The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-25
FARM AND GARDEN.

buds. Cut your flowers, then, all of
them, before they begin to fade. AdOrn
your room with them; put them on
your tables send bouquets to your
friends who have no flowers or ex-
change favors with those who have.
All roses, after they have ceased to
bloom, should be cut back, that the
strength of the root may go to forming
new roots for next year. On bushes,
not a seed should be allowed to mature
iScribner'S.
SEA-WEED MANURE-It has long
been customary on the sea-coast to use
sea-weed for a manure, its value for
this purpose being considered by many
as scarcely inferior to stable manure.
This applies, however, to sea-weeds
proper, the eel-grass being of very
different character, and, on account of
its slow decomposition and different
chemical combination, of much less
value. An especial feature of the true
sea-weeds consists in their large per-
centage of heterogeneous matter, and IN
the great amount of ash. The princi-
pal objection to the use of sea-weed as
n manure consists in its very small per-
centage of phOsphoric acid. This,
however, can be very easily remedied
by the addition of some phosphate,
such as bone-meal. In the large amount
of potash and gypsum it contains, sea-
weed serves admirably as a dressing for
grazing lands. It is also very we'll
suited to potatoes and other roots, to-
bacco, fax, and growth requiring a good
deal of potash. As an element in COM
post it is quite unrivalled, owing to the
readiness with which it is decOmposed
and the intimate combination which it
enters into with other substances.
A FLOWER ALWAYS IN BLoOM.-A
writer in the floral cabinet says If you
will have the kindness to tell your little
friends that the rose-colored perpetual
Oxalis is always in bloom, you will
Oblige a lover of flowers. It requires
all the sun she can give it. It blooms
all winter in sunny window, and all
summer, if plunged in cinders and coal
ashes under the pot. My abutilon, ma
lakoff, mesopotamia, and Thomsonii
are always in bloom. When l repot
them, wash the pot in warm water
water the earth in hot water, and let it
stand short time before [ set the plant.
When cool enough, lift your plant care
fully; see there are no worms around
the roots. After potting it, set the pot
In pail of warm water for two hours.
If covering slips with grass does not
cause them to strike, let your subscri-
Der give them bottom heat. Bore holes
In the bottom of a box, and put pieces
of fOwer-pots over the holes prepare
the earth, set you slips, and if you have
no greenhouse or hot-bed, set the box
on warm bricks, keeping the slips moist
and changing the bricks as they cool.
Keep the glass over them, and nine out
of ten will strike.
STIRRING the soil during the growing
season cannot be done too often, pro-
vided it is not wet enough to pack. As
an antidOte to droughts it is unrivaled.
A man who can stir the soil every day
about his plants and trees, can virtually
defy a drought. The operation seems
to create moisture, or at least to attract
it, both from the subsoil and atmos-
phere. The weeds, of course, have no
chance under such q system, and the
moisture they would require and take !
goes to a purpose "where it will do !
most good" Horse-culture is the |
cheapest mode, but in gardens too |
small for horse-culture must be de- |
pended on. The difference in effect be-
tween frequent and occasional stirring
will astOnish those who have not before |
observed it. The man who has plenty |
of muscle and time, and little or no
money to expend on fertilizers, will find !
that frequent stirring of the soil will go !
a long way to supply the absence of
fertilizers. In fact, culture without
manure is worth much more than ma
nure culture. When both can be dis
cretely applied it is advisable, but
when a choice must be made, I shall al
ways choose culture.-N y. Observer.
EMPLOYMENT FOR FowLs.-TO keep
fowls from eating eggs and each others
feathers, and to keep them in health,
give them something to do. There will
generally be no trouble about feather
eating when fowls have their liberty all
the while and are well-fed, and the |
same is true of egg-eating. But when |
it is necessary to confine them, the own |
er should make it his study to keep |
them at work. One good method |
is to cover their yard, when not in grass,
with some sort of litter straw, leaves, |
cornstalks, salt, hay, sea-weed, vegeta- |
BILE tops, ETC., and then scatter grain |
over this freqently, and cover most of |
it. This viii necessitate '' scratching" |
for it, and they will undertake it with
out any further urging. Where litter |
is abundant, the work of the fowls in |
scratching may be utilized in getting |
the litter reduced to very fine filth,
as farmers say of ground well prepared |
for seed. They will scratch a moder- |
ate layer of straw or salt hay out of |
sight after a while, if allowed to do so,
and even corn stalks, also, after suffi-
cient exposure to the weather has made
the stalks brittle. Another good plan
is to pillow or spade their enclosure fire.
quently; SOW it with corn or other
grain, and harrow or pillow this under.
It Will soon sprOHt and while the green
tops will be eagerly eaten, the half-de-
composed grain is also a dainty food
for towels, and the work of scratching
it out will furnish agreeable employ
ment and exercise till it is all gone.
And still another excellent plan is to
lightly bury beef-heads, or tough |
pieces of refuse meat, in the chicken
yard In due time, in warm weather,
this becomes inhabited, which the hens
are not slow in discovering. Of course
is restored to, and their re-
ward is not only the crop of offensive
insects themselves, but the putrid flesh
also, 10 amounts proportional to their
EOTbuudJeINy d CulCheu >
gizzard is a clientele laboratory of such
power that everything going into it is
ieodorized and purified before being
into flesh and eggs, and so
there need be no scruples about feeding
such articles. Let the owner exercise
his ingenuity to keep his towels at
scratching, and it will close the door to
many vicious habits. l.
1t is an oddity of Scotch humor
,eat it plays continually around the
l verest religious faith in the world. !
Inv reader of Dean Ramsay is prepared
o believe the story that this notice was
ntolr r,nsted in the Yestihule of a kirk ,