they are not so large as on richer soils, the 
delicacy and coloring is better. On deep 
rich soils the plants will make their finest 
and most abundant blooms the second year 
after planting. They should then have the 
ground most thoroughly broken around, 
in and among them, even to slightly break¬ 
ing the crowns, say in the month of Novem¬ 
ber, and the next year they should be trans¬ 
planted. Among Wiogelas none surpass 
Desboisii; it is early, abundant, very abund¬ 
ant bloomer, and so dark and lick in color, 
that with the 
lormthnrf 
tscussions 
AMERICAN INST. FARMERS’ CLUB 
TILLANDSIA LINDENIANA 
Notes of Discussions, Extracts from Dot' 
tera, iVc. 
“ Phlnncy’s Early ” Watermelons, forwarded 
the Club by II. M. Strinofkllow, Galveston, 
Texas, were exhibited and tested. Ho states 
that the seed was procured in Massachusetts 
planted on the 17th of March, and that but for 
the dryness of the season the specimens would 
illustrating this plant. That paper says of 
this flower:—“ This is one of the most, beau¬ 
tiful Brorneliads ever introduced to European 
gardens, and of which ours, or any wood cut 
must fail to give an adequate idea. It was 
exhibited before the Floral Committee at the 
gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society a 
fortnight since, and deservedly received a 
first-class certificate. The plant, which is 
the subject ot our illustration, was grown 
and exhibited by Mr. B. S. Williams of the 
Victoria Nursery, Upper Holloway, and is 
the first of Us kind that has flowered in this 
country. 
“ The leaves are from twelve to eighteen 
inches in length, and about one inch in 
breadth, tapering upwards, and ending in a 
fine point. They arc dense, sheathing at the 
base, arranged in a rosulate manner and re¬ 
curved, channeled above and light green, 
beneath tinged with rose, and 6treakcd with 
line longitudinal lines of reddish - brown. 
The scape rises from the center of the plant, 
and attains a height of eighteen or twenty 
inches, the upper portion broadly ovate, 
which is caused by its being clothed with 
long distichous imbricating bracts, which 
arc light green, more or less suffused with 
rosy-pink. The flowers, which are round 
and of good substance, arc produced from 
between the bracts, measuring nearly three 
inches in diameter, the color is rich blue, the 
center being pure white. The flowers of 
this elegant plant are very attractive, and 
are specially valuable on account of its color 
being so rare among stove plants. 
“ TtllanfUia, Lindeniamt is a plant easily 
cultivated, and may be grown either in a pot 
or basket, but. when in pots it can he used for 
the decoration of the dinner table, for which 
it is eminently adapted. The pots must be 
somewhat small, and well drained. The 
soil should be composed of two parts of 
rough peat, one part of loam, and one of 
sand. This plant, like many other BromeU- 
ads which have broad sheathing leaves, is 
adapted by nature to retain water, and the 
water should he poured into these rccepta- 
cals and not emptied out, as is too frequent¬ 
ly done in the cultivation of this class of 
plants. It is a native of Huancabamba, in 
Peru, where it grows upou the branches of 
the forest trees. It has been called in some 
Continental gardens Tillambia cyanea and 
Vriesia, Lindmiana .” 
thero. And be thought it a grape of very poor | 
quality. Hut there la no accounting for taste. 
Mr. Gregory said it is highly regarded in tho 
Southern markets; Is hardy, easily propagated, 
productive and sustaining the same relation to 
the South that the Concord does to the North. 
Cor,. H.ua8shas traveled in the South the pre¬ 
sent season and had been Informed thero, by per¬ 
sons whom ho regarded competent authority, 
that t he Seuppornong is going out of favor nud 
tho North Carolina seedling is taking Its place, 
both for fruit and wlnn. Prof. Colton said the 
Seuppornong was a light colored grape and made 
a light colored wine, while the North Carolina 
seedling Is dark and makes a dark wine. Re¬ 
gards it a seedling of Seuppornong. Mr. Fuller 
said it was news to him that tho Scuppernong is 
a light colored grape. It might lie nailed a light, 
bronze. He doubts If there over was a gallon of 
wine made front tho pure juice of theSonpper- 
nong. He had tasted many samples and found 
that tho juioo of that grape had boon mixed witli 
whiskey or some other liquor and sold as wine; 
but it is not wine, and doubts it wino wilt over 
be mudo from it. 
The Best Fowl.— A correspondent, asks Hie 
(’lob to name tho best, fowl for a farm. Mr. 
Cuims replied that each person tins his favorite 
breed. He preferred tho Dorking for a farm 
fowl. They are hardy, quiet, good layers and 
good mothers. The new breeds of French fowls 
which are recommended for producing largo 
eggs are, as a general thing, not hardy in our 
climate. 
