JAH. 2 % 
S§ THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
secure perfect quality. The cause of a poor one 
is the great quantity of floating or anchor ice 
that lodges in the coves or bays, the places 
where iee-flelds are usually staked out, and 
this floating article forms ice deficient in so¬ 
lidity. After a break-up, the ice formed in 
two or three days' freezing is of superior 
quality. During very cold weather the ice 
forms from two to three feet in thickness, and 
is very transparent. 
The modus operandl of harvesting ice has 
been reduced to a science, lu former times 
a single farmer when he wanted to fill his 
ice house, would cut his ice with a cross-cut 
saw, and the task was slow and unpleasant. 
Accidents sometimes happened, both danger¬ 
ous and disagreeable, as, for instance, in the 
case of the man who found it easier to work 
where he stood, on the block he was cutting, 
and sawed it entirely off, happily with no 
worse result than a cold bath. Hut a single 
farmer never can make the elaborate prepa¬ 
rations for harvesting ice made by men with 
whom it is a business. It is slow and labor¬ 
ious cutting ice by hand and handling it with¬ 
out proper tackle. Where men make a busi¬ 
ness of dealing in it the principal part of the 
cutting is done by horse-power, and very 
rapidly, by means of an ice plow. The ice¬ 
field is plowed its entire length in strips of 
a suitable width, by horse-power. The strips 
are cut in suitable blocks by large haud-saws, 
and floated to a particular point for loading. 
For convenience this is usually done at a 
point farther down stream than that where 
the ice was cut. At this point, by means of a 
long slide with one end in the water and the 
other high enough to drop the ice on the 
sleighs, smart men with pikes can load a 
team in a very few minutes. Care iu cutting, 
that is, to have all the blocks of equal size 
and square in shape, greatly facilitates the 
packing of the ice. It is very often advisabl •, 
if time and opportunity allow, to dress the 
blocks with an axe where they are of awk¬ 
ward shape. In all the towns of any consid¬ 
erable size on the banke of the St. Lawrence 
there are men who make a business of dealing 
in ice,either for the local market or as jobbers 
engaged in shipping it, and when these men 
with their improved facilities for cutting and 
loading commence their ice harvest. faruMrs 
who wish to secure their year’s supply, can 
usually purchase it already loaded on their 
sleighs, for forty or fifly cents per cord, a 
much lower figure than that for which each 
farmer could cut the few cords he would re¬ 
quire. 
A good team will usually draw at least 
half a cord at a load, and if the farmer is at 
all ingenious in making arrangements for un¬ 
loading, the task of securing the year’s sup¬ 
ply becomes comparatively easy. It is always 
possible to slide tbo iee from the sleigh to 
wherever it is wanted by means of plank, and 
ice can be handled very easily in this manner 
by using long hooks made of good bar-iron. A 
great many erroneous ideas are entertained In 
regard to storing and keeping ice. Nearly all 
men with whom I have any acquaintance, in¬ 
variably lRst their first year’s stock of ice 
owiDg to their neglect of proper ventilation. 
Others, again, think it necessary to provide 
an expensive buildiog for keeping the com¬ 
modity, while others omit to provide suitable 
drainage. Let it once be thoroughly under¬ 
stood that the cheapest building possible is 
good enough if there are only sufficient drain¬ 
age and ventilation, and the job of storing ice 
will not appear nearly so formidable as it now 
does. Ten dollars are quite sufficient to erect a 
building good enough for any farmer. The 
trade iu ice is already au impoitaut industry ; 
a large capital is employed in it and it fur¬ 
nishes employment to a great number of men 
and teams. The season of 1881, commencing 
about the first of January, bids fair to be a 
prosperous one, as the ice is of excellent 
quality. F. K. Moreland. 
at. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
Jarm Copirs. 
SEASONABLE HINTS. 
