Part 5

Ladies usually shoot at a distance of about fifty yards. Two targets are placed opposite each other, and the archers shoot from one to the other; that is, when all the party have shot at one target, they walk up to it, gather their arrows, and shoot back to the one they came from, to which they again return when their arrows are expended; and so on, shooting from one to the other in rotation. In that way not merely the arm, but the whole frame, enjoys the benefit of salutary exercise in the open air, while the mind is interested and the spirits elevated by the sport.

The attitude in shooting is a matter of much importance; the feet should be a few inches apart, the neck slightly curved, so as to bring the head a little downward; the face, but no part of the front of the body, is to be turned towards the mark. The left arm must be held out quite straight to the wrist, which should be bent inwards; the bow is to be held easy in the hand; and the arrow, when drawn, should be brought, not towards the eye, but the ear. The right hand should begin to draw the string as the left raises the bow; when the arrow is three parts drawn, the aim is to be taken. In doing this the head of the arrow should appear to the right of the mark; the arrow is then drawn to its head, and immediately loosened.

To draw the arrow from the mark or ground it should be taken by the hand, as near the head of the arrow as possible, and extracted in the same direction as it entered. If these instructions be not attended to, the young archer will break many arrows in drawing them from the ground, or the mark, when she is so successful as to hit it.

In selecting a bow the chief point to be attended to is the adaptation of the bow to the strength of the person who is to use it. Bows, arrows, and accoutrements can easily be obtained in any city. Any boy can find good material for bows in almost any piece of woods, and easily make a bow for himself or his lady friends.

Targets are made of wood and generally painted in circles. The central point is the one to be aimed at by the archers.

The same dresses used at Croquet parties are desirable for Archery, and add much to the graceful appearance of the Archer.

Let us become skillful Archers and have Archery meetings as of old, and let ladies and gentlemen, or boys and girls, contend for the prizes.

It is useless here to give an elaborate essay on the history of Archery; any person sufficiently enthusiastic to desire it, can easily obtain English books containing detailed directions on Archery, and its history from ancient to modern times.

Gardening, Flowers.

WE, as a nation, are not a happy, home-loving people. The “spirit of unrest” pervades all classes.

This enterprising, uneasy spirit, has been, and is, of benefit to us as a comparatively new country, in settling and breaking our wild Western lands.

But the time has come, when it is well to curb that spirit, and cultivate all quiet, home-loving influences.

Therefore, I beseech you, parents, to begin in earliest infancy, to cultivate a love of the beautiful in nature, give your little ones flowers; and as soon as they are able to play in the garden, give them a little spot of their own to dig in; and when they can understand the process, give them seeds to plant, and some few flowers to cultivate. I can tell you of a happy cottage home, where the children, from earliest infancy, have lived among flowers. Each had their tiny garden, with spade, hoe, trowel and watering-pot. The father and mother would also assist with their own hands in training vines, roses and shrubs, in artistic beauty. The good father never went to his counting-room without some flowers in his hand, or in the button-hole of his coat, the valued gift from the tiny garden of one of his darlings. Years passed and fortune favored them, but they never would exchange their cottage home, with its vines, trees and shrubs, for all the stately mansions in the town. And as the daughters married, and the sons left to seek their fortunes, they would look back with intense longing to their loved home; and joyous were their meetings around the home Christmas tree.

On Sundays they always, even in midwinter, ornamented their social table with flowers, for they are God’s smiles. Therefore, my friends, I speak from observation, and from seeing the effect of an opposite course. If you wish to lessen your doctor’s bill, and give the beauty of robust health and happiness to your children, girls or boys, give them a garden and let them plant, weed and water it. If your children bring you even a simple field daisy, express your pleasure to them, and let them not see you cast it aside.

Teach your boys the use of a pruning-knife, and how to graft; then give them some trees to experiment upon. You may save them from dissipation, by giving them a taste for Horticulture. It is a happy, health-giving employment.

Decorate even your barn with graceful vines. The poorest house can be made an agreeable place, by transplanting a few of the many simple, wild vines. It is not natural to love intensely a stiff, ungainly object.

I have often thought, as I have roamed about the farming districts of New England, and have seen the many great, stiff, square houses, with not a graceful tree, or flower to relieve their nakedness, (though now and then a syringa, or lilac bush, or cinnamon rose, and perhaps a stately old butternut, may be seen,) the sons and daughters of those households will surely emigrate. Utility is our hobby. Some farmers think it waste time to plant a flower, as it yields no fruit.

Remember the old saying, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” You that dwell in a city, strive to have a small spot in the country to which you may send your children in Summer, to roam at will. I heard a little child, in urging her mother to go into the country in vain, cry out, “It is too, _too bad_, mamma, I know God did not make the city for little children, because he loves us.”

