320 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
THE JAPANESE WINDFLOWERS. 
IX the waning days of autumn, when the morning and 
evening mists have enshrouded the flowers of the 
outdoor garden and, in too many instances, marred 
their beauty, we appreciate those that come out of the 
ordeal unscathed. Among the most beautiful of these 
are the Japanese Windflowers or Anemones, tall yet 
graceful flowers, quite unlike the dainty little native 
species that bespangles the greensward of our coppices 
in the gusty days of spring. These Japanese Anemones, 
by their very stature and bearing, are admirably adapted 
for grouping in the herbaceous border, in large lawn 
beds, the edges of shrubberies, or by the side of a pond 
or lake. They are never seen to better advantage, par- 
ticularly the varieties with white blossoms, than when 
massed, in large bold groups, with a background of dark 
green foliaged trees, these serving to accentuate the 
glistening purity of the daintily poised blossoms. When 
to the trees water is added, in which the flowers are 
reflected with a shimmer of light and shade, we begin 
to realize how indispensable these hardy plants are in the 
garden at this season. Nor must we overlook their use- 
fulness for cutting. It is almost impossible to arrange 
them inartisticallv. their long stems and light, graceful 
flowers enabling the veriest tyro to create a picture of 
sublime beauty with these and autumn foliage. 
Fortunately, the cultivation of the Japanese Anemones 
does not present any great difficulties. What they do 
appreciate is deeply cultivated and well-manured soil, 
and that with a good proportion of clay in it. One is 
often asked to name plants that will thrive in clay soil, 
and the Japanese Windflower is one of the best. 
As the roots are long and thick, with but few fibres, 
transplanting is not advisable more often than is abso- 
lutely necessary ; indeed, a good rule to follow is to dis- 
turb the plants as little as possible. In forming new beds 
or groups in borders, the planting may be done in late 
autumn or early spring, and pieces of root with as many 
fibres as possible should be given preference to those of 
a less fibrous character. — Exchange. 
CAUSES OF OUR POOR TURFS. 
B^ 
[Y just pointing out a few little difficulties, such as 
those below, one can easily understand why there is 
not much good golfing turf on fair greens in America. 
I met one man who intended to base the prescription 
of grasses for sowing a course, situated on raw sand, 
from about half a dozen quaint little hand-watered trial 
plots, each about one yard square. He pointed out the 
grasses to me and asked me to note how well they stood 
on the sand without any fertilizer at all ; the plots were 
barely a month old, and the expert evidently did not know 
that any grass seed will germinate freely and keep alive 
for months on a piece of cloth or an old sack, or any- 
thing, so long as it is kept moist. 
Another showed me with pride a course on which he 
had used almost everv named grass procurable ; he cer- 
tainly had got a turf, but it was far better suited for 
dairy farming than golf and the cost of it must have been 
simply cruel. 
A third sent me out on a hot dusty trip to see an ''eye 
opener" in the rapid production of fine turf by sowing 
fescues and bents, and when I arrived the perfect turf 
had absolutely no bottom and looked like a stubble field, 
as it well might, considering that the seed was sown in 
equal quantity of each description at the rate of 120 
pounds per acre. The significance of this will be better 
understood when it is known that the number of seeds 
that go to one ounce varies roughlv in the different va- 
rieties from 14,000 to 500,000. 
There are a few other little pitfalls which are quite 
easy to fall into, such as the different rates of growth ; 
that is to say, some grasses take twice as long to reach 
maturity as others. The area covered by one grass plant 
may be two to ten times as large as the area covered by 
a single plant of another variety of the same age, and 
some grasses amalgamate and go well with other grasses 
and some will grow only in isolation. 
In support of my contention that the best English, or 
perhaps I ought to say British turf, as there is some 
wonderful stuff in Scotland and Ireland, can be produced 
in North America, more or less to order, I bring forward 
the Country Club at Brookline, where they have obtained 
greens equal to those at the Mid Surrey Golf Club, Rich- 
mond, England, which means a lot to anyone who has 
seen Peter Lee's famous productions at the latter club. — 
English Turf Expert. 
CONSERVING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 
A S it is not always easy to tell, when picking up a mag- 
azine, whether it had been finished at the last reading 
or not, writes S. B. Leeds in Fruit Grower, I have 
adopted the plan of marking an initial on the corner of 
the magazine when I have read all the articles that I 
care to, and marked those articles to be cut out later. 
I have tried this for several years, and find it saves much 
time. 
There are so many things in the farm papers that I 
want to save for future reference that I have a scrap 
book in which I paste all my clippings, and then, in order 
to be able to find them easily when needed, I have a 
card file, and all articles are indexed. 
Insects, spray materials, fertilizers, etc., all are entered, 
each under its own heading, so I can find all insects under 
one heading, and all spray materials under that head- 
ing, etc. 
This has proved most useful, as the magazines are 
usually up to date, and it is impossible to keep buying 
all the latest books. It would also be impossible to- find 
just the article I wanted if I had to hunt through a pile 
of magazines when I happened to need that particular 
article. After cutting out all I want. I put an X next 
to my initial on the cover, which means the magazine is 
ready to be passed on to someone else, and thev are 
passed on. I practically never put a magazine in the 
scrap basket. 
I have also a larger card file (5x8 inches ) where I 
write on the cards notes I have taken at lectures, or from 
books, etc. 
One card is inarked "plumber," and one "carpenter." 
All the little jobs I want done, but which do not need 
immediate attention, I keep under the proper heading, 
and when a plumber or carpenter is really needed I have 
him do all the other little things which it would not 
pay to have him come for separately. One card is marked 
"books," and there I write down those I have heard of 
and want to read when I can buy them or go to the 
library for them. 
There are often a few ideas in a long article that I 
particularly want to keep, and these I write in my file 
rather than cut out the whole article to wade through it 
again later. 
In the 3 x 5-inch file there is a set of cards for each 
month and for each day of the month, so I can keep the 
dates when taxes are due, papers should be renewed, etc. 
