FOREST AND STREAM. 
117 


GROUSE HUNTING IN GRASS. 
Saas at 
LAWRENCE, Kansas, September 18, 1873. 
Eprtor or Formst AND STREAM:— 
T has been only a short time since we (of the Winkle 
Club) were first delighted by the clear, handsome, heathly 
look of the Forest AND STREAM, and it has filled to our 
perfect satisfaction a long felt want, 7%. ¢., a paper devoted 
to “the true, beautiful and good,” in field sports, and en- 
tirely free from the ‘“‘professional” taint which so wofully 
infects the horsey journals of the day. 
As the season for shooting Grouse (vwigo, prairie chickens) 
over dogs, is rapidly drawing to a close, some of your 
Eastern readers may be interested in knowing what we have 
for sport in Kansas; so with your permission, I will give 
the result of two day’s shooting of our club, named in honor 
of that devoted and illustrious [sportsman, Nathaniel Win- 
kle, Esq. Fortunately we have as a leading member, Major 
E. ofthe L. L. & G. R. R., a prince of good fellows, who has 
at his command a car fitted up with berths, and all that is 
necessary for the comfort of man and dog, by day or night, 
which is often kindly placed at the disposal of the club. As 
you may imagine, nothing can exceed the comfort of this 
style of going shooting; at least so eight of us thought as 
we rattled away from the station here on the night of 
August 20th, armed and provisioned as the law directs. 
~ In fact, as an English friend who was one of the party said, 
‘St was awful jolly,” the only drawback being the thought 
that we had but three good dogs, the rest being young and 
out for the first time. 
With the good company and our anticipations for the 
morrow, it was impossible to sleep, so smoke and song and 
story kept us up till after 12 o’clock, when to give our 
nerves a little chance, we turned in. At three the sleepy 
ones were routed out with the cry, ‘‘time to get up, nearly 
there,” and in a few minutes we stopped and were switched 
on a siding at Colony Station, sixty-eight miles south of 
Lawrence, in the midst of a splendid expanse of prairie, 
with here and there a small stream, along which an occa- 
sional farm affords the birds a stubble field as a rallying 
point. The Major had telegraphed ahead and we found 
wagons and breakfast in readiness; the latter was soon dis- 
patched, and just as the first faint blush of morning tinted 
the sky, we were off. 
Ah! the beauty of that morning! the soft, fresh breeze, 
the miles and miles of beautiful waving grass, covering the 
rolling swells of the prairie, with here and there a faint 
blue line of smoke curling up from the chimneys of the 
scattered farm houses. Every breath of air pure and sweet, 
and the heart full of thankfulness for so beautiful a world. 
But soon our first stubble is reached, and quickly both 
men and dogs are out, and hardly have they entered the 
field, before the old dogs are drawing and standing. Away 
go the birds, the old cocks leading with a whirr and a rush 
that startles the novice and quickens the blood of the oldest 
veteran. Asthe stubble is quite bare of cover, it takes only 
afew shots to send all the birds out to the grass, and pair- 
ing off, we follow them up and the day’s work begins. Every 
moment the sharp report and the floating feathers tell of 
the death of some brave old cock, or tender youngster, 
whose life leaves him in the air. How bravely sometimes 
the old fellows will wheel and swing across, and when we 
miss we can not help shouting ‘‘well done, good bird.” 
By nine o’clock we begin to feel a little tired, and the hot 
sun is telling on all of us;so we quit and rattling back to 
the Station, a rush is made for the car and the claret 
punches suffer. Wiping out the guns, resting and dinner 
take up the time till four o’clock, when we are again ready 
for the fray and shoot till dark. 
All the many incidents and accidents, things wise and 
otherwise, I can only leave to the imagination; suffice it to 
say, thus did the Winkles on the morning and evening of 
the first day, likewise the second, when the bag was counted ; 
and notwithstanding the greenness of the young dogs, we 
had 326 birds, which as we were in the field only about 
nine hours each day, was not bad. On the 5th September, 
four of us went in the same way to the same ground, and 
bagged 138, 
Just after writing the above I read your ‘‘stave” on 
““Grouse Shooting” in No. 5, and beg leave to notice one or 
two points. In the first place all of your friends ‘‘out West” 
don’t say ‘‘chickens” when they mean Grouse, and if con- 
stant prodding will do any good, the number of those who 
do, will diminish every season. 