Do not waste your money at fashionable watering-places. Even in early years, take your children to the woods and let them see nature in its wild state. There is nothing like a day in the woods for refreshing us all, in body and mind. The wild music of running brooks is so lulling, the birds carol their “native wood-notes wild” so sweetly, the strange blended odor of the damp mould, the leaves, the wild flowers, and the prospect of the distant meadow, are so delightful; the play of the sunlight through the dense foliage, and on the sylvan walks, is so beautiful, and the quiet is so marked, after the hum and roar of a city, that the mind is tranquilized, and both you and your children will be nearer to God, and nearer to one another, for every hour so spent. Our whole country is full of wild beauty. Spend your spare money in decorating your homes with trees, flowers and shrubs. The influence upon your children will be far more beneficial.

If your children wish for money to purchase seeds and flowers for their gardens, if possible, give it cheerfully. It is far better so spent than in dress and toys. Let them plan their own gardens and experiment as much as they please. A very pretty fence can be made round such gardens, by a number of stakes of equal lengths pointed at one end to drive into the ground, square at the top, and painted green. Then place them at equal distances around your garden, and bore holes about six or seven inches apart for the twine, which should be brown linen. Pass the twine through the holes, in lines all around the garden. Plant vines which run rapidly, such as Cypress Vine, Madeira Vine, Nasturtium, Maurandya Barclayanna, Dwarf Convolvulus, Mountain Fringe, &c., &c. By midsummer your simple fence will be very beautiful.

Having spent many years in cultivating flowers, perhaps a few practical directions from my own experience may be of service to my readers.

HOW TO PLANT SEEDS.

WE often think because the seed we plant does not germinate that we have purchased poor seed, when the fault is in the manner of planting.

Nearly all kinds of flower seeds require transplanting, therefore it is best to plant in boxes, pots, or hot-beds. Old cigar boxes are convenient and are easily handled, but first bore holes in the bottom of the boxes, and in your pots or boxes place either broken clam or oyster shells or pieces of old flower pots as a drainage; then take light, rich earth and sift it or rub it carefully in your hands to be sure there are no lumps; some bake the earth to destroy any insects which may be in it, but it answers the same purpose to pour boiling water on it. After you have filled your boxes or pots with this prepared earth, sprinkle your seed carefully over it, and sift over them light soil sufficient to cover them, moisten them with warm water, and place the box where there is but little light and throw a piece of paper over the top. A warm place will start them best. Let them remain thus several days, till the seeds have a chance to swell, before you give them much light, and keep the earth moist; (a sponge is excellent to water them, as it does not disturb the position of the seeds; also use warm water,) as soon as you see they are sprouting give them light, and air, if not too cold, or else the plant will not have strength to grow well. Hot-beds are the best, and can be made with but little expense, by taking some old box, and if you do not possess an old window sash you can purchase one of some builder for a trifling sum of money, and fit it to your box by nailing strips at the sides; dig a place the size of the box and two or three feet deep, fill it with horse manure mixed with straw, which is the most heating, then sprinkle soil over the top about six inches deep, place your box on the top, carefully heaping the earth around the outside, and your hot-bed is made, in which you can start your seeds and slips by either placing your boxes or pots in the earth on top of the manure and plant your seeds and slips in them, or as many prefer, planting in the soil of your hot-bed. After your seedling plants are of sufficient size to transplant, if you first transplant them into small pots, you can easily plant them in your flower beds without disturbing the roots, and the plants will not require covering; you must first dig a hole and pour water into it, then carefully slip the plant, dirt and all, from the pots and place into the hole made for it and press the earth tight around it. Of course they must remain in the pot till they are well rooted. In raising slips you need to mix in full half common scouring sand with the soil, and they must be shaded from the light several days.

