198 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
ers who bore into your apple tree. They are 
seeking for food deadly to the tree, beneath 
the bark, and you may well allow them to 
pursue their useful employments. The 
black ducks, the woodcocks, the snipes, the 
Virginia rails, and the meadow larks all make 
their nests, in each returning summer, upon 
my lands, almost under my own eyes, and 
shall 1 most inhospitably refuse them admit¬ 
tance and give them over to the spoiler!— 
Forbid it, generosity ; fobid it, all ye gentle 
elements of the human character. 
But you say, the robins eat up all my cher¬ 
ries and destroy my strawberries. Well, 
let them, if we can not have the sweet song¬ 
sters upon any other terms, let them eat up 
the cherries and strawberries and welcome, 
for they pay us in music. Welcome to the 
trees and vines which I intend to plant to en¬ 
tice them to my home. Come in and par¬ 
take with us. Don’t gather all ifyou please; 
but take without stint, and let me see you 
again as I have often seen you in former 
days, drop a ripe cherry into the mouths of 
your callow young. 
Come ; ye ospreys, and take your scaly 
prey before my eyes, and with your “sail 
broad vans ” beat up into the wind’s eye, to 
carry food to your nests in the wood. You 
have as good a right as I have, to take the 
treasures of the deep for your own use, and 
you disturb me not in my possessions of en¬ 
joyment. True it is, I once saw an envious 
eagle plunge down from on high and rob you 
of the fruit of your labor, while you affright 
ened fled to shelter of a tree. But the bird 
of Jove is an imperial robber and does not 
even say “by your leave,” although he too 
is generally innocent of injury to man. 
Come ye bob-o-lincolns, and poise your¬ 
selves on a single stalk of timothy, causing 
it to sway to and fro by the weight of your 
tiny bodies, yet giving sufficient support, 
while the full hearted song of yourhappiness 
comes gushing from your musical throats. 
If no one else will protect you, come to 
Malbone Farm and we will give you shelter 
there—Come, all ye gentle songsters and 
harmless birds to us, and you shall be pro¬ 
tected while within the boundaries under my 
control. The law is on our side, and where 
I have power “ vainly the fowler’s eye shall 
mark thy flight to do thee wrong.” 
Farmers of Rhode Island, will you join 
me in this pleasant employment of saving 
alive, instead of destroying 1 If you will 
not, I appeal then to your mothers, your sis¬ 
ters, your wives and your daughters, and to 
them I shall not appeal in vain ; and if I can 
get the gentle sex upon my side, why, the 
men may be defied, and I will proclaim to all 
the birds in the air that they are safe. 
Guinea Fowls vs. Rats. —A correspondent 
of the Prairie Farmer, who was very much 
annoyed by rats, tried shooting, poisoning, 
and everything he could think of; but they 
defied the whole cat-egory. He then heard 
that they would not remain where Guinea 
fowls were kept, and procured several, and 
now says that for over two years he has 
neither seen nor heard a rat about the prem¬ 
ises. 
We doubt the above rat remedy, and should 
be glad to hear from others who have tried 
it to know whether it is effectual. 
To Stop the Bleeding of Vines. —When 
cut rather late in the season, take one-fourth 
of calcined oyster shells, beaten to fine pow¬ 
der in a mortar, and three-fourths of cheese, 
worked together until they form a sort 
of past; tins pressed into the pores of 
the wood, either with the thumb or by any 
other means, will effectually stop the flow of 
sap. Sometimes a repetition, however, is 
necessary if not well forced into the perse, | 
or if the wound is not properly covered. 
Rubbing the cut parts well with candle 
grease also greatly assists in preventing 
vines from bleeding.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Dortitultaal gtprtoni 
Rhode-Island Horticulxural Society.— 
This Society will hold its June exhibition in 
Providence, on the 19th and 20th inst. The 
former exhibitions have been valuable and 
highly interesting. They invite those inter¬ 
ested in this subject elsewhere to unite with 
them. Any communications or inquiries 
may be addressed to the Secretary, Mr. J. 
F. Driscoll, at Providence. 
We suggest to our horticultural friends in 
this vicinity, that a visit to the above exhi¬ 
bition, either as exhibitors or as lookers-on, 
will well reward them for the short trip. 
Providence and New-York are but next-door 
neighbors, now that the facilities for daily 
intercourse are so great. The steamers by 
the Fall River or Stonington routes leave 
here late in the afternoon and land travelers 
in Providence the next morning. No other 
season of the year offers a better time for 
such a trip than the middle of the present 
month. 
MANAGEMENT OF GKEENHOUSE PLANTS. 
BY AN EXTENSIVE PRACTITIONER. 
Greenhouse plants should never be sup¬ 
plied with much water in wet or frosty 
weather, and none unless the soil in the pots 
becomes dry. This lule must be particular¬ 
ly attended to, from the beginning of Novem¬ 
ber till the end of February. 