You speak of the birds ‘‘getting up quickly,” ‘flying in 
a straight line over the tops of the scrub oaks,” &., and 
also that there is no use fora dog. Well, that may be the 
way in what you call ‘‘scrub oak prairie,” but as our Teu 
tonic friend says, ‘‘we don’t got no” scrub oak prairie here, 
and Iam glad of it, because in our prairie grass an old 
cock will nine times in ten give you a twenty-five or thirty 
yards rise and go off as if he had been kicked. Nowl 
don’t mean to say that they are hard to kill, in comparison 
with several other varieties of game, but if anybody, in 
September or October, ‘‘drives out an empty wagon at day- 
light” without a dog, and don’t come back till he fills it, I 
advise him to learn to whistle, ‘‘Do they miss me at home” 
just for recreation. 
As to charges, I find in a No. 12 Powell that 34 drs. pow- 
. der and 14 oz. shot, No. 7, will do the work nicely. 
Our quail shooting begins October 1st legally, but prac- 
ticaly not till November 1st, as many of the birds 
are not full grown and strong till then. In quail shoot- 
ing, Kansas can in my opinion ‘‘lead all the rest.” I 
have shot them in Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri, and 
haye neyer seen as good shooting as we have, and if you 
are not too much bored by this I may write you what the 
Winkles do on quail, Very truly yours, H. 
Woodland, Zawn and Garden. 
BULBS AND THEIR USES. 


Tue Hyacinti. 
aS 
“Who splashed with red the sumach hedge— 
The sassafras with purple stain; 
Gave ivy leaves a ruby edge, 
And painted all their stems again. 
“Discolored every hazel copse, 
And stricken all the pasture lands, 
Flung veils across the mountain tops. 
And bound their feet with yellow bands. 
“Ts this September come so soon ? 
Full time doth summer ne’er abide ? 
While yet it seems but summer’s noon 
We’re floating down the autumn tide.”’ 
—Atlantic Monthly. 
IFTY years ago, but little attention was paid to the 
culture of the bulb family, compared to what there is 
at the present day. Scarcely any one thought much of 
planting in the fall of the year, the beautiful Hyacinthe, 
and if they could obtain a tolerable good bloom of this 
flower in the spring, with much care, they were amply sat- 
isfied with their efforts.* Now, the case is entirely changed, 
anda steadily increasing interest in the culture of this flow- 
er has been one of the studies, as well as amusements, of 
the amateur gardener and true lover of flowers. Our lady 
friend was right, when she exclaimed, ‘‘Are not these beau- 
tiful?” They were so, most emphatically, and the produc- 
tion of twenty Hyacinths, in full bloom, of the different 
colors and most choice varieties, as far back as the year 
1837, was an achievement in floriculture not often witnessed, 
when you consider the little practical knowledge then pos- 
sessed, compared with the present high state of cultivation 
and knowledge of ‘‘how to plant and cultivate the Hya- 
cinth of to-day.” These bulbs were planted in the October 
of 1837, on a mellow, Indian summer day, when the warm 
rays of the declining sun made genial and beautiful all the 
landscape around. Our lady friend was one of those few 
persons, in those days, who made good use of her eyes and 
ears, and had a keen appreciation of the beautiful, as re- 
vealed in the adornment and decoration of this ‘‘ flower- 
mosaic’d earth.” Success, if deemed within the possible, 
did not deter her from undertaking what necessarily in- 
volved care and watchfulness, and was to her a new field 
of labor; but she entered with a good will to her work of 
planting bulbs, and she says, in a letterto us: ‘My fall 
planting of the Hyacinth resulted in a perfect success. I 
shall try the old, never-die-out Dutch tulips next fall, and 
will give you an account of my, failure, or success, for lam 
one of the few that believe it to be honorable, as well as 
pleasant, for ladies to know how to grow plants and flow- 
ers.” From this period she was a most skillful and success- 
ful flower culturist, and has given to the world many inter- 
esting facts, as the result of her persevering efforts to cwlt- 
vate well a few flowers. : 
Every one at all acquainted with the Pestalozian system 
of education, taught many years ago, will recollect the sen- 
tence written over the school-room door of Mr. Venable’s 
academy: ‘‘What man has done, man may do.” So, at 
the request of our lady friends, we place before them this 
article upon the ‘‘Fall Planting of Bulbs.” Not that we 
do not well know that, to many of them, we are only telling 
an old story over again, yet, unlike the writing upon the 
rocks,+ we say a few words to them, and hope to cheer 
and encourage them to persevere in their search after the 
knowledge of the hidden beautiful. 