All who care for flowers will desire to raise Verbenas, as they blossom all Summer. If you wish to raise them from seed they should be sown in February or first of March. One secret in raising fine Verbenas is change of soil. It would be better to plant them every year in a different location, but if you renew the soil it will do to plant them twice in the same bed, but never three years in succession. Indeed, flowers as well as vegetables need constant change of soil; they soon exhaust the earth. Seeds are better that are raised in locations distant from the place where they are to be sown. Flowers soon deteriorate if you continue to plant over and over from seed raised in the same spot; that is one of the reasons why seeds from Europe are generally preferred by florists. Japan Pink seed should be planted in March, in order to have them flower the first year; they are hardy and blossom also the second year. Pansy seed should be planted as early as Verbenas. Ten Weeks’ Stock, Phlox Drummondi, Double Zinnias, Lobelia, Petunias, Portulaca, Salpiglossis, Candytuft, Larkspur, &c., should be planted in April. If you desire to raise Picotee or Carnation Pinks for the next year, and Canterbury Bells and Fox Gloves, sow in April. Sow Asters of all kinds the last of April or first of May. Some of the climbers, such as Maurandya, Barclayanna, Tropæolum, commonly called Nasturtium, Cypress Vine, Thunbergia, &c., need transplanting, and better be sown early. Sweet Peas should be sown in the open soil about three inches deep, early in April. It is better to soak the seed in warm water before sowing. When they have germinated and as they begin to climb, fill in earth around them, and water now and then thoroughly with soap suds. Mignonette should not be transplanted; sow the seed in the open soil the first of May. Candytuft and Sweet Alyssum, are hardy, and the seed can be sown out of doors; but if you have once had them, they will come up self sown; look over your beds in Spring and take up such plants, when you have the soil prepared and beds made, then you can plant them back again where you desire. Joseph’s Coat is a very brilliant plant, its leaves are all shades of green, red and yellow; the seed can be sown either in or out of doors by the first of May, also Golden Calliopsis. Balsams will grow better if the seeds are not planted till the second week in May out of doors.

All the flowers I have mentioned are desirable even in a small garden; of course there are hundreds of varieties of even annuals, but unless you have a gardener it is impossible to raise them all, for it is desirable even in a small garden to have some flowers raised by slips, or bought from some greenhouse, such as Fuchsias, Double Feverfews, Scarlet Geraniums, Heliotropes, Rose Geraniums, Lemon Verbenas, Monthly Roses and Hardy Perpetuals, &c. Hardy Perpetual Roses are desirable in every garden, they grow so thrifty and blossom all summer, and with a little covering will live out all Winter; and if they are showered often early in the Spring while the dew is on the roses, with whale oil soap suds, using a syringe to shower them, it will prevent the usual damage done by the slug. If you have a shady, moist place in your garden there you can plant your Lily of the Valley, double blue English Violet, Forget-me-not, and Pansy.

Fuchsias also require some shade. Heliotropes and Geraniums will bear enriching more than most plants; often watering with guano water is excellent. A table-spoonful of guano to a common water-pail full of water is sufficiently strong. It also improves Pansies, Fuchsias and nearly all plants except Roses. Soap suds is better for Roses and Verbenas, at least according to my experience. Nearly all plants make a finer show in a garden arranged either in beds, each variety by itself, or in clusters. Before planting your garden in Spring it is well to carefully consider the nature of each flower, and arrange your garden so that each flower can be displayed to advantage; never plant promiscuously; it is astonishing what a difference landscape gardening will make in the general aspect of even a small place. It is quite as desirable as to arrange the colors in a picture to harmonize. Even an old stump of a tree can be made beautiful by planting vines around it, or by scooping out the top and filling in soil, and planting Nierembergia, Lobelia, Double Nasturtium, Variegated Myrtle, &c., in it. Those I have mentioned blossom all Summer, except the Myrtle, the leaves of which are as beautiful as many flowers.

If we ladies would spend less time on our dress and in arrangements for the table, and take that time for working in our gardens with our children, we should not only make our homes more attractive but we should gain in health and strength. Early every Spring call a family council to decide the arrangement of your flower garden. Let your boys have a place to raise vegetables as a pastime. Encourage them to diligence by promising to purchase all they will raise; in that way they can earn money to give to the poor, or for their Christmas presents; even children will take far more pleasure in giving what they have really earned with their own hands.

FERNERIES.

IS it not, my friends, very pleasant to have a bit of the Summer woods in our parlors in midwinter? Such a pleasure is within the reach of us all, with but little trouble and expense. Those who live in cities and cannot go into the country, surely must have some friend who can supply them, or the materials can be obtained at any public greenhouse. First you require a glass dome, or what is still better, take five panes of glass any size you please, four to form the sides, one for the top, fasten the glass together with a light wooden frame, then take any tin dish, like a baking pan, or if round a tin plate or jelly cake pan, or a tin dish can be made to fit it for a trifling sum of money; paint the tin green on the outside. Then collect some pieces of broken flower pots, or still better, bits of marble, granite or any stone and scatter them around the tin dish, placing in the center some moss-grown stump or stick, and pile the stones around it; then collect from the woods, ferns, mosses, partridge-vines with its bright red berries, (indeed, any plant will grow in these ferneries which can be found in moist places in the woods;) take up a little of the leaf mould in which they grow, they need but little soil, arrange your plants spreading the roots carefully over the stones, scattering a little leaf mould on them, and placing your mosses around the whole. The tallest plants should form the center, but in arranging even ferneries, it is more agreeable to exercise your own taste. Before placing your globe or glass frame over your fernery, sprinkle the plants thoroughly, then cover with the glass, and let it remain a few days in the shade. You can keep them where you please, but I think they grow better near a window; be very careful not to water them too often, once a month is generally sufficient; if too wet they will mould and die; when there is but little moisture on the glass, it is well to raise the glass to ascertain if it is dry. My fernery has been made four years, it has required but little care; now and then I add a new fern, some moss, or any suitable plant gathered from the woods, and remove any dried ferns or leaves. It often renews itself. Trailing arbutus and partridge-vines will blossom in ferneries. It is always pleasant to the eye and no care after the first expense and trouble. Ivy and Lycopodium grow well in ferneries, but the rare ferns, &c., from green-houses do not flourish as well as those plants taken from our native woods.

