W&m 
Brass 
comes better known, it cannot fail to be 
very popular. There are some features pe¬ 
culiar to this variety which distinguish it 
from all others. The plant is remtrrkably 
robust and vigorous, yet very dwarf and 
compact. Its beautiful bright pink flowers 
are produced in large, trusses, upon very 
stout foot stalks, and carried well abflve the 
handsome green foliage, and better still, this 
beautiful variety is just as easy to cultivate 
as the common horseshoe geranium. 
Madame Buenzod, also belongs to the 
Christine Section. , 
This has immense J 
hi some form or ~ ——-- _ — 
other ? But when 
these free - flow¬ 
ering zonale, nosegay, and Christine pelar¬ 
goniums become better known, it will be 
found that they make admirable plants for 
window culture, producing their brilliant 
flowers throughout the dullest part of fall 
and winter. H. E, Ghent, 
Paterson, N. J. 
and decaying clover. As a manure, peas are 
still better; but they require more attention 
them clover to keep them from the trees. 
And then they do not form such a beautiful 
covering for the ground. After the trees are 
twelve years old they must lie often fed with 
something. If you can keep your clover 
growing, it will supply the tree roots with 
vegetable matter. 
During the first, four or five years of your 
orchard, the ground between the trees should 
be kept st irred with the plow 
tion should be | 
early summer 
OBANGE CULTUBE 
The cultiva- 
given mostly in the spring and 
■; never in the fall, for the 
reason that the spring and summer growth 
will harden before winter, while the fall 
growth will not. A winter at all severe will 
prove very disastrous to an orchard cultiva¬ 
ted as late as October. Cultivation should 
cease in August, and if the fall be very warm 
and long drawn out, so that your trees keep 
growing rapidly, something must be done or 
the frosts, if at all severe, will bite the tender 
1 irnbs, and may be the bodies, of young trees 
to the ground. 
f l he growth can be checked easily by run¬ 
ning a plow jusj; near enough to the plants 
or4,recs to cut some of their roots. This will 
not injure the tree, bat will only check the 
growth for the season, and give the wood 
made in the summer time to harden. Such 
trees will winter n. hundred per cent, better 
than if the roots had nut been cut. 
Of the crops planted among orange trees, 
com is, perhaps, the worst for the trees. It 
injures by shading the trees in the spring 
and early summer, the very time they should 
have all the chance possible for growing. 
Some say the pollen from the corn in tassel, 
lulling on the orange leaves, injures them; 
but this is not the case, 1 think. It is true 
Stand for Scent Bottles, 
ELOBICULTUBAL NOTES, 
Treatment of Smilax .—I have a Smilax 
(Myr&iphyUum asparayoides) plant which 
came from the seed last spring ; it does not 
thrive. Will you, or some of your corre- 
for their immense trusses of flowers. Some 
of them under good cultivation produce truss¬ 
es six c.r even eight inches in diameter. Last 
winter we had a truss ten inches in diameter 
produced on a plant of nosegay pelargonium, 
called St anal end Rival, 
There are also Salmon Colored Zonules, 
some of whiell are very handsome, particu¬ 
larly when cultivated in pots for full, winter 
uud spring, decoration of the greenhouse or 
window. The same may be said of those 
having ooulated or variegated flowers, the 
predominating feature of which is white 
with pink, rose or crimson center. Some 
varieties also have the petals tinted and va¬ 
riously marked with pink and rose. In this 
section may be mentioned, 
Miss Gladstone, Madame Werlr and Sen¬ 
sation, as good distinct varieties, particularly 
well adapted to pot culture. 
Among pure white Zonules we have Mrs. 
Such and While Clipper. The latter quite 
new. With the exception of White Clipper, 
none of the above zonale and nosegay pelar¬ 
goniums are new ; but they are all of supe¬ 
rior merit and are easily attainable at small 
price ; and wherever the geranium is a fa¬ 
vorite, some of these should be cultivated in 
preference to the v ery old-fashioned sorts, 
which require as much t ime and attention,— 
as much pot 
WINTEBING BEES, 
On this subject there was discussion at a 
recent meeting of the Michigan bee keepers. 
Mr. A. C. Balcli thought they needed very 
little ventilation ; uniformity of temperature 
is the great requisite. Mr. Palmer puts 
about three niches of Straw around his bees, 
inside of the hive, separated from the bees by 
canvas; then buries them deeply in the 
snow, giving very little ventilation, having 
good success. Mr. Porter places his liives in 
a long row, about b inches apart, packing 
straw around between them, leaving only 
the front open. He fills the caps with straw 
and chaff, holding them in place by one 
thicknessuf cotton cloth. His bees wintered 
well, While his neighbors lost nearly all. But 
in spring some of his bees left their hives, 
thus reducing the number from 17 to 10. Mr. 
Heddon put some of his bees in the cellar, 
left some out, buried some in snow, and put 
straw and chaff around some, but could dis¬ 
cover no perceptible difference in result. Mr. 
Knapp’s only difficulty was with the disease 
called “dysentery/’ Mr, Bingham took his 
bees into a warm room during long-pro¬ 
tracted cold weather, heated up to 106°. The 
bees had a “liy,” voided their foxes, and 
settled down again quietly. It seemed to do 
them good. 
MASTER CKRISTHSTE R’TTT.yvT^.Q-OlSrTTTlVI 
spondents, tell me its habit and mode of cul¬ 
ture, and oblige a friend of the Rural ? 
Give it heat and partial shade. When the 
toj) dies down, keep the tubers dry until sum¬ 
mer, then plant hi pots again, giving plenty 
of water, heat and partial shade after the 
stem appears. 
The Oriental Poppy, C. S. is informed, is 
a great bloomer, very brilliant in color, and 
is esteemed highly as a border plant. 
room and garden room as the 
better kinds; but on account of their inferior 
qualities do not yield so much pleasure for 
the care bestowed upon them. We now 
come to a very important section of the 
pelargoniums, namely: 
THE CHRISTINE OR ROSE-COLORED SECTION. 
This includes Muster Christine (see illustra¬ 
tion) the freest bloomer, the brightest color, 
and in every way the model—the very best 
of its class. When this beautiful plant be* 
to pasture in the orchard—a thing that never 
should take place. Nothing is so injurious to 
the surface roots as the tramping of cattle 
over them, especially in wet weather The 
clover that comes up should be let alone and 
not harvested. If cut down, let it be spread 
evenly over the land and rot there—the ob¬ 
ject being to keep the ground rich and loose. 
In the fall scatter slaked lime over the 
surface, and keep a full supply of vegetable 
matter over the surface in the shape of dead 
Destroying Millers. -Mr. Philipson, an ex¬ 
tensive bee keeper of Genessee County, Mich., 
says :—“ In the evening place a shallow dish 
filled with thin tar in front of the hives, with 
a small lamp so placed in the center of the 
dish as to bring the light near the tar. The 
millers being-attracted by the light dive for 
it and go into the tar. In a short time all the 
millers in the vicinity of the apiary will be 
caught.” 
