AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
3 
Bulbs—Bring a few each week, from the Green-House 
to keep up a fine show of bloom. Those in glasses should 
have the water changed every week at least. See illus¬ 
trations and directions on another page. 
Calceolarias—Shift those needing it, to larger pots, turn¬ 
ing them frequently to secure an upright growth. Those 
of flowering size should show a fine bloom this month. 
Camellias should now present a fine bloom, ranking with 
the most showy flowers of the house. Wateroneeortwice 
a week, as needful and syringe the foliage, but avoid wet¬ 
ting the flowers which will hasten their decay. 
Carnations in bloom, require staking, and should be 
watered often. Shift those which are pot-bound. Put in 
cuttings for a Summer stock to bloom in the open grounds. 
Cinerarias will need especial watching as they are fa¬ 
vorites of the green fly. Tobacco fumes are the best an¬ 
tidote. Repotting will be necessary in many instances. 
Cuttings and Layers of many growing plants may now 
be made to advantage, especially of those kinds intended 
for bedding out in the Spring. 
Fuchsias—Prune to a good head, healthy growing 
plants. If much decayed and of unsightly appearance, 
discard them for young vigorous plants. Cuttings may 
now be made and growing plants repotted. 
Grapes, in the early houses are beginning to color, or 
even ripening off. They require a dryer atmosphere with 
very little water at the root. Air freely. Later houses 
require more care. , Some need pruning, thinning, syr¬ 
inging, and an application of sulphur to destroy the mil¬ 
dew, according to the amount of forcing they have re¬ 
ceived. 
Insects—Prevention is better than cure. A moist at¬ 
mosphere, frequent washing and syringing of the foliage, 
hand picking, &c., are the best preventives. For a cure, 
use tobacco fumes for thrips and green-fly, soap and wa¬ 
ter for scale, and a sponge or syringe and clear water for 
red spider. 
Peach Trees, Nectarines, Figs, &c. in pots, should now 
be placed in a warm part of the house, repotting if neces¬ 
sary. With proper care, watering occasionally with li¬ 
quid manure, thoy will fruit during the latterpart of June. 
Petunias, Verbenas, Pelargoniums, &c.—Plant cuttings, 
and layer for an increase of stock. A large number will 
be wanted for massing in the Spring. 
Pines— These begin to show fruit. A high tempera¬ 
ture is needed, say, 80° to 85°. Water each week. 
Potting—Many plants need an early shift to pots of a 
larger size, and cuttings inserted last month are now 
ready to pot off. Have a heap of potting soil at all times 
in readiness where it will not freeze. 
Seeds of many out do«r annuals may now be sown for 
early planting in the borders as soon as made up in the 
Spring. 
Shutters—Have in readiness and use during snow 
storms and when very c»id or windy. It is not best to 
leave them off at night unless the weather is quite mild. 
Water—The watering pot and syringe should be fre¬ 
quently used this month, although the inexperienced are 
more liable to injure the plants by excess than by too lit¬ 
tle water. Thrifty growing plants require much more 
moisture than those which are in a state of rest. An ex¬ 
amination of the earth in the pots, affords the best clue to 
their wants. Water only when the soil becomes partial 
ly dry. The water should always bo soft and taken from 
a tank or cistern in the house itself. 
Finally let order and neatness pervade every part of the 
house or room, as the conservatory with its “ showy 
bloom, and sweet perfume,” is a room often visited by 
the family and strangers. 
Apiary for January. 
BY M. QUINBY. 
St. Johnsville, N. Y. 
Bees that are out-doors during the severe weather of this 
month, must have air, or they will smother; they need 
almost as much as in hot weather. Look to them occa¬ 
sionally to see that the air passages do not get closed with 
dead oees, frost or ice. Should the weather moderate 
enough to thaw the frost; turn back the hive, and clean 
the floor of all filth that may have accumulated there. 
Set a board Defore the hives to shade them when rather 
too cold for the bees to fly well, and yet sufficiently 
warm to induce some to issue. When so warm that many 
leave the hive when so shaded, it will generally do to let 
them fly freely, even if there is snow, unless it is new¬ 
ly fallen. In the coldest weathei let the sun strike the 
hive. If secured from the mice as directed last month, 
no trouble need be taken to shovel them out when they 
happen to be buried in snow. Set traps for the mice; it 
may be an advantage, aside from the benefit to the bees. 
Bees that are in the house, snouiu be left as quiet as 
possible, yet should be looked to occasionally to see that 
rats or mice do not gain at cess to them. Small pieces of 
comD, or crumos scattered around, are indications that 
mice are about. Trap them at once—it would hardly do 
to poison them so near the honey. Air slaked lime sprink¬ 
led on the floor of the room, will keep the air sweet, if a 
few bees should get lost from the hives. 
Onion Experience Wanted. 
PRIZE OFFERED. 
We will pay ten dollars cash for the best plain, 
practical directions on raising onions, written by an ex¬ 
perienced onion-grower. The article not to exceed ten 
or twelve pages of foolscap paper, and to embrace the va¬ 
rious items—from the selection of seed to the marketing 
of the crop—all written out so plainly as to be useful to 
those who have little or no experience in the cultivation 
of this crop. Practical directions and hints are more 
important than finished style. We can attend to the latter 
item. A selection from the essays offered will be made 
on Feb. 1st, and the article published in the March Agri¬ 
culturist .— Ed. 
Notes upon the Field and Garden Seeds 
to he Distributed to our Subscribers 
[For list of seeds, and mode of distribution, see page 
28, For Notes on Flower and Ornamental Seeds, 
seepage 18.] 
Field Seeds. 
