r 
790 
scraggy. Rome of our floricultural writers 
have been praising this flower so much in an¬ 
ticipation as the coming chrysanthemum, 
that a great many were disappointed by it; 
probably the taking name has much to do 
with its transient popularity. 
Groups of bushes aud standards were mass¬ 
ed down the sides of the hall, with an occa¬ 
sional palm, the shining greed foliage making 
an artistic break in the poly-chromatic blos¬ 
soms. The standards were appropriately 
placed at the back, so that their tall heads 
showed above the shorter bushes: standing 
alone they have a painfully artificial aspect, 
like plants on stilts. In the Japanese section 
Admiration attracted much favorable com¬ 
ment; it is a beautiful clear-pink, without the 
aniline shade usually seen in this flower. 
All our old favorites were there, of course— 
Hero of Magdala, with its rich crimson, 
shaded by bronze Kata Kanka, and all the 
myriad golden shades, relieved by purest 
white. Of the new seedlings Silver Chalice is 
perhaps the most characteristic. It is a Jap¬ 
anese, with snowy petals curving up cop-like 
from a yellow center. Thorpe Junior is an¬ 
other good seedling, loug,golden-yellow' petals 
coming from a daisy-like center. Margaret 
Thorpe, aho new, has curving petals, crimson 
on one side aud butt’ underneath. The finest 
uncut flowers were of course on disbudded 
plants, consisting of one melancholy stem sup¬ 
porting a single flower, all the vigor of the 
plant haviug gone into the one blossom; the 
result was surpassingly' fine, viewed as a 
flow'er; the plant itself could hardly bead- 
mired. 
The exhibition of designs was small and of 
noticeably poor quality from an artistic stand¬ 
point. There were some vases and baskets, 
some screens aud what we suppose to have 
been intended for a center-piece. In most 
cases the makers fed into a very common 
error—they used light, feathery ferns for 
drapery, when foliage with this flower should 
always be of a heavier quality. Delicate 
leaves make the flower look coarse, and the 
arrangement seems patchy. The screens for 
the most part showed this mistake; the solid 
groundwork of crysanthcmums craped with 
feathery adiautum was ungraceful, to say the 
least. Oue panel, however, showed a better 
arrangement. The background was of crim¬ 
son liquidajuber leaves, aud on this was a 
trailing spray of white crysantbeinums with 
their own foliage. Another panel showed 
careful aud clever work, having a solid back¬ 
ing of yellow flowers, with a Japanese pagoda 
worked on it in red; but though the good 
workmanship gave it the look of a real Japan¬ 
ese screen it could hardly be recommended 
from a floral standpoint. 
Atone end of the hall was a detachment 
from the Japanese village, consisting of two 
rooms furnished, or rather unfurnished, in the 
Japanese style, where two neat, sleek-haired 
little orientals painted chrysanthemums on 
satin, with much dexterity aud despatch. 
These were always surrounded by interested 
sightseers. 
One feature of this exhibition, which caused 
much dissatisfaction, was the substitution of 
numbers for the names of the plants. In¬ 
stead of the uubotanieal but flower-loving 
public being able to ascertain in a moment the 
name of any favorite, there was a tedious ref¬ 
erence to the catalogue, as at a picture gal¬ 
lery, aud as people are very apt to pick up a 
number, and then carelessly putitdown again 
on the wrong plant, the name was often a mat¬ 
ter of uncertainty. The catalogue appeared to 
have been hurriedly compiled, aud showed the 
work of a very poor proof-reader, and as the 
lithographed cover was calculated to give an 
artist a pain Iu the eye it was scarely a suc¬ 
cess in any particular. Many people wore in¬ 
clined to grumble at having to pay for these 
catalogues: it seemed the general impression 
that they should have been given away like the 
programmes. 
The exhibition in the Pompon class—Chusan 
Daisies, as they were formerly called—was not 
so good as last year, ns few of the plants were 
sufficiently opened. The single-flowered spec¬ 
imens were good. This class—the oid-fash- 
ioned artemisias —receives more attention 
now; fora few years they were cast in the 
shade by variations of the double form. The 
“three little maids from school” were there— 
Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo—while 
the odd, red-rayed Ko-Ko mounted guard 
over them. The anemone-flowered class, too, 
was well represented, though it is usually more 
noticeable for oddity than beauty 
It is almost impossible to give a list of the 
best flowers; it would read like a page from a 
nurseryman’s catalogue. Last year I made a 
list of the very best flowers seen at three exhi¬ 
bitions, aDd it numbered 200 aud odd varieties, 
all of remarkable beauty. 
