22 
PICTORIAL CULTIVATOR ALMANAC. 
THE CULTIVATION OP FLOWERS. 
We once heard a distinguished horti¬ 
culturist remark, that those who had 
no love of flowers were deficient in 
one or more of the phrenological de¬ 
velopments, — the mind was incom¬ 
plete,—and therefore they deserved 
our pity. The remark was certainly 
just; for the delicacy, the beauty, ana 
the inimitable pencilings of these gems 
of the vegetable kingdom, furnish a 
proof of creative power as well as the 
mighty machinery of the universe. 
“Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep, 
Need we to prove a (rod is here; 
The Daisy, fresh from winter’s sleep, 
Tells of His hand in lines as clear.” 
A proper portion of time spent in the 
cultivation of flowers, with this view 
before the eye, must therefore tend to 
refine and elevate the mind, and prove 
quite as profitable an employment of 
time, as smoking cigars, playing whist, 
trotting horses, or bowing down to the 
shrine of old King Dollar. 
Horticultural exhibitions have done 
and are still doing a great deal to pro¬ 
mote a taste for the culture of flowers. 
Objects so beautifully formed certain¬ 
ly deserve some expenditure of skill 
in their arrangement for the public 
eye; a meed they do not always re¬ 
ceive. Among the contrivances for 
this purpose, there is nothing we have 
seen that appears better than the stand 
represented in the accompanying 
figure, copied from an English peri¬ 
odical ; and the arrangement here 
presented has an ease, grace, and 
variety, contrasting strongly with the 
stiff, compact, and mathematical vase- 
bouquets so often seen. 
Agricultural Reading. — Milton 
J. Ross, of Allen Co., Ohio, says that 
he obtained information from the Al¬ 
bany Cultivator, in relation to making 
and using manures,that has been worth 
to him at least five hundred dollars. 
FAIR DEALING. 
The celebrated Madame Roland remarked, that she al¬ 
ways heard with pain of any one's making a good bargain , 
because she knew in that case thal some other person 
must have made a poor one. This, with the meaning 
intended, was a very just remark. And, even throwing 
principle out of the scale, it is greatly to every man's 
advantage to deal fairly. We know a farmer who can 
always command the very best hands for labor, because 
he always, as a matter of principle, pays them well and 
promptly. Another, with an adjoining farm, can 
only hire the poorest, or those who are unable to get 
work elsewhere, as all desire to avoid him on account 
of the petty frauds and acts of unfairness which he 
shows towards them. He has not learned that “ hon¬ 
esty is the best policy.” 
Hence there is an exception to Madame Roland’s re¬ 
mark. For the man who gets the best hands, even 
though with high wages, makes the best bargain. It 
is a better bargain to buy the best tools, even at a high 
price, than poor ones at any price. Let every one, 
therefore, remember, that good bargains are never 
made, taking the long run, by swindling others; but by 
managing well and turning every thing to the best ad¬ 
vantage. The farmer who drives his business, keeps 
his farm in fine order, raises no animals but fine ones, 
and no crops but heavy ones, is ultimately more suc¬ 
cessful than the most crafty dealer—the truth is, all his 
operations are a constant succession of good bargains 
with his capital, and with those who deal with him, 
without defrauding any one. 
SOWING GRASS SEED. 
Farmers, as well as other people, like to make good 
bargains. Some of the worst bargains they make is 
with themselves. For example,—to save five dollars 
of seed they lose twenty dollars of hay or pasture. By¬ 
way of experiment, and to exhibit the advantages of a 
good supply of seed, the writer sowed in the spring of 
1850 apiece of ground to grass, at the rate of one bushel 
of seed per acre, or half a bushel of clover and the same 
quantity of timothy. In less than two months, the 
field afforded a prodigious amount of pasturage,—full 
twice as much through the season by estimate as ordi¬ 
nary good pastures. The present year the grass was 
allowed to grow for bay, which has just been cut and 
drawn in, (7 mo. 10, 1851,) and the product was found 
to be three and a half tons per acre. Where can we 
find a permanent pasture or meadow that will do this ? 
The soil was of ordinary fertility only, or would not 
probably have yielded more than 25 bushels of corn per 
acre. The amount of pasturage afforded by the second 
growth of this grass field, fully warranted the belief that 
a ton and a half per acre might have been again cut, 
makingTire tons of hay per acre in all, for one year 
The hav produced where plenty 7 of grass-seed is sown, 
is of much better quality than where the stalks stand 
thin on the ground. 
