90 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[January, 
The Wilmer’s Laura Pink. 
The Pink family, in all ils branches, is ever 
popular, and deservedly so. It requires no re¬ 
markable skill in. its management, is veiy easily 
propagated, and flowers profusely. Many vari¬ 
eties are perfectly hardy, and those which are 
not entirely so, require but slight protection. 
The variety mentioned above, is one of the 
best. It blooms freely in the open ground in 
Summer, and again in the parlor window in 
Winter: it always has a contribution ready for 
my daughter’s bouquet, where its beauty and 
fragrance make it an ever welcome addition. 
To propagate it, take layers and put them 
down in the usual way, in Summer ; or use cut¬ 
tings, setting them in warm, sandy soil. It is 
really a monthly pink. We advise our lady 
readers to put this on their list of desirable 
plants for next Summer; it is now widely dis¬ 
seminated, and may be had of leading florists. 
Rustic Flower Baskets. 
These contrivances are always pleasant to 
look upon, suiting the taste of the most refined 
and the least cultivated. They are sometimes 
made in the form of a tripod, 
or of a four-legged pedestal, 
(Fig. 1.) with a basket on 
the top of it. This basket is 
often made of branches of 
grape-vine and rods of ce¬ 
dar: the cedar composing 
the frame, and the grape 
branches the lattice work. 
They will last many years, 
if kept under cover in 
Winter to prevent their being weather-beaten. 
Then, again, they are made in the style indi¬ 
cated by Fig. 2. A small tree which has died, is 
selected for the support: it is sawed off at any 
convenient liight from the ground—say four 
feet—and a basket set on the top and fastened 
there by nails. This basket maybe a simple box 
veneered with bark tacked on with small nails, 
or it may be a series of boxes of different sizes 
rising one above the other, as shown in the cut 
The second and third 
boxes from the bottom 
being each larger than 
the one above, may be 
filled with soil and set 
out with plants. A por¬ 
tion of these plants 
should be trailing sorts, 
such as the blue lobe¬ 
lia, verbenas, petunias, 
calystegias, periwinkles. 
We have met, some¬ 
where in a horticultural 
paper, with another style of basket, which we 
sketch from memory. [See Fig. 3.] Here, we 
get our pedestal by cutting off a larger tree just 
above the crotch of the lower branches. It is 
necessary, of course, that the lower branches 
should not be higher than five or six feet. Into 
this crotch a large rustic basket is set, made in 
some one of the ways above mentioned. 
These plans are not given as models to be im¬ 
plicitly copied, but rather as hints for others to 
improve upon. The originality of every garden¬ 
er may be shown by his seizing on every availa¬ 
ble opportunity in his own grounds, and con¬ 
verting them into scenes of novelty and interest. 
For example, a friend of ours lost a fine tree 
in his lawn last year; but instead of digging it 
FA 2. 
up at once, he sawed it off within ten feet of the 
ground, set two large plants of English Ivy at 
the base, and trained them around the trunk un¬ 
til they reached the top and hung down in grace¬ 
ful festoons. Again, in the grounds of a certain 
College Park, there were a dozen unsightly 
stumps of Lombardy Poplar: a gentleman who 
had the care of thegrounds, dug out holes afoot 
wide and eighteen inches deep in the rotten cen¬ 
ter of each, filled them with earth, and set out 
therein such plants as the calystegia, clematis, 
American Ivy, etc. They grew well, and for 
several years have been objects of great interest. 
These plants will grow there until the stumps 
decay and disappear, which will be several years. 
Our purpose in this article will have been an¬ 
swered, if any of our readers have been set on 
the track of some simple device for ornament¬ 
ing their grounds, however limited they are. 
Elementary Instructions in Plain and 
Fancy Work—Crochet.No. II. 
BY MARIAN M. PULLAN. 
