■ ii.ii. in min im*' 
0 0 EE’S RURAL NEW-YO RK£R . 
Jpiarg of a pluralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
FROM THE OIARY OF A GENTLEMAN NEAR NEW YORK CITY. 
Garden Labels.— Feb. 5.—Few persons 
over have on hand, at planting in spring, a 
good attd full supply of garden labels. Tlii9 
is due to carelessness or want of foret hought, 
and the result is either a loss In valuable 
time in the most busy season of the year, or 
a total neglect to preserve the names of 
seed* sown or plants set out. A very com¬ 
mon mode of trying to preserve the names 
of seeds purchased at the seed store, is to 
insert the printed envelope into the end of 
a small stick, hastily placed in the bed af¬ 
ter sowing the seed. If the first wind does 
not carry this bit of paper to parts un¬ 
known, the first shower will, and the gar¬ 
dener’s memory usually takes a similar di¬ 
rection, and all knowledge of the names of 
plants grown is lost. I do not know of a 
more provoking predicament to be placed 
in than to have some one ask me the name 
of a plant which I am cultivating, and be 
obliged to confess my ignorance. The con¬ 
fusion which axists in every neighborhood 
throughout the country in regard to the 
names of fruits,* llowers and vegetables, is 
due in a great measure to carelessness, in not 
keeping them labeled. Tree labels can now 
be purchased so cheaply from the manufac¬ 
turer that individuals can scarcely afford to 
whittle them out by hand, but large stake 
labels, to be driven into the earth, may be 
made of old pieces of boards, or hard wood, 
and a goodly quantity should always be 
kept, on hand. 1 have always made it a rule 
to have a sufficient number of labels made 
in winter for spring use, and no plant is 
ever set out or seed sown without being 
labeled at t he time. Before planting vege¬ 
table or flower seeds, I go to my store of 
labels and select the sizes desired, and rub 
some fresh white, paint over the side on 
which 1 wish to write the names, then carry 
labels and seeds to the place where they are 
to be used. As each variety of seed is sown 
its name is written upon a label and this in¬ 
serted into the soil. Small tree labels may 
also be used for this purpose if fastened up¬ 
on s< rong stakes. There ought to be enough 
of the Yankee spirit left in our people to 
enable them to whittle out all the labels re¬ 
quired during the long winter evenings, 
without trespassing upon a more busy sea¬ 
son. 
Rabbits in the Garden.— Feb. 6.—Wild 
rabbits are a great pest in the Eastern as 
well ns the Western Stat es. They come in¬ 
to one’s garden or orchard by night and eat 
the buds and small twigs from small fruit 
trees and ornamental shrubs. They visit 
my garden more or less every winter, al¬ 
though the sportsmen have waged war 
against them iu this locality for the past 
hundred years; still they are so numerous 
that nearly a hundred were trapped by the 
boys in my immediate neighborhood last 
winter. One of the simplest methods of 
keeping them away from garden trees and 
shrubs with which I am acquaintod.is to raise 
a quantity of sweet corn aud leave it iu small 
shocks where the rabbits can feed upon it 
during winter. They seem to prefer this 
kind of food to almost any other, and when 
they congregate about the corn in winter, 
the sportsman is afforded a good opportuni¬ 
ty of trying his skill. I have known young 
pear orchards to be protected from rabbits 
by this simple and inexpensive method. 
Making Ashes.— Feb. 7.—There are very 
few farmers or gardeners who do not know 
the value of ashes, particularly upon old 
land that has been many years under culti¬ 
vation. In the older States it is not an easy 
matter to obtain a supply of t his material, 
hut a far larger quantity could be produced 
than at present, if those who own timber 
would save that which annually goes to 
waste, aud burn it into ashes. Whenever I 
cut down any old trees I save all the small 
branches, and have them hauled upon some 
vacant spot in my garden, aud when dry 
they are burned aud the ashes scattered 
over the surface. All the trimming from 
shrubbery, grape vines and other wood 
plants are treated in the same way, and it 
would astonish those who have never tried 
it, if they could see the rank vegetation 
produced upon these ashed places. On ev¬ 
ery acre of woodland there is more or less 
otherwise worthless wood that might be 
drawn out on to some barren place and 
there burned, and the ashes ivould restore 
fertility. One of my neighbors has cleared 
the stumps from five or six acres in the past 
two years, but instead of burning and saving 
the ashes, they were hauled into adjacent 
woods and left to rot. This man is very 
careful to save all the ashes made in his the leaf should be removed entire from the 
kitchen stove, which are applied with great plant, leaving a portion at least of the heel 
care to his corn or garden vegetables. I or enlarged part where it joins the stem of 
hope this hint will be sufficient to make the parent plant. By using the leaves as 
some of the readers of the Rural. New- well as young tender shoots for cuttings, 
M O B 1 ARBOlC. 
