196 
FOREST AND STREAM 
For Forest and stream . 
A BIRD’S SONG. 
Boston, Mass. 
O NE day a bird whom God had taught 
The wondrous art of song, 
Repented of a song he sang 
Among the singing throng. 
“Among so many warbling throats, 
What need of my poor strain? 
Would I had never sung that song— 
Could call it back again.” 
He never knew the listening wind 
Had borne his song away, 
And left it with a breaking heart, 
And made it whole that day. 
Ellen M. Woods. 
foodhnd, Hfltvn mid <j§m dm. 
SPECIAL DIRECTIONS TO OUR LADY 
CULTURISTS AND OUR AMATEUR 
FRIENDS. * 
-«- 
W E have in the foregoing papers taken up the whole 
subject of flower heel planting, and the necessary- 
requisites for making a good garden. We have given a 
plain and concise statement of the manner of laying out 
the forcing or hot bed, of making small city gardens, of 
the kinds of flower seeds to plant, and the best arrange¬ 
ment of bulbs and showy plants, according to our own ex¬ 
periments and close observation. We have, lastly, spoken 
of cold frame and the florist’s garden, or the reserve bed, 
for we suppose by this time—if they have carefully fol¬ 
lowed our directions—that many of our lady friends are 
prepared to- accomplish all we have stated with good re¬ 
sults. 
Some persons will doubtless think that the effort to grow 
nice fair flowers within the circumscribed limits of a city 
yard is an impossibility. Some will say, “It cannot be 
done; I have tried it and failed.” Well, we grant that you 
have tried, and we believe you when you say you have 
failed. We believe you have failed not from necessity, but 
from the omission of some important item of the formula 
as laid down by us. You will know that many beautiful 
plants grow in the midst of a very dense London fog. Yet 
even here many plants will not grow, and they are never 
planted. Just such laws govern all kinds of plants. If 
one were to make the attempt to grow the delicate white 
china rose amid the sooty damp atmosphere of the back 
enclosures ©f London he would assuredly fail; his labor 
would be in vain. Therefore, he acts as directed by knowl¬ 
edge, and plants in its stead something that will grow—a 
fine hardy grower termed the cabbage rose. This rose, or 
the maiden’s blush, will make fine large bushes even under 
the most adverse circumstances. Our London florist sends 
over to America, a more genial clime, his nice tender china 
roses, and they live and bloom for years. 
Among the plants very suitable for our small city gardens 
we would name, as quite likely to give our lady friends 
good satisfaction, the following, all of which we have 
tried, and can recommend as generally doing well with or¬ 
dinary care. We give the names of the trees and shrubs 
and plants, leaving the choice of the same to the good taste 
of our readers, assuring them that with care they will pay: 
Acuba japonica, ageratum, Abronia umbellata, Aesculus 
hippocastanum, astors, in variety mixed; Amarantlius sali- 
cifalus, antirrhinum, Betula alba, Bignonia radicans, bal¬ 
sams, in varieties^ Bartonia aurea, Braclycome iberidifolia, 
mixed varieties; browallia, varieties; Calandinnia calliopsis, 
Rocket candituft, sweet scented candituft, canna, calla- 
dium, coxcomb, new Japan; celosia, Centaurdurm drum- 
mondii, convolvus, crepis, dahlias, varieties in their season; 
Dapline mezereum, dracocephalum, Dianthus lieddewiggii, 
Diantlius laduriatus, Floro pleno and varieties, double 
daisy, eutoca erysimum, epilobum, eschsoltzia, Fagus syl- 
vatica, fraxinus, gillardia, gilla, gladiolus, German stocks, 
(ten week stocks). We have carried our list alphabetically 
to the letter H, which will give our readers ample time to 
procure the above seeds from any reliable nurseryman, and 
they can then plant the same, and in our paper next suc¬ 
ceeding this we will give a further list of the plants and 
seeds most desirable to procure to give them a most beau¬ 
tiful garden in front, court or rear of their houses. 
As these papers are quite practical in their character, and 
the seeds recommended having all been grown by ourselves, 
and the peculiarities of such given as required it, we feel 
assured our lady friends and amateurs need not fail in hav¬ 
ing a very nice assortment of annuals, or shrubs of plants 
and robes. 
