Part 3

One great point in making the planting should be to secure plants which are hardy, and another to select those appropriate to the situation. Both of these ends can be secured by using the water and bog plants which flourish in that locality. These might be named, but that would not assist in securing them. The practical way is to look up a number of ponds and streams and visit them every month during spring and summer, and see how many interesting plants may be found. Mark their positions, and in autumn visit the places again and remove such as are wanted and plant them in similar situations about the pond. Willows of different kinds and black ash and poplars and alder trees can furnish shade, and several kinds of shrubs can be used to ornament the banks.

Osage Orange Hedge.

Please send instructions for raising Osage orange hedge.

B. B. R.

_Spangle, Wash._

The Osage orange is a native of Texas, and consequently needs warm weather to make its growth. The seed should be planted at the time of corn planting in northern localities. A month previous to sowing place the seed in a dish of water and let it remain covered with water until ready to sow. If kept in water the length of time stated it will germinate in ten or fifteen days after planting. If kept dry and planted in that condition it will start only after six or eight weeks, and very unevenly. When planting time arrives drain off the water and mix the seed with dry sand and sow it thinly in drills in good soil. When the plants are up hoe them and keep them clean or work them with a cultivator, if on a sufficiently large scale. The first season’s growth should make them large enough to set in a hedge. They can remain standing in the seed-bed until spring and then be lifted early to be planted. Cut back the tops and the roots so that each shall be about five inches in length. The ground where the hedge is to stand should be well prepared by deep plowing, and dragging fine and smooth. If plowed up the year before and cultivated with some cleaning crop such as potatoes or carrots it will be all the better fitted. Having stretched a line for the course of the hedge the plants can be dibbled in along it, at a distance of six inches apart, or they can be set in with a spade; another way is to open a trench about six inches deep along the line and set the plants in it, one person placing the plants while another fills in a spadeful of soil against each one; then the soil is firmed with the foot against each plant and afterwards the trench filled. The after culture for the first year is to hoe and keep the ground clean. The spring of the following year before growth starts cut the plants down to within six inches of the old stock. The following year do the same; an annual rise of six inches is sufficient. At the second year’s pruning and afterwards cut the side shoots so that those at the base shall be longest, giving the hedge a broad base narrowing to a line at the top.

Vase in Cemetery.

I have a large reservoir vase twenty-five inches in diameter for the cemetery. Last summer I had it arranged by one of our home florists and it did not do nicely at all and was not in the least satisfactory. Will you please advise me what plants to use in it this summer? I thought I would put around the edge to droop, ivy geraniums, double petunias and nasturtiums and anything else you may suggest. I have a pink ivy geranium and would like a white one, and thought I would like the petunias of some different colors, perhaps one variegated and some other. The nasturtiums I shall raise from seed, and I suppose I might use a little sweet alyssum and lobelia. What would you recommend for the center plants? Of course I know it is too early to start it yet, but I want it all settled so that I can get it ready as early as possible.

K. A. R.

_Waverly, N. Y._

A vase of plants is not adapted to a cemetery unless there is a gardener in charge of the grounds and who will give the necessary daily care. A garden vase of growing plants needs daily attention in watering and through the hottest weather should be supplied twice a day. It is rare that a cemetery has a gardener in attendance. We, therefore, would discourage the use of vases in cemeteries for they are anything but ornamental unless they have constant care. It is far better to set directly in the ground whatever flowering or ornamental plants one chooses to have. There they will thrive with less attention than elsewhere. Of course if they can have the needed care the vases can be filled with such plants as are usually employed for this purpose, and, no doubt, the vase which our inquirer complains of was well filled. It was unsatisfactory, and probably would be so again another season. The best place for the vase is on the lawn near the dwelling. But if it is to be used in the cemetery then we should try to make the best of it, and select such plants as will do fairly well with the occasional attendance they will get, together with the rain which falls upon them from the clouds.

Such a selection of plants is difficult to make. For a center plant perhaps a small sized American aloe would be as appropriate and appear as well as any that might be tried. Possibly a small India rubber plant might be another good one. For filling in the list is a restricted one. The portulaca would be reliable; the ageratum and the petunia would do fairly well, and the Thunbergia and oxalis might be expected to hold their own. The othonna would no doubt do well set around the edge. Perhaps the green and the variegated vinca would suffer meekly, if it was demanded of them, and try to show how brave they are. We fear the nasturtium and geraniums and alyssum and lobelia would scarcely hold their own. In some seasons which we have known in this region, when showers have been frequent all through the summer, a vase of such plants as are ordinarily used would do well, but such seasons are rare. Usually the plants will suffer for lack of water.

