Chapter 17

These are designed to force an early growth of plants. It is done by the use of solar heat, and that arising from fermenting manures, combined. The following directions for constructing and managing hotbeds will enable every one to be successful. Nail boards on pieces of scantling placed in the inside corners, in the form of a box, sixteen feet long and six feet wide; make it three and a half feet high on the back-side, and two feet high in front, facing the sun; nail a piece of board across the middle, let in at the top, to prevent the box from spreading when filled. Fill that with good, fresh horse-manure, with but little straw; tread it down firmly. Put over the whole, sashes made with cross-pieces but one way, and filled with glass, lapped half an inch, like shingles on a roof, to carry off the rain; putty in the glass lightly, or it may adhere to fresh-painted frames; let the frames be halved on their edges, so as to lap and be tight; put these over the filled hotbed, perfectly fitted all around, and enough of them to cover the whole bed; in two or three days the manure will become pretty warm, when it should be covered, four inches deep, with rich mould, sheltered for the purpose the previous fall, and the seeds planted. When the plants come up, see that they are kept sufficiently moist, and not have the hot sun pour upon them intensely, and they will grow rapidly; when too warm, they should be partly covered with mats, and the frames raised to let in air. Put small wedges between the sash and the boards, which will let in sufficient air. Keep it closed when the air is cold, and covered with mats when the sun is too hot. Plants are often destroyed by over-heating. When in danger of freezing, cover closely with mats or straw, or both. We have had plants growing in such a bed when the thermometer stood eight degrees below zero. If the heat of the manure subsides too early, pack fresh horse-manure all around the outside of the box, and as it heats it will communicate warmth to the inside of the bed. As plants grow up, transplant a part to a fresh bed, so as to give all a chance to grow stocky and strong. Almost everything that grows in the garden may be forwarded greatly in the hotbed. Vines, beets, tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, egg-plants, celery, beans, corn, and potatoes, may be obtained much earlier by this means. Those that are injured most by transplanting should be planted in the hotbed, on inverted sods, or grass turfs, six inches square, which can be removed with the growing plants on them, without seriously disturbing the roots. Plenty of shade and moisture on transplanting will save the most tender plants, and they will speedily recover. Make a hotbed of any size you may desire on the same principle. The boards and frames will last many years, with proper care, and occasional supply of a broken light of glass. Into such sash, broken glass of any size can be put, by cutting it to a proper width in one direction, no matter how far the points lap.

HOUSES.

It is not our design to give an extended view of rural architecture. But this work can not be complete without a brief notice of farm-buildings, and a few plans for such buildings, adapted to the wants of those possessing limited means. We hope these directions and plans will prove important aids in getting up cheap, yet convenient and beautiful, country residences, especially in all the newer parts of the country. Our reading on rural architecture, and an extensive observation in many states of the Union, have made us acquainted with nothing, combining beauty, cheapness, and utility, better than the following.

The scale at the bottom will enable any mechanic to determine the size of each of these buildings, and their relation to each other. They can, on the same general plan, be made of any dimensions, to suit the wishes of the proprietor.

The wagon-house in the range is forty feet long, affording ample shelter for all kinds of vehicles, connected by a covered way with the horse-stables and barn-floor.

A lean-to is built on the north side of the wagon-house, in which is a tool-house opening into it, and a stable for eight milch-cows, that will thus be convenient for winter-milking; these cows are fed from the loft over the wagon-house. The barn is thirty by forty feet, with floor in the middle and bay on each side: this can be driven into on one side and out on the other. From the floor is a covered way to cattle and horse stables, and into the wagon and tool house, without going outdoor.

_The Piggery._--Large and small swine do not do so well together; hence, the larger ones are to occupy the feeding-pen and bed on the right (in the cut), those of medium size on the left, and the smaller ones in the rear. The dimensions and relative size of apartments can be determined from the plan.

The other buildings sufficiently explain themselves in the cut.

With this range of buildings, let a farmer do his own thrashing, with a small horse-power, and thrash a part at a time during the winter, keeping the straw in an apartment in the bay, dry for litter, and for cut feed for cattle and horses, and it will be the best and most economical method of thrashing and keeping stock. Every farmer should do at least a part of his thrashing in this way, during the winter, for the benefit of fresh straw, &c.