In March, the plants may be occasionally 
syringed overhead to clean and refresh the 
leaves, but always select fine days for the 
purpose ; and let this, as well as the general 
waterings, be done in the morning, from the 
middle of September to the beginning of 
May, and at all other times in the evenings. 
As the season advances, and the weather 
becomes milder, increase the quantity of air, 
until, by the middle of May, a large portion 
of air may be left on all night, except in case 
of severe frost. And this rule of admitting 
air must be attended to throughout the win¬ 
ter at every convenient opportunity ; but al¬ 
ways make a practice of shutting up early in 
the afternoon. 
Always keep the plants clean, and perfect¬ 
ly free from dead leaves and weeds ; this 
must be particularly attended to in the win¬ 
ter season. 
About the beginning of March repot all the 
plants that require it, and top-dress the re¬ 
mainder with good fresh soil. Some free- 
growing kinds may require potting two or 
three times in the course of the summer, but 
the last potting should never be later than 
the middle of September. 
As greenhouse plants differ materially 
from each other in habits, so also the soil 
suitable for them must vary in proportion. 
For a general idea on the subject, the fol¬ 
lowing, with some few exceptions, will prob¬ 
ably be found pretty near the mark. 
All plants whose branches are fragile, and 
roots of a fine thready fibrous texture, with 
general habits like Erica, as Diosma, Ander- 
sonia, Epacris, etc., will require the same 
soil (peat earth), and very similar treatment 
to Cape Heaths. 
Those whose wood and general habits 
partially differ, and whose roots are of a 
stronger texture, as Accacia, Ardisia, Steno- 
carpus, etc., will require a portion of sandy 
loam—in many cases about equal parts ; and 
where the habits, etc. differ materially from 
the heath, only a small portion of peat earth 
will be required, and the compost may be 
made a little rich by the addition of well rot¬ 
ted dung. 
Almost all Cape and other bulbs, as Spar- 
axis, etc., thrive best in a mixture of light 
rich sandy loam, leaf-mold, and a little peat. 
Shrubby and herbaceous plants, with luxu¬ 
riant roots and branches, as Myrlus, etc., 
require rich loam, lightened with leaf-mold. 
Plants with powerful roots and but slender 
heads, as Veronica, Senecio, etc., require a 
light sandy soil, mixed with a small portion 
of leaf-mold and very rotten dung. 
Never pot the plants in a soil too wet; it 
is better to keep the soil rather drv than 
otherwise. Nor ever sift the soil, but chop 
and break it as fine as possible, because 
sifting deprives it of the fibrous particles, 
among which the roots grow very rapidly. 
Always in potting give a good drainage with 
broken potsherds. 
In the beginning of June the plants may 
be removed to their summer station, out of 
doors. Always place them in an aspect 
screened from the effects of the mid-day sun, 
but yet where they will be able to receive 
the sun morning and evening; while in this 
situation they must be supplied with water 
as often as they require it. 
In the beginning of September again exam¬ 
ine them throughout, and pot all that require 
it, and top-dress the remainder; by no 
means let this be done later than the middle 
of September, or the plants will not have 
time to recover before winter. 
Not later than the first week in October, 
prepare to remove them back into the green¬ 
house. Clean and properly tie them up, 
previous to setting them on the stage. 
After they are removed again to the 
house, give them abundance of air, day and 
night, and continue gradually to decrease it 
as the weather becomes colder. 
Propagation .—The propagation of green¬ 
house plants must be performed at different 
times of the year, according to the nature 
and habits of the plants, and the state of 
growth in which the cuttings will strike with 
the greatest freedom. 
Some grow the best when the wood is 
quite young and tender, as Fuchsia, Anderso- 
nia, Adenandra, etc.; others when it begins 
to assume a brownish color, called half ri¬ 
pened, as Heliotropium, Goodeneia, Pimelea, 
etc.; and others when it has become quite 
hard and ripe, as Araucaria. Aulax, Melaleuca, 
etc. But as a general rule, half-ripened 
cuttings will do the best. Some plants, 
however, will not grow from cuttings of the 
stem at all; these are propagated by cutting 
off large pieces of the roots, planting them in 
pots of soil, and plunging them in a little 
bottom heat, as some species of Acacia, etc. 
All hard-wooded plants make roots best in 
clear sand, but soft-wooded kinds should be 
planted in a mixture of loam ; therefore, af¬ 
ter well draining the pots or pans intended to 
receive the cuttings, fill them, according to 
the nature of the plants to be propagated. 
On no account plant soft-wooded and hard- 
wooded cuttings in the same pot. 
Some sorts will not grow readily without 
a little bottom heat. Plunge the pots in a 
cucumber frame, or pit of any kind, where 
they will receive the benefit of warmth. 
After putting in the cuttings, give them a 
gentle sprinkling of water through a fine 
rose; keep the frame as closely shut down 
as can be until the cuttings are struck, 
which will be in about three weeks or a 
month, with some few exceptions. Look 
them over, and water as often as they re¬ 
quire it. 
Those sorts requiring to b covered with 