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The Best Food For Children?

is worthy every parent’s study; not only what they can eat, but what gives the most nourishment. No children are better, and most are worse, for eating lard-cooked food. If, however, their food is prepared with the healthful new vegetable shortening,

COTTOLENE

instead of lard, they can eat freely of the best food without danger to the digestive organs. You can easily verify this by a fair trial of Cottolene.

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Carnations in the House.

Every year I get a number of carnation plants and I take the best of care of them, as good as I know how. At first they look well, but in a short time they begin to turn yellow at the top and the yellow keeps going down until it gets to the bottom and they are dead. Other plants do well with me. What is the trouble?

MRS. F. P. W.

_Highlandlake, Colo._

Carnations want a cool, moist air, and cannot adapt themselves to the high temperature and dry air of living rooms heated by coal in stoves or furnaces. To raise the plants one should have a conservatory off the living room, or at least an inclosed bay window.

Madeira Vine.

Will you kindly inform me through your “Letter Box” how to treat a Madeira vine so it will produce blossoms? I have a vine four years old, has never done very well until this winter, but the foliage is beautiful and it seems strange that it does not blossom. I have got it in a tin wash basin hung with strings in the window, the sun shines on it from early in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. It is trained out each side of basin with strings and measures three feet across, and hangs about one foot from the glass. I have trained it back and forth from the basin to the curtain and it has locked itself through the lace of the curtain. I want to know what I shall do with it in the spring. I shall have to take down the curtain, and will it injure the vine to cut it? I have been told that I ought to clip this winter’s growth in the spring. I should like to know why it does not blossom. Please let me know and confer a favor.

A CONSTANT READER.

_Baldwinsville, N. Y._

The Madeira vine is so easily raised it is not necessary to be particularly careful of a plant which has already fulfilled its mission. The atmospheric and root conditions under house culture are not favorable to the blooming of this plant. If the tubers are placed in a rich, warm soil early in spring the plant will make a great growth and bloom in autumn. When the particular plant in question is to be moved, in the spring, a portion of its top growth can be cut away and then the whole plant slipped out of the pan into the open ground outside.

* * * * *

A FARM OF FOWLS.

In the whole West there’s not to be found another such collection of fancy poultry as that of C. C. Shoemaker, Freeport, Ill. He invites correspondence or a visit. It is said that Mr. Shoemaker’s business has trebled itself every year since he began business.

* * * * *

How He Got the Best of Hard Times.

Mrs. Jones wanted an Organ and as Mr. Jones was one of those good husbands he wanted to please his wife, but in this case with the hard times staring him in the face he did not see how he could spare the money. Anyway he thought he would see what he could do with the dealers and agents in his neighboring town, but after looking over their stock he found the cheapest Organ he could get would cost him $65.00, and it didn’t amount to much at that.

This was more than Mr. Jones could afford and he told his wife so. Although a great disappointment to them both, they decided they would have to give up the idea.

A few days after this, Mr. Jones in looking over Vick’s Magazine saw the advertisement of the “Beethoven Piano and Organ Co.,” of Washington, N. J., stating that they sold a first-class Organ for only $27.50, with stool and book. He sent for their catalogue which they send free to all who write.

Mr. Jones now has the organ in his parlor, for which he paid $27.50, and says it is even better than the agents offered him at $65.00.

He beat the hard times by purchasing direct from the factory, thus saving the profits of the dealers and agents.

The Company offers the same good bargains on Pianos.

Mildew on Cucumber Vines.

Is there anything that will kill mildew on cucumber vines in a forcing house without injuring the vines?

A. L. B.

Try sulphide of potash. Dissolve one ounce in four gallons of water and syringe the affected plants with it. It will probably destroy the mildew and not injure the plants.

Moles.

Can you tell me in your “Letter Box” how to get rid of moles? We are very much annoyed by them and find a trap perfectly worthless.

M. H. C.

_Fort Riley, Kans._

The trap is the best known means of destroying moles, but of course it requires vigilance and patience and perseverance in its use, without these the trap is ineffective. Those who have tried poisoned corn say that it will effectually rid a place of moles. Soak the kernels in arsenic water and place them in the runways. Perhaps some of our readers may have some experience to state on this subject.

