A GARDEN SYMPOSIUM 267 



"Disinclination for personal labor" is the way R. J. 

 Clark sums up his reasons for poor gardens. "When 

 I commenced to make a garden," writes l\ H. Sher- 

 idan, "I put everything in too close, and had to do too 

 much hand work, and the vegetables were small, and 

 I would get discouraged and think it was cheaper to 

 buy them than to raise vegetables." 



Another common cause, according to John Tye, 

 is that the garden is left entirely for the farmer's wife 

 to look after, "and although farmers' wives on an aver- 

 age make good gardeners and raise splendid vege- 

 tables, the farmer himself fails to put up a suitable 

 fence around the garden, and some morning when the 

 good wife goes to the garden to pull some lettuce or 

 radish for breakfast, she finds cows, hogs or sheep 

 have been there before her, and have eaten or de- 

 stroyed nearly all the vegetables." 



The main trouble, according to A. T. Giauque, 

 arises from getting so much absorbed in the field work 

 as to forget to cultivate it until the weeds have hidden 

 beyond discovery all the delicate plants that are strug- 

 gling for standing room, or from "planting doubtful 

 seeds in uncertain rows, then turning the garden over 

 to the women for tending, and to Providence for the 

 fruits." 



Other reasons advanced are : "Lack of nitrogen in 

 the soil," "want of manure," "loose planting of the seed 

 and at improper depth," "inexperience," "lack of nat- 

 ural liking for gardening.'' 



Figliting Insects. — Prize winners were requested to 

 describe the most effective remedy for insects, accord- 

 ing to their experience. Paris green received the most 

 votes, its use being recommended for potato bugs in 

 the majority of instances. Several preferred to com- 

 bine bordeaux mixture with the green, thus destroying, 

 or rather preventing, blights, etc. In using these two 



