1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRIC ULT [J LUST. 
343 
with plugs will answer. An arrangement should be 
made to support crosswise sticks at the top ; a tight 
fitting cover and an old iron pan, or flower-pot with 
the hole plugged, to hold live coals, complete the 
outfit. The flowers are tied in small clusters in 
such a manner that the fumes can reach all parts, 
and hung upon the cross-sticks, live coals being 
put in the pot or pan, a few lumps of sulphur are 
thrown upon them and the cover placed on ; if the 
cover does not fit closely, put folds df wetted 
cloth under it and a heavy weight on top. When 
the box or barrel is well filled with fumes, close the 
lower air hole and leave all untouched for 24 hours. 
At the end of this time, remove the flowers and 
hang them in an airy room to dry. When quite dry 
they may be laid away in boxes. All flowers do not 
succeed equally well, and there is room for experi¬ 
ment. Among those we found most satisfactory 
were, China Asters, Fuchsia buds, Larkspurs—the 
dark colored kinds, Red flowered Spiraeas, Golden- 
rods, Roses—the red well filled and not over-blown 
ones answering best. As a general thing, the 
flowers are better if taken just as they are opening ; 
some, such as the Fuchsias, even in the bud, to be 
opened afterwards. Some flowers after sulphuring 
will he quite bleached, others will have the color 
hightened ; but the color in most can be restored, 
as we may show in speaking of making them up. 
Village Improvement. 
Some Important Suggestions to Beginners. 
Mr. Canning, the author of the article on this 
subject in the August American Agriculturist, aud 
Secretary of the Laurel Hill Association, makes the 
following additional suggestions for the guidance 
of those who are about to combine for the purpose 
of Village Improvement—suggestions which his 
experience has found to be of primary importance : 
1. Have available funds at command before strik¬ 
ing a blow—funds sufficient to accomplish some¬ 
thing noticeable before the community. 
2. In order to preclude the inevitable conse¬ 
quences of a mere spirit of ardor, the decline of 
interest as it becomes an old story, and to secure 
permanence to your organization, arrange for a sub¬ 
scription of a fixed sum for three years, at least— 
longer, if possible. The extent of your operations 
can then be intelligently forecast and accomplished. 
3. By all means have the ladies of the place en¬ 
gaged in the plan at the outset, aud give them full 
representation upon the Executive Committee. 
4. Don’t undertake too much at the start. Opera¬ 
tions were better confined to some greatly needed 
betterment, and success there, will, as in case of a 
partially constructed rail-road, prompt to continu¬ 
ance in the same line. 
5. Hold the meetings of the Executive Commit¬ 
tee, regularly, as often as monthly, and from house 
to house, during the working campaign. The im¬ 
portant element of sociability will thus be incorpo¬ 
rated, and tend materially to activity and success. 
6 . Let each particular department of work be 
placed in the hands of a sub-committee, with an 
efficient chair-man or woman, who shall, at each 
meeting, report its proceedings since the last. 
7. Have all labor accounts examined by a com¬ 
petent officer, and all drafts upon the Treasury 
countersigned by the president or other authority. 
8 . For obvious reasons, have your Association 
chartered under State law. 
Tlie Red Cedar from Seed.—The seeds of 
Red Cedar rarely germinate until they have lain in 
the ground for a year. Instead of sowing such 
seeds and keeping a large surface clear of weeds 
for one season, nurserymen resort to what is called 
“stratification.” The seeds are made into a heap, 
with alternate layers of earth, and the whole 
covered with several inches of soil; or the seeds 
may be mixed with earth in a box with holes in the 
bottom, which is to be plunged in the soil up to its 
edges. In either case the seeds will be subjected 
to the same alternations of temperature and mois¬ 
ture that they would experience if sown. The next 
spring, the seeds, if large, may be separated from 
the earth by a sieve, or if small, earth and seeds to¬ 
gether may be sown. Like most other seedling ever¬ 
greens, the Red Cedar needs shading while young. 
THE M©in§EH!©]LlIL 
m- For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Common Weeds Made Ornamental. 
Last fall we saw in a New York seed-store among 
dried and colored grasses, and other materials for 
winter bouquets, a box of curious balls of down, 
each about two inches in diameter. The dealer did 
not know what they were, and as they were too 
delicate to allow of thorough examination, the only 
clue to their real nature was the bit of dried stem 
attached ; and from this we guessed they were in 
some manner prepared from thistles. Walking 
with a lady in the 
country this summer, 
we jocularly pro¬ 
posed to add a thistle 
to the flowers she was 
gathering. “ But do 
you know,” said she, 
“ what a pretty orna¬ 
ment can be made 
from the thistle ?”— 
Then the mystery of 
the puzzling balls 
was solved. The 
large common Thistle 
is best for the pur¬ 
pose, and the manner 
of treating it may be 
shown by a rough 
drawing. The thistle 
deprived of its armed 
leaves as in figure 1, 
has a green prickly 
cup, a, and the showy or colored portion, b , which 
really consists of a multitude of separate little flow¬ 
ers, or florets, each complete in itself ; these are at¬ 
tached to the bottom of the green cup, and are held 
together very closely by its upper edge. The bottom 
of this cup on which all these flowers stand, the 
botanists call a receptacle, and in the thistle it not 
only receives all these little flowers, but mingled 
among them a vast number of pure white delicate 
hairs, which are too soft to deserve the botanists 
name of “bristles.” It 
is these hairs or bristles 
that make the orna¬ 
ment in question. To 
get at these, first cut 
away the leafy cup a 
little below the middle, 
about at the point, a. 