Every one has heard during the last few years 
of Crochet Work, (pronounced Cro-sliay). Many 
persons suppose that it is a new art. The name, 
a French one, is new, and is taken from the 
implement, a crochet or hook, with which it is 
done. But, in fact, it is very ancient, for it is 
doubtless the same work which used to be done 
by the shepherds when watching their sheep. 
We are told they wove their stockings and mit¬ 
tens by means of a rough wooden hook on the 
end of a stick, employing the coarse yarn spun 
by the women of their families. So, iii this at 
least, there is nothing very new under the sun. 
Of all the various kinds of ornamental and 
useful work, crochet is the most easily learned, 
and one of the prettiest arts, when once acquired. 
The implements are simple; the stitches equal¬ 
ly so: and the articles that can be made or or¬ 
namented by means of it, almost endless. In 
it, besides, there are no dropped stitches, or oth¬ 
er difficulties of a like nature, as is the case in 
knitting; and if a mistake be made, it is easily 
remedied, which also, makes a great distinction 
between it and other fancy work, in which blun¬ 
ders are irreparable. In richness of effect, too, 
the finer kinds almost imitate the beauties of 
Old Point lace; it is impossible to say to what 
perfection crochet-work may yet be brought. 
The process is that of first making a chain of 
a succession of loops, one drawn through anoth¬ 
er, and then working on those stitches, the thread 
being drawn through a stitch of the previous 
row by means of a hook, or crochet needle. 
The crochet needle is of bone, steel, or wood. 
It has a stem more or less long, and a hook at 
one end. Steel hooks are usually set into ivory 
or bone handles. However fine at the end,or hook 
part, they should increase in thickness toward 
the handle, or they are very difficult to work 
with. The hook should not be at all barbed 
like that for fishing, but simply notched, so that 
the material used will rest as a stitch in the 
hollow. Nor should the end be very sharp, for 
if sharp, it will inevitably cut into the fingers. 
For wool, which is the material generally 
used for winter work, a good hook may be 
made of any kind of wood that does not readily 
splinter. It should be about the thickness of a 
pen holder, and as long, with a knob at one end, 
to prevent the stitches from slipping off, and 
at the other end the hook. Make this by cutting 
a notch, one third the thickness of the stick, 
about a third of an inch from the end. Then 
gradually smooth away the wood above, to the 
depth of the notch, extending the slope back 
more than half an inch. After this, cut the end 
into a point, as little sharp as possible. Two or 
three of these hooks, large in size and length, 
make a good stock for wool work. The thick¬ 
est should be a little thicker than an ordinary 
pencil, the finest the bulk of a thin pen-holder. 
The simplest stitch in crochet, and the most 
useful for wool-work, is the one most recently 
invented, and called Princess, or Tunis stitch. 
It is this which we shall now describe to our 
readers, as plainly as we can in words. 
One slip loop being made, and the hook in-*" 
serted in it, hold the hook lightly between the 
thumb and fore finger of the right hand, with 
the barb not turned up or down, but even with 
the fingers and towards the person. The end 
of wool with the stitch just made, is kept be¬ 
tween the finger and thumb of the left hand, 
close to the needle, and the thread to be worked, 
passing over the fore and middle finger, is held 
between the latter and the third. The middle 
and fore fingers being apart, the slightest move¬ 
ment of the left hand suffices to lay the thread 
over the hook, from behind it; when, if it be 
drawn back through the loop already on, a new 
loop is formed. These loops are called chain, 
or foundation stitches, and the great art is tc 
Fig 1 . — UNDERSLEEVE WITHOUT THE CUFF. 
make them even, and to work rapidly. As you 
progress, you still keep the thumb and fore finger 
of the left hand close to the needle, which rests 
parallel with the fore finger, above the right 
hand. 
Now for Princess stitch. When you have 
made enough chain stitch, the last one being on 
the hook, insert it in the nearest chain stitch 
but one; put the thread over, and draw it 
through, making a loop. Do this with every 
successive stitch, until all of them are taken up. 
Second row, working back, and taking off 
the stitches. Lay the thread over the hook, and 
draw it through one loop; but after the first, do 
