136 



GARDENING. 



Jan. 75, 



start a hotbed, we had better sow these 

 in the greenhouse or a warm window. 

 Lettuces sown now. and planted into a 

 hotbed in Februar3' should be fit to cut in 

 March. Onions sown now and removed 

 to a hotbed in February or early March 

 and to a cold frame in April, should be fit 

 for transplanting out ot doors about the 

 middle of April, and then next July or 

 August think of the difference in size be- 

 tween these and what you sow in the 

 open ground in .\pril! Tomatoes sown 

 now, if you have a pit or greenhouse to 

 grow them in later on should begin to 

 bear ripe fruit in May. But if you haven't 

 such a p'ace February is soon enough to 

 start them. Cauliflower may be sown in 

 the house or greenhouse, and pricked off 

 into other flats as soon as it is is well up 

 to save it from getting spindly; about 

 the end of February or first of March re- 

 move it to a gentle hotbed; prick it off or 

 pot it singly early in March, and have it 

 ready ior planting out early in April. 



Varieties.— Improved Boston Market 

 or Big Boston is a fine lettuce for early 

 use. Get Prizetaker onion, it grows to a 

 very large size and speedily. Lorillard 

 has proved the best tomato with us for 

 this early work. Although not the earli- 

 est variety we like it better than the 

 other sorts either dwarf or running for 

 this purpose. Snowball or Extra Early 

 Erfurt is a fine cauliflower to sow at this 

 time^ot year. 



How TO sow THE SEEDS.— Get little 

 wooden flat boxes say 12x16 inches by 3 

 inches deep, use light common earth, sow 

 broadcast on these, cover quite lightly, 

 press the surface smooth and slightly 

 firm with a piece of board, and water 

 gently. Then place near the light in a 

 greenhouse or warm window but shade 

 the boxes with a piece of coarse paper till 

 the seedlings appear, when the sh iding 

 should be removed. In the case of the 

 tomatoes, a small pot will be big enough 

 to sow in, as we don't want many plants 

 so early as this. As soon as the seedlings 

 in the boxes are well up prepare other 

 boxes of the same size and fill with the 

 same sort of soil or some a little stronger, 

 pressing it firm, and into this prick ofl'the 

 seedlings. Be very watchful lest the seed- 

 lings get weak and spindling. 



Cucumbers.— If vou have got a warm 

 greenhouse and room you can have these 

 all winter; The Telegraph is as good a 

 variety as any. Keep them clean from 

 the very start. Don't let mealy bugs or 

 red spider get a start on them, and to be 

 on the sale side in this respect keep all 

 other greenhouseplantsaway from them, 

 syringe them once a day at least and 

 twice every fine day— early in the fore- 

 noon and early in the afternoon. Leaf 

 disease is very troublesome to cucumbers 

 in the greenhouse; guard againstit rather 

 than try to cure it. This is done by 

 Spraying the plants every week with Bor- 

 deaux mixture, and do the same thing to 

 tomato plants for the same purpose, for 

 tomatoes take leaf disease very badly. If 

 you once let tjiis disease get headway, 

 even Bordeaux mixture is an uncertain 

 remedy. Take preventive i-ather than 

 curative measures. 



Cucumber vines are apt to grow quite 

 long, but don't let them; nip the points 

 out of them when thej' are three or four 

 joints long to cause them to branch; also 

 iiipthe points out of thebranchshootsfor 

 the same purpose. Cucumber flowcrsare 

 of two sexes, male and female; the female 

 one grows at theend of alongthin young 

 cucumber, the male flower doesn't have 

 this. If you let them alone probably the 

 cucumbers won't develop into full .sized 

 fruit, but rather wither up when they are 



as thick as a lead pencil. If you hand 

 fertilize them however, everyone should 

 become a swollen perfect fruit. This 

 should be done in the forenoon when both 

 flowers are dry and open but fresh. K 

 little later on insects enough will come 

 into the greenhouse to effect the same phr- 

 pose. Under fair conditions cucumbers 

 take two months between sowing 

 and first picking. Or cucumbers can be 

 raised in pots now to plant out in hot- 

 beds early in March. We don't like trust- 

 ing them out before that time. In this 

 case they take longer to come into bear- 

 ing. 



Rhubarb. — If 3-0x1 have plentj' of roots, 

 this is very nice now and easily forced It 

 needs to get a good freezingearly tomake 

 It start kindly so soon as this. You can 

 grow it easily wherever you can get a 

 temperature of 60° or 65°, under the 

 stages of a greenhotise, in a mushroom 

 cellar, or in a roomy hotbed is a good 

 place for it. Plant the roots thickly, 

 cover them over with earth up to the 

 crowns, and water them freely. 



Asparagus can be forced in the same 

 way as rhubarb and quiteaseasily. .Xfter 

 the'first of March, considering how cheap 

 and fine we can get the southern outdoor 

 product in the market, forcing it at home 

 doesn't pay. 



Miscellaneous. 



T«B OLD GARDENS OP ST. LOUIS. 



oj P,ofe, 



Who of you remember Dr. Bernard 

 Farrar's garden at the corner of 6th and 

 St. Charles streets where the Wear- 

 Boogher Building now stands? Ask your 

 mothersor grandmothers about it, if you 

 have no recollections of it, and it will re- 

 vive fragrant memories. And that of 

 Mrs. Perry on the site of the Equitable 

 Building. Run up with me to Mr. L. A. 

