^SMcMSi 
about a half bushel of good strong stable $ 
manure ami press down, cover with soil ,} 
and set the plant so that the crown will be 8 
about eight or ten inches from the top of the 
ground when leveled off; spread the roots rj 
out flat in setting aud cover with soil; keep ' 
the ground loose by cultivator, hod out all 
grass and weeds. 
Asparagus can he set out either in the fall 
or spring; tire fall is best, as the roots get 
ready to start, sooner in the spring. They 
wdll want no additional manure until the 
second spring after setting, when they should 
have a liberal dressing of manure, plowed in, 
and the ground kept, loose and clean. The 
third spring give the plants a sprinkling of 
guano; as soon as frost is out of the ground, 
cultivate and loosen the soil. This season 
you will cut, but not too heavy, as it is hot¬ 
ter to cut light to strengthen the roots. After 
cutting, give a heavy dressing of manure, 
oriculture 
PLANTING BULBS. 
The receipt of “ that indefatigable” Vick’s 
Catalogue of bulbs, reminds me of a word I 
have often thought, to write in relation to 
bulbs. It is not new; and if everybody had, 
as they ought to have, Vick s Catalogue, 
then I should have little need to write. 
Year after year 1 visit, the grounds ot 
those who annually plant out bulbs ; and, so, 
year after year, I find few good flowers, and 
the owners of tbe various gardens wondering 
why their bulbs don’t bloom as well ns others 
they have seen. The truth is, that while a 
bulb may grow aud bloom in any garden 
soil, its full perfection can only he obtained 
by a thorough preparation of the soil in 
which it is planted, and a knowledge of how 
this country. The directions laid down are 
all apparently modified copies of English 
and French treatment of it, adapted to their 
climate and soil, hut which is altogether dif¬ 
ferent from the successful cultivation of it in 
this country aft a field or garden crop. 
It is the most, valuable of all the vegeta¬ 
bles from its well known action on the urina¬ 
ry and digestive organs and its very general 
invigorating influence on the system, it 
is highly recommended by all physicians, not 
on (y for invalids, but also for persons in 
good health. Its use is increasing faster 
than the increase of its propagation, as is 
clearly shown by the steady increase in sales 
and advance of price for the past ten years. 
The past season it brought fully forty per 
cent,, more than it did ten years ago, alt hough 
the quantity marketed has steadily increased 
to double what, it avus then. 11 is one ot the 
few vegetables with Avhich the market can¬ 
not be broken down by over cultivation, 
since it. comes to market, so early in the sca- 
JAPAN LILIES 
Dr. Lindley, in thopLondon Gardener’s 
Chronicle, gives the following concerning 
the propagation and cultivation ot these 
beautiful and popular flowering plants. He 
says;—Their propagation is simple and cer- 
and after cutting to apply a good coating of 
manure between tlie rows, keep the ground 
loose and clean. One-year-old plants arc the 
best for setting. Any kind of manure is 
good, with occasionally a dressing of salt. 
The very best manure, where it can be ob¬ 
tained, is night-soil, plowed in; hut any 
kind will do if you use enough of it. There 
need be no fear of giving it too much, as the 
crop will pay four-fold to the quantity of 
manure used. 
For marketing, the sprouts should be all 
large, as green as possible, and cut, when 
bunched, eight inches long. The hunches 
should be five inches across the hull end 
and tied with basswood tie near each end. 
If to be kept over night, wet the bulla and 
| stand on a cool cellar bottom; keep the tops 
8. Barker. 
dry after bunching. 
Anglo Worm*.—When in excess sprinkle the 
clay loam with caustic Umo as you trench or 
spade it ; but they aro not generally so numer¬ 
ous as to destroy the porosity of the soil. Shut 
up hens until near sunset, then spado up a 
wormy spot of ground for their delectation, and 
they will do no mischief to the garden if they 
have been avcII led with lettuce, chopped onions 
and ripe t omatoes. 8. av. 
covering of soil. For hyacinths and lilies j 
the soil can hardly he made too rich; and 
the deeper it is, especially AvitU lilies, the 
better will be the floAvers. I think the best 
lilies I ever saAV grew in soil over three feet 
deep, and composed mostly of the top soil 
and turf from a clay loam pasture. The 
stems were five to seven feet high, an inch 
in diameter at base, and bore each from 
thirty to forty flowers. 
Of the early flowering bulbs the tulip is 
the most, showy, and will bear poor manage¬ 
ment. better than almost any other; blit, as 
Mr. Vick says, the tulip as commonly seen 
throughout the country conveys no Just im¬ 
pression of Avhat magnificence may he ob¬ 
tained from a mass of the best varieties. All 
soils for bulbs must be so situated that water 
cannot stand upon or in it, at any time, over 
twenty-four hours. Audi. 
rboricultwrt 
OLD TREES 
The oldest tree known by naturalists is the 
Great Dragon tree of Orotova, Teneriffe, 
which was blown down by a hurricane a few 
months since. It was a stately tree, seventy 
or eighty feet high, as early as A. D. 1402, 
and so old aud remarkable a t ree as to excite 
particular care and notice for its preservation. 