Taken as a whole, the late New York ex¬ 
hibition was not so flue as some preceding 
ones, inasmuch as the plants were not so fine 
individually. But the great quantity e£ plants 
THE BUBAL HEW-¥$BKEfL MOV §7 
present, varied by occasional palms and ever¬ 
greens draped with Bittersweet, made a showy 
and striking interior, and after the long and 
tedious judging was over, the plants were re¬ 
arranged with a much better effect than at 
first. 
Iu addition to the chrysanthemums there 
were a few orchid flowers and nepenthes, 
which always excite much admiration, and 
some blooms of Mr. Evan’s new white rose, 
the Puritan. The delicious tea fragrance of 
this flower will always prove attractive, what¬ 
ever its other qualities may be. Taken all 
round, the show may be counted a success iu 
spite of a fair share of defects, aud the con¬ 
ception and carrying out of such au enterprise 
liespeak both energy on the part of the socie¬ 
ty, and interest on the part of the public. 
EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
No Salt for Cabbages.— We used salt on 
our cabbages in diluted form this season with 
poor results. We do a large business with 
one of the wholesale grocery firms in New 
York. They ship us their codfish (salted) 
skins and backbones. We made a compost 
heap of them aud after lettiug them lie a year, 
used them on cabbage. The plants had to be 
replauted twice, aud then only about 15 per 
cent, lived. The few that lived wore a little 
better than the average. Salt, we thiuk. kill¬ 
ed the plants. sccdder a townsend. 
Queens Co,, N. Y. 
Unwise Taxation. —There seems to be 
something unfair iu the way improvements 
are taxed. If I paint my house and barns, 
put a lawu in front of my house, plaut shrubs 
and flowers or dig out a lake and surround it 
with trees, my taxes are at once raised. The 
more I add to the beauty of my borne, the 
higher they assess my property. Iu many 
cases this increase is entirely out of propor¬ 
tion. It is so great, in fact, that many think 
they will make money by neglecting improve¬ 
ments, aud either put their money in the bank 
or store it up-stairs where the taxes won’t eat 
it up. There is very little inducement in this 
system to fix thiugs up, and miserly farmers 
are quick to take advantage of it. V. J. K. 
Bergen Co., N. J. 
Protection at Railroad Crossings.— 
The frequent killing of farmers aud their em¬ 
ployes, to say nothing of the still more fra 
qnent killing of horses and stock at. railway 
crossings, should attract more atteution than 
it does. It is astonishing how reports of acci¬ 
dents of this kind are hushed up, being seldom 
heard of outside of the locality where they 
occur. There are few railroad crossings where 
one or more farmers or hired men have not 
been killed, and it is high time something was 
done to stop this wholesale and unnecessary 
slaughter. In all large towns gates are pro¬ 
vided, but at country crossings there is usually 
no protection or warning except the whistle. 
In these days of electric alarms, there is no 
reason why a bell should not be kept ringing 
continuously at every crossing while the train 
is dangerously uear, or, what woulJ be better 
yet, there should be a gate or folding bar work¬ 
ed automatically by the weight of the train. 
Unfortunately the railroad companies usually 
escape paying damages on the plea of contri¬ 
butory negligence if the whistle is blown or 
the bell rung. A Jaw which would compel the 
railroad companies to pav damages in ail cases 
of loss of life or property at regular crossings 
would soon force them to adopt some life-sav¬ 
ing device. In the meantime, there is a chance 
for our inventors to devise an automatic gate 
or bar wnich can be operated by a train as it 
approaches a crossing. J. H. G. 
Queens Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—This is a timely subject. Some 
crossings are located at the side of a hill or 
near a beml in the track, so that it is impossible 
to see the on-coming train. Many farmers are 
careless in the matter. Some murket-men 
driving into New York during the night, fasten 
the lines to the seat and go to sleep. The 
horses walk on, crossing several railroad tracks 
on their journey. 
Slaughtering Game.— On the first day of 
legal limiting, November 1, 1 counted no less 
than 70 men and boys out with dogs aud guus. 
Very few of them came back empty-handed. 
There was a tremendous slaughter of quail. 
The law is well respected. Copies of the game 
laws are posted iu aLl conspicuous places aud a 
society has been organized to protect game. 
Special fees are given to informers aud extra 
watchfulness is encouraged. It would be a 
fine thing if the Legislature would pass a law 
to protect game for five years. Let them do 
entirely away with the present short shooting 
season, and give the game a chance to increase. 
