square, no more being mixed at once, on ac¬ 
count of the rapid Betting or hardening of the 
cement. This is then rammed thoroughly 
with the rammer so as to make it very compact 
and the ramming should be continued until 
the surface is covered with a thin, soft, liquid 
paste of cement. While this is being done, 
another batch should be prepared to be imme¬ 
diately laid and rammed; and so on until the 
whole floor is covered. As a piece is finished 
it is smoothed over with a mason’s float, which 
is a long, narrow piece of smooth board, hav¬ 
ing two pins for haudles fitted into it, as 
shown at Fig. 157. This is drawn back and 
forth with a circular motion over the cement 
until the surface is level and smooth. The 
gutter is covered in the same manner as the 
floor; or it may be made deeper and planked 
over as above-mentioned. The floor should 
not be used for a month, and would be much 
obtain a neat, compact specimen. It is per¬ 
fectly hardy and produces its flowers before 
the leaves appear. 
A large tree, about 30 feet in bight, of the 
Chinese White Magnolia—Maguolia conspicua 
—is just now (May 3d.) in full bloom, and is a 
remarkably attractive object. This is a 
Chinese species of great beauty, the large, 
puie white, fragrant flowers being produced 
in the greatest profusion before the leaves 
appear. In habit, however, it is of slow, 
shrub-like growth, though in time it will 
attain to the size of a tree, and its superb 
beauty renders it well worth waiting for. Its 
bright, glossy, green leaves render it very 
desirable as an ornamental shade tree, as it 
possesses the desirable quality of being per¬ 
fectly free from all insects, and, moreover, it 
retains its foliage until late in the season. It 
is perfectly hardy. My plant ripens a great 
quantity of seed every year, but I have uever 
tried to raise any plants from them. 
FLOORS FOR COW STABLES, 
The floor of a cow stable should be hard, 
dry and non-absorbent. It should be ar¬ 
ranged so as to be convenient, comfortable 
and healthful for the cow and convenient for 
the owner. It should be hard or it would not 
be durable or dry; it should be dry or nou- 
absorbent for the sake of comfort, healthful¬ 
ness and for cleanliness. Har Iness is secured 
by choice of material. An earth floor may be 
made hard and excellent in every way and at 
very little expense, and a floor on tae ground, 
if it can be kept dry and well drained, is the 
best of all floors. It is easily kept free from 
vermin which are a nuisance about a cow sta¬ 
ble, being wasteful, annoying and injurious 
by bringing lice and fleas into it. It is cool 
in the Summer and warn in the Winter, 
being free from the cold drafts which are apt 
to pass through plank floors over a cellar. 
The cheapest earth floor is one made on the 
ground and covered tb ree or four inches thick 
by a concrete of beaten clay, coal ashes and 
gravel. When rightly prepared, this floor is 
very hard and durable, and sheds water as 
well as a cement floor. It is made of clay 
puddled and worked up until it is quite sticky, 
plastic and stiff ; this is spread upon the earth 
properly graded and prepared, and is then 
covered with a layer of coal ashes previously 
wetted with water or wet from exposure to 
the weather. Tbis is beateu down by means 
of a rammer, Fig. 155. Tbe rammer is made 
I of a round or square piece of wood 
aboutjtbree-and a half feet long,broad 
at the base and hewed down on tbe 
upper part, as shown iu the cut. A 
stout peg is driven into a hole bored 
8nd another half-way 
Working the butter after it is taken from 
the churn is one of the most important of 
dairy operations. The process is required, 
first, to press out ail the buttermilk remaining 
in the butler or,if tbis has been washed out with 
water, to get i id of the water remaining; and, 
second, to thoroughly incoiporale the suit with 
the butter. But in this necessary process it is 
indispensable that tbe texture of the butter 
should not be injured and ns fibrous-granular 
or waxy character changed into a sticky, 
greasy paste. This, however, is easily done 
by bad working, or over-working, while on 
the other haud, bad working may leave the 
butter streaked, patchy and spotted because 
tbe salt has not been evenly distributed. In 
working butter tbe mechanical operation 
should consist of pressure only. Any sliding, 
plastering movement of the ladle or working 
implement upon the butter is to be strictly 
avoided. Pressure forces the granules or 
small masses of butter into very close con¬ 
tact, flattens them, lengthens them, dovetails 
them into and between each other and so pro¬ 
duces the well known fibrous text ure of first- 
class butter. No other mechanical operation 
will produce this effect and no other will so well 
force out thesuperabuudant moisture. Isay su¬ 
perabundant, because butter will not be of 
good texture and quality if it is worked 
quite dry aDd is made quite devoid of 
moisture. Wneu good butter is cut a 
few minute dew drops of clear liquid should 
appear oil the fresh surface and this greatly 
improves the butter. 
