1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
193 
House=Grown Seedlings. 
At about this season many hopeful 
young gardeners will be filling neat boxes 
with finely prepared soil and consigning 
to them packets of excellent seeds. There 
will be faithful watering and much watch¬ 
ing, lively faith and much anticipation. 
The boxes will be carried from window to 
window to catch an all day’s sunshine. 
They will be sprinkled and coddled; cov¬ 
ered witn glass and uncovered; placed 
over the kitchen range for bottom heat 
and given i esh air on fine days. More 
than one box will warp, and its thin, neat 
sides curve out so that the water will 
trickle out, leaving a cake of dry earth 
within. If the seeds sprout they will, in 
many of those petted seed flats, throw up 
long, weak stems so fragile as to lop over 
under any attack of either dryness or 
stodgy moisture. It will be difficult to 
keep the seedlings sufficiently robust to en¬ 
dure a removal to the rougher conditions 
of the flower border. All this I know, for 
I have had many season’s familiarity with 
the neat, thin seed box. Some sorts of 
seeds I could never make sprout in them. 
Salvia was one kind. I know an old lady 
who always has a great flaming circle of 
Salvia somewhere lighting up her green 
lawn every Summer. You know Salvia 
seed is one of the easiest sorts to save, 
so this gorgeous flower bed costs my old 
lady not a cent, for she raises the plants 
for it, and also many more, for she has 
always a few dozen to give away at plant¬ 
ing out time. 
"Why, there’s nothing easier,” she ex¬ 
plains, “I take an old milk pan; if it is 
a verv leaky one so much the better. You 
can put in a piece of old cloth to keep the 
dirt from rattling through. I don’t sow 
my seeds till near the end of March, and 
by that time it will do to set the pan be¬ 
fore a south window upstairs. I always 
have plenty of plants, and so will you if 
you do just as I tell you to.” 
And now Salvia plants I have, enough 
and to give away, and also other sorts of 
seedlings I had once given up in despair. 
My old lady’s plan secures, you see, the 
few essentials; light, moisture and a fairly 
even temperature. The pan being of tin 
does not allow much evaporation and con¬ 
sequent drying out about the sides; being 
old and dull it does not attract the sun’s 
rays. It holds as much soil as it is con¬ 
venient to carry around, enough not to dry 
out, as shallow boxes will. Naturally you 
do not sow seeds very close to its edges, 
and a good deal of the necessary watering 
may be done there without coming up or 
washing out the seeds in the center. As 
a window ornament the old pan is very 
unlovely, but who has not an unused 
south window where appearances go for 
naught? It is of no use to start seeds 
very early in ordinary living rooms, for 
they become too drawn to give good re¬ 
sults. PRUDENCE PRIMROSE. 
Flower Notes. 
A friend said to me to-day: “Your 
rubber tree is too big; you should start 
new ones.” 
“How.” 
‘'Well, I saw how it was done at a 
greenhouse last Fall. You just select a 
good, strong shoot, and -about 12 or 15 
inches from the top make a small incision 
with a sharp knife below a joint; then 
saturate a good-sized ball of packing moss 
with water and tie it around the cut 
tightly. Keep it moist until the roots 
spread through it, which will not take a 
great while; then cut off the shoot and 
pot it.” 
I shall make the experiment in May 
when packing moss from the nurseries is 
plentiful. It is necessary that the ball 
of moss be kept constantly moist; if it 
dries out entirely only once the attempt at 
propagation is spoiled. The friend who 
gave me the above advice has two win¬ 
dows filled with beautiful double red 
geraniums of one variety only, and as the 
plants are all about the same size, from 
slins started in the early Summer, the eF 
feet is most charming. It struck me as 
an admirable illustration of the theory of 
concentration; grow one thing and grow 
it well. Shall I confess that my own win¬ 
dows are a flat contradiction of this the¬ 
ory? Here you will find everything un¬ 
der the sun and doing very well, if you 
please. On a bracket to the left of one 
window there is a fine specimen of the 
Otto Hacker Begonia, with dark silky 
leaves 11 inches long by four wide and 
blossoms of rich coral, similar to the old 
Rubra, but much larger. On the right- 
hand bracket is an “elephant ear"’ Be¬ 
gonia, the upper side of the leaves being 
a shiny green, the under side hairy red, 
and the blossoms small and white. The 
plant is of drooping habit, and shows to 
best advantage on a bracket. The window 
shelf supports a pot of Paper White Nar¬ 
cissus that has been very sweet, an Im- 
patiens Sultani, whose never-failing rosy 
blooms and deep green foliage make it one 
of our best window plants; then there 
is a variegated Coleus, two golden-leaved 
geraniums, a tiny Fuchsia, a “baby” prim- 
re : and a blue Petunia—the last a waif 
that I found in a bed in which had flour¬ 
ished Petunias year before last, and the 
little plant is just about blooming itself to 
death trying to show its grateful heart. 
