124 = 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
stakes. Raspberries require to be planted from 4 
to 6 feet, and may be tied to stakes or trellises. 
Kitchen Garden. 
These notes are made up March 15th, and as we 
iook from our window the prospect is not very in¬ 
spiring, still we know that the land under that ex¬ 
panse of snow bore bountiful crops last year, aud 
we trust it will this, but all ordinary calculations as 
to the time of “ making garden ” must be set aside, 
and our few notes will have more reference to what 
to do, when it can be done, than to direct when to 
do it. The notes for the kitchen garden are unu¬ 
sually brief for this month, but this is more than 
made up by those given last month. In March will 
not only be found a list of the most desirable kinds 
of vegetables, but directions for sowing, and this 
month’s notes are intended only to supply deficien¬ 
cies in those. The needed directions for hot-beds 
and cold-frames were given last month, and in many 
places early in April will be found quite soon 
enough for the hot-bed in the family garden. 
Cold-Frames must be opened every day, except 
when cold storms occur, when the sash may be 
raised a few inches at the back. 
Carrots. —Sow when the ground is warm and dry; 
use plenty of seed, that they may break the ground 
well; keep clear of weeds. 
Cauliflowers. —The richer the ground in which 
these are planted, the better will be the prospect of 
a good crop. They may be treated like cabbages. 
Cucumbers and Squashes in the northern states 
cannot safely be sown until next month, unless one 
has the means of protecting them with a hand-glass. 
Egg Plant.— Give the seeds sown in hot-bed all 
the heat possible, otherwise they are a long time in 
starting. Do not set out plants until May at least. 
Sweet Herbs. —Sow seeds of Sage, Thyme, and 
Sweet Marjoram in hot-bed, or later in the open 
ground, to be transplanted. Summer Savory must 
he sown where it is to grow. 
Lettuce. —Sow seeds in hot-bed, and later in open 
ground, and transplant from cold-frame. 
Onions need to be sown as soon as the ground can 
be worked. Unless a liberal allowance of manure 
is given, it is useless to expect a good crop. 'Wood 
ashes makes a good top-dressing when the plants 
are large enough to weed. 
Radishes. —Sow in drills, a few each week. Mar¬ 
ket-gardeners sow between rows of beets, as they 
will be tised before they are in the way of the beets. 
Rhubarb. —Fork in manure around the plants to 
encourage a quick growth. New beds are made by 
dividing the old roots so as to have a bud to each 
piece. Set four feet apart each way. 
Tools. —Put in working order. Provide all the 
new ones necessary for the season’s work, and re- 
menrber that cheap tools are often the dearest. 
Have duplicate parts on hand of such as are easily 
Ibroken, so that a break does not always delay the 
work of a day or perhaps more. 
Drains. —Good crops cannot be raised unless the 
ground is properly drained, and besides wet land is 
never ready to work until late in the spring. If 
necessary, open surface drains at such distances as 
will allow the water to run off immediately. 
Manure, and plenty of it, is essential in gardening. 
Those who can command a good supply of well de¬ 
composed barnyard manure, need look no further ; 
those who have not this must make composts and 
buy fertilizers. The note on page 114, last month, 
,£ A Flower-garden and no Manure,” contains a 
hint for the kitchen garden. Guano and fine bone 
are among the most certain fertilizers ; these should 
he used at the rate of 300 lbs. to the acre. Good 
fertilizers are made from dried blood, and there are 
reliable phosphates which may be used to advan¬ 
tage. Much can be done in the way of liquid ma¬ 
nure by saving house-slops; this must be used weak; 
on growing plants it will often work wonders, 
especially on tomatoes, egg plants, etc. 
■<P~ - 
'I'Bac Lunvi! and 4<3 «*obibi«1»„ 
Our notes have usually been headed Flower- 
Garden and Lawn, but for this time we put the 
Lawn first. By Lawn we do not mean merely the 
grassed surface, but all that portion of the grounds 
reserved for ornamental purposes, not included in 
the flower-beds or borders. In the surroundings of 
a house, the one important thing to consider is the 
Lawn, whether it Is a small village front yard or 
an extensive park the foundation, the setting of 
all other ornamentation is the grass. Let this be 
good, it is of itself an object of beauty—but let it 
be poor, brown, and patchy, no expense in trees, 
plants, and vases, will compensate for the lack of it. 
