fur September, 1920 



319. 



THE QUESTIONNAIRE 



Subscribers arc inzited to make free use 

 of this department to solve problems that 

 may arise in their garden work. Questions 

 on' the orditujry pursuits of gardening, that 

 can be readily ansvicred by applying to the 

 usual reference boohs should not be re- 

 ferred to the Questionnaire. 



Can you tell me where I may obtain 

 Saponin, referred to in a recent issue of 

 "Gardeners' Chronicle," to use in con- 

 nection with lime sulphur. — A. M. — 

 Mich. 



Saponin, recommended for improving 

 the spreading quality of lime-sulphur solu- 

 tion, can be obtained through any druggist 

 from the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, St. 

 Louis and Xew York, and from probably 

 other manufacturers of chemicals. For tlic 

 writer it has worked with apparently excel- 

 lent success. For a quart of the spray ii 

 is sufficient to use as much of the powdt-r 

 as can be held on the point of a small 

 knife-blade. A teaspoonful should be enough 

 for five gallons. It costs about SO cents 

 an ounce. — F. P. M. 



Here and There 



AMERICAN DAHLIA SOCIETY 

 SHOW. 



When the doors of the Roof Garden of 

 the Pennsylvania Hotel are swung open on 

 September 27, 2S and 29, there will be a 

 vista of beauty that in Dahlias has never 

 been equaled in this or any other coimtry. 

 We expect that the immense hall will be 

 tilled with wonderful Dahlia blooms, not 

 only from the fields of commercial growers, 

 but also from the various garden clubs and 

 professional amateur gardeners from far 

 and near. New York is a few hours by 

 train or automobile of the main growing 

 Dahlia sections of the East. 



The different garden clubs within an ac- 

 cessible distance have asked the privilege 

 of exhibiting at our show in competitive 

 exhibits instead of having sectional shows 

 at different points, thinking this will give 

 them the opportunity to see what the other 

 clubs are doing. 



This was suggested by Mrs. John W. 

 Paris, president of the Park Garden Cluli 

 of Flushing. Hundreds of Dahlia growers 

 will be brought together that would other- 

 wise never meet. 



A few years ago we lost our beloved 

 secretary, J. Harrison Dick. Shortly after 

 his death someone suggested that the best 

 new Dahlia brought out be named after 

 him. This Dahlia was produced by a 

 woman member of the Dahlia society, Mrs. 

 Charles L. Stout, of Short Hills, N. J., a 

 great worker and lover of the Dahlia. 

 .\fter receiving the premiums and growing 

 and exhibiting it again the second year, 

 she kindly donated the entire stock to be 

 propagated and sold for the benefit of the 

 Dahlia Society. This beautiful Dahlia 

 with lumdrcds of other splendid seedlings 

 will be exhibited at the coming show and 

 we are looking for wonderful results from 

 'his meeting. 



Today there is no more wonderful flower 

 Krowii by tlie gardeners with such changing 

 results both in color and formation as the 

 Dahlia. Some of the artists of the Florist 

 Fraternity have promised some elaborate 

 florist designs showing the many uses the 

 Dahlia flower can be put to. Boxes of 

 flowers, vases, stands, table designs and 

 other artistic features will be shown. 



RicH.\Rn Vincent, Jr., President. 



Get This New 

 Ten -Ten 



Remember how last Spring, you kind of laughed behind 

 your hand when we started tellin!; you about a new kind 

 of seed and nursery eatalogue called "The Ten-Ten"? 



You laughed first. But we laughed last. You laughed, 

 because you thought we had a laughable idea that ought 

 to be laughed at. We laughed because it developed such 

 a nice, comforting kind of way of ringing our cash regis- 

 ter, when every morning's mail came. 



If I should tell you some of the things that Ten-Ten 

 Catalogue did, that no catalogue ever did before, you 

 would say we surely were lying. But be that as it may, 

 another Ten-Ten is now ready. It's the Fall planting 

 one. Send for i(. 



^ 



fijuliuy T^eKrS* Co 



^ A^ ThP Slfa of The Trge 



~ 'X l\.utK*r/orcl N.J, 





LENGTH OF ROOTS. 



Wc seldom look very far below the sur- 

 face in botany. Roots have so little of 

 beauty that we commonly pay little atten- 

 tion to them unless they arc edible. There 

 appears, however, to be considerable diver- 

 sity among the roots of different plant.s as 

 regards external characters, though inter- 

 nally they are pretty much alike. Studies 

 carried on in the West show very great 

 differences in thc-area over which the roots 

 of different species spread. Some, possibly 

 most, occupy the upper two or three feet 

 of soil, but the roots of alfalfa are com- 

 monly supposed to go down twenty feet or 

 more in search of water, and those of 

 Lygodcstnia juncea of the Western plains 



have been found penetrating to still greater 

 depths. The palm for such performances, 

 however, must go to the buffalo berry 

 (Shcphcrdia ariiophyUa') which is reported 

 to go down to depths of fifty feet or more. 

 As regards total area covered, the roots 

 of Ipomca Icptophylla must be considered. 

 The soil within the reach of this plant is 

 often fifty feet in diameter and teu feet 

 deep. — American Botanist. 



To love one's friend, to bathe in life's 

 sunshine, to preserve a right mental atti- 

 tude — the perceptive attitude, the attitude 

 of gratitude — and to do one's work — 

 these make up an ideal life. — Elbert 

 Hubbard. 



