280 
AMEEICAl^ AGEIOULTUEIST. 
[July, 
A Southern Well-House and Bath-Room. 
Few southern people in moderate circumstances 
would dispense with their bath-room. Instead of 
adjoining the sleeping room, as at the North, the 
bath-room is usually in a separate building, located 
near a spring or well. A very desirable bath-house 
and well-room combined, is shown in the engrav¬ 
ing. The apartment containing the pump may be 
completely surrounded with lattice work, and 
when practicable, quick-growing vines should be 
trained over the lattice, giving the whole a cool, 
refreshing appearance. Instead of windows to 
light the bath-room, there may be lattice-work from 
beneath the eaves, dowm to five and a half feet from 
the ground. At the South the water is seldom 
warmed, and is usually pumped directly into the 
bath tub. The outlet pipe should discharge the 
waste water several rods from the well. The build¬ 
ing shown in the engraving is ten by fifteen feet, 
a little more than half being used for the bath-room. 
The Grapevine in Summer. 
There is no time, from the first pushing of the 
shoots, until the leaves are ready to fall, but de¬ 
structive insects of some kind attack the grapevine. 
Fortunately, the later insects are mainly large cater¬ 
pillars or beetles, and one who is frequently among 
his vines, can destroy them before they can do 
much injury. The great pest in the hot months of 
July and August is mildew, and the vine grower 
should be constantly on the look out for it. Some 
varieties of the grape are much more subject to its 
attacks than others, and these vines should be 
watched lor the first appearance of the scourge. 
Whitish or grayish spots or blotches on the under 
surface of the leaves, are mildew, and the remedy, 
a thorough dusting with sulphur, should be applied 
at once. Sulphur beliows are now kept in the seed 
and implement stores. Before using, the sulphur 
should be run through a sieve, in order to remove 
all lumps. Too large a quantity should not be 
placed in the bellows at one time, and in using it, 
the bellows should be so worked as to deliver a 
cloud of fine dust. Choose a still, hot day, and en¬ 
deavor to have the under surface of the leaves as 
thoroughly dusted as the upper. A second dusting 
of sulphur may be made in about a week after the 
first, and it should be applied all through the sea¬ 
son if mildew appears. Not only in early spring, 
but later in the season, strong, vigorous shoots will 
appear upon the main stem of the vine. These 
start at no particular place, and grow with great 
rapidity. Novices in grape culture are puzzled as 
to the proper treatment of these shoots. A shoot 
from a regular bud, if not needed, is broken away, 
and the same should be done with these chance 
shoots. Unless a cane is needed just where such a 
shoot appears, break it off. The laterals puzzle 
many, but their treatment is very simple. As a 
shoot grows, there will be found two buds at the 
axil of each leaf—the part where the leaf joins 
the stem. Later, one of these buds will start into 
growth—this shoot is called a lateral. We wish to 
keep one bud perfectly dormant, for next year’s 
fruiting. If the shoot from the bud that has start¬ 
ed were pulled out, the other one would start into 
growth, and there would be no fruit from it next 
year. The proper treatment of the laterals is, to 
pinch them back to one leaf, as often as they push. 
Cuttings of Unripe Wood. 
The experience of amateur gardeners in raising 
plants from cuttings, is, as a rule, confined to the 
currant and the grape. Cut¬ 
tings from the ripened wood 
of currants of all kinds, take 
root very readily. The cut¬ 
tings made from the prun- 
ings of most, but not all, 
varieties of the grape, will 
take root and form new 
plants. Amateurgardeners 
who would like to propagate 
their ornamental shrubs, 
find if they take cuttings, as 
they would of the currant 
and grape, from the ripe 
wood, they rarely succeed. 
Shrubs that refuse to be 
propagated from pieces of 
the mature stems, will usu¬ 
ally succeed if cuttings are 
made of green, or just 
hardening stems. Cuttings 
of this kind have leaves, 
from which evaporation 
goes on rapidly ; if planted in the open air, they 
will be very apt to fail. To succeed, it is neces¬ 
sary to provide a moist atmosphere, or as the 
old gardeners would say, “keep them close.” A 
hand-light or bell-glass, placed over such cuttings, 
will provide a moist atmosphere, and insure suc¬ 
cess. But we write for those who are not sup¬ 
posed to have all garden conveniences at hand, and 
such, in theabsence of hand-lights and bell-glasses, 
can provide a useful substitute from an ordinary 
box. Knock off both top and bottom, leaving a 
mere frame, and tack over it, in place of the top, a 
piece of cotton cloth, If the cuttings are planted 
in sandy soil, and covered with a frame of this 
kind, undue evaporation will be prevented, and a 
large share will take root. The amateur may try 
for his shrubs what we have frequently described for 
soft-wooded plants, as the “saucer method.” A 
deep plate or saucer is filled with clean, sharp 
sand, the cuttings, an inch or two long, are set 
close together in this, and the sand is kept con¬ 
stantly wet, as wet as mud. Here the abundant 
water supplies the loss by evaporation from the 
leaves, and the dish and its contents may be ex¬ 
posed to full sunlight. Cuttings lor this method 
should be very young and tender. If the sand is 
kept constantly wet, a surprising number of cut¬ 
tings will take root. As soon as roots appear, the 
young plants should be potted in good soil. This 
method of striking cuttings affords to amateurs 
an interesting field for experiment. Some shrubs 
may be propagated by placing the lower portions 
of cuttings of their stems in a bottle of water and 
exposing them to the light. This is a very com¬ 
mon method with the Oleander, but cuttings of 
other shrubs may be tried in the same way. As 
soon as roots are formed on the cuttings, they 
should be potted in somewhat sandy soil. 
