JYotes and Gleanings • 
In the battle of life there is bat one way to 
succeed; fight it out yourself. Give the helping 
hand when you may. Take it, if in some sore 
straight, it is offered freely, but never ask it. 
Alkali is not the most valuable manurial 
element to be found in ashes. If you doubt this 
try the experiment of using It ached and unleach¬ 
ed ashes on potatoes and cabbages, and see if the 
unleached ashes do not give equally marked 
results. 
Thebe is probably not another traet of land 
in the world, of the same dimensions which sus¬ 
tains so large a number of cattle as the Isle of 
Jersey, which averages 2,000 head to the square 
mile. They are kept up and fed upon roots 
wmter and summer. The parsnip is largely 
grown and fed and makes very excellent butter. 
Marshall P. Wilder says: The importance 
of properly^thinniug out fruit trees when bearing 
redundant crops is more and more apparent. 
To produce fruit that commands a good price iD 
market has become an abs- lute necessity. This 
is seen especially in, that intended for exporta¬ 
tion, apples of good size, fair and roperly pack¬ 
ed, commanding in the English market fully 
double the price of those which had not received 
such care. 
Truck Farming, or growing vegetables and 
/ruits for market, is undoubtedly one of the 
iuos pn fitable branches which can be followed 
if the conditions are favorable to success. To 
make* it successful or highly remunerative sev¬ 
eral things are necessary. First, easy access 
and quick means of transportation to good mar¬ 
kets; second suitable soil; then cheap and con¬ 
venient means of procuring an abundance of 
manure, labor, etc. Good seeds are also an es¬ 
sential requiremej t, but anyone can obtain them 
by sending to reliable growers and dealers. 
Mr. Joseph Harris, in his Talks on Man¬ 
ures, says that we cm make our lands poor by 
growing clover and selling it; or we can make 
them rich by growing clover and feeding it out 
on the farm. Drain where needed, cultivate 
thoroughly so as to develop the lattnt plant food 
in the soil, and then grow clover to take up and 
organize this plant food. This is how to make 
land rich by growing clover. Draining and cul¬ 
tivating furnishes food for clover, and the clover 
takes it up and prepares it in the best shape for 
other crops. The clover does not create plant 
food, but merely saves it. 
Green Manuring. Mr. John Watson says 
that the late Mr. Root valued the turning down 
of rye mainly as a medium to hold moisture, and 
that is no doubt the proper view for gardeners to 
take. Special fertilizers do their work best in 
connection with barnyard manure because such 
manure has the proporty of retaining moisture, 
and it seems reasonable to suppose that the next 
best manner to apply them would be on land 
where a good sod of grass or rye or clover has 
just been turned down. Granted that the fer¬ 
mented product of a clover field has some man¬ 
urial value on a worn out farm, it would be a 
mere nothing in bulk on a good truck farm; but 
if looked at as a medium for getting the full 
benefit of fertilizers it might find more favor in 
connection with gardening. 
Mr. Henderson deserves credit for giving flo¬ 
rists and plant growers at least four very valua¬ 
ble ideas within a few years past. First the use 
of the feet in sowing onion, celery and similar 
seeds. T1 ousands of dollars are annually lost 
by those who who do not attend to this firming 
of the soil arround the seed , especially when 
planted in dry weather. Second, the idea of 
breaking cuttings of geraniums and similar 
plants from the parent, merely letting them 
hang by the bark or skin on one side for a week 
or so before completely serving them. This 
small ligament will give nourishment to the cut¬ 
ting while thus hanging, and it is in the mean¬ 
time becoming calloused so as to be ready to 
start roots immediately when completely sever* d 
and planted. Thirdly, the idea of constructing 
a chimney directly over the furnace in a green¬ 
house or forcing pit which is to be heated with 
flues. Thus a direct draft is secured while the 
fire, is being started, tfter which the communica¬ 
tion can be cut off in an instant and the draft 
thrown around through the flue which runs un¬ 
der the beds. And lastly the use of spagnum or 
bog-moss in growing plants, both as a mulch on 
the surface of pots, and as a base for the soil up¬ 
on the benches, where it absorbs and holds 
moisture and liquid manures and prevents the 
roots of cabbage and other plants from running 
down, thus making a mass of fibers instead of 
one long t*p root as where soil alone is used. 
It should be dried and rubbed fine through 
a sieve or otherwise before using for for 
this purpose. If either of these ideas are 
new to you, and you are situated so as to use 
them, we are sure any one of them will be worth 
more to you than Seed-Time and Harvest 
will cost for the next five years. 