it is very difficult for a dairyman work¬ 
ing butter by baud to avoid injuring the 
texture of it in the effort to get the salt 
evenly incorporated and all the excess of 
moisture worked out. The machine work¬ 
ers as generally fail us the haud workers, 
because tney are not so made that an in¬ 
experienced person cannot go wrong. There 
is, however, one exception to t h is iu a machine 
in wh.ch a child even could not make a mis¬ 
take and must go m the way he should go. 
This is the new Blanchard worker w hich I have 
beeurtceutiy ex.perimeni.iug w ith. Tnis ma¬ 
chine only presses the butter out into a flat, 
thin sheet, by an ingenious device without 
rollers or ladles or anything that . an rub or 
slide on it. The salt being then sprinkled on 
the butter, the sheet is folded or doubled up 
and again presaou and again folded and 
presseu; at every folding and pressing the salt 
is more ami more evenly distributed nod the 
granular masses of butter as they come from 
the churn ore pressed into fibers lying length 
wise so that the peculiar texture so desired in 
good butter is produced necessarily and can¬ 
not be avoided. If the cream whs right 
when it went into the churu and the churn¬ 
ing has been well done, then no one, however 
inexperienced in working butter can possibly 
avoid working it right with this worker, 
while niue out of ten would spoil the whole 
with the usual bowl and ladle. When the 
butter has been brought to an even texture 
andshadq of color, Wita out patches and streaks 
in any part of it, the working should cease, 
although there may be yet some considerable 
moisture iu it. 
If the butter has been well washed in 
clear, cold water free from milk, this 
moisture will be clear brine and should be re 
tsined in the butter to preserve a good fla¬ 
vor. When good butter has been well worked 
the last tiling to do well is to pack it properly. 
The lump being cut into model ate-sized 
piece*, is to be pressed down into the pail 
closely around the sides so that no air spaces 
are left, for if these spaces remain in the but¬ 
ter the surfaces will lose both color and flavor. 
A layer of one or two inches is enough to pack 
in at once and then the whole pail wifi be 
quite solid. Lastly a neat, good pail is indis¬ 
pensable and the neatest best ami most con¬ 
venient 1 know of or have used is the small 
spruce-wood Welch pail holding 20 pounds. 
H. Stew'art. 
Fig.—158. 
improved by a coating of gas-tar. It is then 
dry, non-absorbent and vermin-proof, and 
will last for years. 
A cobble-stone floor is also a very good one 
and has the merit of being very cheap. It is 
made as follows : the floor, first properly 
graded and raked, is covered with stoues set 
on end, and bedded in the sand or earth so 
that the tops are even. They are then ram- 
mpd down w’ith the rammer or a fence post, 
until quite solid, firm and level. The spaces 
between them are then filled in with cement 
mortar and fine gravel, if a smooth floor is 
desired ; but if the stones are small, the floor 
soon fills up level and becomes smooth and 
hard eaough, and makes a most excellent and 
lasting one. To make a good finish, however, 
it may be covered with cement or with sand 
and hot gas-tar. No rat will work through 
such a floor, and no wear will disturb it if 
well made. Fig. 158 shows the manner of 
construction. 
A plank floor is the only one that can be 
made over a cellar. No plank floor should be 
used on the ground. It soon rota, becomes 
a harbor for vermin, and the manure leaks 
through and saturates the soil under it, mak¬ 
ing it foul, unwholesome and very di.-agreea 
ble, and in the end the most costly of all. 
When there is a cellar, however, it is indis¬ 
pensable. It should be laid out and graded 
precisely as the others. A double 1 V^-inch 
plan k floor, laid to break joiuts is the best, 
being air-tight and water-proof; that is, if 
laid rightly. To lay it so as to last and be 
tight, the first floor tbould be tarred well and 
the tar dusted over freely with lime; the sec¬ 
ond floor is laid on this and squeezed up one 
The magnolia is usually considered a diffi¬ 
cult tree to transplant, aud in order to insure 
success, it is necessary to remove it in the 
Spring, before the leaves push. They should 
never be moved in the Fall. The magnolia 
should be trans lanted with the greatest care, 
all the fibrous roots being preserved as much 
as possible, and protected from both wind and 
sun. 
