THE GARDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1315, 2 December 1880, Page 3

THE GARDEN.

Vegetable Garden. TnE whole family of gourds, as common ami tree marrows, pumpkins, pie, preserving, and -water lru-lous. also encumbers, should be planted out on the ridges prepared for them, and be carefully attended to until they have made a free start to strong growth. Water, before being supplied to them, ought to be allowed to stand in the &nn for some hoiu.s previous, as fresh draw a cold water ii fatal to the young tender plants. C'clory must have constant attention. The first planted has had the bone tit of favourable lams, and is well started into growth ; I nit the second lots, which should now go out, will want care in shading and watering ; and a further lot of seed for a late batch of plants should be sown in a moist situation, and not too much exposed to the sun ; and if the ground is rough the seed should be covered with a top dressing of fine soil or sand. These fine seeds must not be buried more than about a quarter of an inch, but the larger kind of vegetable seeds as beet?. Radish, peas, and beans should be covered deeper as the weather becomes hotter and the soil drier, which will insure a better vegetation and freer growth than when they are but lightly covered.

Flower Garden. Trim off the tops of spring flowering bulbous plants. Stake gladioli as they require it, ami plant roots for late blooming. Keep the surface of flower beds loose and open by frequent hoeings. and assist the young plants with occasional waterings. Plant out zinnias, godetias, stocks, balsams, and asters; the latter must have good boil and liquid manure for the production of fine blooms. All rose trees should be c uefnlly looked over, and all suckers nrwu;.? therefrom should be removed, except when plants are on their own roots ; in such cases the removal of suckers is optional. R:ink shoots should be either out out in. order to prevent injury to the othpr portions of the plant, or else be cut bnek to such point as may be necessnry to fill vacancies in the symmetry of the tree. As heaths go out of bloom let them be cut back and repotted if they require it ; when they are grown on the small shift system repotting is required every year. Azaleas, camelias, and rhododendrons require similar treatment, but when these plants attain considerable size, a shift every alternate year is often enough. Continue to pot fuchsias and other soft-wooded plants as they fill the pots they are in until shortly before they are about to throw up their bloom ; as a general rule two months may be allowed between the potting and the expansion of the flowers. FuQhsias need occasional stopping, in order to perfect their symmetry ; but all varieties cannot be treated alike. Growers will observe much difference of habit between the white and darker kinds; discretion, therefore, must be exercised in this work of stopping. It will be noticed by observant amateurs that the finest blooms are produced from plants that have comparatively few branches; excessive stopping increases the density of the plant at tho expense of size of flower. Let advantage be taken of showery weather to plant out balsams, asters, zinnias, cockscombs, and other annuals ; also to sow again of asters, a succession of these being desirable. Water must be freely used on the floors of houses during bright dry weather, care being taken not to allow it to fall on the blooms. Let lawns be mown at least once a week at this season of the year. As the result of a good deal of observation and some talk with cultivators, I am led to the conclusion that the highest state of farming will only be reached through the garden. I have yet to see a farm in a high state of culture where the beginning was not made in the garden I remarked to an old fanner back ill the country, whom I had not seen for eevpral years, and whose farm in the meantime had improved wonderfully, that his place was so changed I hardly knewii "Yes," paid he, "I've been fixing up a little. Tho old wojn.au jxwtwed me to death

about the garden, and 60 I slicked it up a little, and fixed about the house, and it looked so nice I went, at the farm fences and the brush, and saved more manure, and kept killing the weeds, and the crops got better, and so I kept going on, and things do look pretty good now. Wife takes a paper, and I take one, and I get time to read it too, and I used to think I hadn't time for anything."— Mural iVTw Yoalcer. Packing Peaches for Distant Markets. — Pick peaches carefully. Let them be well coloured,, but firm, not toft. Wrap each peach in stiff brown papePJ not in tit-sue. The former is more elastic, and prevents bruising. In packing lay them in with the greatest care. Fill the box full so that the peaches cannot shake ■ about. Put a layer of clean fine oat straw at the bottom of the box, and paper between the other layers and over the top one. — Californian Horticulturist.

The New York Independent 'thus formulates the Positivist's creed :— "I bulieve in the Chaotic Nebula, self-exist-ing- evolver of heaven and earth, and in differentation of its original homogeneous mass, it first-begotten product, which was sself-foimed into scperate worlds^ divided into land aud wats, - self -organised into plants and animals, reproduced in like species ; further developed into higher orders, and finally define^ rationalised and perfect in M^n. He de-* cended from the monkey, acended to. the philosopher, and sitfceth down in the rites and customs of civilisation, under the laws of a developed Sociology. From thence he shall come again, by the disintegration of the culminated homogeneoiibness of chaos. I believe in the wholly Inipei sonal Absolute, the wholly Uncatholic Church, the Disunion of the J Saints the Survival of the Fitte&t, the persistence of 3?/)rce, the Dispersion of the Body, and in Death Evevlabting."