Pine Apple Air Plant.

Several inquiries have been received about the treatment of this plant. Those who are offering it in the trade advise that the roots be wrapped in moss and that the plant be wired upon a piece of bark or wood, that it be placed in the window, and frequently showered or sprayed. We have had no experience with it. The plant is a native of a hot and humid climate and it is somewhat doubtful that it will generally succeed in window culture. Unless the window is a bay, and enclosed with glass on the side of the room which it is off, and, moreover, well heated, it will probably in most cases prove a failure. Its family relationship is with the Spanish gray moss, and the pine apple.

Phyllocactus latifrons.

Your answers to correspondents in the “Letter Box” are so helpful that I am led to ask for hints as to the treatment of the night-blooming phyllocactus. I have one that blossomed three or four times, but only a single flower at a time. It seems to spend its strength in sending out long, round stems two or three feet in length. I cut off one of these a few weeks ago and it soon started again at the same spot and is now three feet long. Ought these stems to be cut, and is there any special treatment which will secure blossoms? An answer in your interesting Magazine will much oblige

MRS. D. F. G.

_Norwich, Conn._

It is not advisable to remove the shoots as mentioned, a large and well branched plant is desirable, and in that condition it should be capable of producing more flowers. Give a rich soil with a mixture of sand, and water moderately. Let it have a position where it will have the sun a portion of the day.

Mammoth Freesias.

In reply to Mrs. J. F. S., in the January Magazine, concerning mammoth freesias, I will say I have had them two years. I do not find the bulb any larger than the ordinary variety but they produce more flowers—I had from three to five clusters from each bulb; they bloom about two weeks earlier and the flowers are a little larger than the others. I like to grow them with the others to have a succession of bloom. I have never failed with freesias, and think Mrs. J. F. S. has made some mistake in their treatment. Plant an inch deep in a rich soil, place them in the dark until they have sprouted, then place next the glass in a south or east window. Keep the pots in deep saucers and fill the latter with _hot_ water every morning. One great secret is to keep their feet warm. Many people do not give them enough water, they require a great deal. If any remains in the saucer from the day before throw it out and give fresh. If water is poured on the soil it should always be warmer than the air. In this way I have an abundance of large perfect flowers, the clusters sometimes remaining perfect for three weeks. As a last word, have good drainage and give plenty of heat and water. I think your Magazine is invaluable.

MRS. C. H. J.

_Crestline, Ohio._

* * * * *

THE SWINE AND THE FLOWER.

I shrank to meet a mud-encrusted swine, And then he seemed to grunt in accents rude, “Huh! Be not proud, for in this fat of mine, Behold the source of richness for your food!”

I fled, and saw a field that seemed, at first, One giant mass of roses pure and white, With dewy buds ’mid dark green foliage nursed, And, as I lingered o’er this lovely sight, The summer breeze, that cooled that southern scene, Whispered, “Behold the source of Cottolene!”

—_M. E. Wilmer._

Wormy Raspberries—Violets—Storing Cauliflower.

Can you tell us how to prevent having wormy raspberries? For the last two years ours have been worthless from being wormy.

I want to have a bed of violets. Must I use roots or can I get seeds?

How can cauliflower be put away for the winter? We cut ours from the stump, turned the leaves over the heads and packed them closely together, but some of them have spoiled.

MRS. R. P. F.

_Beaver Dam, Wis._

We do not know what insect it is whose larva infests raspberries. If any of our readers can supply the information we trust they will give it.

Purchase the roots of violets, it is not practicable to raise them from seeds.

Cauliflower, like the strawberry, is good enough to be eaten when it is ready. It does not improve by keeping. The heads may be kept in a cool cellar for a considerable time if they are pulled up with some soil adhering to the roots, and set in rows in the cellar with the roots covered with soil. Tie the leaves together or turn them down over the heads.

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=THE BROADWAY CENTRAL HOTEL=, New York, which has undergone a thorough rebuilding, is now open to the public.

This is altogether the largest hotel property in New York, and, with the present improvements, will have a valuation of nearly two millions of dollars and accommodate over one thousand persons.

Mr. Haynes, the new lessee, is making it a great popular house for families and business men, at popular rates, for which the location is admirably adapted. The new cable-cars on Broadway reach every fashionable store, theater and attraction of the city, and transfer with all cross-town lines, reaching every station, dock and ferry in town.

