JUNE S 
a piece of old sack or some hay or straw, 
keeping it. in place with sticks. lhis is the 
best hardy species of the Daphne, for open 
air culture in our variable climate, and has 
only to he hotter known to become exceed¬ 
ingly popular. It is readily propagated by 
layers in the open ground, or cuttings under 
glass. The plants usually bloom 1 wioe during 
the season—in early spring and then again 
in autumn. 
PLANTING MELONS. 
May 25.—I have finished planting melons 
to-day, confining myself to only a few 
varieties this year—a half dozen of the Musk 
and otily two of Watermelons ; Mountain 
Sweet and Joe Johnson of the latter. I keep 
trying the new sorts, but hold fast to the 
old and good ones, waiting for something 
better to turn up. There is almost an endless 
number of varieties of musk melons, and in 
one respect they are very much like straw¬ 
berries—it is difficult to find one among 
them that is not good when well grown and 
ripened. The choice between yellow, orange 
and green-fleshed sorts, depends very much 
upon individual taste, as some persons who 
like one do not the others. The science of 
growing good melons is comprised in two 
words—soil and climate, A light, sandy or 
Other friable soil is best; a heavy clay will 
do if plenty of light materials, such as leaf 
mold, sand, or barnyard manure is put into 
the hills,—but a Jersey sand, or prairie mold, 
arc the soils par excellence for melons. As 
mine is the former, 1 merely plow as for 
other crops, then put one good forkful of 
h hill, covering with 
may add, was organized for business on the 
first of November, lfiTO, with a capital of 
$300,000 for the manufacture of the original 
Johnston Harvesters, With a vigorous or¬ 
ganization it. struck out for business wherever 
grain or gross was raised, and so successful 
has it been that it to-day stands in the front 
rank and sends its machines over the United 
States, to the Rocky Mountains, and also the 
eastern world, throughout Europe and into 
Africa—in the southern hemisphere through 
South America, and in the isles of the sea to 
New Zealand. Their machines have attained 
universal popularity wherever they have 
been used, and the company have more 
orders than they can fill. Ono hundred and 
thirty-nine of their machines were lost on 
the ill-fated “ Schiller,” whose disaster has 
so recently shocked the world. These ma¬ 
chines were for some of their European cus¬ 
tomers, and were valued at. $20,000. They 
were, of course, insured, and no loss will be 
sustained by the Company. It will, however, 
be a serious inconvenience to their custom¬ 
ers, unless other machines are immediately 
shipped in their places, which is doubtful, on 
THE EXCELSIOR LAWN MOWER. 
Few of the surroundings of a house add 
more to the general effect, than a neat, well 
kept Lawn. Yet, without a Lawn Mower 
it would be exceedingly difficult to have 
such an ornament. For the scythe does not. 
DAILY RURAL LIFT!. 
From the Diary of a Centleman near Mew 
York City. 
sharpen our desires to see once more the 
green fields and unfolding flowers ; hence 
when they do come we enjoy them all the 
more for the delay. The past week has 
wrought a wonderful change In the appear- 
atfee of vegetation in my neighborhood, and 
where Nature seemed dead it is now alive 
and thousands of trees and shrubs are filling 
ith the delicious fragrance of their 
Thu early blooming 
the air wl 
millions of flowers, 
magnolias have dropped their flowers, hut 
they are not missed in the profusion of 
apple, cherry, plum and other fruit bearing 
trees, to say nothing of those cultivated 
especially for ornamental purposes. The 
Chinese double-flowering cherries and apples, 
are superb ornaments for the lawn or grove, 
and I am only surprised that they arc so sel¬ 
dom seeu in the grounds of those who 
assume to take an interest in the culture of 
handsome plants. A sped men of the double¬ 
flowering Chinese apple (PyruR apcctabiHs), 
planted on my lawn a dozen years ago, is to 
day in full bloom, and the delicate rose 
colored flowers, and half-opened buds, en¬ 
velope every' tiny branch, making the whole 
head of the tree appear like one immense 
bouquet of miniature roses. Another Chinese 
apple, also in bloom, has handsome varie¬ 
gated flowers, the colors being white and 
rose, intermingled In each petal, reminding 
one of the “York and Lancaster” rose, 
once a great favorite among rosariaus. 
