If taken up in the fall and planted in a green¬ 
house, it flowers profusely all winter, it al¬ 
ways attracts much notice for its beauty, 
being often mistaken by the unbotanical for a 
lily. 
C. flaccida is another large-flowered variety. 
Its blossoms are clear, bright yellow, similar 
in shape to those of the foregoing, but. borne 
on tin upright stalk. However, the flowers do 
not last long, being limp in character, us the 
name implies. This is our only native eanna, 
being indigenous to tho Southern States. C. 
holieonisafolia is the tallest of the tribe. It 
has tremendous green leaves, like those of a 
banana, and attains a bight of 10 «0 14 feet. 
It is a noble object when solitary on the lawn 
or tracking shorter plants in a border. O. Au¬ 
gust Ferrier Is another largo variety, grow¬ 
ing to a bight of 10 feet. It has great red. 
dish-bronze leaves and small scarlet flowers- 
C. metallica has rather stiff-pointed, bronze 
foliage; it is a moderate grower, and shows 
to advantage among the green-leaved sorts. 
C. atropurpuroa is a tall variety with dark, 
bronzy-purple leaves, as its specific name im¬ 
plies. C. Blhorelli, another familiar form, 
has green leaves and stems, with red ribs. 
A very effective border of eannas may have 
them planted in rows of graduated size. There 
are some charming dwarf growers, which will 
do to put in front of the toller sorts. C. tri¬ 
color is a striking dwarf; the leaves are beau¬ 
tifully variegated in green, white aud pink. 
C. Warszevviezii is about the best bronze 
dwarf variety. C. Brenningsii is a handsome 
dwarf grower with leaves beautifully varie¬ 
gated in light green, white and yellow. C. 
zebrinu nnna is a very small sort, having 
green leaves striped with red. This makes an 
excellent border for a sub-tropical bed. There 
is really no other class of plants more gener¬ 
ally satisfactory than the eannas for foliugo 
gardening, and their easy culture makes them 
in every way desirable. 
EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
long as the width of the mat, against tho side 
of the barn. Holes one foot apart are bored 
in this scantlingand wooden pins are placed in 
them. Cords eight feet long are tied to the 
screwed into C. These are so placed that the 
liquid is given a very rapid circulatory mo¬ 
tion, causing it to issue from the center hole 
in n mere mist, and generally preventing the 
stoppage of this hole by the particles of any 
insecticide that may be used. 
With the aquapult pump and cyclone nozzle 
we have used Paris-green, hellebore aud 
buhacb (pyretbrum powder) in water with 
{Continued from page 187.) 
square, blocky bird, not an overgrown fowl, 
for all such want the corn crib to themselves. 
I have had the best results with the selection 
of Wyandotte*, If a person wants a good 
cross, he can put a white Leghorn cock with a 
lot of Wyandotte hens. I have a yard of such 
hens and they arc fine layers, perhaps us near 
the ideal layer as we can get. One thing is 
sure though, a hen never can lay eggs with¬ 
out the food and care that man alone can 
gjyg llOl*. W• B. MONROE. 
■ - - 
A Winter-laying Flock.— In the Rural 
for Feb. 36 an account is given of a flock of 
40 fowls that laid S5.25 worth of eggs. We 
got from a flock of L r ) fowls, eggs worth $8.07, 
at the price quoted in the Rural, though we 
could not get so much here. We have no old 
hens, aud all our layers have big combs. They 
were lust spring’s chickens and began to lay in 
October. They laid in December 337 eggs, in 
January, 374 aud in February, 285. 
Wyoming Co,, N. Y. THOMAS GIBBY. 
pins aud wound up ou them, so that only two 
or three feet hang down. Other cords, one 
yard long, are then tied to the long cords and 
the mat is begun at the knot. When within 
six inches of the pins more of the cords are 
unwound. The perpendicular boards at b are 
nailed to the ends of the scantling to gunge 
the mat. This method is better than the plan 
of laying the straw on tho floor aud bending 
down to work it. o. w. geaslen . 
Baltimore Co., Md. 
