258 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
Button-hole Bouquets. 
The custom is becoming popular of ■wearing 
a neat bouquet in the button-hole by gentlemen, 
and with ladies of wearing a similar one attach¬ 
ed to the front part of the dress. We regard 
this as a pleasant fashion, and the 
ornamentation is vastly better than 
ostentatious displays of jewelry. 
The custom is not by any means 
confined to this side of the water, 
for we find that the most dignified 
of the English journals lias within 
the year given several articles upon 
the proper making up of a but¬ 
ton-hole bouquet. As these were 
intended for gardeners who bad 
to furnish their employers with the 
choice products of the hot-liouse) 
they would not interest our read¬ 
ers. To our notion, a rose-bud 
with a green leaf that will not 
readily wilt, a sprig of Lily of the 
Yalley with its leaf, or some such simple thing, 
that lias an air of freshness about it and very 
little of arrangement, is in better taste than any 
■elaborate affair can be. Ordinarily the little 
bouquet is pinned at the button-hole on the left 
side of the coat, worn there until it wilts, and 
that is the end of it. A friend of ours is noted 
among his many friends as always having a 
rose-bud at his button-hole. Noticing that at a 
t ime when rose-buds were scarce he made one 
do duty for more than 
one day, we ascertained 
how it was done. Some 
one had brought him 
from France a little af¬ 
fair like that shown in 
figure 1. It is a small 
tube, closed at one end, 
with a wire to hook it 
to the botton-hole. This 
being concealed beneath 
the lappel of the coat 
received the stems of 
the flowers, which were 
passed through the but¬ 
ton-hole, and the tube 
being partly filled with 
water kept them fresh 
all day long. A 113 ' apothecary or chemist, in¬ 
deed any one handy in working with glass, 
could make such a contrivance or a substitute 
for it. Recently some similar bouquet holders 
have been imported from England, intended for 
ladies’ use. They are tubes furnished with a 
pin to fasten like a common brooch or breast¬ 
pin. Figure 2 shows one of the plainest of 
these, in which the glass is hidden by a neat 
fern-leaf in bronze. Some of these imported 
designs are quite out of taste and ridiculous 
from the use of heavy gilded leaves and vari¬ 
ous colored heads, all of which must pale in 
beauty before the simplest natural flowers. 
Strawberries in Pots. 
Under the head of “A Revolution in Straw¬ 
berry Culture,” we read not long agp an ac¬ 
count in a French journal of a discovery which 
was to revolutionize strawberry culture in 
France. It was to strike the runners in pots, 
plant them in July, and get a crop the next 
year, with various details as to distance of plant¬ 
ing, manuring, etc. Some of our best growers 
have for a long time been practising what is es¬ 
sentially this method. It presents the great ad¬ 
vantage that one can transplant without regard 
to the season or weather. Plants rooted in 
pots may be put out in July, or, if the ground 
be open, in December, and the plants never 
need know that they have been disturbed. It 
is well to prepare a good pottiug soil before¬ 
hand. Three parts of good loam and one of 
well-decomposed cow manure is the best. The 
pots may be about three inches across, though 
smaller ones will answer. When a runner 
shows signs of striking root and forming a plant, 
plunge one of these pots of earth in the soil of 
the bed, place the young plant on it, and hold it 
there by putting a clod or a small stone on it. 
Where very strong plants are desired, the run¬ 
ner may be stopped by pinching, but with most 
varieties this is not necessary. AVhen the new 
plant has made enough roots to sustain itself, 
the connection with the parent plant may be 
severed, and it is then ready to be set out when 
it may be desired. The plant may grow in the 
pot until the roots reach its sides, and then the 
ball of earth be turned out and the plant placed 
in the bed without disturbing the roots. This 
plan is especially valuable for the amateur, and 
our nurserymen who ship plants find it advan¬ 
tageous to follow it. Plants started early in pots 
and set out as soon as they become well rooted 
will bear a fair crop the next spring. Those 
who force strawberries start the plants in the 
same manner, and when the roots reach the sides 
of the pots, shift them to others of a larger 
diameter, in which they complete their growth. 
The Trees Do Not Bear. 
