213 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
the ground with some kind of mulch. Much of 
the success in flowering the Dahlia, depends 
upon careful tying. Every few days the new 
growth should be secured to the stakes by a tie 
of bass bark or a strip of cotton cloth. Care 
should be taken that the bands are not drawn 
so tightly as to impede free growth. 
— i ->» •-• 
A Fine Old Plant. 
Plants as well as other things are subject to 
the changes of fashion. Many of the old fa- 
vorites of the gardens are neglected merely be- 
cause they are old, and their places are occupied 
by others 
whose chief 
merit is their 
novelty. For 
ourselves, we 
love to seethe 
flowers which 
we knew 
when a boy: 
they seem to 
n s as old 
friends. How 
many of us 
look back 
with pleasure 
to days spent 
in the garden 
of our early 
home. Its 
treasures may 
have been on- 
ly Sweet Wil- 
liams, Pinks, 
Pa?onies, and 
such old fash- 
ioned flowers, 
but they are 
dearer to us 
than any of 
the newer in- 
troduct ions, 
for they bring 
pleasant me- 
mories of the days of our youth. Such were 
our thoughts on receiving a bunch of Thrift, 
from Mr. A. S. Fuller of the Brooklyn Nur- 
series. He sent it to us, knowing our partiality 
for old plants, and we have had it engraved, 
believing that it will be a novelty to most of our 
readers. The plant is botanically Armeria vul- 
garis. It is a native of Europe, and a perfectly 
hardy perennial. The leaves make a dense 
mass of dull green foliage, against which the 
abundant pink or rose-colored flowers make a 
fine show. It is well worth cultivating as a 
bedding plant, but it is particularly valuable for 
edgings, for which it is much used in England, 
where it is considered as the next best plant to 
Box for this purpose. It is readily propagated 
by division of the roots. There is a white variety. 
About Double Flowers. 
Every cultivator of flowers has doubtless ex- 
perienced a difficulty in reproducing double 
annuals from the seed. The double flowers are 
in an unnatural condition, and it seems that 
slight causes induce them to revert to their nat- 
ural state of single ones. There is much rela- 
ting to this subject that we do not understand. 
There are some plants, like the stock gilli- 
flower for instance, the double flowers of which 
do not produce seeds, but the single flowers 
have a tendency to produce seeds, the majority 
of which give double flowers. In a " good 
strain" of stocks, as the gardeners term it, the 
tendency is to produce double flowers, with 
here and there a Single one to continue the kind. 
The whole thing seems to be in a very preca- 
rious condition, which slight and little known 
causes will modify. Seed saved from the most 
double Zinnias, will give us a number of single 
flowers, while the China Aster, which seems to 
have its double character more fixed, rarely fails 
to produce double ones. We have before us 
two letters upon this subject. The first is from 
Carl Meinurth, of Rockingham Co., N. H., who 
commenting on the statement made at the bot- 
tom of the last column, on page 148 of May Ag- 
riculturist says : " Seeds from double flowers, 
which are not constant in reproducing double 
flowers again, must not be sown before they are 
one or two years old." To test his theory he 
suggests that we take a paper of seeds of any 
double flowers, and sow one half the seeds this 
year; perhaps one-tenth of the plants will be 
double and the other single. Next year sow one 
half of the remaining seeds, and one half of 
the plants, at least, will be double ; finally, the 
third year sow the rest of the seed and quite 
probably all the plants will bloom double. He 
also suggests that the smallest seeds of the Bal- 
sam are more likely to produce plants with 
double flowers, than the full plump seeds. 
Another correspondent, " G." gives his plan 
for procuring seeds that will produce double 
flowers thus : " Do not allow the plant pro- 
ducing seeds to mature all of them. Pick off 
one half of the flowers, and let the plant throw 
all its forces into the remainder. G'rve the plant 
itself every possible chance to make a vigorous 
growth before it forms its flower-buds. An an- 
nual flower, like the Aster, is more likely to 
give double flowers and seeds, if transplanted 
from a seed-bed, than if grown in the border 
where they were first sown." 
Rake the Garden. 
