machine, there will he little difficulty in 
learning to use it, and we are confident those 
who choose it will find its value increase from 
year to year for many years. 
two or three seasons a little of that patient, 
watchful care which 80 distinguishes you 
upon a bed of Double Portulaea, and to ac¬ 
cept our guarantee that it will prove as com¬ 
pensatory as aDy out-door floral occupation 
you have ever attempted. 
PRESERVING GRAPES 
DOUBLE PORTULACA 
A NEW GRAIN BINDER 
A correspondent of the Fruit Recorder 
says :—The preservation of fruit in its natural 
condition ranks next in importance to its 
production. When its season is prolonged 
four or five months, the table may be furn¬ 
ished with a delicious luxury, and the vine- 
yardist will receive rich gain, as the earliest 
and latest fruits command the highest prices. 
Of course, every variety will not keep, but 
most of the popular sorts may be preserved 
with ordinary care. The process of preserv¬ 
ing grapes is very simple, but more of com¬ 
mon sense than science is necessary to success. 
1. Gather when fully ripe. Most sorts 
change color half a month before they are 
ripe, and a mistake Is often made in picking 
them. As this fruit only ripens upon the 
vine, it must be left till the stem shrinks and 
turns brown. Over-ripe grapes keep better 
than unripe ones. The green bunches may 
be left for a second gathering. Thin out all 
imperfect berries when picking. 
2. Always gather them In fair weather, in 
the morning after the dew has dried. 
3. Handle very carefully, not to rub off 
the bloom, and do not bruise nor break ; cut 
with sharp scissors. 
-1. When gathered, bring into a cool place, 
spread out on a shed for a few days, till the 
sin-plus moisture has passed off. 
5. Then pack in tight boxes, able to hold 
20 to 30 lbs. Spread a thin sheet of paper on 
the. bottom, then a layer of grapes close to¬ 
gether, then a sheet of paper, and soon till 
full, if sawdust is used in packing, the fruit 
will taste woody; chaff of rye, oats, wheat 
or rice is good, but paper is best, as it does 
not stick to the clusters. Have four or five 
layers in the box. Keep in temperature of 
35" to 40*. They may bo examined occasion¬ 
ally and imperfect berries removed ; but if 
the fruit is [sound and ripe, and the place 
cool, they will keep four or five months with¬ 
out further care. 
BY E. S. CARMAN, 
Prof. Dana in Western New Yorker thus 
talks of itA new era has dawned in the 
culture of the cereals, the golden age of 
farmers and farmers’ wives, a day of de¬ 
liverance from a crowd of hungry, higli- 
EFFECT OF AMMONIA FUMES ON 
FLOWERS. 
To secure a bed of Double Portulaea three 
summers and a few minutes of daily atten¬ 
tion during the hottest part of the day are 
requisite. The very finest seeds will yield 
not over 25 per cent, of double flowers, and 
as these form seeds very sparingly, we are 
obliged to pluck the single and semi-double 
flowers daily at about noon, when the bloom 
is most abundant. Nor can one day be. skip¬ 
ped, since a single flower endures but from 
four to six hours, and a day’s crop of single 
seed would be greater than the whole sea¬ 
son’s crop of double seed. 
Plucking or cutting off with scissors the 
single bloom is not, however, the task it 
would at first seem, since as soon tvs we have 
determined that a plant bears single, flowers 
roots and all may be removed. We need 
not, indeed, wait for the bloom—the shape 
of the bud affording unmistakable evidence 
of the character of the flower, being per¬ 
fectly round in the nearly double, somewhat 
flattened in the fully double, but always 
conical or pointed at the apex in the single 
buds. For l ive reason that the single flowers 
are earlier than the double, as well as be¬ 
cause plants are sometimes blooming single, 
at first, may after awhile become double, it 
is well to wait until the first of August, at 
least, before rejecting them, continuing to 
cut off, meanwhile, the single, flowers as they 
appear. 