There would be better shooting to pay for it. 
Bergen Co., N. J. H. J. J. 
R. N.-Y.—But wouldn’t the crops suffer? 
One of the greatest grievances of English teu- 
ant farmers is due to the great injury done to 
their crops under the game laws. Where these 
are strictly enforced, and game is not thinned 
out by sportsmen for a few years, the losses of 
the farmers are often diastrous. Quail, wood¬ 
cock, partridges, etc., are always harmless, 
hut rabbits, etc., do much harm. 
Let tiie Boys Have Some Fun. —People 
still wonder why boys want to leave the farm 
and try the fortunes of the city. There is 
little wonder iu it when the matter is looked 
into. Too little effort is made to make the 
homes, from which boys want to run away, 
attractive. The almighty dollar gets in the 
way. How many boys are governed as they 
should be? Boys are not wild nuimals. They 
do not need pounding because, they do not do 
their work as well as au older pei-son. They 
have not had experience. How much could 
you get for a young colt that had no more 
life and spirit than a horse of 20 years? The 
trouble is that, too many farmers have too 
much to say about big “I” in talking to their 
boys. Whyuot. say “we” or “ours" in talk¬ 
ing about the farm or the stock, and encour¬ 
age the boys to say the same. They will learn 
to take an interest. Subscribe for the paper 
in their name, aud if there is something a lit¬ 
tle extra in stock or vegetables, let them take 
it to the fair. You can get along just as well 
if you do drop a little importance. Boys like a 
little fuu now and then, and they ought to 
have a play day. When work gets a little 
crowding and they try to have a little sport* 
what good does it do to scold aud growl ? Put 
in a word yourself; the work will go off all the 
easier to pay for it. Never mind if they 
throw a nubbin of corn at one another. It 
won’t hurt you; it wouldn’t hin t you to throw 
one yourself. Dpn’t think so much of 
your dignity. A little fun will oil up the 
joints of your life and make it run easier. Do 
anything to make the boys think they are 
having a pleasant time. A little fun and good 
nature will go far towards turning work into 
play. When you get a boy so that he loves 
his work, he will love his home aud bis par¬ 
ents, and you will have a strong arm to rest 
on ns you go down the slope of the declining 
years of life. The time is coming when you 
won’t be the boss that you are now. Your 
treatment of your boys now will govern their 
treatment of you then. o. T. H. 
Bath, N. Y. 
- ’ ■ - ♦ » ♦ 
Wasted Pastures are frequent through¬ 
out the West. They are rained by poor judg¬ 
ment in running cattle and hogs over them. 
Can we not find some better method in feeding 
cattle at pasture? My observations are con¬ 
fined to farms which feed, say, 40 hogs and a 
dozen neat cattle. I have seen many a splen¬ 
did pasture that could sustain that much stock 
destroyed in a single season. I saw eight 
hogs fed from May 1 to October, from such a 
small patch of clover that I was astonished. 
These hogs were fed from small shoats till they 
were of great size, and that by a boy who cut 
the clover, carried it to them three times per 
day, and kept at school too. At the same time 
I saw where only a fo w more hogs had eaten 
down and totally ruined by November several 
acres of what would have been splendid past¬ 
ure if left alone and cut carefully. I consider 
that the waste made by such pasturing aud 
the careless feeding of corn will offset all we 
can make. Custom and prejudice are at. the 
bottom of it. Time and the circulation of 
such papers as the Rural may correct mat¬ 
ters. Who eau suggest a better remedy. 
Oregon, Mu. c. I. 
farm (Sfxraowij. 
RECUPERATIVE AGRICULTURE. 
(FIRST ARTICLE.) 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
A change of system or a forest ing of worn-out 
hunt necessary , unproductiveness of much 
land at present; permanent pastures and 
slierp; dogs must go: need of slock food 
nut grown on tin farm; transformation of 
crude plant food; fertility retained in 
droppings. 
How to restore a sufficient portion of the 
original fertility of impoverished fields so that 
their occupancy and culture may be fairly 
remunerative while improving them, is a 
problem that requires careful consideration. 
Through ignorance, carelessness and greed, 
many once fairly fertile acres have been so 
far impoverished as to preclude profitable cul¬ 
tivation now or hereafter, If the same systems 
that robbed them are persisted in. If this bo 
so, a change of some sort becomes neceasary 
if we preserve for cultivation the lands that 
have one® been brought under subjectiou by 
the plow. There is much land so steep or 
rocky, or naturally so poor and of such nar¬ 
row capabilities that it should bo given over 
to the growth of forest trees, or to Nature’s 
slow but sure methods of soil improvement. 
