Sunflowers intended for stakes should be 
started early in the house, so that they 
will attain a growth of two feet or more by 
the time you wish to s«t out tomatoes. It 
is a good plan to start both tomatoes and 
sunflowers in large turnips or potatoes hav¬ 
ing the eyes cut out, one plant in each, and 
upon removing to the garden, set the tur¬ 
nip or potato in the ground where the sun¬ 
flower is to stand, close to and on the west 
side of the tomato. 
Where tomato plants are staked, they 
expose their fruit much more completely to 
the sunlight and a free circulation of air; 
are always in sight and more readily gath¬ 
ered. If a horse can be used (and one 
should be to save time and labor), the drill, 
hoes, cultivators, &c., should be suited to 
his use, but if compelled to use hand labor, 
there are very excellent tools suited to 
such work. The soil of the garden should 
be as rich as you can make it with old, 
well-rotted stable manure. Do not use 
fresh or green manure, unless it be a coat 
of horse stable manure, which should be 
over the garden in the fall and raked off in 
the spring, and burnt on the ground or 
carried off. Beet, potato, and other tops 
and leaves, should be thrown into heaps to 
rot. Onion tops, however, if cut off, 
should be left on the ground from which 
they grew, and the same ground may be 
used for onions for no matter how many 
successive years. Other garden crops 
should rotate.— C. E. Hetces, in Country 
Gentlemen. 
’’Jane, gvie the baby- some laudanum, and 
put it to sleep, and bring me my parasol. I 
am going to a meeting for the amelioration 
of the •condition of the human race.” 
”Do you think your father is going to move 
out soon?’ 4 inquired the owner of a rented 
house of the son of his tenant. 
'‘Reckon so” was the reply. We’ve begun 
using the winder frames for firewood.” 
Among the replies to an advertisement of 
a music committee for “a candidate as 
organist, music teacher,” etc., was the fol¬ 
lowing:— “Gentlemen : I noticed your ad¬ 
vertisement for an organist and music teach¬ 
er, either lady or gentleman. Having been 
both for several years. I offer my services.” 
FLORAL NOTES. 
Pansies and Verbenas —Pansies can be 
brought along -o aS to bloom in Spring, and ver¬ 
benas may be made fine, strong plants f *r plant¬ 
ing ont when hosts are over. Sow die se* d in 
boxes or pots o' luht, tine soil, ai d cover very 
1 ghtly. Water gentle, and it will then be he>k 
to cover the surface of the soil with a piece of 
coarse textured j aper, such as brown wrapping 
paper. The water can be giw-u on the p per, 
and will then slowly filter through without dts- 
turbis g the surface of ihe soil; besid s the p pei* 
will check evaporation aud hold the soil in a 
moderate moist condition. As soon as the plants 
appear, the paper cau be removed. When the 
young p!«n s are we i uo, anv have made two or 
three leaves, they cau be pricked out into fresh 
soil, and be given rooorn enough to continue 
heir growth until anoth ;r shift may be ntces- 
sary or they are planted out. Give the plant! 
plenty * f light when they begin to grow, aud air 
occasionally, so that they may be stout and 
stocky, and not weak and spi-.dling, as they 
would be with a lac^ «> 1 41 t or air. 
By striking young verbena plants in the 
last days of July, and potting them first into 
thumb* and then into larger as soon as the roots 
have reached the sides, and keeping them in vig¬ 
orous growth, pinching hack the leading shoots 
and nipping off every fl over head, the verbeuas 
may be made to bloom in the window all winter. 
There is da; ger from over watering. 
The drainage of the fluwer-pots should be 
perfVct so that the suriace water can escaj e 
through the hole in the bottom of the pot. If 
the pot stands in cau ers pour oil' the water that 
runs into them and not let it be soaked up into 
them again. Yet this rule, though of very gen¬ 
eral application, u ed not lie observed in the 
case of aquatic pla t*. 
Among the many plants for ornamental 
fid age beds there ate none, perhaps, mo?e useful 
or popular man the varieties of coleus. The r 
leaves preceut an aimost endiess show of brilnaut 
colors; they are easily grown, and therefore, can 
be obtained at little cost, about seven dollars lor 
a hundred being the usual price. 
A lady correspondent of the Country 
Gentleman claims tnat by dipping the joint or 
fleshy ends of turkey, geese or chickeu wings in¬ 
to a strong solution of copperas they are made 
moth proof, as wi ll as more durable than when 
treated in the ordinary way. 
