104 
Rustic Adornments. 
inconvenient, and in regard to carpeted stairs and the keeping of the house 
objectionable, recourse may be had to the use of the prepared fertilizing 
compounds sold by seedsmen and florists. We cannot afford space to 
discuss the merits or properties of these preparations, but it may be useful 
to remark that they may all be used with perfect safety if used sparingly and 
frequently . A thin sprinkling of the material on the surface of the soil may 
be made at three separate intervals during the growing season, say in April, 
Mxy, and June. Thenceforward until April again it would be wise to abstain 
from any further application, except it be to assist plants that flower in 
autumn, such as chrysanthemums, which, by the way, are admirably adapted 
for the balcony garden, provided they can be grown elsewhere during the 
summer, and have places in the balcony when the geraniums and fuchsias 
begin to fail. The chrysanthemums should have a pinch once a month 
from April to October, and no more. Another mode of employing 
these refreshers is to dissolve them in the water which is supplied to 
the roots of the plants. Although they differ in strength, they may 
all be used with safety and benefit in the proportion of half an 
ounce to a gallon of water ; and as they are comparatively inoffen¬ 
sive, there can scarcely arise any objection to the practice. Let there be 
provided for balcony uses a vessel large enough for one day’s supply, and 
in this prepare, in the early part of the day, the water which is to be used the 
same evening. The vessel should stand in the full sun in the open air, and 
if the water becomes warm in consequence, so much the better for the plants 
which, so fed, will glisten with health, and grow with delightful vigour. 
Whenever possible, use rain water in preference to hard water obtained from 
the tap. Hard water frequently contains a large percentage of lime, besides 
being considerably lower in temperature than rain water, and is more or less 
injurious to plant life. If rain water cannot be readily obtained, dissolve a 
quarter of a pound of common washing soda in hot water, and add the solution 
to thirty-six gallons of hard water. The soda thus added will soften the water, 
however hard it may be, in twenty-four hours, and render it equal to rain 
water. 
Yet one more remark on management. It would be a grand thing for 
the plants if they were treated to a shower of pure, soft, almost tepid water 
every evening all the summer long. Water holding in solution any kind of 
manure should not be used for this purpose, though accidental splashing of 
the leaves with very weak liquid manure will never do harm. But it rarely 
