1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
23 
his opinions of them. As a result a large number 
of ladies and gentlemen—people who “ think no 
small beer” of themselves, find their names cata¬ 
logued in a Sunday paper as victims of this swindle, 
the amounts out of which they were fleeced, and 
the rascal’s accounts of their eagerness to be hum¬ 
bugged. Probably these people will recollect what 
we have often told them, that really valuable plants 
are never introduced in any such loose way. If a 
traveling vender or other unknown person offers a 
seed or plant of any kind as a novelty, be sure that 
here is a first-rate chance to be humbugged. Ed.] 
Too Much. Shade for Health. 
The business of planting shade trees is not per¬ 
haps overdone. Ornamental trees, the Maples, 
Elms, Oaks, Tulip trees, and others, certainly add 
much to the beauty of our village streets, and we 
should hardly know how to spare the Lilacs, the 
Wistarias, the Honeysuckles, the Hawthorns, the 
Wigelias, and Rhododendrons, and other flowering 
shrubs, that thrive in the yards, and cluster around 
our windows. There is no occasion yet, especially 
in the newer villages, for the tree-planting societies 
to disband. Country roads still sadly lack orna¬ 
ment and shade. But the tree-planters should cer¬ 
tainly have their attention called to the abuse of 
shade. Such an unusually wet season as this in the 
East, showers falling almost every week, all through 
the early summer, intensifies the evils of our over¬ 
shaded streets. In many of those old towns which 
are considered the glory of New England, the trees 
have been planted so near together, and so close to 
the house, that sunlight is almost wholly excluded 
from the dwelling, except at mid-day. Trees are 
not only on all sides of the house, but they have 
been planted so thickly, that the branches interlace, 
and no sunlight falls beneath. Elms that require 
60 to 100 feet space, for the full development of 
their branches, are planted within 30 feet of each 
other, and Maples, that need nearly as much room, 
are allowed but 10 or 13 feet. It is gloomy and 
damp under such trees until mid-day, and the moist¬ 
ure steals into the darkened sleeping-rooms of the 
house. The carpets and furniture grow moldy, and 
the people who dwell in these over-shaded houses, 
grow thin and pale, dyspeptic and consumptive. If 
New England boasts of her tree-crowned villages, 
she also mourns over the largest proportion of con¬ 
sumptives in her death-list.' These villagers want 
more sunlight and a dryer atmosphere. The dwel¬ 
ling should have the full benefit of the sun, and a 
free circulation of the air upon every side of it. 
The remedy for these overcrowded streets and 
yards is the axe. Thin out until every tree has 
room for full developement, and a margin of sun¬ 
light beyond. It will make handsomer trees, and 
healthier men. We protest against the abuse of 
shade. Connecticut. 
-—* - 
Striking Cuttings in Water. 
Just now some of the European horticultural 
journals are discussing the method of striking cut¬ 
tings in water, as if it were something new. It has 
been in use for a long while in this country for cut¬ 
tings of Oleander, Laurel, and other hard-wooded 
plants, and what is called the “ Saucer System ” of 
propagation, is scarcely different. In the “ Saucer 
System ” sand is used, but with so much water that 
it is in a state of very thin mud. The cuttings are 
placed in this very thickly, and exposed to full sun¬ 
light, taking care to keep up the supply of water. 
The French cultivators have used water for cut¬ 
tings of very soft-wooded plants, such as Begonias. 
It is apparently much better for summer work than 
for winter, and in this, as in the saucer propagation, 
it is necessary to give the plants full sun-light. 
They find that bottles of clear glass are better than 
those of colored glass, and with soft-wooded cut¬ 
tings, but a very small portion of the lower end is 
immersed, a precaution necessary to prevent decay. 
This is a method which may afford the amateur 
much amusement, and may be useful to those who 
only wish to make a cutting or two, but the pro- 
essional florist will hardly care to bother with it. 
jpy For other Household Hems see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
-- -& -- 
Keeping a. JDiary. 
I find it of some advantage to keep a small diary 
each year. A journal is a different thing. In the 
latter you may spread yourself to your heart’s con¬ 
tent, but a diary is for business. It should be kept 
up pretty closely, or be written in every evening, if 
one would avail himself of all its advantages. Any¬ 
thing will do for a diary, which gives clean space 
for writing, but a little pocket-book, made for the 
purpose, with spaces marked for each day in the 
year, is best. Three years ago I had no ready-made 
diary when the year began, so I used a small blank 
blook, making the dates as I wrote. But this got 
us into a “pretty scrape” one pleasant summer 
day. We called it Saturday, and Mr. R., who had 
been at home, working on the farm for several 
weeks, had determined to go back to the city, to 
work that paid better, (I am ashamed to say it in an 
Agricultural journal), on that very Saturday. When 
a neighbor, who seldom left his daily work iu the 
field at this season, came to the door in his clean 
Sunday clothes, and loitered as though quite at 
leisure, I said, “ I wonder if Mr. J. hasn’t lost his 
reckoning, and taken this for Sunday.” We 
thought it must be so, and I related how amused 
my mother and I had been the year before to see 
my father dress himself up leisurely one Saturday 
morning, and sit down in the shady door-way of the 
same house we then lived in, to sing his Sunday- 
school song book through, in pleasant memory of 
the days gone by when he was a S. S. Superinten¬ 
dent, while his usual daily work was waiting quite 
urgently for his care. A little later I saw my 
neighbor’s wife, also dressed up for Sunday, and 
when I asked her about it, she assured me that it 
was Sunday. The Almanac could not help us out, 
but I thought my diary would. But that only con¬ 
firmed my error, because I had been several days 
behind-hand, and in “writing-up” lately, had 
Skipped a Day. 
