Roses, geraniums, chrysanthemums, Cape jasmins, etc., which have been
put into the garden borders, should be prepared for removal to the
parlor for winter, before frost, else the plants will not be
established in the pots when removed to the parlor, and will thrive
but poorly.
Select the pot which is to receive each plant, draw a circle about the
plant of the size of the pot, then thrust a sharp spade down so as to
cut all the roots at the line of the circle described. Let the plant
remain, watering it _thoroughly_; and if it droops, let it be
sheltered from the sun. In a few days new roots will begin to form
within the ball of earth described by the circle, and in three or four
weeks that ball may be carefully lifted, placed in the pot for which
it was measured, and it will go on growing as if nothing had happened
to it. If one waits till frost, then digs up the plant without a
previous preparation of its roots, it will oftentimes not recover from
the violence during the winter. But by the method suggested above,
roses, etc., will go on growing and blooming through the winter.
* * * * *
There are many who suppose it necessary to leave the second growth of
grass undisturbed, to rot on the ground, in order to preserve the
fertility of old meadows in grass where top dressing with manure is
not resorted to. But such management is oftentimes extremely hurtful,
and the injury is proportioned to the amount left untrodden and unfed.
If the amount left standing, or laying loose upon the surface, be
considerable, it makes a harbor for mice, which will, under cover of
the old grass, intersect the surface of the land with paths
innumerable, from which they cut all the grass that comes in their way.
MARY HOWITT’s USE OF FLOWERS.
Here is another of those beautiful gems which can never be brought to
the light too often. And when more appropriately than in the middle of
our spring-time, while bursting buds and fragrant blossoms are
delighting every sense?
God might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small,
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.
We might have had enough, enough
For every want of ours,
For luxury, medicine, and toil,
And yet have had no flowers.
The ore within the mountain mine
Requireth none to grow,
Nor does it need the lotus flower
To make the river flow.
The clouds might give abundant rain,
The nightly dews might fall,
And the herb that keepeth life in man,
Might yet have drunk them all.
Then wherefore, wherefore were they made
And dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night?
Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passeth by?
Our outward life requires them not,
Then wherefore had they birth?
To minister delight to man—
To beautify the earth.
To comfort man, to whisper hope
Whene’er his faith is dim,
For whoso careth for the flowers,
Will much more care for Him.