She Loved To Groan

Aunt Mary - What a cold-hearted world this is! I was so sick all night and not a soul in the house came to see what was the matter with me.

Ella - That's not it at all, auntie; we all heard you groaning, and we hadn't the heart to interrupt you.

We know how you do en joy a good groaning, you know. - Boston Trans cript.

Shipping Cut-Flowers To New York. Mrs. R. A. S

We would advise you to write the dealers whose names we have given you, and ascertain what sorts and quantities of each they can handle. This will prevent confusion later on.

Shittim Wood

It is reported that botanists who examined the rare trees growing near Nashville, Tenn., have decided that they are the "shittim wood of which Noah's ark was constructed." From the popular description given of them, they are closely identified with the Acacia seyal, which grows in the deserts of Arabia, and is common about Mt. Sinai, and is commonly accepted as the shittim wood of which Moses made furniture for the Tabernacle. Noah made the ark of gopher wood, which some think means cypress, but in all probability it is a general term for such trees as contain resinous inflammable matter. The immense size and character of the ark favors the probability that more than one certain species was used in its construction. - W. C.

Butler, Philadelphia.

The Sibley (Pike's Peak) Squash

John jeannin, Jr. (page 58), is greatly mistaken in saying that this variety is a poor keeper. We grew five acres of it and three of the Hubbard, and believe the Sibley is the best keeper of all the squash family. - W. A. R. Morehouse, Rochester, N. Y.

Single Dahlias

Yes, single dahlias surpass by far the double forms, and grow splendidly when treated as annuals. Get a paper of choice seeds, sow in the hotbed or in pots, plant out when warm weather has come to stay, and a more varied or beautiful flower border than will be produced cannot be imagined.

Gaillardia picta var. Lorenziana has had its day as a novelty, and is now on the list of necessities among hardy annuals. If the seed is sown early in pots in the house, or in a hot-bed, the plants will come into flower in June, and increase in beauty until cold weather cuts short their existence. A light frost does not discourage them in the least ; it only stimulates them to greater effort in the way of producing flowers, that, by the way, make charming bouquets.

Single Rose

Mr. Barket, gardener to Lord Penzance, has just presented to the Royal Society of Horticulture, of London, a new variety of single rose, for which he has received a first-class certificate. The new acquisition is a cross between Rosa canina and the yellow rose Harison. The flowers are pale salmon, yellow in the center, and are about 2½ inches in diameter. - Journal des Roses.

Single-Pole Grape Training

The objection that might be raised to the single pole system, and which would tend to confine it to amateur culture, is the fact that much labor is involved in bringing each vine into position, bending the canes, tying, pinching the suckers, etc. But so doing, and the systematic attention to these minor details, is what brings the sure crop every year. The vineyards on the Rhine are enormous, and are all laid out on the single pole plan. That being the great crop, it dare not fail, and every bit of labor pays. Of course the American system of putting in the plants and waiting for the fruit is by far the easier; but it is an off year when a crop is realized. I have had but two poor crops in seventeen years upon vines trained to single poles - A. F. Hofer, lowa.