The Packing Book

In the business part of a periodical, circulating from Canada to California, sending after small sums involves the destruction of the work; on such a plan, the Horticulturist would entirely be broken up. With the knowledge of this before them, the several publishers have been compelled to adopt the plan of throwing aside the packing book at the end of each year, and of opening a new one as subscribers indicated their wishes. This plan it is necessary to pursue; with the present number almost all subscriptions cease, and renewals are hoped for. If, in this process, any one feels slighted, the publisher will regret it as much as the reader, and we hope to hear that no such case has occurred.. If all will communicate their wishes fully and freely, we shall have another year's pleasant chat with our old readers, not one of whom will it be agreeable to part from. We trust all will give notice of deficiencies or omissions of every kind.

Packing Eggs For Transportation

A writer in the London Cottage Gardener gives the following as the best mode of packing eggs for transportation when desired for hatching:

"Daring the last three years I have had about 600 dozen of eggs forwarded to places far and near, each egg rolled in paper and packed on end in sawdust - a layer of soft hay lining the top, bottom, and sides of the basket, which is tightly fastened with pliable wire. Their exemption from breakage when packed in this way is marvelous, and I can not learn that their fecundity is in the least impaired by it. Moss and cotton are difficult to manage, and expensive; rolls of hay are clumsy; and, as your correspondent avers, sawdust is cheap, cleanly, and comatable".

Packing Plants For The Mails

Prof. Thurber, in discussing the topic of sending plants through the mails, calls attention to the fact that there is greater danger arising from the presence of too much moisture than too little. The best packing material is sphagnum or bog moss, and this should be just so damp only as to be elastic to the touch. Plants packed in this, if not too damp, will remain for weeks uninjured; that is, if the plants are at rest. Another thing is, to pack close. If sending by mail, take a piece of strong brown paper; lay the just damp, not wet, moss upon it; put the plants upon the moss, and more moss over the plants; then begin at one end of the paper and roil up hard, secure with a string, and then put another paper over for direction. So in packing in boxes; use the moss just damp, and have the box full and crammed down hard, so that there, can be no possibility of moving or shaking in transit.

Painting

E. B- P., (Springfield, Illinois.) You have painted four house a drab, and the cornices, window-dressings, etc, a brown-stone color. The best effect, then, for your blinds, will be obtained by painting the frame of the blinds the same dark brown, and the slats, or luffer boards, the same drab as the house.