By Henry T. Williams 
HEW YORE, SEPTEMBER, 1879. 
No. 98. Price 12 Gents. 
WALKS IN GARDENS AND 
YARDS. 
Many persons are exercised in de¬ 
ciding of what material to make their 
garden-walks. Those who have been 
in Europe decide finally on gravel; 
but when the hot suns of summer 
come they learn that this country is 
not Europe, and that what is the best 
for one country may not be altogether 
the thing for another. The heat ol 
our climate is so opposed to garden¬ 
ing enjoyment that we have always 
in the first place to study how to 
modify it before we can take much 
pleasure in summer horticulture. 
Gravel-walks make that which is hot 
hotter. Grass-walks are the coolest 
of all walks; but they require con¬ 
stant mowing and rolling it we wish 
to keep them neat and trim, and then 
if there be much travel over the 
course a “ sheep track” is the un¬ 
sightly result. Besides this, there are 
dampness from the dews, wet from 
the rains, and “ soggings ” from the 
thaws, until on the whole there is 
very little except the cool surface on 
a hot summer day to recommend 
them. 
As for all preparations from tar, 
there is nothing to recommend them 
over gravel, except they do not require 
so much looking after, while the 
gloom which they cast around har¬ 
monizes badly with the pleasure ot a 
garden. 
In many ot our old Germantown 
gardens tan-bark is largely used, and 
always gives satisfaction when pro¬ 
perly employed. The proper way is 
to have a hard, solid walk first, and 
then put on a very thin layer of the 
fe-Vcn ' 
Design for Bird-Cage and Stand for Flowers and Ornamental Plants. 
bark. If there be much of- a thick¬ 
ness it takes up so much water at the 
rains that it is worse to walk on than, 
the soggy grass-ground referred to. 
It is decidedly unpleasant to walk on 
a thick mass of tan in wet weather.. 
Of course a tan-walk can only bo- 
made where the road-bed is rather 
level, as on an incline it will easily 
•wash away' in heavy rains. No one 
who has experienced it can have any 
idea of the pleasure of a tanned walk 
through a half-shaded ground on a 
warm summer’s day. 
But there is no, walk in our judg¬ 
ment equal to that made, from coal- 
ashes. The ashes should be riddled, 
and all the coarse pieces laid down 
first and covered by the fine ashes to 
the depth of about two inches and 
rolled hard. If well done it will last 
for years by topping-off with an ad¬ 
ditional inch of ashes every spring or 
two. It is always dry, even within a 
few minutes after a heavy shower, is 
pleasant to the tread, looks well, and 
seldom allows grass and weeds to ap¬ 
pear .—Germantown lelegraph. 
PHOSPHORUS SOAP FOR 
PLANTS. 
A CORRESPONDENT of Vick'S 
Monthly says that for the destruction 
of insects on plants he has found no¬ 
thing equal to phosphorus soap. 
A tablespoonful dissolved in a gal¬ 
lon of water, applied with a watering- 
pot or syringe, he asserts will com¬ 
pletely clean the plant of insects, and 
prove also a valuable fertilizer to the 
soil. Many of our readers, we are 
sure, would be glad to find this prove 
true in their own experience. 
a® 
Entered at Post-office. N. Y* as second-class matter. 
