1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
63 
■was employed as a greenhouse climber, and per¬ 
haps our English friends have not learned how 
hardy it is. We have a plant which, near New 
York City, has stood the winters of the past 12 
years—and in that time there have been the most 
fatal seasons Of the past half century—without a 
particle of injury. At South Amboy, in New Jer¬ 
sey, on one of Mr. Geo. Such’s houses, is the largest 
specimen that we know of; this is in a place exposed 
to ocean gales, yet runs to the top of a large two- 
story house and is most luxuriant. We do not 
know of a finer hardy climber than Akebia quinata. 
Obstinacy. —The French journals, the editors of 
which know nothing of the Colorado Potato 
Beetle, will persist in calling it Leptinotarsa decetn- 
lineata, while our entomologists, who have not only 
studied the entomology, but the etymology of the 
pest, know that it is Doryphora and nothing else. 
Liberality of the Japanese.— The fine col¬ 
lection of rare and peculiar Japanese plants shown 
at the Paris Exposition have been given to the Jar- 
din des Plantes , where they will be multiplied and 
distributed among various cultivators free of cost. 
'“Everybody’s Flower” The Chinese 
Primrose. 
A recent English author calls the Chinese Prim¬ 
rose “Everybody’s Flower,” and when we are told 
that one house alone sends annually 10,000 pots of 
this plant to the London market, we must admit 
that it is exceedingly popular. Why should it not 
be as popular in this country as there ? We know 
of no plant for an ordinary window that, if man¬ 
aged rightly, will be more sure to give flowers. 
Notwithstanding this, we rarely see it in window 
gardens. Its leaves are handsome, its flowers, 
white and of various shades from light rose to full 
crimson, are varied as to size and margin, are both 
single and double, and bloom in great profusion 
for a long time—nearly all winter. They are easily 
raised from seed, but as those for winter flowers 
should be started in spring, it is too late to talk 
about that. Plants may be had at low rates of the 
florists, and we do not know how a lover of flowers 
can get better returns for a small outlay, than to 
procure some Chinese Primroses, single or double. 
The single have broader flowers as a general thing, 
and we would advise the novice to select them. 
One thing is essential to success: procure the 
plants before they have been subjected to green¬ 
house treatment, and all the better before the 
buds, if formed, have made much progress. If 
the plants have been started into growth in the 
warm and moist atmosphere of the greenhouse, and 
the buds are well developed under these conditions, 
when taken to the atmosphere of an ordinary room, 
the buds will be sure to blast; tbe flower cluster 
■will grow, and the large calyx make a show, but 
the corolla within will be found shriveled and 
useless. By observing this precaution, and select¬ 
ing plants that, if they show buds at all, have them 
in an undeveloped state, and hidden close down at 
the base of the leaves, they will, with the most 
ordinary care, give an abundance of bloom, and 
make good their claim to be “ Everybody’s Flower.” 
A Useful Sod-Cutter. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
For making a small lawn, it is far more expedi¬ 
tious and satisfactory in all respects, to lay down 
turf, if it can be procured, and even where the sur¬ 
face is too large to be turfed, sods are almost 
indispensable for those portions bordering upon 
roads or paths, as well as for the outlines of such 
beds as may be made in it. The usual method of 
cutting turf is to lay down a board of the desired 
width; the operator, while standing upon the board, 
cuts down on each side of it with a sharp spade. 
Then lifting an end of the strip with the spade, 
one person rolls the turf, while another, with the 
spade, cuts away the long roots that penetrate the 
soil below. A roll made of a strip 12 feet long is as 
large as two persons can conveniently handle. Mr. 
Snook, whose notions are usually very practical, 
suggests a sod-cutter made as follows : “ The body 
of the cutter, A, is a block of hard-wood, 10 inches 
thick, 12 to 15 inches wide [12 will be better than 
wider, Ed.], and 3 feet long. The cutler, B, is a 
strip of J-inch iron, 3 inches wide, and bent at the 
ends at right angles to fit tlie block, as shown in 
the engraving ; one side of this is hammered thin, 
and ground to an edge, not only along the horizon¬ 
tal part, hut for 3 or 4 inches on the turn-up por¬ 
tions. This is then firmly bolted to the block, the 
distance below It being governed by the thickness 
at which the turf is to be cut. The lower part of 
the block, immediately above the knife, is hollowed 
out to allow the turf to pass easily between the 
block and the cutter. There is, of course, an ar¬ 
rangement for hitching a horse to it, and a couple 
of handles, like plow-handles, are attached to al¬ 
low the implement to be guided. The block may 
be weighted, if necessary, to keep it down.” 
Transplanting Trees in Winter. 
It is unquestionably better to transplant trees 
when small, from the nursery rows, either in spring 
or autumn. But it is sometimes desirable to move 
large ornamental or fruit trees from the forest or 
pasture, or from their place in the orchard or lawn 
where they have been planted too close. This is 
best done in the winter, and by the frozen-ball 
method. Dig a trench around the tree, making the 
ball of earth two or more yards in diameter, accord- 
, ing to the size of the tree. For a tree six or eight 
inches through at the butt, the trench need not be 
more than two feet deep, and may he dug at any 
time late in autumn, or during a thaw in winter. 
The places to receive the trees are to be prepared 
beforehand, and furnished with rich loam. When 
the ground is frozen a foot or eighteen inches, the 
block of earth can be pried out with levers, put 
upon a stone-boat, and removed to its new home. 
