18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Jottings in the Flower Garden. 
Not made this Winter with mittens on, but 
in Summer and Autumn, and now transcribed 
at leisure for . the readers of the Agriculturist. 
July 10th... .These Japan lilies are not doing 
as well this year, as formerly. An old florist 
tells me that they need a peculiar soil, and a 
change of soil once in three or four years. They 
grow best in a mixture of sand, wood’s earth, 
a little old manure, and common soil. They are 
well worth all the care they require. 
July 15th_This patriotic assortment of ver¬ 
benas works pretty well. In former years, I 
had set out my plants without much regard to 
arrangement of colors, aiming only to get the 
finest flowers in the market. But this year, I 
determined to try something new; and the 
“Red, White and Blue’’being the national war- 
song, I thought I would inscribe it on my verbe¬ 
na bed. So here in front, is a curved line of red, 
one of white next behind, and one of blue be¬ 
yond. Aside from the patriotism of the thing, 
the colors are such as always sort well in a bou¬ 
quet. Don’t tell me that this floral flag will 
not help decide the fate of the nation! 
Aug. 20th_Hail to the new Gladioli! 
What an improvement on the old sorts ! The 
long honored floribuhdus , and gandavensis , and 
byzanteum were well enough in their way, and 
are not to be cast aside now, but these new 
French hybrids eclipse them. Let’s see; it was 
M. Soucliet, of Paris, who originated most of 
these novelties. Great praise to you, sir! 
Here, mark down the names of a few of the 
best in our border. They are, Brehchlyensis, 
Galathee, Madame Henrieq, Osiris, Joan of Arc, 
Egerie, Adonis, Hebe and others. Some of 
these, like Joan of Arc, are very tall and need 
stout rods four feet long to support them; oth¬ 
erwise they will be blown over and broken. It 
is one excellence of these plants that they require 
so little care. Any good garden soil will an¬ 
swer ; and they need no watering or mulching 
or guarding from insects. Set out the bulbs a 
foot apart, about the 10th of May, drive in stakes 
by the side of each, and tie up the stalk as it 
grows, with cords. In the Fall, before the ground 
freezes, cut off the stalks near the ground, dig 
up the bulbs, and keep them in a dry root cel¬ 
lar, free from frost. 
Sept. 3d_Take off your hat to this bed of 
plants whose leaves are their flowers, as Patrick 
says. Don’t know their names? Well let us 
read the labels on them. Here is Farfugium 
grande , with broad, leathery leaves of a green 
ground mottled with yellow spots. An odd thing. 
The next is a new variety of Amaranthus tricolor, 
and so is that. The first, with dark, purplish 
crimson leaves, dashed with blotches of bright 
vermilion, is very striking, when the sun falls 
upon it. And that, with pale green leaves, 
strongly marked with dark crimson and yellow 
at the base, is quite curious and showy. Next 
to these, are plants of the “ Dusty Miller Gera¬ 
nium,” whose silvery leaves are in striking con¬ 
trast with the foliage around, and especially with 
that of Ferilla Nanlcinensis beyond. As a fringe 
to the whole bed, here is a row of silver edged 
geraniums. 
This border has, on the whoie, proved the 
most noticeable corner of our flower garden, this 
Summer. The vivid contrasts of color and form 
of foliage, and the fact that the colors are part 
and parcel of the leaves, not of the flowers, is 
what arrests the attention of man, woman and j 
child. Usually the leaves of a plant have to > 
play second fiddle, but here the blossoms have 
to do that, and the leaves make all the show and 
have all the glory. We fancy that the Petunias 
and Lilies yonder are jealous of this much ad¬ 
mired bed, and would fain pull themselves out 
at the root, in their passion to get across the 
walk and thrash these showy leaves! 
Sept. lOtli-These double Zinnias have not 
turned out to be so grand an affair as was pre¬ 
dicted. In the first place, full two thirds of the 
costly seed is spurious, and then the double 
flowers are less brilliant than the old, single 
sorts. Still, they are valuable for a variety. 
Near this b'ed, is a root or two of the Sensi¬ 
tive Plant. Will children and young ladies ever 
tire of noticing this curious plant, and touching 
its acacia-like leaves, to see them shrink, close up, 
and droop to the earth! It would take away 
much of the poetry of the thing, if I should tell 
them that the plant is just as sensitive to the 
touch of a stick as to that of the human hand; 
so I won’t tell them. But even with the poetry 
taken out, it is a curiosity in vegetable life. * 
Much from Little—A Mechanic’s Home¬ 
stead. 
Within a mile from where we now write, 
there lives a poor man, who has accomplished 
so much in his little garden, that we must 
speak of it as an example to others. About 
ten years ago, when he came into possession 
of his acre and a quarter lot, a small house and 
barn stood upon it; there were three old apple 
trees in one corner, and liard by were two scrag¬ 
gy knot-covered plum-trees: on each side of the 
front door were two Balsam firs. A part of the 
ground was devoted by the former owner to 
potatoes and a few other vegetables. Such 
were the “ investments ” on this place. 