The rejected plants may be used for some 
less desirable portion of the garden— for rook 
work, shady corners, or to cover up a spot 
where scarcely any other plant would grow. 
They may be transplanted, not only in mid¬ 
summer, but. in the hottest part of the hot¬ 
test days. In fact, slips merely pressed into 
the ground will soon make roots and bloom 
if left entirely to themselves, so that it is 
never loo late in the summer to establish a 
new bed. Slips of double-flowering plants, 
however, revert at once to single flowers, 
though these are more readily induced, in 
further cultivation, to again assume the 
double form. 
We discovered last summer that it is not 
difficult to determine pretty closely what 
color the flowers will prove from the. color 
of the stems when the plants first appear in 
June. This is only valuable, perhaps, as we 
may wish t.o preserve the same color in each 
bed or each section of a bed. The stems of 
the pure white flowers are a solid pea-green. 
The rose-colored flowers have stems a, dis¬ 
tinct shade deeper. The variegated or 
streaked rose and crimson flowers have pre¬ 
cisely the same shade of stems as the rose, 
with the addition of delicate though well-de¬ 
fined lines of red The straw-colored flower 
has a faint purple stem, the lightest of the 
purple stems ; the deep orange, a distinct 
shade deeper ; the yellow, a solid, reddish 
purple. We fail only in the Magenta flow¬ 
ers, which cannot with certainty be distin¬ 
guished from the. deep orange, so closely are 
the stem-tints alike. 
We have seen and heard too much of the 
perfections claimed for certain plants, which 
are really meritorious, but in a few respects, 
to wish to claim for Portulaea more than it 
conspicuously deserves. As a low-bed.Ung 
plant, its almost unequalcd brilliancy and 
profusion of bloom will be at once conceded. 
With no great rare these beds may be com¬ 
posed of pure white, or pure lemon, lose, 
Magenta, orange, or we may have solid 
colors for the mass of the bed, with a con¬ 
trast of border and center ; or they may be 
arranged in ribbons or left massed in assort¬ 
ment as they naturally grow. The bloom is 
incessant until frost, without those intervals 
of rest or of injury from excessive heat or 
drouth, from which most other bedders suf¬ 
fer more or less during midsummer. The 
plants never need watering, are never at¬ 
tacked by insects, are indifferent as to soil, 
will flourish satisfactorily under circum¬ 
stances the most adverse and renew them¬ 
selves season after season without food. 
A solid bed of single Portulaea is intensely 
bright and beautiful certainly during the 
morning hours ; but a solid Bed of Double 
Portulaea, more enduring than the single 
and each bloom nearly as large us a Double 
Balsam, is so strikingly beautiful that, hav¬ 
ing seen the one, we could never again rest 
contented with the other. 
We have found that a mixture of muck, 
sod, soil and old manure in equal parts, with 
sufficient sand to preserve it always loose, is 
most conducive to double flowering. 
Young ladies, we solicit you to bestow for 
Prof. Gabba has been examining the ef¬ 
fects of ammonia ou the color of flowers. It 
THE EUCALYPTUS AND PHYLLOXERA 
Robert Brdce Stuart writes the Scien¬ 
tific American : — “I liavu been informed 
that tlve Tasmanian blue gum tree ( Eucalyp¬ 
tus globulus) is acclimated in the. southern 
portion of France. In that territory, possi¬ 
bly in the immediate vicinity of trees of that 
species, there ore large numbers of cultivat¬ 
ed grape vines. Perhaps it would bo well to 
examine the grape vines so located and as¬ 
certain if they are exempt from the ravages 
of the phylloxera. The blue gum trees ap¬ 
pear to be suitable for tin? vineyard; they 
grow rapidly, straight and firm and would 
afford an admirable support for the wire ; 
they cast no injurious amount of shade, and 
are known to lie an antidote for that vapor 
of parasites called miasma.” 
