THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 9 



FARM GARDENING. 



In no way can a farm or country place be 

 made more attractive and pleasant to the 

 passer-by or resident, than by the appearance 

 of a neat and well-kept garden in the vicinity 

 of the farm-house. With neat fences, trim- 

 med borders, uniform rows of vegetables, 

 neatly arranged masses of flowers, well-beaten 

 paths, and weeds unknown, that part of a 

 farm which lies anear cannot but be agreeable 

 to the eye. It is a picture in a rustic setting, 

 which brightens up the surrounding land- 

 scape, and however much, even, a rude and 

 uncouth farmer may pretend to say it is all 

 nonsense, he finds it, sooner or later, not only 

 a thing of beauty, but an educator, aninspirer 

 of thoughts and deeds leading to a nobler way 

 of living, and to a really higher life. 



From the season of early springtime on 

 through the long days of summer, and still on 

 through the beautiful autumn time, as long as 

 vegetable life holds out an existence, so long the 

 garden— the farm garden more particularly— 

 has its beauties and uses in a marked degree, 

 and its influence for good, especially to the 

 young and middle-aged, and even the old, so 

 old even that the senses are comparatively 

 dulled ; the gi-owth of the warm season, the 

 waving grain, the emerald grass, and the 

 many-hued garden, are the oases of beauty 

 and enjoyment in the otherwise desert of farm 

 life. 



From the brilliant-hued glories of the trop- 

 ics to the frozen regions of the north, where 

 " Living- flowers that skirt the eternal forests " 

 have a home, vegetable life and floral beauty 

 have made more hearts glad and grateful than 

 all the amusements and excitements of the 

 heated saloons and fashionable resorts in exis- 

 tence—joy and gratitude of a pure, ennobling, 

 lasting nature, which only they may know 

 who have had experimental knowledge of these 

 possessions. The enjoyments of living among 

 the beauties of nature are inexpressible, solid, 

 and enduring, and partake of a spirit of con- 

 tentment, of rest and peace, which uncon- 

 sciously soothes many a troubled soul, and 

 brings comfort and consolation with weariness 

 and exhaustion, mayhap, but heartful enjoy- 

 ment of no small kind or dwarfed nature. 



The farmer who has a neat and well-kept 

 garden, is almost sure to have a neat and well- 

 kept farm, a comfortable and well-appointed 

 house, tidy outbuildings, and stock in good 

 condition, and the housewife who takes pride 

 in her garden, generally has a home to take 

 pride in and to be proud of. 



The young girls who go to town, or the 

 children to school, with a seasonable flower 

 in their hair, or in a rudely made button-hole, 

 are on the high road to a future life of taste, 

 culture, and solid life enjoyment. The rustic, 

 however uncouth he may be, who presents his 

 admiration to his inamorata in a flower or a 

 nosegay, is a great deal nearer being a true 

 gentleman than he is popularly supposed to 

 be. The farm-house sitting-room that is re- 

 dolent of freshly plucked flowers, or gay with 

 their beauties is also a little nearer heaven 

 than many a more pretentious and elaborately 

 furnished parlor. 



The season "when the winter is over and 

 past, and when the flowers appear on the 



earth," is the most gladsome and joyous of 

 the whole year, and now that 

 " The melancholy days are come, the saddest of 

 the yeaf," 



we can find much joy in anticipation — in look- 

 ing forward to the season, now a few months 

 hence, when vegetation shall again spread her 

 mantle of green abroad over the earth, when 

 the springing and blossoming flowers shall 

 gladden our hearts anew, with their fragrant, 

 and beautiful presence. And from no one 

 class of gardens, floral, fruit or vegetable, is 

 there more to hope for, to look forward to in 

 anticipation, than there is from this most-to- 

 be-prized country life blessing, a good and ap- 

 propriately made, and carefully tended mis- 

 cellaneous Farm Garden. 



A GARDEN IN PARA. 



It is the middle of November, warm, bright, 

 with a cool, fresh breeze, the time, eight 

 o'clock in the morning ; for we are not where 

 November is a cold grey month, but under 

 the sunny skies of the equator. On our way 

 to a friend's garden we take the long street 

 bordered with tall Koyal Palms, {Oreodomre- 

 gia) wind along the crumbling walls of an old 

 convent, which are a mass of White Jasmine. Cy- 

 pressVine and Morning Glories, and soon come 

 into the great theatre square on the four sides 

 of which are great Mango trees all full of 

 green fruit A ten minutes' walk brings us 

 to the garden, above the tall fence of which 

 tower many Orange trees full of fruit and 

 flowers, which perfume the air delightfully. 

