' i the garden, and rendered most of them 
quite valueless. Notwithstanding this, I saw 
enough of the New Improved Dwarf Okra to 
lead mo to call attention to it here, The 
plant is very dwarf, sets its pods from four to 
six inches from the ground, and I should 
.judge it to be quite j 'reductive. T aui inclined 
to think it will prove to lie a valuable kind for 
the small garden, where the common tall kind 
takes up too much room. [We tried it two 
years ago and reported much the same as 
ubove.—E ds.] The okra is a healthy Summer 
vegetable, and Southern people think they 
cannot live without it. At the South it is 
known as gumbo. 
Poppy, but some of the more delicate species 
are worth greater tenderness. Now, a rockery 
is an oast' thing to make in any garden, and, 
well made and furnished, it forms one of the 
loveliest Coutures of the garden. Suppose we 
select a warm, sheltered nook, but not shaded 
overhead with trees, and one where the drain¬ 
age is perfect. We might then raise a pile of 
prepared earth—good, friable loam with some 
wood-soil, leaf mold or very o[d and thor¬ 
oughly rotted manure, and gritty sand or 
dung, has been getting larger and larger un¬ 
til last season, when the crop grown upon the 
duiigea land exceeded tho unmanured crop by 
six tons per acre; the produce of one being 
2 tons and of the- other 8 tons per acre. 
In a lecture which I gave at Haddington 
upon the connection between “ The manures 
made upon the Farm and Artificial Manures,” 
I [jointed out bow the general use of farm¬ 
yard manure for the potato crop was to be ex¬ 
plained by the close connection between tbo 
composition of dung and that of jiotatoes ; in¬ 
asmuch as one ton of dung, and one ton of 
potatoes contain almost the same amount of 
potash and phosphoric acid, while the amount 
of nitrogen in each did not differ materially. 
The following was the table given by way 
of illustration :— 
I'hos. Acid or 
. . Potash. Phos. or Lime. Nitrogen. 
F xSfr lbs. lbs. lbs. 
*3aJ 1 ton of Dung. 11 8 VI 
1 ton of Potatoes.. 12 8 8 
It Is evident that in the lirst year wo ap- 
pbed as much of these ingredients as would 
if have grown from 13 to 14 tons of potatoes, 
.! and yet the whole produce actually obtained 
A was but little over 4 tons 1 
• During the six years we have applied 84 tons 
ttjgp jil of dung, and carried off' 31 tons of potatoes; 
TO, - >• assuming that the soil yielded nothing, this 
& v leaves to be accounted for ingredients coin- 
latent to produce about hi) tons ' 
jpkl'.'w.’! The explanation is that these lest had been 
T-' x \'\y 1 used in producing “ condition'', or In other 
‘ J word-? a stock of fertility to be drawn upon in 
future years. How much of these unre¬ 
covered 50 tons may be still available ; and 
what length of time it would take to get the 
whole amount back in crops, are questions 
which 1 cannot now attempt to answer. 
It is quite certain that the small effect of 
the dung, when fu st applied, was entirely duj 
to the insoluble state of its manure ing redients 
for when the potash, phosphates and nitrogen 
were applied as soluble soils, the very first 
crop yielded in one case over 8 tom, and in 
another nearly t* tons nf potatoes to tho aero. 
The crop grown during the season of 1S81 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT, 
LThe object of m tides tinder this heading is not so 
much to deal with "humbugs ’’ as with the many un¬ 
conscious errors Hint creep into the methods of daily 
country routine life.—Kus.l 
WHERE • WE FARMERS SOMETIMES 
MISS IT. 
W. I chamberlain 
JtJST before election when politicians make 
stump speeches to us farmers, they enlarge 
upon agriculture as “ that most ancient, hon¬ 
orable and independent occupation,” and up¬ 
on “ the great intelligence and superior cul¬ 
ture and virtue of farmers” as a class 1 “ The 
truth about it” is, they want our votes. But 
what they often say in empty flattery, 1 be¬ 
lieve. I certainly believe that successful farm 
ing requires more thought, nud that farmers 
as a class read, study and think more upon 
their business than auy other class of men 
engaged ehiejly in physical labor ; for Ameri¬ 
can farmers as a class are laborers ; but they 
are students, too it has taken no low degree 
of intelligence, study, care and thought, for 
example, to develop the finely formed and al 
most perfect porker of to day up—by a long 
succession of judicious selections and crosses 
w ith patient care and ceaseless vigilance— 
from the slab-sides of 80 years ago, that could 
outrun a bear, “ thrash” a wolf, jump a seven- 
rail fence and fight for its living in the w oods. 
From ancient'' rec ords” I learn that the “ Ohio 
hog' of 80 years ago was of this sort; it took 
three of them to osst a shadow. They could 
busk the corn or dig the potatoes from the 
third row through the fence with their long 
snouts, and would crawl through themselves 
unless you tied a knot in their tails. To as 
certain whether they were fat enough to kill 
you ran them down with a dog [and it took a 
lively one to do it) held them up by the ears 
and if the body overbalanced the long snout, 
they were fat enough. But if the snout over 
balanced the body, they must be turned out 
to fatten longer on " shack”or “mast.” 
