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POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



other trimmings afford large quantities of 

 excellent food, a thing also true with grow- 

 ing Sweet Corn. This food I found could, 

 with the help of the silo, be kept any desira- 

 ble length of time, and was often worth 

 nearly the cost of producing the entire crop, 

 especially in the case of Cabbage. By this 

 system Cabbage can probably be grown at 

 less expense to a certain area than Com, 

 reckoning the extra manure needed very 

 low, as it costs really nothing. 



By ensilaging the Cabbage trimmings and 

 leaf tops so often wasted and feeding them 

 with straw (usually to be had cheaply) and 

 hay, when not too high priced, with a liberal 

 allowance of oil-meal, cotton seed meal, 

 bran, malt sprouts and similar foods, we can 

 produce an increase in weight beef at an 

 extremely low cost, at the same time that 

 we are turning out a large pile of manure 

 of superior fertilizing value. 



In this country the feeding of cattle has 

 never been studied as it has been in Europe. 

 Result; a great portion of our oil meal and 

 cotton seed meal is exported to enrich 

 the soils of European farmers. The prices 

 of these excellent feeds are actually gov- 

 erned by the price the foreign farmers feel 

 they can afford to pay for them. Beef and 

 mutton can be shipped to Europe much 

 cheaper than the feed from which it is pro- 

 duced. Let us see to this matter and have 

 the manure, now largely overlooked, for our 

 own use. Let us learn from the European 

 farmers, who sees his cheapest way of get- 

 ting manure in buying and feeding these 

 concentrated foods, even if he loses money 

 (as we here need never do) in the fattening 

 speculation. 



The Successful Gardener. 



JAMES CUERIK, FORMER EDITOR "CTJRRIE'S MONTHLY." 



In gardening, as in all other professions, 

 there are men who enjoy almost unbroken 

 success in all they undertake, and, in time, 

 amass a respectable fortune. Others seem 

 only to meet with misfortune although 

 apparently as well situated and having all 

 needed requirements to properly conduct 

 their business, including perhaps, also, a 

 fully equipped range of greenhouses, and 

 withal a thorough business education, 

 coupled with an extensive botanical know- 

 ledge of plants and plant life. 



The inexperienced may have difficulty to 

 account for this diversity, but not the suc- 

 cessful plantsman. Fully appreciating, as 

 he must, the importance of a good educa- 

 tion including, if possible, botany, he is yet 

 alive to the fact that his success is due to 

 the strict attention he has always given to 

 detail in his business, and particularly to 

 the watchful care he has bestowed on his 

 plants. Such a man when he sees others 

 always in trouble over hard luck with their 

 seeds and plants, rightly attributes this nine 

 times in ten to carelessness. 



It appears strange that any man depend- 

 ing upon plants or their products for a liv- 

 ing would knowingly allow them to suffer, 

 even die, for want of proper attention, yet 

 this is constantly occurring. We have all 

 known men, well equipped in all essential 

 respects, to meet with shameful failure 

 simply because they were careless in the 

 many little points recognized as vital by 

 the successful cultivator. 



Among the matters of first importance in 

 gardening are proper care In seed sowing, 

 the potting of plants, the temperature of 

 the houses, the prompt destruction of in- 

 sects, and most important of all, the judic- 

 ious watering of plants. What does the 

 ability to name and classify plants, to know 

 their seeds, to explain the grand plan by 

 which vegetables propagate themselves, and 

 to understand their heat and moisture requi- 

 sites amount to, if we then fail to apply this 



knowledge to all proper details, and with 

 necessary uniformity. 



What if a man becomes so expert at pot- 

 ting plants, that he can pot thousands while 

 his neighbor pots only hundreds, if after the 

 potting he allows them to suffer tortures 

 from neglect as well as from the ravages of 

 every known insect enemy: 



I recall to mind at this moment an inci- 

 dent of such a kind which came under my 

 direct observation recently. One of our 

 men had in charge the sowing and care of 

 some Primula seeds. When the young plants 

 should have appeared it was found that all 

 the seeds were dead; that inattention was 

 the cause of failure was denied by the man. 

 More seed was obtained from the same lot 

 as the first and which I knew had germin- 

 ated freely with other growers. I gave the 

 seed to the man warning him that Primula 

 seed is almost certain to perish if allowed to 

 suffer from drought about at the germina- 

 tion stage. Naturally I was on the outlook 

 and one day, at the most critical time, 

 found the Primula soil quite dry. I had it 

 promptly watered, but it was too late and 

 only a few seeds started. Here was an in- 

 stance of carelessness, for the man has had 

 an extensive gardening education. 



Understand me, I am an earnest advocate 

 of a thorough education for the gardener, 

 including at least the rudiments of botany, 

 and earnestly urge all young men to include 

 it amongst their studies. But what I wish 

 young gardeners to especially heed are those 

 apparently little things so easy to learn if 

 attention is paid to them, and yet for some 

 far harder than whole vocabularies of botan- 

 ical names. Let him turn to some of his 

 successful neighbor gardeners to be fouud 

 everywhere yet who do not profess to be 

 gardeners. They have learned a few of the 

 first principles of plant culture perhaps, and 

 they practice them faithfully. They watch 

 their plants as they do their children, dis- 

 covering immediately as far as their knowl- 

 edge goes, their every want. Experience 

 brings with it knowledge. In all operations 

 they exercise care and success is the reward. 



