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[From the Farmer & Gardener.]
MAY—WORK FOR THE MONTH.
Oar calender of gardening opera
tions for last month comprised a good
deal of the imtinished work for March;
we feel that we have also for this month
to fall back upon our usual April hints
in many instances, as the late Spring
weather has interfered with the usual
routine- of ordinary seasons. Suppos
ing that every available space of ground
in our vegetable gardens received its
intended crop ot early vegetables, the
next thing to attend to is to give the
ground continued hoeings, not alone to
destroy the weeds, but to keep the soil
in a loose and pulverized condition ;
next to good tillage and manuring, this
is the most important work of a good
gardener. Within the past few years
many excellent implements for this
purpose have been brought before the
public, and the labor of pulverizing
the surface of the soil has been lessen
ed and the work more thoroughly done
by the use of Jlexatner’s prong hoe , a
most valuable implement, and one
which should be more known than it
is. We find the Warren triangular
hoe also a very good pattern, especially
where any ridging has to be done. We
again repeat what we have often al
luded to in former pages, not to neglect
watering with liquid manure. Plants
in a growing state are greatly benefited
by weekly applications of liquid ma
nures. If guano cannot be procured,
fowl or fresh cow manure, soap suds,
etc., will answer the purpose. The
wonderful fertility of the Chinese and
Belgian gardens is due mainly to the
frequent application of fertilizers in a
liquid form ; these are readily absorbed
by the plants and give them immedi
ately increased vigor.
- kept
filled to its utmost producing capacity.
So soon as one crop has been gathered
the soil must be prepared to receive
another. Keep the surface shaded
with useful products instead of weeds,
which will soon cover the ground w hen
a crop is removed.
Strawberries being, as all other
Spring products, much later than usual,
a good mulching of straw, leaves, or
other material on hand, will lengthen
the crop. Towards the end of the
month, when the fruit is beginning to
decrease in yield, plough and hoe the
beds and keep free from weeds during
the entire season.
Orchards must be sown in peas, or
planted in potatoes. Watch newly
planted trees ; remove all suckers that
appear near the crown of the roots,
pinch in shoots that have a tendency to
outgrow others, and keep the tree in a
symmetrical form ; a little attention to
this will lessen the necessity of heavy
cutting back next Winter-
The fiower beds must be kept free
from grass and well stirred, as for
vegetables; an occasional application of
liquid manure will greatly improve the
plants and bring out the brightness of
the flowers. Plants set in ribbon bor
ders must be kept pinched to keep
them from becoming straggling. Dah
lias can be set out at any time until
June; those planted later will produce
the best flowers; but if the plants have
been set out early and have made a
bushy grow T th, it is desirable to remove
the weakest stems and allow only one
or two of the stronger to remain. As
most probably all, or nearly all the plants
have been removed from the conserva
tory in their Summer quarters, very
little work is to be done there unless
one will not allow a greenhouse to re
main empty during the Summer, when
many classes of plants can be cultivated
there with the greatest ease.
BANNER OF THE SOUTH AND PLANTERS’ JOURNAL.
A PLEA FOR FRUIT GROWING.
A friend whose well known practical
way of doing things has brought him
not only comfort for himself and a
large family, but secured an ample in
come for his old age, all being the re
sult of good farming, writes as follows:
“Your ‘can’t take a paper subscriber’
would change his notion and say, ‘give
me your paper for my boys, for I am
an old fogy and don’t want my boys to
follow my footsteps,’ if he could see
my orchard, now two years old. I ex
pect to sell at least eight hundred
bushels of peaches this Summer; will
commence selling strawberries this
week ; carried them to market in De
cember, January and February.”
Another correspondent says : “Four
years ago I invested SIOO in a choice
selection ot peach and apple trees of
recognized varieties suited to our cli
mate. The cost of cultivation and prun
ing., taken together was less than that
needed for corn up to gathering time;
besides I made the ground pay amply
for the work in raising pea hay and
sweet potatoes between the trees. My
last year's sales of early peaches footed
up upv aids of $300; my apples, in
June, brought $75. The midsummer
peaches were mostly used on the place,
as well as the medium and late apples.