_Country Residence._--This includes the range of buildings given opposite, their distance from the house, and all the parts of a complete residence, with all the comforts and conveniences that can be crowded into such a space, and at a very reasonable expense. Three fourths of an acre are devoted to the ornamental grounds; except the walks and small flower-beds, it is all green turf. Plowed very deep and thoroughly enriched, the trees are set out, and all then made very level, and one and a half bushels grass-seed sown on it and brushed in very smooth. This soon makes a very thick green turf, to be cut every ten days during the most growing season, and less frequently as the season advances. The trees, for a few years, need careful working around and mulching. The gravel carriage-road is twelve feet wide, and winding around shrubbery, it leads to the carriage-house in the range of buildings. The foot-walks are five feet wide. The curves in the walks may be accurately laid out in the following manner. Determine the general position by a few points measured off. Lay a pole upon the ground, in the direction of the walk; stick a peg in the ground at the first end and at its middle; move the pole round a little, leaving the middle the same,--then stick a peg at its end, and move it forward--moving it forward and round equally, each time, by measurement. A longer or shorter curve is made by a greater or less side-movement of the pole. In a regular curve, the movements are the same; but in going from a shorter to a longer, or from a longer to a shorter curve, the side-measurement must increase or diminish regularly.

The following cuts show the plan of the house: three principal rooms and a bed-room below, and four rooms above. The hall extends through the house, affording good ventilation in summer, and entrance to each room, without passing through another. The chimney in the centre economizes heat. This small and cheap house affords more conveniences than most large ones. One of the finest things about such a house is a good cellar. For a farm-house, the cellar should be under the whole; make it eight feet deep, gravel and water lime made smooth on the bottom, flagging under the bottom of the wall extending out a foot, the wall above ground built double, the inside four inches thick, with brick, with a space of two inches, and outside stone wall a foot thick. The windows should be double and well fitted, the inside one hung on hinges; the outside one to be removed in spring, and its place supplied with a well-fitted frame, covered with wire-cloth to admit air and exclude intruders during summer. This will not freeze, and never need banking. No rat can enter, for they always work close to the wall, and coming to the projecting flat stone at the bottom, they give it up. On one side of the cellar, under the kitchen, make a large rain-water cistern, with a pump in the kitchen and a faucet in the cellar, and the whole arrangement is perfect. If the farm be large, you will need some of the good, but cheap houses described in the following part of this article, where your men will live and board themselves, which is always the best and cheapest way. An open view from the house in the country residence extends to the summer-house (_b_) on the right. This is one of the neatest cheap summer-houses that can be made. The following directions for making it may be useful. Set eight cedar posts, six inches in diameter, in the ground, in a circle; saw them off even at the top, and connect them by plank nailed on their tops. Make an eight-sided roof of boards; nail lath from post to post, forming lattice-work, leaving a space between two posts for a door. Put a seat around on the inside. Leave all the materials except the seat unplaned, and cover with a white or brown wash, and it need not cost more than five or six dollars, and, covered with vines of some kind, it will be ornamental.

This form of a cheap house is convenient and pleasant. Built of four-inch scantling, the plates and sills being connected only by the upright plank, and the wings thoroughly bracing the upright posts; when lumber is cheap, it may be built for one hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars, with cellar, well, and cistern. Occasional whitewash is as good as paint. With cellar under the whole, filled in with brick, and having blinds, it may cost three hundred and fifty dollars. The plan of the house sufficiently explains itself.

The next cut illustrates a neat country-house, for a family who think more of neatness, comfort, and intellectual pursuits, than of mere ornament, and may serve the purpose of a farmhouse, or the residence of a retired or professional gentleman. It has the unconstrained air of the Italian style, without a rigid adherence to any rules, and may therefore be altered or added to without destroying its effect.

The plan is intelligible without explanation. Built in a plain way, the four large rooms not larger than fifteen by seventeen, and ten feet high, plain in its finish, it would cost about sixteen hundred dollars complete. It may go up from that, according to size and height of rooms, and style of finish, to three thousand dollars. It then makes as good a house as any person ever need to occupy, out of great cities.

HYBRIDS.

Although this subject has received far too little attention, yet our limits will only allow us to mention a few facts, of the most practical moment.

Plants hybridize only through their blossoms. This can only occur in plants of similarity, in nature and habits. Squashes and pumpkins planted near each other mix badly, and the poorer will prevail. Varieties of corn mix at considerable distances, by the falling of pollen from the tassel upon the silk of another variety. Watermelons are always ruined by being planted near citrons. The seeds from melons so grown will not produce one good melon. How far watermelons and muskmelons, or squashes with melons, will hybridize, is uncertain. By planting nutmeg muskmelons with the common roughskinned variety, we have produced a kind about half way between them, that was of great excellence. Two kinds of cabbage or turnip seed should never be raised in the same garden. Cabbage and turnip seed raised near together is valueless. In strawberries, different plants are essential to each other, the quality of the fruit being determined by the plant fertilized, and not by the fertilizer. This subject is further treated under articles on different plants.