Young gardeners, learn to do all things 

 well and do them with your whole might. 

 If then you are in love with your profession 

 you will soon learn much about it ; if you 

 are not in love with it give it up as soon as 

 you can secure anything else to do, for the 

 chances are that you will never make a 

 successful gardener. 



Several Subjects Treated on by the 

 Former Editor of " Rural Life." 



CHRISTIAN WECKESSER, WAYNE CO., OHIO. 



Strawberry Matters. I planted a trial 

 plot of about 30 varieties of Strawberries 

 which caused considerable surprise at their 

 almost uniform productiveness and large 

 size. It lead me to see that the secret of the 

 extraordinary vigor and size claimed for so 

 many new sorts lay in the material that is 

 wheeled into the patch, for in this experi- 

 ment the poorer varieties did comparatively 

 well. This particular plantation was treated 

 with a good supply of stable and hen 

 manure, and a year later some decomposed 

 animals, bones, etc., were very liberally 

 mixed in with the soil. While the exten- 

 sively circulated statements that Strawber- 

 ries will do well on any soil that will produce 

 a crop of Com, may be true, still I am con- 

 vinced that it is poor policy to plant them 

 on any but thoroughly enriched soil, and 

 there is little danger of getting it too rich. 

 The method of cropping from potted plants 

 does not come anyways near paying with 

 us, our profits depend largely on getting 

 the largest possible crop with the least out- 

 lay of labor. A satisfactory and profitable 

 method has been to plant the field to early 

 Potatoes, the first year setting a plant then 



a hill in the rows, and turning the runners 

 into the rows after the Potatoes are dug. 



The Crescent variety is largely planted 

 here for a home market; the Cimiberland 

 Triumph seems to be unequalled; Miners' 

 Prolific is probably giving the best satisfac- 

 tion for amateur culture; .lessie, Bubach and 

 Summit promise well; the Wilson has been 

 discarded as well as the Downing; the Ohio 

 is latest in season, but poor in quality; the 

 Parry and Jewel do not do well. 



About Seeds asd Seed Growing. The 

 excellency of the seeds sown having so 

 much to do with the results from market 

 crops, it is no wonder that gardeners' be- 

 come scrupulous concerning the character 

 of the stock they are about to purchase. It 

 is this idea which leads all reliable dealers 

 to exercise great care in growing and testing 

 the seeds they offer for sale. Tests to prove 

 vitality are important without question, but 

 to my mind the field tests are far more so. 



There is much to be learned by trying 

 different strains of the same varieties on 

 various soils, etc., and comparing them. 

 The possibilities thus opened and In time 

 realized, will, no doubt, pay for the outlay. 



In this as in every other business, natural 

 adaptations to it is what is needed to best 

 succeed. One cannot make the most of his 

 possibilities unless he has a watchful eye. 

 Xew developments constantly unfold, and 

 must be closely observed and noted to appre- 

 ciate which no one can teach like experience. 



Getting varieties mixed, especially of the 

 vine family in many cases may not be very 

 apparent the first year, but in time anything 

 but the supposed varieties would result ; and 

 experience not having demonstrated the 

 necessity of the utmost care in selecting 

 stock-seed , they also are likely to have deter- 

 iorated In desirable qualities as well. 



Lettuce Forcing on Long Island. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentle- 

 man, referring to the extensive Letttice 

 forcing establishments on Long Island , says, 

 regarding culture, that the soil used is the 

 common earth of the fields, enriched with 

 rotted manure. It is not changed every 

 year, as we do in the case of growing Roses 

 or Carnations, but once in a few years. So 

 long as the Lettuces grow well in it, so long 

 is the soil retained. In preparing for the 

 first or September planting, the soil is forked 

 over, and a liberal dressing of rotted manure 

 is added. For the successional crops, instead 

 of adding fresh manure each time, after the 

 plants get fairly started a dressing of some 

 artificial fertilizer is applied. 



In planting, the Lettuce are set out seven 

 inches apart each way— the measure is pre- 

 cise, for it is indicated by a marker. This 

 marker is a very simple affair; it consists of 

 a board the width of the bed, and with two 

 rows of short, nipple-like pegs in it, set ex- 

 actly seven inches apart each way. I ob- 

 served that Mr. Frederick's Lettuce were a 

 little farther apart than were the other 

 growers; he says he plants at eight inches 

 apart each way because he believes he gets 

 finer Lettuce. The plants are set with dib- 

 bles, and there is no eflort made to firm the 

 earth very solidly about the roots. The 

 workmen claim that as the plants are 

 watered liberally as they are set out, this 

 firms the soilt enough. May be so, but I 

 have faith in firm planting. 



Mr Hopkins tells me that for Lettuce they 

 run a temperature of 40° to 4.5° at night, 

 allowing it to get up as high as &)° or 70°, 

 with sun-heat if need be. Of course the tem- 

 perature depends a good deal upon the con- 

 dition of the crop; a high temperature and 

 dry atmosphere are prejudicial to the good 

 development of Lettuce. Young Lettuce, 

 like blossoming plants, love bright, sunny 

 weather, and in the sunniest parts of the 

 houses are always the finest. 