Shockley’s bore well and sold readily
at $2 50 per bushel. Summing up
the net profit of my investment, I find
that the dividend last year was Ist.
Two hundred per cent, in money. 2nd.
500 per cent, in increased comfort and
health in my family, not counting the
pleasure derived from giving my friends
a full share of our bountiful harvest.
ABOUT FLOWERS.
While the great business of life goes on,
while on the farm, in the work-shop, and
in the marts of trade, the muscles and the
intellect are alike exercised, there are cer
4MTfu chgant and refined pursuits which are
industriously prosecuted. Among them
may be mentioned floriculture. Flowers
cannot be eaten, and are not reckoned
among the necessities of life, but they
play an important part in all civilized
countries. No one, perhaps, who has the
ordinary senses with which humanity is
endowed can look without a feeling of
pure pleasure upon a beautiful flower.
- But flowers do more than please the eye—
they delight with their fragrance, and
they charm with their exquisite mechan
ism. In all ages and among all nations
they have been assiduously cultivated, and
have been used at festivals, on bridal oc
casions, for decorating churches, and for a
variety of purposes.
We find in the New York Journal of
Commerce, an interesting account of flori
culture and the bouquet trade in that city.
It estimates the amount annually expended
in New York for flowers at hundreds of
thousands of dollars, and says that year
after year there is an increasing love of
flowers among the people. It appears that
the flowers which are most eargerly sought
after and which command the best prices
are white ones, they being more used than
all others collectively.
It may interest our readers to learn some
of the particulars of the trade in flowers in
that city. The Journal of Commerce says :
As the love of flowers is developed, the
demand for them increases. Boston and
Philadelpaia are called upon, almost daily
by telegraph, to make up the supply for
New York. None but]perfect flowers are I
wanted, rare varieties eagerly sought and j
handsome prices freely paid. Here, dur-1
ing the Winter, the usual price of handsome {
rosebuds is twenty-five cents each ; violets j
bring about the same price per dozen. !
Camellias sell readily for tw-enty-five cents
a piece when in large supply, and range j
from that to one, two and three dollars a
piece during the Winter and near the
holidays. Hand bouquets are sold from
fifty cents upward. What the florists
term good hand bouquets bring five dol
lars ; extra fine, from five to'ten dollars.
Occasionally some are sold for fifteen and
twenty dollars. Baskets of flowers, well
arranged, sell from five dollars to twenty
five. Stands range from fifteen to fifty
dollars, and extra large ones from fifty to
one hundred and fifty. They have been
sold here as higfi as three hundred dollars.
Crosses and wreaths usually range from
five to thirty dollars. A cross of flowers
in one of the Brooklyn churches on Easter
Sunday cost one hundred dollars. Refresh-
ment and dinner tables are decorated with
bouquets ranging from five to twenty
doliars, and sometimes higher. At private
entertainments it is not unusual to see
front one hundred and fifty to three hun
dred dollars worth of floral decorations,
and at a wedding reception given in this
city a short time ago three thousand dol
lars were represented in flowers and plants.
It is said that at the last ball given in this
city by the Americus Club, when Irving
Hall was connected with the Academy of
Music, and filled with exotics and native
plants, rbeks and fountains, rustic arbors,
flowers and singing birds, the Itotanieal
collections was loaned to the club that night
for the sum of six thousand dollars.
Fifteen years ago the average cost of
flowers at a funeral was about ten dollars.
Now it exceeds one hundred, and some
times more than one thousand dollars' worth
is required.
THE LEMON.
It seems that the lemon possesses a cer
tain efficacy against animal poisons.—
Many will recollect what Athenee relates of
two criminals, who had been condemned
| by the Egyptian Government to be killed
I by snakes.
While they were being conducted to the
place of execution, a woman, actuated by
pity, gave them some lemons, which they
ate.’ When afterwards exposed to the bites
of the most venomous snakes, they received
from this no harm whatever.
The astonished Governor had them sent to
the place of execution again on the next day
and in order to assure himself whether the
lemon was the cause of a result so little ex
pected, gave one of them some lemons to
eat, while the other received none. The
former, although bitten several times did
not experience any harm, the second ex
pired in an instant; from this, Athenee con
cluded that the lemon, eaten after a fast re
sists all poisons.
