The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-03-23
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

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Horticultural Society, at Providence,
there was some pleasant talk about
"House Plants"
Mr.. Levi Metcalf said he had been
quite successful this and previous win
ters in raising varieties of hyacinth, and
other plants in pots, in Wardeau case
at window, where the plants had
the sun about two hours and half
every day. The case should be kept
open, or they need expect no blooming
plants. The hyacinths would look,
after the sun had shone in on the
closed case, as if they had been dried or
steamed. At night however when he
lit the gas, he would always close the
case. He would recommend everybody
to have case of this kind, rather than
to grow plants in or upon window.
The case had better be laid on a table,
lined with zinc. Fill the case half full
with good clean sand, put the sand in
dry the moisture would go through
the pots and the glass would be wet in
the morning, sometimes too much SO.
The general trouble in growing house
plants was that people lived in too
warm rooms. Most plants were best
suited by temperature of about fifty
degrees, while some plants grew better
in higher temperature. About fifty
degrees was best for japonicas, gerani-
ums and carnations, while most peo-
pie like to have their rooms at tenn
perature of about seventy degrees.
Where a person had but few
plants, they could be cleared of insects
at any time they chose, but he thought
it indispensable to take out decayed mat
ter from the case as soon as convenient.
He was was in the habit of rearranging
his plants once week or so, as a means
of refinement.
The president thought there was very
little difficulty in growing hyacinths in
the house in pots. He begun ten years
ago, and soon arrived at one result, that
for plants to flourish i'll the house there
must be moisture in the air. He lived
in large house, heated by a furnace,
the air was very dry, the furniture crack
ed with heat, there were seams in the
doors, and the skins of the people resid-
ing in the house appeared parched and
dry. He introduced a system of venti-
lation, and found that a great change
followed for the better. The f>ASpiture
no longer cracked, the seams in the doors
closed up, throat and lung ailments
ceased to trouble the inmates of the
house, and the plants began to flourish.
From this experience he drew the in
ference that the air necessary for plants
was also necessary for the good health of
men, women, and children. He had
been led more lately to believe that lack
of ventilation affected plants even more
than lack of moisture. Sulphuric acid
accumulated in rooms kept closed for
some time, and that acid was fatal to
plants. With his rooms properly yenti-
lated, however, he found that the plants
fiourished as well as in the old-fashioned
houses with fire-places. Plants needed
occasional washing and to be kept care
fully clean of insects. He had carried
one hundred plants through winters, on
all sides of the house, north, east, south
and west, without losing any of them,
and having flowers all the time. Another
gentleman aid that epson salts were eff
fectual in removing insects from plants.
GARDENING AS WoMAN's WORK.
This has long seemed to me an employ
ment in which women would not only
gain health and strength, but in which
the most modest and retiring might find
a congenial occupation, and the products
of which are never deprecated because
raised by woman. A peck of peas
has certain market value, not depend
ent upon the hands which raised them.
A woman who works at making pants
receives fifty cents day, not on account
of the amount or quality of her work,
but because she is d woman. A man
engaged upon the same garments re-
ceives 81 day, not because of the
amount or quality of his work. but be-
cause he is man. 1t is doubtless true
that, in very many cases, the man does
his work better than the woman but it
is not less true that, in a majority of
cases, the difference in price grows out
of the difference in sex. So of the
school. A male teacher receives $1,000
a year, not because his moral influence
is better, not because the pupils learn
more, but because he is o man. A woman
teaches similar school, and receives
$400, not because of the inferiority of
her moral influence in the school, not
because the pupils learn less, but because
she is a woman. Now, happily, all this
is avoided in gardening. A man who
would sell beet is not obliged to put
on a label, "raised by man, ten cents, "
and upon another, "raised by woman,
four cents" but the article brings its
market value. This is great advan-
tage, and one affording special gratiti-
cation to women of spirit. Besides,
gardening is an occupation requiring
very little capital, and, except i'll the
fancy departments, comparatively little
training. Near any of the cities n
woman can earn more upon IL half acre
of land, with four months work, than
she can earn by sewing twelve months,
saying nothing of the healthiulness of
gardening, and tho unhealthfulncss of
sewing-OWr Girls. by DiO Loois.
KEEPING BEEs.--The time is not far
distant when every farmer, and almost
every suburban resident of our large
towns and cities, will have their swarm
of bees as much ns they now have their
hens. There is Mt present n popular
prejudice against the honey-bee, either
as very uncertain possession, or one OF
doubtful comfort and easy management.
But this prejudice is founded wholly on
the ignorance and mismanagement of a
former generation. We shared this feel
ing in full measure till induced by a
friend, few years ago, to accept n
swarm of bees and try our hand at their
management. But II short time was
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