DEC. 25 
846 
THE BUBAL WEW-Y6BKER. 
eellar for freshness for vegetables, while in 
many articles, like celery, beets, cabbages, tur¬ 
nips, and the like, if they are set in the ground 
late in the Fall and wholly covered, top and 
sides, below frost, both tops and roots are pre¬ 
served fresh. 
Were the fodder crops cut before ripening 
and carefully cured, a part of the suggestion 
of more succulent food would bo realized and 
tbe addition of supplies of roots for feeding 
with hay and grain would do a great deal 
more, if it were generally practiced, c. b. c. 
which promise well, and are also planting the 
cocoa tree. 
iortintllural, 
RURALISMS. 
Charles Downing tells us in reply to an 
inquiry that he deems the Caroline Raspberry 
a very promising variety and worthy of culti¬ 
vation. The Caroline has not yet fruited at 
the Rural Grounds—hence the Rural has no 
decided opinion to express. 
(gntomolofliral, 
REMEDY I OR C4BBAGE WORMS, Etc. 
The Rural lately gave a portrait of the Jef¬ 
ferson Grape, and a fair representative bunch. 
I have for years been through Mr. Ricketts’s 
grapes, each year taking notes, and I claim to 
know something about them. As he has sent 
them out from time to time during the past 
four or five years, on looking at my notes, I 
have been compelled to say each time, "Well, 
Ricketts seems to be keeping his best till the 
last,” and I have said it loud enough to be 
heard by hundreds. It is so with the Jefferson, 
which, with the exception of tbe exotic seed¬ 
ling Welcome, is thus far the best grape Mr. 
R, has parted with, and of excellent quality itis. 
It is not, however, his best grape, as the public 
will some day have the pleasure of knowing. 
The Jefferson is so good that I hope it may 
find a congenial home in all parts of the 
country. If the really good grapes we already 
have would only meet this requirement, we 
might be content for a while. I see there is 
likely to be considerable disappointment un¬ 
less it be distinctly remembered that the Bac¬ 
chus is not a table, but a wine grape, and it 
promises to be one of tbe best for this purpose. 
There are probably few of the readers of the 
Rural who have any adequate idea of the 
magnitude of some branches of the flower 
trade in the city of New York. Take, for ex¬ 
ample, the Lily of the Valley, the roots of 
which are all imported. I had an opportunity 
lately of examining some statistics carefully 
collected by Mr. Peter Henderson for his new 
"Hand Book of Plants;” and it appears from 
these that a rnillioti of roots of the Lily of the 
Valley are forced lu Winter in the city of New 
York alone, for which $50,000 are paid by 
those who make up the flowers. This business 
of forcing has reached such a state cf perfec¬ 
tion, that, by the aid of a refrigerator, flowers 
of the Lily of the Valley are now to be had 
every mouth in the year. If the reader will 
bear in mind that these Lilies are forced on a 
corresponding scale in every large city in the 
Union, he will get some idea of what is annu¬ 
ally spent for this one flower alone. 
Take another example. It is only a very few 
years since the white Roman Hyacinth began 
to be forced for the use of tbe florist, or, in 
fact, was known here at all; and yet already 
over 400,000 bulbs are sold in the city of New 
York for forcing, and the number is rapidly 
increasing every year. The bulbs are sold in 
quantity at four ceuts each. The white Roman 
Hyacinth is forced very much in the way 
that the Lily of the Valley is. Add to these 
two the roses, carnations, violets, etc., that 
are grown in corresponding quantities in all 
the principal cities in the country, and crac 
feels his breath beginning to go. 
Of all the small shrubs I have grown, I 
know of none more beautiful iu Winter than 
Spinea Thunbergii. Its real beauty is not 
fully developed, however, till the plant is at 
least three years old. The spray is small and 
delicate, and prettily recurved. The leaves 
are about, an Inch long, and very narrow and 
willow-like. The plant is quite dwaif, aDd 
rather solidly furnished, except it be thinned 
out. It is not a plant for the barbarous prac¬ 
tice of beading in. Up to the present time, 
(Nov. 27,) with the ground frozen as hard as a 
rock, and covered with four inches of snow, 
the plant does not seem to have lost a single 
leaf. It is a mass of rich purple and green, 
reminding me of some of the Japan Maples. 
To my mind, it is now a much more beautiful 
object than when covered with its tiny white 
flowers very early in the Spring. It would 
seem to be almost evergreen. When you 
make out your promised list of shrubs, Mr. 
