How The Leaves Of The Grape-Vine Affect The "Ripening Of Fruit

A practical grape grower in his letter to the Country Gentleman, says, that he observed that when the leaves of the vines were scant, the fruit did not ripen well, while in another part where the foliage was thick, the clusters of fruit were larger and ripened well. Where a Concord vine was close pruned, yet abundance of leaves retained, the fruit ripened at the proper time, but where the fruit was unusually heavy and close, it did not mature rapidly. Hence he forms the general conclusion that an over heavy crop is tardy in ripening. The cure for this is thinning. It hastens maturity, increases the quality and size of the fruit, favors the wood growth, and the set of fruit for the year following. The same rule will apply to all standard fruits as well as the grape.

How To Drive Away Moles

Take 1 lb. of bean-meal, 8 oz, of slaked lime in powder, 1/2 oz. of powdered verdigris, and 4 oz, of essential oil of Lavender. After mixing thoroughly the powdery part of this composition, incorporate the oil. With a little water work the mixture into a dough. With this form balls the size of hazel nuts; they will harden after having been exposed to the air for twenty-four hours. Introduce them twenty or thirty feet apart into the mole's runs, or one ball may be dropped into the hole of each mole-hill, taking care to cover it up immediately. The smell of these ingredients is so offensive to the mole, that he immediately deserts his ground. The mixture is, at the same time, a violent poison for moles, rats, and all such vermin, - Flore des Serres.

How To Grow Big Crops Of Strawberries

Give room; do not plant too close together; 2 feet apart is better than 1 foot; 2½ by 1½ to 2 feet, is just right for field culture; put a good shovelful of manure under each hill at time of setting. Put out no more plants than you have manure for. We are satisfied that the big crops depend only on the liberality of the food. One strawberry grower plants 2 feet by 1, and gets 2,000 quarts per acre; another plants 2½ by 2 feet, keeps the runners cut, and gets 4,000 quarts per acre. The former cannot understand it, why with twice as many plants he gets only half the crop. We assure our readers, strawberries are like the colossal asparagus, biggest, when they have the most room and best feed; a crop of 1,000 quarts per acre will prove a failing business to any grower. It is better to reduce plantations one-half and manure double.

How To Grow The Verbena

Dexter Snow, who for several years has made the propagation of the verbena a specialty, says of its cultivation : " To grow the verbena successfully, plant them in beds or borders cut in the turf chop the tnrf well, and thoroughly mix with it a good share well decomposed.stable- manure; never, on any account, plant them in an old and worn out garden soil, as they will most assuredly fail. Give them a change of soil each season, as they do not thrive well two years in the same bed. Let the beds, if possible, be where they will have the sun the entire day. By following the above directions, one may have a verbena bed that will be a mass of bloom the entire season, amply repaying the care and toil they may require. - Exchange.