We then talked it over together, but to the other 
members of the family, one day had been much 
like another all through the last week. Suddenly 
we remembered an important event which I had 
not chronicled at all, and in slipping that in between 
the other days, we found ourselves in the midst of 
Sunday, sure enough. I believe Robinson Crusoe 
never lost track of the time, but I wonder how he 
could do so. 1 have had to go to my diary to help 
our folks to a knowledge of the time more than 
once, and we have even found by that we were a 
week behind in the days of the month. 
Of course people who send children to school, or 
who live in the neighborhood of churches, or who 
have daily association with neighbors, are not like¬ 
ly to lose track of the days of the week or month, 
but if you think it ridiculous to do so in any ease, 
you should be placed as some readers of this paper 
are, out of sight of neighbors or a public road, and 
out of convenient reach of schools and churches. 
About Keeping Accounts. 
I am inclined to agree with Mrs. Stowe’s Nina as 
to the futility of keeping accounts. It does not 
bring the money back after you have spent it, and 
I am sorry to say that my accounts seldom add up 
and balance properly, but the daily memoranda in 
my diary, of money received and spent, has saved 
me from loss more than once. When I write regu¬ 
larly in a journal, I note down all letters received 
and sent, and I turn to the diary to see whether it 
is time for a reasonable expectation of an answer 
to a business letter. I examine it, too, to learn 
how long a sack of flour, or a cord of wood, has 
lasted, in trying to make calculations about family 
expenses; also to learri how long since the last 
rainy or sunny day; and if one of the children 
should get sick, I should wish to trace back, 
through the various entries iu my diary, the differ¬ 
ent steps of the disease from the prolonged expo¬ 
sure to cold or dampness and the taking cold, or 
the over-dose of sweet things and resulting stom¬ 
ach ache, to the actual sicxness, in order that 1 
might learn how to avoid such trouble in future. 
The diary is an important ally of the memory. 
IScginuing Poor. 
A young woman asks whether I think it would 
be safe and prudent for lierto marry “ John,” when 
they have less than three hundred dollars to start 
with. That depends. I decline to give personal 
advice in this case, though the person asking has 
my hearty interest and sympathy. The subject will 
allow of some general remarks. 
What position in life do John and Mary aspire to 
fill ? What are their social aims and ambitions ? If 
they must begin as though they were rich, while 
they are really poor, of course it is not prudent to 
marry. But there are thousands of happy families 
where a start was made with less than a hundred 
dollars. Michelet says that two can live cheaper 
than one, and a young lawyer once demonstrated 
to me how he was able to save more from his in¬ 
come since his marriage, while living far more com¬ 
fortably and happily, than before. But his wife knew 
how to make the most of everything, and they had 
sufficient means at first to set up house-keeping in 
a pleasant and comfortable manner. 
Two people who love each other can begin house¬ 
keeping with a very small outlay of money, if they 
are so disposed. They need only to furnish one 
room, and that with little outlay of money. A 
cook-stove, a bed, a table, two or three chairs, a 
few dishes, a lamp, a wash-basin, a tub, and wash- 
board. These are about all the articles of furniture 
actually necessary to begin with. Then the 
Saving must Begin. 
and out of the savings there can soon be purchased 
other useful household articles, until the establish¬ 
ment is comfortably equipped. I know from ex¬ 
perience that carpets and curtains (other than 
newspapers—and perhaps I should have set down’ 
a good newspaper among essential articles), are not 
among the necessaries of life in all circumstances. 
When they must be had, cheap ones can be found 
to answer the requirements of utility and beauty. 
If a young couple, with very small means, begin 
in this way, and carefully keep out of debt, paying 
for everything as they buy it, they will find a satis¬ 
faction in their purchases which they could never 
have in the possession of treasures balanced by 
debt. In order to save anything from the weekly 
or monthly earnings, theve must be careful econo¬ 
my about food and clothing. The most nourish¬ 
ment from the least money must be the aim, and 
every leak should be stopped, or all outlay for that 
which brings no real advantage in return. 
Beginning Ariilimetic. 
Some mothers who teach their children at home, 
find it more difficult to bring them along properly 
in arithmetic, than in any other branch. This has 
been the case with me. Geography, with a globe 
and maps, almost teaches itself. A mother, with a 
mind at leisure, can manage the arithmetic well ' 
enough, I suppose. After the little one has learned 
to count, it can be taught to put numbers together, 
either by using a regular Abacus or counting frame, 
or by using beans, peas, or marks on a slate. The 
mother can make for it little problems of the sim¬ 
plest character, leading it along gradually through 
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division ; 
teaching it to read and write numbers, and prepar¬ 
ing it to use a book intelligently when it has learned 
to read well enough. I have never found a book 
that suited my needs until a friend sent me lately a 
“Table Book and Introductory Arithmetic, by 
Lydia Nash.” This has not a word too much, and 
it has quite enough. It was compiled by a practi¬ 
cal teacher to aid other teachers in drilling their 
pupils in the simple rules of arithmetic. There is 
nothing to commit to memory except the simple 
tables of the four fundamental rules, and no one 
need require a child to repeat a table, if dis¬ 
posed to teach addition, subtraction, and even 
multiplication, in a more practical manner. But 
here the tables are arranged in the best man¬ 
ner, each one followed by a “ skipping-nround ” 
table. After the tables, we have reading and 