Now, I say it has taken no low dtgreo of 
intelligence to breed the Ohio hog of to-day 
up from that hog. The same is true of nearly 
all cur animals and cereals and vegetables. 
Through tho intelligence of fanners speed, 
bottom and strupgth have been devrioped or 
increased in the lieu e, bee-f in the steer, milk 
and butter iu the cow . endurance in the mule, 
wool and mutton iu the sheep, eggs ana ten¬ 
der flesh in our fowls, and so on. Whatever 
characteristic or ccmbinaliou we have de¬ 
sired for our style of farming or our markets 
and environments, wo have found the means 
of producing in time and with care. 
Bo, too, our vegetables, cereals and fruits 
have been almost indefinitely increased in 
variety and improved in quality and produc¬ 
tiveness. The truth about it, however, is that 
these improvements have chiefly' been made 
by a comparatively small number of the more 
intelligent and enterprising farmers, while the 
rest have usually been quick to profit by their 
successes. And sc.-1 think the individual far¬ 
mers lack intelligence, or “miss it,” more in 
the production of their annual crops than iu 
the general excellence of their stock or of the 
kinds of fruit,grain and vegetables they raise. 
For it is easy to graft the fruit some one else 
has originated,to buy the Early Rose or Beau 
ty of Hebron seed totatoes, or the blooded 
Imll or boar that some one else has bred up to 
its perfection : but it is, i lb, so hard to save 
and haul and spread the manure and till the 
yearly crops with good judgment and patient, 
persistent labor. And yet it must lie done. 
huh mined success in farming is the result of 
individual sagacity, labor and persistence. 
We cannot sit still and without individual ef¬ 
fort move on with the general progress of agri 
culture. Homo farmers talk aud act as if v. e 
could, and they alw ays remind me of the old 
lady w ho went to the depot for her first rail¬ 
way ride, bought her ticket and was told the 
train would go in a few moments if she would 
please be seated. Aud so she sat placidly iu 
the depot and saw the train come aud go, ami 
then got up m a tremor of excitement, andex- 
claiwed, *' \\ by ! why, w hy didn't. I go too f’’ 
“ Why,” said the ticket man, “ Why didn’t 
you get aboard if you wanted to go V’ ‘ Get 
aboard ' why I s’posed the h\ il ennsurn teas 
again-1" Tho “hull con jarn” doesn’t, go in 
agriculture either. If the individual farmei 
is going to keep abreast of the amazing agri¬ 
cultural progress Of this age he must himself 
be a student ruid a worker. He must take 
some pains to “catch on” or he will find the 
train of progress has moved on and left him 
bitting in the depot. 
Mr. Falconer very justly praises the fine 
effects produced by vino-clad trees. If, when 
iie is iu New York again, he will cross the river 
to Hoboken and go to the Stevens' place, he 
will see on the lawn a grand example of a 
% iue-clad tree, an old elm covered from top to 
bottom with the Virginia Creeper. The vine 
reached the top years ago. and now liangs iu 
festoons from nil the branches. The tree, 
though dead, is still clothed in living green. 
When it has taken on its Autumn tints, with 
a blue sky' and ;i few light clouds for a back¬ 
ground, it is simply enchanting. All this 
grandeur has been produced in a compira- 
t ive'y short time, for 1 can remember makipg 
n call at the place about 30 yearsago, and Mr. 
Hranstoun, the garde ner • and an excellent one, 
too), was about to cut down a grand old elm 
that had been badly injured, when 1 suggested 
that he should spare it aud plant at its foot a 
v irginia Creeper, and he was so much pleased 
e. ith the idea that he planted tw'O instead of 
one. He still lives to enjoy the fruits of his 
good work. There iu many an old tree that, 
might be saved hi this way. 
Columbines. After W. Robinson’s Wild 
Garden,—Fio 52 
fine gravel—and then arrange the stones u> 
suit our tastes, bearing in mind that the plants 
and not the stones are the objects of ottrac 
tion. The rockery should not be high a 
bight of two feet is enough for a small rock¬ 
ery: high rockeries arc perfect slaughter-pens 
for little plants. Nor should the stones m.» 
high above the soil ; rather let them be low so 
that the leaves ol’ the plants may cover them 
and tho mossy mats of others spread over 
them. Shelter can tie afforded by' some shrubs 
planted so as to afford it; l ut the roots of 
rank growing bushes or trees should not be 
permitted to enter the rockery. In such a 
home we esn grow the Rocky Mountain blue 
one and its white variety, (A. aretica); the 
Siberian Columbine which has reddish-orange 
flowers; (A. glandulosa), from the Altai 
Mountains, blue-and-white; A. Olympica, 
w hich is like the last; A. grain, pale violet; 
ad vena, purple blue; Alpina, from tbe high 
Alps, blue and w hite ; and Pyrenaiea, a tiny 
blue one from the Pyrenees. No rough-grow¬ 
ing plants should find a place in a small lock 
ery. As companions to tho Columbines hosts 
of pretty little plants, as Eriuiis, Erysimums, 
dwarf Bell-flowers, dwarf Speed wells, Liiia ria-t 
or Toad-flax, Ajugas or Bugles, Thyme, and 
many others, together with a great number of 
bright little bulbous plants, may be used. 