In connection with the foregoing the fol¬ 
lowing may be properly printed :—The Abbe 
Holland has communicated to the Cultivator 
de la Region LyonnaiSe an “ infallible rem¬ 
edy” against the Phylloxera, which, after 
two years’ trial, he recommends “ with con¬ 
fidence” to vine growers. It consists in 
inoculating the vine with thapure essence of 
Eucalyptus globulus, which hus lately at¬ 
tracted so much attention in medical circles. 
A broad incision i3 made through the bark 
at the neck of the vine, in which a few drops 
of the essence are deposited by means of u 
camels'-hair bush. The result is, that in 
about three days the Phylloxera entirely 
disappears, while the vine is not in the least 
injured by the operation. The incision may 
be made through uriy other part of the bark 
with equai success ; but the result is more 
speedily uttuined the nearer it is made to the 
roots. 
LAMB KNITTING MACHINE 
Had Knitting Machines been cultivated by 
capitalists and advertised by manufacturers 
as persistently as Sewing Machines, the peo¬ 
ple would have known more about them than 
they do, the capitalists and manufacturers 
would have made more money than they 
have. For the Knitting Machine is, in Its 
way, as great a triumph of mechanical skill, 
as great an economizer of time, aS effective 
a creator of beautiful forms, as the Sewing 
Machine, though it must be admitted its pro¬ 
ductions are more welcome in winter than 
in summer. 
There have been numerous Knitting Ma¬ 
chines devised, some of which possessed va¬ 
rious good qualities but had each some limit 
to their powers which was annoying. A 
machine that, while moving at Lightning 
speed, could do all classes of work, narrowing 
and widening as desired, could knit hosiery 
or flat work, every kind of stitch that ever 
had been conceived of, was deemed an im¬ 
possibility till the Lamb Knitting Machine 
was invented. For several years now, the 
machine has been before the public, and wo 
have furnished it as a premium, and its rep¬ 
utation is fully estut lished. There has been 
much rivalry between the different manufac¬ 
turers, but we never heard ono of them say 
the “Lamb” was not a good machine, and 
as a premium it has been popular. 
By the aid of this ingenious contrivance a 
large variety of things can be made, such as 
stockings, mittens, gloves, Nubias, Afghans, 
suspenders, Cardigan jackets, tiuys, &e., 
&c.,—the list of capabilities cannot be com¬ 
prehended by any masculine mind. The 
saviug by home manufacture is great, the 
pleasure of constructing these things is great¬ 
er, and the fact that a machine was gained 
with so little effort will be a perpetual source 
of self gratulation. 
We will furnish a complete machine, 95 
needles, 0 to the inch, iron needle bed, extra 
finish, complete with all extras, suited for 
every class of work, for 40 subscribers at club 
price, or for 30 subscribers at $2.65 each. 
As full instructions are sent with each 
HIGHLAND GRAPE 
Thf. Highland Grape is one of the new 
seedlings grovpi by J. II. Ricketts, New¬ 
burgh, N. Y., from whom wo have a fine 
cluster by the hand ol’ l\ R. Elliott, who 
has again been visiting Mr. Ricketts’ collec¬ 
tion of seedling grapes. Wo must say the 
bunch and the berry as it comes to us is 
beautiful in form and size, both of cluster 
and berry. The bunch is eight inches long, 
heavily shouldered ; berries large, roundish 
oval, bluish black, with a thick blue bloom ; 
short peduncle, which, when separated from 
the berry, leaves little or no color at its base. 
The flesh is purplish-yellow, free from pulp 
rich, sweet and vinous. Skin firm, not fr 
and free from any astringeney or lie- 
The berries arc even and regular ,ahnc - s. 
foliage is thick, large, and - ,a size. The 
Concord. The wood is r m.uciL aififilar to 
with buds or joints * brown, rough, 
It is a new varic' mur to six inches apart, 
be genera]'* ,„y, promising but needs to 
public v / tested ere we can speak of its 
We dont want to suggest that you are care¬ 
less, reader, but where are the tools, to-day ? 