This will require some 
care, and a sharp knife 
or small scissors. It 
will be found that this 
cup, or “involucre,” 
is not a solid piece, but 
is composed of numer¬ 
ous leafy scales, closely 
overlapping one an¬ 
other,and mostof these 
scales are each tipped 
with a sharp prickle, 
as careless handling will soon demonstrate. All 
the green scales of the upper half of the cup being 
carefully removed, and some of the innermost are 
very delicate, then commence to pull out the purple 
florets a few at a time. As each of these has very 
fine hairs attached to it, do not think that the 
wrong material is being removed ; if the florets are 
taken by the tips and pulled gently they will come 
out all right. Slow progress will be made at first, 
as the number of these little flowers is something 
astonishing. When the last floret is pulled out, 
the thistle will appear as in figure 3, with the re¬ 
mains of the cup, a, and a dense brush, or short 
plume of the white silky hairs of the receptacle. 
But this is by no means a ball of down. For that, 
we must trust to nature, for art has done all it can 
towards it. Hang the thistle head prepared, as in 
figure 2, in the sun, and the rest will do itself. 
These thistle balls may be kept suspended or put 
away in such a manner that they will not lose their 
shape, until wanted for winter bouquets or other 
decoration. We perhaps should not have given so 
much space to describing this, did it not at the 
same time give an instructive lesson in the structure 
of the thistle head, and through that a general idea 
of the arrangement of the flower heads in the great 
Composite Family of plants to which the Thistle 
belongs, in which the same plan or idea is worked 
out in their structure in wonderful variety. 
The Common Ox-eye Daisy, or White Weed, 
that pest of the farmer, who ever supposed that 
anything interesting or amusing could come of 
that ? The lady referred 
to (an artist in many 
ways), as another lady 
saw the possibilities of 
a beautiful head in a 
lump of butter, saw in 
this commonest of 
weeds a possible head, 
which is here represent¬ 
ed in figure 3, that its 
beauty may be mani¬ 
fest. In the Ox-eye 
Daisy we have another 
composite, its green- 
cup, small and flat, and 
two kinds of florets, the 
yellow disk and the white ray flowers. Removing 
some of the ray florets altogether, clipping the 
others to form the cap border, or halo, leaving two 
in proper positions for the strings; it only needs 
the features to be put in with pen and ink, to show 
how art can improve upon nature. With a bit of 
green this makes a button-hole bouquet quite un¬ 
like any in Miss Hassard’s work on floral decora¬ 
tions, and the prepared flower heads, may be pre¬ 
served for use in winter at fairs and otherwise. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Our Children and the Wicked World. 
A little boy of five years is shut away from the 
wicked world by the loving care of parents and 
friends, in order that he may grow up free from 
the faults and vices that infest society—a model of 
all the virtues. It is proposed that he shall receive 
his education entirely by private instruction, until 
he goes away to college. No playmates are allowed 
him except such as are approved by his parents— 
“ good ” children, of course. I do not know ex¬ 
actly how this plan will work, but I feel sorry for 
the child, and sorry for his parents. I am afraid 
they believe in the “ white paper ” theory—that 
each babe is like a sheet of pure white paper upon 
which the parents may write just what they please, 
so that his character at maturity may give the exact 
impress of their efforts to train him. Now, I have 
never had any of this “ white paper ” to deal with. 
Neither have I ever seen any. I have seen children 
who were certainly negative enough to rank as 
blank paper. It might seem that you could do al¬ 
most anything with them, for you could easily 
“twist them around your finger,” so to speak; 
but you could never make anything really good or 
great of such children. It is my belief that, instead 
of coming into the world mere blanks or sponges, 
these children are all heirs of Human Nature, with 
its untold capacities for both good and evil. I 
have never seen two alike, even in the same family. 
The natural dispositions are various, aud different 
temptations affect them variously. It is, indeed, a 
wicked world into which they have come ; but it is 
the world in which they must live and do their 
work as men and women. It is a very important 
part of their education that they should learn the 
ways of the world—not that they may practice all 
its arts, but that they may have some idea of what 
Fig. 2.— PREPARED 
THISTLE HEAD. 
Fig. 3.— FOR THE BUTTON¬ 
HOLE. 