IVIES.

ENGLISH IVIES are a great ornament to our rooms, and are hardy and require very little care. After the first two years they grow quite rapidly, therefore it is well to procure two year old plants, train them on your curtains, over your windows and pictures. Many make a mistake by changing the pots very often, thinking they require a very large pot, which is not so, for they do not require as much earth as many plants, only keep them moist, and have rich loam for the soil; it is well to water them every month with guano water, prepared according to the same rule given for flowers. The poet’s ivy is very pretty, the leaf being quite small. The most beautiful ivy I ever saw was one that never was removed from its place Summer or Winter; it filled a large bay window, encircled the whole room and wound around many pictures; now and then a gardener came and changed the soil, and the leaves were occasionally washed. Hanging baskets of moss with flowers growing in it, are exceedingly pretty in Winter.

PRESSED FLOWERS.

TO press flowers, to be arranged on paper like a painting, you must take some plain white wrapping paper, (in Paris you can obtain paper prepared by a chemical process to preserve the colors) and place your flowers or leaves carefully between two sheets of the paper. Then press them by placing a heavy weight over them, (letter presses are excellent) and leave them a day or two, then change the paper; thus the juices of the flowers are absorbed. It takes a week or two to press perfectly, and in Summer often longer. When dry, place them in a book or some air-tight box ready for use. A year is required to make a varied and handsome collection, as each flower has its own season for blossoming. Wild flowers retain their colors better than cultivated; but experience alone will teach you what flowers will retain their color best. Many pretend to be able to preserve all kinds of flowers, but it is impossible. I will give a list of flowers which are known to retain their color by this mode of pressing.

All Geraniums (except the horse-shoe and sweet-scented), preserve their color. They are very essential, as their colors are brilliant and keep for years. All yellow flowers both wild and cultivated retain their color. The Violet and Pansy, Dwarf Blue Convolvulus, Blue Larkspur, Blue Myrtle, Blue Lobelia, Heaths, the small original Red Fuchsia, Wild Housatonia, and many tiny blue, and even white flowers press perfectly.

For green, Ivy, Maiden Hair, Ferns or Brake, Mosses, &c., retain their color best. Rarely a cultivated green leaf presses well. Autumn leaves, if small, and the youngest oak leaves mix in well. Certain kinds of stems such as Pansy, and others of similar character, are best adapted for pressing.

After your collection is made, take some card-board, without a polish if possible, and arrange your flowers as you design to have them. Gum them to the paper with tragacanth, using a camel’s hair brush, then press on the paper and flower with a cloth, carefully absorbing all moisture, as well as firmly pressing the flower on the paper. Geraniums and some large flowers look better if each leaf is glued on separately.

In forming your bouquet, it is better to arrange the stems first and work upwards. Baskets and vases of moss with flowers are pretty. To form these, you must trace out with a pencil your vase or basket, and glue on the moss. Then arrange your flowers.

I have heard amusing criticisms on the coloring of such bouquets, from persons who mistook them for paintings. Framed and covered with a glass, they make ornamental pictures.

It is a pleasant way of preserving mementos of friends, places or events. Flower albums or journals are very beautiful. Wreaths arranged of different varieties of Pelargoniums mixed in with any pretty green, and other little flowers, such as Lobelias, are very handsome and the colors are durable. Pansies of different shades look well, and brilliant wreaths may be made of all the varieties of flowers that hold their color. The oval shape looks the best for wreaths.

There are innumerable varieties of Ferns, Lycopodiums and Maiden Hair, both native and foreign, suitable for pressing. By pasting each specimen on a separate sheet and interspersing specimens of our beautiful Autumn leaves also on separate sheets, and fastening them together, either bound as a book or in a portfolio, you will possess a beautiful and attractive book with but little expense.