1872 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
23 
in the middle. The box can be made of black 
■walnut, and finished in a style to suit any taste, 
or it can be rough, and covered with bark or 
lichens, and if so, the legs should be finished in 
a rustic manner to correspond. A hole should 
be bored in the bottom of the bowl, also one in 
the box under the orifice in the bowl, and it 
would be well to have a short tin or lead pipe, 
to connect the two openings, which should be 
closed by a long wooden stopper, which could 
be raised and taken out at one’s pleasure by 
striking the stopper (under the box) with a 
hammer. Inside, a flat stone should be placed 
over the head of the stopper, and the bowl 
should be lined with pebbles, placed closely 
together until the upper edge is reached. This 
bowl is intended to be filled with water, but be¬ 
fore adding the water the sides and ends of the 
box should be filled with good soil, brought 
from the woods if possible. The edges around 
the bowl should be cover¬ 
ed with mats of mosses, 
Mitchella with its red ber¬ 
ries, or any other hardy 
plants which flourish in 
moist places. A few rock 
ferns of a small size can 
be introduced with good 
effect. The Partridge-ber¬ 
ry, or Checker-berry, and 
the Prince’s-Pine are of a 
beautiful habit of growth, 
especially the Partridge- 
berry, which is more of a 
shrub than the Mitchella, 
and in winter, having red 
leaves and berries inter¬ 
mingled with the green 
leaves, is very beautiful. 
When the small plants are 
arranged, room must be 
left for branches of hem¬ 
lock boughs with the 
small cones upon them, 
or, if these are not readi¬ 
ly obtainable, wdiite-pine 
branches may be used with 
excellent effect. With care 
in the arrangement, thus 
you have a miniature forest with a pond, and if 
placed before a window the light will be charm¬ 
ingly reflected through the branches. It can 
be used as a small aquarium, if the bowl is 
large, and care is taken to change the water 
daily by opening the orifice through the bowl 
and box. One can vary this window garden, 
and. in its possibility of variety consists its 
greatest charm. It is invaluable where there is 
an invalid child in the family who can not seek 
amusement out of doors. Children can place 
for their amusement toy houses and animals 
among the trees, and even the pebbles, in their 
changing colors, as the light or the shadow 
passes over them, are attractive. 
If it is necessary to protect this garden from 
dust, place four sticks in the corners of the box, 
of a bight to come above the trees, and keep a 
light curtain to throw over while sweeping. 
As one has opportunity, it is well to collect a 
few roots of Hepatica, or Liver-leaf, and some 
Yiolet roots ; place them in the cellar, and in 
February add them to the garden, and they will 
blossom more than a month in advance of those 
in the ■woods. Those who have English violets 
can always take them up when budded, and they 
will blossom in the house, and they can then be 
returned to the ground to grow through the sum¬ 
mer. They are not injured at all thereby, as 
they multiply by underground runners. To 
this kind of hardy window garden one can at 
any time make additions and alterations. If 
one set of trees begin to drop their leaves, an¬ 
other and different set is easily added at 
pleasure. 
Laying Out Elower-Beds. 
Winter is the proper season for planning gar¬ 
den improvements, and it is well to put one’s 
ideas upon paper in order that they may be 
properly considered and discussed. For masses 
of flowers, beds cut in the lawn are most effec¬ 
tive, but if one wishes to grow a large collec¬ 
tion of flowers there must be borders or beds of 
some kind. If circumstances restrict to a simple 
straight border, very well, accept the situation 
and let; the beauty and variety of its contents so 
engross the attention of the spectator that he 
WALK 
LATINO OUT FLOWER-BEDS. 
will not consider the kind of bed in which they 
are grown. It is a puzzling problem to lay out 
a flower-garden for a miscellaneous collection. 
The elaborate patterns given in the journals and 
works upon horticulture are only effective when' 
carried out in masses of color. A flower-gar¬ 
den for a lover of flowers—one who regards his 
plants as individuals, and not as parts of a mass 
of red, yellow, or blue—should be so planned 
that the beds can be accessible from all sides, 
and not inconveniently wide. 
