EXCELSIOR 
mr.T, mq . ($3.00 PER YEAR, 
^ •"**•*■’’^** • 1 Single l\o., Eight Cents. 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER N. Y. 
. I 41 Pork Row, New York. 
OFFICES:) 82 Buffalo Hi., Rochester. 
YOL XXIII. NO. 4. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY,' JAN. 28,1871. 
WHOLE NO. 1098. 
fanfcsnrpt Harkening. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by D . D. T. Moore, in the offleo of the Librarian of Congress , H Washington.! 
carriage way, most of the way to the house, As the number of species of ornamental taS- t jQ 
are cherries. A quince and dwarf pear grasses is almost unlimited, the group may (L ^ it)Utt * Cl 
s off at the right, two or three rows be made of almost any size, but the last row, ~ C <1 
RURAL HOME ADORNMENT. 
I am not going to write an essay on ^Es¬ 
thetic Horticulture, or the science of the art; 
for all such writings I look upon as Ihe 
bloom from seed first sown in the Garden of 
Eden ; hut ns I have a friend who has made 
from an old, worn-out piece of barren land, 
within the past six years, a place of home 
comfort and beauty. I have made, and 
herewith send you, a rough ground plan of 
its front, (Fig. 1,) together with a little 
sketch (Fig. 2.) taken from a position on his 
lawn, looking on and across the pond. In 
making this place within, the short time 
stated, the whole secret has been in having 
a plan beforehand, and in planting tree and 
shrub, and forming bed or border, without 
necessity for change. 
The boundary line on the street and each 
side is grown with hedge of varieties—some 
of evergreen, some of flowering shrubs, wil¬ 
lows, ifcc., &c. As you enter from the street 
— which is on the north of the place—at 
the left hand, is the pond about iu form as 
per outline on ground plan; at the south 
end is a little rock work planted with 
shrubs, vines, <Ssc., and so more or less of 
rocks, vines, shrubs, &e., dot the banks of 
tliri pond, while trees of ultimate majestic 
growth past their shadows over the water. 
Continuing on south beyond the pond is, 
say eighty feet from it, a rustic summer 
house, with evergreens, shrubs, &c., sur¬ 
rounding and vines entwined upon it. And 
then the straight lines mark the rows of 
grapes, while bordering the foot-path is a 
belt of perennials, shrubs, &c., &c., until 
you reach indications of trees by dots ; then 
skipping a space of some twenty feet, for 
the purpose of passing a wagon, should it be 
desirable ever so to do, comes a bank, cn 
mam, of flowering shrubs against the foot¬ 
path, backed up with dwarf apples and 
pears, until within about twenty feet of the 
line boundary, which space is devoted to 
strawberries. 
Going back now to the entrance, on tbo 
right of the entrance and the carriage road, 
we have beds or masses of rock work, ever¬ 
green and flowering shrubs, with elm, weep¬ 
ing poplar, birch, &c., while bordering the 
I 1 1 - XV" 
& :’v °<v 
M. Ill-i. 
Fig. i.—Plan of Ground. 
orchard is off at the right, two or three, rows 
of grapes, and then the vegetable garden; 
while the stiffness of the avenue of cherries 
hn3 been broken by throwing out other trees 
and grouping from place to place, something 
as my dots indicate. 
An apple and stand¬ 
ard pear and peach 
orchard is south of 
the garden plot, while 
on the lawn the flow¬ 
er hods are shown, cut V 
out of and surrounded ». 
by grass. NHL 
Directly in front of 
the house, some twen- ^ wPj 
Evergreen trees, tis Ml Hg)$jL 
well as deciduous or- §»«* \ 
namontal sorts are at 
the right of the house laAjffi, 
and^ in among the or- fpf 
blocked out and plan t- sjf'/l 
ed in lines with fruit vagM \ , a.A// jt 
trees, vines, small 
fruits, in great ahuiul- jB 
aiio.c; and in the rear 1 
of the house are t jf 
and evergreen trees ml 
for screen, shelter and ip jr 
ARUNDO DONAX, 
A ffav weeks hence / Jl y/ 
every one who owns W ! 
a garden will begin to f /mjjf 
examine the list of 
seeds, amt ornamental J 
mand, and busy must f / / / jFf, 
be the. fingers that ¥ U j j 
oii9 plants, almost the 
first name that at- -. . si 
traded our attention _ >' 
was Annulo Donax, 
and this brought to 
mind the fact that our 
artist (Air. Hociistetn) made a sketch of a 
splendid clump which was growing upon our 
lawn last summer. The accompanying illus¬ 
tration is au exact representation of our speci¬ 
men as it appeared late in autumn; for this 
giant species of grass often fails to bloom in 
the Northern States, and when it does, the 
spikes usually appear very late in the season. 
The roots are very large, coarse and woody, 
and the usual method of propagation is by 
division of the clumps or stools; and a 
small section of a root will soon make a 
very large plant if placed in a good rich soil. 
The longest stalks on our specimen were 
twelve feet in bight, and when crowned with 
their slightly reddish plumes in autumn, they 
were objects not easily overlooked or likely 
to be forgQtteu. There is a variegated va¬ 
riety of this species, that is also very desira¬ 
ble, although it seldom grows as tall, nor is it 
quite as hardy. 
