318 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
can be more brilliant than a 
group of it seen against a back¬ 
ground of evergreen or other 
shrubbery. It propagates with 
the greatest ease, as it throws 
up a great number of suckers, 
each of which will make a 
plant. Although it will flour¬ 
ish in any good garden soil, it 
will bloom much more finely if 
it has a deep, rich spot prepar¬ 
ed for it. The Tritoma may fre¬ 
quently be preserved through 
the winter in the open ground, 
by covering with a good coat 
of litter, but it is safer to 
lift the plants and put them 
in the green-house or cellar. 
There are a number of va¬ 
rieties, which differ somewhat 
in their habit and time of flow¬ 
ering. The variety glaucescens 
has a peculiar shade of green in 
its foliage, and is the earliest 
flowering, while the variety serotina is the latest, 
and has a more robust growth than the others. 
Plants may be had of all extensive florists. They 
were sold last spring for 50 cents each, and 
probably will soon become generally diffused. 
Coal or Gas Tar Useful for Walks. 
While visiting the grounds of a friend in As¬ 
toria, we were struck with the excellence of his 
paths, and found that they were made with 
common coal or gas tar, and sand. The sur¬ 
face for the path is first graded and covered with 
an inch or two of sand; it is then flowed with 
the tar and then a covering of sand or gravel 
is placed over this. In a few months the whole 
forms a hard mass as firm as stone. The walk 
when first made is a little yielding, but it may 
be used at once, taking care that any inequali¬ 
ties be remedied before the work finally hardens. 
A walk made in this way is very firm, will 
not wash when made upon a slope, requires 
scarcely any repairs for years, and—what is a 
most important advantage—does not allow’ a 
weed of any kind to grow upon it. It is stated 
that a barrel of tar will make about 50 feet in 
length of walk, four feet wide. In those locali¬ 
ties where good gravel can not be had, this ena¬ 
bles one to make satisfactory walks from any 
coarse sand at a little cost, A correspondent 
in Fulton Co., N. Y., inquired if the use of tar 
for walks has been patented. If it has been, we 
have not heard of it; we know that it has been 
in use for walks, gutters, and similar purposes for 
several years; a patent would hardly be given. 
Keeping 1 Parsley for Use during Winter. 
Housekeepers who value this for seasoning 
and for ornamenting dishes, can have it all win¬ 
ter with very little trouble. Take up a stock of 
roots and set them in a box of earth. This may 
be kept in a light cellar, wash-room, or any 
place where it will not freeze, and give a good 
supply. A barrel or keg with auger holes bored 
at intervals may be filled with roots and earth, 
the crowns of the plants being placed at the 
holes, and the barrel or keg filled with earth. 
This being set in the green-house or even in 
the kitchen, will give a supply of parsley and 
make a very pleasant green ornament. The 
plants left in the bed are to be covered with 
cedar boughs or some other similar protection. 
Fig- 1.— NEW AMERICAN WILLOW. 
Ornamental Trees — Weeping Willows. 
Every one knows the common Weeping Wil¬ 
low, Salix Babylonica , for it has long been used 
in this country and in Europe as a Cemetery 
tree. The custom of planting it near graves 
appears to have been derived from the Chinese. 
The most appropriate place for the common 
Weeping Willow is along the margins of lakes 
and streams. Its peculiar habit does not accord 
well with buildings, and it does not produce a 
good effect when placed near them. It is one 
of the few weeping trees which preserve this 
habit when grown on their own roots. Most of 
the trees with pendant branches require to be 
grafted standard high upon some stock, and we 
Fig. 2.—KILMARNOCK WILLOW. 
have weeping ashes, mountain ash, peach, with 
numerous others, which very often form curious 
but inelegant specimens. There are two wil¬ 
lows with pendulous branches, which are not 
generally known, but which make very sym¬ 
metrical trees for the lawn. The “ Kilmarnock 
Willow,” has such a very broad leaf that few 
persons would recognize it as a willow. The 
branches have a marked pendulous habit, and 
grow so densely as to present a mass of glossy 
foliage without either the limbs or the trunk 
being visible. The tree is perfectly hardy, and 
usually grows much taller in proportion to its 
width than is represented in figure 2.—Anoth¬ 
er lawn tree is the “ New American Willow,” 
(fig. 1), called by the bogus botanical name 
of Salix Americana pendula. It is the old Salix 
purpurea , which left to itself becomes an unsight¬ 
ly shrub, but when grafted at the hight of five 
or six feet on a proper stock, forms a remarkably 
symmetrical lawn tree. We believe that Salix 
Russeliana is one of the stocks used for this spe¬ 
cies. When treated in this way, it is kept in a 
round head with but very little trouble. If any 
branches tend to grow upward they only need 
to be bent down and turned under the others. 
Both the Kilmarnock and so-called New Amer¬ 
ican Willows are desirable lawn trees. The 
engravings herewith are made from drawings ot 
trees in the grounds of Messrs. Frost & Co., 
proprietors of the Genesee Valley Nurseries. 
Fruit Growers’ Implements—Hoe Fork. 
This is one of the few implements imported 
from Continental Europe, which seem to be of 
use in our systems of culture. The forked hoe 
or hoe fork, sometimes called a hook, is shown 
in the engraving. The back, which is about six 
inches across, has two strong teeth like those ot 
a spading fork, 7 or 8 inches long. A proper 
socket for the 
handle com¬ 
pletes the 
tool, which 
may be made 
by any black¬ 
smith. At the 
West it is 
consi d e r e d 
indispensable to the fruit culturist, and is 
one of the best implements for the cultiva¬ 
tion of vineyards, young orchards, strawber¬ 
ry beds, etc. In the use of the plow, or the 
cultivator even, unless carefully arranged, there 
is danger of injuring the surface roots. Many 
a vineyard has been seriously injured by culti¬ 
vating it with the plow. The use of the hoe 
fork will avoid all danger to the vines, loosen 
the soil to a sufficient depth, and one accustom¬ 
ed to its use will do a good amount of execution. 
A Note on Keeping Scarlet Geraniums. 
Mr. F. Scholer, writes: “About the time I 
expect my geraniums will be injured by frost I 
dig them up, shake all the earth from the roots, 
and hang them up in a cool cellar. In March I 
take off all the tops for cuttings and start them 
in a box of clear sand, covered with a large 
pane of glass. A box was placed in a warm 
kitchen and over a hundred of the cuttings 
lived. These together with the old plants were 
set out in the garden and gave a fine bloom.” 
This method is not a new one and will succeed 
pretty well with the scarlet geranium and 
its varieties, which make a very large stem. 
The cellar should be dry as well as cool. 
Tiie Crab Apple as a Lawn Tree. —An 
ordinary crab apple tree loaded with fruit is a 
pleasing object, but to have it in its finest con¬ 
dition the tree should be grafted on a dwarf 
stock; it can thus be made to form a low well¬ 
shaped head. Nothing can be finer for a lawn 
than these dwarf crabs. They are showy 
when in flower in the spring, and again in Au¬ 
tumn when loaded with their gaily colored 
fruit. A leading nurseryman informs us that 
the demand for these at the West is large. 
HOE FORK. 