Three Horses Abreast.—15. DlDELL, Kingsville, 
O., writes:—“ Make a tri-whiftietroo, somewhat 
longer than a double will file tree, ir you wish 
the third horso to do a third of the work, put tho 
staple or hammer-hole one-third of its length 
To the short arm, attaoh witli a 
from ono end 
clevis and pin, the whillletrees for two horses, 
arranged just as for a span worked alone. To 
the long end, attach tho whlltiot.reo for the third 
horse. Adjust tho length of the traces so that 
the three shall walk abreast. It Is usual to have 
tho whi(Hot,roes iw short, as Hie horses cun con¬ 
veniently work in, as ono does not, care, as 
Buhns would have said, to have a team ‘ an acre 
broad.’ The common two-horse linosare re-set. 
Let tho outer reins go to the outside of the outer 
horses, and tho Inner reins tasteu to the middle 
horso. With a couple of st raps fasten the horses 
together by tho lilts. 8ome fasten tho straps 
back to tho harness of the middle horse, instead 
of fastening to its bits. This will make such a 
team as Apollo never drove. This method inis 
the advantage ol‘ arranging them so that each 
shall bo compelled to do its part, and lhoy all bo 
under the control of ono driver.” 
“ Coe's Early ” and Ollier IIa*|ilierrles.—A gen¬ 
tleman from Westchester Co., N. Y„ exhibited 
a raspberry with this name, which ho claimed 
was two weeks earlier on his grounds than any 
other variety of its class. Mr. Fuller informed 
the Club that he l ad, in a latitude near to tho 
gentleman's placo in Westchester Co., the fol¬ 
lowing varieties ready for (licking:-Davison’s 
Thornless, Doolittle, Fay's Thornless, Monthly 
Black ; and of red varieties : Philadelphia, 
Clarke, Imperial, Jusquoco, Vnn Turk, Red 
Canada, Parry’s Seed ling, KirLIatid, Ellordale, 
Elm City, Souchotti, Vureate’s Largo, Arnold’s 
White, Sin-posse FastoItT. His soil is sandy, 
however, and the other gentleman's clay. Mr. 
Curtis did not rogard tho “Coe’s Early’’ very 
early, from tho fact that ho rodo along a street 
north of Bateton Spa a few days previous, and 
the roads wero lined with ripe red raspberries— 
one hundred and seventeen miles north of New 
York. The Westchester Biack-C’ap was also ex¬ 
hibited and asserted to provo to bo ten days 
ahead of the Doolittle. 
Intelligence of Horse*.—An advertisement, of 
rnLIiTYNDSIA lilNDENIA.3NTA 
Old Rosea and Horteiisis Niven, 
if one lias room but for three, l question 
if he can do better than to take these. I 
trim my Wiegelas so that not a particle of 
bare stem is seen. I have one mass of flow¬ 
ers from the ground upward. And so I do 
My Splrcas. 
Oh ! I wisli you could have seen a Spirea 
r&omi florcpleno that stood just on the edge of 
my shrubbery ; its masses of little daisy-like 
double white flowers sweeping the turf and 
rising back, against the green of a For.vjthia 
viridmima, 1 know you would havo exclaim¬ 
ed, as others did, “ What could be move 
beautiful ?” and yet I have seen the plant in 
other grounds, astern three feet high, with 
here and there a straggling mass or tuft of 
flowers, looking, for all the world, like she 
was ashamed, and yet would show her in¬ 
trinsic beauty. 
Clematis Azmca G ran dill or a amt Lnnu- 
ginoea 
have both borne beautifully with me, their 
large, showy blue flowers trained on some 
stakes formed of dead evergreens, leaving 
parts of the branches, on which the vines 
climbed ami bloomed, one pillar of beauty. 
I have not had to cover them at all; they 
have proved perfectly hardy, and, in fact, I 
believe they do better with no care; for mine 
this past year have had none, and never were 
they so good. 
Hesperia Mntronnlis Alba Pleno, 
witli its spikes of double white flowers, al¬ 
most like unto the most pe feet double white 
hyacinth, and fragrant, should he in every 
garden. I saw it some years since in Kll- 
w anger & Barry’s, and of them procured 
it. It has been generally aumired. 
Ajugit I’y ranJdalis 
is another of the pretty and hardy perennials 
which all should have. Its flowers are in 
short spikes, a clear, rather dark blue, abun¬ 
dant and in bloom nearly three weeks—from 
late in May into June. Frank Am on. 
IN THE FLOWER GARDEN 
W 11 kn my Tree Peonias were in full bloom 
I thought to write you of them, but as day 
by day some other matter occupied me, I 
have left it, until now I am gorgeously beau¬ 
tiful in my show Of 
Herbaceous Peonias. 