In due time and plhce we shall inform Isabella F. of the 
best kind of roses to plant in her garden. 
Ollipod Quill. 
Grassing a Slope.— A steep slope may be grassed over 
without sodding by first smoothing the surface and then 
mixing a tough paste or mortar of clay, loam, and horse 
manure, with sufficient water. The grass seed, which 
should be a mixture of Kentucky blue grass and white 
clover, should be thickly but evenly scattered upon the 
moist surface of this plaster, as it is spread upon the bank. 
The plaster should be at least one or two inches thick, and 
a thin layer should be laid over the seed. The surface 
should be kept moist, and a light dressing of some active 
fertilizer would help the growth. In a few weeks the 
growing grass should be cut and should be kept short at all 
times until a thick sod is formed.— Keystone , in the New 
York Tribune. 
THE CULTIVATION OF THE CURRANT. 
N OTWITHSTANDING the universality of the currant, 
it being found in some form in almost every garden, 
yet there is a wide difference in the quality of the fruit 
found. Good currants are a luxury, and can be well and 
profitably grown, as many cultivators of this fine fruit can 
attest. The currant is well adapted for growth in all our 
northern climates, while as yet no fruit has been found bet¬ 
ter adapted to the wants of the south than well cultivated, 
finely grown, large cherry currants. Much more is thought 
of the claims of the currant to-day than was bestowed upon 
it ten years ago. Much more care is readily given to its 
cultivation. Said a neighbor of mine one day ten years 
ago, “What are you planting out there?” “Currant slips,” 
was the answer. “Do you ever expect to gather any fruit 
from your labors?” “Certainly, or we should not labor.” 
“I would not give you a peck for all you ever raise; good 
morning, neighbor.” My friend passed to his business, 
and I continued planting out my currant slips. I cultiva¬ 
ted those slips in the best manner known to me. When 
you take into consideration that it costs no more to culti¬ 
vate a fine, nice, large variety of currants than it does a 
bush of poor shrivelled up starvelings, you will be quite 
sure not to neglect your currants. It is for the interest of 
the cultivator, therefore, to grow only the very best of fruit, 
and give it the best of attention. The finer the crop the 
greater the remuneration. The best soil for the currant 
will be found to be a rich loam, rather heavy than light. 
This soil, deepened with a plough, say to one and a half 
feet, and well manured with any good manure, will make 
your ground what it should be for currants. If you pur¬ 
chase your currants from the nurseryman, you will place 
them in a row four feet apart each way, and this is perhaps 
the best arrangement you can have, as it gives you ample 
room to work between the rows. The plants we are now 
speaking of may be set in autumn or in spring. I prefer 
the spring. At any season, prepare to mulch the ground 
about them very well. The natural habit of the currant 
being to form a bush, by sending up quite a number of 
shoots from the roots or collar, raises the question of 
“Shall I have a bush, or shall I have the tree form?” Here 
the whole subject of after training comes up for your con¬ 
sideration. There are good reasons to be found for both 
these modes of cultivation. If you decide to raise from a 
single stem, or tree form, you have your cutting to strike 
from. Those grown with the clean stem are fine looking 
plants, and are much more easily formed and cultivated 
than are the bush culture. These should always have a 
place in small gardens, where a nice, trim, and pretty ap¬ 
pearance is desirable. The currant cultivated from the 
single stem grows large clusters of the most delicious fruit 
of a cherry or amber color, and are a charming addition to 
any garden. I have seen two quarts gathered from one 
small bush of the tree form. In small gardens I would 
recommend the tree form. In large gardens, where the 
fruit is grown for market, I recommend the bush form of 
cultivation. These bushes will live a long time, and pro 
duce large quantities of fruit of the finest quality if prop¬ 
erly started, well manured, and thoroughly cared for. The 
proper pruning of the bushes requires all the art of the cul¬ 
tivator, and here comes in a pause. If you are not quite 
willing to do your duty to your currant bushes in the here¬ 
after do not plant out a single bush. If you are prepared 
to take your knife in hand and manfully execute your 
skill and do your duty to your currant bushes, they will 
discount liberally. But the proper pruning and neat culti¬ 
vation required is very difficult, and also very necessary, as 
you will hereafter see. Listen to our suggestions, and then 
plant or refrain from planting. 