The Cut ok Black Minorca* in a recent 
Rural is good. It is a good representation 
of my birds. 1 have a pen that left England 
Jau. 8th, and reached my place Jan 21. Jan 
22 they laid the first egg and they have laid 
ever since. That, is a good record just after 
an ocean trip. J - B - *'• 
Coxsackie, N. Y. _ 
much satisfaction and saving of time. Cur¬ 
rant bushes are quickly and thoroughly 
sprayed. Large shrubs (spiraeas) roses and 
small apple trees (Paradise stock) were 
sprayed with bnhuch when they were infest¬ 
ed with the rose bug. The rose bugs were 
all killed or driven a way. As soon as they re¬ 
ceive the spray they fly away or in a few 
minutes fall to the ground. Some recover, 
but most of t hem die. This is the first insecti¬ 
cide we had found that would kill or drive 
off the rose bug without harming the leaves, 
and wo fancy that tho discovery will be deem¬ 
ed a valuable one to those who have suffered 
from these terrible pests. Prof. C. V. Riley 
is the iuveutor of the nozzle and it is now 
sold by some seedsmen. 
Experiment (C>founds of the $uval 
gtero-Dovker. 
CANNAS AND CANNA-CULTURE 
Some of the finest effects in the garden are 
produced by handsome foliage plants of the 
sub-tropical class. They have u beauty all 
their own, and as a rule, are much more 
stately aud imposing than plants grown for 
their flowers only. The canua, or Indian-shot 
is one of the best plants we have for foliage 
gardening. It is handsome in habit, aud var¬ 
ied in growth and coloring. The best growth 
of caunas I have seen was iu New Jersey, in 
a locality where the soil was really nothing 
but pure sand. The place was an open bor¬ 
der in the full sun. In the spring it was well 
spaded up with manure, when the tubers were 
planted, late enough to avoid auy risk of frost, 
a top-dressing of manure was put in a slight 
eireulur depression around each plant. Dur¬ 
ing tho hot weather a can of water was poured 
into this depression every day. I think it cer¬ 
tainly preferable to plant tho tubers instead 
of trying to raise the eannas from seed; the re¬ 
sult is likely to be better. In the autumn, the 
tubers are simply dug up ami stored away, 
like potatoes, where there is no risk of frost. 
The illustration (Fig. 134) shows the aqua¬ 
pult pump. We reproduce this from the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle, because it. is a larger cut 
TIGItIDIAS. 
The several species and varieties of Tigrid- 
ias. or, as they are more popularly known as 
Tiger or Shell-flowers, form, when taken to¬ 
gether, a small but very showy genus of bul¬ 
bous-rooted Mexican plants belonging to the 
natural order 1 induce®. They may bo de¬ 
scribed as haviug straight-veined, bright 
green, ensiform leaves, and simple, flexu- 
ous stems, producing their large ephemeral, 
inodorous, showy flowers in tho greatest pro¬ 
fusion from July until frost. The (lowers are 
large (about four inches across) and are pro¬ 
duced on stalks from 12 to 18 inches in bight. 
They are of a singularly curious shape, and 
of the most exquisite beauty. 
Thu Tigridms rank among the most singular 
and beautiful of our summer-flowering bulbs, 
and although some of the varieties have been 
in cultivation for muuy years, they 
have never been cultivated as exten¬ 
sively as they deserve to be; but since 
tho introduction of T. grandilloru 
alba, they have begun to attract a 
considerable share of attention; and 
deservedly so, for one good plant 
will continue flowering for two or 
three mouths iu succession, thus ren- 
dering them very desirable for bed¬ 
ding purposes or for growing in 
groups in the mixed border. 
They are a class of plants that can 
lie easily grown, and do best when 
given a deep, well enriched soil and 
a sunny situation. The bulbs can be 
planted outside about the first of 
May. Let them be planted about 
three inches In depth and in rows 
ttlKmt six inches apart. Or if it is 
desired to grow them in the mixed 
border, let them be placed in groups, 
four or live bulbs being placed in 
each. Place the bulbs two or three 
inches apart. After this they will 
require but u very little care or at¬ 
tention until their tops have been 
destroyed by frost, when they should 
bo taken up, cleaned off and stored 
in a box tilled with dry sand uml 
placed in a dry, frost proof situa¬ 
tion; but great cure should be taken 
at all times to guard them from 
Ganna Ehkmannii. From Nature. Fig. 139. mice, which are very partial to 
them. 
