The Garden Magazine 



Vol. VI.— No. 3 



Published Monthly 



OCTOBER, 1907 



One Dollar a Year 



Fifteen Cents a Copy 



Double Numbers. Twenty-Five Cents 



The Great Gardening Opportun- 

 ities of October 



TJEAUTIFY your home grounds by 

 ■'-' planting trees and shrubs. 



Have an ideal fruit garden by using small 

 fruits and dwarf trees. They are the best 

 for small gardens. 



Perfect your garden of perennials by 

 multiplying the best kinds, buying new 

 ones and rearranging the whole with an eye 

 to color harmony. 



Resolve to make your home grounds 

 attractive every day this winter by planting 

 shrubs with brightly colored bark and bushes 

 whose berries retain their beauty until 

 March. Also try a few hardy winter flowers. 



Glorify your lawn at a cost of $3 by scat- 

 tering a thousand crocuses in it. Next 

 March when you see them bob up smiling 

 after a snow storm you will get $30 worth 

 of pleasure. Fill all your long grass with 

 flowers by naturalizing daffodils and other 

 bulbs there. 



THE FOUR ADVANTAGES OF FALL PLANTING 



i. You avoid the spring rush. This is 

 reason enough and to spare. 



2. You can get better quality and more 

 variety to choose from, with less risk of sub- 

 stitution. 



3. You avoid summer drought and delay 

 in shipment. More plants are lulled by 

 these things than winter cold. 



4. You do a better job because there is 

 more time. Labor is cheaper and easier 

 to get. 



"DON'TS" FOR BEGINNERS 



Don't plant stone fruits in the fall, i.e., 

 peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines. 



Don't plant the trees that have punky 

 roots, i.e., magnolias, sweet gums, tulip trees. 



Don't plant the thin-barked trees, viz., 

 birch and beech. 



Don't plant anything in Canada in the fall 

 without local advice. The farther north, 

 the shorter the season and the more risk. 



Don't buy extremely cheap stuff from 

 people that nobody ever heard of before. 

 Buy only of firms that have a national repu- 

 tation to maintain and who advertise per- 

 sistently. 



OVERCOMING THE ONLY OBJECTIONS 



The only dangers in fall planting are from 

 winter damp and cold. The preventive for 

 the first is drainage; for the second mulching. 

 After the first heavy frost has sent the field 

 mice to their winter quarters mulch every 

 newly planted tree, i. e., cover the ground 

 about it two to four inches deep with strawy 

 manure, last year's autumn leaves or other 

 litter. 



BEFORE OCTOBER 1ST 



Order all your bulbs even if some of them 

 are best planted in October. The earlier 

 you send your order the better quality you 

 get and the less chance there is of substi- 

 tution. Pot all bulbs for indoor bloom as 

 soon as you can get them. 



Transplant a few evergreens, being care- 

 ful to get a large ball of earth and cover it 

 with burlap. (See August and September 

 numbers.) 



Visit the nurseries and select your trees, 

 shrubs and fruits when it can be done most 

 intelligently. Then you won't buy a pig 

 in a poke. You will have more varieties 

 to select from. You can see which kinds 

 stand summer drought. You will be welcome 

 at the nursery in fall, but not during the 

 spring rush. 



FARM WORK IN OCTOBER 



Harvest buckwheat: "When chestnuts 

 are brown, cut your buckwheat down." 

 The plants must be dried thoroughly to get 

 rid of surplus moisture. Unless harvested or 

 cradled when there is rain or dew there will 

 be danger of losing considerable grain by 

 shelling out. Consequently many farmers 

 cut it in the very early morning or even on 

 moonlight nights. The crop should not be 

 stacked but threshed direct from the field. 

 If allowed to stand in a mass it will sweat 

 and be damaged. If placing it in mows 

 is necessary, it should be put in layers with 

 straw between. For the benefit of the birds, 

 particularly quail, leave a little buckwheat 

 uncut near their brush cover. 



Put away the farm tools; there is hardly 

 a thing you will need before spring and next 

 month the snow may come. 



Practice seed selection. In husking corn, 

 have everyone save all the well-filled ears; 

 then go through the lot and make a final 

 selection for next year's seed. 



Two important things to do this month 

 are to build concrete storage cellars for 

 root crops and to pull the beets, carrots, 



potatoes, rutabagas, turnips and winter 

 radishes and to put them in them. 



FALL WORK IN THE ORCHARD 



The question of fall planting of fruit trees 

 and small fruits compared with spring 

 planting will never be fully settled. This 

 much is certain, however, that hardier fruits 

 like apples and pears are more successfully 

 planted in the fall than peaches or plums. 

 Some rules are: Never plant trees in the 

 fall on land that will be wet through the 

 winter. Plant only well matured specimens, 

 not stripped immature trees. Plant early 

 enough to give trees a chance to make some 

 roots before the ground freezes (not later 

 than October 15th). If you do no planting, 

 it twill pay to dig the holes in the fall any- 

 way for spring planting. 



Raspberries and blackberries are more 

 successfully planted in the spring. The 

 suckers can be obtained now, however, and 

 heeled in. Young plantations are better 

 than old ones from which to obtain stock 

 because they are more thrifty and less apt 

 to be diseased. 



Currants and gooseberries will do much 

 better if planted in the fall, because spring 

 planting is sure to be delayed and the early 

 growth lost. Two-year-old plants are the 

 best. Mulch them heavily with strawy 

 manure. The tops may easily be protected 

 from the cold by covering with straw but 

 do not put it on too thick or the plants 

 will heat. 



Protect young fruit trees from the danger 

 of winter girdling by mice and rabbits. One 

 of the best ways to do this is to enclose 

 the trunk with a piece of tar or roofing 

 paper. If you neglect this, at least clean 

 out the grass and weeds at the base of 

 the trees. 



In gathering fruit to be stored through 

 the winter, avoid handling it more than once 

 by picking into the boxes or barrels that 

 can be put away in the cellar. In a dry 

 cellar, fruit will keep better if it is open or 

 stored in bulk. Most cellars, however, are 

 damp and poorly ventilated and fruit will 

 keep better barrelled. If it is too dry, and 

 the fruit shrivel, supply water. This is 

 often necessary in cellars with cement 

 bottoms. 



By all means attend the state or county 

 Fair, not only for the fun there is in it but 

 to keep up-to-date on the latest labor saving 

 agricultural implements. 



The ground where potatoes are to be 

 planted next year should be prepared now, by 

 spreading over it a heavy dressing of stable 

 manure and plowing it under before the 

 ground freezes up for the winter. Leave 

 tne surface rough, as the frost will then do 

 half the work of cultivating. 



