiarity is the slouching and heavy upper 
lip hanging very much over the lower, giving an uncouth 
appearance. The elk stands five feet high at the shoulders 
and measures about seven feet from nose to tail; the length 
of the latter is about one foot. The awkward legs, so long 
that he may easily step over a fence five feet in height, 
heavy shoulders, give an awkward clumsy appearance 
which would not tend to convince the novice that this deer 
exceeds all others in strength and unites great speed with 
remarkable powers of endurance. 
We owe the first description of this gigantic deer to Julius 
Caesar, in whose time it was still an inhabitant of the Ger¬ 
man forests. But the conquerer of Gaul can hardly have 
seen it himself, or he would not have ascribed to it a single 
horn, placed in the middle of the forehead, or said that 
both sexes are perfectly alike, for the female is smaller and 
devoid of antlers. At present the elk is still found in the 
marshy forests of eastern Prussia,Lithuania and Poland,but 
chiefly resides in the more northern woods of Horway, 
Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Siberia; in the mountainous 
districts of the latter it is said to be found of unusual size. 
The color of the elk is a dark grayish-brown, but much 
paler on the legs and beneath the tail; Pallas states that in 
Siberia, where snow is almost constant, the elk takes upon 
itself a whitish winter dress, * which observation affords 
Darwin another link in the adaptation, through time, of 
color to surroundings. The hair is rough and the hide so 
hard that it is sometimes difficult to penetrate it with a 
spherical ball from smooth bore guns. 
The elk is naturally a mild and harmless animal, but dis¬ 
plays a high degree of courage and even ferocity when rut¬ 
ting or wounded, defending itself with great vigor, not only 
with its horns, but by striking violently with its fore feet, 
in the use of which it is particularly dexterous. It has been 
known to kill the wolf and even man with a single blow of 
its powerful antlers or a stroke of its foot. They go to rut 
in the autumn; the female bringing forth in the month of 
April two fawns—unlike common deer, they are never 
spotted—which follow the dam a whole year. During the 
summer they do not, like the reindeer, seek refuge from 
the gad-flies by wandering to the coasts of the sea, or re¬ 
treating to the mountains, where it would soon perish for 
the want of adequate food, but plunges up to the nose into 
the nearest lake or river, where it finds, moreover, a species 
of water grass, (Fesluca Jluitans, ) which it likes to feed upon. 
The principal support of the elk is obtained by browsing 
the boughs of willows, asps, service trees, and other soft 
species of woods. 
It has been generally stated by naturalists that the moose 
deer of America and the elk of the Old World are identical, 
but the fact that, but few, if any of the American quad¬ 
rupeds have been found precisely similar to their eastern 
representatives excited doubts which have been finally au¬ 
thenticated. It has been affirmed that when the elk or 
moose is touched with a lance or pursued, it happens often 
that he falls down all at once, seemingly unconcious, with¬ 
out being thrown or wounded. From these apparently 
epileptic convulsions some Ilahnemannic disciple, with but 
a faint idea of simiUa similibus curanter , immediately drew 
the absurd conclusion that the dried and powdered hoof of 
the animal was an inevitable cure for epileptiform diseases. 
Although of such enormous proportions, weighing upwards 
of twelve hundred pounds, the elk runs with greater speed 
than would be supposed; his gait is a shambling, shuffling 
trot; he feeds chiefly by night and ruminates like the ox. 
The superior length of fore legs and short neck prevent!? 
grazing, except against an ascent, for reasons obvious. In 
the winter they seek the forests of pine in herds for protec¬ 
tion from the inclemency of the weather under the shelter 
of those evergreens. He is generally caught in traps, as he is 
extremely shy and watchful and finds an easy retreat in the 
swamps and forests from the hunter. The only time of 
year when they can be easily chased is in the spring, when 
the softened snow becomes covered during the night with a 
thin crust of ice which, while too weak to bear the animal’s 
weight, furnishes sufficient support for the hunter and 
dogs. 
*Novan species Quadrupedum e Glirium ordine. —1778, p. 7. 
EGGS AND NEST OF THE YELLOW BIRD. 
- + -. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
In the current number (7) of your paper, “C. F. S.,” of Troy, N, Y., 
asks if anyone has seen spotted eggs of the ChrysomUris tristis. 
I have seen a great many sets of eggs of the yellow bird, both in the 
field and in cabinets, and I have yet to see a spotted egg of ChrysomUris 
tristis. When the eggs are fresh layed they are cf a uniform pale green 
or greenish white, but when blown they soon lose their greenish tint 
and become nearly of a pure white color. Before they become addled 
they are semi-transparent, and have very thin shells compared with 
those of other finches. The yellow birds have small eggs in proportion 
to their size, and lay from four to six eggs before incubation commences. 
Their nests are beautifully constructed, and with the exception of those 
of our common hummers ( Trochilus colubris) they are unequalled for 
their beauty of material and construction. The nest of the yellow bird 
is generally placed in the fork or crotch of the limb of an apple tree,near 
a bed of the Canada thistles, the seeds of which forms the bird’s principle 
food during the summer. I do not wish to say the nest of the Chryso- 
mitris tristis is always placed in an apple tree, for I have found it in the 
dwarf willow on the river bank, and in the elm and sycamore, sixty feet 
from the ground, in an open meadow; but it is more often found in an 
orchard near the farmer’s house than elsewhere. The nest is usually 
made of the fiax-like material which the birds pull from the stalks of 
dead weeds. It is lined with the down of the Canada and Scotch thistles 
and is very neatly and prettily made. It is rather large in comparison 
with the nests of other species of the genus, and it has a very small 
though deep cavity in which the eggs are deposited. The cow bird’s 
egg is often found in the nest of the yellow bird, but it is four times the 
size of the latter, and could not be easily mistaken. The ChrysomUris 
tristis breeds very late in the season, and seldom builds its nest before 
the latter part of June or the forepart of July. The fact of Wilson’s 
mistake on the eggs of the yellow bird has been killed several times; but 
I see it will bear killing again. Some persons think Wilson and Audu¬ 
bon never could have made a mistake, but both made many blunders, 
particularly Audubon. Jos. H. Battt. 
THE STOCKING OF OUR EASTERN BAR¬ 
RENS WITH PINNATED GROUSE. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
^ wrote you, not long since, and urged through your columns an at¬ 
tempt to restock our Pennsylvania and New Jersey barrens with the 
pinnated grouse. We could hardly call such an enterprise an experi¬ 
ment; it would be a success beyond a doubt, and to illustrate, I would 
mention that I have it from authority that Dr. F. Jenkins Purnell, of 
Berlin, Worcester County, Md., about five years ago obtained two pair of 
grouse from the West, and let them out in the vicinity of Snow Hill, Md. 
The first season after having been liberated they bred and raised twelve 
or thirteen young, and from these it is now estimated that there are in 
this section of the country about two thousand prairie chickens. 
The people in the vicinity became interested in the matter, and agreed 
to protect them. A law was passed prohibiting their being killed for 
five years under a heavy penalty, and consequently the birds have great¬ 
ly increased. 
The country in Worcester County, Md., is very similar to the scrub 
sections of southern and eastern New Jersey. Pinnated grouse can be 
bought at a very low figure during the winter in the western States, and 
if coopgd in low padded boxes in pairs, safe transportation could be re¬ 
lied upon. I feel confident our New York and New Jersey clubs would 