 Benoist's on 8th and Pine streets, and to 

 John S. Thompson's at 9th and Locust 

 where our Public Library now stands, or 

 the old Berthold Mansion 5th and Pine; 

 and to Theo. Labeaume's on 9th near 

 Washington. I am talking of thirty or 

 forty years ago, gentlemen, and yet the 

 memory of the freshness, the beauty, the 

 sweetness, the home-likeness of the scenes 

 I recall, makes me a boy again. I can 

 almost smell the lilacs, the roses, the 

 lemon verbena, the honeysuckle, and 

 nothing so impresses me with the "rav- 

 ages of time" as the thought of the dis- 

 appearance of these garden spots of old 

 St. Louis. And now let me recall briefly 

 some of the outlying ones. I have in 

 mind Lafayette avenue, southof the park, 

 and westward, where thirty-three years 

 ago (a commons) I captained a base ball 

 team "the Cyclone." Well do I remember 

 the old gardens of Ed. Bredell, Archibald 

 Gamble, David Nicholson. S. D. Barlow, 

 John J. Roe, Jas. B. Eads, Albert Todd, 

 Jas. S. Thomas, Geo. Hoyle and Wm. N. 

 Switzer. Traces of these may yet be 

 found by the curious. Lots 100 to 600 

 feet front and several hundred leet in 

 depth. I can not forebear contrasting 

 these homes in my mind to the palaces in 

 Westmoreland, Portland and Vande- 

 vcnter Places, with their little srrass plots 

 and geometrical flower bed-— needless to 

 say to the great disadvantage of the lat- 

 ter places. And before leaving this I 

 must remind you of the houses of the old 



French settlers along Second, Third and 

 Fourth streets, south of Market, frame 

 and log houses covered with vines, with 

 their modest window gardens bespeaking 

 the kindly refined inmates. 



.\nd now go farther south with me and 

 see the places ol Henry T. Blow and Capt. 

 Fink, and Chas. P.Chout au, and Luther 

 M. Kennett, and Thornton T. Grimsly, 

 and Messrs. Russell. Barnard. Soulard, 

 Price, D'Oench, Smith, Alexander, Law- 

 rason Riggs. Thirty to forty years ago 

 a welcome, and a bunch of sweet flowers, 

 awaited every visitor to these homes. 

 Homes did I say? Yes! These old gar- 

 dens were an integral part of the home — 

 just as much so as the house that shel- 

 tered the inmates. 



.\nd now a long run up to the north 

 end of town along the old Bellefontaine 

 Road. I vividly recall the gardens of 

 Beverly Allen, Jas. E. Yeatman, Col. 

 O'FaUon. Chas. .-\nderson, Samuel Gaty, 

 Isaac H. Sturgeon, Adolphus Meier and 

 Jos. Branch. And in the western part of 

 the old city were the gardens and elegant 

 greenhouses of Judge Wm. C. Carr, the 

 (ilasgows, lohn S. McCune, Edw. Bates. 

 Dan Bell, Hamilton R. Gamble, A. M. 

 Waterman and Jas. Harrison. 



Enumeration of the various old gardens 

 must .sufiice, without specific description. 

 A general description I may give you. 

 These gardens were meant to live in. The 

 flowers were meant to pluck. There were 

 trees and hedges and shrubbery to give 

 privacy, and there were vines, far more 

 sightly than even hj-draulic pressed brick, 

 magnolias, holly, spruce, pines, June and 

 hybrid perpetual roses, snow balls, lilacs, 

 mock oranges, four o'clocks, marigolds, 

 nasturtiums, pansies, peonies, pinks, 

 tulips, flags— all these abounded. And 

 the gardens were room\',the plants hardy 

 and the arrangement natural. The backs 

 of these gardens were just as attractive 

 as the fronts. Ride in on the suburban 

 road and east your eve to either side as 

 you go from Taylor to Sarah (as I am 

 compelled to do every morning). .\sh 

 barrels, tin cans, old boots, garbage 

 boxes and filth are found in profusion. 

 And reflect if this be the condition of the 

 lots where they are open to inspection, 

 what must be the condition along the 

 alleys of our city which are never visited 

 by any but scavengers. Oh for an ordi- 

 nance requiring people to put their names 

 and numbers on their back gates! 



(ientlemen, that wise, good old citizen, 

 in whose memory we are gathered here 

 to-night, had a deep motive in providing 

 for this annual banquet. Perhaps none 

 of us can c|uite fathom it. But acontrast 

 between the old iind the new in the mat- 

 ter of our homes, in the matter of our 

 gardens, may serve as a hint of what 

 Henry Shaw, of blessed memory, had in 

 mind" I hope to live to see the full fruit- 

 age of his hopes, as I believethem to have 

 been (and as I think our chairman (Mr. 

 Trelease) conceives them to have been) a 

 population in St. Louis educated in the 

 matter of flowers, a City of Homes, sweet- 

 ened and refined by influences like those 

 of the old gardens of St. Louis. 



In closing I may be pardoned if I ven- 

 ture a practical suggestion in furtherance 

 of this consummation. The people, lam 

 persuaded, would turn their city lots 

 into gardens, if they but knew how to go 

 about it, in an economical and intelligent 

 manner. Why should not plots be laid 

 out in Forest Park, to be under the 

 charge of the Park Commissioners or in 

 the Missouri Botanical Gardens, for the 

 purpose of practically educating the peo- 

 ple in this? In one plant nothing but 

 hardy hybrid perpetual roses, in another 



