390 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
by protecting them with newspapers or 
sheets of cotton cloth, they might prolong 
the enjoyment of the bloom for weeks to 
come. After a few early frosts there is usu¬ 
ally a month or so of pleasant weather. Let 
the most delicate plants go, but save the 
others by a little attention to them in way of 
protection. The first hard frost will spoil 
the Dahlias ; soon after this the roots should 
be dug, dried, and put away in the cellar. 
The Canna roots should 
be dug before the 
foliage is killed by the 
frost, or they will not 
keep well. Do not al¬ 
low the roots to wither 
before putting away 
for the winter. The 
Chrysanthemums that 
are to flower in-doors 
should be potted at 
once. It is time to 
plant spring bulbs, first 
enriching the soil with 
well - rotted manure. 
Now is an excellent 
time for repairing old walks or drives, or 
making new ones—in short do everything 
that will prepare the garden and lawn for 
winter, and aid in the busy weeks of spring. 
Fig. 3.—A “ SHUTTER ’ 
FOR ROOT PIT. 
Greenhouse and Window Plants. 
The greenhouse should have been in 
thorough readiness before this, that there 
may be no delay in bringing in the plants 
when the time arrives. Pots, moss, soil, and 
labels should be at hand in sufficient quan¬ 
tity. Bulbs to flower in pots should have 
a rich soil and be kept in a cool and dark cel¬ 
lar to form a good growth of roots. Hang¬ 
ing Baskets need a good deal of water and 
shade for a few days after the planting. Ac¬ 
custom the plants by degrees to the living 
rooms. This necessity of gradual change 
must be kept in mind with all plants that are 
brought from out-of-doors to the confined air 
of the living rooms, when there is a fire. 
Many of the early blooming plants are forced 
readily for window culture, such as Candy¬ 
tuft, Bleeding Heart, Lily of the Valley, etc. 
Celery Planting in Dry Weather. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
The past season has been the worst for 
Celery planting in this country I have known 
in an experience of thirty years, and at the 
date I write, August 18th, there is hardly to 
be seen a field or bed of celery with plants 
higher than three or four inches, and one 
third of the crop yet to plant, so that it is 
safe to predict high prices for a poor quality 
in the coming winter. While most of the crop 
is in this condition, there are two or three 
notable exceptions. John Hudson, one of my 
near neighbors, has over ten acres, planting 
right through the hot, dry weather of the last 
of July and first of August; a laborious job, 
but which will, no doubt, bring large returns. 
His plan was to plow up the ground, just 
as wanted each day, pulverizing thoroughly by 
harrowing, the rows were marked by treading 
on the line, so that the ground was made firm 
for the reception of the plants. The celery 
was carefully planted with the iron dibber, 
leaving the roots as long as possible; after 
planting, each plant was firmly trodden in 
with the feet, and the row—which was sunk 
perhaps two inches by the treading of the 
feet, was well soaked with water once only—a 
sprinkling of water is of no value in such 
cases, water must be given in sufficient quan¬ 
tity to reach the lowest point of the roots. This 
is laborious and expensive work, to be sure, 
but in the exceptional conditions of this sea¬ 
son, it is such as will prove a profitable invest¬ 
ment—for where this care has not been exer¬ 
cised—the lateness will cause a greatly dimin¬ 
ished weight of crop. 
Mosquitoes and Flies—Prevention. 
A Minnesota housekeeper writes : “I think 
we have suffered much less from mosquitoes 
during the last summer, than in some pro¬ 
ceeding seasons, because of the ‘ounce of 
prevention ’ we have used. Three barrels for 
rain-water stand under as many eave-spouts, 
and these are fine places for mosquito prop¬ 
agation. If left from one rain to another, 
without a complete emptying now and then, 
they usually become well filled with ‘wrig¬ 
glers.’ But by a little care one may keep 
them quite free from these active creatures. 
“The mosquito lays its eggs upon the sur¬ 
face of the water, in small, dark, boat-shaped 
masses. These look like cinders, and may 
easily be mistaken for them. But take one 
such mass and place it under a magnifier, and 
you perceive it to be made up of hundreds of 
long cylindrical eggs. Place one such mass 
in a tumbler half full of rain-water, and the 
next day perhaps will show you hundreds of 
very small light-colored thread-like creatures, 
wriggling about in the half-tumbler of water. 
