298 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



Railway Gardening. — It is a pleasure to note that 

 from year to year American railroads are giving increased 

 attention to gardening as a means of adornment for their 

 station grounds. Much taste and care are now bestowed 

 upon the architecture of railway buildings, and it is but 

 fair that railway gardens should receive like attention. 

 The railroad companies thus become public educators. 

 The fine gardens they place before the public are object 

 lessons, taught under circumstances sure to make a strong 

 impression on the beholder. One never sees a train stop 

 in view of a pretty station garden, but that all eyes are 

 turned towards the refreshing sight of soft green turf and 

 blooming flowers. The travelers speed onward to their 

 homes with a quickened sense of their own opportunities 

 for possessing fine gardens. The Philadelphia Times 

 recently said concerning the gardening along the line of 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, that at the opening 

 of last summer 128,000 plants of various kinds were 

 shipped from the hothouses at Newark to supply the 

 stations of the company wherever flowers were used in 

 the gardens. The main line, west of Philadelphia, went 

 into the business of decorating its gardens only four 

 years ago, and this year ordered from the foreman at 

 Newark three times as many flowers as it had ever done 

 before. Being of natural and not of forced growth this 

 gardening system is in a very healthy state. When the 

 company found that they would have to provide means 

 for supplying themselves with large quantities of plants 

 without being dependent upon the whims and charges of 

 professional horticulturists, they set about looking for a 

 suitable place to establish greenhouses of their own. 

 Their attention was attracted to a hothouse in Newark. 

 J. C. Shivler, who has been the station-agent there for 

 many years — since the days when the locomotives burned 

 wood instead of coal — was an earnest gardener and had 

 a good hothouse. This was a convenient place, so they 

 made him an offer which he accepted, and they bought 

 him out. This was the nucleus of the company's garden- 

 ing plant, and they have added to it until now there are 

 six greenhouses and 250 sashes of hotbeds. There are 

 two greenhouses of 65x20 feet each, two of 65x12, one of 

 48x20 and one of 20x12. Twenty or twenty-five men are 

 employed during the summer to go up and down the 

 road, visit each station once or twice a week and keep 

 the gardens in order. This is on the Philadelphia, Wil- 

 mington and Baltimore railroad and the Baltimore and 

 Potomac ; but the main line and the West Chester 

 branch also have similar sets of employees. The work 

 of preparing for the next season commences annually 

 about the 15th or 20th of September. Propagation of 

 the various plants then begins and is continued all 

 winter. Shipments commence about May 1, and are 

 finished about July i, when every station has its full 

 supply of flowers. Mr. Rose, the gardener, sent out last 

 season 128,000 plants of all kinds, yet he had 10,000 left 

 over. This great total included 30,000 coleus, 30,000 

 alternanthera, 10,000 canna, 10,000 stevia (variegated), 

 10,000 echeveria, 10,000 vinca, 8, 000 dusty miller, 7,000 

 geraniums, <^,ooo Ainpelopsis I'ei/c/iii {Boston ivy), and 



8,000 miscellaneous plants, such as honeysuckles, be- 

 gonias, trailing vines, veronicas, petunias, etc. 



Yet- with all these of their own production the com- 

 pany sometimes runs short of general bedding-plants, 

 and last year they bought nearly 6,000 to supply a de- 

 ficiency. Their plant is being enlarged to enable their 

 own staff of hothouse men to meet the demand. In 

 addition to the establishment at Newark, the company 

 has a large nursery at Christiana, Pa., embracing an 

 area of 26 acres, with from 16,000 to 20,000 feet of glass, 

 and from which also about 100,000 bedding-plants, be- 

 sides shrubbery, are sent out annually for main line and 

 New York division. 



Transplanting Lessons. — Given a cloudy day, seed- 

 lings in right condition, a thick mat to sit on — you can 

 buy one made of rubber, but an old straw one answers 

 every purpose — and you need ask for nothing more in the 

 way of earthly enjoyment, unless it be to have a robin 

 singing in the apple tree near by. I have a basket of very 

 fine soil, and as I plant each little seedling, I put a hand- 

 ful of it around the tender roots. It is like a soft blanket 

 that will warm and make comfortable the baby shoot. 

 Transplanting sweet-peas, asters, four-o'clocks, balsams, 

 etc., is very little trouble, but petunias and other small 

 seedlings take lots of patience ; still a plant-lover is sure 

 to have this, or must learn it. One has to get hard- 

 hearted and learn to throw away (if she can't dispose of 

 them over the fence to a neighbor) those plants which 

 she cannot get into the space at her disposal. I always 

 keep a refuse-basket by my side for the poor discarded 

 seedlings, sticks, stones or hard bits of clay. Whatever 

 you do or don't do, be sure to water freely. It settles 

 the soil around the roots of the tender plants, and if the 

 sun comes out the moisture from the damp earth keeps 

 the leaves from wilting. Water twice a day if there is a 

 hot wind, till the roots get down far enough to feed on 

 the moisture stored below. I don't transplant poppies. 

 They refuse to submit to the operation. If they come 

 up in a thick clump, I pull up half of them. They are 

 accommodating, and this is my rule for them. Where 

 they self-sow, let them stay unless you want the place 

 for something else. Springing up here and there, their 

 bright colors show off among the marigolds, or other an- 

 nuals ; as they get through blooming pull them up. 

 They will be sure to ripen seed enough for next season. 

 — Sister Gracious. 



The "California Cold Process." — How skillfully 



these rascals of the Bain and Staples type disguise their 

 bait ! Note the apparently innocent beginning of the fol- 

 lowing communication, received from one Rose R. S., 

 of Michigan : ' ' Will some one please write me what will 

 remove grease spots from carpets ? I have a nice carpet 

 nearly ruined by grease. I have peaches, berries and 

 grapes now over a year old and as natural as when 

 picked. I use the California Cold Process. You do not 

 cook nor seal the fruit, and it only costs a cent a quart 

 to preserve it. If any of your readers wish I will send 

 them a small sample of berries by mail and tell them 



