240 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
The name Yarrow is said to be of Anglo- 
Saxon origin. It is one of the most widely- 
distributed plants ; a native of the old world, 
it is found all over Europe and Asia, and 
there as well as in this country, where it is 
introduced, it is found from the Arctic circle 
southward. It is found in meadows and pas¬ 
tures, usually in good soil. The plant is 
aromatic and very bitter ; in Sweden it was 
formerly used in beer, and in various coun¬ 
tries it has a popular reputation as a tonic 
medicine and as an application to stop bleed¬ 
ing. In England the seeds of Yarrow are 
still added by some seedmen to the mixture 
to be sown in making a sheep pasture. 
Sheep are exceedingly fond of it, and while 
analysis shows the plant to be quite nutri¬ 
tious, it is supposed that they resort to it for 
its tonic properties. At all events, those 
who are regarded as good authorities on 
sheep management, claim that sheep are 
less liable to disease when they have access 
to this and other aromatic, bitter herbs, and 
assert that they fatten better. Though re¬ 
garded as a weed, Yarrow is not a veiy 
aggressive one, and may be sown in places 
where sheep can have access to it without 
fear of introducing a troublesome pest. 
Plants are occasionally found, with bright 
rose-colored rays, and this variety is a useful 
garden plant, it being cultivated under the 
name of Achillea rosea. In an emergency, 
the writer has found the white flowers of the 
common plant useful in floral decoration 
where great delicacy was not necessary. 
Right and Wrong in Transplanting. 
Wherever all danger of frosts is past, 
there will be a general setting out of plants 
that have been raised under glass to be trans¬ 
planted to the open ground. There is a great 
difference between the methods of the novice 
and the trained gardener in performing this 
simple operation, and usually a marked dif¬ 
ference in the success that follows. One un¬ 
used to the work will dig a large hole in 
which to place the plant, moving ten times 
as much soil as needed, get the plant in too 
deep or not deep enough, and somehow man¬ 
age to bend or double up the roots that ought 
to be straight. While the inexperienced will 
Fig. 1.— PROPER USE OF THE DIBBLE. 
be a long while in setting one plant poorly, 
the practised hand will have set twenty, and 
done each one in a twenty times more work¬ 
manlike manner. The gardener had a dib¬ 
ble, and knew how to use it; the novice had 
no dibble, and it is probably well for the 
plants that he had not, for a dibble in un¬ 
skilled hands is as dangerous as a toy pistol 
in the hands of a careless boy. For trans- 
the dibble as a fulcrum, and carrying the 
hand, which will be at b, over towards c, the 
intervening earth will be pressed firmly 
against the roots of the plant. When the 
dibble is withdrawn this time, a slight knock 
with its point will sufficiently fill the hole 
with loose earth. It requires care to press 
the earth against the root properly. If the 
dibble, instead of being thrust in the second 
time at the proper angle, is perpendicular, or 
if it be thrust in properly, and partly with¬ 
drawn before the handle is moved over from 
b to c, the result will be as in fig. 2. The 
earth will be pressed against the stem of the 
plant, while the root will be suspended in a 
hollow, where it will soon dry and perish. 
Fig. 2.— IMPROPER USE OF THE DIBBLE. 
planting the great majority of plants in the 
vegetable garden, dibbling is preferable to 
any other method—provided it is properly 
done. There is a right way and a wrong 
way in so simple an operation as making and 
closing a hole in the ground, for that is es¬ 
sentially what dibbling is. The best way to 
leam the proper use of the dibble is to watch 
a skilled workman, but it can be learned 
from books, though we never saw it 
well taught before Dr. A. Oemler, of 
Georgia, set forth “the art and mystery” 
in his “ Truck-Farming at the South.” 
Most of the books begin and end by 
describing the dibble, and that of just 
such an instrument as one never sees in 
the garden. The dibble is usually rep¬ 
resented as made from the upper por¬ 
tion of a spade or shovel-handle, with 
the big head and place for the hand re¬ 
maining upon a foot or so of the straight 
part of the handle. A more clumsy 
affair could not be devised, and it is 
quite unlike the real thing. The garden¬ 
er needing a dibble finds a branch of 
some hard-wooded tree with the proper 
natural crook, shapes his dibble, and 
gets the blacksmith to put on a point. 
When finished, it will be like b , in fig. 
1, and fit the hand exactly. Such dib¬ 
bles are made now, and are sold at the 
stores, but are not quite equal to those 
that grow. The first motion in using 
a dibble is to thrust it perpendicularly 
into the soil, rotate it to enlarge the 
hole, and withdraw it. This makes the 
place for the roots, and being done with 
the right hand, the left hand picks up 
the plant, previously dropped iff the 
right place, and holds it with its root 
in the hole and at the proper hight, as 
in fig. 1. While the left hand was doing 
this, the right hand plunged the dibble 
into the soil again, this time in a slanting 
direction, starting two or three inches from 
the former hole, and so aiming as to bring 
its point a little below the end of the root. 
This is the state of affairs shown in fig. 1. 
It will be seen that, by using the point of 
The Hybrid Clematis. 
Nothing in the history of horticulture is 
more striking than the improvements that 
have been made in the genus Clematis dur¬ 
ing the last twenty years. We leave out 
of consideration at present the fine, erect, 
herbaceous species, and only refer to the 
climbers, known under the general term of 
Hybrid Clematis. The production of these 
plants was made possible by M. Yon Siebold, 
who brought from Japan, Clematis patens and 
other large flowered forms. Others have since 
been introduced from Japan and China. With 
these materials, English and French florists 
have produced a series of hybrids, which, for 
size, beauty of form and richness of coloring 
can only be described as wonderful. During 
the last twenty years there has been an al¬ 
most annual succession of these new varieties, 
until they are now so numerous that an ade¬ 
SOME LEADING KINDS OF CLEMATIS. 
quate descriptive catalogue fills a good-sized 
volume. The methods of propagation have 
been so far improved, that what were not long 
ago costly varieties, are now within the reach 
of persons of moderate means. Considering 
