1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
103 
cream, or as thick as will work well with the 
brush. It is best to make it too thick, and then 
add alcohol as required. Overhauling one’s 
Implements is good winter work. It is sur¬ 
prising what a number of “ rattle-traps ” one 
will accumulate. 
It takes a deal of 
time to try things. 
People who have 
never tried it think 
it must be great fun 
to be an editor and 
get new implements 
for nothing. An 
editor with a con¬ 
science, when he ac¬ 
cepts an implement, 
is bound to give it a 
fair trial and report 
the result. This is 
something that one 
can not delegate to 
others, but must do 
himself. I quite 
agreed with Walks 
and Talks when lie 
proposed to give up 
all his editorial per¬ 
quisites to any one 
who would pay his 
postage bill. The 
editor gets an im¬ 
plement that if he 
bought it would cost 
him live or ten dol¬ 
lars, more or less. 
The notice, if favor¬ 
able, is worth to the 
dealer a thousand dollars, more or less. So 
none of us, while ready to try all new things, 
feel under any obligation, nor do we esteem 
HANGING-ROT. 
EXCELSIOR WEEDING-HOOK. 
it as anything very desirable. Among the 
accumulations of last year I found a number 
of things to put among the old iron, but 
there are a few that I would not willingly 
part with. Last spring I was in the seed-store 
of R. H. Allen & Co., and after I left, I found 
that Jos. M. Gleason, Esq., the superintendent 
of the seed department, had put something into 
the pocket of my overcoat. I found it was an 
Excelsior Weeding-Hook. —It is an iron 
hand, with the slender fingers spread just as 
one -would place them in scratching the surface 
of the soil. This is a most useful implement 
for lightening the soil between rows of seed¬ 
lings, whether in the liot-bed or open ground. 
It is perfect, and it comes into use in various 
'ways. Mr. G. has my thanks for making 
me acquainted with this excellent work. 
The Sidney Seed-Sow t er is another good 
thing. B. K. Bliss asked me to take one home 
and try it, and I did it feeling that I was lug¬ 
ging home a useless implement. It is really a 
convenient thing for those who are not used to 
sowing seeds by band, and who have not enough 
to sow to require a regular sowing-machine. It 
is, as will be seen by the drawing, a cylinder to 
hold the seeds, and a spout or gutter at the 
lower end from which they fall. The supply is 
regulated by a small sliding-door, and in the 
cylinder is placed an inverted cone to prevent 
clogging. (In the drawing the cylinder is 
fractured to show the cone within.) By 
changing the inclination of the delivering 
spout, the flow is made fast or slow, and 
an inexperienced hand can soon learn to 
sow with great regular¬ 
ity. Like all other use¬ 
ful-implements, it is ex¬ 
ceedingly simple. I no¬ 
tice that in England (the 
thing is English) they 
advertise a handle 
(which I show in the 
drawing), and say, “ No 
more stooping.” If a 
person can not stoop, he 
has no business in a 
garden. I have nothing- 
new to add about 
.House Plants. —The 
Double Chinese Prim¬ 
rose and Catalonian Jas¬ 
mine have been in 
bloom for over two 
months, and promise to 
continue. I have long wanted a 
Hanging-Basket different from the heavy 
rustic affairs, which, though they are well 
enough for verandas, are quite too heavy for win¬ 
dows. I received some specimens from Snow 
& Coolidge, West Sterling, Mass., of which I 
send a drawing. The pot, while it is of a shape 
that is not inelegarit, holds a sufficient quantity of 
earth, and is arranged to be suspended by 
means of chains. It has a saucer attached to 
receive any water that may drain off. Though 
the pots are glazed, the makers claim that the 
glazing is not impervious. This is, however, a 
matter of little importance, for if the drainage 
be good the pot may as well 
be glazed or of metal, while 
if no drainage is provided, a 
porous material is necessary. 
It is no little thing in favor 
of these pots that they may 
be used suspended or not, 
as circumstances may require. 
The same manufacturers send 
excellent samples of ordinary flower-pots, 
and one of a rustic pattern. 
—-- *——»■»»——- 
Propagating Stone Fruits. 
