1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
183 
possess, here and there, a single specimen, but 
young plants, strange as it may appear, cannot at 
this time be procured with any certainty in any 
American or European nursery. For this reason I 
have dwelt somewhat at length on the merits of 
these trees, in the hope that some of our nursery¬ 
men will take them up, and make them common and 
cheap enough for forest and ornamental planting. 
Blue Glass in Horticulture. 
In 1871, Gen. A. J. Pleasanton, of Philadelphia, 
published an account of his experiments with blue- 
glass, claiming that vines in a grapery partially 
glazed with glass of this color, were vastly more 
vigorous in growth and productive of fruit, than 
those under colorless glass. He also claimed that 
pigs, under violet glass, made a mueh more rapid 
growth that those in an ordinary pen, while a sickly 
bull-calf, placed in a blue-glass pen, not only re¬ 
covered at once, but in 5() days developed in a man¬ 
ner described by its owneras “ marvelous.” These 
revelations do not appear to have created any gen¬ 
eral interest at the time, but last year (1876) a new 
edition of the work appeared, giving accounts of 
numerous alleged cures of disease in human pa¬ 
tients, and other wonderful results on both plant 
and animal life, effected by blue light. Soon 
after this publication there was an excitement con¬ 
cerning blue glass ; and so many were disposed to 
make a trial of it, that the stock became rapidly 
taken up, while the price of the article was duly 
advanced. The newspapers helped the excitement 
by frequent articles, either taking a serious view of 
the matter, or turning it into ridicule. We received 
Gen. Pleasanton’s work several months ago, though 
we can not say that we have read it, as it is well 
nigh impossible for any one having a knowledge of 
the elementary laws of physics, to wade through it. 
The remarkable views presented as to light, elec¬ 
tricity, magnetism, and matter in general, and the 
ease with which the most abstruce questions are 
disposed of by assertion, make the work a curiosity. 
The medical relations of blue light, we regarded as 
one of those singular delusions that periodically 
possess the public mind in relation to curative means, 
which would have its run, and if it did not lead to the 
neglect of proper treatment, might prove harmless. 
The influence of blue glass upon plant growth, be¬ 
ing more in our line, we examined the claims made 
for it, and finding these in such direct opposition to 
the facts established by men of science, we did not 
think it worth while to present the matter to our 
readers. Recently, however, letters of inquiry 
have come, and as we learned that several persons 
were taking out the plain lights from their green¬ 
houses, and replacing them by blue ones, we found 
it necessary to say something on the subject. As 
we were about to write on blue glass, there came 
most opportunely to hand an article from Peter 
Henderson, Esq., which being, as his articles usually 
are, the result of experience, will carry more weight 
with our readers than a presentation of the matter 
in any other form. 
What Peter Henderson knows about the 
Effect of Blue Bight on Plants. 
Five years ago, (though utterly skeptical as to its 
value,) I, at the urgent solicitation of a friend, used 
a blue transparent wash on the glass of one of my 
greenhouses, thus changing the glass practically in¬ 
to blue; on the glass of another house, of similar 
size, I used whitewash. Both greenhouses were 
filled with plants of a similar character. In a few 
weeks we found that the plants in the house under 
the blue glass were “ drawing,” or spindling up, 
more than under the white, and on examination of 
a thermometer, placed in each house, it was found 
that, during the first two weeks in June, the aver¬ 
age temperature, under the blue glass, was 90°, 
while under the white it was 80°. This was just 
such a result as might have been expected, the 
darkened glass absorbed the sun’s rays, and the heat¬ 
ed glass gave off its heat to the interior of the 
house, while the whitened glass reflected them, that 
was all. The temperature was 6imply increased 
under the blue glass, and to the great detriment of 
the plants, for all cultivators know that in our hot 
summer months, the difficulty we have to contend 
against is too high a temperature. If Gen. Pleas¬ 
anton started to force his grapery in midwinter, his 
blue glass would be apparently beneficial—not be¬ 
cause it was blue, but because it would assist him 
in getting a higher temperature, which would, at 
that season, be desirable; or, for the same reason, 
his pigs might feel somewhat more comfortable and 
fatten more quickly. But were he to carry on the 
culture of either under the blue glass into midsum¬ 
mer, both pigs and grapes would be likely to re¬ 
monstrate. Upwards of 30 years ago, it was claimed 
that seeds would germinate, and cuttings root, 
quicker under dark-colored than under light-color¬ 
ed glass; this is no doubt true, and from the same 
cause—an increased temperature under the dark 
glass, but all who have had experience in such mat¬ 
ters, well know that this “forcing” process is at 
the health of the subjects so treated, unless indeed 
they are plants indigenous to tropical countries, to 
which a high temperature is natural. To claim that 
blue glass, or any other colored glass, has any 
properties capable of affecting health, in other man¬ 
ner than what is due to an increased temperature, 
produced by any other means is undoubtedly false. 
Mr. Henderson no doubt assigns the proper rea¬ 
sons for whatever seemingly favorable influence 
blue glass may have upon the plants growing be¬ 
neath it. That there is any peculiar power in the 
blue ray to accelerate plant growth, which our 
readers are well aware depends primarily upon the 
decomposition of carbonic acid, liberating the oxy¬ 
gen and the assimilation of the carbon, is disproved 
by the results obtained by various careful experi¬ 
menters. Indeed, the rays of the blue end of the 
spectrum are much less favorable to the decompo¬ 
sition of carbonic acid by plants, than yellow rays, 
and either alone greatly inferior to all the rays to¬ 
gether—or white light. The experiments of Pfeffer 
(Sachs’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, 1875), show that the 
amount of decomposition under, white light being 
100, the red-orange rays had a decomposing power 
equal to 32.1; the yellow, 46.1; green, 15.0, while 
the blue and violet rays are only 7.6. We were quite 
amused with the strong common sense view of a 
friend, who, in speaking of the subject, remarked : 
“ if blue light were best for plant growth, the Crea¬ 
tor would have provided it in the beginning.” 