INARCHING.

This is a method of effecting a union of trees or branches, while both retain their hold in the ground. Shave off a little wood from each, and put them together, fitting closely, so that the barks will meet, as in grafting; tie firmly, and cover with wax. When they have got well to growing, cut off the top of the old one, and after a while cut the new one from the ground. When you have a tree that it is difficult to propagate in the usual way, you may transplant it to a thrifty stock. Vigorous branches may by this means be transferred to old, poor-bearing, or slow-growing trees. So also may a tree be prolonged beyond its ordinary age, as the pear on the quince, by inarching young shoots. We can only recommend this to the curious experimenter, who has little else to do.

INSECTS.

These are the natural enemies of fruits and plants; and to prevent their depredations requires much care. There is no universal remedy. Birds and young fowls--especially ducks and chickens--are useful in a garden. The ducks must not be kept there too long. They will appropriate a little to their own use, but will save much more for the proprietor. Insects have their peculiar tastes for particular fruits and plants, of which we have treated, under those heads, respectively. Success in many branches of horticulture and pomology, depends upon attention to the habits of insects. The most general remedy is to wash trees or plants with a strong decoction of some offensive herb, or with whale-oil soapsuds. Tobacco is very useful for this purpose.

IRON FILINGS.

It has been ascertained by analysis, that iron enters largely into the composition of the pear. Iron filings spread under them, or worked into the soil, increases the growth of pear-trees, and improves the quality of the fruit.

IRRIGATION.

This is one of the most important matters, that can engage the attention of agriculturists of the present day. A stream of water that may be caused to flow gently over a field, or different parts of a farm, at pleasure, is a mine of wealth. Plants receive their food from the air and water. We shall discuss this more fully when treating of manures. A poor, porous, sandy, or gravelly soil usually produces a fine crop, in a wet season. That is an addition to the soil of nothing but water. Hence all springs and streams can be turned to great account, on a farm or garden. Watering gardens by hand or with a garden-pump, will often pay better than any other expenditure on the land. Employing a man, in a dry season, to spend his whole time in watering five acres of garden, of berries and vegetables, as cabbages, vines, onions, and potatoes, will pay a very large profit. Strawberries will bear twice as much and twice as long, for daily watering, after they begin to bud for blossoms, until the fruit is gone. It is a necessary caution not to water irregularly, and only occasionally, in a dry season. Better not commence than to leave off, or neglect it in a dry time, before a rain. Read further in our article on "Watering."

LABELS.

It is important, on many accounts, to have fruit-trees and shrubs well labelled. Many labels have been invented. We prefer Cole's, as given in his Fruit Book, to any other. Take a piece of sound pine or other soft wood, whittle two sides smooth, leaving one wider than the other, with a sharp corner between them. For one, cut one notch in the edge, and so up to four, four notches for four. For five, cut across the narrow side. For ten cut across the wide side, and a notch for every ten up to forty. For fifty, cut obliquely across the narrow side, and for one hundred cut obliquely across the wide side. Keep the names in a book, with numbers corresponding with the notches or numbers on the labels.

Fasten these to trees, loosely, by a small copper or brass wire. Transported to any distance, exposed to any weather, or buried in the ground, they will not be obliterated. Pieces of sheet lead, tin, or zinc, cut wide at one end, and written on with a sharp awl, and narrow at the other end, to be bent around a limb, will answer a pretty good purpose. Any soft wood, made smooth, and a little white paint applied, and written on with a good pencil, will preserve the mark for a long time. Fasten with small wire. There are many labels, but we know none preferable to the above. By all means make labels accurate and permanent. Otherwise great losses may occur by budding or grafting from wrong varieties.

LANDSCAPE GARDENS.

These deserve much more attention than they receive in this country. On most farms land enough is lying waste, to make a picturesque landscape, at a small expense. Trees planted, weeds destroyed, grass cultivated, and paths made, according to the most approved rules of carelessness, would secure this object. With a wealthy man, the omission of such a park about his dwelling is hardly pardonable. Landscape gardening is an extensive subject. We can only give a few of the most general simple rules, that may be practised, without the possession of very large means.

1. Place the house some distance from the main street.

2. Make the carriage-way leading to the house, at least twelve feet wide, and do not allow it to extend in a straight line, but in gentle curves, around clusters of trees and plats of grass, apparently rendering the curves necessary.

