TRAINING A RUBBER PLANT. A tall, straight stemmed Rubber tree finds more admirers than branched specimens, which are more squat in shape. Those who like the bush form best can make their Rubber Plants branch at any desired height by cutting off the end of the stem. The part cut away may he rooted in heat in damp sand. The best time to cut them is in late winter, just before the time for spring growth. Branches will soon be sent out after the top of the main stem has been cut away.
MOLES. A lady piquantly relates her trials with an army of moles that she cannot "catch, kill, or drive away," although she has tried everything she has ever heard of. It is a bad case when mole traps will not catch, or corn soaked in Fowler's solution of arsenic and dropped along their runways will not finish them. In this case I can only refer her to other said-to-be cures that other people have tried and have faith in. A dozen witnesses testify that the seeds of Ricinus (Castor Bean,) dropped here and there in their tunnels will make them leave. A Connecticut lady says a sure remedy is to drop handfuls of salt here and there in their runways. Others put ball potash or concentrated lye in their runs but that is cruel, for it burns wherever it touches. Some use sawdust soaked in tar, or with a stick punch holes here and there along their tunnels and drop in each hole a small quantity of kerosene (coal oil). These two last substances will kill choice plants if used close to their roots, so use caution. An ingenious soul, rightly conceiving that the mole is highly sensitive to smells made a number of stiff pasteboard tubes and put in the center of each a stinking moth-ball. Buried in the runways there was a dearth of moles directly. I heartily approve of the mole's judgment in leaving moth-ball-scented premises. I have felt like it myself.
TROUBLE WITH LILIUM CANDIDUM. Some of our friends have had trouble with Lilium Candidum. They purchased fine, large bulbs, potted them, and had only leaves for their pains. That was because they were procured too late. They are not nearly so tractable as Lilium Harrisii. It is their natural disposition to start to growing early in autumn. If kept dormant beyond this period their flower-buds blast. Get them if possible in August or the first half of September. There is no difficulty in getting them to blossom then.