On a small table at one side of the 
window is a graceful Sword fern with 
Wandering Jew hanging over the table 
and down to the floor; at another window 
is a Boston fern. Ferns, I think, belong 
tc the “let-me-alone” club. Give them 
good light, water when they need it, and 
don’t touch them if you can help it. It 
makes me cringe to see a visitor fondle 
the leaves of a plant, even if she does say: 
“Oh, how pretty!” My Sword fern didn’t 
have a bath all last Summer, and it grew 
and grew into a lovely specimen of health 
and beauty. The new Pierson fern I am 
in love with, but haven’t one to call my 
own at present. Until Spring I shall ad¬ 
mire, but not covet my neighbor’s pet. To 
return to my own plants, at another sit¬ 
ting room window are primroses on the 
brackets, a French Begonia, always in 
bloom, on the shelf with some geraniums, 
Oxalis and one heliotrope, not in blos¬ 
som at present. In the corner to the 
right of the window stands the rubber 
tree, full eight feet tall, with its many 
branches drawn together with cords to 
make it fit into the corner. In the dining 
room is the nursery, where Narcissi, hya¬ 
cinths, Freesias and little geraniums and 
Begonias are studying their life’s lesson. 
I told you last year about my seedling 
Gloxinias. Four of them blossomed dur¬ 
ing the Summer and called forth many 
exclamations of admiration from our vis¬ 
itors, many of whom had never before 
viewed the delicate wax-like flower, and 
not one of our callers had ever seen any 
Gloxinias outside of a greenhouse. The 
flowers are trumpet-shaped, and the first 
one that opened was of a deep, rosy pink 
shading down the throat to crimson; the 
next delicate pink with a white throat; the 
third pure white and the fourth rich crim¬ 
son beautifully spotted and tigered. The 
blossoms remain in almost perfect condi¬ 
tion for about to days. The leaves are 
broad, thick and velvety. I gave the plants 
the early morning sun and kept them in 
a light, airy hall the rest of the day. They 
are. thirsty little plants, and drink from 
their saucers. When through blooming 
they were dried off gradually and the 
bulbs stored away for the Winter. 
DOCIA DYKINS. 
Parched Com 
Last Fall I saved out some ears of sweet 
corn that had grown too old to cook, and 
turning the husk back from the ear tied 
them in bunches and hung them in the 
shed to dry. This Winter I occasionally 
go out and get two or three ears and shell 
them into the corn popper, which I then 
proceed to agitate on the top of the 
kitchen stove. The corn soon begins to 
pop. It makes more noise than regular 
popcorn, but does not pop out white. They 
need thorough cooking. When they are 
done just right—experience will tell when 
—they are taken off the stove and allowed 
to cool. If one has good teeth they chew 
easily, being crisp and not too hard, and 
they have a very nice, sweet taste. If 
one’s teeth are not equal to chewing them 
they may be ground in a coffee mill, and 
when eaten with cream and a little salt 
they are delicious. Some people never 
have good luck popping corn, and they 
blame the corn, when in reality it is the 
fault of the fire. Take the top of the 
kitchen stove when it is nearly red hot, 
and any decent corn cannot help popping 
well, if the popper is kept moving briskly. 
Did you ever eat it with milk, slightly 
salted? It makes a good Sunday supper, 
being light and easy to get. s. b. r. 
it is 
Baking 
Powder 
that makes the 
Delicious Biscuit, 
Griddle Cake 
and Doughnut 
3£s J&£4tUCtt€-f 
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GLADIOLI 
THE BEST IN THE WORLD 
Groff’s Hybrids, (Genuine) and other high- 
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Write for illustrated catalogue. 
ARTHUR COWEE 
Meadowvale Farm, Berlin, N. Y» 
Jacopy ofJ/!2C^S*1905I 
j Garden^ Florol Guide 
Mailed FREE on Reguest 
/ James Vick's Sons .301 Main5l RoculskrM 1 
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/CAULIFLOWER SEED 
Ejr KARL KOLLE 
1234 North 50 Ave., Chicago, III. 
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of all leading varieties, new and standard, price 
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the best in the world. Wholesale and retail illus¬ 
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Address, W. S. PERDUE & SONS, 
Box 115, Parsonsburg, Maryland. 
=GRAPE VINES 
09 Varletle*. Alto Small Fruit*. Tree*, Arc. Beat root* 
ed stock. Genuine, cheap. 2 sample vines mailed for 10c. 
Descriptive price-list free. LEWIS ROESCH, FKEOONI A,N.Y. 
RUBY RASPBERRY 
A new berry of great promise; has been grown six 
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Valley View Fruit Farm. 
THE SUFFOLK TOMATO 
The bes t shipping and selling tomato ever introduced. 
Private stock four years’ test and selection, 25c. 
pkt. orll.OO per oz., with special cultural directions. 
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LESLIE, MICH. 
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Booklets and folders sent postpaid on receipt 
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GRAPE VINES 
BY MAIL, POSTPAID. 
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20 Worden .... $1 ** “ $2.50 
25 Concord .... $1 ‘ * $1.50 
10 Campbell’s Early, $1 “ “ $6.50 
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The vines in early spring. Send for price list of 
Vines, Small Fruits, Roses, etc. 
J. H. TRYON, Willoughby, Ohio. 