3. Have no large trees directly in front of the house.

4. Plant trees of the thickest and greenest foliage near the house, and those of more open tops at a greater distance. Standard pear, and handsome cherry trees, do well planted among the forest trees. Clusters of them, at suitable distances, are not only beautiful, but they bear exceedingly well. They are well protected by the forest trees, and standing alone are injured less by insects.

5. Never set trees in a landscape garden, in straight rows, nor trees of similar size and form together. Nature never does so.

6. Let none of the walks be straight lines, but curves, meandering among trees and grass. If there be any water in the vicinity, let there be an open space, giving a fair view of it from the house. If you have a stream, make rustic bridges over it, the plainer the better. Here and there have rustic arbors. Attached to all this should be three other gardens, one of flowers, another of vegetables, and the third of fruits. These three should never grow together. Fruit-trees ruin vegetables and injure flowers. And flowers in a vegetable garden are mere weeds. A separate plat for each is the correct rule, both for beauty and profit. All this need require but little time and expense. All landholders can, at a moderate cost, live amid scenes of perpetual beauty, while the rich may spend as much money in this way as they choose.

LAYERING.

This is a method of propagation, by bending down a branch, and fastening it under the soil, leaving the upper end projecting, until it takes root. Cut half way through the branch so as to raise the top, and fasten it at the point where it is cut, in a trench, with a stick thrust into the ground over it nearly horizontally, or with a stick having a hook made by cutting off a limb. Cover well with soil, and mulch it, and water when dry. This done in the spring, in August the branch will be well rooted, and may be cut away from the parent stalk. This is important in any tree or shrub (like the snowball), difficult to propagate by slips or grafting.

LAYING IN TREES.

Dig a trench where water will not stand, and lay the trees in at an angle of forty-five degrees, and cover the roots and lower part, very closely, with earth. In this way they may be well preserved through the winter, if buried so deep that the tap-root will not freeze, which is always injurious to trees that have been removed from their original soil. Such freezing is always destructive to trees out of the ground. Small trees and seedlings may be covered entirely, to be kept through the winter. Put coarse straw manure on the earth, over trees large enough for setting, that are to be preserved heeled in during winter; and straw or corn-fodder over the tops, during the coldest weather, and they will come out perfect in the spring.

If not ready to set out your trees at once, you may preserve them in perfect condition to very late in spring, in this way, by raising them once, to check vegetation, and putting them back, and shading their stems and mulching the roots, after the commencement of warm weather. Trees may thus be preserved in better condition for transplanting than those left in the nursery, and they will make a larger growth the first season.

LEEKS.

These are said to be natives of Switzerland. We think this doubtful, as they are an article of daily food in Egypt, and were so highly esteemed there, centuries ago, as to become an object of worship. They are used as a pot-herb, to give a flavor to soups and stews. They are not bulbous, like onions, but have a long stem, which is principally used. They are transplanted very deep, so as to obtain a long white neck. The ends of the roots are to be cut off when transplanted, and they should be set in rows a foot apart, and from four to six inches in the row. There are several varieties, distinguished mainly by the width of the leaves,--the _Flanders_ (or _narrow-leafed_), the _Scotch_, and the _Broad London_.

We know no use of leeks for which onions would not be equally good, and, hence, do not recommend their cultivation.

LEMON.

This is the finest acid fruit grown, and belongs to warm climates; but by getting good budded trees from the South, and setting in glass-houses, protected from severe frosts, we may grow lemons in abundance at the North.

By a system of acclimation and protection, we anticipate seeing oranges and other Southern fruits grown at the North as a domestic luxury, and perhaps at a profit for market. The houses necessary for protection may be worth more for other purposes than their cost and care, without interfering with their use for orange and lemon culture.

LETTUCE.

The varieties are numerous, and most of them do well on very rich land, well hoed. Only two kinds of summer-lettuce need be cultivated--the _ice-head lettuce_, and the _brown_. The ice-head has a very thick and tender leaf, continuing to be excellent up to midsummer, from one sowing; and if not allowed to stand nearer together than six inches, it will produce fine heads. The brown lettuce is very large and very good. There are other, earlier kinds, and many others that form large heads. But we can get the above kinds early, by sowing in a hotbed and transplanting; or by sowing so as to have plants get of considerable size in the fall, and protect by covering in winter. These will be suitable for the table early in the spring. Lettuce does better for transplanting; it forms larger heads than in the original bed, and is a little later. Make the soil very rich with stable-manure. Lettuce is more affected by the quality of the soil than most other vegetables. This is a pleasant and healthy article of food, in spring and early summer.

LICORICE.