The natural habit of the currant, as before observed, 
being to send up many straight shoots, they become too 
numerous if left to themselves, and therefore a part must 
be removed with the knife. Some of these shoots start 
below the ground, and if you do not make a clean cut here 
the next year, instead of having one shoot to cut, you will 
have two, and so on. Unattended to, in three years you 
will have an unwieldy bush, but if a fruit bearer, a miser¬ 
able apology and a cumberer of the ground. A modifica¬ 
tion of this I have found easily practised, and quite pro¬ 
ductive of good results. To do this effectually you will 
save six of the stoutest and best shoots, cutting away all 
the others as clean as possible. These will develop into a 
bearing bush. Now keep the top properly thinned, and 
whenever one shoot fails train up another, of which you 
always have enough to take its place. This cutting out and 
replacing each year will give you what you desire—rich, 
juicy, melting fruit, and you can have it in nc other man¬ 
ner. Ollipod Quill. 
DESTRUCTION OF THE ADIRONDACK 
REGION. 
New York, April 18,1874. 
Editor Forest and Stbeam:— 
I read with much pleasure the articles that appear in your very enjoy¬ 
able paper in regard to the Adirondack woods,and to the pleasures there¬ 
in contained. As I have for many years been a frequenter of these 
woods, and spend a part of each summer there, I feel greatly interested 
in everything pertaining to their welfare. And I have for some time in¬ 
tended to drop you a line in regard to one thing of great interest to 
every lover of this wilderness. I allude to the necessity of some imme¬ 
diate action that will end in removing the dam on the Racquet.te River 
near Setting Pole Rapids. The set back from this dam floods each side 
of the river for a distance of more than twenty miles, in fact to the falls 
at Mother Johnson’s; and the banks of this once beautiful stream are 
fast becoming a dismal swamp, q’he maples that line its banks are al¬ 
ready dead or dying and beginning to fall across the stream, rendering 
boating difficult and dangerous. In two years’ time the beauty of the 
stream will be ruined beyond hope of repair. Have you ever been on the 
Saranac River where it has been overflowed by thert ~~ 
Hotel? If so you will then see the desolation that at Bl °od’ a 
backwater. If I were to illustrate i 
jr came ulSnifll ftrsrv w 
A few lumber speculators, for their own profit, have caused tll . Pearanc e. 
be built to the detriment of every dweller on the banks h dam to 
helpless and see their farms overflowed and their homes rend mUst sit 
habitable, as they will be from the sickness necessarily Un¬ 
drawing off of the water during the summer. They have Y t m” 8 tb ® 
to fight the wealth that will be opposed to them, and their° i 6 meana 
that the State will interfere and do away with this dam L t ly Bo Pe is 
in going to Tupper’s Lake from Sweeney Carry I do not think r U1Ilnier - 
the river for three miles; the rest of the way was through th**' * Was in 
woods. The air was perfectly impregnated with foul odors l° Vei J° w «i 
ing vegetation, and later in the season the fish, dead and dvin ^ - y ' 
counted by hundreds floating on the water. The fishing for tr ’ be 
stream is ruined for all time, as the pickerel have driven thenr ^ tbis 
the waters below the falls, except the small streams, but the vD ° f 811 
the river itself can be saved, if something can soon be done^o ° f 
the annual overflow. And I know of no more feasible way th Iff 6111 
the people know through your columns how great an injury; h° let 
done to the most desirable part of what is being proposed as § 
pleasure ground for us and our children forever. I remain, ygnfela C 
H. MoC. ’ 
Vhe J| mmJ , 
THE BRITISH CANINE WORLD. 
BY FRANK C. PEARCE, EDITOR OF THE KENNEL STUD 
OF ENGLAND. 
