1882. J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
555 
Starting' Plants in the House or Hot-bed. 
BY JOSEFH HARRIS—AUTHOR “ WALKS AND* TALKS ON 
THE FARM,*’ ETC. 
In the absence of a propagating house, much 
may be done in the way of starting early plants in 
one’s dwelling or hot-bed. The principal impedi¬ 
ment commonly experienced is in the difficulty of 
obtaining, in the spring, the proper kind of soil or 
compost to put in the boxes or hot-bed. Profes¬ 
sional gardeners prepare the soil with great care 
the previous year, but if winter is about to set in, 
and you have nothing ready, excellent results may 
be obtained by placing in the cellar a load or two 
of any good light sandy loam ; the lighter and 
richer the better. In the spring, before using it, 
run it through a sieve, so as to remove all stones 
and lumps and rubbish. If you have it, mix a 
tablespoonful of superphosphate to each half 
bushel of soil; then get some peat—moss, or 
Sphagnum, such as nurserymen use for packing—■ 
dry it thoroughly, and sift it fine, and to each peck 
of soil put two or three quarts of this fine, dry 
sifted moss; mix carefully, and you will have as 
good a material for starting fine seeds as I have 
ever used. 
Leaf-mould is a very fair substitute for moss. i„ 
contains much plant food, is light and porous, and 
retains considerable moisture. By leaf-mould, I 
do not mean muck from the swamp, but the de¬ 
composed leaves and sand scraped up in the 
woods. Leaf-mould, like muck, varies consider¬ 
ably in composition and value. The best is ob¬ 
tained from Beech, Maple and Oak woods. The 
leaf-mould should be gathered the previous sum¬ 
mer and kept in the cellar until wanted. Before 
using, it should be mixed with equal parts of sand 
and sifted. For merely starting plants, rich soil is 
not essential. Seeds will germinate in moss and 
sand as well as in the richest mould. After the 
plants are started and begin to grow, a liftle plant 
food is necessary, and in this case leaf-mould is 
better than moss. Equal parts of sods, sand and 
well-rotted manure made into a compost and 
worked over, and sifted until it is fine, is a favorite 
material for potting plants. 
Dried muck from the swamps is an exceedingly 
useful material for the gardener. Iu many sec¬ 
tions of this country it can be obtained at little 
more than the cost of cutting, drying, and carting 
it. No gardener ever has too much of it. It has 
many excellent properties. It will make heavy 
soil light. It will make dry soil moist. It will 
make cold soil warm. It is an excellent absorbent 
of water and gases. It is itself a manure, and can 
be used to great advantage in our stables, cow¬ 
houses and pig-pens, as well as for mixing with 
manure in our compost heaps. The practical diffi¬ 
culty is in getting the muck dry and keeping it 
dry. We want a place for storing it, and above all 
we want to form the habit of getting muck and 
using it on our farms and gardens. No one doubts 
its value, but we hardly know how to commence 
its use. It is, however, a very simple matter. We 
usually throw up the muck in the summer and let 
it lie in a heap until winter, when we have plenty 
of leisure to draw it. Another plan is to throw it 
up in July, turn it over a few weeks later to facili¬ 
tate the drying, and early in the fall, before heavy 
rains set in, draw it to a shed, or cellar, or jbarn, 
where it can be kept dry and ready for use at any 
time. The farmer who has a good supply of dried 
muck on hand will find it of great use in many of 
his gardening operations. 
The boxes I have used for starting plants are two 
and one half feet long, twelve inches wide, and 
three inches deep, made of half-inch stutf. A screw 
at each end, about an inch from the top on the 
outermost corners, is wound round by a piece of 
wire two feet eight inches long, the other end of 
the wire being twisted round to a screw fastened 
to the window. These boxes are placed on the sill of 
the window. The length of the box, of course, be 
ing determined by the width of the window, it can 
be made wide or narrow according as you have 
more or less room in the house. There may.be 
windows where you could have them two feet wide 
without inconvenience ; if so the plants will do 
just as well, and the boxes, of course, will hold 
twice the number of plants. I have had better suc- 
J cess in starting plants in these boxes in the house, 
than in a hot-bed as ordinarily managed. The plants 
are in sight all the time, and are less liable to be neg¬ 
lected. The children, especially, soon learn to take 
an interest in these plant-boxes in the house. They 
require a little assistance in sifting the soil and moss, 
and putting it in the boxes, and in fastening the 
boxes in the window-sills. But they can sow the 
seed and cover it with a little sifted moss them¬ 
selves. It is very desirable, however, to write the 
names of the seeds to be sown, with the date of 
sowing, on some wooden labels to mark the rows 
where the different seeds and different varieties are 
sown. If this is neglected much of the interest 
will be lost. 
An Improved Stable Window. 