While a relaxation from pressing work 
may be found now, such as can be found 
at no other season, there is much that may 
and should be done by all who desire to 
practice system and economy iu farm manage¬ 
ment. With the coming of the new year we 
are reminded that a new campaign of seeding, 
cultivation and harvesting is drawing near, and 
it is often not without a certain feeling ot 
dread that we contemplate its approach, and 
we are not disposed generally to spend much 
time in reviewing the one just closed. Still I 
think a few hours may profitably be spent in 
retrospect. If a daily or weekly record is 
kept, let an evening or two be spent in reading 
it over and refreshing the memory with the 
details of the struggles and triumphs of the 
past year. If no written record is kept, let 
the family talk It over and call up the princi¬ 
pal incidents, each member contributing his 
or her share to the history of the year. This 
will assist in utilizing the experience of the 
pa6t which should bo to us all a part of our 
“ stock in trade.” Then let some time be de¬ 
voted to taking an •* account of stock an in¬ 
ventory of farm live stock, tools, fixtures, 
grain on hand, etc , and their values should be 
tabulated. If we are out of debt the re¬ 
sult will show our resources, or, in other 
words, how much we are worth. This inven¬ 
tory, revised each year aud compared with 
those for the previous years, will show whether 
we are gaining or losing, and how much. 
An accurate account of all expenses Ehould 
be kept, and it this has been dene for the past 
year an estimate may be made for the coming 
year. This should include the amounts needed 
for the purchase of new tools and for repairs 
upon old one6. It should also be decided what 
improvements, if any, are to be made and what 
is to be their character and cost. A plan of 
farm operations should be marked out, and, 
with the experience of past years before us, 
we can usually see where improvements can be 
made. If our financial exhibit of the past 
year proves unsatisfactory, we must try and 
ascertain the cause, and endeavor as far as 
possible to correct it. If there has been care¬ 
less ov unwise management or if petty leaks 
have occurred here aud there, the former must 
be amended and tbe latter be stopped. If the 
fault is In the season, if frosts, floods, or 
drought have baffled us and cheated us of the 
rewards we have justly earned and expected, 
all we can do is, like a disappointed fisherman, 
to hopefully try again. It will be found ad¬ 
visable to anticipate the coining busy season 
and study how we can make u dav now couut 
for one in seed time or harvest. 
We may do this by putting tool6 in order, 
rigging hay forks, repairing lences, trimming 
orchards and hedges, etc., etc. It is a part of 
good farming to have things convenient 
around barns and stables, so that teams and 
stock may he watered, fed and cared for with 
the greatest economy of time and labor. The 
farmer no lees than the merchant or banker, 
to achieve the greatest success, must devote 
his whole time aud talent to his business. He 
must in Winter live, so to speak, with his 
stock; in Summer, with bis crops. He must 
study not only to make the most of fair 
weather and propitious seasons ; but prepare 
for accidents and failure also, and strive to 
reap some benefit even from adversity. He 
should as far as possible, make tbe elements 
his servants and make the winds, the sunshine 
and the rain all contribute to his success; but, 
ever keeping in mind their treachery and var¬ 
iableness, he should obey Ihe old injunction 
“never trust the weather.” Thus while we 
sit by the fireside with the temperature at zero, 
if our land has been well drained or fall- 
plowed, we can take comfort in the thought 
that the frost is doing for ns now what no 
effort of ours could do in Spriug in mellowing 
aud loosening the soil. If the winds sweep 
uncomfortably, they ehould pump our water, 
grind our grain and do many other jobs for us 
through the instrumeutality of a good wind¬ 
mill. If crops have been short over a consid¬ 
erable extent of country, we should know this 
fact, and if possible profit by it. If our dairy 
products are a drug in market in Summer, we 
should let the eow# go dry through the season 
of heat and flies, and milk them in Winter f 
and if rings and corporations combine to fleece 
us, we must combine also, and turning what 
Beews our greatest obstacle—our numbers—to 
our advantage by tbe ballot, enforce justice 
and respect. “ g.” 
Ludlow, Ill. 
Jflorintlinral. 
SOME NEW PLANTS OFFERED BY GER¬ 
MAN FLORISTS. 
Among the new plants which may minister 
to the delight of all lovers of flowers next 
MEGABRHIZA CALIFORNIO A.—FIG. 31. 
