jkJlUKAL 
EXCELSIOR 
5 lJcckinmi St,, New York 
82 Uullalo Si., Roi-Ii rater. 
NEW YOltlv CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y 
$3.00 PER YEAR. 
Single No., Eight Cent*, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER !), 1871 
[Entered itecording to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by U. D. T. MooKe. in tlie office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
Keeping Flowers, 
A. correspondent of Laws of Life says: 
“ Cut flowers which have begun to droop 
will revive better if the ends of the stalks be 
cut off when they are placed in water. If 
one wishes to keep flowers fresh in water as 
long as possible, they should have the ends 
of the stems cut square off every day and be 
placed in fresh water. However, some per¬ 
sons have a very decided belief that flowers 
thereby supplying a need of plants :—“ A 
system of water works across the State 
through the counties of Tioga, Tompkins, 
Cayuga. Have jets not further apart than 
ten rods, if necessary, throw it from coarse, 
flat roses; have engines of considerable 
power, and run them summer and winter, 
and day and night when there is a clear sky 
and a west wind, except, possibly, the 
months of October and November and one 
for a hoax ; but visiting it later, we discover¬ 
ed that it actually grew there. Also on a 
stalk hearing deep yellow, double flowers, 
was one perfect., double crimson, and on an¬ 
other stalk packed with crimson blossoms, 
was one pure white like a snow ball. 
This clump of hollyhocks lias been stand¬ 
ing three years and it seems the seed lias got 
just a little mixed, and instead of showing 
it in variegated flowers, it mottles the stalks 
jflarmtltnrr 
arm iRcanomu 
ECONOMICAL NOTES, 
SOLANUM PYRAOANTHUM, 
How to Cut itiiHpbvi'i'y Canes, 
Some time since 1 cut the old canes from 
my raspberry vines. 'The thorns tend to 
render this necessary work rather unpleas¬ 
ant; hut wiLh a tool 1 use, few scratches 
need he received. Although this instru¬ 
ment has been already described, still, as 
many have not seen the description, 1 will 
venture to tell how a cheap one cun he 
made:—Take a flat piece of steel 
—an old flat tile will answer nicely . I 
—and have one end of it curved | 
edgewise »<> as to form a slight ;| 
hook. Make the inner edge sharp, J 
punch two holes in the other end « 
and temper the cutting part. A [ 
piece of a broom handle t wo or two 
and a half feet long will do for a . 
handle. In the large end make a 
slit just large enough to receive l. 
the shank endways. Put the knife 
in its p'ace and pass a wrought nail through 
the wvod and each hole in the shank and 
bend down, and the tool is ready for use.— 
Geo. Trucker. 
Left and Riiclit Huutleil Plows, 
My last number of the Rural New-Yor¬ 
ker, August 12th says:—A correspondent 
of the Kansas Farmer says the question of 
left and right handed plows is a subject w Inch 
has been talked about for years and it ap¬ 
pears the question is at this day just where 
it was forty years ago. I ask this corres¬ 
pondent what is the difference between a 
right handed plow and a left? Is there any 
difference more than one turns the furrow 
one way and the other the other way ? You 
are like the man that said ho liked a left 
handed plow the best because it turned the 
furrow away from the fence. I would like 
to know if the right handed plowman tramps 
the plowed land any more than the left 
handed plowman does. 1 have but one arm 
and I can plow without any lines at all and 
with a right or left plow ; it. makes no dif¬ 
ference with me. I guess that Kansas far¬ 
mer has been dead forty years and has just 
waked up.—A. Lanner, Attica, 0. 
Storing Corn 8tnlUs. 
I wish some of the readers of the Rural 
New-Yoricer would give the best method 
of storing corn stalks after they have been 
proporly cured in the flehl. I have a loft 
in a shed In which 1 stored most of the 
crop last year, packing them pretty close ; 
but they molded pretty badly. Can it he 
prevented?—R. P. Smith. 
We prefer to stack them, though we have 
kept them oil hays of hay and on scaffolds 
safely. They were, however, fed the first 
thing iu winter. But if there is any possi¬ 
bility of dampness reaching them, or if they 
have been cut when yot growing, or if damp 
at all when stored, they will mold quickly. 
We stack by selling a straight, polo six inch¬ 
es in diameter firmly in the ground, laying 
down a bottom of old rails or logs so ns to 
keep them from the ground and allow the 
air to circulate underneath the stack ; then 
build the stack by laying the tops to the 
pole and keeping the center higher always 
than the outside. Lay up perpendicularly 
until eight or ten feet high and gradually 
M draw In,” increasing the slope of the stalks 
outward, and “ top off” with a heavy thatch 
of rye straw securely hound to the pole. 
In this way they keep well all winter. But 
they should he dry when put in stack, and 
the stacking should he done on a sunny day. 
We know no better way ; if our readers do, 
we shall be glad to learn. 
Among the hundreds of species of Sola- 
nums quite a number may be selected that 
are really worth cultivating as ornamental 
plants. Those producing edible fruit, such 
as Hie egg plant and tomato, are well known, 
also the tobacco for its leaves and the potato 
for its tubers; hut of late the purely orna¬ 
mental division of this extreme family are 
attracting considerable attention among ouv 
florists and others who desire showy plants 
for iheir garden. 