We give an illustration of a garden plan sent 
by Miss Kate Hitchcock, of Jefferson Co., Ill., 
in which the forms are all angular, and we hope 
at another time to present other designs. In all 
designs of this kind there are two troublesome 
elements, the paths and the edgings. It is 
about as much trouble to keep the walks in 
order as it is the beds, and unless they are well 
kept the whole design will have a slip-shod 
look. Where good gravel can be obtained— 
gravel that -will pack—the walks can be kept in 
order with comparatively little labor, but this is 
not generally to be had, and perhaps the next 
best thing is some of the different asphalts. 
Grass edgings look well, but they require great 
care to keep them in order. Box is not avail¬ 
able in northern localities, but where it will 
stand the winters, it answers well, if kept prop¬ 
erly clipped, and is re-set when it becomes too 
WALK 
old. Bricks set on end ' are often used, but we 
hold them, at least in our light soil, an abomi¬ 
nation. Having a lot of spare bricks, we last 
spring used them to edge some beds, and have 
been quite dissatisfied with them ever since. 
Some tiles are made expressly for edging, but 
never having tried them we can not say how 
they wdll answer. Boards are sometimes used 
upon the margins of beds, but these are too per¬ 
ishable. The cheap, handsome, easily put down 
and easily cared for edging, live or otherwise, is 
among the things hoped for by garden workers. 
---- f-fO. - 
Defense against the Elements. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
The hurricane on the night of the 14tli of 
November last, forcibly reminded me of the dis¬ 
aster and destruction that similar gales had many 
years ago inflicted on our sashes and green¬ 
house structures, and the simple means at that 
time discovered to render liot-bed or cold-frame 
sashes, in particular, secure from blowing 
off. The method of constructing frames in use 
for many years has been to simply rest the ends 
of a six-foot sash on the edges of two boards 
running parallel, dispensing entirely with the 
rafter-bar. Sashes so placed will stand any or¬ 
dinary wind in safety, but in case of extraordi¬ 
nary gales they are in great danger of being 
blown off. After trying various expedients, we 
found that the simplest and quickest was to 
have wedges made, about six inches long, ta¬ 
pering from an inch square at one end, to a point 
at the oilier. These, when driven in between 
every 15 or 20 sashes, tightens them so that they 
are entirely secure from any gale. 
The weather predications made at 'Washing¬ 
ton, are now so generally correct that it is well 
to heed their warning. On the day preceding 
the night of the gale of the 14th, a red flag 
hung from the signal station, in Broadway, New 
York, warning all who knew the signal of the 
coming danger. Had your correspondent seen 
that flag flying and known its import, it would 
have saved him and a dozen men the unpleas¬ 
ant and even dangerous duty of securing hun¬ 
dreds of sashes in the darkness and drenching 
rain. We are now at the season when we have 
to fight another and often treacherous foe, 
“Jack Frost,” in our greenhouses. When the 
thermometer indicates but a few degrees above 
the freezing point, while the flues or hot-water 
pipes are strained to their utmost and yet fail 
to defend the tender plauts from his ravages, 
an excellent expedient is to dash water on 
the flue or pipes. Do not put the water upon 
the hottest part of the flue, as it may crack it, 
but at points where it is hot enough to rapidly 
convert the water into steam. The steam flies 
to the glass, and condenses in the form of 
ice on its under surface, so as to cover up 
many a crevice through which the cold pene¬ 
trates, besides rendering the glass itself a worse 
conductor by the hoar-frost lining. We have 
often resorted to this expedient with most satis¬ 
factory results, in cases where our heating ap¬ 
paratus was insufficient. 
Look to the Labels. —However familiar 
one may be with his own collection of fruit- 
trees and flowering shrubs, we hold it to be his 
duty to have all properly labeled. We should 
endeavor to spare our successors the annoy¬ 
ances that attend the possession of trees and 
shrubs without names. On mild winter days 
labels may be looked after, and such as are not 
sufficiently fresh to last another year renewed. 