Several letters are at hand stating that the 
writers have trees of such and such varieties, 
planted so and so long, but which do not bear, 
and asking what is the matter. A tree goes on 
making a growth of wood for a greater or less 
number of years, according to the variety. At 
length the buds, which might have prolonged 
into branches, take on a new development, and 
bear flowers and fruit. In the natural course 
of things, the time when this change will take 
place is governed mainly by the character of 
the soil. In a very fertile soil, the tree will 
make wood, in preference to forming fruit, for a 
longer period than it will in a poorer one. In 
orchards, the tendency to form wood is checked 
when the trees have attained a sufficient size, 
by seeding down to grass. AVhatever checks 
the growth of the tree, and threatens its life, 
has a tendency to throw it into fruiting. The 
time required for different varieties to come into 
bearing varies greatly, and this is a point on 
which our fruit books are very deficient in in¬ 
formation. Some varieties of pears, for instance, 
will bear in two or three years from the bud, 
while with others one must wait for eight or 
ten years; and it is so with apples. With varie¬ 
ties which are naturally late in coming into 
bearing, our advice is to wait; but where a tree, 
which should bear, does not give fruit when at 
a reasonable age, we should root prune. The 
best time to do this is in the spring. Dig a 
trench around the tree, at a distance of one foot 
from it, for each inch of the diameter of the 
trunk, i. e., a tree three inches through will 
have a trench forming a circle six feet in 
diameter. Dig down, and with a very sharp 
spade cut off every root that extends beyond 
the trench. There are modes of summer prun¬ 
ing to induce fruitfulness, but these can be 
applied to only a few trees, while root-pruning 
can be readily applied on the large scale. 
About Chrysanthemums. 
After all the glories of the garden, the Chrys¬ 
anthemum crowns the j’ear. All through the 
summer it has a weedy and unattractive look, 
and most people let it have its own way. It is 
only storing up strength to withstand the frosts, 
and late in the season it will blaze with flowers. 
A neglected Chrysanthemum is good, but one 
properly cared for is a treasure. Suppose we 
start with one with a single stem, such as the 
florists send out. When it is fairly established 
and growing well, pinch off' the top ; this will 
cause several branches to start, and when they 
seem vigorous, pinch them again, and so keep 
on until the middle of August, or the first of 
September. Then if the branches are crowded, 
thin them out, and stop the suckers which will 
start up from below, as well as those branches 
which start too late to form flower buds. By a 
little care, supposing that the plants have not 
been put too near together, a handsome head 
may be formed. We have noticed that later in 
the season a hairy caterpillar is very destructive 
to the Chrysanthemum foliage, but it is easily 
shaken off and crushed. A dark colored aphis 
sometimes infests it; we have never had it suffi¬ 
ciently abundant to be beyond the control of 
thumb and finger, but if it should prove annoy¬ 
ing, we should try the effect of tobacco water. 
■-— *--«#»——. —- 
Notes from “ The Pines.”—No. 2. 
If we had a national school of horticulture, 
the best thing that it could do would be to buy 
this place for the sake of the useful examples 
and warnings it presents. I wish you could see 
the currant bushes, and note the proportion be¬ 
tween the timber and the fruit. Enormous 
clumps of old wood, which looked as if they 
might bear pecks each, show a promise of a 
quart. The old-fashioned notion of “ the more 
branches the more fruit ” finds full exemplifica¬ 
tion here. The only decent thing on the place is 
the strawberry patch. Unfortunately, it is of 
Russell’s Prolific, a capital berry to have for 
home use, but much too soft for marketing. 
For a wonder, the plants have been cultivated 
in hills, and this spring made a most satisfactory 
show. The man was told to mulch the bed 
with salt bay; he comes from the land of dic¬ 
tionaries, New England; so, instead of asking 
an explanation, he consulted one of the W’s, and 
found that to mulch was “ to cover with straw.” 
This happened before we took possession, and 
when we came, some weeks after, we found the 
bed actually covered up, and the poor straw¬ 
berry plants in a fair way of being smothered. 
A dictionary is “ a good thing to have in the 
country,” as friend Sparrowgrass would say. 
The author of “ Walks and Talks ” has a 
Doctor and a Deacon to make up the dialogue. 
I have two Doctors ! There is Hie Doctor who 
lives here at home, and t’other Doctor, who lives 
the other side of the river. I shall call one 
Doctor “the Doctor,” and the other one may as 
well be distinguished as Dr. K. We, the Doc¬ 
tor and I, called the other day on Dr. K, who 
has just been laying out a new place. He had 
two pieces of lawn which were seeded this 
spring; one was nicely green, and the other 
showed no sign of grass. He asked me to ex¬ 
plain. “You had different seed?” “No.” 
“ You used guano on one and not on the other ?" 
“ No.” “ One was rolled or beaten ?” “ Yes.” 
A more marked instance of the utility of com¬ 
pacting the soil around seeds could not be pre- 