Editor, please add this to it. It is one of those 
modest things very likely to be overlooked. 
Horticola. 
In reading the Rural and a couple of West¬ 
ern agricultural papers, I notice that the cab¬ 
bage worm haB been plentiful and busy during 
the past season in nearly all parts of tbe coun¬ 
try, and of the many remedies advertised for the 
pest, I have tried several with slight success ; 
j et I havehit upon one thing which has proved 
an effectual safeguard. I had a large patch 
of more than atbousand plants, many ot which 
were completely riddled, nothing but a skele¬ 
ton beiug left when they began to bead, but 
one thorough application ol uuleached dry 
wood ashes at once killed every worm it 
tonched and stopped the ravages entirely for 
several weeks, every plant taking a new and 
vigorous start. Later on, seeing millers flying 
about thickly, 1 made a second application 
over a part of tbe plants, and as a result ob¬ 
tained as fine a lot of large heads as I ever saw 
when no enemy was near. No further atten¬ 
tion was required except ordinary tillage, 
though beforo 1 used the ashes I was about to 
abandon the patch as worthless. According 
to the size of the plants, from half to a whole 
shovelful of the ashes was thrown on top of 
each cabbage, the only care being to cover it 
well. If cabbage raisers who read the Rural will 
employ this remedy next season, they will be 
certain of a fine crop in spite of any number 
of cabbage worm6. So far from the ashes 
having had au unfavorable effect on the 
growth of the plants, these grew more vigor¬ 
ously than ever after the application ; every 
plant seemed to receive new life and health 
therefrom. This remedy has proven so thor¬ 
oughly effectual iu my case that I wish to im¬ 
press Its importance as strougly as possible 
upon all cultivators of the cabbage for uBe 
next year, satisfied that it will prove thorough¬ 
ly satisfactory iu their case also. 
Of the Yellow Ovoid Mangel from the Rurai.'s 
free seed distribution. I have a very fine crop, 
the roots ranging from five to ten pounds each 
They are very excellent for table use during 
tbe season, and I thiuk they might be 
fully equal to or ahead of the mangel-wurzel 
for feeding stock, being fuller of saccharine 
matter. c. c. y. 
Liberty Centre, Ohio. 
Cjjt ^jnartaii, 
BEES IN WINTER. 
Australian Botanical and Experiment gar¬ 
dens are quite taking tbe lead in some things. 
They have 73 varieties of eugar-caue undergo¬ 
ing test, anditis believed that the new sub-trop¬ 
ical nation will, by and by, be a sugar-produc¬ 
ing country. Twenty varieties of rice are under 
cultivation also to test the practicability of 
growing that cereal. In Northern Queens¬ 
land horticulturists have 8,000 coffee plants 
The problem of successlully wintering bees 
is one that has perplexed, more or less, our 
best apiarians, and it does not yet Beem to have 
been satisfactorily solved. Three methods 
have been advocated with regard to the loca¬ 
tion of the hives in Winter first, on the sum¬ 
mer stands, second, in cellars, and third which 
is essentially the same as the second, that of 
burying. The common opinion, we believe, 
is that bees can be wintered as well out of 
doors as anywhere provided the neccessary 
precautions are taken. 
(1.) Bees should be provided with a sufficient 
amount of food for the winter. Prof Cook 
says that to winter safely demands that the 
bees have 30 pounds by weight, notgness, 
of good capped honey, though coffee A sugar 
is just ae good. A syrup made of two part6 
by measure of A sugar, and one of water, fed 
warm in the cap each evening will be etfiried 
down very rapidly. Sticks of plain white 
candy thrust dowu between the combs among 
the bees, before their honey is quite exhausted, 
will greatly lengthen out their stores. But 
bees have been known to die even when there 
was honey in the outer combs. It is well 
kuown that with the approach of cold weather, 
bees recede from the outer combs and gather 
into a compact mass in the center of the hive, 
so as to husband their animal heat, bat as 
these central combs are not generally well 
supplied with honey eing rather for isiug 
the brood, the bees soon exhaust the' BUpply 
within reach, and die rather than move en 
masse to the combs which they have before 
deserted. 
(3.) Extremes of heat and cold must be 
avoided. If the temperature of-the hive be¬ 
comes too high, as may be the case when 
within doors, the bees become restless, eat 
too much, and if confined to their hives, are 
distended with their foeces, become diseased 
and die. Hence the necessity of allowing the 
bees to have a purifying flight, when the hives 
are out of doors, when the weather will per¬ 
mit it. 