Seeaei.nO of vine-elad trees, J may mention 
that a small stream near here (called Shell- 
i t rake River) is flanked on either side by heavy 
masses of shrubs, which are covered k» some 
places for a distance of 200 or 800 feet with a 
close mat of the wild) ‘Jematis {C. S irginiaua , 
a vine leaving the mass occasionally to climb 
into a neighboring tree. In the Fall tho fruit, 
inclosed ia its dow ny tufts, looks like fleecy 
clouds spread over the shrubs, and the effect 
is charming. Why not produce such effects 
•n the shrubbery on the lawn t Mr. Charles 
Downing, who atone time had an immense 
collection of Clematis, used to plant many of 
them in the shrubbery, over the tops of which 
they rambled in the most delightful manner, 
and the effect was not only very fine, but the 
plants seemed to grow better there than else- 
w here. 
1 have learned that the dwarf Jup&uChest¬ 
nut recently alluded to in this column, is cow 
•it'ered for sale by several nurserymen. If 
I d inted on the lawn it should stand alone, and 
not be cro wded by other plants; for though it 
may be properly used as an ornamental plant, 
it will be chiefly grown for its fruit, and 
should therefore have room for its proper de¬ 
velopment, and this it cannot have iu a 
crowded shrubbery. There should be no diffi¬ 
culty in finding a proper place for it either on 
the lawn <u- elsewhere. 
The Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) is an¬ 
other fine native climber which I often usefor 
ccveilug trellises surrounding out buildings. 
It is chiefly beautiful for the scarlet aril which 
covers its seeds, which cling to the vine during 
most of Hie Winter. The effect is enhanced 
by alternating it with Hall’s Honeysuckle. 
Tbe Cela=trus produces a very picturesque ef¬ 
fect in Winter w hen it is allowed to climb up 
and over a tree; but it is almost certain to 
kill the tree iu time by a slow procesj of chok¬ 
ing. HORTICOLA. 
“ CONDITION.” 
AcT Illustrated, by the Growth of Pota 
toes. 
“It takes some years to get land into good 
condition.” “ He lias got his land into such 
condition it will grow anything.” These are 
familial- expressions which I will take as my 
text und endeavor to e .plain to the best ol my 
ability. 
At Hot humbled we have land Rom which 
19 consecutive wheat crops had been taken. 
Some portions had received no manure what 
ever during the whole period other portions 
had received applications of soluble chemical 
salts ; but in no case had there been any stock 
on the land, or any application of farm-yard 
manure, 1 conclude that this hind would be 
considered to be out of condition, and it was 
upon land thus treated that 1 began to grow 
potatoes six years ago. As in our otder ex¬ 
periments at Rotbauisted, part of the land re¬ 
ceived no manure; part received 14 tons of 
farm-yard dung : and part various artificial 
manures. I will first follov. the action of the 
farm-yard manure 
During the first year the increase- of potatoes 
due to this source, only amounted to 8 cwt, 
per acre., as the Humanured crop gave 3 tons 
17 ewts ;und the crop which received 14 tons 
of dung, only 4 tons 5 cwts. During the next 
five years the difference in the produce of the 
unmanured land, and that which received 
COLUMBINES IN ROCKY PLACES 
Columbines in company with Irises, Julies, 
Perennial Larkspurs, Pe-onies. and Bell flow¬ 
ers, rank among our first class hardy herba¬ 
ceous garden perennials ; all are beautiful and 
jnost of them easy to grow. Our illustration 
of the Siberian Colutnbino (Fig. 53), growing 
in a rocky place is as good a likeness of how 
these plants grow nahually as can be well 
imagined. They delight in such places, and 
it is just in similar situations in the Rocky 
Mountains where qpr long-spurred, blue-and- 
white Columbine (Aquilegiu r< crulea) is mostly 
found nud appears the prettiest; the Canada 
Columbine in likewise found under similar cir¬ 
cumstances, growing from between the chinks 
of rocks iu open places in rocky woods. Here 
the drainage is perfect and the soil consists of 
dark-colored humus and grit. 
Of course, our tall golden Columbine, the 
California red One, aud the many single, 
double and striped varieties of the common 
garden Columbine will grow in the ordinary 
flower border as freely as a Speedwell or a 
GAS PIPE FENCE POSTS 
The -‘appeal” about mis pipe fence posts, in 
the issue of January 17, ou page 27, leads me 
to repl;v. It needs no special preparation to 
prepare gas pipe for wire-fence posts. Across 
from my house stretch nearly or quite one 
hundred rods of such fence, and I think it very 
serviceable. All that is needed is to buy the 