Beautiful indeed, on a bright and balmy morning of 
spring, is a walk in our garden, among the flowers, the 
birds, and not least our newly blooming Hyacinths, tulips, 
and their numberless companions. Glorious spring has un- 
sealed their petals; their opening leaves utter to our ears 
no audible sound; we hear not their silent voice, as they 
rise in speechless worship of the Maker of the Universe. 
But we behold in them a silent epic of beauty, all glowing 
in their peculiar and diversified loveliness. 
But, to the practical portion of. our bulb plants, we will 
append a few suggestions, gathered from along and patient 
study, as well as practical experience, of the treatment nec- 
essary to ensure a good bloom of the Hyacinth and other 
bulbs. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth well do- 
ing. The preparation of the ground plot, the particular 
place in the garden or on the lawn, is the first considera- 
tion our lady gardeners should notice. Having secured 
this—always making their selections in such locations as 
shall give them full sunlight—(for the Hyacinth loves not 
the shade, and will droop its head and yield only a weak, 
sickly, green abortion, unless cared for and carefully treat- 
ed) you will study the character of the natural size of the 
plant, you now propose to cultivate. ‘How did this 
splendid old purple bulb, which I now hold in my hand, 
grow in its nursery in Holland? Of what was its earth-bed 
composed?” This is the first question you are to answer in 
your practical attempt to make a bed for your bulbs. Hav- 
ing thus decided that an abundance of sun and air are in- 
dispensable requisites to success; also, your bed should not 

*We well recollect the triumphant exclamation of a lady thirty Lat 
ago, upon her having succeeded well in raising good blooms from bulbs 
of the Hyacinth, planted inthe fall. ‘‘My triends told me my bulbs 
would all freeze to death during the winter. Have they done so? No 
indeed. Are not these beautiful?” 
+‘Writing upon the rocks,” a reference to that public desecration of 
all good taste that defaces, with wretched quack notices and advertise- 
ments of worthless nostrums, all along our river’s banks; which enters 
all our parks and public places of resort, and may even be found at our 
church doors. It is time this nuisance was suppressed. Will not the 
Forest AND STREAM “give these violators of lost good sense and good 
taste a lash from the old whip?” 
bein too dry a location. The family of bulbs, all of them, 
require a certain amount of moisture, and must have it. 
The soil generally is not of a quality or condition to receive 
these bulbs without preparation; therefore, we must make 
an artificial soil for them. This can easily be done with 
care, a good, well-drained bed being the chief requisite to 
success. This bed should contain twenty-five to thirty 
inches of a good prepared soil, and, as before remarked, be 
well drained, without good bottom drainage it is impossible 
to raise good flowers. 
The manner in which we generally make our beds for 
bulbs, and we think it a very good way indeed, is as fol- 
lows, viz.: We dig our pit, as we term it, of the size and 
shape we fancy for our bulbs. First we remove one spit- 
ting of the black loam, or top soil, placing the same ina 
handy position near by; then we next remove from the first 
all the yellow loam, stones, sand, and gravels of any kind, 
until we have made our pit the full depth we require. This 
being done, the nature of the soil revealed by this process 
determines, in a manner, your future treatment. If you 
strike at the bottom of the pit, an uncongenial, stiff, cold, 
clay, you require a very good drainage. Some gardeners 
recommend in this case going from six to eight inches 
deeper, and filling up with stones, &c., for drainage. (I 
think their reasoning good.) By so doing you are 
easily relieved of all superfluous water. We have, with 
good effect, made a sort of pavement, leaving crevices for 
the passage of water between, and in some very wet loca- 
tions can recommend the same as one of the best kinds of 
drainage for the Hyacinth, tulip, and other bulbs. 