BOOK 
I T is more than fourteen years ago that Mr. Brailsford 
organized the first show of dogs ever held in Enfland 
or, I believe, anywhere else. It was confined to sporting 
dogs only, Mr. Josh Johling’s “Dandy,” a black and tan 
setter of exquisite form, who was designed to be the father 
of inumerable cracks, was the prize-taker. Mr. "Walsh the 
editor of the Field , was one of the judges, and as the num¬ 
ber of the entries was very small indeed, scarcely exceeding 
a baker’s dozen, its promoters could scarcely have antici¬ 
pated that in 1863, only four years afterwards, no less than 
sixteen hundred dogs would compete for canine honors in 
the Agricultural Hall at Islington. This was long before 
the days of the Manchester gentleman’s setter, or “Laver- 
acks,” as the now celebrated breed is called. In such times 
as those the rich black and tan Gordon’s were every where 
triumphant. The Rev. Thomas Pearce, of Morden, came 
to the fore with a wonderful bitch called “Regent,’’ and 
she and his matchless “Ruby” carried everything before 
them. Then he bought out of a large class with surprising 
judgment a dog called “Kent,” from a Kentish Baronet, 
and prizes and medals fell thick upon him. Nothing living 
could touch the old black and tan, whose grand imposing 
stature, charming contour, and bloodlike symmetry, were 
uneqalled by hundreds of his rivals that thronged the show 
benches at Paris, Islington and Birmingham. He won 
wherever he appeared, and his owner not only repeatedly 
refused a king’s ransom for him, but made a large income 
out of his earnings at the stud. But what, you will say, 
was his pedigree? Ah, there’s the rub ! No one ever 
knew, and it was not until the mischief was done that the 
pureness of his origin was questioned. His looks had 
placed him like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion, but when it 
was found no lineal ancestors owned him as their descend¬ 
ed, and that the stock he got were gun-shy, nervous and 
weedy, trembling at the gun and crouching with terror at 
its report, breeders saw that they had too hastily preferred 
“form” to blood, and ffeglected the maxim “that blood 
will tell.” A brilliant imposter no doubt he was, and far 
and wide he spread the evil effects of his mongrelism. 
There is not at this present one kennel in England which 
has entirely got rid of the poison he disseminated, though 
it must be owned that amongst his progeny there were a 
few striking exceptions to the sad rule. * ‘Young Kent,” the 
Marais of Huntley’s celebrated field trial dog, was one. 
This setter hunted by “Idstone,” who broke him and sold 
him to the Marquis, beating all the best dogs of the day on 
Mr. Price’s moor at Bala in the £25 sweepstakes, though by 
a mistake of the judge’s afterwards pointed out in the 
Field and noticed by the editor in his leading article, lie 
was merely accredited with a division of the second prize. 
There also was a lovely bitch called “Moll,” who called 
him sire, and another, a crack of Mr. "Walsh’s “Rex.” Ia 
every litter “Kent” got there was one or more red puppies, 
probably showing Irish blood somewhere. Mr. Pearces 
“Bran” was of this color, a winner at one of the great 
shows, and sold late in her life as a model setter to Mr. 
Frederick Taylor, the first animal painter in water colors 
of the day. But black and tans fell into evil repute, ana 
Mr. Laverack’s Belton greys soon became fashionable, and 
are now perhaps more in number than any other breed. 
They are mostly mottled in color like black wafers on a 
w r hite ground, rather small in size, and though as a rule too 
broad-chested to gallop like the Gordon’s, yet possessing an 
even, pleasant method of going. 
At the late Rliiwlas trials Mr. Purcell Llewellins 
“Countess,” perhaps the most celebrated of her strain, com 
peted with a great reputation to support her, (no small a 
vantage in man or dog.) Her speed and style were unfl.Ou 
edly good, though inferior to that of the famous “Bel e, 
now no doubt familiar to the readers of Fokest aha 
Stream, but she was so resolute that when worked to e 
braces she made points 200 yards aw T ay from the gentleman 
who worked her and became stiff and tired on the day°_ 
the stakes, and so lost very easily, though her disappom e 
owner took it amiss and “went for” the judges and the u 
fortunately “frank” reporter in the columns of the • 
Mr. Garth, Q. C., had another Laverack called “Daisy, 
decided creeper, but of much merit, and his kenne s 