No. 1 . White Sugar Beet.— Good for feed¬ 
ing. Making beet-root sugar is not feasible in this 
country as yet. We only offer these for the 
benefit of those remote from seed stores, who 
may wish to try a plot. Two 3-cent stamps carry 
about 1000 seeds, (1 oz.) 
No. 2. Kino Philip Cohn. —Valuable chiefly 
for its very early maturity, which adapts it pe¬ 
culiarly to cold regions with short seasons, and 
also for replanting when corn has been destroyed, 
or failed to come up. It ripens in three months 
or less from planting. Stalk small; may be 
planted in hills 21 to 3 feet apart. Ears and kern¬ 
els of fair size, and heavv, with small cob. Yields 
better than it shows in field; in some cases 100 
bushels have been reported to the acre. 
No. 3. Stowell’s Sweet Corn. —A large 
growing valuable variety, requiring a pretty long 
season to fully mature. It ripens slowly, and 
has hence been called “Evergreen.” Is valuable 
for the table, for drying, and for cattle food, both 
stalks and corn. It is pretty widely disseminat¬ 
ed, but in remote localities, where not yet known, 
our parcels of seed will be valuable as an intro¬ 
duction to a future supply. Comparatively little 
really pure seed is anywhere to be found. 
No. 4. White Poland Oats. —These suffered 
in common with other kinds of oats last season, 
but they are without doubt an excellent variety, 
and we deem it worth while to give opportunity 
for their introduction into remote localities, where 
they are not known, and not accessible except by 
mail. 
No. 5. Chinese Sugar Cane. —The reports 
this year are on the whole more favorable than 
last year, and more so than we had looked for, 
everything considered. We still adhere to the 
opinion that in localities remote from market, it 
will be found profitable to produce home-grown 
sweetening from the Chinese Sugar Cane. Many 
subscribers, especially in Illinois and Iowa, as 
well as our Western exchanges, have recently 
given glowing accounts of the present prospects 
of this crop. There is certainly much to be yet 
hoped for from it. Having secured a large stock of 
good seed, we offer it very freely in our distri¬ 
bution. 
No. 6. Ashcroft’s Swedish Turnip. 
No. 7. River’s Swedish Turnip. 
Both of these turned out well in the experi¬ 
ments in 1857 ; and we have generally good re¬ 
ports from the limited amount of seed we distri¬ 
buted last year. They are worthy of a wider in 
troduction. 
No. 68. Purple-top Scotch (Bullock) Turnip. 
No. 69. Green-top Scotch (Bullock) Turnip. 
These two varieties were sent out in small 
quantities late last year. The few reports re¬ 
ceived speak well of them, and we throw them 
open to general trial this year. 
No. 71. Long White French Turnip.— This 
we distributed to some extent last year, and gave 
it a good trial ourselves. We consider It the best 
Turnip we know of. It grows large, white 
fleshed, sweet, with no strong flavor. May be 
sown the last of June for a main crop, and from 
the first of July to the middle of August for Win¬ 
ter table use. Since we introduced this to gene¬ 
ral public notice, a few persons at the West and 
elsewhere have claimed to have the same va¬ 
riety. That they have a similar kind, that is, a 
white turnip called the “ White French,” we do 
not doubt. Our seed we obtained of Joseph E. 
Macomber, of Portsmouth, R. I., who, with some 
Friends thereabouts, are extensively engaged in 
raising various kinds of seeds. They ha ve with¬ 
out doubt improved the quality of the old white 
French Turnip in no small degree, and we are 
quite sure, no better table turnip is grown in this 
country. It keeps admirably late into Summer. 
We have been able thus far to secure only 250 16s 
of seed. This we shall distribute in half ounce par¬ 
cels as long as we have it. We distributed 100 16s 
last Summer, and with comparatively few excep¬ 
tions, so far as we have heard, it gave the high¬ 
est satisfaction, though the early, long-continued 
rain in Autumn prevented a full growth. 
No. 93. “ Hungarian Grass,” or Millet.— 
It seems to be scarcely agreed as yet whether this 
should be called, grass or millet. We think it 
valuable, especially for fodder. Some large stories 
are told of its prodigious yield of forage, and of its 
superior value for feed, both in the green and 
dried state. We have watched these reports 
pretty carefully, and attribute many of them to 
seed speculation. Still this, and the inferior 
kinds of millets are valuable as forage crops. 
The seed, which is now pretty widely distributed, 
will be sold somewhat cheaply in some lo¬ 
calities. Those not having access to it otherwise, 
may call on us for a small parcel to begin with. 
The seeds being small, half an ounce will sow 
quite a plot for obtaining seed for another season. 
This small quantity may be cultivated in drills, 
and thus be made to yield more largely. It is an 
annual not living over Winter. Sow early or late 
in Spring, or rather at several periods for a suc¬ 
cession of green cattle feed. 
No. 94. Crystal Flint, or Hominy Corn.— 
This we now place for the first time in our distri¬ 
bution. It originated on the Chesapeake, we be¬ 
lieve, but has recently been cultivated by W. S. 
Carpenter, of Westchester Co., N, Y. It is a 
clear or almost transparent flint, large ear, with 
an average of 14 rows of kernels. Requires about 
the usual period for growth. 
Vegetable and Garden Seeds. 
No. 8. Daniel O’Rourke Pea. —This is the 
earliest pea grown, and is chiefly valuable on this 
account. It is small, dwarfish, and the flavor not 
so good as some others, but maturing for the 
table as it does, in 40 to 45 days from planting, it 
deserves the most extensive introduction. We 
have raised two crops on the same ground in a 
single season. 
No. 9. Champion of England Pea. —Every¬ 
thing considered, this is the pea for the main gar- 