Summer, we take occasion to notice the fol¬ 
lowing : 
Mkgarrhiza Californica, Fig. 31, Is anew 
and very rapid-growing member of the Cucur- 
bitacese family, of tbe same elegant habit and 
handsome appearance as Pilogyne suavis, 
hut of much larger dimensions, the stems of¬ 
ten attaining a length of 30 to 30 feet in one 
season. The beautiful, glossy, silvery leaves, 
about three to six inches in diameter, bear 
short, scattered hairs, the small, white sterile 
flowers appeal ing in slender racemes, while 
the fertile ones grow singly aud are some¬ 
what bigger; the oblong-shaped fruits, about 
HKOMOS FATUI.D8 NANOS.—FIG 33. 
two inches long, are densely covered with 
6 tout, pungent spines similar to those of the 
(lucurbitactie introduced up to the present 
time, being of about the same size and form 
as a Broad Bean and germinating as easily and 
eurely as pumpkin seeds. The plant becomes 
fully developed when grown as an aunual, 
but it can also be cultivated as a perennial, as 
it produces long and large tuberous roots. 
Bromcs patclus nanus, Fig, 33, is quite a 
new form of this very valuable ornamental 
grass, differing from the original species not 
RHVNCHOCAUPA GLOMERATA.—FIG. 33. 
only in its lower growth, being scarcely half as 
high, but far more in its much more graceful, 
thinner and shorter panicles. By comparing a 
pauicle of Br. patnlustothe one shown in natu¬ 
ral size in the figure, the superiority of the above- 
named sort may easily be noticed. This va¬ 
riety has already been cultivated for several 
years and has proved perfectly true from 
seed. It represents a valuable addition to the 
assortment of ornamental grasses grown on 
an extensive scale for bleaching purposes or 
dry grass bouquets. 
Rhynchocarfa glombrata, Fig. 33, is a 
charming and interesting climbing member 
BEGONIA DAVISII.—FIG. 34. 
of the same family, from Brazil, growing 13 to 
15 feet in higbt. Its branching habit and 
thickly-set, abundant foliage make it spe¬ 
cially well adapted for covering arbors aud 
fences or for garnishing festoons. The 
whitish flowers, as Is mostly the case in this 
tribe of plauts, are not very conspicuous, but 
the deeply cut, five-lobed leaves, together with 
the numerous liazeluut-like fruits appearing 
in dense clusters, render this plant one ot the 
most attractive climbers for oat door culture. 
To judge by tbe tuberous-like root it may be 
treated as a perennial, but it succeeds well in 
any warm border as au aunual. 
Begonia Davisii, Fig. 34, is a beautiful free- 
flowering new r tuberous-rooted species of 
dwarf habit. The flowers are of the brightest 
scarlet imaginable, standing well out of the 
foliage as the above figure shows plainly. Un¬ 
doubtedly it is one ol the finest introduc¬ 
tions amongst the tuberous-rooted class. 
PARLOR GRASSES. 
The beauty which is all around us we neg¬ 
lect, while for that which is foreign we will 
pay the highest prices. I claim that our 
own grasses are quite as beautiful as roost of 
the exotics. They are, at least, more sugges¬ 
tive. The sight of them leads us iu imagina¬ 
tion to pleasant river banks, to flowery mea¬ 
dows. or perhaps to mountain topswbeuce we 
viewed the kingdoms of the earth. We begin 
to gather grasses and sedges in Spring, aud keep 
it up through the Summer, as the different 
species succeed each other, until at last we 
are prepared to arrauge them. 
With the grasses one can combine the deli¬ 
cate inflorescence of the Sea-lavender (Statice 
Limoniuui) the pearly heads of Immortelle 
(Antennaria margaritacea), a few bleached 
ferns, and a few that retain the glory of the 
setting sun. Then an exquisite additiou is 
Cotton-sedge (Erlophorum). Its downy tufts 
are. like the breasts of the Birds of Paradise, 
of changeable, silk-like sheen. 
