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Wl N DFA LLS. 



They all berate her soundly for sending for such plants. 

 From time to time she hears at home and abroad, 

 ' ' such plants and such a price, " until at length the poor 

 soul is driven to say, "I will never buy any more 

 plants." Now, if she had only said "novelties," it 

 would have been well. There are numberless fine 

 plants catalogued that will give such entire satisfaction 

 when received and grown, that it is a pleasure to order 

 them. So we "country folk" had better let the novel- 

 ties severely alone, until tried well, and until the stock 

 is inexhaustible. — Hyacintli, Ionia. 



An Ever-present Wonder. — How great the change 

 wrought upon the nature and formation of plants by 

 the simple process of cultivation ! And how few among 

 the many who are familiar with most field and garden 

 plants would know the original of these plants, or could 

 tell how this transformation was brought about, al- 

 though they may employ the very means in the cultiva- 

 tion of their crops. Take the cabbage plant, with its 

 firm, bulky head of white, crispy leaves, and trace it 

 back to its primitive condition, and we find it with a 

 long slender stalk, loose leaves, a merely wild weed, 

 with scarcely a remote resemblance to its cultivated 

 condition ; or the beet and the turnip, with their large 

 thick tubers, bearing scarcely a resemblance to the mari- 

 time weeds, we may say, with their thin, fibrous tap 

 roots, whence they sprang ; or the large, fleshy, luscious 

 peach, derived from a small, bitter fruit ; or even that 

 golden grain, the staff of life, wheat, which also bears 

 very little resemblance to the plant from which it de- 

 scended. And these wonderful changes have been 

 brought about by the simple process of breaking and 

 stirring the soil in which they were to be grown, to- 

 gether with the effects of climatic changes, and the 

 mixture of species, and man's selection. If we take a 

 piece of land, even rich land, and plant upon it a crop 

 of wheat, or cabbage, without breaking and fining the 

 soil, thus unlocking its fertile properties, and exposing 

 all to atmospheric influences, the product will be far 

 inferior to the seed sown. Then, if this product be per- 

 mitted to fall upon the ground, the product will further 

 depart in its characteristics from that of the original 

 seed. And this deterioration will continue until scarcely 

 a trace of the characteristics of the seed sown will be 

 discernible. On the other hand, if this process be re- 

 versed, the soil be broken and thoroughly pulverized, 

 and regularly stirred for a time thereafter, these lost 

 qualities can be restored, aad even improvement made 

 on the original excellencies of the seed or plant. This 

 shows the valuecof cultivation ; and it also shows the 

 loss sustained by even indifferent or improper cultiva- 

 tion. Good soil and good seed are valuable, very valu- 

 able, but without the turning about of the soil by the 

 efforts of the husbandman, the harvest will ever grow 

 shorter in quantity and deteriorate in quality. Were 

 all the plants and fruits thus improved set back to their 

 original condition, is it too much to say that the tend- 

 ency of civilization would also be backward ? At least, 



it seems very evident that the advancement in the one, 

 and the improvement in the other have progressed hand 

 in hand. — -James I. Baird, Kentucky. 



Jay Gould's passion for flowers is almost equal to his 

 passion for financiering. His hot-houses at Irvington 

 on the Hudson, presided over by Mr. Mangold, are 

 world-famous. In one of them he has over six thousand 

 orchids, embracing 120 varieties. Mr. Mangold suc- 

 ceeded in getting 500 of these plants to bloom at one 

 time this winter, but their owner was not well enough to 

 go out to see them. He had a hundred blooms packed 

 carefully in cotton and sent to his New York residence 

 every week. One of the hot-houses is known as the 

 hospital, and there the delicate and sickly plants are 

 sent to be nursed back to life, if possible, and it is there 

 that Mr. Gould spends the most of his time when visit- 

 ing his conservatories, endeavoring with his own hands 

 and his knowledge of the subject to save the life of some 

 rare flower. — E.x. 



About Niagara Falls. — There are a few items con- 

 cerning this locality that have interested me much, and 

 they may be interesting to your readers. 



We have such a vast surface of rapidly flowing water 

 that never is frozen over, neither above nor below the 

 falls, that the temperature both summer and winter is 

 very much limited in its range. The river performs 

 the same service for our atmosphere, that a great bal- 

 ance-wheel does for machinery, so that we experience 

 none of the extremes that prevail but a short distance 

 east of us. None seem to think of covering their 

 vines here, while in Central New York such covering 

 seemed indispensable. Peaches are also raised here, 

 sometimes in wonderful abundance, though the crop has 

 many drawbacks aside from cold weather. The effect 

 of the spray upon the vegetation immediately around 

 the falls is interesting. So much moisture affords new 

 and unusual conditions for certain plants. I have seen 

 the turf near the falls, so covered with the blue flowers 

 of several kinds of lobelias, that it suggested flower- 

 beds when seen from a distance. The flora of the place 

 must be very interesting to botanists. The apples 

 grown near the falls are famous in this region for their 

 high flavor. An orchard of hollow trees, now dying of 

 old age, once had a high reputation. Its fruit was 

 called spray apples, and brought an extra price in the 

 market. Another peculiarity of this locality, especially 

 of the Canada side is the heavy and forbidding clay 

 soil. This is not universal, for Drummondville hill, or 

 as it is now called "Niagara Falls South," appears like 

 a huge load of sand dumped on a great clay plain, mak- 

 ing a few square miles of pleasant soil to work. The 

 center and highest part is rather dry, but the borders of 

 the heap are excellent for gardening. But more hope- 

 less land for gardening than some of this clay can 

 scarcely be imagined, especially in a wet late spring. 

 Its original fertility has been almost exhausted by con- 

 tinuous cropping with grain. Besides, it is strongly 

 suggestive of Cook's salve when one disturbs it in wet 