Thunberg’s Bridal Wreath. — Spirma 
Thunbergii—is at the present time in full blos¬ 
som. This is the earliest flowering of all the 
spiiajas, tbe white flowers being produced in 
such abundauce as to almost cover the 
entire plant. The leaves are narrow, and 
of a linear shape. It forms a neat, compact 
shrub, growing from three to five feet in 
hight, and is perfectly hardy and of the easiest 
culture, succeeding in any garden soil. I 
notice that in some catalogues It is described 
as being valuable for forcing. My experience 
with it in this respect has been any thing but 
satisfactory, the flowers opening very irregu¬ 
larly, and dropping off two or three days 
afterwards. I cannot say a good word for it, 
so far as its value for forcing is concerned, 
but as an early white-flowering, ornamental 
shrub it is worthy of a prominent place in all 
collections. 
in the top, 
up from the bottom, by which the 
)—\ rammer is held and raised when in 
/ \ use. The bottom is made quite 
Fto. 155 . smooth. With this raised and let fall 
upon the ashes these are well incorporated 
with the clay ; a la, r er of gravel is then beaten 
in, iu the same way, and after this a coating 
of mixed clay, ashes and gravel, thoroughly 
well-mixed with a shovel and worked with a 
hoe, is beaten down hard and soLid. As the 
moisture works to the top fresh ashes are 
scattered upon the floor until a smooth, hard 
surface is made, when it is left to dry. It 
becomes very hard and almost like stone, but 
is very much improved by a coating of hot, 
melted gas-tar which costs but little and 
makes the floor waterproof and still harder. 
The surface of a floor thus made and one that 
is well-adapted for every cow stable is shown 
at Fig. 15(5. It consists of a passage-way three 
feet wide; a manure gutter a foot or eighteen 
inches wide and six or eight inches deep, and 
a standing floor for the cows, five feet wide. 
This floor should slope from front to rear 
about two inches. Tbe gutter should be made 
with an incline so that the liquid manure will 
flow off into the manure pit, or it should be 
made two feet deep and be covered with 
planks six inches below the level of the floor 
so as to leave under these a receptacle into 
which the liquid may r drain and be taken up 
by and mixed with absorbents of some kind, or 
be drained from it into the manure pit. As a 
rule, it is best to keep the solid and liquid ma 
The several varieties of acalypha are at 
the present time attracting considerable atten¬ 
tion, and are often used for bedding purposes. 
For this they are well adapted, their richly 
colored foliage contrasting well with all other 
ornamental-foliage plants. They also do well 
if growu as specimen stove plants, if given a 
strong, moist beat, good drainage, a compost 
composed of loam aud peat in equal parts 
with a little leaf mold and sand. As they are 
very subject to the red spider when grown 
inside, they should be freely syringed. During 
the Winter season keep them rather dry, and 
repot and start into growth in Spring. They 
require a Winter temperature of 55 degrees. 
Fig.—150, 
plank to the other so that some of the tar 
is forced between the joints, sealing them 
closely. The gutter is laid, in the same way, of 
short planks laid cross-wise aud resting upon 
strips of 2x4 spiked to the beam on each side. 
Lest a heavy cow stepping on this gutter 
might break through, the floor should be 
strengthened by strong bar-iron straps or 
books made as shown at A, Fig. 159, which 
hold the lower strip to the beam and so pre¬ 
vent the giving way of the floor of the gut¬ 
ter by tbe splitting of the beam or the break¬ 
ing of a spike. Trap-doors are made in the 
gutter, through which the manure is thrown 
down into the cellar. A stable floor so made 
is very durable, dry, clean, and iu every way 
desirable. To prevent a cow- from slipping 
when it may happen to be wet, and the cow 
in a huirv or careless, it is well to sprinkle it 
with sand, as a regular thing as soon as it is 
cleaned every day. A good dusting of dry 
sand is the most effective and the easiest way, 
too, to sweeten a stable floor and to remove 
all disagreeable odor. 