Yorker gather up the waste wood about 
their places, burn it and save the ashes. 
There is nothing better to keep insects from 
vines and garden vegetables than dry ashes 
dusted over the leaves. 
FnchaiaB from Leaf Colt bigs.— Feb 8. 
—It may or may not be generally known 
that fuchsia leaves will grow as readily as 
the young, tender stems, Upon examining, 
to-day, some leaf cuttings put into the 
propagating beds ten days since, I found 
LABURNUM, OR GOLDEN 
CHAIN. 
them well rooted and young stems an inch 
or more in length, that had sprung from the 
base of the petioles. In making the cuttings, 
new varieties may be multiplied with great 
rapidity. Those who have no hot-bed or 
propagating house in which to strike the 
cuttings, can use pots filled with pure sand, 
placing them in a warm position in the 
house, and then cover the cuttings with a 
bell-glass until well rooted, afterwards 
transplanting into good rich soil. 
Azalea Ainoena.— Feb. 9—It is only a 
few years siuce our nurserymen discovered 
that this beautiful Chinese azalea was per¬ 
fectly hardy in our Nor- 
thern States. As its 
hardy character is now 
well established, I hope 
our nurserymen will 
propagate it extenBive- 
ly, because we have few 
low growing evergreen 
shrubs of greater beauty 
The flowers arc about 
an inch in diameter and 
°* a 1 ^°' 1 cr * m " 
ff UM This species forms a 
V A yjlow, dense shrub, with 
UpA A numerous slender stems 
v \ /jf —each being crowned 
with a cluster of flow- 
^f era. It blooms iu early 
r War spring, the flowers re- 
k/M m a i u i n g for several 
19 weeks. It is also an ex- 
// cellent species for house 
l/jm culture; a large plant 
[M placed in my groen- 
f w house last fall has been 
9M % in bloom for the past 
19 month, and is still load- 
99 ed with flowers. There 
19 are several nearly-re- 
lated species, obtained 
from China, that are al¬ 
so hardy; among the besl known of these 
are A. obtuau , with small, flame-colored 
flowers; A.uvcita has pink flowers, and A. 
ovatu alba pure white. A few years ago 
these were placed in the list of tender green¬ 
house plants, which only shows that there 
is still a chance to learu something new 
even in regard to the characteristics and 
habits of the oldest plants iu cultivation. 
* <Jlonpltiu;;il. 
LABURNUM, OR GOLDEN CHAIN. 
(Cytisus Laburnum.) 
This beautiful Alpine tree is no st ranger 
in the gardens of the Eastern States, still 
“ Laburnum , rich in streaming gold," 
is far too seldom seen, even among collec¬ 
tions of less rare aud beautiful trees. The 
Laburnum seldom grows to a large size, 
even iu its native country (Southern Eu¬ 
rope), but the wood is extremely hard and 
formerly used in place of ebony. Boutcuer 
tells us that he once saw a large table and a 
dozen chairs made of this wood, which were 
considered by good judges of elegant furni¬ 
ture to be the best they ever saw. This tree 
will probably never be cultivated iu this 
country for its timber, but it is well worthy 
of a place in every garden as an ornament. 
The position where it seems to fit iu best i9 
among evergreen, where the long pendent 
racemes of flowers shine out more strongly 
by way of contrast. If a group of snowball 
bushes stand near by, the brilliant tints of 
the golden chain will show even more bril¬ 
liantly, for these two old favorites bloom 
nearly at the same time. 
