1879.] 
AME RICAN AGRICUJL.T UR 1ST. 
3 T9 
growth is often small. A plant, if pot-grown, 
though less than a foot high at the start, will often 
make a growth of 10 feet the first season. I have 
advocated this method of pot culture, for all such 
plants, to florists and nurserymen for the past 20 
years, and we are yearly adding to the number of 
species of plants that we grow in this manner. 
A New Raspberry—The Chinese. 
BY PROP. C. S. SARGENT, DIRECTOR OP THE ARNOLD ARBO¬ 
RETUM OP HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
We have cultivated for the last two or three years 
a Rubus, native of Manchuria, Northern China and 
Japan ( Rubus cratcegifolius, Bunge), with the suppo¬ 
sition that it was a Blackberry, and of little horti¬ 
cultural importance or value, except as an orna¬ 
mental plant of neat habit, remarkable for its rich 
autumnal coloring. This year the plants have 
fruited, and it proves to be a true Raspberry. The 
fruit is large, firm, clustered, nearly semi-spherical, 
of a brilliant orange-scarlet color, and with a flavor 
which suggests the common Black Raspberry or 
Thimbleberry. The largest fruit I have noticed is 
«/ e of an inch in diameter, and rather longer than 
broad. Probably as a table fruit the Chinese Rasp¬ 
berry is hardly worth cultivating, but it is suggest¬ 
ed that by using it to cross with some of 
the delicate garden varieties, a hybrid 
might be obtained hardier than anything 
now in cultivation. Such a hybrid might 
be expected to produce large and very 
high-colored, handsome fruit, of great sub¬ 
stance, and therefore valuable for market 
purposes. The neat habit, great hardi¬ 
ness, large, brilliant fruit, and especially 
the rich claret color which its foliage as¬ 
sumes in autumn, render the Chinese 
Raspberry one of the most desirable of 
the many shrubs recently introduced from 
its native countries. [We may expect to 
hear more from this interesting Raspberry 
in due time, as we learn that a few expe¬ 
rienced hybridizers will be supplied with 
young plants from the Arboretum, to give them an 
opportunity to test its horticultural value. Ed.] 
Labels for Fruit Trees. 
BY CHARLES DOWNING. 
[A Tree-label seems like a small affair, yet to 
the fruit-grower who appreciates the value of ac¬ 
curacy, it is a matter of no little importance, and a 
label easily made and applied, and fairly permanent, 
is so desirable that we have given, during the past 
few years, all the devices that have been sent us. 
Some of our correspondents, thinking that we were 
unacquainted with it, have sent us directions for 
making the common label: a piece of pine, smeared 
with white paint, and written upon, while the paint 
is still wet, with a lead-pencil. This is so old and 
so generally known, that we regard it as the label, 
in use by every one, and the standard with which all 
claimed improvements must be measured. Tet 
there are different methods of making" this, the 
simplest of all labels, concerning which our corres¬ 
pondent, Mr. Charles Downing, writes : Ed.] “ I 
have used the wooden label, (spoken of by ‘F.” 
Clarion Co., Pa., mentioned in the July No., page 
253) for many years, and although not perfect, has 
proved as valuable as any of the many kinds tried, 
considering the small amount of labor required to 
prepare them. The label should have a good coat 
of white paint all over it; and when thoroughly 
dried, paint one side of the label again, and imme¬ 
diately write the name firmly, with a lead-pencil. 
When well done, this will last for many years. For 
a more permanent label, I am indebted to Isaac T. 
Woodson, Mumfordsville, Ky. ; one which I have 
not seen published. After the labels are prepared 
and once painted—as above, take two of the same 
size, paint one side of each, and while freak, write 
the same name on each ; wlieu dry, put the two la¬ 
bels together—one name inside and the other out¬ 
side ; put a wire over each end of the two labels 
securely, and suspend the two as one label. When 
the outside label is obliterated, take off the wires, 
and you will have the name on the inside as plain 
as when written. I find annealed copper-wire, No. 
20, the best for labels. [To illustrate the label here 
described, Mr. Downing kindly sends one ready to 
put upon the tree, which allows us to make the 
matter plainer by the engraving given below. Ed.] 
Perforated Potatoes. 
Nearly every season, specimens are sent us, show¬ 
ing potatoes, carrots, and other garden vegetables 
perforated, as it is alleged, by “roots” of some 
grass. The engraving, of a potato, recently re¬ 
ceived, will show the general appearance in such 
cases. The “ root ” charged with the mischief is 
not a root at all, but an under-ground stem, called 
by botanists root-stock, or rhizome. Several grasses 
have these under-ground stems, which grow in a 
horizontal direction a short distance below the sur¬ 
face. They are net, like the above-ground stems, 
which grow upright, furnished with green leaves, 
but at their joints, just where leaves start on the 
above-ground stems, there are large, chaffy scales, 
in place of leaves, as seen in the engraving. Like 
an above-ground stem, this one which grows be¬ 
low the surface is made up of joints, which are 
gradually shorter towards the end, and at the very 
end there is a terminal bud or growing point. This 
terminal bud is very sharp in the grasses, and as it 
is pushed forward by the growth of the stem, it 
can as easily pierce a potato, as it can force its way 
through the earth. Two common grasses have 
root-stocks sufficiently strong to penetrate roots 
and tubers in this manner; the Mexican Drop-Seed 
(Muhlenbergia Mexicana) and the Couch, or Quack- 
Grass (Triticum repens ). The first named of these, 
though called “ Mexican,” is very common every¬ 
where, in the older States at least, and is often mis¬ 
taken for the Couch, or Quack-Grass, on account of 
a similar habit of growth, being abundantly pro¬ 
vided with long under-ground stems. It is a much 
more slender plant in all respects, and has its 
flowers in an open panicle, while Quack-Grass has 
them in a close head like wheat. In the case of 
the potato here shown, we judge from the size— 
nothing above-ground being sent, that the mischief 
is due to Quack-Grass rather than to the other. 
