with, as where one or several acres are 
covered with frames for this fruit, it would 
be next to impossible to make tepid all the 
water required. Large hogsheads, however, 
are sunk hero and there about the frame 
ground, and brick or cement tanks are fre¬ 
quently used for containing water, with 
which they were filled to-day for to-morrow’s 
use. Manure water made from guano is 
sometimes given during the summer time, 
being applied through u fine rose overhead. 
This application is not only useful as a stim¬ 
ulant, but Mr. Hubbard (foreman to Mr. 
Brgley of Turnham-grecn, assures me that 
he has found this manure watering when 
given overhead to be of material benefit in 
destroying or preventing red spider as well 
ns invigorating old plants. In reference to 
wood lice,Mr. Hubbard also informs me that 
he gives 3s. a dozen for toads to people who 
fetch them Chiefly from the neighborhood of 
Wimbledon and Kingstou. 
A couple of men are. commonly kept at 
work in the frame ground, and on three days 
of the week (Monday, Wednesday and Fri¬ 
day) they arc employed ir. cutting fruits for 
market, and on t he other three week days 
they arc busy stopping and regulating the 
vines. Should any young fruits exhibit a 
tendency to become crooked, they arc put in¬ 
to cylindrical glasses open at both ends. 
These glasses are about a foot or fifteen 
inches long, and one and ft half or two inches 
in diameter, and several t housands of them 
are employed in one large frame ground, as 
one good and straight fruit is worth nearly a 
dozen of small and deformed ones. The best 
of the crooked ones do for pickling. 
Cucumbers require sunny weather to set 
well, and in dull, wet seasons they do not do 
much good, especially in the earlier part of 
the year. Should the summer be hot and 
bright, the sashes must be shaded a little, 
and this is done by strewing some rank litter 
over the glass ; but many market gardeners, 
by way of economy of labor, paint the sashes 
with whiting, as in the case of glass houses ; 
but. I do not think tills an advisable plan in a 
variable climate, and particularly in a dull 
year. 
By the 1st of August the plants will be 
getting exhausted, therefore careful atten¬ 
tion is paid to thinning out old and bare vines 
and encouraging young wood by means of 
stimulants in the way of manure water and 
coverings from cold, and in this way they 
will last good till September. In August 
some fruits are saved for seed, for if left 
sooner they would materially weaken the 
crop of marketable crop. Should any 
“ nosed ” fruits be present, these arc sure to 
be taken care of, tied round with a string, 
and left till ripe, as they are certain to con¬ 
tain good seed. When the seed fruits be¬ 
come yellow and arc cut, they are placed 
under sashes or on boards before the sun, so 
as to get thoroughly ripe and hard before 
being separated from the pulp. 
of these and other insects crawl away into 
the crevices of the bark of old trees and 
logs, also into outbuildings, where one does 
not care to follow them with fire. The 
genuine squash bug (Coreas tristis) also has 
the same liahit, and hybernates in similar 
places, but one must take him the first frost 
or it may be too late. Then there are other 
noxious species which burrow in the ground, 
going deeper as the weather grows colder. 
If 1 resided in the Western States, where 
the chinch bug is so disastrous to corn and 
wheat, I should certainly try what virtue 
there is in fire during the autumn months, 
because that pest is another of the hyberna- 
ting species frequenting the rubbish heaps, 
and dried grasses in fence corners and other 
probable situations. 
The Geraniums, Verbenas, Coleuses and 
similar plants which I shall put into my 
barn-yaul this week, and then cover with 
fresh, hot stable manure, which will add con¬ 
siderably to my stock of fertilizing materials 
for next year, and there is no telling how 
many pestiferous insects 1 shall destroy. 
Then how clean and neat the beds aud bor¬ 
ders look, with the fresh earth ready for its 
annual top-dressing of manure, capped with 
snow a few weeks later. 
tAST BOUQUET Of THE SEASOH. 
Oct. 6.—Mrs Ruralist has .just brought 
mo a bouquet for my library table, and says 
“I think thisVill be the hist bouquet of the 
season cut from the garden, as the air is 
chilly, and we shall probably have ft frost 
to-night.” We have already escaped two 
weeks beyond the usual time of our first 
frost, still this notice of the “ last bouquet” 
from the garden is not welcome tidings, even 
though expected, and long delayed. As I 
look upon the bouquet before me, which is 
composed of tuberoses, scarlet sage and rose 
geranium leaves, I am reminded of some- 
CUCUMBER CULTURE AROUND LONDON 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of a Gentleman near New 
York City. 
every day, instead or occasionally wnen 
there happens to be company about. I do 
not recollect the exact arguments used by 
the writer referred to, but remember they 
were forcible and well put, and it is to be 
hoped many a housewife lias heeded the 
advice given. 1 know of at least one who 
would as soon forget the more important 
dishes of a meal as the one or two bouquets 
of (lowers which always mingle their 
fragrance with those coming from the staffs 
of life. Of course it is not to lie supposed 
that every family can have a conservatory 
to supply the table with bouquets of fresh 
flowers during the winter, but the woods 
and fields furnish abundant materials if 
nothing of the kind has been produced in 
the garden, and a cluster of red berries with 
autumn leaves intermingled; even the ferns, 
mosses and twigs of evergreens may be em¬ 
ployed for this purpose, and if tastefully 
arranged cannot fail to be effective. 
A few branches of dried grass, with the 
scarlet berries of holly, black alder (Prinos) 
or even those of the creeping squaw-berry 
aDd many other native plants may bo em¬ 
ployed for making bouquets. It matters 
not wliat the materials are if the beet of 
those at command are selected and arranged 
with taste. But it must not be forgotten 
that this “taste” comes with practice and 
association, and the mother who never at¬ 
tempts or tries her hand at, such devices 
must not expect to become skilled in the 
act, or see her daughters grow up accom¬ 
plished housewives. The “last bouquet” 
may be taken from the garden this month 
in many a northern locality, but its place 
should not rema in empty for an hour or day, 
because it is these little things which when 
put together make up the sum total of life’s 
pleasures.__ 
GARDENERS’ NOTES 
RARE AND CURIOUS EISH 
The Hon. W. A. Loveland of Colorado has 
secured specimens of a curious and rare fish 
of the Monobronchus genus. 
These fish came from an extinct volcano, 
near Ralston Creek, and found their way to 
civilization by way of Church’s fish pond. 
The head resembles that of a crawfish, while 
it has arms—like those of a person—in place 
of fins, a body like that of a trout, and a tail 
of the lizard nature. There are five fingers 
at the end of each arm, and the lungs 
through which it breathes are on theoutside, 
at the base pf the skull. Frol’. Agassiz, when 
he visited Colorado some eight years since, 
expressed a strong desire to capture one of 
these fish. Mr. Loveland bus sent ft speci¬ 
men to tbe Agassiz School of Natural His¬ 
tory, near Boston, and has presented another 
specimen to the School of Mines .—Denver 
Mirror. 