It is not tuy purpose, at the present time, to 
speak of lands which, under any management, 
would prove unprofitable if kept under tillage, 
but of those which in time cau be so far im¬ 
proved as to make their cultivation profitable. 
Neither is it my purpose to give del ails, in¬ 
structive of improving the land,except so far as 
may be necessary to explain and emphasize 
certain principles, as environments always 
control, to a large extent, the means used to 
accomplish our ends. 
A large amount of our cultivated laud—I 
believe fully one-half—is not producing, under 
present management, over 10 bushels of wheut 
or its equivalent in other products, per acre: 
and over an eighth—to put it mildly—is not 
producing over half that much. Although my 
readers may not agree with my estimates, they 
must admit that the income from thousands 
upon tens of thousands of acres is so small that 
it is insufficient to give even European starva¬ 
tion wages to the farmer. If land will not 
give fair wages and a profit under tillage, then 
it should be permanently seeded to grass and 
clover. Why spend the equivalent of a dollar 
for the pleasure of receiving in return U5 cents. 
Afield well set in grass will improve rapidly 
in fertility if all the manure that the animals 
produce that consume the grass, and a reason¬ 
able amount of bran and other like by-pro¬ 
ducts, be returned to it. Of all domestic ani¬ 
mals, sheep are best suited to improve poor 
lauds. They graze closely, which causes the 
grass to filler and cover bare spots. They eat 
nearly all species of weeds and brambles. 
They pack aud level the surface of the land 
without poaching it. They usually lie at uight 
ou the high land, thus leaving their droppings 
largely where most needed. They furnish the 
best and most convenient means of securing 
fresh, cheap, healthful meat at all seasons of 
The year. There are the dogs! Yes: I know, 
but tin? dogs must go. Shall a great aud pro¬ 
fitable industry be destroyed because there is 
a superabundance of worthless, mangy curs? 
A good gun and the law will soon drive them 
out of auy locality. 
There are many acres especially in the 
South, where even Bermuda Grass could get 
but a feeble footing at first—places where the 
grass would sustain but one sheep per acre. 
Under such circumstances the animals should 
receive a liberal supply of bran, cotton-seed or 
sorghum-seed meal, at least some food not 
produced on the land to be improved. But 
this you say is robbing Peter to pay Paul. In 
some cases it may be; but it is not necessarily 
so. There are vast and inexhaustable stores 
of plant food in and upon the earth, which 
are either going to waste or inert and value¬ 
less to the farmer iu their present condition. 
It is the province of improved agriculture fit 
seize upon crude and cheap material and 
through the aid of plaut and animal trans 
form it into merchantable food and clothing. 
The phosphoric acid found iu the rock and 
bone for which is paid eight cents per pound, 
will be found in the milk, a thousand pounds 
of which contain: 
1.3 pounds potash, 
l ; •• phosphoric add 
5-1 " nitrogen 
The total cost of the above in the form of fer¬ 
tilizers would he one dollar; insolution in milk 
they sell readily for from $10 and $40. Then, 
why not purchase more liberally of the crude, 
cheap products; mix them with brain aud 
muscle and soil at these advanced prices. A 
ton of bran, costing $14 with us this season, 
furnishes, iu round numbers: 
Nitrogen.41 pounds. 
Potash.. .<18 “ 
PUosjdiorluueld. ...54 “ 
If fed to sheep not less than $0 per cent, of 
these valuable constituents would be found iu 
their droppings, as follows: 
Nitrogen. 85 pounds («l $ .18.#5.60 
Potash, ii “ “ 04.S’* 
Phosphoric acid, 43 pounds 111 .03.. 8.44 
# 9.92 
If we take some other products, as cotton¬ 
seed meal, the showing will be still better. 
There is not the slightest doubt that the surest 
and cheapest way to profitably improve poor 
laud is to seed itdown even with weeds of the 
least harmful sorts, if it will not grow grass at 
first, and then supplement the pasture with 
other food. 
(Concluded next week.) 
DEVICES FOR GATHERING FOREST 
LEAVES. 
Leaves are exceedingly rich in fertilizing 
matter. Leaf mold makes the richest soil and 
is made expressly by gardeners by heaping 
leaves in piles to decompose, for use in their 
greenhouses anil forcing beds, also for potted 
plants. They are, therefore, valuable for use 
in stables and yards for litter, and this not 
only for their mammal value, but liecause 
they are the softest, warmest and cleanest 
