740 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



A Good Liquid Stimulant. — I have found that a li- 

 quid prepared from compressed sheep-manure makes a 

 wonderful change in the growth of plants. It should be 

 used as weak as weak tea, and never allowed to touch 

 foliage. It certainly brings plants into bloom better 

 and quicker than any other fertilizer I have ever used. 

 This fertilizer can be procured from the Messrs. Pitcher 

 & Manda, of Short Hills, N. J. It is perfectly free from 

 wild seeds, and is sold for five cents a pound. — Fern 

 Leaf, Illinois. 



A Profitable Blackberry. — We have acres in 



Early Wilson blackberries. Our crop for 1891 netted 

 $350; the 'g2cropl5io. The bushes are covered with 

 soil for winter protection. After this we haul coarse ma- 

 nure to the fields for an additional covering and for a 

 mulch during summer. In this way we secure a heavy 

 growth of bushes and a heavy crop of large berries. It 

 is an expensive mode of culture, but is the only way 

 to produce first-class fruit in this climate. Even Snyder 

 winter-kills here.— T. W. Blackman, Iowa. 



II. THRIFTY SAPLINGS. 



More About Huckleberries. — Huckleberries here 

 command a higher price than any other berries, and ex- 

 cel all others for shipping. Although found growing in 

 low, marshy ground, the plants grow well, and produce 

 as much fruit as on uplands. In any good garden soil 

 they thrive under the treatment given to raspberries. 

 They appear to adopt themselves to various circum- 

 stances. Seed sown in the open ground in November 

 will germinate the following spring, and the seedlings 

 may be transplanted when large enough to handle. Set 

 them about four feet apart, in rows six feet apart. We 

 obtained wild plants, and find that they well repay the 

 care given them by bearing fruit every season, improv- 

 ing under cultivation. — E. L. P., Pa. 



Aid for the Cemetery. — A writer in The Modern 

 Cemetery makes a pithy suggestion concerning the im- 

 provement of burial-places. He says: "Get out your 

 will, some of you people with fathers, mothers, or other 

 near and dear relatives buried in the old graveyard, and 

 add a codicil, leaving $100, $500 or |i,ooo in trust for 

 the old ground. You can't do a more useful act than 

 that as long as you live. Or if you prefer, pay the money 

 over before you die ". If this suggestion were to be 

 widely followed, it would result in a great and needed 

 evolution in cemetery improvement. Then beautiful 

 burial-places would not necessarily be so exclusively an 

 adjunct of our cities and towns. 



Poison Hemlock. — A schoolboy recently asked the 

 editor what kind of hemlock it was that Socrates poisoned 

 himself with. This inquirer was only acquainted with 

 the hemlock known otherwise as hemlock-spruce, the 

 branches of which are much used for garlands in decor- 

 ating churches, halls, etc. There are several plants 

 known as hemlock or " poison hemlock. " One of these 

 is the common hemlock tnaculatum), a mem- 



ber of the natural order umbelliferae. It is a herbaceous 

 native plant of Europe, but has become naturalized 



throughout North America, growing by waysides, on 

 heaps of rubbish and in like places. The root resembles 

 a small parsnip. Another poisonous hemlock is the 

 water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa), also known as cow-bane. 

 This, like the other, belongs to the umbelliferae order, 

 and is herbaceous in character. Still another poisonous 

 hemlock is Cicula maculata, a native of North Amer- 

 ica, growing in marshy places. 



A Word for Native Trees.— Let us free ourselves 

 from the notion that in order to have fine lawn-trees we 

 must pay high prices for specimens from foreign coun- 

 tries. Two trees that attract the attention of every ob- 

 serving visitor to the editor's grounds are a common 

 American hemlock and a black or mahogany-birch, both 

 natives of this section. Neither of them, however, are 

 very abundant in this region, so that they appear quite as 

 rare as any of the far-fetched trees on the place. From 

 a considerable experience in seeking out and planting 

 choice native trees, shrubs and plants in ornamental 

 grounds, we are satisfied that scarcely a kind can be 

 named, unless it be one of rapid-spreading habit, like- 

 ly to become a nuisance, that is not well worthy of 

 transplanting to our pleasure-grounds. 



Spot Diseases of Currants. — Our currant crops have 

 for several seasons been greatly reduced by premature 

 loss of the leaves owing to the attacks of spot diseases. 

 We have not made any efforts to combat these fungous 

 enemies, but it is probable that much of the injury can 

 be prevented by early and thorough sprayings with fun- 

 gicidal solutions. On the grounds of the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, experiments have been made 

 in fighting these and similar diseases, and at least par- 

 tial success is recorded. Three applications of Bordeaux 

 mixture (June 9, June 16 and July 3) were made on 

 some White Dutch currant-bushes, and seven applica- 

 tions of ammoniacal carbonate of copper solution (June 

 6, 8, 20, 29, July 9, 21 and August 13) on another lot of 

 plants of same variety. In either case the treated 

 bushes retained their leaves in healthy condition much 

 longer than the untreated ones. Still, this treatment hag 

 not proved a complete protection. 



Autumnal Grasses. — With some idea of places and 

 seasons, one can make up a very charming collection of 

 grasses, seed-receptacles, etc. — the aftermath of the flow- 

 ers. Many of them may be harvested as late as Novem- 

 ber. Soft, gray, feathery heads of broom-grass nod to 

 each other along wet lands, in most localities. They har- 

 monize finely with rich brown seed-clusters, such as the 

 lecheas, and with the brilliant scarlet berries of winter. 

 One of the prettiest of our native grasses is the cotton- 

 grass, often found in the vicinity of cedar-swamps, its 

 copper-colored tufts bending a stalk 3 or 4 feet high. It 

 attains perfection in September, but is very retentive of 

 beauty. Wild yam is found about thickets of low lands, 

 tha frost of late autumn days only more clearly defin- 

 ing the silver and brown of its three-winged pods. The 

 long festooning vines are very pretty for decorative pur- 

 poses. Plumy clusters -of wild clematis may be gath- 

 ered in October. Many of these floral treasures are the 



