25° 



CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



strong plants and set them on your very richest land. 

 And when the heads are ready to sell, cut out the head, 

 leaving all the outside leaves attached to the stump ; that 

 is, cut out the head so as to have no leaves to strip off 

 and throw away, for the leaves are all left on the stump. 

 Now keep cultivating these stumps along with the other 

 cabbages that have not yet headed, and very soon small 

 heads will start out on the stump. Pull off all these 

 little heads but the best one, and this will soon make a 

 head as good as the first one and may be better. These 

 second-crop heads will, many of them, mature so late 

 they may be wintered over in the usual way, and these 

 are the ones friend March gets his choice cabbage-seed 

 from. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Pond for Aquatics. — My little lily-pond is on a level 

 grass-plat. The bottom is concreted and cemented, and 

 the side walls are of brick laid in cement and lined both 

 back and front with Portland cement. The walls from 

 the base for i6 inches up are 8 inches thick, but from 

 there to the top they taper, both sides alike, to 3 inches 

 siNSMEs wide. This tapering at the top not only 



gives the tank a neat appearance, but is 

 serviceable in lessening the pressure 

 against the wall from frost in winter, 

 both from the water in the pond and the 

 ground on the outside. Provision is 

 made for draining the water at will from 

 the bottom, and the overflow pipes being 

 made of rings or sections like a pocket 

 drinking-cup I can have the water as 

 high as I please. Before commencing 

 to concrete the bottom of the pond, I 

 put in the center a cedar post 4 inches 

 in diameter and rising 6 inches above 

 the water-surface. Around the top of 

 the post is an iron band to strengthen 

 and prevent it from splitting, and down- 

 ward from the top I bored a hole and 

 inserted in it a one-inch piece of gas- 

 pipe, and on this pipe secured a revolving double T, 

 which can be seen in the middle of the pond. The use 

 of this double T is to support the end of a plank, the 

 other end of which rests on the grass outside the wall. 

 This plank is used as a pathway into the pond, and I find 

 it indispensable in planting, cleaning off dead leaves, 

 gathering flowers, regulating the distribution of the 

 plants and foliage and getting seed ; and by lifting the 

 end that rests on the grass I can carry it around the pond 

 wherever I please, the other end resting on the revolving 

 T moving around also, and in this way get to any part 

 of the pond I wish with very little trouble and without 

 getting wet. — John McElvcry, in American Florist. 



Blackberries in Ohio. — Erie and Minnewaski seem 

 to be more hardy than the Lawton and less liable to rust 

 than the Kittatinny, although the Erie has shown a slight 

 tendency to rust. Snyder, Agawam and Ancient Briton 

 are the only varieties that pass the winter safely in this 

 latitude. Early Harvest is commonly reckoned as tender, 

 but it is less often winter-killed than Erie or Minnewaski. 



Cross-Section 

 OF Pond Wall. 



Either it is uncommonly well-suited to this locality, or 

 its merits have been overlooked. If the robins would let 

 it alone it would be as profitable as any variety that can 

 be grown here. Child Everbearing tree-blackberry 

 has been fully tested, both under its present name and 

 its former name — Topsy. It is of no value here because 

 of its tenderness. It has been killed even in mild winters, 

 and has never given a crop. The plants attain about half 

 the height of ordinary varieties and are indescribably 

 thorny. It is the least promising of any variety ever 

 tested here. — Bulletin Ohio Station. 



Flowers by the Million. — " Father of the Chrysan- 

 themum " and ' ' Old Uncle John " are pet names for John 

 Thorpe, chief of the floricultural bureau of the World's 

 Fair of 1893. He has devoted about 30 years of his life 

 to various branches of floriculture, giving especially 

 careful attention to the production of new and improved 

 varieties. In his present capacity he has induced Jay 

 Gould, William K. Vanderbilt, George W. Childs and 

 several other millionaires to loan many of their best 

 and rarest plants to the fair. It goes without saying that 

 this department will be a magnificent success. Experts 

 in that line say it will be the greatest show of fine flowers 

 ever seen in the world. A million pansies, a million 

 roses and many thousands of flowers, plants and palms 

 of all climes will be shown. There will be 16 acres given 

 to this exhibit, and ten of them will be on the wooded 

 island on which the mammoth horticultural building is 

 to stand. The 



shores of the is- 

 land will be left 

 wild for scenic ef- 

 feet, and the 

 waters around it 

 will be bright with 

 water-1 i 1 i e s and 

 other aquatic 

 plants, while the 

 interior will be 

 artistically planted 

 with lilies, rhodo- 

 dendrons, roses 

 and other flowers. 

 Mr. Thorpe was 

 the organizer of 

 the Society of 

 American Florists, 

 has done much 

 work in his line in 

 England, and is 

 known to horticul- 

 turists all over the 



world. When he took up the chrysanthemum it was de- 

 scribed as "small and colorless." There are now 2,000 

 varieties catalogued, with a bewildering variety of shapes 

 and colors. When he took up the carnation there were 

 but few varieties ; now there are a thousand. He has 

 been in the business all his life, and his friends are en- 

 thusiastic over his work at Chicago. — Chicago Daily. 



Old G.arden Labyrlnth in England. 