Mr. Sachet, a high officer, who has lived
in the French colonies, has published an in
teresting notice, which has reference to this
subject, “in the year 1862,” he says, “the
Government of Martinique had the fort
Desaix, which had been destroyed by the
English, before the restoration of the island
to us, rebuilt. My company was on duty
in the trenches ; one of my marine soldiers,
while blowing up a stone heap, was sur
prised by a yellow snake (trigonocephale or
lanced shake) which bit lum in the hand. I
had a surgeon called, and he, having made
a crucial incision upon the wound,
pressed out into it the juice of a lemon ; the
hand was already considerably swollen.
“After the operation the surgeon made
the soldier drink a wine-glass full of olive
oil, afterwards from the same glass the
same quantity of rum, in conclusion he told
me to keep the soldier in cheerfulness and to
keep away frtun him all fear. During
twenty-four hours, he continued to adminis
ter lemon juice to the patient every half
hour, and as he absorbed into his system the
violent swelling dimished, and
at noon of the next day only slight traces of
inflammation remained.
Strawberries for the Million. —It is a
burning shame at this day for any farmer
or gardener, no matter where located, to
'be without a clean and thrifty strawberry
patch for family use. The old plea that
the common farmer has no time to fritter
away in raising such “ stuff” never was a
valid excuse for neglecting the kitchen
garden. It is one of the most profitable
parts of any farm No kitchen-garden is
complete without a strawberry-bed. To
one that has always been accustomed to a
bountiful supply of small fruits for home
use'; it is strange, too, and farmers cul
tivating from fifty to two hundred acres
with the ordinary field crops from year to
year, and still these very same men—
“ working hard and still contented”—
without a raspberry, a blackberry, or a
strawberry under culture. These farmers
would think it quite important to keep a
fifty-acre field of corn as clean as an
onion-bed, yet they tliave no such feeling
about strawberries. We have seen many
plats that might with propriety be called
grass-beds with here and there a strawberry
plant, belonging to this class of farmers.—
N. Y. Tribune.
Tiie Zinnia. —This beautiful annual, says
the Journal oj the "Farm , does not receive
the attention which it richly deserves. The
plant is very hardy, requiring no special
e ire, comes into bloom very early, continues
in flower the whole season, and constantly
increases in size and beauty. The blossoms
are usually double, very large, of many col
ors, and are excelled by no flower of the
garden except the Dahlia. Last year our
j Zinnias were unusual" y admired; for many
j long weeks the garden was gay with their
! bright colors, in nearly every shade of
j crimson, with pure white, splendid scarlet,
I deep yellow, buff, pink and salmon. The
I only objection which can be made to the
Zinnia is its stiff foliage and bushy habit,
which requires more room than most an
nuals. It is admirably adapted to large
flower gardens in the country, and quite in
dispensable. where a brilliant display of
flowers is desirable, with but little labor.
A farm with shade and fruit trees set
around the house will sell for two hundred
to one thousand dollars more than if there
were none.
The woman that maketh a good pudding
in silence is better than one that maketh a
tart reply.
A little girl sent out to hunt for eggs
came back unsuccessful, complaining that
“ lots of liens were standing around doing
nothing.”
GENERAL ITEMS.
It is computed that London will con
tain 6,000,000 of inhabitants in 1900.
The poor curates in England are con
templating the formation of a Clerical
Trade Union.
“ Come into the Varden, Maud,” is
the way in whicli musical mammas urge
their daughters to try on their new calico
dresses.
Gen. Wilder, the present Mayor of
Chattanooga, lias been called upon to
become the Republican candidate to
represent the Third Tennessee District
in Congress.
Many cattle are perishing in South
west Virginia for want of food. The
nnprecedcntly long and severe Winter
lias consumed the forage, and left noth
ing to carry the stock until grass.
The question—Why printers did not
succeed as well as brewers ? —was thus
answered. Because printers work for
the head and brewers for the stomach,
and where twenty men have stomachs
but one has brains.
