194 a Ee “Gea ReaD. HON) MeAR Ge Ay Ziel Nar 
“Suggestions 
APRIL, 1916 
for Effective Planting”’ 
@ Acatalog in which botanical arrangement is 
superseded for your greater convenience by list- 
ing in groups, those plants best adapted to 
varied uses on the quiet country place, sub- 
urban grounds or for architectural effects. 
This 
booklet will be sent only at your request. 
Rhododendrons, Evergreens, 
Trees, Shrubs and Hardy Plants 
@ “Andorra Grown” plants are of the highest 
quality, in wide variety of species and sizes. 
Large Trees and Evergreens for immediate effect 
are a specialty. 
ANDORRA NURSERIES 
Wm. Warner Harper, Proprietor 
Box G. Chestnut Hill 
Philadelphia, 
FLOWER LOVERS 
Send for our 
Plant and Bulb Book 
Describing Finest Gladioli, Choice started 
Cannas; Best strains of Asters, Pansies, 
Petunias, Snapdragons, also Geraniums and 
many other fine Annual and Perennial plants. 
Stocky, hardy, vegetable plants in variety. 
All plants safely delivered. Write now for 
our Free Catalog. 
E. J. SHEAP & SON 
424 E. Euclid Ave. Jackson, Mich. 
from your trees if you keep 
them free from San Jose 
32 GOOD SrorassFISH OIL 
— SOAP NOS | 
TE ICA A to trees. Fertilizes 
Our valuable book on Treeand 
= FREE Plant Diseases. Write today. 
JAMES GOOD, Original Maker, 931 N. Front Street, Philadelphia 
Iris, Lilies, and Japanese 
Garden Specialties 
We have nearly 500 varieties of Irises, the outdoor orchid flower, | 
the most beautiful hardy perennial, all colors. Order early for 
early shipment. 
March to May is the time to plant. Send for catalogue. 
~ 803-4 C Bldg. 
Rainbow Gardens St. Padlenianinneaacs 
Send for Catalog 
Pennsylvania 
Nut Trees 
Plant my hardy Budded 
and Grafted trees and be 
assured of success. At- 
tractive catalogue free. 
Why Not Bud or Graft 
the seedling black walnuts and butternuts on your farm 
over to the improved English walnuts and the hickories to 
fine Pecans and Shagbarks? Complete instructions for doing 
this work free. 
J. F. JONES, The Nut Specialist 
Box G, LANCASTER, PA. 
The Readers’ Service will help you 
do your Christmas Shopping. Write 
us for timely suggestions. 
GLORIOUS GLADIOLI 
Make liberal use of these beautiful flowers for garden planting 
and house decoration. Send us 25 cents and we will mail you 
12 bulbs of our Giant-flowering Gladiolus in a splendid assort- 
ment of colors and markings together with directions for planting 
and our general price list. 
SOUTHWORTH BROS. 
32 Nursery St., Beverly, Mass. 
REES, (Evergreen and Deciduous), Shrubs, Hedgeplants, Roses, Vines, Garden 
Plants, and Everything for the ““Hardy Garden.” 
Our Trees and Plants are the hardiest obtainable. If you are not familiar with 
“Bedford Grown” quality, ask your neighbor. 
We have no Agents 
THE NEW ENGLAND NURSERIES, Bedford, Mass. 
Correspondence Invited 
| the pistil may be ready to accept the pollen 
which you are going to place upon it. Remem- 
ber to have your hands and your knife blade 
very clean. Alcohol is the best possible cleanser 
to use. Now choose the flower from which you 
wish to take the pollen. Cut open the little 
ollen bags of the stamens and rub the pollen 
rom these on to the pistil which has been so. 
safely bagged waiting for its guest, the pollen. 
Again bag the doctored pistil. Try this experi- 
ment with a number of plants and keep a num- 
bered record of each. The stamens from which 
the pollen came represent the father part of 
this experiment; the pistil which receives the 
pollen is the mother part. Keep the seeds 
which you obtain from this experiment and, by 
piaatine them the next season, you can tell for 
yourself whether the plant children are like 
their father or mother, or resemble both 
parents. ; : 
Salsify for Next Year 
VV HEN you plant salsify, which should be 
as soon as the ground can be worked even 
if a freeze follows the planting, put in more 
than you will need when it is ready for use in 
the fall. If planted in late March or early 
April it will be ready to be dug in mid-Septem- 
ber, but it will be neither so large nor so good 
as in late October, and it keeps right on ue 
bigger and better until the ground freezes. 
When this happens there should still be enough 
in the garden for spring use. The following 
spring will find it of even better quality, and 
it is a time when something out of one’s own 
garden is doubly welcome. Go after it as soon 
as the ground thaws enough to use a fork for 
digging it, and get it all out before it resumes 
growth, for then it turns its attention to seed 
production and quickly deteriorates. I have 
ug salsify in April that had been planted in 
March of the preceding year, and found it, after 
thirteen months in the ground, during four or 
five of which it had been frozen, the best of the 
crop. 
Been, W. L. W. 
The Value of Leaf Mold 
HEN a farmer has a piece of new land at 
his disposal, especially the site of a wood 
which has been cleared away or of a fencerow 
that has been thrown out, almost by instinct 
he will plant it first in potatoes. The abun- 
dant crop of large clean tubers that is almost 
sure to result proves the farmer’s wisdom of 
choice in such a matter. Yet few men realize 
that the good crop results from the presence 
in the soil of large quantities of leafmold— 
the product of disintegrated leaves, turned by 
nature’s alchemy to soil again. From soil to 
sap, from sap to leaf, and from leaf to mold and 
soil again is nature’s round of vegetable life. 
And leafmold is the garden’s most natural, 
most complete fertilizer. It contains all the 
elements necessary for growth; and some of 
these it contains in a high degree. The pres- 
ence of much available potash is responsible 
for the fine potatoes grown in new land. 
The same result can be obtained by using 
new soil on old land—by using leafmold in the 
garden. It produces potatoes better than it 
does any other crop, and it is more effective in 
roducing an early crop than a late one. This 
is because the early crop may be gathered be- 
fore the worst heat and drought of summer, 
which are liable to dry out the leafmold. It 
may be applied in any quantity to the land 
being prepared for potatoes. Aside from its 
fertilizing power, it has a mechanical effect on 
the soil, rendering it mellow and friable. 
To test the comparative superiority of leaf- 
mold over ordinary garden soil in the produc- 
tion of certain crops, a pit 6 by 18 feet and 
2 feet deep was dug. This was filled with pure 
leafmold. Beside it was an ordinary garden 
bed of the same dimensions. In each bed there 
were planted vegetable seeds of the same pedi- _ 
gree; in the case of potatoes, the tubers, being 
of medium size, were cut in half, one of the 
pieces being planted in each bed. After equal 
attention, the following results were obtained: 
For tomatoes, green peas, lettuce, sweet corn, 
peppers, and lima beans, the ordinary garden 
(Continued on p. 196) 