Why is it that any lover of flowers can 
decide to throw them out of the garden? 
and yet, I know of two who have done so. 
Full of fragrance, tinted with all the richest 
and most delicate colors, with varied formed 
petals in t.he same flower, and of size to 
make them attractive even at great dis¬ 
tances, no flower that we have, in its season, 
makes a better or more showy, or truly 
beautiful back ground mass, than the tree 
and Herbaceous Peonlas. To my mind they 
are superior to the Rhododendrons, and arc 
attended with only half the care and cost. 
In Tree Peoulns 
the Chinese Double Blush is not to be dis¬ 
pensed with, notwithstanding the numerous 
new and beautiful sorts lately introduced, 
And here let me say tbut for a muss planted 
under the shade and drip of trees, nothing 
equals the Tree Peonies. They are, in such 
position, perfectly hardy, their bloom comes 
just as the deciduous trees are breaking into 
foliage, and the effect in email shaded yards, 
or door plats, or on knolls or points backed 
by an evergreen or two, is truly magnificent. 
Just as the Tree Peonias have done flower¬ 
ing comes in the 
Old Brilliant Double Crimsou “Piny.” 
Which all remember, showy and attrac¬ 
tive, and this with Humilis, alone, make a 
bold show; but when we mass up with fif¬ 
teen or twenty of the various colors, as 
Amabilis, Bicolor, Btlyckil, Compte de Paris, 
Duchesse D’Nemours, Duehesse D’Aumale, 
Lilicina Plena, Huraei, Odorata, Pottsii, etc., 
have wo not a show of beauty for the god¬ 
dess of Flora to enjoy ? Aye, that we have, 
and with her, imaginatively, we enjoy it. 
We have delicacy, fragrance, etc., amid 
such a mass of splendor that we only wish 
everybody could see our garden, and we 
know they tvould decide that not another 
autumn should go by without their obtain¬ 
ing and planting a bed of Peonias. 
By the by, herewith let me say a word 
about soils. A thin, light soil, dug pretty 
deep, will, if the plants are yearly trans¬ 
planted, give tho most of blooms, but, while 
Boy« Wanted.—Mr. Curtis announced that ho 
had more places tor good boys among farmers 
than ho could supply. Indeed, he had several 
applications ou hand and no boys to send—could 
not get. a boy. 
Tho Japan Plum.—A letter from Gen. Nich¬ 
olson of tho New Orleans Picayune, was read 
in answer to inquiries made concerning this 
fruit. It laid boon cultivated several years near 
New Orleans; in mild winters immense crops 
are produced; the trees flower in the fall and 
ripen their fruit in February and March; they 
will not grow lrotn cuttings, but only from seed. 
He says:—“l planted some Becd twelve years 
ago, and tho trees bavo been bearing about six 
years; they will occasionally bear in four to live 
years. The tree is a fine evergreen, and is culti¬ 
vated as sucb, independent of Its fruit. I have 
tried the trees in Mississippi, about onehundred 
miles north of New Orleans, but they were all 
killed by the frost. I did not shelter them. We 
never shelter them here. Tho tree will be of 
no use in Ohio, unless sheltered at least live 
months in the year.” Mr. Fuller -aidOf 
late thero has been much printed in the South¬ 
ern papers about this plum, but I regret to learn 
that it will not do for our Northern States. I 
was in hope that it belonged to the persimmon 
family, but it appears that it does not. A few 
years since a real Japan persimmon was intro¬ 
duced and dist ributed, but it seems to havo been 
lost, or at least to have gone out of cultivation. 
The persimmon would have proved hardy at the 
North, but tho fruit now grows at Hie South, as 
Japan plum does not belong to this genus, and 
is probably Ihc old and well-known Loquat— 
Eriohotrya Jayonica. Other gentlemen who hud 
seen and eaten it in tho South, spoke highly of 
tho tree for ornament., and of tho quality of the 
fruit as there grown. tSeo Rural New-York¬ 
er, Juno 18, 1870, page ttOtt, for article upon, aud 
illustration of, fruit and foliage.] 
How to Make Hay.—Mr. READS read the fol¬ 
lowing paperThe natural food of tho three 
principal classes of domesticated animals— 
HANGING BASKETS 
A lady writes the Rural New-Yorker : 
“ A very pretty hanging basket is made by 
taking spruce cones — mine arc about seven 
inches in length—and piercing holes about 
an inch from each end, string them on wire. 
Place eight for the lower row, draw closely, 
and fasten. Then, when stringing the up¬ 
per part of these, insert a cone between each 
two for an upper row, aud finish olT with 
another wire at the top. They look very 
well when only one row of cones is used. 
The cones are easily pierced witli a small 
gimlet.” 
Inquiries for Floriculturists.— Katie asks some 
ono to tell her how to propagate Tree Peonias. 
