34 THe iG ACR DEN | Ml AY Gy Awa Ng 
FEBRUARY, 1916 
6. Garden Supplies. 
new garden lines, ete. 
and neatness. 
7. Tools. Money spent for garden tools is never regretted. Is your 
equipment complete? Couldn’t it be improved? Are there not up-to-date 
attachments which you could get to go with your present wheel-hoe or 
cultivator, perhaps doubling its efficiency at very slight expense? 
8. Repairs. Now is the time to replace broken or worn parts. If 
the axles are worn and the wheels wobble, get new ones. A needed 
repair not only means better work, but it saves the rest of the machine. 
Actually try your sprayers and other things to be certain that they 
are O. K. 
9. Fertilizers. Buy your fertilizer early. Put it off and you may 
find that your local dealer hasn’t what you want. For a complete fer- 
tilizer buy a “market garden” brand; it costs more per ton—but less for 
actual plant food! In addition to this, get nitrate of soda, muriate or 
sulphate of potash, and fine ground and coarse ground bone. A small 
amount of Peruvian guano, dried blood, or a high grade tankage should 
also be procured. Low priced fertilizers are expensive. Get lime or 
humus, or both, if your soil needs them. 
10. Irrigation. Last but by no means least, get in touch with the 
makers of the modern irrigation supplies. You can make no other gar- 
den investment which will yield such sure and big returns as a modern 
overhead watering system. 
Labels, twine, trowel, raffia, plane supports, 
Get supplies of these as they make for efficiency 
ESTED SEEDS. Good seedsmen test their seeds; so do good gar- 
deners. ‘There is no test like your own. To get quick results, cut 
out some squares of blotting paper; lay them on a flat half full of wet 
sand; and on each count out and place the number of seeds you want to 
» test. Keep in a warm place and ‘cover the flat with a 
Don’t Blame : eae : : : 
ane of glass. Most varieties will germinate in a few 
the Seedsman dene if they have life. A better way, however, is to 
test them in soil. Plant them in rows in shallow flats prepared like 
those for starting seeds. - All your seed should be tested, although you 
are sure that some of it is good, so that you will know how thickly to 
sow it when you plant, and besides you won’t then unnecessarily blame 
the seedsman for errors he didn’t commit! 
Cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables started last month for 
forcing should be grown on rapidly now, repotting as necessary. If 
moe is no hot section in the house, give the warmest corner available 
to them. 
| ies YOU are to get pious spring things started promptly, and have no 
greenhouse, attend at once to getting your hotbeds started. Get the 
new frame ready or overhaul the old. Get fresh horse manure. Stack 
it in a square heap, preferably under cover. Add leaves or fine straw if 
Hotbeds it is clear manure. Restack, “inside out,” every few days, 
Mos when the smoke begins to rise, for three or four times. As 
ce soon as the manure is ready for the bed place in the frame 
twelve to thirty inches deep, and pack down tight, with four to six 
inches of soil replaced on top of the manure. One cord of manure will 
be enough for five to seven sashes, according to the depth used. You can 
make a new hotbed now by building it on top of the manure, a cord 
doing for three sashes. Overhaul and repair sash. If you have not a 
greenhouse get some of the-dowble glass sash for the earliest and ten- 
derest things especially. : 
Flats. For growing plants, in handling pots, etc., you will need plenty 
Section through a “flat”? showing how drainage is provided, depth of soil, ete. 
of “flats.” Make more now. 
size, into three-inch sections. 
drainage is necessary. 
Plant Supports. Again—don’t further delay getting your supply of 
pea brush, bean poles, tomato supports and other things of this kind 
that you will need. Put this on your list to be done by the fifteenth, 
at the latest. ; 
BEFORE THE END OF THE MONTH 
Saw up cracker boxes, preferably all one 
Do not have the bottoms quite tight; 
Coldframes. Get your coldframes and sash into shape at once to take 
care of the plants which will be soon overcrowding the hotbeds and 
seeking for more space. Old sash frames, or wooden frames of the 
same size, may be covered with “protecting cloth” to take the place of 
glass sash over cabbage and other hardy plants which are to be “har- 
dened off.” Patch up the old frames or make up new ones so that you 
will have plenty of room. ; 
Planting. The earliest seeds (see above) may be planted as soon as 
the hotbed is ready, usually about the middle of the month or even 
before. A thermometer put into the soil should show a temperature 
receding to 80 degrees or so before planting or sowing seeds. 
