460 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
cut. It is a fruit of great excellence, and ought 
to he more generally cultivated. It is the best 
apple of its season we have ever found. The 
tree is hardy, a good grower, and, on good soil, 
very productive. The fruit is of medium size, 
round, regular; surface bright crimson red, 
striped darker; dots, numerous, yellow-green. 
The basin is shallow, regular; eye medium, 
closed. Cavity acute, regular; stem long or 
medium, slender. The core is large, open, meet¬ 
ing the eye; seeds numerous, angular, pointed. 
The flesh is white, tender, fine grained, and 
juicy. Flavor, sub-acid. Quality, best; season, 
August and September. It is a superb dessert 
apple, worthy of a place in any small collec¬ 
tion or fruit-yard. 
~ 4 ■ ■ mu rfl -^-EPag gi— ■ p- f g p r ■ ■ 
The Canker-Worm. 
The wingless female moth that lays the eggs 
of the Canker-worm must ascend the tree by 
climbing up the trunk. All the methods of pre¬ 
vention oppose some obstacle to her ascent, or 
catch her in the act of climbing. One great 
difficulty with all these preventives is that they 
are not put upon the tree earl}'- enough. It has 
been found that the insects ascend very early, 
even during the warm spells that we often have 
in February, and that the only safety in sections 
where they are abundant is to keep the protect¬ 
ing material always ready. Tar has been used, 
but the following, from our correspondent “ Bay 
State,” is much better. He writes : 
“Having had some twenty years’ experience 
with the Canker-worm, and during that time 
having either tried or witnessed the results of 
the experiments of others, with all the various 
methods, patented and otherwise, to prevent the 
female from ascending the trees, I feel that the 
right thing lias been hit upon at last. It consists 
simply of bands of sheathing-paper, 6 or 8 inches 
wide, tacked around the trees (same as for the 
old tar process), and an application of refuse 
printer’s-ink. The ink is now manufactured 
for the purpose and costs 12)c. per pound. This 
remedy has been used in Massachusetts three 
years, and gives general satisfaction. Two to 
four applications a year are sufficient, and an 
orchard averaging from four to twelve-inch trees 
can be protected for an annual sum of ten cents 
per tree. As some evidently know but little of 
the persistency of the Canker-worm, I thought 
the above item might be useful.” 
Hints about Cheap Greenhouses. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
I find so many inquiries coming in at this 
season of the j r ear about the heating and gene¬ 
ral construction of cheap greenhouses, that I 
am compelled to give instructions which are 
known now to nearly every one in and around 
our large cities. Yet, simple though the matter 
may be to us who see so much of it, it is evi¬ 
dently perplexing enough, when they come to 
construct, for those who have nothing to copy 
from. Those of us who write on such subjects 
too often take for granted that those for whom 
we write know something about the matter, 
when for the most part they really know nothing. 
The cheapest kind of construction is a lean-to 
(already described by me in the Agriculturist 
for February, 1872)—that is, where there is any¬ 
thing to lean it against, such as the gable of 
house or barn. But if the greenhouse has to be 
constructed entirely new, I think the ordinary 
span-roof is best—see end-section. The walls 
are four feet high, formed of locust or cedar 
posts. To the outside of these are nailed boards 
—rough hemlock will do, if appearances are 
not considered. To the boards is tacked the 
ordinary tarred paper used by roofers—a cheap 
article, and an excellent non-conductor of heat. 
Against the paper is again nailed the outer or 
weather boarding. This makes really a better 
wall for greenhouse purposes than an 8 -inch 
one of brick, as we find that the extremes of 
temperature of the greenhouse—inside at 50°, 
and perhaps 10 ° below zero outside—very soon 
destroy an 8 -inch solid brick wall, particularly 
if exposed to the north or west. A wall of 
wood constructed as above will last for twenty 
3 r ears, and be as good a protection as one of 
8 -inch brick. So much for the construction of 
the frame. The roof is formed by the ordinary 
sashes, six feet in length by three feet in width, 
which can be bought ready made, or easily be 
made by a carpenter or any one handy with tools. 
Such a house, if cheapness is an object, 
should be heated with a flue. It should not be 
more than 60 and not less than 30 feet in length; 
if more, the fine would not heat it enough, and 
if less it would be likely to get too much heat. 
About 50 feet by 11 is we think the best size of 
a greenhouse to heat with a flue. The flue 
should run all around the house—that is, it 
should start along under one bench, cross the 
end, and return under the other bench to the 
end where it begins, making the length of flue 
in a greenhouse of 50 feet about 110 feet long. 
