THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



409 



So many believe that thev do 

 BENEFITS OF A not have time to "fuss" wi'th a 

 GOOD GARDEN garden. But there is more to a 

 garden — a farm garden — than 

 the few hours of work that is necessary to give it each 

 week. The most of us love the country and the joys and 

 comforts of country life. Unfortunately our race has 

 interpreted the expression "comforts of life" as meaning 

 wax floors, Turkish rugs, steam heat, electric lights, and 

 a bath room adjoining every chamber. A comfort of 

 life that is a comfort in every sense of the word — a com- 

 fort that is denied the average city' dweller, except in a 

 second-hand fashion — is a good home garden. For this 

 we w'ish to make a plea. No one can afford to deny 

 himself the fruits of a kitchen garden. It is economical 

 because it conserves health and minimizes the cost of 

 supplying the family table. The dietary of the human 

 race is an integral part of man's efficiency. An engine 

 may, and does, continue to perform its work day after 

 day upon the same fuel ; but the fuel that makes the man 

 go is the food that is taken into his system. Now the 

 human machine is so constructed that a wide variety of 

 diet is not only necessary, but highly agreeable from the 

 standpoint of making life worth while. A garden is a 

 home comfort in no less a sense than is the water that 

 is piped into the house. The one helps to make the 

 human life efficient, and the other lessens the toil of the 

 workers. Therefore at this season let us resolve to have 

 a good home garden. It is not "jumping the plow out 

 of the furrow" of our story to drop the hint that many 

 a boy — and girl, too, for that matter — has gone in search 

 of the flesh pots of the cities, because there might be 

 found less of potatoes and turnips and more of sliced 

 tomatoes, savory melons, and crisp celery. — Exchange. 



The Department of Agricul- 



FOREST tur, figuring up the losses by 



FIRES fires on the National Forests for 



the calendar year 1912, finds 



that they were the lowest of recent years. Less than one 



acre to every thousand of timbered lands was burned over, 



and the total damage is estimated at $75,290, or less than 



one dollar to every 2,C00 acres of area. 



The good record is attributed to, first, favorable 

 weather conditions in most localities, and second, the in- 

 creased efficiency of the fire-fighting organization. .\s 

 Co]igress makes available the means for extending the 

 .system of communications on the 'National Forests, the 

 equipment of trails, roads, telephones, and lookout sta- 

 tions is vearly enlarged and the fires, it is said, are dis- 

 covered more quickly and fought more rapidly. 



.A.n especially good showing was made by the forest 

 officers last year in extinguishing fires outside the Na- 

 tional Forests before they reached the forest boundaries. 

 Such fires constituted more than one-sixth of all fought 

 by the forest rangers and guards, .\bout nine-tenths 

 were extinguished before they touched the forests. Of 

 the fires within the forest boundaries more than 18 j^er 

 <-ent. were on lands in private ownership. N'earlv one- 

 fourth of the extra exjjenditures due to fighting fires — ■ 

 that is, expenditures outside the time of* the regular 

 forest force — was incurred in fighting these fires. 



Lightning caused more fires than any other agency, 

 followed by rai' roads, campers, and incendiaries, in the 

 order given. The greatest losses occurred in .\rizona, 

 .Arkansas, and California, in which States there was also 

 the largest proportion of fires caused Ijy lightning and by 

 incendiarism. 



Of the 2,472 fires, over 75 per cent, were put out 

 before 10 acres were burned over, and nearly 50 per 

 cent before one-quarter of an acre was covered. 



Foresight is one of the great- 

 THOSE WHO est assets of the farmer. Those 

 LOOKED AHEAD men who have added most to 

 our knowledge of the breeding 

 of animals and plants have been men with active imagina- 

 tions. They have looked ahead, planning bigger things 

 than the present justified, always hoping and working to 

 fulfill these ideals, but never forgetting that many plans 

 would fail and that disappointments were inevitable. 



When Abram Renick and the \\'arfields brought the 

 best Shorthorn blood into Kentucky they looked ahead 

 to the time when this breed would be the leader in .Amer- 

 ica as in England. When Reid and others were develop- 

 ing a strain of prolific corn they looked ahead to the time, 

 then but dimly forcasted, when the breeding of grains 

 would be almost as carefully done as the breeding of 

 animals. \\^e have a few great landed estates with per- 

 manent buildings, fields rich and well tilled, orchards and 

 roadways all planted to hardy trees : the builders looked 

 ahead. ., 



Two factors now seriously check the permanent im- 

 provement of farm communities. The first is the ab- 

 sentee landlord, who cares little for the permanency of 

 his farm even though his personal profit would be con- 

 served if he treated his place as a more permanent busi- 

 ness. The second is the widespread unrest among farm- 

 ers and the ever-present readiness to consider an ofTer 

 for the farm and a consequent removal to another sec- 

 tion. If the farm-owner does not consider his home a 

 permanent one he will certainly not plan with a view 

 to the future. We need more men who will carefully 

 settle themselves to a lifework in a particular branch of 

 farming and plan accordingly, not impatient for imme- 

 diate results, but with a bigger vision for the future, and 

 then stay by it until the consummation is complete. 



PLANTS THAT ^'^^ influence of soil and cli- 



ARE POISONFD ^^^^^^ upon the edibility of plants 

 has been receiving special at- 

 BY SOIL tention in South Africa, where 



the disease "Lamziekte," in cattle has caused such de- 

 struction that certain newly developed districts are 

 threatened with ruin. 



In his address to the South African Association, Dr. 

 .Arnold Theiler has pointed out that in this disease, unlike 

 others that afifect farm stock, the microscope and trans- 

 mission experiments have failed to indicate a cause, and 

 he accepts as well founded the theory developed with the 

 government botanist that the toxins in the grasses of 

 certain areas are concerned. 



.An indefinite belief has grown up that grasses on some 

 soils and under certain climatic conditions yield a poison 

 that afi^ects cattle only after long partaking. This view 

 has been confirmed in Natal, where the plant Senecio 

 latifolio from one locality was fatal to horses and cattle, 

 but proved to be harmless when grown in another place. 



Feeding experiments begun at various stations are ex- 

 jjected to give in time a thorough test of the question. 



This shrub, of which the 



SPIREA variety .Anthony Waterer is 



BUWALDA probaioly the most frequently 



planted, should be cut down to 



within two or three inches of the ground before growth 



starts in the spring: also as soon as the first flowers have 



faded the heads should be cut ofl^ with an inch or two of 



stem to secure a succession of flowers and young growth. 



It is the brilliant. coloring of this young growth which is 



really the most charming feature connected with this 



species, and which canrfot be obtained exce];ting by this 



method of pruning. — .Arthur Smith. 