In small places, such as yards, it is often more 
satisfactory to lay turf. If this is done, or seed is 
sown, complete success requires the soil to be 
thoroughly prepared. Here is were most fail. It 
seems like a waste of manure to use it for grass. 
The work is done for years, and must be well done. 
No crop more requires drainage, abundant manur¬ 
ing, thorough working of the soil, and careful sow¬ 
ing, than the lawn. After the surface is properly 
graded, the soil should be as thoroughly prepared 
as for a garden, and then sown. We have never 
had much success with “lawn grass” mixtures, 
and prefer one kind of grass, with a little white 
clover. Red-top, especially the kind called Rhode 
Island Bent, or June Grass, also called Kentucky 
Blue-grass, with a quart of white clover-seed to the 
bushel, will either make a good lawn. Three bush¬ 
els—at least—of seed to the acre are needed, and 
five will be better. Divide in three lots, and sow 
first say from east to west, then from north to 
south, then as at first, to get an even distribution 
of seed, then roll. 
Ornamental Trees. —No directions can be given as 
to where to plant these ; each place must be treated 
according to its own requirements ; have a fair pro¬ 
portion of evergreen and deciduous trees. Recol¬ 
lect that small trees will soon become large. Do 
not plant just the same kinds and in the same man¬ 
ner as your neighbor. Nothing is more distressing 
than to see one place a counterpart of that on each 
side. For six excellent trees, not found on every 
place, yet to be obtained at moderate prices at all 
good nurseries — Red-flowering Horse - Chestnut, 
Koelreuteria paniculata, Oak-leaved Mountain Ash, 
Gingko or Salisburia, Yellow-wood, also called Vir- 
gnia ( Gymnocladus),wxd. the Purple Sycamore Maple. 
Weeping trees may be used with fine effect: they 
are more expensive as a general thing ; among the 
best are Cut-leaved Weeping Birch, Weeping Poplar, 
Camperdown Elm, and Weeping Larch. 
Evergreens may be made useful as well as orna¬ 
mental, by planting where they will break the cold 
winds. Our native Hemlock is abundant, but can 
never be “common.” Search all the choice collec¬ 
tions, and nothing finer Will be found than a well- 
grown Hemlock. If a screen is the main object, 
Norway Spruce and Arbor-Vitae will be selected 
with Hemlock, on account of rapid growth and 
cheapness. For ornament merely, among the less 
common kinds, are the Austrian Pine, Lawson’s 
Cypress, Nordmann’s Fir, Bhotan Pine, and many 
others, while the Dwarf Arbor-Vitals, Retinisporas 
and Dwarf Pines make charming lawn plants. 
Deciduous Shrubs are indispensable, and there are 
so many good ones that it is difficult to make a 
selection. One who notices native plants will have 
no difficulty in making a highly ornamental collec¬ 
tion from those which grow wild in our woods and 
swamps, and we have in former years pointed out 
and illustrated a great number of these ; but most 
persons have not time for this, and prefer to buy at 
once. Very choice kinds may now be had at 25 cts. 
to 50 cts. each. The following will be a satisfactory 
selection, and it could be made many times larger 
without enumerating all the good ones. Calycan- 
thus or Sweet-scented Shrub, Gordon’s Currant, 
Deutzia crenata, double, aud D. gracilis, Forsythia, 
Tartarian Honeysuckle, Hydrangea paniculata gran- 
diflora, Persian Lilac, Fringe-tree ( Chionanthus), 
Spiraeas, several, 'Weigelia, several, especially De- 
boisiana and nivea, Viburnum plicatum. 
Evergreen Shrubs. —We have already suggested 
that there are numerous dwarf pines, arbor-vitaes, 
and other conifers, and among the broad-leaved 
kinds our native Laurel ( Eahnia ) is one of the best. 