A rock-lifter, or stump-puller, is a much more con¬ 
venient machine to do the lifting and transplanting. 
If the work is carefully done, there is no risk at all 
in the removal. The roots are not exposed, and 
frequently the tree, the next year after transplant¬ 
ing, will make the average growth of wood. This 
method is particularly desirable in removing ever¬ 
greens that have been too closely planted, and be¬ 
gin to crowd one another. Valuable trees, six or 
eight years old may thus be saved that must other¬ 
wise be sacrificed. We have frequently moved 
large seedling pears from old pastures by this 
means, put on new tops, and in three or four years 
had them loaded with the finest varieties of pears. 
■ In preparing borders for the transplanting of large 
fruit trees, they should be made extra large and 
should be well supplied with rich compost, and a 
barrel or more of bones to each tree. Connecticut. 
Fertilizers for House Plants.—When a 
plant is in a bad condition, it is a mistake to apply 
a stimulating fertilizer. The causes of ill-health are 
many, but the most general one with those who 
had no experience in the care of plants is, over¬ 
watering. Plants, to live, must have water, therefore 
the more water the better, seems to be the reason¬ 
ing, and the consequence is starved, nearly leafless 
sticks in pots of mud. In the majority of cases 
withholding the water is the one thing needed, and 
with invalids, a stimulating fertilizer is the one 
thing, of all others, not needed. When plants are 
in a flourishing condition and making growth, then 
fertilizers may be useful, especially if the soil in 
the pots was originally rather poor. Any of the 
fertilisers used in the garden would answer for 
plants in the house, were it> not necessary to avoid 
unpleasant odors, and to consult neatness and ease 
of application. For hard-wooded, slow growing 
plants very fine bone—flour of bone—sold by seeds¬ 
men for the purpose, is perhaps the best; a few table¬ 
spoonfuls being forked into the soil of the pot. 
For soft-wooded quick growers, a liquid fertilizer 
may be used. This may be guano, a teaspoonful 
to a gallon of water; soot, two tablespoonfuls to a 
gallon, or theWater of Ammonia (Liquid Hartshorn) 
of the drug stores, an ounce to the gallon. Water 
the plants with either of these instead of clear 
water once or twice a week, as the condition of the 
plant requires. No invariable rule can be given. 
THE H©1U§EH(©m 
tSjT For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH BOCHESTEB. 
Catching' Cold.—Dry Bathing, 
Thin-skinned persons catch cold most easily. 
Active exercise sets them into a perspiration, and 
the sudden checking of the perspiration when exer¬ 
cise ceases, causes a cold. Such persons may seldom 
have severe colds if they learn how to manage them, 
and perhaps they have less actual sickness—such as 
interferes with work or pleasure—than persons who 
do not take cold easily. Flesh brushing during the 
cooler months lessens the liability to catch cold. 
A flesh brush is much like an ordinary hair brush, 
only with a longer handle. I have seen a very good 
one made of a hair brush with a longer handle at¬ 
tached to it. Habit makes the use of a flesh brush 
on undressing for bed or on rising in the morning, 
a luxury and almost a necessity for comfort. A 
brief vigorous rubbing of the skin promotes its 
healthy activity and its ability to resist cold. 
Cold bathing has been recommended as a pre¬ 
ventative of cold, but it has dangers connected with 
it which dry friction has not. For persons in ordi¬ 
nary health I cannot believe in bathing, except for 
cleanliness, and water of comfortable temperature 
answers this purpose best. The cold baths which 
shock the system and then cause a vigorous reac¬ 
tion (in those strong enough to bear them at all), 
seems to be objectionable for the same reasons that 
other stimulants are, used in any cases except in 
emergencies. They seem to increase the strength, 
but call it out unnaturally only to waste it. But a 
bath is an excellent thing as a curative agent when 
one has taken cold, if used judiciously. 
For instance, a boy in this family hung out the 
clothes for his mother one chilly washing day not 
long ago, and when he came in it appeared that he 
had been handling the cold, wet clothes bare handed 
and bare-headed, and he was thoroughly chilled all 
over. This happened just after a late hearty dinner, 
and as the chill seemed to increase I was confirmed 
in my suspicions that he had taken a hard cold. I 
had him put on his overcoat and sit with his feet 
to the fire in a warm room until he was thoroughly 
warmed, and before he went to bed he had a com¬ 
fortable bath by the fire and a good rubbing; and 
if there was any “ cold” next day, it was so slight 
that we did not notice it. I have tried the same 
method of cure for myself when warned by obsti¬ 
nate chilliness that I had taken cold, with excellent 
success, and I think it much more reasonable than 
to derange the stomach with any of the popular 
doses used for colds. Half our colds would be 
avoided altogether if we would not allow ourselves 
to get gradually chilled by going with insufficient 
clothing, or sitting in chilly rooms, allowing an un¬ 
comfortable condition of chilliness, because tbe 
cold does not actually pinch and sting us. A brief 
sharp exposure is less dangerous if quickly followed 
by the proper temperature. This should not be a 
hot-house atmosphere or a summer climate in our 
homes. In that case the change is too great from 
the out to the in-door atmosphere. 
Sleeping in "Warm Booms. 
Every winter I see paragraphs in the newspapers 
recommending this practice, but my own experience 
and that of my friends, leads to a preference for 