Pruning. Delay is getting dangerous. Finish up at once your pruning 
of fruit trees and ornamental trees (not shrubs) that may have been 
damaged by the winter. Maples and other things which start very early 
should be attended to first; otherwise, an early spring may start the 
sap before you get the job done. Pruning is very difficult work; if you 
are not familiar with it, study directions for the different types of trees 
and conditions carefully before you begin. Paint all large wounds as 
soon as dry. 
Spraying. Follow pruning at once with a last winter or dormant 
spray, either lime-sulphur or miscible oil preparations should be used. 
If you have not feed! it early in the fall, try lime-sulphur; it has a 
fungicidal effect as well as being an insecticide. Spray thoroughly; 
otherwise save your time and trouble and go fishing through the ice— 
it is fine sport and will do your trees just as much good. If you use oil, 
try to get it on a few days before a rain is likely to occur. 
Chicken House. This is a good time to have a good general thorough 
house cleaning, whitewashing, etc., to have perfect sanitation for the 
spring arrivals. And why not get a few real pedigreed chicks this 
spring? A dozen such will shell out more eges than three dozen scrubs. 
The record hen has just laid 312 eggs in 365 days—how many of yours 
would it take to equal her? 
Ice. Take a look at the house to see that there is still plenty of saw- 
dust or other packing over the top layers, if they have settled consider- 
ably since filling. 
Tools. Once again—a word to the dilatory is sufficient, if they are 
wise! (P. S—We shall not remind you of this many times more! ) 
M ORE ROOW. As the season for potting up and transplanting comes 
on, every available foot of space in the greenhouse will be required. 
In fact, temporarily it may have to be overcrowded. There are iron 
fittings made especially to clamp to side posts and centre posts, or to 
Get Ahead in extend from sash bars, to hold temporary shelves. 
Get these, and your boards to fit them, ready in 
the Greenhouse advance. The most promising plants may be ruined 
within a few days by having to be put in an unsuitable place after trans- 
planting. 
Sow small seeds directly in furrows 
Pin-Money Crops for the Home Gardener—sy F. F. Rockwell 
II. 
Baiting the Dollar Trap With Onions 
[Eprror’s Note.—This is the second article in a series on “Pin-Money Crops.” Last month the possibilities of and limitations to raising a pay- 
ing crop as a side issue on the home plot were discussed in a general way. In this article the author (who has done very successfully what he tells 
about) takes wp one crop im detail, and again lays emphasis on the limitations and the necessity of studying the special local conditions. 
Neat 
month's article uill be directed particularly to the not inconsiderable number of people who feel that an affection for garden flowers and some 
success as an amateur cultwator should open up a channel of profitable money returns.) 
HE chances are ten to one that nine tenths 
of the onions sold in your town are grown 
hundreds of miles away! And do you 
realize that onions are, of all vegetables, the 
most suited to produce big profits under inten- 
sive cultivation in your garden? 
“Wasy money!” you say? But it isn’t; and if 
you've ever spent more than fifteen minutes at 
a time on your knees a-straddle an onion-row, 
separating the strangling weeds from the strug- 
gling seedlings, youll know why! All the 
same, onions offer bigger possibilities of profit 
than anything else in the garden. Good crops 
bring returns of from four hundred to one 
thousand dollars an acre—in exceptional cases, 
profits have been as high as one thousand an 
acre! However, don’t stop now to figure out 
how many hundred dollars’ worth you can 
grow. But if you are in earnest about making 
a reasonable amount of pin money in return 
for a reasonable amount of reasonably hard 
work this summer, consider these facts: 
More dollars’ worth of onions than of any- 
thing else can be produced on a given small 
area; the character of the crop is such that the 
smaller the area, the larger the crop is likely 
to be, in proportion; almost everywhere there 
is a large local demand for good onions; they 
are not pou eanle, and may be marketed over 
a period of several months; they are well 
adapted for selling at retail, for the highest 
races hand labor being the chief factor of pro- 
uction, the big grower has little advantage 
over the small one; and the prices you can get, 
even if you sell to your local market (instead 
of at retail) will be from ten to fifty cents a 