 Entering through a tall gate, over which twine 

 great Orange Trumpet Flowers, we see before 

 us an avenue planted on either side with 

 Oranges, Mangoes and many other trees, the 

 end of the vista being a great clump of the 

 beautiful Peach Palm. We are lost in ad- 

 miration at the variety and beauty which sur- 

 rounds us. Caladiums with bright white and 

 red variegated foliage cover the ground ; 

 clumps of Amaryllis fulgida are full of showy 

 flowers, creepers twine over and hang in lux- 

 uriant festoons from the trees, and a very 

 pretty parasite with white fragrant flowers, 

 not unlike those of a Maderia Vine, is very 

 common, so much so as to be an evil, as it is 

 death to the branch upon which it establishes 

 itself. On one side is an arbor some 100 feet 

 long, covered with creepers among which Pas- 

 sion Flowers of many hues predominate, and 

 on the posts and rafters of which are growing 

 many common Orchids such as Stanhopeas, 

 Oncidiums, Gorgoras and Epidendrums. On 

 some of the trees near by are immense Tillan- 

 dsias, some larger round than a bushel basket 

 from which hang great spikes of flowers with 

 rosy or scarlet bracts. Meyerda erecta is a 

 large bush covered with purple, yellow-throat- 

 ed flowers, and Cape Jasmines, are large 

 enough to sit under. Allaniandas are heavy 

 with trusses of golden bloom, and the beauti- 

 ful Thunbergia lancifolia covering a great 

 wall is a sheet of great lavender blue flowers. 

 Guavas of several kinds were in full bloom 

 and fruit ; Sapodillas (I/ucuma) were covered 

 with the delicious fruit, iu size and in color 

 somewhat resembling Russet Apples. Atta, 

 Jaca and Beseba, all species of Custard Apple, 

 bore both fruit and flowers. 



But what greatly interested us was the va- 

 riety of Oranges. The trees were heavy with 

 fruit ; the Navel Orange of Bahia, so called, 

 from the protuberance at the apex, and which 

 has no seeds ; it is very large and the most 

 delicious of oranges. The Mandarin, the' 

 skin of which separates so readily from the 

 pulp ; the Red Tungerine, many varieties of 

 the common Sweet Orange which differ greatly 

 in size and flavor, and the pretty little Orange 

 of Cameta as large as a good sized Plum, grow- 

 ing in such clusters as to make the tree show 

 more fruit than leaves, and of delicious sweet- 

 ness. There was also the large sweet kind 

 and many small, sour kinds, also Lemons and 

 Shaddocks. 



The Breadfruit trees are always conspicu- 

 ous from their large, deep-cut foliage, and 

 the two varieties, that of which the fruit has 

 seeds and that without, bear great fruits near- 

 ly as large as a child's head. There were 

 many bushes bearing fruit which we did not 

 know. Eight sided, flatfish, bright red or 

 black and used for preserves, the seed came 

 from Bahia. The flower is white, somewhat 

 resembling a Myrtle ; at first we thought it 

 an Eugenia, but it is evidently not of the Myr- 

 tle family. Of Palms there were many, the 

 graceful Assie, the Maracaja with its tall 

 crown of foliage, the Cocoanut with great 

 clusters of fruit, and the huge fan leafed 

 Miriti. Pine Apples grew in great masses and 

 the space reserved for a future house was a 

 luxuriant Sweet Potato patch. Indeed, to tell 

 of all we saw would exceed our limits. The 

 pleasant thought was that all this luxuriance 

 goes on from month to month, fears no win- 

 ter's chill, and with the lapse of years increases 

 in beauty, and this in a climate probably as 

 healthy as any in the world. We returned to 

 our house, laden with sjKecirnens of fruits and 

 flowers, and as we write, our room is a horti- 

 cultural exhibition in miniature. We should add 

 that the owner of the garden told us that five 

 years ago there was not a tree on the place. 



IVY IN AMSTERDAM. 



' ' The festoons of Ivy bordering some of the 

 principal walks iu the Amsterdam Zoological 

 Gardens are most effective, and require only 

 a little time and patience to carry out. Small 

 Acacia trees ( Robinia inermis ) are planted at 

 intervals of about twelve or fifteen feet on 

 each side of the walk, and about three feet 

 from the edge of the grass. Ivy is then planted 

 midway between the trees and trained along 

 strands of wire, which are fastened to the trees 

 about seven or eight feet from the ground. 

 These strands form great loops or festoons 

 dipping down to the ground in the middle, 

 where the Ivy is planted. The wire is quite 

 concealed by the Ivy which resembles a gigantic 

 wreath. Pink, crimson, and white China 

 Roses are often planted along with the Ivy 

 and trained with it. The pale green plumes 

 of the Robinias, the dark green wreaths of Ivy 

 and the vivid green of the beautifully kept 

 grass are most harmonious." — Journal of Hor- 

 ticulture. 



All of our readers who are interested in the 

 vegetable or flower garden, in fruits, straw- 

 berries, grapes, hardy ornamental shrubs and 

 trees, in farm animals, in farm crops and 

 methods, are invited to send for a copy of the 

 Rural New Yorker. 34 Park Row, New York, 

 which will be mailed to them without charge. 