An extremely beautiful grass is the Glyceria 
Canadensis whichhas open, drooping panicles 
of straw-yellow spikelets. There are as many 
colors in ourgrasses as there arehues in the for¬ 
est, delicate green 8, purples, and raaroous. The 
habits are as various as the colors, from the up- 
rigbtspike of the sea-side CalatnagrosUs to the 
gauze-like film cf 8porobolus. The more one 
studies grasses the more entranced he becomes, 
for the beauty is not alone in the growth, hut 
the minute blossoms are pretty beyond descrip¬ 
tion. I commend both grasses aud sedges to 
those who love the woods; although their 
study is hard, they reward one by many an 
undreamed-of woDder. • We marvel indeed, 
naoreat the elegance of littletbings.thanatthe 
vastncBs and magnificence of the great. The 
striations on a diatom, or the stiginatic fea¬ 
thers of a grass are as wonderful in their way 
as the craters ot the moon. The difference is 
in degree not quality. Nature nealects no 
detail even in her hidden architecture. We 
find everywhere and always a directing hand. 
An opening rose-bud is a wonder, but so alto 
is a budding grass. W. W. Bailey. 
Brown University, Prov., R, I. 
--- 
ENGLISH NAMES FOR GARDEN PLA NTS 
The London (Eng.) Garden has taken a de¬ 
cided stand in favor of English names for 
garden plants, and I think rightly, too. In 
ordinary conversation who would ever think 
of talking about Couvallaria majalis. Reseda 
odorata, BouBsingaultia baselloides, Polygona- 
tutn gigauteum, Narcissus Psendo-Narcissus, 
and Nymphiea odorata, when we mean to speak 
of Lily-of-the-Valley. Mignonette, Madeira 
Vine, Solomou’s Seal, Daffodils, Pond Lilies? 
There is a simplicity, beauty and sweetness in 
the comtnou names not found iu botanical 
ones. True, verbena, lantaua. abutilon, 
fuchsia, aster, oxalis, and many others iu com¬ 
mon parlance, though really botanical, generic 
names, are, by their every-day use, understood 
as common Euglish ones; in fact, the major¬ 
ity of the people who use them do not know 
them to be botanical names. 
The English uames that seem to me the most 
appropriate are those that have au obvious 
and descriptive meaning, us Pond Lily, monks¬ 
hood, buttercup, blood-root, twin-leaf, sweet 
pea, snow-drop, golden rod, Evening Prim¬ 
rose, foxglove, cockscomb, aud the like. But, 
after all, perhaps the prettiest uames are the 
poetical ones, as the roses and lilies, daisies, 
pinks aud pansies. Then there are many 
pretty imagiuativeoues.as Lady's-delight, Wan¬ 
dering Jew, Mothcr-of-Thousands, Bachelors' 
Buttons, Mourning Bride, Love-iu-a-Mist, 
Love-lies-Bleeding, Venus’s Lookrog-gluss, 
Babies' Breath, and Star of Bethlehem. 
Are we to relinquish these happy names, the 
names our children speak, the names our fore¬ 
fathers as children used, in favor of a harsh 
and formal botauical lore, aud call au Iron 
Weed, Vernonia Noveboracensis; a Sun flower, 
Helianthus anuuus ; a Snap-dragon, Antirrhi¬ 
num in a jus, and a Sweet-William, Dianthus 
barbatus? Who speaks of Quereus, Acer, 
Fagus, Betula, when they merely meau to 
mention the oak, the maple, the beech or the 
birch ? 
A recognized botanical name is indispensa¬ 
ble for every species among plants, and there 
are times when it must be used ; but iu every¬ 
day general use, when practicable, let us give 
high preference to the good old Euglish 
names. William Falconer. 
JifU) Crops, 
INFLUENCE OF MANURES UPON THE PO¬ 
TATO DISEASE. 
PROFESSOR F. H. STORER. 
It has often beeu remarked by Euro¬ 
pean farmers, aud sometimes by American, 
that the mauure employed upon potato fields 
may have no inconsiderable influence in pro- 