t®b mdsbbdiud. 
Hor other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Red Paint in Horiiculture. — Red paint 
may be made very useful in a small way, especially 
in making conspicuous such small articles as are 
liable to be lost. The handles of trowels, weeding 
forks, pruning knives, and all such small imple¬ 
ments, if painted bright red may be very readily 
found when dropped in the grass or otherwise mis¬ 
laid. But flower tubs, hanging baskets, and many 
other things, which should be as inconspicuous 
as possible, arc now very often painted the most 
positive and staring red, which makes them appear 
obtrusive and to force themselves upon the atten¬ 
tion, while the plants they hold, and to which they 
should be secondary, are rendered less noticeable. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Suggestions about Carpet-Sweeping. 
Sweeping is a good exercise if you can avoid rais¬ 
ing a dust. But if you are in need of vigorous exer¬ 
cise of that kind, get a hoe and betake yourself to 
the potato-patch or corn-field. Sweep carpets gent- 
ly. Even a rag carpet should be treated with con¬ 
sideration. A severe digging with a stiff broora 
wears the warp and scrapes out the lint of the rags 
quite needlessly. Not long ago I heard a woman 
say that a very stiff broom was needed for sweep¬ 
ing a Brussels carpet. I thought to myself “a 
stiff broom will never sweep my Brussels carpets ” 
(good reason why !), as I imagined the tearing out 
of the soft tufting of the carpet by the coarse, sharp 
broom splints. A carpet-sweeper is the best thing 
for this purpose. It does the work easily and well, 
and saves dust. A brush of hair and dust-pan are 
good to use for the nicest carpets, but their use is 
too laborious for recommendation to a busy house-' 
keeper. If a common broom-coni broom must be 
used for Brussels, it should be fine, soft, light, and 
clean. To sweep up threads, ravelings, and other 
fine litter, many persons wet the broom in clean 
tepid water, shaking out the water before sweeping 
with it, just keeping the broom moist enough to 
wipe up the fine dust and threads, rinsing in clear 
water and shaking it frequently as the work pro¬ 
gresses. Brussels carpets are not suitable for rooms 
where sewing and baby-culture are going forward. 
In providing carpets for any room, reason would 
dictate that they be such as may easily be kept 
clean ; not so dark as to show every dust and thread, 
nor so light as to be very easily soiled—something 
which will either let the dust sift through or retain 
it on the surface, rather than in the carpet itself, 
when to be used in rooms where dust is made. 
Care of Carpets. 
To make sweeping an easy task, get carpets of a 
kind that are easily swept, then save them from 
unnecessary litter by care about scattering fine 
chips or crumbs of wood, cloth, paper, or food. 
Eating should be done in rooms easily cleaned, with ■ 
carpets of oil-cloth, or similar material, or with bare 
floors, or with a linen crumb-cloth spread upon the 
carpet underneath the table. Children should not 
be allowed to run about the house with pieces of 
food in their hands. If their food is not all taken 
at the table, the child should be obliged to sit still 
somewhere, catching its crumbs upon a napkin, bib, 
or apron, instead of dropping them upon the floor. 
Children who learn “to save mamma trouble,” and 
so get at least a smile of gratitude from her for 
their thoughtfulness, are far happier than those 
who are not trained to care, but are allowed to make 
themselves a general nuisance among orderly peo¬ 
ple. If they wish to whittle, or to cut paper or 
dolly things, in your best rooms, you need not 
necessarily refuse them. Spread a large cloth or 
newspaper down to catch the chips or clippings, 
and see that it is safely emptied so soon as the 
child’s work is done. Grown up people are some¬ 
times very annoying, because of their lack of this 
kind of early training. They pull flowers to pieces 
in your parlors, whittle on your smoothly-shaven 
lawn, scatter fruit peelings and cigar stumps about 
the yard, scribble on the covers of your magazines 
and margins of newspapers, and scratch matches 
on the walls of the house, or leave disagreeable 
marks of some kind in every possible place. 
The Choice of a Broom. 
After the carpet and the care, next comes the 
broom—soft and limber, and not too large and 
heavy. I always send for light brooms now, hav¬ 
ing found how much more strength it uses up to 
wield a large and heavy broom. Besides, except 
for scrubbing, I want a broom to use gently. A 
short, quick stroke takes all the dust along before 
it, and does not send it flying all over the shelves, 
pictures, etc., so that much that you have stirred 
up and set flying about settles back over the carpet 