When and How to Harvest Wheat. 
Mr. W. H. Burtis, The Glades, Ga., and others, 
ask us for information on the proper time to cut 
wheat. It is the experience of the best wheat 
growers in our own and other countries, that a 
superior quality of grain is obtained by harvesting 
the crop when the berry is in the soft or “ doughy ” 
state; that is, when thegrain maybe readily crushed 
between the thumb and finger. It is claimed that 
more bushels per acre, and a greater amount of 
flour of a* better quality per bushel is thus obtained. 
St«,rch and gluten are the most valuable con¬ 
stituents of wheat, and the quantity of these is 
diminished by over ripening, while the per cent of 
woody fibre is increased. Every farmer can readily 
make a practical test of this question, by cutting a 
part of his wheat earlier than the rest, threshing, 
weighing, and grinding the grain separately. The 
method of harvesting the grain has much to do 
with its quality. One of the greatest sources of 
loss arises from the careless and hurried manner of 
shocking the bundles. If the shock becomes thor¬ 
oughly wet, as it is sure to be in “catching” weather, 
if not properly made and protected, the grain be¬ 
gins to grow, and only an inferior bread can bo 
made from it. There are several methods of ar¬ 
ranging bundles in the shock; they may be set in 
pairs, forming a row of ten or twenty, or in round 
shocks. The long stooks expose a broad surface to 
the winds, and may be blown down, when the well- 
set round shock would stand the storm. The latter 
form also more readily admits of “capping.” A 
secure small shock may be made of three pairs of 
bundles set closely and firmly, with two more bun¬ 
dles upon each side of the double row. The heads 
of the bundles are brought up together, and a cap- 
sheaf placed over all. This cap is an ordinary bun¬ 
dle, with the band placed six or eight inches from 
the butt, and the top bent out into the shape of a 
funnel. A larger round stook consists of four 
pairs of bundles, with three sheaves on each side, 
making fourteen, upon which two cap-sheaves are 
placed, eiich made as above described, with one 
side of the funnel left open" where the two sheaves 
join on the shocks. A boy may aid in bringing the 
sheaves into piles, but it is no economy to employ 
him to shock them. It is a common practice to 
cut and bind until night-fall, and afterwards set up 
the sheaves in the quickest way possible. Of all 
harvest work, the shocking of grain should be done 
with the greatest care; otherwise a hard storm 
may convert the poorly made shocks into piles of de¬ 
caying straw and growing and nearly useless grain. 
Burning Down Trees. 
In the Southern States, especialiy Florida, the 
pine trees are usually burned down when clearing 
the land. This practice could often be advan¬ 
tageously followed at the North. Figure 1 
shows the common plan. A hole about twenty 
inches deep and two and a half feet square is dug 
on the leaning side of the tree, so that when it 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
falls the opposite roots if any remain unburned 
will be pulled out. The lower part of the trunk 
thus exposed is struck a few times with the axe, 
and left a short time for the pitch to exude. A 
fire is kindled in the hole as shown in figure 1. 
Trees ten inches in diameter are burned off and 
the roots burned out below, the plow line in 
twenty to thirty hours. A more expeditious way is 
given in figure 2. A hole is dug as before de¬ 
scribed, also removing eight or ten inches of the 
earth from the opposite side. AVith an inch and a 
half or two inch auger, a hole is bored through the 
tree at an angle of forty-five degrees, as shown 
above. For this purpose a ship auger is used, or a 
long shank may be welded to a common one. The 
hole thus bored acts as a chimney, and soon not 
only the side of tree is on fire, but the chimney part 
as well. The tree is burned down in less than one- 
third of the time required by the old method. A 
strong man can bore nearly fifty of these holes in a 
day. Stumps are removed in the same manner, and 
if dry, iu a considerably shorter time than trees. 
ftr) 
A WELL-HOUSE AND B.iTH-EOOM COMBINED. 
