Blackberries. 
One of the things that amall-fruit growers 
now seem to want is a large Blackberry, with 
hardy prolific cane. I have tried many and 
have found them all wanting in some way or 
other. Among those that have been made more 
prominent and without special value are 
Agawan and Western Triumph. Taylor’s Pro- 
pin and scraped the stem, and all of the knots 
or scales fell off. Now what were they ? I have 
heard of Buch a disease as the brown scale; 
was this it ? [Yes.— Eds.] At any rate, it has 
killed my Abntilon. I find no trace of the 
ailment on other plants. 
Last winter I had no sign of an insect of any 
kind on my plants all the winter through, and 
I attribute it to smoke from the stove. It was 
a base-burner, and was out of order someway, 
so that it troubled us a great deal “ smoking.” 
and I think the gas and smoke together killed 
the insects, and they came near killing all my 
plants, too. One night the stove " smoked ” all 
night and the room was shut up ; in the morn¬ 
ing wo could not see into the room. As a con¬ 
sequence I had rather a sickly lot of plants for 
a while, Dearly every one dropped its leaves, 
and I felt sure they were all goiug to die; but 
they gradually recovered; perhaps it did them 
igood. 
I have two Geraniums I am very ptoud of, 
Master Christine, a pink, and Pride of Mount 
Hope, a bicolor scarlet. I bad a plaut of each 
ilast winter, which gave bloom Incessantly from 
>the first of November till I sank the pots iu 
the ground in the middle of April. 1 thought 
rthey ought to rest then, »u I pinched off ail 
(buds aud left them to take care of themselves. 
Soon they threw up fiower-stalks again,bloomed 
and ripened seed. I dropped these beside the 
plants and slightly covered them with earth. 
Soon they were up. This fall the Pride of 
Mount Hope seedtiage are wot over three inches 
high, but of the Master Christine seedlings, one 
was larger than the parent plant, and was in 
ibloorn by the middle of September.; the others 
were budded when I took them into the house. 
Who can beat that? The old plants took po 
(vacations, but bloomed all summer, and I he- 
ilieve would all winter, if I had not put them in 
;the cellar. 
I raised some Browallia this summer and 
was much pleased with them. There are so 
few blue flowers suitable for bouquets, that 
can be obtained at all times during the sum¬ 
mer ! This blooms till frost comes. This year 
is the first I ever raised Sweet Alyssuru, to give 
me satisfaction. Turnip bugs generally ate it 
up or there was some other trouble; and I used 
to wonder why people recommended it so 
highly. I know now. It looked like a bed of 
Snowflakes this fall. 
I tried an experiment with Lilium lanclfolium 
this spring. After other Lilies were a foot high, 
a friend gave me three dried-up bulbs which 
had been out of the ground all winter. I 
planted them, and iu duo time they budded and 
bloomed; each bulb gave two blossoms; but 
the stalks were uot over 18 Inches high—regu¬ 
lar dwarf Lilies. Now the question is, will 
they stay dwarf ? [We think not.— Eds.] 
Macoupin Co., Ill. Mrs. M. a. Buckwell. 
use of ropes, “ blocks and tackle,” wires, and 
their uses, rivets and rivet sets, more or less 
black-smithing, how to file and set a saw, and 
a hundred other things which I include in my 
idea of things handy to do, to have and to 
know. 
Whipping A Rope’s End.—R opes are won¬ 
derfully haudy on a farm. The first thing to 
more times around Its own part. As soon as 
any draft comes, the end jams, holding the loop 
THE TIMBER HITCH. 
or bight that the standing part draws through 
very firmly. 
The Square or Over-hand Knot.—E very 
child ought to know how to tie a square knot 
A “ GRANNY '' OR FALSE KNOT. 
ends jam so as rarely to slip, and yet may be 
easily untied, while in the other, the ends do 
not jam or do so very imperfectly, so that the 
knot is quite untrustworthy. 
The Farmer's or Strap Knot.—F ig. 5 is a 
handy knot lor a farmer. It is almost the 
only way to tie two straos together. One rope 
is formed into a loop, and the other is passed 
The Bowline Knot.— Fig. § is one of the 
most useful of knots, being perfectly secure. 
It never jams and so may be untied or loosened 
and cast off iu an Instant. The best way to 
learn to tie it, is by imitating the picture of it, 
and as one becomes familiar with the knot, he 
will find out easy ways of making it. 
The Bowline Knot is one 
of the safest and best knots 
which it is possible to II 
make. It Is equally good 
for tying a hawser, a chain 
or a whip-cord: it never be- ! 
comes unfastened, however 
loosely made; never jams & fj 
so that it cannot be loos- a 
ened Instantly. It seems a 
little eompl.cated, yet is jl 
very simple if studied. It J 
takes a handy mau to tie it (A, if 
and make use of it, but any 
one can learn it. Every 
sailor must learn it before 
he learns anythin 1 '' t Is > ex- 
j is., ex x BOWLINE KNOT. 
cept “aye, aye, sir." 
This letter is knotty if not abstruse, but if 
you think it will do any body any good, I will 
give you another on some other topic, but 
about handy things. B. £3“Y. 
THE HAWTHORN-LEAVED RASPBERRY. 
(Rubus crataegifolius) 
This new Raspberry is a native of northern 
China aud Japan. When we planted it, two 
years ago, we thought it was a blackberry 
bush which its stems and loaves much resem¬ 
ble. It did not fruit with us last year, but It 
did so heavily this one, and lo! it is a true aud 
handsome raspberry bush. Though a sturdy 
grower, It is not rampant; its stems are up¬ 
right to arching, short-jointed, and, from near 
the base upwards, full of little branchlets. 