mm Khmnannii. at Fiir. 131). is one of the | The following is a descriptive list of the 
T. couchiflora 
om Mexico in 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
“Closeness” ok Farmers. —Of all faults 
—I might almost say crimes—that a farmer is 
guilty of, the greatest is closeness. Parsimo¬ 
ny should not be tolerated, at all events in a 
man of moderately comfortable means. There 
is a great difference between economy mid 
stinginess. All will excuse their own or their 
friends’ ungenerous behavior as the former, 
whereas In reality it is luck of liberality. If 
a remark is made that a certain man is get¬ 
ting on well at farming, the rejoinder usually 
is, “Yes, he is a thoroughly enterprising 
young mau;” but you will Hud be is making 
his money by stinting himself and his family 
of comforts they ought to have. On the other 
hand, if a nmu is not doing well, he is said “to 
have no ambition about him;” while tho truth 
is he may be treating his household with a 
generous hand. This vice appears even worse 
in women than iu their husbands, as the nat¬ 
ural disposition of their sex is to attend to tho 
comfort of men. 1 have heard of a woman 
who takes the buggy robe into the house for 
fear that the hired men may use it when they 
drive to tho post office for the mail in the 
evenings. 1 hope that all readers of tho Ru¬ 
ral will discriminate most carefully between 
economy and closeness, always giving the ben¬ 
efit of the doubt (if any) to tho right side. I 
feel sure that there would then be many more 
happy homes in the country. o. lb k. k. 
Clifton, N. Y. 
than that we have presented in our premium 
lists. To this any sort of u nozzle may be at¬ 
tached, but for several years we have here 
used the Cyclone nozzle, as shown at Fig. 135. 
Grain kou Breeding Ewes.— Keep it be¬ 
fore tho sheep breeders that “It is a great 
fallacy which provades tho minds of so many 
good breeders even, that breeding ewes must 
have no grain before lambing.” 
The above is from Mr. J. S. Woodward’s 
closing sentence on Sheep Husbandry, in the 
Rural of March 5. I wish to second that 
motion. I have worked out that problem 
alone, us I supposed, iu years post, but hnvo 
found that Mr. Woodward also hud done the 
same thing, and if every other sheep breeder 
should do likewise, the sheep would be better 
fed, and with proper care more lambs would 
bo raised, aud the flocks would prove of more 
value to the shepherd. J. talcott. 
This is screwed on to the end of u long iron 
tube, as shown at Fig. 180, also re-engraved 
from the Loudon Gardeners’ Chronicle. This 
enables a man or boy to stuud in the branches 
of a tree and spray every part of it, while 
small trees or shrubs may be sprayed while 
standing on the ground. 
The nozzle is shown entire and in sections at 
Fig. 135. A shows it in perspective: B shows 
a side view, and C and I) show sectional views 
—all about two-thirds of the act-uul size. 
The principle on which it works, us we have 
before said (See page 406 of 1885, It. N.-Y.), is 
that of centrifugal motion. The orifice from 
which tho liquid issues is n" larger t han an 
ordinary pin hole,and is the center of a circular 
disc as seen at A. The spraying mixture in 
passing from the hose of the pump goes through 
the ufierture F. and also through tho hole E., 
into a circular chamber in the same when 
most desirable of the species. It is a compar¬ 
atively new sort, and is noticeable for its 
strikingly beautiful flowers. As a rule, the 
blossoms of the eanna are not socially con¬ 
spicuous, being secondary to the leaves. C. 
Khemannii is an honorable exception, how¬ 
ever; the flowers are large, iris shaped, and 
borne in a drooping spike. In color they an 
clear geranium red. The plants grow to n 
bight of four feet or more; the leuves art 
rather loug, pointed and bright-green In hue, 
MAKING STRAW MATS, 
A recent Rural writer advocated tarred 
paper us a protection for hot-beds. It might 
answer to turn off the rain, but lor protection 
from frost, give mo a good mat of rye straw. 
At Fig. 137 1 show how 1 proceed to make 
such a mat. I fasten a 3x4 scantling, a, us 