To answer several inquiries concerning the 
propagation of the peach, plum, and cherry, 
we group them together. Seedling stocks are 
used for the peach and cherry, while those for 
the plum may also be raised from layers. The 
stones should have been buried in a dry place 
in autumn, or preserved in layers of sand in a 
box exposed to frost. Cherries germinate very 
early, and the seeds must be sown as soon as the 
ground can be got ready. Peach and plum stones 
if they do not crack by the swelling of the seed 
should be carefully cracked by hand, and the 
seeds or “ meats ” sown. Peaches are budded 
the same year they are sown, while plums and 
cherries usually require two years to make suit¬ 
able stocks. The seedlings are taken up in the 
fall and heeled in, and the next spring are set 
in nursery rows. Peaches are propagated by 
budding almost exclusively, at the North at least, 
though some of the nurserymen at the South 
graft in the spring the slocks which failed at 
the previous season’s budding. Plums and 
cherries are usually budded, but they may be 
grafted with success provided it be done suffi¬ 
ciently early. The grafting should be done be¬ 
fore the buds start, and if before the frost has 
quite left the ground, the chances of succeeding 
will be greater. The peach is often worked 
upon plum stocks, as the roots of the plum 
are better adapted to heavy, moist soil than 
those of the peach. “Barry’s Fruit Garden’” 
gives instruction in propagating trees of all 
kinds clearly and in detail. 
- ^-4 - ■ a o **--- 
Inducing Fruit Trees to Bear. 
A correspondent at Lebanon, Va., writes as 
follows: “My friend T. had an apple-tree 
which bore abundantly, but only every alternate 
year. He chanced in early spring to lay some 
heavy poles on some of the lower limbs. This 
was not its year to bear. The limbs on which 
the poles rested bloomed and bore abundantly, 
while the other parts of the tree had neither 
bloom nor apple. Did the weight on the limbs, 
by checking the circulation of sap, and eonse- 
qnently the growth of wood, develop fruit¬ 
bearing buds? If so, may we not learn a prac¬ 
tical lesson from this incident?” 
In this country we see but few of what may 
be called the refinements of horticulture. Trees 
are for the most part planted and allowed to 
take their chances. If they survive the struggle 
for existence, and after many years come into 
indifferent bearing, the fruit is welcome. If the 
trees are choked by grass and weeds, and starved 
by other crops, either the nurseryman is blamed, 
or it is concluded that “ trees don’t do as well 
as they used to.” Our correspondent, has rightly 
accounted for the phenomenon, but the “prac¬ 
tical lesson” has been learned long ago, and in 
one form and another has been practiced. The 
pruning and training of trees to induce fruit¬ 
fulness is well understood, but the great, trouble 
is that in our rude horticulture it does not pay. 
Our people have in part learned that in order 
to grow grapes they must, treat their vines 
properly, and after a while they will find that 
trees will repay tasteful care and attention. 
How to B.aise Celery and Cabbage Plants. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
I find that most of the information that I am 
able to give to your readers is suggested by 
inquiries of correspondents who write to me to 
help them out of their difficulties. One of these, 
from New Hampshire, says that he finds great 
trouble with his crops of both cabbage and 
celery on account of the difficulty of raising 
the plants. His hot-bed-raised cabbage are 
often severely hurt by frosts after planting out, 
and his celery seed, which he can not in his 
section sow sooner in the open ground than the 
first week in May, does not give him strong- 
enough plants to set out in July. These diffi¬ 
culties suggest a remedy which must be different 
from our usual practice in the latitude of 
New York, where in ordinary seasons our 
ground operations are in full blast the first week 
in April. This remedy is the use of sashes, not 
as hot-beds, but only as cold-beds, or, as they 
are called, cold-frames. These are constructed 
simply of boards placed parallel with each other 
six feet apart, or of the length of the sash used, 
whatever it may be. These beds should be 
placed in a spot as warm and sheltered as pos¬ 
sible. Where the frost is yet in the ground, by 
placing the sashes on, the spaces under them 
will soon be thawed out by the sun, parti cul'arly- 
if the sashes can be covered up at night. 
SIDNEY SEED-SOWER. 