It is medium to late in fruiting season, a good 
cropper and keeps In bearing condition for 
three weeks. The rasps are very pretty, of a 
brilliant orange-red color, medium-sized or un¬ 
der, firm-fleshed, and nearly globular in form, 
but of poor quality as regards flavor aud juici¬ 
ness. The fruits of the other Red Raspberries 
growing near it, were considerably damaged 
by grubs, but uot even one fruit of this new 
sort was injured in that or any other way, so 
far as 1 could sec, and my opportunity to no¬ 
tice it was ample, as I picked all the fruits as 
they ripeued, to save tbem for their seed. It 
has been growing bore iu the open garden 
for the past two years, aud In winter time has 
received no protection whatever, and so far 
has proved as hardy as a dandelion. It re¬ 
tains its leaves till late In the fall, when they 
assume a deep crimson color. 
As a garden Raspberry it Is useless in its 
present Btate, but In the hands of hybridizers I 
look for exceptionally valuable results. The 
soil where it is growing in our garden is mod¬ 
erately heavy loam, unmauured, on a stiff bot¬ 
tom—brick-clay with veins of sand; land level 
and wet iu winter. I state these facts because I 
feel confident better results can be obtained by 
better treatment. W. Falconer. 
Cambridge, Mass. 
HAWTHORN-LEAVED RASPBERRY. 
lific, from different reports I had hoped would 
prove to be the desideratum In the blackberry 
line. While it was with me, the past winter, 
perfectly hardy even to the terminal buds, and 
is of excellent quality and prolific, it is but a 
slight way in advance of the Snyder iu size of 
berry. The same may be said of the Wallace. 
Monmouth. 
do when you get a rope, is to “ whip” the ends 
to prevent untwisting aud fraying out. To do 
this well, provide some flue, strong linen cord 
or pack-thread, If the rope be a small one; see 
that the strands of the rope are twisted hard 
and placed in order to the very tip. Then the 
HAND? THINGS TO KNOW, TO DO, AND TO 
HAVE. 
& A WHIPPED ROPE’S END. 
bit of string to be used to whip with, is laid in 
a loop lengthwise near the end, as shown iu 
fig. 1, aud the end b is wound several times 
around, being drawn tight each time. When 
near the end of the rope, pass the end 6 through 
the loop and pull upon the other end which 
we will designate a, until 6 Is drawn quite 
out of sight; then cut both a and b off as close 
as possible, and dip the end in the tar bucket. 
Every rope about the farm should have its 
ends whipped—every tie rope, halter rope, gar¬ 
den line, aud even every good piece of cord. 
A whipped rope’s end will go through any hole 
that the rope will go through, and this is a sav¬ 
ing of time well worth thinking of. When you 
get a good rope, after whipping the ends, the 
ncxtthiDg is to tar it well. I do this by stirring 
any common grease and pine tar well together 
about half and half iu proportion, and satur¬ 
ating the rope with the mixture. I presume 
that seamen may have some other proportion, 
but this does very well. 
Tub “Timber Hitch."— When this “hitch" 
can bo used, it is perfection in its way. If you 
want to hoist or haul a stick of timber; a 
round peeled log, if you please; or if vou want 
to make fast a rope to a tree for a purchase, a 
stay, or any steady pull, use the timber hitch, 
Fig. 2. Oue end of the rope is passed around 
the object; then under and around the “stand¬ 
ing part,” as the sailors say j then twice or 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD 
Oue needs constant practice and an active, 
quick mind to be lo that degree possessed of 
these haudy things that they will always stand 
him in good stead. Some persons are unhandy 
and unpractical by nature, and will never be 
anything else. Others are the reverse and 
will always find something at hand to help 
themselves with. I have known some amusing 
instances of this. Miles from any habitation 
on a sharp gravelly road, a friend of mine was 
riding a horse which only a few days before 
had grown lame from the Joss of a shoe, wheu 
to his great distress, the same shoe, came loose 
again. His former experience had led him to 
provide a few nails, but he had no hammer, 
lie was iu great haste, hut he dared not go off 
a walk, aud he could uot find a stouo bigger 
thau a robin’s egg, or anything else that he 
could use to drive a nail with. He was almost 
iu despair, for his errand wusamost Important 
oue and demanded speed ; when au old friend 
came along aud as soon as he understood the 
situation—what do you think he did, reader ? 
He pulled off his hoot, and using the heel for a 
hammer, had the shoe tacked fast In two 
minutes, 
This faculty may be cultivated; aud It ought 
to be, especially by boys and young farmers. 
They ought to know the use of tools and the 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The Millet Question vs. Corn. 
The loug aud short of Millet is that corn is 
far preferable. Our Pearl Millet is now 
all beaded out and In blossom, and Is six feet 
high with a stem a half inch in diameter at the 
base. The German-Golden Millet is four feet 
and ten inches high with a very large seed 
Irnuch in blossom on the top. The common 
Millet is five feet and oue inch high, and auew 
kind, which tops out like broom corn, on 
which the seed is nearly ripe, is four and a 
half feet high. The latter is the nearest like 
grass of any, and we are favorably impressed 
with it on account of its earliness, as it is fully 
two weeks earlier than the others, and on ac¬ 
count of the fineness of the stalk. It has one 
excellence over all other varieties that we know 
of, In that it will ripen the seed sufficiently 
for maturity and allow the stalks to be cut 
while yet green. This fits it for a forage plant 
Gooseberries. 
Of this fruit I have found nothing I like bet¬ 
ter than Downing. Roe's Seedliugs, Ruby and 
Emerald mildewed so badly with me that they 
lost their leaves early In the season, aud later 
in the summer they died outright. 