Use the microscope again, and see what 
funny ‘ sea monsters ’ you have, like and yet 
unlike the full-grown wrigglers. It takes 
them about four weeks to reach the mos¬ 
quito stage and leave the water, so there are 
several generations from the original stock in 
a single season. It is a simple thing to keep 
the barrels skimmed of the eggs. These 
specks, or seeming cinders, are easily seen, 
and I dip them off and throw them out, 
sure now that the small trouble pays well, 
for not only is the annoyance from mosquitoes 
very greatly diminished, but the rain-water 
is much more agreeable for use. I am sure I 
have sometimes thrown out in a day, with 
perhaps a teacupful of water in all, more than 
a thousand single mosquito eggs, and if half 
these had been females, possessed with a 
mania to bite the human family (they say the 
male mosquitoes never come into houses or 
follow us about), and with the power of lay¬ 
ing eggs, think what a difference it might 
have made to the family comfort. 
“How did we ever live, especially through 
dog-days, with no defence against the flies ? 
Many people in this vicinity do not consider a 
new house furnished, until every window and 
outside door is provided with a good wire- 
gauze screen, perfectly fitted and easily ad¬ 
justed. Of course these are removed in win¬ 
ter, double windows often taking their place. 
But many of us cannot afford all this, and are 
glad if we can get the expensive wire-gauze 
for our doors only, while the plain cotton 
netting serves for the windows. If we 
must, we will use the same for our doors, as 
these are certainly much better than no 
screens at the door. But the wire-gauze is 
much the more agreeable, as well as more 
durable, interfering much less (indeed, scarce¬ 
ly at all) with the views from the windows. 
Screen doors should have self-closing springs. 
“ I wonder if we might not greatly diminish 
the ranks of our common enemy, the house¬ 
fly, by proper attention to sanitary rules. 
Will not the earth-closet help us against our 
enemy ? And how about cleaning up the pig 
sties and stables ? Flies are very necessary 
scavengers, they say, as mosquitoes and their 
larvae are disguised ‘ angels of mercy ’ (very 
much disguised !) sent to clean up misams in 
swamps and damp places. ‘Clean up this 
world! ’ they buzz and din into our ears, 
with many an unwelcome nip and thrust. 
Every little effort toward cleanliness and 
healthfulness helps along, but not until soci¬ 
ety is fully instructed and aroused, will there 
be full relief from these cleansing pests.” 
The Right and the Wrong in Rockwork. 
BY S. B. PARSONS, JR., FLUSHING, (L. I.) N. Y. 
“ Come into my back yard and see my 
rockwork. It is pretty nice, I can tell you,” 
said a friend the other morning. Now this 
friend, be it known, has a rear lawn about 
40 by 75 feet in extent, and being artistic, 
must needs ornament it in proper keeping 
with the high style of art that reigns within 
doors. Of course, I went to survey the rock¬ 
work, and salved my conscience by not say¬ 
ing much, although I had to do some think¬ 
ing, I allow. A gardener had been employed, 
or rather, borrowed, from a neighboring 
grand show place, to superintend the erection 
of my friend’s artistic tour de force. Foreign 
lands, at least as far off as Central New York, 
had supplied strange-looking pieces of rock, 
and the colors were “white, brown, and 
streaked. ” It was, in truth, an intricately con¬ 
structed pile of stones, and there were lovely 
plants,chiefly pot plants, half-hardy,or entire¬ 
ly tender ones, growing here and there in con 
veniently arranged pockets. There were 
yuccas, coleuses, palms, tree-ferns, and even 
a musa, or banana tree, or two. But care 
was taken not to obscure the beautiful white 
and grey stones with too many plants, and 
dirt, and grass, were carefully excluded. I 
admired the plants, as no one could help do¬ 
ing, and then suggested that the stones be 
white-washed, to give the last touch to a 
perfect work of art. 
My friend curiously showed a little annoy¬ 
ance at this last suggestion, but just then my 
mind wandered to another subject, and I 
failed to soothe his perturbed spirit, as I 
should have done. I was recalling a little lawn, 
not far away, where, in just such another 
back yard, just as bare and monotonous orig¬ 
inally, somebody’s taste had arranged a 
sloping bank of greensward, irregular, but 
irregular with a method, a great, broad, 
mossy bank in the comer, and about it here 
and there smaller ones just pushing an upper 
surface above the sod. Rocks, of a kind to 
be seen anywhere in the neighborhood, 
cropped out, as if rocks abounded at that 
point, and the dip, or angle of exposure of 
these boulders, was chiefly one way, just as 
they appear on natural hill-sides. Grass, 
however, predominated on this miniature 
rocky hill-side, and a few dwarf shrubs grew 
here and there, with clusters of wild flowers, 
daisies, asters, golden-rods, ferns, crocuses, 
and violets. I remembered, however, that 
these flowers were often hidden in nooks and 
crevices of the rocks, and that grass sod 
curving around and among the rocks pre¬ 
dominated, except where now and then a 