Acalypha Macafeeana is an excellent bed¬ 
ding sort, aud is one of the most distinct. The 
leaves are very highly colored, being blotched 
with bright red and bronzy crimsou; they are 
also cut into many forms. A Wilkesiana, or 
tricolor as it is called by some, bas leaves 
which are irregularly blotched and spotted 
w’ith red and bronze. A musaica has leaves 
variegated with rose, pink and green, while 
the leaves of A. murgiaata are bordered with 
a narrow margin of w'hite and green. On tbe 
mixed border, these acalyphas will be found 
to be almost indispensable. 
Fig.—156. 
nure together, and to use abundance of litter 
or absorbents to take up all the moisture, that 
the manure may be of equal value and not 
part rich and part poor, and one field or crop 
get the best and another the worst. 
The floor may be covered with a concrete 
of cement at a little more cost than with clay. 
The cement is American Rosendale, or the 
imported Portland cement; the latter is three 
times as costly as the former, and its only ad¬ 
vantage is that it sets hard more quickly than 
the other; but it is no harder or stronger 
when the latter is set. To make the concrete, 
the cement is evenly mixed with three times 
its bulk of good, sharp, clean dry, sand. A 
quantity of coarse gravel or broken stone is 
Within the last ten years there has been a 
wonderful improvement in Iheabutilon. Ten 
years ago we had only a few varieties of tree¬ 
like growth and straggling habit, producing 
flowers of crimson or orange with ouly a few 
varying shades. Now the varieties are of 
dwarf, compact habit, and profuse-flowering 
qualities, in color varying from dark crimson 
to pure white, to say nothing of those varieties 
whose leaves are so richly spotted andblotcfled 
with gold, beaiing more resemblauoe to a 
piece of mosaic work than to the leaf of a 
plant. 
Qrntomoloincrtl 
CHINCH-BUG AND ARMY-WORM PROS 
PECTS. 
Op the numerous varieties of abutilons with 
variegated foliage, the best for the window 
garden are A. Auguste Passew’old, A. Darwinii 
tesselatum, A. Thowpsonii aud the elegant A. 
vexillarium pictum, and for the greenhouse, 
in addition to the above, A. Sellowanium rnar- 
moratum will prove very desirable. 
PROFESSOR. C. Y. RILEY, 
News comes from parts of Southern Mis¬ 
souri and Kansas of an unprecedented abun¬ 
dauce of Ohlnch-bugs. It will be remembered 
that, applying certain meteorological specula¬ 
tions to this insect, Prof. Cyrus Thomas con¬ 
cluded last Fall that this would, in all prob¬ 
ability, be a year of immunity from Chinch- 
bugs, and the heavy r tins and floods of early 
Spriug seemed to justify such conclusion. In 
the more northern part of tbe West there may 
be little injury from the pest, but southwardly 
there is every indication that very great in¬ 
jury will be wrought. I atn just now plied 
with inquiries for some remedy for the evil, 
but, of course, little can be done at this pre- 
NOTES AND COMMENTS, 
I presume that most, if not all, of the read¬ 
ers of the Rural are well acquainted with the 
Golden Bell—Forsythia viridissima. At least 
all of them should be, for it is one of the 
earliest Spring-flowering shrubs. It forms a 
shrub of medium size, with bright green leaves 
and yellowish green wood, producing its 
peculiar, bell-shaped, bright yellow'flowers in 
the greatest abundance along the wiiolelength 
of the previous season’s wood. It possesses a 
somewhat straggling habit of growth, and on 
this account should be pinched back occasion¬ 
ally during its season of growth in order to 
Fig.—157. 
procured and the dry sand and cement are 
then mixed with water to a tbiu mortar; sev¬ 
en parts of gravel or stone to one of cement 
are then added to the mortar, beiug first wet¬ 
ted, and this is shoveled over quickly so that 
every' portion of the gravel is covered with 
cement. This intimate mixture is very im¬ 
portant for the durability of the floor. This 
concrete, as it is called, is then spread over the 
floor a piece at a time, or perhaps two yards 
Abutilon Sellowanium marmoratum is a 
very beautiful variety with very large, orna¬ 
mental leaves. Iu color they are of a rich 
golden yellow tessellated with green. Wheu 
well grown, the leaves of this variety attain a 
large size and a large plant in the greenhouse 
or flower border will prove to be a very 
striking and attractive object. 
Queens Co., L. I. C. E. Parnell, 
