1905. 
663 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER.; 
rc he . died, costing , : * 
per ounce. No one "■ 
elf. I procured the;,; / | 
iwers were so large- ; 
y„ 1 i 
latipg; that all whOf •- - • 
)hr tit at time ©n-’tj- ■. , 
1 the different’ vari-<'--t‘^ 
I ► 
1- the! finest, exco-pf-; .'-^ 
’aris' pansy. prifsi-ep -.{ 
tw it showai inoe • *’ 
ounce, too. ' v .v.g, 
e to he foul’d "in d 
THE GARDEN PANSY. 
The wild pansy commonly found in cultivated ground 
of the many districts in southern France is generally 
considered indigenous to that region. The cultivated 
pansy of our garden is derived from this wildling, 
which in its educated form is the result of extreme 
care in cultivation and persistent seed selection. Quite 
independently of the remarkable increase in size of 
the flowers, the pansy is interesting for its extraordi- • 
nary range of colors, which embraces the entire gamut 
with the exception, of the bright red and pure blue. 
At the same time there are ' shades and tints which., 
closely approach the two cc£k>rs : The..coloring; in Sortie 
pansies is mixed in a bizarre ‘inannety \vih*k( 
others are almost pure seif white* yellow, jviole.t£<fc«#i 
violet, blue violet, and' an. almost black violet. 
The pansy is a hardy little subject and may’be -grown 
without difficulty in the open air, but at thi-ijanio time'- 
it docs not acquire its TttHy-ldepth of beauty tilftesS 
grown in ground enriched with weTt-decomposed ma¬ 
nures. Propagation is . by seed, : but cuttings o?f’~-4h.e. 
more choice varieties arc taken for strictly true’'In¬ 
crease. The man who has done most for the present-" 
day pansy is the late Monsieur Bugnot, of Saint-Brieuc, 
France. lie is dead and his pansies with him, too. 
They were so expensive, even before lie 
five francs for one gramme, or $30 per on 
could raise them as well as he himself. I 
seeds the first time in 1882. The flowers 
and the coloring so new and faspiiiati 
saw thenr'admired the strain. From 
have tested one time and another all 
cties that 1 could procure, and found-the 
itig the Bugnot, the large spotted Paris' 
a grande macules, but I never. saw it 
that time. The seeds cost $30 per 
The largest pansy collections are to 
England, the climate there being more 
plants than any other country. Plants ate 
propagated by cuttings, and the trade catalogues 
English offer about 250 varieties, but though 
is 
blossoms; it would spoil them; in fact, never.water any 
blossoms. If the plants are to be raised for cut flowers 
they should be covered at night as soon as it commences 
to freeze by mats, etc. They can be grown also in. 
.in tire beds by themselves; be careml not to mix them 
with' the common ones. Do not put too many yellow 
if you . want good colors', because all the seed will re¬ 
turn to that color if neglected. Why do not the Amer¬ 
ican people raise their own pansy seeds? They grow 
very easily. When the pocl is brown and the seed 
black they are ready to pick. Children with very little 
training can do'that, also women and aged people. The 
United States Government gives away 50 pounds or 
more every year, and they advertise for German pansy 
seed. This can be grown in the United States. Three 
years ago I advertised for pansy growers, and I had 
no reply. If the seed was produced at home it would 
save the taxpayer several thousand dollars Uncle Sam 
woulcl necd to pay for foreign seeds; the money would 
stay right-here and not go to Germany. Try your 
luck; but there- is' not such a thing as luck in growing 
seeds; plenty of hard work, and common sense, too, 
and you will succeed.- c henri beaulieu. 
Long Island. 
. i 
CARMINE-RED. MUCH 
Rurai-isVns; •Pa'pce GGG. - ‘ 
is not above 50 
A DISCUSSION OF WIRE FENCING. 
We believe with yourself that the question of gal¬ 
vanizing for wire is. a serious one, and it is one which 
we, as,manufacturers, fight continually. Suck tests as 
we have made from time to time have shown the wire 
we get to average fairly well, but it is almost .impossi¬ 
ble to secure anything like absolute uniformity. We 
have supplied quite a tqnnage of. fencing to a large 
railroad company, and-their original specification for 
galvanizing reads as follows: “All galvanizing shall 
consist of an even coating of zinc, which shall with- , 
stand an immersion test in a solution, whose specific 
gravity 'Shall be 1.185 and whose temoerature shall be 
front GO to 70 deg. Fahrenheit, of commercial, sulphate 
of copper crystals and water. After each immersion the 
sample shall' be washed immediately, in water and be 
plant to-day that- it is 
poorest as well'as the' wiped dry. If .the zinc is removed or a copper-colored 
"pi a fits 'for market make ' deposit is formed after the fourth immersion, that lot. 
ng 'in :this neighborhood. • of material must be rejected.” It seemed to be almost . 
peculiarly favorable for the plants and flowers, - The sale commences about Easter-and keeps up to Dec- impossible to get wire that would with any uniformity . 
does not produce much seed. The 
growing of the seeds is an industry 
reserved to France; the best pansy 
seed for commercial purposes comes 
from Anjou, or the garden of 
France. They don’t grow pansies 
under glass at all in that region, 
the climate is so moderate. The 
Mme. Perret, introduced by myself 
in 1897, comes from that region; 
it was exhibited at the Pan-Ameri¬ 
can, and received a gold medal. 