In forming a group of ornamental grasses, 
the Amitido Donax should be placed in the 
center; the next row of A. D, varieyata; 
third, of Erianlhus Jlaviemuc; fourth, of 
Pampas grass, {Gynerium aryenteum ; fifth, 
of Phraymites communis , or of some other 
species of similar bight. 
be made of almost any size, but the last row, 
or fringe, should be of the beautiful feather 
grass, (Stipa pennata.) We hope that many gQWS AND THEIR YOUlTG, 
of our readers will endeavor to have some- - 
thing of the kind upon their lawns, or in A recent writer says:—Costiveness and 
i t s accompanying 
TI-IE AKUNDO T)OVAX. menced I have used 
sugar beets, and al- 
their gardens, next summer; and these cold ways have some on hand to feed to my sows 
winter evenings is the most pleasant time in for several weeks before they come in. They 
the whole year, to draw and make a list of are very fond of them, and eat them greedily 
erb. 
THE AKUNDO EO^AlX. 
the plants required to complete the plan. 
-- 
THE PARC MONCEAU. 
This is, on the whole, the most beautiful 
garden in Paris, and well shows the charac¬ 
teristics of the system of horticultural deco¬ 
ration so energetically adopted in that city. 
It is not large, hut exceedingly well stored, 
and usually displays a vast wealth of hand¬ 
some exotic plants in summer, In spring it 
is radiant with the sweet bloom of early- 
flowering shrubs and trees, every bed and 
bank being covered with pansies, Alyssum, 
Aubrietia, and all the best known of the 
spring flowers, while thrushes and black¬ 
birds arc whistling in the adjacent bushes, 
as if they were miles in the country, instead 
of only a few minutes’ walk from the Rue 
de Faubourg St. Ilonore. This park was 
laid out so long ago as 1778 for Philip Egal- 
ite as an “ English garden,” and passed 
through various changes, till at last it fell 
into the hands of the Municipality of Paris, 
a very astute corporation, who have con¬ 
verted it into a charming garden.— Robinson. 
A half peck or more a clay, with little 
other foo?. yy i)l keep a sow in the finest con¬ 
dition. Potatoes are as good, and carrots, 
parsnips, mangq wurzel or turnips, will clo, 
hut it may be necessary to boil them and 
mix them with OtliV- food. If you have no 
roots of any kind, yov. must resort to sul¬ 
phur, and give a large bblespoonfhl twice 
or three times a week for several weeks be¬ 
fore littering. Give also a charcoal 
occasionally, and always he kinu-mfl gentle 
to them, and they will never attemiA to kill 
their pigs. 
A common mistake is to move the soy to 
another pen, shortly before sbo litters. T\is 
is very irritating to her. She should he sep¬ 
arated from the others, and moved to her 
new quarters several weeks before her time 
is out. She must he sheltered, and a week 
before she litters, supplied with all the straw 
she will want, which will he hotter for being 
short. After this her nest must not he mo¬ 
lested, aud she ought not to be disturbed in 
any wav, as it is the nature of all animals to 
seek privacy at this period. Hogs arc more 
true to their time than other animals, and 
rarely vary more than a day or two. 
But if yon want to be sure to lose your 
pigs, feed your sow on corn and cob meal. 
This will make her very costive, fed without 
much other food. Then, when she is sick 
and feverish, and consequently cross, irritate 
her yet more by driving her from the nest 
she has become accustomed to; then let. the 
hoys tense and abuse her every clay, and if 
the poor, maddened animal does not destroy 
her youug as fast as they are born, it will 
not be your fault. 
-- ♦■4-*-- 
PIG-PEN PAPERS. 
Remedy for Worm*. 
Willis Hurluurt writes, in reply to 
Mary Gray, (page 382 last Vol., of Rural 
New-Yorker,) that “ Geyser Spring water” 
will cure one affected with worms. 
A Rig Via. 
Mr. Emory Burnham of Henderson, N. 
Y., killed a pig last week, the dressed weight 
of which was precisely four hundred pounds. 
It was of the “ Improved Cheshire ” or “ Jef¬ 
ferson Co.” breed, and wa9 killed the day it 
was eight mouths old. In addition to the 
sour milk from one cow, it had been fed six¬ 
teen bushels of barley (ground) and seven 
hundred pounds of corn meal.—G. N. B. 
Belleville, N. Y., Dec., 1870. 
Chester Whites vs. Rerltslilres. 
Mr. Mason of Bellaire, Ohio, in his com¬ 
munication in the Rural New-Yorker, 
December 3, says his six months’ pigs weigh 
one hundred and seventy-live pounds. I 
killed four Chester White pigs, seven months 
and four days old, that weighed, on an aver¬ 
age, three hundred and ten pounds gross.. 
The heaviest one dressed two hundred and 
seventy-five pounds, now does this com¬ 
pare with Berkshire?—J no. G. Sherman. 
gpt 
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Fig. 2 .— View of Grounds. \Sec First Article;) 