H. M. FANCHER, PENN. 
A convenient, serviceable manure window is 
here illustrated. Cut the window hole of a 
A SIDE WINDOW TO STABLE. 
proper size. For the window a single board may 
be used ; its size should be 2 or 3 in. larger in length 
and breadth than the window-hole, so as to over¬ 
lap. Fasten it by hinges or leather-straps, so as to 
open upwards. The main feature about the window 
is the hook. This should be of stout wire or iron, 
fastened to the window by a staple immediately be¬ 
low its center, and of such alength as to hook into a 
staple driven into the outer end of the tie girth (or 
floor) immediately below. Thus fastened at an 
angle with the window, it serves as a brace, securing 
it from all outward or inward pressure. When open, 
the hook catches over a pin driven in the beam 
above. A window of this style of any length, up to4 
or more feet, will not clog or stick fast, is secure 
when closed, and out of the way when open. 
-- 
Better Care of Meadows. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Red Clover and Timothy, mixed half and half, 
make a good meadow. Red Top is well suited for 
wet ground, and if carefully put in, will afford a 
large yield of hay of excellent quality. It is a waste 
of seed to put clover on wet ground. Timothy 
does well on dry ground, and will also grow on moist 
land, if it is under-drained, and the surface does 
not heave up with the frost. Red Top grows with 
more fibrous and extended roots, and will maintain 
its hold upon the soil for years. The same is true 
of Orchard grass, which has a very strong root. 
This grass starts early, is first to head out, and 
will produce the most after-growth of any variety. 
It is not so well adapted to meadows, on account 
of the sparseness of stems, making the yield of hay 
light in comparison with Timothy and Red Top. 
The care of meadows iu order to insure perma¬ 
nence, is the next important consideration. They 
are often injured by allowing the grasses to become 
too ripe before cutting, which weakens the roots. 
It is better to cut the grass while the stems are 
sufficiently green, and the juices active, so that a 
new growth will immediately commence. This 
will protect the plants from the scorching rays of 
the sun, and keep up the full vigor of the roots. 
It can not be expected that a meadow can be shorn 
of all life-giving verdure, during the hot, dry 
I weather of mid-summer, and maintain a healthy 
condition. The meadows designed to be perma- 
I nent, should be mowed first in the season, and never 
so pastured as to leave the crowns or tops of the 
roots of the grasses exposed. In fields where the 
ground is moist,'inclining to wetness, an exception 
may be made, as a new growtli will be rapidly pro¬ 
duced. It is essential that there should be a sur¬ 
face protection when winter 6ets in. Meadows 
may be strengthened to make larger yields, and in 
fact, almost renewed, by spreading manure over 
them in the autumn. Another excellent plan is to 
sow them over with plaster (sulphate of lime,) as 
soon as possible after the hay crop has been taken 
off, which will help to start an after-growth, so 
much needed at this time. Another dressing of 
plaster in the spring will be beneficial. These ex¬ 
tra attentions to meadows are unusual, but will 
abundantly repay the labor. The rolling of mead¬ 
ows early in the spring pushes the roots started 
up by the frost back into the soil, and smoothes 
down uneven surfaces for the mowing machine. 
In a very dry time, when the hay is ripe, the stubble 
should be cut at least two inches in liight, so that 
there may be a little juice left in the plant. This 
lack of thought and care on the part of farmers, is 
the reason why meadows so frequently fail. They 
are most effectually beheaded. We can never expect 
in our changeable and severe climate, to possess 
permanent meadows which are so natural to Great 
Britain, excepting on bottom lands, but by following 
carefully the suggestions here given, greater per¬ 
manency may be given to them. This is more de¬ 
sirable after the labor and expense of making a 
meadow smooth, and clearing it of stones for the 
mowing machine. The annual wear and tear to a 
mower run over stones, will pay for fitting the 
land. This is often forgotten by those who work 
on a temporary basis. Permanency and painstak¬ 
ing are far better grounds for successful farming. 
Fearless Two-horse Power, positively un6pi/3lGd for ease of 
team and amount of power, and Standard Feed-cutter that gives the 
most unbounded satisfaction. Cutting feed saves money. 
Economy says try it. Fearless Threshers and Cleaners, Clover- 
hullers, Wood Circular-saw Machines and Fanning-mills, not ex¬ 
celled by any. Buy the best. Catalogue sent free. Address, 
’1IINAKD IIAKDEK, Cobleskill, Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
Some very valuable pieces of land for sale at 
a bargain, in Colfax and Madison Counties, Nebras¬ 
ka. Persons with means, who purpose proceed¬ 
ing to Nebraska now or in the spring to buy lands, 
would do well to first correspond with me, as the 
above pieces will be sold at a bargain. State, in 
making inquiries, just how many acres you want. 
I also have a good Dairy Farm of 100 acres (with 
stock,) for sale in Orange County, N. Y., at a 
bargain. Address, 
G. T. T1MPSON, 
Box M, Station D, NEW YORK CITY. 
