THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



309 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



CHRISTMAS Every land has its peculiar 



custom of celebratuig Lnrist- 

 mas; the festivities in some 

 POTTING SHED. countries consisting entirely 

 of a general merry-making and feasting, while others 

 adhere to strictly religious ceremonies. But all tend 

 to bring cheer and gladness to the hearts of their peo- 

 ple. 



One of the most unique events associated with the 

 Yuletide ever attended by the writer, occurred this 

 year in one of the New Jersey towns. Gathered in a 

 potting shed of one of the large commercial florists' es- 

 tablishments, some 150 folk, men, women and children, 

 joined together to celebrate a community Sunday 

 school festival. There was no one creed represented, 

 but all denominations, with employers found rubbing el- 

 bows with employees, and the children of the gentry 

 mixing with those of the more humble in joyous fes- 

 tivity. 



It was truly an evening for reflection. Arranged in 

 a corner of the shed was the old fireplace and its red- 

 brick chimney, grandmother's chair, lighted Christ- 

 mas tree, and other settings, carrying our memories 

 back to earlier days, from which we were occasionally 

 aroused by the rounds of the watchman, entering from 

 a house into the potting shed to quickly disappear 

 again through the door of another house. The whole 

 atmosphere of our surroundings brought to us the 

 realization of the brotherhood of man, and that before 

 God all are equal. 



Affairs like these should be encouraged and indulged 

 in, whenever the occasion arises. They need not be 

 confined to a Christmas in a potting shed, for any cele- 

 bration where all can mingle will cement a closer 

 friendship among the people of a community, of which 

 more is needed in most places. Such events serve to 

 produce better citizens and better communities. 



"An acre of ground and a 

 LITTLE living" is not a joke in 



LANDERS. Southern California, and the 



management of the Panama- 

 California Exposition at San Diego in 1915 proposes 

 to prove it to the satisfaction of every "Missourian" or 

 other doubting Thomas. One of the unique and in- 

 teresting places of the exposition will be that section 

 devoted to the "Little Landers." 



A tract has been set aside for this demonstration. 

 There the visitor will find "farms" of one, two and 

 three acres in extent, each with its home, its dependent 

 family, and these families living there just as thousands of 

 small home owners in this State are living, with no 

 other source of income than from the tiny ])atch of 

 land. Though residing in the heart of the exposition 

 grounds, they will be as entirely dependent upon the 

 resources of these little tracts as are the many families 

 in the State having no other resources than their in- 

 significant land holdings. 



Such "Little Landers" are found all over California. 

 They constitute the business backbone of manv com- 

 munities. It is a part of the business of the San Diego 

 exposition to show what man can do when he applies 

 brain and sinew to natural resources, not only in Cali- 

 fornia, but anywhere in the United States and other 

 countries where humanity is making progress. 



"The American farmer has 

 WORN-OUT swept across the continent, 



LAND. leaving abandoned farms and 



worn-out fields in his wake, 

 until now we have come to the point where all our ara- 

 ble land has been occupied, and we can no longer wear 

 it out and abandon it. We must not only maintain 

 ourselves on the land we have, we must maintain a 

 population that will soon be double and treble what it 

 now is. 



"Where should we look for information if not to 

 the countries of an equal degree of civilization that are 

 much older than our own and have a much greater 

 population in proportion to their area? Here in Europe 

 are farm lands that have been in cultivation for a thousand 

 years and are producing larger crops than our fertile 

 virgin soils and no one ever thinks of these farms wear- 

 ing out. On the other hand, they become more valua- 

 ble and more productive year by year. It is a notable 

 fact that has been repeated over and over to the Ameri- 

 can farmer, that the average production per acre of the 

 European countries, particularly England, France and 

 Germany, is over twice the average production of the 

 same crops in the L'nited States. Wherein lies the dif- 

 ference? It is not because European lands are natural- 

 ly more fertile than American, but because they are 

 farmed more intensively. The land is better prepared 

 for the seed, plowed deeper, worked more before seed- 

 ing, and as far as possible the lands that are to be 

 planted in the spring are plowed in the fall and allowed 

 to weather during the winter, a system that deserves 

 to be greatly extended on American farms." — Farms. 



IS SAWDUST There seems to be a wide- 



TMTTTPrnTTt; TM spread prejudice against 



INJURIOUS IN sawdust or, at any rate, con- 



HORTICULTURE? tempt for it when used as a 

 manure. American gardeners are like English ones in 

 this respect, it seems, and so three years ago they 

 started experiments to try to justify their point of 

 view. These have been continued for three j'.ears on 

 a large scale on greenhouse plants chosen for the pur- 

 pose. Perhaps this was because they are more deli- 

 cate than outdoor plants, or because conditions could 

 be better controlled. Anyhow, the results were some- 

 what extraordinary, and do away with any ground for 

 suspicion, it would seem, against this cleanly material. 

 It cannot be denied, however, that sawdust is nearly 

 useless as a source of plant food, and therefore it is 

 matter for surprise that when an average was struck 

 for the three years, sawdust actually came out top and 

 gave slightly more blooms than the other litter which 

 was tested against it. This was straw or chopped 

 maize stalks, superior stuff as regards plant food, sure- 

 1}', to sawdust. Cow manure was chosen in each case, 

 and was used by itself as a further source of compari- 

 son without any litter at all. Roses, Chrysanthemums, 

 Sweet Peas and Carnations, manure-loving plants, were 

 the ones chosen, and we learn that no harmful effect at 

 all could be traced to the use of sawdust. Pyroligneous 

 acid tuay he of use in this way. It could not have 

 contributed even to the humus of the ground in the 

 same way as the other litter, for it did not decay be- 

 fore use, and possibly it was this comparative absence 

 of fermentation that effected the results mentioned. 

 — The Garden. 



