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CURRENT GARDEN LORE. 



Set of growers would also be induced to swell the com- 

 petitive lists, if they were taught by exhibitions, confer- 

 ences or otherwise, that collections of Japanese chrysan- 

 themums might be flowered successfully without the aid 

 of glass structures. There are some amateurs who would 

 be highly pleased to learn that they could render the 

 front of their villas and windows gay by easily-grown 

 chrysanthemums during the months of September and 

 October. — Gardening W or Id. 



Remedy for Wire- Worms. — Add three or four pounds 

 of unslaked lime to every bushel of soil. This will make 

 the wire-worms so sick that they will give the seedling 

 carnations a wide berth in the future ; besides, the health 

 and color of the plants will be so much improved that 

 we will think they belong to a new race of pinks. The 

 best way to use the lime is to spread the soil in a flat 

 heap ten or twelve inches thick, then place the desired 

 amount of lime in lumps on the top ; when the latter 

 has become slaked and pulverized, the whole should be 

 turned over two or three times and thoroughly mixed. 

 It is then ready for use.- — American Florist. 



Timber Belts for Protection. — Timber belts trav- 

 ersing portions of farms exposed to the sweep of storms 

 become beneficial in two ways — first, by the growth of 

 the timber they aflford ; and secondly, by the protection 

 of the crops. Where the land is valuable and the tim- 

 ber is less in demand, the belts may be only a rod or 

 two in breadth. Evergreens, always clothed with ver- 

 dure, will arrest the wind in winter as efficiently when 

 only a rod in width as a screen of deciduous trees four 

 or five rods wide. As a general rule, the belts should be 

 wide enough to permit one-half to be cut away at a time, 

 by which treatment the land will always be protected 

 by the half that remains. As soon as the first half is 

 removed, the sprouts or suckers will spring up and start 



a new screen, when 

 the other half is taken 

 off. Each half may 

 be planted in difiierent 

 years ; or it may all be 

 planted at once, and 

 one half allowed to 

 grow longer than the 

 other. Or, one-half 

 may be of evergreen 

 trees, as white pine or 

 Norway spruce, and 

 the other half of such 

 deciduous trees as 

 maple, black birch or 

 chestnut. This is bet- 

 ter than mixing them, 

 as they would inter- 

 fere with each other's growth. A portion of such a 

 screen is represented at the top of our illustration. 

 Under it is shown a level farm of moderate size, on 

 which the prevailing winds are from the south and from 

 the northwest. The screens are planted so as to protect 

 the fields. The orchard, at the southwest corner, is 



a O C J 



15 i > * S <) li. 



Timber for Protection. 



Outlet for Tile Drain. 



represented by the hexagonal planting of the trees, 

 placed so as to afford shelter to the garden. By select- 

 ing thrifty growers, such as Norway spruce and Scotch 

 larch, a growth 25 feet high will be reached in about 10 

 years if they are properly cultivated, and 40 feet and 

 more in 25 years, at which age it will be profitable to cut 

 them down for wood or timber. In regions subject to 

 cyclones, timber screens of considerable breadth will 

 prove of great importance. A dense growth of large 

 trees where formidable cyclones have occurred has often 

 greatly checked their course and protected buildings in 

 their track. — Country Gentleman, 



Tile Draining. — A good main or outlet is essential. 

 I use either five or six-inch, according to the amount of 

 water to be carried. Lay the main with the natural 

 flow, if practicable, and a 

 foot deeper than the later- 

 als, so as to make the con- 

 nection on top of the main, 

 giving a free flow. Make 

 the connections perfect, so 

 there will be no earth working through. The accom- 

 panying cut shows the arrangement ; a is the main, b 

 the connecting arm, and c the lateral. A fiat stone will 

 close the top of the arm all right. I place laterals about 

 two feet deep, more or less, according to soil, etc., and 

 place them three to seven rods apart, and, if possible, 

 across the natural flow, thereby cutting off surface-water 

 more quickly. — Ohio Farmer. 



Public Squares m Large Cities. — The people must 

 have breathing spaces, and nothing but a public square 

 or park can fully meet the requirement. These may not 

 be necessary in small cities or towns, but no intelligent 

 person would consider them other than desirable even 

 in our simple rural villages. But to possess a public 

 square is not ail that a city is under obligations to do in 

 this direction. It must be made an attractive, and, in 

 certain instances, an instructive place. If a city is fort- 

 unate enough to possess a sufficient space in one body, 

 and that at some convenient point, it can be made some- 

 thing more than a pleasant place to while away the 

 hours of a Sunday afternoon or a holiday, or to hold a 

 Sunday-school or mechanics' picnic. It should furnish 

 to the home-maker material for study in landscape ef- 

 fects and the ornamenting of home grounds. It should 

 be an ever-enlarging school for the amateur ornamental 

 plant culturist. It should afford means for the general 

 study of botany and horticulture by those great classes 

 of city residents — the day-laborers, clerks, shop-keepers 

 and school-children. To this end, trees, shrubs and 

 herbs should be labeled with both their scientific and 

 common names, and the plants of each order grouped 

 together as nearly as would be permissible in conform- 

 ing with the principles of landscape art. This does not 

 mean that all the plantings should be so arranged, but 

 so much of them as would furnish ample materia! for 

 the systematic study of plants in their relations to each 

 other. Not only would these breathing places then be 

 places of recreation, but also places of creation — creating 