It should have a “rise” in this length from the 
furnace of at least 18 inches, to secure a free 
draft. For the first 25 feet of flue nearest the 
furnace it should be built of brick, forming an 
air-space inside of about 7 by 7 inches. "From 
this point (25 feet from the fire) the flue should 
be formed of the ordinary drain-pipe cement or 
terra-cotta. The former is to be preferred, and 
that of 7 or 8 inches diameter is best. The 
drain-pipe for flues is now almost exclusively in 
use here wherever flues are used, and it is found 
not only to be much cheaper, but better for 
rapid radiation than brick. The cost of a plain 
greenhouse so built, complete, in this section, is 
about $6 per running foot—that is, one 50 
feet long by 11 feet wide costs about $300. 
The use of tarred paper for the walls or 
drain-pipe for the flues of greenhouses is not 
given in my “ Practical Floriculture.” 
--a-,---*»-- 
Hints on Pot Plants for Winter—Cheap 
and Effective Manure. 
People who live in the country have no excuse 
for being without good food for pot plants. 
Dead leaves and earth or mold from the woods 
are always attainable. My advice is mainly for 
dwellers in cities. 
First, make your calculations a year ahead. 
You who have not been accustomed to make 
plans for gardening, in-doors or out, for a month 
ahead, need not be discouraged at this. The 
amateur and professional florist make their plans 
for a much longer time. There are very few 
cities where a bushel or two of dead leaves can 
not be gathered in the fall from the many trees 
that line some streets, or adorn your own or 
your neighbors’ yards; but don’t be afraid of 
getting too many. The older and more thor¬ 
oughly rotted the manure is, the more valuable, 
and a bushel or two of leaves will go very far 
—much farther than you think. Put the leaves 
in a sheltered place, say against your back wall 
or fence, and put a board or two over the heap, 
to shed rain. Then to a bushel of leaves add a 
peck of loam or garden soil (sods are best), and 
a half-peck of common sand. Every washing 
day empty a pail of hot suds on the heap, and 
stir it as often as possible with a garden fork, hoe, 
or shovel, or anything else that will mix it up 
well. Of course, it will freeze up solid many times 
during the winter, unless kept where it does not 
freeze, but if you begin now, and stir as often 
as you can, by next fall you will have the whole 
thoroughly rotted down. Oak leaves do not 
rot as quickly as some others, maple, for instance. 
My heap was begun last October, and you can 
not now distinguish the least form of a leaf in 
the mass. Although out of 
sight, under a flight of steps at 
the back door, it is perfectly 
odorless, and is springy and 
spongy—just what is needed. 
To recapitulate: A bushel 
of leaves, a peck of loam or 
sods, a half-peck of sand are 
all the important ingredients. 
Whatever you can add in the way of stray 
bunches of moss, or bones burned in the 
kitchen fire and powdered, is so much gain. 
When ready for use, sift through your coal- 
sieve (let it be a coarse one), and take one third 
of the manure and two thirds of the best garden 
soil you can get, and make your heap for pot¬ 
ting. With very few exceptions all plants will 
thrive in this mixture, and 3 -our courage will 
not be damped by the formidable array of soils 
paraded as necessary in most works on flowers. 
Tlirough the winter you will have flowers that 
will be the envy of jmur less energetic neighbors 
—Geraniums that are Geraniums, Bouvardias 
and Primroses that no greenhouse need be 
ashamed of—especially if you have a sunny win¬ 
dow. It is of no use to attempt to have winter 
flowers without some system. Better have none 
at all than the sickly specimens that disgrace so 
many windows from November to April. 
I do not find in my horticultural reading much 
said about Geraniums for winter-flowering; yet 
they will be much more satisfactory, if some of 
the better varieties are tried, than many other 
plants chosen. Two years ago I gave a lady 
friend, living in the country, two cuttings of 
Geranium—one a bicolor (salmon pink, shaded 
with white) and the other pure white. She has 
a little winter sitting-room, about nine feet 
square, with a window each to the south and 
west. The south one is devoted to flowers, and 
it isn’t worth while to boast of Geraniums unless 
you could see hers. The first winter they were 
less than a foot high, the leaves so thickly set 
that the stalks were not visible, and the horse¬ 
shoe or zone on each leaf almost black. They 
each threw up one cluster of buds, then another, 
and another, until finally through the greater 
part of the winter there were always from one 
to four clusters of blossoms. And such clusters! 
Nearly as big as your fist, and each floret as large 
as an old-fashioned cent. The shape of the 
cluster was such that the flowers seemed to grow 
in trusses, like the Hyacinth, and hid the stem 
entirely. The difference between the summer 
and winter blooming of the same plants was 
very marked. Out of doors they bloomed like 
end-section or gkeenhouses.— C,Furnace; A,Flue; A,Walk; 7,Gutter. 