But I started out to glance at shrubs, and 
to make my descent from trees to lower 
growths easy, T will only drop from Pyrn 8 
spectablUs (the Chinese apple) to Pyrua 
Japoniea, or, as it is sometimes called, Japan 
Quince. It is an old and well-know n shrub, 
producing large, bright scarlet flowers in 
early spring. But even if old and common, 
it, is still one of the very best and most showy 
shrubs in cultivation. This old sort, how¬ 
ever, is the parent of several quite distinct 
varieties, which, if grouped together, pro¬ 
duce a beautiful effect by the great contrast 
in the color of their flowers. The semi- 
double scarlet is not. much of an improve¬ 
ment upon its parent, although the flowers 
are slightly more persistent, hanging on to 
the bash a few days longer. The pale rose 
or pink variety is very pretty, the flowers 
being quite variable in color, some being 
deep rose, and others a very pale shade of 
pink. This variety is also quite prolific, 
bearimr fruit 1 to 2 inches in diameter, with a 
ZINC COLLAR PAD 
cut neatly, leaving ridges which mark the 
boundary of each cut, and the sickle is only 
adapted for comers that are otherwise inac¬ 
cessible. We have seen various Lawn 
Mowers tested at different times, each 
boasting Borne special excellence, but alas, 
having also some special defects. The chief 
trouble with many Lawn Mowers, however, 
was the difficulty of using them ; they re¬ 
quired too much strength, and only men 
were able to work with them. And as men 
cared more about crops than lawns, loved 
the useful rather than the beautiful, the 
lawn was apt to bo neglected, and when 
mown, showed too much thick stubbie. 
The Excelsior Lawn Mowers made by the 
Cuadborn & Coldwbi.l M’k’o Co., New- 
burg, N. Y., combine In the highest degree 
the qualities of strength and lightness. We 
have seeu them used In the City Hall lark in 
New York, on grass of various hights, and 
the operator seemed to have no more, labor 
than was involved in the act of walkiug. In 
several places we know of, the Lawn is kept 
in order by the women and children ; not 
that the men are lazy, but because the labor 
is so light as to be no more than an amuse¬ 
ment, and the lawn is mowed often, as it. 
should be, to preserve its evenness and 
beauty. 
As evidence of our own opinion of the 
“ Excelsior,” we may add that it is a promi¬ 
nent prize in our last issue (and still in force) 
Premium List-and we never knowingly 
barnyard manure in eae 
about an inch of soil, and then put on the 
seed, adding another inch of earth. When 
the plants appear dust them over with wood 
ashes, once* in two weeks, or apply land 
plaster, and if insects appear mix into the 
plaster a little Paris green or cresylic acid. 
Hoc frequently, thinning out the plants to 
three or four in each hill. 
When 1 read of the amount of labor 
bestowed, and the expense attending, melon 
culture in Great Britain, I feel like asking 
some of the “ Lords and Ladies,” or even 
the untitled nobility among the working 
classes, to step over here about melon time 
and partake of a fruit such as if is impossible 
to produce iu the cool and humid atmos¬ 
phere of the “ green isles,” even with arti¬ 
ficial heat. 1 have seen tons of the most 
delicious watermelons, weighing from 20 to 
sold in Chicago 
30 or more pounds each, 
markets for a dollar per hundred, and musk- 
melons of about half the size at the same 
price. Of course this occurred years ago, 
when money was scarce and before railroads 
“ cheapened ” freight, the farmers hauling 
londs twenty miles for less than they would 
now go five. But the price of melons in 
market does not affect, those who raise them 
for their own use, and whether worth a 
dollar or one cent apiece it’s all the same to 
us who live where such delicious fruit grows 
almost, spontaneously. 
WISTARIA BUDS KILLED. 
Jlfay 26.—Noticing that the early Wistarias 
were not blooming ns usual, I examined 
them and found to my surprise Unit the 
flower buds had been winter-killed. This is 
facturers claim “ that the chemical action of 
the Zinp with the acid and saline constituents 
of moist sores, results in an astringent which 
acts speedily on the edges of the wound, and 
by its smooth surface and cooling tendency 
quickly produces a cure. The Pad also pre¬ 
vents the Hame Strap coming in contact 
with the neck, or the hames contracting the 
top of the collar and punching the chords.” 
In using tills Pad it should be protected 
from the sun by being covered over the top 
with either cloth or leather in hot weather, 
as it becomes heated in the sun, but will 
always keep cool in the shade. Tlio Pad 
must also be kept cleaned. If allowed to be 
coated over on the hearing surface, the 
smoothness of the metal and medicinal 
properties of the Zinc are lost, making them 
i no better than Pads of other material. They 
are easily scoured with ashes or any sub¬ 
stance commonly used to cleanse tin or ot her 
'matnl in domestic use. K - 
JOHNSTON S SELF-RAKING REAPER. 
Tue excellent machine named above, and 
represented in our engraving, has been so 
fully described in former volumes of the 
Rural that most of our readers must be fa- 
THE ENEMIES OF BEES, 
swarm of bees in an 
Never put a new 
B hive as there will most certainly be the eggs 
of the honey moth deposited in the crevices 
of the hive which will hatch out and 
s probably destroy the swarm. When the 
moth once gains an entrance to the hive tho 
eV bees appear powerless to expel them. When 
\ the maggots begin to eat their way into the 
;V combs, the sooner the bees arc fumigated 
■X the better. Do not have a large, round 
entrance to the hive, convenient to mice, 
-slugB and other enemies ; have an entrance 
of only a quarter of an inch m bight, ana 
from an inch in winter to four inches in 
* , length in summer. Should wasps or o 
n bees attack a hive the only plan is to narrow 