The Solatium pt/rucanthum (ft small section 
of a branch and leaves is shown in ihe ac¬ 
companying illustration) is a very showy 
species from Madagascar. The plant is 
somewhat shrubby in its character, the 
leaves oblong, narrow, suitialely pinnati- 
ful, tomentose and very prickly ; the 
prickles straight and of ft peculiar glossy 
yellow color. The mid-rib and veins of the 
leaves are also yellow, strongly contrasting 
with the other portions, and giving the 
whole plant a somewhat variegated appear¬ 
ance. 
The flowers are blueish violet, marked by 
a pale green star in the center, and another 
of same color outside. Fruit small, round, 
yellowish green. There are several varieties 
of this species, one with red thorns and vein- 
lets and another which is entirely destitute 
of thorns. The plants grow three to four 
feet high, and make quite an elegant ap¬ 
pearance when planted in groups. They 
are propagated from seeds, sown early iu 
spring or winter. They may also be grown 
from cuttings. 
FLQBJCULTURAL NOTES, 
Tulip* uml Crown Imperial*. 
(1.) When tulips have done flowering, 
should the flower stems he cut off; or, if they 
are left to go to seed, will the seeds germi¬ 
nate and form good bulbs? 
1.2.) Also tell me why my Crown Imperials 
do not blossom? 1 have had them four 
years. Ought 1 take them up every summer 
and plant again in the fall V The bulb has a 
very disagreeable odor, yet the flower is 
beautiful.— Mrs. II. A. Browne. 
(1.) It is not positively necessary to cut off 
the flowering steins of tulips and prevent the 
formation of seed; hut it certainly floes the 
bulbs no good to leave them on. Very few 
of die seed that fall to the ground in a tulip 
bed ever germinate, ami if they do, it re¬ 
quire several years for the bulbs to grow to 
a size large enough for producing flowers. 
(2) We would advise taking up the Crown 
Imperial bulbs that do not bloom, and plant 
again in another place. 
The Yuccas. 
Will you he so kind as to give me some 
information in regard to the culture of the 
plant known as the YTtcca, or Adam’s 
Needle. Borne four years ago, a neighbor 
'sent me a root of the Yucca, and while her 
plant flourishes like a green hay tree, and 
blooms most beautifully, mine, persistently 
and provokiugly, remains in statu fjuo. Is 
the root edible? and if so, how is it pre¬ 
pared for the table V—New Virginia. 
We cannot account for the delay of 
blooms in your Yucca, as they usually flower 
profusely and freely. The same crow n, how¬ 
ever, never blooms hut once; hut side 
shoots or crowns are formed on the old 
stems, and these bloom when two or more 
years old. We would advise taking up the 
old stool and dividing it and then replant, 
and see if the new plants wilt not bloom 
another season. The roots of Yuccas may 
be edible, hut we have no personal knowl- 
cilgc that they have been used for food. 
H°w to Supply tliu Need, ot Plants. 
Archibald Stone, in the Binghamton 
Republican, suggests, as a means of increas¬ 
es the humidity of the atmosphere aud 
SOLANUM PYROCANTHUM. 
in this way. Nothing is liuer for a lawn in 
July and August than a group of these 
superb, double English or German holly¬ 
hocks, and they can he had with very little 
trouble. AH the care ours get is one hoeing 
in a year, though doubtless they would well 
repay winter manuring and would laugh all 
the more merrily for a little more tickling of 
the earth about them. 
The siugle ones spring up and grow 
wherever they can get a foothold, even 
among the stone-heaps by the roadsides, 
without any cultivation. The lawn about 
“ Hollyhock House ” is just now very social 
and gay with these self-sown single ones as 
they stand all about in their many colored 
dresses, white, yellow and in all shades of 
red from palest flesh to deepest crimson. 
keep longer in water in which salt is dis¬ 
solved than in clear water. I brought in a 
quantity of fern leaves for the green of bou¬ 
quets, but before I could put them in water 
they were withering and the leaves curling 
up. I laid them flat in a pan of water over 
night, and In the morning they were as fresh 
as new. Indeed, ferns may become perfect¬ 
ly dry and lie thus for months, and then by 
immersion in water they will straighten 
themselves out aud become erect and green. 
They may in this way he made to serve 
nicely for winter bouquets. Sometimes a 
vase of roses or other flowers will droop 
tight down soon after cutting and arranging. 
By plunging them iu a bowl of water, each 
flower up to its calyx, in a dark closet or 
room, they will revive, and keep well after.” 
month in March and April. If one engine 
would force the water ten miles each way, 
it would take five engines and oue hundred 
miles of pipe to cross the State. Who doubts 
thg propriety or profit of irrigating ? That 
has been tried, and it did succeed. Moist¬ 
ening the atmosphere or lniroiditating it has 
been tried in Western New \ r ork, uml it was 
a very great success." 
Our Duuble tierniau Hollyhocks, 
says the editor of Laws of Life, are playing 
the queerest pranks imaginable this season. 
One of us passing one day near the terrace 
where they grow, saw' a beautiful, very doub¬ 
le, pink blossom perched upon a stalk with 
very homely semi-double gray ones and sup¬ 
posed of course some one hud pinned it there 
Storing Turnies.— Will not some of your 
Canada subscribers, who have experience, 
give the best mode of storing turnips for 
winter use for stock?—r. o. 
