What a pity the boys who attend that school should be so cruel! I just wish I could talk to them about their behavior. They need a missionary.
Bristol, Tennessee.
I am a little boy just ten years old, and have been reading your excellent paper for some time. I can hardly wait for it to come. I'm so anxious to read the continued stories. I liked "Mr. Stubbs's Brother" ever so much, and think "The Cruise of the Canoe Club" splendid. I want to tell your readers about what fun we have had lately. My brother and I thought that we would have a circus. We put up an acting pole and trapeze, caught a mud-turtle and a pigeon, and had a spotted cat, which we exhibited for a leopard. This is my first letter, and I hope you will print it.
Willie S.
I would like to have visited your circus, Willie, and especially to have seen the spotted cat. If I had been there I should have helped you all I could.
Some little folks may be glad of a few hints at this season on the subject of cultivating house plants:
Though most persons like to see flowers in a room, comparatively few know exactly how to manage them so as to keep them healthy and fresh. Nothing is so delightful as to see plants in a window, and yet how common it is to discover them in a drooping and sickly condition, and all for the want of a little knowledge and care!
Where the plants grow from a single stem—as in fuchsias, geraniums, etc.—it is a good plan to cover the mould with fresh green moss, which will hold a good quantity of moisture without injuring the plants. Never water the plants except when they really require it. This you may soon ascertain by simply putting your finger into the soil; when, if it feels moist, no water will be needed; but if the soil be dry, which will not happen more than every other day in autumn, or once a week in winter, then water the plants thoroughly, so that the moisture sinks right through the mould.
Never allow plants to stand in the water; that is, if your pots stand in saucers, take care to remove all the surplus water which runs through the soil. Never use pump water if you can obtain river or rain water; but if you can get only pump water, let it stand for two or three days in the open air previous to applying it to your flowers.
The temperature of the room in which you place your plants should be as regular as possible, all extremes of heat and cold being destructive to good flowers. Let the plants stand near the window on mild sunny days, but in cold cloudy weather remove them to the middle of the room. When the day is warm, open the window, so as to give the plants the benefit of the fresh air, or remove them into the garden. Many of the hardier kinds of flowers will bloom well on the outer sill of the window from May to November. In sultry weather you must shade your choicest flowers from the direct rays of the sun, or they will get parched, and their blossoms will fall off. This is especially the case with the more delicate sorts of fuchsias and fancy geraniums; though the hardy plants of this kind stand a wonderful amount of ill usage before they cease to throw up flowers. You must constantly examine your flowers to see that their pots do not get too full of roots. You may easily discover whether this is the case by turning the pot upside down, when a slight tap will loosen the mould, and leave the plant and its soil in your hand in one compact mass. If you find that the roots run in irregular circles over the surface of the mould, it is a sign that the pot is too small, and your flower must be shifted to a larger one.
It will be well occasionally to sprinkle a little water over the foliage of your plants, which should always be kept fresh and clean. Some of the larger leaves of geraniums and other plants will want now and then to be cleansed of the dust, which will accumulate about them, with a sponge or soft flannel; or you may give them a good wetting by means of a syringe with a fine rose top, taking care to avoid the flowers that are in full bloom. Flower buds, however, thrive well by being constantly refreshed. Twenty drops of liquid manure added to a quart of water will be found useful in hastening the blooming of flowers. This mixture must, however, be applied to the soil, and not to the plant. A good and safe stimulant may be made of four ounces of ammonia, two ounces of nitre, and one ounce of brown sugar, dissolved in a pint of boiling water. This solution, when cold, is to be put in a stoppered bottle, and added to the water you use for your plants in the proportion of a tea-spoonful to a gallon. Generally, however, ordinary rain-water, not too cold, will suffice to keep in-door plants in good condition. If you notice that blossoms fall off before they are fully developed, it is a sure mark that the plant is sickly, and needs removal to a larger pot, or into the open air; but if you attend to the above directions, your favorite flowers can scarcely fail to prosper.
For the outside of windows nothing is prettier than ornamental boxes of mignonette, with a climbing rose or a canary creeper, or even a few pots of convolvulus or creeping-jenny.
The best plants for in-door culture are fuchsias, geraniums, calceolarias, begonias, balsams, cinerarias, dwarf roses, heliotropes, campanulas, hydrangeas, stocks, and mignonette; while, if you are fond of bulbs, a choice variety of tulips, crocuses, lilies, jonquils, hyacinths, scillas, etc., may be reared in separate pots, and then transplanted carefully and tastefully into that pretty receptacle for Nature's loveliest children, the ornamental flower-basket.