* * * * *

_Every reason why it should_

FIT

For Dr. Warner’s Coraline Corsets are made in 25 styles—modelled to fit every variety of form.

Wear the one that fits

YOU

ROCHESTER, N. Y., MARCH, 1894.

_Entered in the Post Office at Rochester as “second-class” matter._

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SITUATIONS FREE OF CHARGE.

We are constantly receiving applications of people who desire gardeners and florists, and we have decided that hereafter we will publish advertisements of those who desire situations free of charge. Write copy plain and send by the first of the month for insertion in the next month’s Magazine.

A YELLOW-FLOWERED CALLA.

A visit a short time since to the famous greenhouses of our townsman, Wm. S. Kimball, where orchids mostly abound, favored us with a view of the rare yellow-flowered calla, Richardia Elliottii. Although we had carefully read the description of this plant we found it really more beautiful than the image we had formed of it. The plant in appearance is much like that of the common calla, Richardia Africana, except that the leaves are spotted all over with white spots. The flower spathe is of good size and form, and of a pure canary yellow color. It will prove to be a grand companion to the common calla and is destined to be widely cultivated. At present the plants are very scarce and expensive and it will be some time before they can be very freely offered.

OUR NATIVE GRAPE.

There has recently been issued a treatise by this title, on grapes and grape culture by Charles Mitzky, of this city. Its main feature is the very full list of hardy grapes cultivated in this country with their description, origin and history as far as known, and numerous illustrations and colored plates. Over eight hundred varieties are described, thus bringing together nearly all that have so far been produced or made public. The work also contains chapters on planting, pruning, cultivating, training, fertilizers, diseases and noxious insects and their remedies, harvesting, storing, marketing and a brief account of wine making, in fact almost everything of interest to the grape-grower is here treated, some of the chapters being contributed by prominent scientists and horticulturists.

THE PLANT BED.

The enterprise in getting out the artistic and truly beautiful Floral Guide, and sending it into our homes during the inclement weather of these winter days, when we have time to sit by the fireside and study its pages, enables us, against the time to plant seeds, to know exactly what we would like to have among vegetables and flowers. This beautiful compendium of vegetables and flowers came as a herald of the new year, and as the new year seems always to bring the spring season near, so it naturally fills the mind with the pleasurable anticipations of the task of seed planting.

The plant beds are little squares made of very rich soil, black and friable, with sand intermixed, on the sunny side of the garden palings that have a solid base board, or a wall or house, to afford protection. The rich soil makes a good bottom heat for forcing gentle growth. My old colored mammy, who always saved the garden seeds and gave them out as needed and directed the gardening operations on the plantation, had the plant beds made on each side of the garden gate, one set of little beds for early vegetable plants, the other for flowers. The soil thoroughly pulverized, and the seeds planted thickly, it is surprising how they would spring into life, and the rapidity with which they would grow. Thick planting of seeds is only to be advised when they are intended for transplanting. I have seen the cabbage bed so full of plants that it seemed as if two plants or more had sprung from every seed. Early and late cabbage, the rows labeled, can be planted in the same bed; lettuce, pepper grass, parsley and radishes in another, taking care to sow the radish seed thinly as the plants will not transplant well, and the radishes must be used for the table taken from the place where the seeds are sown. Cabbages grow better when the small plants are transplanted to the large bed where they are to stand for their season’s growth.

After these early vegetable plants have been set out, later on tomato and egg plant seeds can be sown in the same beds. Nothing is gained by forcing these latter, for in my experience certain vegetable and flower seeds do better planted late, as the heat of summer is needed for their development.

The plant bed can be made and planted early in the season. Here in the South many persons plant in “old Christmas,” the first twelve days after New Year, but February or March is better, I believe.

The flowers that do so well in company with these vegetables are sweet alyssum, nemophila, mignonette, snapdragon, candytuft, verbena, sanvitalia and petunias. Japanese pinks and Marguerite carnations, Phlox Drummondii and poppies are better planted where they are to bloom as they do not transplant well. Sweet alyssum and nemophila begin to bloom when about an inch high, and can be transplanted at any stage of growth, even in bloom; they are sweet little flowers that make lovely borders, cute little jars, beautiful hanging baskets, and when planted in the sides of jars that contain large plants, hang over the sides in masses of bloom. The speckled pretty little blue nemophila always makes me think of birds’ nests full of speckled eggs in the cool green grass. Sweet alyssum I love too well to write about; it would sound like exaggeration.