" L. G," writes to the Agriculturist: "My 
garden is a light sandy loam. When it is spaded 
in the Spring and raked over, it is perfectly 
smooth and level. After planting I, like a cer- 
tain kind of bird, cover up my tracks. As soon 
as the vegetables begin to appear, I rake over 
the ground — going backwards, meanwhile, 
" crab-fashion," leaving no tracks visible — so 
that many have said to me, "How is it you keep 
your garden so clean and smooth ? If the gar- 
den is raked over weekly — not a weed can be 
seen, the ground is kept from drying up, in fact 
the loose surface, though perfectly dry, operates 
as a mulch. To one unaccustomed to this 
mode of gardening, it is perfectly surprising 
how much ground can be gone over, and effect- 
ually too, in a short time. Wrought iron rakes 
are better than steel, as the teeth do not suffer 
from rough usage. I have not taken a hoe into 
my garden for the last 15 years, as I can make 
"better time" with the rake, even among corn 
and potatoes. Certainly in beds of onions, etc., 
there is nothing equal to the rake ; if the rows 
are not far enough apart for the rake, turn it a 
little sidewise. Whoever will try the above 
plan, I think " will irresistibly come to the con- 
clusion " that, running over the garden with a 
rake (if the soil is light,) once a week, is true 
economy — much better than to wait till weeds 
can be seen. Very slight motion of the soil de- 
stroys the roots of weeds while they are so ten- 
der. While you can not see s-ueh a victory at this 
time as you could if the weeds were knee high, 
still it can be enjoyed full as much as though 
one could see " the slain lie heaps on heaps." 
The Striped Bug a Night-Worker. 
» m 
C. G. Siewers, of Campbell Co., Ohio, in a 
letter to the Agriculturist says: "I never could 
see how the few striped bugs found in the morn- 
ing, could do the damage my squash, cucumber, 
and melon vines were daily suffering. One night 
last year, I lighted my lantern, and went to ex- 
amine my vines. Let any subscriber afflicted 
as I was, do the same. — I found my vines cov- 
ered with bugs, 50 pair on a leaf being nothing 
uncommon. With finger and thumb I slaugh- 
tered about a thousand in an hour, going over 
the vines twice ; about 12 o'clock at night I vis- 
ited them again, and found but a few strag- 
glers. Next night I went once more, in the 
hope of seeing no more bugs, but found that 
there was no apparent diminution of the ene- 
my. I slaughtered them wholesale every night 
for two weeks, and then gave up in dispair. In 
an adjoining patch I had a fine lot of late cu- 
cumbers coming along — very thrifty, and un- 
touched by the bug, and without thinking of 
the consequences, I tore up all my squash plants, 
finding they would never set any fruit, and 
threw them into the manure heap. The next 
morning my entire cucumber patch lay wilted 
and destroyed, looking as if a heavy frost had 
cut them down ; every leaf appeared chewed 
up. I have not planted any this year." 
The Asparagus Beetle. 
This insect, which has caused such destruction 
in Europe, has already become established in 
some localities in Long Island and New-Jersey, 
where it promises, if its ravages are not check- 
ed, to ultimately destroy the asparagus crop. 
Fortunately the insect is thus far confined to a 
few localities. As it can only be exterminated 
upon its first appearance, we give figures of it iu 
its several stages, in order that it may be at 
once recognized and promptly dealt with. 
The beetle is known to entomologists as Crioce- 
ris asparagi, and has a general resemblance to 
the striped bug which infests cucumber and 
melon vines. Fig. 1 is a drawing of the per- 
fect insect magnified, which makes its appear- 
ance during the month 
of May. A line near 
the figure shows the 
natural size of the 
beetle. The eggs are 
little brown oval bodies, 
singularly attached in 
rows upon the slender 
twig of the plant Fig. 
3, shows the eggs, both 
of the natural size and 
enlarged. The eggs 
shortly hatch and pro- 
duce grubs or larva? 
which greedily devour 
the asparagus shoots. 
Upon the first appear- 
ance of this dangerous enemy, no pains should 
be spared to exterminate it. The beetle 
should be picked by hand and destroyed, and 
all twigs upon which eggs are deposited should 
be burned. A brood of young chickens will 
be of great aid in destroying these and other 
insects. The hen should be confined in a coop 
and the chiekens allowed to range over the bed. 
