528 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December 
selves, or to make the front line of a bed of 
taller growing Cannas. But the great value 
of these single Dahlias is as cut flowers. 
They have long stems and last well, and their 
brilliant and varied colors make them very 
useful in large summer bouquets, and other 
decorations. The engraving shows, of the 
real size, one of the smallest and one of the 
largest of these flowers. The larger, D. lu- 
tea, is of a lively lemon yellow ; the small¬ 
er, D. glabrata, has a tender lilac color. 
Geraniums in the Window Garden. 
It is very rare to see a well-grown Geranium 
in window culture. Even if the plants bloom 
fairly, they are often drawn up, mis-shapen 
things, not pleasing to look upon. In the 
majority of cases, plants that have been set 
out in the garden for the summer, are allow¬ 
ed to “ go as you please.” The roots finding 
an abundance of rich soil, the tops grow off 
at a famous rate. At the approach of cool 
Fig. 1.— THE GERANIUM PLANT UNPRUNED. 
weather the plants are taken up as they stood; 
if any cutting is done, it is at the roots, to 
bring them within the limits of a pot, and 
the plants are placed in the window. As a 
consequence of such treatment, the majority 
of the leaves fade and fall, and show a lot of 
long, lanky stems, with a small tuft of leaves 
at the top. This condition of the plants is 
due either to a lack of knowledge or to timid¬ 
ity. Amateur cultivators, as a general thing, 
seem to fear to use the knife ; could the 
plants suffer pain, they would not be more 
reluctant to cut. The proper method is, to 
prepare the plants for taking in long before 
the time for lifting them ; but it is too late 
to advise that, as it is to suggest priming 
them at the time of taking them up. Even 
at this late day it is better to cut back the 
Geraniums to a good shape than to let them 
remain as they 
are. Of course 
each plant will 
have its own 
needs in this re¬ 
spect, and only 
general advice 
can be given. 
Cut back the long- 
stems in such a 
manner that the 
plant will form a low, rounded head, and re¬ 
move altogether such branches as will make 
the head too much crowded. The two dia¬ 
grams will give an idea of what should be 
done; figure 1 showing the stems as often 
seen, and the other (fig. 2) the same after the 
knife has been properly used upon them. In 
pruning the stems, cut just above a bud or 
leaf scar. If the cut be made just below a 
bud, or half way between two buds, the stem 
will die down to the next bud below, leaving 
an unsightly stub. New growth will soon 
start, and the plant will, after a while, pre¬ 
sent an appearance so greatly improved, that 
the owner will regret that it had not been 
done before. Geraniums are not the only 
window plants that need pruning to keep 
them in a neat form, but those who take 
proper care of their plants can do much of 
this by pinching with the thumb and finger 
nails, or removing altogether those buds that 
appear where a shoot is not desired. 
-—«?>-<£»-- 
Improvements in Raising Vegetable 
Plants. 
