James Vick's plan of catching slugs is as follows: "Take some pieces of slate, or flat stones, or flat pieces of tin, and lay them about in the garden among the plants, distributing them very liberally; just at sundown go out and place a teaspoonful of bran on each piece of slate or tin, and the slugs will soon become aware of it, and begin to gather and feed on it. In about two hours, when it is dark, go out again with a lantern and a pail containing salt and water, and pick up each piece on which the slugs are found feeding, and throw slugs and bran into the brine, where they instantly die. It is well, also, to go around in the morning, and many slugs will be found hiding under the pieces of slate, and can be destroyed in the brine. By following up this method persistently for a few weeks the garden may be effectually rid of the nuisance."
A correspondent of the Iowa Register advises us as to the proper manner of performing this operation: "To heel trees in properly, a trench should be dug on high, dry ground from two and a half to three feet deep; one side of which should slope from the bottom at an angle of 35 to 45 degrees. The trees should then be set against the sloping side of the trench and sufficiently apart to allow of fine earth being brought in close contact with every part of every root. When the roots and bodies of the trees are carefully covered, the trench should not only be filled but rounded up so as to form a mound over them. When air spaces are left among the roots they are liable to mould and rot. And very frequently, when they have not been buried sufficiently deep, the outside bark becomes detached from them and will slip off when they are being taken from the trench."
A correspondent of Gardening Illustrated (England), says this is the way to make an asparagus bed: Trench the soil at once two spits deep, and work in stable manure as the work proceeds, or if procurable, seaweed and plenty of sand, or any gritty substance, such as road scrapings. It should be left as rough as possible on the surface until April next, when the young plants will be in the best condition for planting, viz., with shoots a few inches long; then draw wide drills, and spread the roots of the plants out, covering with fine sandy soil, leaving the tips of the shoots just peeping through the soil, and if mild showery weather prevails the growth will be rapid. Put some pea-sticks to support the growth and keep it from suffering by wind waving. Merely keeping from weeds is all the other attention required until November, when the old tops may be cut off, and a dressing of rotten manure spread on the surface of the bed, to be lightly forked in during the following spring.
The Rural New Yorker says as follows: We plant the Cuthbert raspberry for late, the Hansel for early—both are of a bright red color, and suitable for market as well as for home use. For a yellow plant the Caroline. It is hardy and productive, though not of the first quality. For canning, or for table use, if you like a fruit full of raspberry flavor though a little tart, Shaffer's Colossal. It is rather dark in color for market, and perhaps a little soft. For a hardy, early, red raspberry that is sweet and delicious for home use, plant the Turner. For a raspberry that is excellent in every way, plant the new Marlboro. For the earliest and most productive of blackcaps, plant the Souhegan. For a larger and later blackcap, plant the Gregg. For currants, plant the Fay's Prolific for red, and the White Grape currant for white. For grapes, plant the Lady for earliest white, Moore's Early and Worden for early black. For later, plant the Victoria or Pocklington, for light colored; the Vergennes, Jefferson. Brighton or Centennial for red, and the Wilder, Herbert or Barry for black. For strawberries, try the Cumberland Triumph, Charles Downing, Sharpless, Manchester (pistillate), Daniel Boone, James Vick, Mount Vernon, Hart's Minnesota, and Kentucky. You can not select a better list for trial unless by experience you know already what varieties will succeed best on your land.
Gleanings by an Old Florist.
PROPAGATING HOUSES AND OTHER THINGS.
In the days of our boyhood the propagating house was, in the more pretentious nurseries, a very sacred place, under lock and key, and some of its mysteries supposed to be so profound that prying eyes of other establishments were not welcome.
Bell glasses in those days were thought to be indispensable, and some of the plants desired to be propagated were found to require months, sometimes nearly a year, before they could be transferred from the cutting pots. The hot-water tanks, and other bottom heat appliances of the present day were then unknown; and these appliances have resulted in greater simplicity of management. Still we are bound to admit that the demands here generally embrace a class of plants that, as a rule, are found to root the most readily, while those that have always been known to tax the propagator's skill, as the Heaths, New Holland, and others called hard wooded plants, are but little called for in this market.