When It was destroyed, it was believed to be 
no less than 5,000 years old. On the banks 
of the Senegal river, in Africa, there are, or 
were in 1748, trees growing, sixty or eighty 
feet high, and some thirty feet In diameter, 
Which were estimated by Adanson, the 
Preach naturalist, to be over 5,000 years old. 
They are knoAvn as the Baobab or Adnnsonia. 
The English yew is another very long-lived 
tree. 
There are. numbers of these trees in Eng¬ 
land and Scotland, which are believed to bo 
from 1,400 to 3,000 years old. A cypress 
tree in Oaxaca, Mexico, which forty years 
ago measured one hundred and t wenty feet 
in height, one hundred and seventeen in cir- 
Fiocre 5. 
Figure 4 is a circular flower hod (ten feet 
diameter) representing a Turk’s turban, the 
center being, as shown, of crimson Cobus; 
the white line is the common striped ribbon 
grass, while the margin or outer line is a 
band of crimson Achyranthus. This bed, 
though composed of but three common or¬ 
namental leaved plants, of the cheapest 
kind, has a most gorgeous effect in the sun¬ 
light, and Avhen set on a groundwork of 
green lawn may be distinctly seen five hun¬ 
dred yards distant. 
about eight to ton inches long, of a dark 
green color, velvety look, light head and less 
taper than the other varieties. I went to 
Jamaica, Long Island, to see it growing in 
the field as a crop. There were about two 
acres of the Colossal and the same quantity 
of the old variety growing, side by aide, in 
the same field, with the same cultivation, 
soil and manure. The new variety was 
throAving lip shoots from one-half to two 
am 1 a half inches in diameter, and Irom 
from .250, 440, 516, 570, 720, 800, 000, 1,000, 
and so on up to 3,000 or more years old. 
Cutting Swamp Willows.—Tn the Rural of the 
31sfc ult., A. W. G, inquires for the “ best time to 
cut willows and prevent them from sprouting 
again.” The Editor replies“ After the leaves 
begin to fall In autumn.” I have been greatly 
annoyed with them on ray place until r learned 
now to kill them, root, and branch, which I in¬ 
variably do before cutting them. At any time 
when the bark will slip, (the earlier the better,) 
hegtn about four foot aboveground, and strip it 
down, leaving not a particle on tho bush or tree 
above the surfaco or the earth to tho height 
specified. So treuted, about the 20tli of April, or 
May 1st., In this latitude, they invariably die 
before October following.—F. A. D., Camden , 
e outer line (1) of which is plant- Figure 5 shows the plants, the bed (Figure 
taurea gyumacarpa, a plant with 4) composing it enlarged, 
r, fern-like foliage, growing about While our Central and Prospect Paries 
height; the next line (3) Zonal show marked ability in their design and 
with scarlet flowers, growing construction, surpassing in this respect, per- 
hes in height; the next, the third haps, anything in Europe, it is to be regret- 
i golden-leaved Coleus ( C . latinui- ted that the commissioners, thus far, have 
• center (4) with the Avell known shown no desire to introduce this flower 
ved Coleus «7. verschafeUlti). Thus massing—a feature by far the most attractive 
Based together in separate lines to the visitors in the English parks. The 
Id, scarlet and silvery gray. eye even of the city dweller, tires of the 
rcoresents a crescent-shaped bed. everlasting green, refreshing thougli it be, 
with one another, the effect win be mag¬ 
nificent. 
--*-*-•*■- 
Cutting llnok Rose Leaves — Inquiry.—I have 
in my garden some twelve varieties of hybrid 
perpetual roses that bloomed very heautituily 
the first oT June. Slnco the bloom fell off they 
are putting up very rank canes that bid fair to 
attain a height of several feet. Should these 
canes be cut back now to six or eight inches 
from the ground, or should they be permitted 
to grow and be pruned next spring?— O. M. 
Hamilton, Hrowmvlllc, Ohio. 
Remedy Tor Pear might. T sawed off the dead 
limbs and bored a hole, with a small auger, two 
or three feet from the ground, and filled it up 
with salt. It saved my tree. Old iron, I think, 
is very good to put around the treo. —A Farmer. 
Might not the trees have rccoverod after saw¬ 
ing off tho limbs without tho introduction of 
salt into the body? We have known such re¬ 
sults to follow such treatment. 
Double Tulips arc becoming more popular 
every year, and deservedly so. 