An exchange says fashionable young
people are calling upon somebody to in
vent anew dance. Suppose “ some
body” invents one wherein the young
ladies may dance around the house and
look after things.
The fish native to the Shenandoah
river, Virginia, are said to be endeavor
ing to leave the stream, and great num
bers are being caught. It is supposed
the recently imported black bass are
making it uncomfortable for them.
A drummer went mad at Indianopolis
lately and puzzled his employer in New
York bv telegraphing to send on im
mediately one barrel condensed beef,
thirteen steamboats, one medium white
elephant, and ten gross of June-bugs
(assorted).
Dr. J. M. Da Costa, the well-known
medical writer, has been elected Profes
sor of the Theory and Practice of Medi
cine in Jefferson Medical College, in
Philadelphia, to fill the place made
vacant by the death of Prof. Samuel H.
Dickson.
Virginia continues to receive install
ments of emigrants, mainly natives of
Great Britain, in good circumstances
and supplied with the means necessary
to commence farming successfully.—
Northern men with capital are also
quietly going into the Valley and Pied
mont region.
A gentleman in Chicago, who was ar
rested for cruelty to a miserable looking
horse, was asked if he ever fed him.
“Ever feed him ? that’s a good ’tin,”
was the reply. “ He’s got a bushel and
a Half of oats at home now, only he
ain’t got time to eat ’em. ”
A blind woman at Sioux City, la.,
puts a needle and thread between her
teeth, and with a dexterous movement
of the tongue, passes the thread through
the eye. It is not to be understood
from this that only blind women attain
that “dexterous movement of the tongue”
adequate to the demands of occasion.
Walt. Whitman appeals through the
Washington press for immediate pecu
niary assistance for a man of genius,
whose name, twenty or thirty years ago,
was one of the bright stars in the lectur
ing, literary, dramatic, and poetic firma
ments of America and Europe—now, at
the age of 70, stranded, without a dol
lar, lingering, disabled by injuries, and
down with obstinate, long-protracted ail
ments, starring, slowly dying, in that
city.
The Dangers or Serenading in
Cleveland.— The Cleveland Leader
says : A young Romeo residing upon
Grand street, whose voice has just com
menced to change, and sings any where
along the scale from falsetto to the home
bass, purchased a forty dollar guitar a
few weeks since, and last week thought
he would serenade his Juliette, who
lives on the same street. Hastily chew
ing a few bronchial troches to clear his
pipes, he crept within the shade of a bay
window and nervously began clawing
the instrumental chords, while he softly
tipped a ballad to his charmer inside.
He had just sung
“ There's music in the midnight air,"
when he became convinced that there
was sole leather soaring about through
the atmosphere also, and before he could
strike the chorus he found the stuffing
kicked off the guitar, and himself in the
road using his nose as a shovel-plow.
The girl’s father had returned from
down town at an unusqally late hour—
lienee the result. The warbler is now
practicing on the concertina and getting
his pants half-soled with sheet iron. He
says lie will make the old man sick if the
bellows don’t go back on him.
— m
The American Agriculturist gives the
number of kernels in a bushel of wheat at
660,000 ; equally spread over an acre of
ground this would make the kernels lie a
little over three inches from each other, or
give about ten square inches to each ker
nel. I
[From the N. Y. Express.
OCEAN TRAVEL IN 1872.
From present appearances, the now open
ing season promises to be an exceedingly
favorable one for our numerous trans-At
lantic terry lines. Already we hear of pre
parations for an extensive pleasure travel,
and the stream of emigration from abroad
will probably be greater than ever before.