Monsieur and Madame Perret are 
dead, and I am afraid that their 
pansies will die with them;-1 hope 
not.- The seeds were always dear, 
and the cheap ones, which sold at 
less than $5 per ounce, did not 
come from his place. As a cut 
flower it is the finest one that I 
ever saw. This strain should be 
sown late and grown under glass as 
little as possible. It is a very, 
strong grower, and if treated as 
other kinds it will be useless. It 
is time enough to sow it in Septem¬ 
ber in this latitude. The finest 
strains of pansies do not germinate 
so well as the common kind and 
want more care; they produce lit¬ 
tle seed, too. The best strains of 
pansy up to date are, of the giant kind: Genuine Tri- 
mardeau, all colors; Parisian, Goliath, Germania, C'ne- 
rubin, Falaise, Peacock. Bugnot, King of Fire, La Bril- 
lante, Excelsior, Mme. Perret, Cassier, Adonis, Coquette 
de Poissy, Legion d’Honneur, etc. In smaller flower, 
the French pansy, the English, Mdlle. Cecile Davy, 
Marguerite Davy, Emperor William, Candidissima, 
King of the Blacks, Faust, Prince Bismarck, etc. 
To sow the seeds it has been a good practice to pre¬ 
pare the soil at least two weeks before sowing the 
seeds. Give the weeds the chance to sprout, then rake 
them off and sow your seeds. In this latitude the seeds 
are sown for market from July 15 to September 1. 
The bed should not be too rich, and the seed not much 
covered, as the seeds are small. Pure sand or fine 
coal ashes are a good covering. Keep the soil moist; 
it can be shaded with cheesecloth, which can be taken 
off at night for the plant to have the benefit of the 
dew. The seed will germinate in about a week or 10 
days. After the plants are started there is nothing to 
do except to water and weed them; leave them in the 
bed for about two months; then transplant into frames, 
and there protect from frost by glazed hotbed sash. The 
ground is never too rich where the plants are to re¬ 
main ; well-rotted manure with liquid in the Spring is 
what they like. Be careful and do not water the 
NICOTIAN A SANDERAE ON RURAL GROUNDS. Fig. 282. See Ruralisms, Page 666. 
oration Day, but the bulk of the business is done from 
the middle of April to the middle of May. Those 
who have done the most for the pansy plant in New 
York are the peddlers with their wagons, who offer 
them to every one where the florists wouldn’t go, at 
the slums as well as at the largest mansion. A man 
must have some grit, to do such a trade, be up nearly 
all night, and get to work nearly all day; sometimes 
the profit is small, too, on account of the competition. 
The pansy plants are packed in flats, 50 plants in a 
lot; also in smaller boxes, about a dozen in a box or 
small basket. The growers make boxes in Winter, 
sometimes in daytime or other times in evening till 10 
o’clock or more; it takes several thousand boxes to 
pack up 3,000 sash 6 x 3, or 4 acres of ground or more, 
as the leading pansy grower here does. The basket 
are bought readymade; it is cheaper than flats or 
boxes, but people like boxes the best, as the plants 
stand better. 
Pansies can be sown in January and later, and even 
in the Spring outdoors, but the flowers are not so 
good as the Summer-sown seed. If you want flowers 
all Summer do not let them go to seed; pinch the 
blossoms as soon as they are faded away, and cut the 
branches out when they get toArlpng. If you want to 
raise seeds in the Spring choose the finest, plant them 
fulfill this very stringent • speci-., 
fication. We were, therefore, suc¬ 
cessful . in getting .the specifica- 
tion amended so that the railway 
people would accept : a test provid¬ 
ing'for two one-minute immersions, 
washed immediately arid wiped dry 
after each. The specification as 
first drawn would be amply suffi-; 
dent to cover telegraph wire, the * 
exposure of which is a more seri¬ 
ous matter than that to which fence 
wire is subjected, for the reason 
that it is carried on the poles at 
a height where the smoke and i 
fumes from the engines give it al¬ 
most a constant bath that is hard to 
withstand, while the fence wire, 
being lower and nearer to the 
ground, does not get as much of 
this trying treatment, and we were 
therefore reasonable in asking that 
the test be modified and got do'Wn 
to the two one-minute immersions. 
We should say that it would be only ■ 
by some such practical test that the 
purchaser could determine just what 
he was getting. As a matter of the 
lead and spelter combination, I 
would state that in the process of 
galvanizing it is usually custo- 
bottom of the galvanizing pan 
the spelter will float on top 
thinner the body of spelter the 
less dross accumulates. So long as the wire does not 
get down into the lead or the pan be too thoroughly 
filled with lead, it does not hurt the wire to be drawn 
through the spelter lying on top of the lead load at the 
bottom of the pan. lamb wire fence co. 
mary to fill the 
with lead and 
of this, and the 
LIGHTNING RODS.—I am a fruit grower, and aside from 
that I have been constructing lightning conductors for four 
years. I have always made it a point to use best material, 
and to construct very carefully. I use five-sixteenths inch 
copper cable, 28 strand; also five- sixteenths 49-strand, 
and three-eighths 28-strand copper cable. I use screw 
fastenings with hollow glass insulators. My braces are 
insulated, the cable stretched and fastened. It is perfectly 
insulated from start to finish, and is not allowed to" come 
in contact with anything about the building. Another im¬ 
portant point is being well grounded: if rock. I drill, for 
points I use the crown points (copper), platina tip. I no¬ 
tice some nail or tack to the building. There were some 
fakers through here about five years ago who fastened with 
a small metal fastening. Since that time there have been a 
number of the buildings damaged. This alone should be proof 
enough. Not one that I rodded has ever been hurt, although 
there are quite a number where the rods have carried the 
current off. In fastening with any metal fastening the in¬ 
stant the rod is charged, the metal fastening is charged, 
consequently it wili not carry off a heavy discharge, but Is 
much easier and cheaper constructed than if insulated. The 
five-sixteenths 28-strand should be completed and ornament¬ 
ed for 20 cents per foot: the other two I mention for _3 
cents per foot. G - w - K -' 
Pennsylvania. 