Should any of our readers desire to give their plants 
blue light instead of white, we would warn them 
that its application is patented ! Blue rays are an 
essential part of white light, and some court may 
yet decide that the use of the greater involves the 
less, and we are all infringing upon the patent. At 
last accounts white light is not yet covered by a 
patent, but one can not tell what may happen. 
Cauliflowers. —In our climate early cauliflowers 
oftener fail than succeed. Allowing the seed to be 
of a good strain, many skillful cultivators find 
themselves unable to produce anything like a fair 
return for their labor from early varieties, while 
they have excellent results with the late crop. 
This is because our climate is very unfavorable to 
the one, and well suited to the other. At the time 
late cauliflowers are perfecting, the heat of the sun 
is daily becoming less, there are frequent fogs, and 
the nights are cool with heavy dews. All these 
conditions, which so suit this plant, are exactly re¬ 
versed when the spring crop is coming on; then 
the temperature of both day and night is increasing, 
and just before the plants have reached their full 
size, and are ready to head, the weather is so hot 
that growth is checked altogether, and the plants 
come to a stand-still. In order to succeed, the early 
plants should have their growth pushed as rapidly 
as possible ; abundant manure, of course, they 
need, and they should be protected on chilly nights. 
If hand-lights can not be afforded, then some 
screen or shelter, to be put over at night, to pre¬ 
vent any check by chilling, should be provided. 
Then if there can be some easy methods of water¬ 
ing abundantly when dry weather comes on, all 
will have been done that our climate and conditions 
will allow, and fair success may be looked for. 
THE MOlDSttM; 
BT For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Floor Cleaning. 
“ The melancholy days have come,”—not those 
Bryant sings so sweetly about, but sad days for the 
housekeeper. When this screed of mine appears 
in the clean print of the American Agriculturist, it 
will be settled weather, and clean carpets will have 
been tacked down in the sitting-room, and grassy 
and hard-beaten paths will yield little mud for the 
housekeeper to sweep out or scrub away. But 
while I write, the thaws of March are upon us. To 
scrab or not to scrub, that is the question. For, 
three hours after the most careful cleaning, it may 
be that the difference between the present condition 
of your floor, and its appearance an hour before 
mopping, is scarcely perceptible to the naked eye. 
In such a state of things I really do not think it 
pays the busy housekeeper to seriously “ scrub ” 
her floor. I got an idea from my mother on that 
point years ago. It was rainy weather, and children 
were running out of and into her kitchen, and mud 
was unavoidably brought in by different members 
of the family. When I saw her get her mop and 
pail, I exclaimed : “ O ! it won’t pay to clean this 
room to-day, if it is Saturday. By to-morrow it 
will look as had as it does now.”—“ I shan’t scrub 
it, but only wash off the top-dust,” said mother. 
After the work was done, I saw the utility of it, we 
were all able to breathe so much freer in a room, 
when the “top-dust” was washed away. Many a 
time since then have I been expostulated with for 
washing the floor, when it was “ no sort of use—it 
would get muddied over again right away.” Men 
who make such remonstrances scarcely appreciate 
the situation. They spend most of their time in 
the open air, and when they come in and sit down, 
they have no care of their skirts, as women have, 
no instinctive dread of seeing anything that must 
be added to the weekly washing, drop upon a dusty 
floor, and when the dust is stirred up and distribut¬ 
ed through every part of the room by the broom, 
these kind-hearted men, who hate to see us do 
needless labor by frequent floor-cleaning, are usu¬ 
ally out of the house. We soon learn by experience 
that dust on the floors means hard work at the 
wash-tub. A dusty carpet does not make work in 
the same way, for the dust sinks into and through 
the carpet, so that a clean cloth, dropped upon it, 
takes up little dust. But when it comes to the 
sweeping or dust-distributing, the unclean carpet 
is an unmistakable nuisance, and all day long, if 
there is any movement about the room, the dust in 
and under the carpet is stirred up, and makes the 
air more or less unfit to breathe. 
How to Wasli a Woocl-Floor. 
“ Top-dust ” can be washed off without great 
labor. Have the water only moderately warm, 
especially when the floor is of soft wood, because 
hot water sinks in so rapidly, and occupies so much 
more time in drying, than cool water upon wood. 
Drain the mop pretty well before putting it upon 
the floor, thus wetting the floor but little. The ob¬ 
ject is to wipe up the dust as thoroughly as pos¬ 
sible, rinsing it off from the mop into the water, 
and changing the water for cleaner very often. If 
you put much water upon a very dusty floor, you 
have a big troublesome mud-puddle to sop up or 
rinse away. Experiment has convinced me that a 
floor of pine or basswood looks best after clean¬ 
ing, if a small- amount of water has been put on 
each portion of it. Use as much water as you 
please on the whole floor, the more the better, if 
you wash and wipe only a small portion at a time, 
and then throw out the dirty water, and begin the 
next division with clean water. The sooner a soft 
wood floor dries, the better it looks. I have seen 
women work very hard to scrub a pine or bass¬ 
wood floor white, and the result has been quite 
disappointing. They would put a great deal of 
water upon the floor, and then scrub with a broom 