Os course, a large portion of this great aug
mentation in ocean travel isdue to the much
increased facilities now so readily attain
able. For example, the truly magnificent
steamers of the popular White Star Line
are, in reality gorgeously fitted and
furnished floating notels, and a voyage in
them is one of the most luxurious and en
joyable pleasure trips imaginable. The
vessels composing this line are all new ones,
designed and built expressly for the pur
pose. The hulls are of iron, all being of
the uniform size of 5,000 tons burthen, and
the engines 3,500 horse power. In their
conception and construction, safety, com
fort and speed were the especial qualifica
tion sought for, and experience has
demonstrated that they possess these re
quisites in their highest excellence, and that
they are unquestionably the best passenger
ocean steamers afloat. This fact is so well
known to the fashionable public that
the saloons are sought by the elite on both
sides of the Atlantic. Those about sending
for friends should he sure to select this line
to bring them over, as a passage in the
steerage of these ships is preferable to the
second cabin in some vessels. Mr. Sher
man, Commissioner of Emigration, es
pecially recommends the White Star Line to
emigrants, for the reason that great atten
tion is paid to them. The food is of the
best quality, well cooked and regularly
served. The sexes have separate apart
ments, and each individual a good berth.—
Indeed, in all cases, the best accommoda
tions possible. Withal, the rates of fare
are as low as any first-class line. The latest
addition to the White Star is the “Repub
lic” which has already been widely and
favorably noticed by the press throughout
the country. Her homeward passage, was
one to he remembered. She left Sandy
Hook at 6 P. M. on the 21st tilt., some fif
teen minutes later than the Cnnard steamer
“Russia,” and arrived at Queenstown at 9
o'clock on the Ist inst.—three hours and
some minutes ahead of her companion—
completing the run in 8 days 9 lgnirs. mean
time, a passage at this season seldom ac
complished. This voyage of the “Repub
lic” lias demonstrated the fact that the
steamers, of the White Star Line are the
quickest in the trade, for heretofore it was
assumed by al! that the “Russia’s” time
could not be surpassed.
Value of Hickory. —A correspondent of
the Staunton Spectator , who has been at
tracted by the wanton w r aste of hickory as
an article of fuel, says that “ a cord of this
kind of wood, instead of bringing to the
owner four or five dollars for fuel, if con
verted into axe handles, or spokes fox
carriage wheels, or other useful purposes,
might have been worth, probably, #4O or
#SO. Tnese, too, are articles for which
there is a constant demand among onr peo
ple. You can hardly go into a store, in
((lie town or country, where such articles
iare sold, without seeing large bundles of
handles, spokes, &c.. offered for sale.
Why, he asks, should they not be made
here V Why should not the hickory wood
of our own neighborhood be made avail
able for the supply of the wants of our
own people? Wny should not our own
people pocket the profits of this branch of
manufacture ?’’ Echo answers. “ Why ?”
A Remarkable Likeness. —At one of
onr neighbors’ houses w T as a very bright lit
tle girl. It chanced once that they had as a
guest a minister, and an esteemed friend.—
Little Annie watched him very closely and
finally sat down beside him and began to
draw on her slate. “What are you doing,
Annie;” asked the clergyman. “I’s making
your picture,” said the child. So the gen
tleman sat very still and she worked away
earnestly fori a while. Then she stopped
and compared her work with the original,
and shook her little head. “I don’t like it
much,” she said. “Taint a great deal like
you. I dess I’ll put a tail to it and call it a
dorg!”
A Death-Bed Wish. —The story is
true. Old Mr. Thompson, the doctor
said, had but two hours to live. We
stood by his bedside, and held his hand;
and, as the shadows gathered over his
pallid countenance, we leaned toward
him, and whispered to him :
“ Thompson, have you anything to
say ? Any last words you desire to ut
ter ? Any regrets to express before you
leave the world ?”
He turned His head slowly toward us,
and with a sigh, said :
“ I have but a single sorrow. There
is but one recollection that brings a
pang to my heart as I die. I depart
with the reflection that I have neglect
ed to improve but one great opportunity
of my life.”
“ And what is it, Thompson ? Tell
us frankly, and perhaps we may be able
to promise to amend in such a fashion
that your lust moments may be soothed
and comfortable. ”
“No! no! Max,” he said, “That
j cannot be. My only regret is”—and
here a look of unutterable disappoint
ment came from his eyes—“ my only
regret, in departing, is that I have”never
seen the Fall of Ni:w/a.)/-ra. ”
The best of it is that old Thompson
recovered entirely a few months later,
and, although he lived for fifteen years
afterwards, he never went near the Falls
once.
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