212 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1916 



The Pennsylvania 



Railroad 



N 



famous for its fine, well-kept station lawns, 



has for years used "PENNSYLVANIA" 



Mowers, because they ■ do the best work 



with least labor, and give the longest, most efficient 



service. 



" Pennsylvania" 

 Quality Lawn Mowers 



do not require re-sharp- 

 ening after a dozen years 

 of use. They have auto- 

 matically self- sharpening, 

 crucible tool-steel blades, 

 every one oil-hardened and 

 water -tempered — an exclu- 

 sive feature. 



Perfectly adjusted bearings and 

 parts insure permanent align- 

 ment and easy driving. The 

 long wheel-base makes smooth 

 work possible over uneven 

 lawns. Last a generation. 



lY/Bpi ll<=>d~J Proci "The Lawn — Its Making and 

 1 ~* r l CC Care," an instructive book 



written for us by a prominent authority, gladly mailed 

 free to anyone interested. 



SUPPLEE-BIDDLE HARDWARE COMPANY, Box 1575, PHILADELPHIA 





"State i^$t^lbr^0^5^ Sake 



66 



STRAWBERRY PLANTS THAT GROW 



99 



"PROGRESSIVE" the Best of the Fall-Bearers, also all 

 of the Standard June Sorts, including our Wonderful New 

 Seedling, "COLLINS." We also have the Best Varieties 

 of RASPBERRY, BLACKBERRY, CURRANT and 

 GRAPE PLANTS. Our 1916 Catalog describes all 

 of these, also tells how you can get one year's subscrip- 

 tion to the GARDEN MAGAZINE Absolutely FREE. 



C. E. WHITTEN'S NURSERIES, Box 10, BRIDGMAN, MICH. 



Garden Sources of Potash 



MANY experiment station experts believe it is 

 useless to try to raise crops without potash. 

 Such crops as beets, potatoes and asparagus require 

 more potash than some other crops, but our garden 

 soils need applications of this important plant food 

 from time to time in order that flowers, fruits and 

 vegetables may be grown successfully every season. 



There are three essential plant foods — nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash. To supply the latter 

 element in sufficient quantity seems to be giving our 

 scientists the greatest concern at present. Since 

 1895 there has- been a gradual increase in the im- 

 ports of potash from Stassfurt, Germany. Less 

 than 150,000 tons of potash were imported in 1895, 

 but more than 1,500,000 tons were imported during 

 the fiscal year ended just before the outbreak of the 

 European war in 19 14. This source of potash 

 supply is now cut off for an indefinite period, so that 

 gardeners are thrown on their own resources to sup- 

 ply their soils with this important plant food. 



But every garden contains sources of potash of 

 its own. For the past ten years I have grown crops 

 in abundance by simply utilizing the home garden 

 supplies of potash. This element may be derived 

 from many waste products of the orchard and gar- 

 den in sufficient quantity to supply the requirements 

 of growing crops. 



There are natural supplies of mineral salts in all 

 arable soils. Some of these soils contain more 

 potash salts than others. Muck, peat, gravelly 

 and sandy soils are very deficient in potash, but 

 clay loams usually contain sufficient unused potash 

 salts for good gardening. These mineral substances 

 are the natural supplies of potash in soils. Where 

 cultivation has been carried on for years, the potash 

 in surface soils has been largely consumed by grow- 

 ing crops. Unless potash in some form is annually 

 supplied to meet the drain made by crops, soils de- 

 crease in fertility and crop production becomes more 

 and more difficult. But subsoils of clay loams and 

 other soils rich in mineral salts contain large quan- 

 tities of potash though not in readily available form. 



The present problem of the gardener is to bring 

 these supplies to the surface and to render them 

 available for growing plants. Deep plowing or 

 deep spading of garden soils will aid in this result. 

 It becomes a matter of proper cultivation of the soil. 



But there is another factor beside cultivation. 

 The use of organic matter will aid greatly in making: 

 mineral potash available as plant food. In fact 

 organic matter serves a twofold object — it gives up- 

 its contained potash and renders more soluble the 

 mineral salts of potash. 



All organic matter contains a certain quantity of 

 potash. Beet and mangold leaves contain a high 

 percentage of potash. When these waste products 

 are turned under, their decay not only liberates 

 their contained potash as food for subsequent crops, 

 but they also increase the solubility of potash min- 

 erals in soils. Deep cultivation and organic manures 

 will supply our gardens with a supply of potash that 

 might otherwise be useless. 



The chief sources of potash supply around or- 

 chards and gardens are many substances usually 

 allowed to go to waste entirely. Dried weeds, hedge 

 trimmings, prunings from fruit trees and bushes,, 

 shade-tree cuttings, corn cobs, and other waste 

 materials found around every garden. The best 

 way to secure the contained potash in these mater- 

 ials is by burning. The resulting ashes contain 

 large quantities of potash in readily available form. 

 The amount of potash varies with the material 

 burned. Analyses of various organic ashes give- 

 the following percentage in potash: 



Corn cobs 10 to 40% 



Hedge trimmings 9 to 13 " 



Prunings from fruit trees and bushes . 8 to 10 " 



Weeds and other organic wastes . . . 5 to 7 " 



These garden supplies of potash are practically 



The Readers' Service will gladly furnish information about Retail Shops 