The new occupant on taking possession early 
in the Spring, began with the apple-trees, 
which bore nothing but worthless “natural” 
fruit. He grafted a part of each tree with R. I. 
Greenings, Baldwins and Spitzenbergs, and at 
the same time scraped the trunks and limbs 
clean of vermin nests, and gave them a good 
caustic washing. The half-dead plum-trees were 
cut up by the roots and burned, and their place 
made good by several nice dwarf-pear trees. 
The Balsam firs were not disturbed, but a few 
other handsome shade trees were set out in front 
of the house to keep them company. The whole 
of the ground, except a narrow grass plot 
around the house, was put under the plow, 
then dragged and worked smooth for planting. 
Potatoes and corn were, of course, the main 
crops, but not the only ones. Beets, onions, car¬ 
rots, cabbages, turnips, cucumbers, squashes, 
pumpkins, beans, peas, and all the rest liad their 
allotted place. Most of these articles were 
grown in drills, Mr. Johnson believing this saved 
time, labor, and space. 
Our friend is quite systematic. On the south 
and west sides of his garden, where the ground 
was somewhat shaded by fences, he set his rasp¬ 
berries and currants, believing that they would 
thrive better there than in a very sunny expo¬ 
sure. But he did hot fall into the mistake of 
allowing weeds to creep in from a neighbor’s 
land. The raspberry plants were annually 
manured and kept under as clean cultivation as 
any other part of the garden. On the north 
side, protected from the cold by a high fence, 
he set his grapes. He set others, too, on the 
sunny side of his shed and barn, occupying 
every available split tvitli a choice variety. At 
first he planted only, the Isabella, Clinton, and 
Catawba; but of late, he has added the Dian* 
Rebecca, Concord and Delaware. 
Dwarf pears have succeeded well in his hands. 
Having two or three cross-walks, with borders 
on each side, he set out pears in these bor¬ 
ders eight feet apart. He planted only those 
sorts which had proved generally hardy and 
productive; and rigidly confining himself to 
these, he has met with few failures. He used 
no manure at the time of planting—for he was 
too poor to buy it—but he has enriched the sur¬ 
face around them every year since. 
And this suggests another thing. His land has 
been brought up from comparative barrenness 
to high fertility, without purchasing a single 
load of manure. The droppings of the cow 
have been carefully saved and mixed with ab¬ 
sorbents. The pig-pen and hen-roost have been 
little mines of wealth. Weeds and other refuse 
have been thrown in for the grunters to work 
over into compost. In one corner of the little 
barn-yard, a saucer-shaped place was dug out 
water-tight and capacious. Here, muck, sods, 
saw-dust, chip-dirt, leaves, and old straw were 
thrown from time to time, to absorb the kitchen 
and chamber slops. Nothing was allowed to 
waste on the premises, that could be turned* in¬ 
to manure. Thus at the end of every year a fine 
pile of rich compost was provided, ample for 
all the wants of the place. 
Mr. Johnson is a mechanic, and has been 
obliged to take care of his place entirely out of 
the regular business hours. He hires no help, 
but is aided by the nimble fingers of two 
sons to do much of the light work. As al¬ 
ready intimated, ten years have wrought a 
great change in his place. The apple-trees fur¬ 
nish him all the fruit he needs in Winter. He 
has pears, grapes, and berries, not only enough 
for his own use, but some for market. Within 
the last two years, his daughters have prevailed 
upon him to lay out a little wider space arouud 
the house to grass, and this they keep neatly cut 
and swept. They have also got a few flower¬ 
beds, and trellises for vines; so that now, this 
is one of the most attractive cottages in the 
neighborhood. 
A Hint in Grape Culture. 
We noticed last September, in the grounds of 
a friend who is largely interested in grape-grow¬ 
ing, that his Isabellas standfng on level ground 
had not begun to color, while on one vine stand¬ 
ing on a bank or terrace, the berries were ripening ,, 
up finely. What means this? we asked our 
friend. lie could only explain!t by saying that 
originally this vine was as low as the 'others, and 
then matured its crop no earlier. But within 
the past two years, the ground had been'graded 
and cut away .near it, leaving this vine high and 
dry above the others, and since then it had be¬ 
come ah earlier grape. 
This afforded a good illustration of what we 
have often enjoined, viz.: the importance of 
drainage fbr grape growing, and we put it on 
record here for the benefit of others. Now, 
every man can not plant his vines on banks or 
[terraces, but he can see to it that the subsoil of 
his vineyard has no standing water in it. In 
choosing a place for planting a grape, or a lot of 
grapes, by all means select a dry spot with a 
sunny, open aspect. And if there is any doubt ‘ 
about the dryness of the subsoil or if a wet soil 
must be. used, give it a thorough draining.. 
Free circulation of air, if the. vihe.be sheltered, 
'greatly promotes the ripening\'oi‘ early flout; 