Too low a temperature is likewise detrimen¬ 
tal. To keep up animal heat they must con¬ 
sume more food, are uneasy, exhale much 
moisture, which may settle and freeze on the 
outer combs, preventing them from getting at 
the needed food, even if they were so inclined. 
It is also liable to produce fungus growths. 
(3 ) Particular care must be taken, when 
hives are out of doors in the winter, to pro¬ 
tect them from piercing winds which so pow¬ 
erfully tend to exhaust their animal heat. One 
authority says that bees, if sheltered from the 
wind, will endure a temperature low enough 
to freeze mercury without suffering as much 
as by exposure to a powerful and long con¬ 
tinued current of air, some 40 or 50 degrees 
warmer. This may be an extreme statement 
but there is doubtless much truth in it. It is 
desirable that the temperature should bo kept 
between 35° and 50® Fahrenheit through the 
entire winter, which may be done by boxing 
up the hives with straw or chaff, leaving the 
entrance open for exit. 
If bees are kept in cellars they should be 
moved thither before cold weather and should 
remain until April or May, though, if there 
are any warm days in the winter, they may bo 
taken out of the cellar and permitted to 
fly about. Towards night return to the cellar. 
If bees be buried for the winter, it should be 
done in sandy and well drained soil. Hives 
should be placed beneath thesnrface of the soil, 
then a mound formed above them to afford suf¬ 
ficient protection. Five colonies treated thus 
in 1877-8 lost all together less than one-half 
gill of bees. j. w. ». 
kttirftftt auff Useful. 
A NEW THEORY. 
The growth of plants is accelerated by heat, 
and retarded by cold, a fact which sugggests 
the question : in what manner does this affect 
the tissues, and how is active growth at one 
time, and either a temporary suspension of 
growth or the death of the plant at another, 
produced by extremes of temperature P 
Sap is elaborated during the growing season 
very rapidly and copiously, tbe increasing heat 
of the season expands the tissues, making con¬ 
stantly more room for its ready flow through 
the whole plant. As the extreme heat of Sum¬ 
mer comes on, the tissues begin to dry up, to 
harden; their expansion is sensibly checked ; 
the sap also becomes thicker, less in volume, 
more Blugglsh, and as the cool nights of Au¬ 
tumn chill the fibers, and the heat of the day 
checks their expansion both laterally and 
longitudinally, the sap chaunels become hard¬ 
ened, shrink, and prevent the sap from rising, 
in common parlance, the plant ripensin every 
part, but more especially in those parts most 
exposed to the changing temperature of the 
season. 
As the cold of Winter encroaches, the sap is 
compelled by the obstructions to its upward 
progress, to descend to the roots which, being 
below the surface and protected from heat and 
cold by the soil, offer the only refuge. This 
evidently causes the first formed fibrous roots 
to decay and disappear leaving only the sur¬ 
face roots to increase in size and to put on a 
bark similar to that of the trunk, able to resist 
both heat and cold. The effect of cold causes 
the uewly made roots to descend till below the 
reach of that degree of cold which is death to 
them. ThiB process has the effect of ripening 
the whole structure of the plant from root to 
fruit, except those root fibers which are power¬ 
fully stimulated to resist the approach of their 
deadly enemy, and burrow in the deeper Boil 
to escape him. 
The difficulty which novices have in success¬ 
fully growing house plants, lies in aa attempt 
to thwart tho season’s natural effect upon their 
pets; the rooms are kept too hot as Winter 
approaches; the plant does not ripen, and one 
night of sharp cold kills outright the plant 
made dedicate by improper treatment at the 
most critical time of its life. Growth of aplant 
may, in houses made for the purpose, be con¬ 
tinued without any ripening of its tissues, but 
the plant becomes over-grown, long jointed, 
long-legged, with a few leaves at the Ups of 
the branches, and none below, as many no 
doubt have noticed iu the common Fish Gera¬ 
nium, a plant very Beldom nicely grown except 
by very careful and experienced gardeners. 
A close observation is necessary to learn the 
temperature at which each plant " ripens off 
a season of rest must follow that period, and a 
gentle bnt regular growth be induced till that 
period arrives again. To those who love plants, 
and to grow them handsomely, 1 recommend 
their close attention to the habits of each plant. 
These are as varied as the plants themselves. 