Rhododendrons are a little expensive, but one is a 
flower-show in itself, and where they can be afford' 
ed, they should by all means have a place. Our 
native Holly, the Holly-leaved Barberry, (Mahonia,) 
the Pyracanth Thorn, and Tree Box, are generally 
hardy in the colder states, but those who live 
further south can enjoy a great variety of evergreen 
shrubs that do not endure northern winters. Some 
taste can be displayed in the 
Grouping of Shrubs, to produce a pleasing effect; 
they should never be trimmed into formal shapes, 
but the natural habit of each one be consulted 
when cutting is necessary. Fine specimen plants 
may stand alone upon the lawn, or groups of the 
same kind, or of different kinds so placed. In set¬ 
ting trees and shrubs, the matter of 
“Planting out," as landscape gardeners say, should 
be kept in mind, and trees, and even shrubs, may 
be so placed as to cut off the view of objects on 
one’s own place or that of a neighbor, which it is 
desirable to hide. 
Trees and Shrubs, when planted, should receive 
as much care in the preparation of the soil and in 
handling, as those which bear fruit; they somehow 
manage to live if set out, as if they were fence- 
posts, but make grateful returns for good treat¬ 
ment. Give all evergreens—save those used for 
screens—abundant room to develope, and never re¬ 
move a lower branch, unless it is diseased or dead. 
An evergreen with branches to the very ground is 
a beautiful sight, but one trimmed up is about as 
elegant as a hay-cock upon a gate-post. 
JPlower Garden. 
A small corner in the back yard cared for by a 
lover of flowers, is as much a flower-garden as acres 
of beds of elaborate geometrical design kept by a 
“professional” and a large force of under-garden¬ 
ers. We write for those who do their own garden¬ 
ing, and who no doubt derive as much pleasure 
from their humble grounds, as do those whose 
wealth allows them to employ others to do it for 
them. There are two principal styles of gardening; 
one in 'which flowers are used in masses to produce 
effects of color, either in a mass of ODe color or 
parts of a more or less elaborate design : in this the 
individuality of the plant is lost, and it only 
makes one in a crowd. In the other style, plants 
are chosen for their beauty, fragrance, curious 
structure, or other individual peculiarity which is 
best seen and enjoyed when the plant has a chance 
to develop its proper form ; such plants are not 
set in any pattern, but where they will be best, of 
course reference is had to their liight. One style 
of gardening is for effect, the other for those who 
love plants. While we cannot deny that some ex¬ 
amples of the first or bedding style are brilliant and 
showy, we are free to admit that our sympathies 
are with the other or mixed border, at least if con¬ 
fined to one. In bedding, the plants most used re¬ 
quire to be grown under glass, aud unless one has 
a green-house, a large outlay must be made for 
plants, or annuals used instead, which are never so 
satisfactory. In the mixed border there is. a suc¬ 
cession, from the snow-drops blooming in the last 
snow of spring, and the Colchicum, caught by the 
first snow of autumn. In this perennials, biennials, 
and annuals all find a place, and even house-plants 
can be plunged in their pots or turned out in it. If 
confined to one class of plants, we should choose 
Herbaceous Perennials. —Among these is the great¬ 
est possible variety, and once planted they need 
not be disturbed for several years. These excellent 
plants have of late years been crowded aside by the 
more fashionable soft-wooded bedding plants. 
Herbaceous perennials may, if one wishes, be raised 
from the seed, but as they do not usually flower 
until the second year, most prefer to buy smaH 
plants. The number of really good things is large; 
we enumerate some that are readily obtained and 
excellent. Anemone Pulsatilla, one of the earliest 
in spring, and A. Japonica, var. Honorine Jobert, 
the last in fall; this last cannot be praised too high¬ 
ly ; Columbines, all good ; Chrysanthemums ; Pinks, 
the hardy sorts; Bleeding Heart, ( Dicentra specta- 
bilis), the American, D, eximia, not so showy, but 
constant bloomer; Astilbe Japonica, (incorrectly 
Spiraea); Fraxinella; Day Lilies, (Funkia); Iris, of 