The manner in which our gardeners have 
broken away from routine practice, and have 
devised methods better suited to their condi¬ 
tions and surroundings, is nowhere more 
strikingly shown than in their appliances for 
producing “vegetable plants,” that is, young 
plants which in their early stage require spe¬ 
cial treatment,in order that they may be ready 
to be planted in the open ground at the proper 
season. Where one had to supply only enough 
plants for his own garden, he could get along 
with the old hot-bed—a frame placed upon a 
heap of fermenting manure. Such plants 
have of late years become articles of trade, 
and to raise them by thousands—indeed by 
millions—would be almost impracticable by 
the old methods. The placing of the manure 
in a trench, instead of in a heap, was a great 
help; the use of flats or shallow boxes for 
sowing and transplanting; the use of shutters 
instead of straw mats over the glass ; the 
employment of prepared cloth as a substitute 
for glass, to protect advanced plants, are some 
of the improvements in this department of 
gardening. One of the greatest 
innovations is the substitution of 
fire, instead of manure, for heat¬ 
ing the beds. In some localities 
manure is very scarce, or can not 
be had at all, and some substi¬ 
tute must be found, hence in 
such places beds have been heat¬ 
ed by means of fire for several 
years. At present, some of the 
largest establishments, especially 
in the Western States, use such 
beds altogether, while gardeners in the older 
States have low propagating houses, heated by 
hot-water pipes. Such houses are vastly more 
convenient than beds, but they at the same 
time cost many times as much. In the houses, 
nearly all the heat is utilized, as the pipes are 
surrounded only by air; in the beds with 
flues about as much heat is wasted as is used, 
the flues being in contact with the earth, 
heat is conducted away in all directions 
equally, as much going downwards, where it 
is not needed, as passes upwards. Still, where 
fuel is cheap, this is offset by so many 
advantages, that heating by this method 
is becoming general. We are glad to have 
a description of the manner of constructing 
beds to be heated by flues from a correspond¬ 
ent in Pennsylvania. This, which is given 
elsewhere, comes from one who has grown 
plants by this method for six years, and finds 
it so much more satisfactory than the old 
hot-beds that he wishes others to know of it. 
Hot-Beds with Eire Heat. 
BY B. D. BARNHART, ALLEGHENY CO., PA. 
“ The diagram explains the arrangement, 
the double lines showing the frame, and dot¬ 
ted lines the furnace and flues. The arch of 
the furnace must be of brick, as I have not 
been able to find any stone that would stand 
even the moderate heat required. For an¬ 
thracite coal, the furnace' should be 12 inches 
square and six feet long, with a grate ; for 
bituminous coal, 18 inches square and four 
feet long; and for wood, three feet square 
and six feet long. The flues I have always 
built of small stones, and laid up without 
mortar; they should be six to eight inches 
square on the inside, and their top at least 
one foot below the surface of the bed ; they 
are covered with earth in the same manner 
as a drain laid in a field. I make the flues 
along the sides of the frames, as I find that, 
built thus, the heat in the middle of the 
frame is such as to force tomatoes faster than 
over the flue. The flues should have a rise 
of at least one foot in every 20 feet of their 
length, and one in 15 feet would be better. 
If a place can be selected at a hill-side with 
the right exposure, the labor of sinking a 
furnace pit may be avoided. If bituminous 
coal is to be used, the frames should not be 
over 50 feet in length, as the flues become 
clogged with soot and are difficult to clean 
if much longer. For anthracite the length 
may be 125 feet, and the further end will 
be sufficiently warm for cabbage and let¬ 
tuce plants, using the warmer portion for 
tomatoes, etc. I have always burned wood 
with the fine refuse of our bituminous coal 
mines, and without any grate ; but if an¬ 
thracite coal is used, a grate is absolutely 
necessary. There must be an air chamber 
immediately over the furnace, otherwise the 
soil there will become too hot and injure the 
seeds or plants. The top of the furnace is 
covered with six inches of earth, and above 
this is placed a flooring of boards, or flat 
stones, the latter being the most durable. 
This flooring is placed two inches above the 
earth that covers the furnace, thus forming 
an air-chamber two inches high beneath that 
end of the bed. This chamber extends the 
whole width of the frame and for six feet be¬ 
yond the furnace. An opening is left under¬ 
neath the frame at both sides to allow the 
i hot air to escape. The chimney is made of 
j four boards, 16 feet long, two of them six 
| and two eight inches wide ; it must of course 
be well stayed to resist storms. I have found 
the advantages of such a hot-bed to be that, 
when once made, it lasts for year's ; I can 
start it at pleasure, very early if need be, and 
keep it as warm as is necessary. With the 
ordinary hot-bed, should the cold weather 
continue longer than the heat of the manure 
lasts, you are almost helpless, while with 
this system the heat can be kept up as long 
as cold weather lasts or heat is needed.” 
Fig. 2. —TIIE PRUNED PLANT. 
DIAGRAM SHOWING FRAME, FURNACE, AND FLUES OF HOT-BED. 