The soil for this bed should be composed of equal parts of 
loam, or leaf mould (leaf mould from the woods) clean 
sand, and old, well rotted cow manure, no matter how old, 
if well soaked and pulverized; or the soil, in lieu of this, 
may be taken from an old, spent, disused hot-bed. This 
latter is, by some skillful culturists, preferred to cow ma- 
nure, as it is made ready to their hands. One word as to 
sand: This should be a clear, free grit, and a little coarse; 
sea sand will do, but the saltness should be washed out, or 
soaked and dried well before using, as salt is sometimes too 
strong for this use. Bulbs generally are very impatient of 
salt. 
You will now replace again in your pit the soil or black 
loam first removed from the same, and fill up to within six 
or seven inches of the surface; now place your prepared 
soil upon the same and fill up, say four inches above the 
original surface of the ground, and nicely round up the 
same. 
Now youcan plant your bulbs, as your taste may sug- 
gest in belt lines around your plot, according to the ribbon 
or belt style, being careful to study the harmonious effect of 
color in the arrangement of the same. You can, if you 
prefer, set three plants of the Hyacinth in groups—a red, 
blue, and white. The effect is quite pleasing, and you can 
make this still more effective, by planting three whites, 
three blues, and three reds in just the same relationship to 
each other as the single bulb arrangement. Various forms 
will quite naturally suggest themselves to any lady of good 
taste. In thesame bed with Hyacinths may be planted low 
tulips, to fill up the spaces, but, to our own mind, we ad- 
mire the stately Hyacinth in all its pride and beauty. 
We do not consider it in accordance with good taste to mix 
in these plots different varieties of bulbs. 
In planting your bulbs you can, with safety, place them 
out in open beds and grounds as late as the last of Octo- 
ber, or, in fact, toa later date in the fall, with good success. 
I once planted out some twenty-five bulbs of Hyacinths 
and two dozen large tulips on the 20th of November, when 
Thad to break the crust off the ground with a bar. They 
were inas fine condition and bloom the next season as 
those set in the month of October. 
When planting the Hyacinth in October, we advise plant- 
ing the bulbs about four inches below the surface of the 
ground, and we have found our account in using a trans- 
planting trowel, making a clean hole and placing firmly the 
bulb, and then filling up the hole with sand. In the spring 
the bulbs came up straight, and we have found fewer de- 
cayed or rotten bulbs with this process than by any other. 
A bulb bed, made according to the above directions, will 
last, without disturbing or removing the bulbs, for several 
years and give good flowers, particularly the tulips, but we 
prefer to remove the bulbs after flowering, as we have an 
idea that we get better flowers from re-planting. The half- 
hardy varieties should always be taken up on the first shght 
frost. These may be re-planted in the spring, and will 
give a good strong flower. 
One of our best bulb culturists, Mr. Rand, says: ‘‘Grow 
the foliage weak;” and our own experienee has been, our 
best flowers to replant are those whose leaves have perfected 
themselves in the most thorough manner. Select for your 
fall planting those bulbs only that show the most vigorous 
ripened leaves, and the bulbs should be set in October—any 
time during the month. About the first of December, if 
not before, your bulb bed should be covered to the depth 
of three or fourinches with coarse strawy litter from the 
stable, to prevent freezing. 
The Hyacinth, tulip, and many other bulbs grow in the 
winter months, and if you would behold a fine exhibition 
of one of the great laws of nature, take a Hyacinth bulb 
and cut the same open in the middle in mid-winter, and ex- 
amine it witha powerful microscope, and you will see the 
perfect flower, imbedded deep down in the bulb. With a 
very fine glass you may. even see the colors of the bulb... If 
the weather in the spring is not too cold, the covering 
shouid be removed from the bulb, and after its removal, if 
you fear a cold, frosty night, it would be well to cover 