Soil Is not of half so much Importance as sen¬ 
sible management. One of our foremost and 
most successful gardeners has discarded en¬ 
tirely the 29 different kinds of soil recom¬ 
mended by one seedBman, and for years past 
has used but one soil, but he adopts a manage¬ 
ment of each variety of plant exactly suited to 
its natural habits and demands. It is asserted 
that if the earth were at once relieved ot its 
present extremes of heat and cold, and a tem¬ 
perature of. say, 75° established, one month’s 
time would suffice to smother all animal life 
with the exuberance of the fungus growth 
which would take place. S. Rufus Mason. 
Dodge Co., Neb. 
] W$t <®itrlrra. 
THE FARM GARDEN. . 
Probably no recollection of the farm is 
more interesting to the hoy, grown to be a 
man in the busy scenes of the city, than that 
of the garden of his childhood. And if auy 
picture ot Eden ever comes up to his mind, it 
is that beautiful spot. When rightly eared for 
nothing is pleasanter, nothing of more inter¬ 
est or beauty, and no portion of the farm of 
more profit. 
This, too, is the part of the out-door work in 
which the children, the boys and girls and the 
mother may take chief interest. There is no 
healthier, pleasauter occupation for women 
than gardening, and nothing more tends to 
develop that beautiful love of nature iu the 
mind of the boy or girl than the employment 
in and the association with the garden as it 
may be, and should be, upon every farm In the 
land: both useful for fruits and vegetables, 
and ornamental for flowers and taste in de¬ 
sign. 
If one rides in the country of aSummer day, 
he cannot help feeling impressed with the 
beauty of the few blooming rose bushes, and 
the sweetness of the few flowers on the border 
of the garden, or In a plat by the front 
door; nor can he help an expression of 
regret, and a feeling of dreariness where 
no such examples of taste and thrift are 
found. 
If you would drive tbe children from the 
farm, instilling into their natures a dislike and 
distaste for rural sceneB, sec to it that there be 
no flowers to shed their fragrance nor enliven 
the scene ; that there be no pleasant, shady 
nook, or rural retreat, no taste in green, or 
arbor, or fountain, to arrest the fancy or the 
eye. But to the boy or girl reared amid the 
beauties of nature’s scenes, and with a home 
rendered attractive by fruits, and flowers 
trellises, walke, and arbors, and an abundance 
of the good things which may be grown in 
every garden, no matter how far away his 
steps may wander, there will be a tender 
thought for the homestead and a tear of regret 
that his childhood did not always last, or that 
his life were not still in the midst of such 
Beenes. 
The purpose of the garden should be three¬ 
fold, to supply the most wholesome portion of 
the farmer’s diet, to afford beauty and at¬ 
tractiveness to tho eye, and to cultivate taste in 
the household, and to afford a plot of ground 
for the practice of the children in caring for 
flowers aud vegetables and as an incitement 
to the knowledge thus gained. 
All these may be in one and the same locali¬ 
ty, or in two or three different places, as pre¬ 
ferred. Some place near the dwelling is 
preferable for the family flower bed, snd also 
for the childrens’ garden. The vegetable gar¬ 
den may be by itself further removed, may bo 
large or small, cultivated as a garden, or most 
of tbe garden crops may be grown in the field. 
The orchard may he to the north and west 
of the garden for shelter and protection to it, 
and the vineyard and small fruit garden may 
be a part of the plot selected. But there should 
be no mixing nor mingling of fruit trees and 
vines, nor of small fruits aud vegetables, nor 
vegetables and flowers. Let each have its own 
allotted space, and let the tallest plants, trees, 
or shrubs, be on the north and west, and 
gradually grado down iu diminishing bight 
until the vegetable garden is reached, 
which should be on the east and souih side, 
with the fullest exposure to sun and warmth. 
The greater proportion of things grown in 
gardeus are semi-tropical and need abundance 
of sunshine aud moisture. 
The garden plot should also be selected 
with reference to good soil, and good drain¬ 
age ; the Boil should be deep, cultivated deep, 
and thoroughly enriched, and of a just medium 
of soil and 6and, clay aud loam, to cnatde tho 
earth to remaiu light and mellow, and to hold 
fertilizing elements. If tbe soil Is not thus 
constituted, it should be made so by the mix¬ 
ing of clay or sand as required, and all stone 
should be carefully removed. All this extra 
labor iBrequired and rendered necessary from 
the fact that the same spot is expected to re 
main fora long time in use as a garden, and, 
because also, many kinds of seeds are very 
small, and their shoots tender and require a 
very soft, pliable and mellow Boil to allow 
them to germinate aDd grow freely. 
In the soil where fruit trees, or shrubs an 
perennial plants are to be set, as well a? 
asparagus, rhubarb and rose bushes, the 