We give an illustration of a cluster of La¬ 
burnum, flowers as they hang from the long 
slender branches, and a tree loaded with 
these graceful ornaments is an object worthy 
of admiration. Although the Laburnum is 
usually considered quite a hardy tree, and 
grows iu barren, bleak localities in Britain, 
still it often fails in this country, on account 
of the dryness of our climate. 
To grow it successfully the trees should 
be given plenty of mulch in summer, the 
entire surface of the soil for several feet in 
extent about the roots needs to be covered, 
especially if grown In a light, dry soil. They 
require moisture, but not a wet soil. The 
trees are readily propagated by seeds, graft¬ 
ing or budding. There are several varieties, 
which are usually propagated by budding 
upon seedlings of the wild European species. 
-- 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Sofa Arbor in the Parlor.—Now that 
flowers and plants have come to be regarded 
a necessary adornment in the parlors of our 
people, whatever gives suggestion to aid in 
such garniture will be interesting. We give 
herewith an illustration showing a sofa ar¬ 
bor, beside which are two boxes in which 
ivy Is planted and trained on a trellis so as 
to form a canopy over the sofa; and round 
about it are set flowering plants in pots. 
This is only one feature of a well-adorned 
parlor, which, by the exercise of good taste 
aud judgment may be made to look like a 
miniature garden of plants. 
Blue Glass for Conservatories.—Some 
few weeks siuce 1 saw a statement in one of 
our paper* to this effect: that it had been 
proven that plants growing under glass of a 
blue shade grew more rapidly, did better in 
every wav, than under common glass. A 
sky blue was the shade named. There was 
a plausibility in this statement, to my mind, 
and as 1 am thinking of building me a -mall 
conservatory, I have taken the liberty of 
consulting you. Would you, in making a 
bay window (a very large one) or mud) con¬ 
servatory, opening from parlor, have glass 
roof V uiid would you use glass of any shade 
but the common glass used in dwelling 
houses!— John T. Carpenter. 
If the exposure he east or south wc would 
not make the roof of glass. As to the effect 
of the use of colored glass, wc have no expe¬ 
rience. We should certainly try it. Root. 
Buist, an experienced florist, has used the 
blue glass, and says: 
I applied a coating of Prussian-blue paint, 
six inches wide, up the center of each row 
of panes; the result was electric, and in a 
few days the plants assumed their beaut iful 
green color, and the trusses of bloom came 
to maturity. The greeu-houso hud been 
used to grow geraniums for bedding pur¬ 
poses, but they had lost, their color every 
year, about the first of April. The plants 
were completely rejuvenated by the blue, 
glass. 
Slrboriniltunil. 
ARBORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Protecting Peach Trees.— Wm. Har¬ 
ris sends us the following, which may be 
practicable for amateurs who have but a 
few choice trees, aud wunt to secure fruit 
from it, to adopt:—Preserve your peaches 
if not too late. The little twigs that would 
bear peaches freeze during the very severe 
weather; consequently we have peaches 
some seasons and some seasons not. In or¬ 
der to have fruit, bind these little twigs 
well with straw or course paper, using 
twine, and collectiug as many of them to¬ 
gether as you cun. T suppose a man can 
bind what may be required of any one tree 
in from one to two hours. It should be 
done previous to very cold weather; and bo 
sure to shake the snow off from time to 
time to prevent breaking. 
The Best Time to Girdle Timber is at 
the full moon in August. The timber dies 
so suddenly, that it is not good for fire¬ 
wood after the first winter— from dead rot. 
It is also the right time to cut hazel bushes 
and Canada thistles. The writer has had 
no experience with elm-beach or other hard 
wood bushes, but will warrant them to die 
and not sprout if cut at the full moon in 
August. We knew an experienced ax man 
who used to say he could see a t ree begin to 
wilt when he was walkiug up to it with his 
ax. Don't laugh at the full moon.— H. c. 
The Way to Sandringham Church.— 
On the first page of this issue of the Rural 
New-Yorker we publish an illustration of 
the path to Sandringham Church, which il¬ 
lustrates one of the desirable effects of tree 
planting to form arches and avenues. We 
like the "natural’’ order of ornamenting 
grounds, but we think excellent effects and 
comfort are often sacrificed to this “natu¬ 
ral” business. 
