The Garden Magazine 
VoL. VII—No. 2 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY 
[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 
generally taken as a standard. Allow six days’ difference 
for every hundred miles of latitude. ] 
Where the Nurseryman Helps 
A RAY of light has been shed into 
our dark life by a reader who wants 
to be called ‘Old Western Warhorse.” 
“Did you know that the nurserymen have 
reformed?” he asks. ‘“Twenty-five years 
ago I used to think that with a few brilliant 
exceptions they had worse taste and less 
ability than any other men in business. 
Their catalogues contained gaudy chromos, 
horrid old wood cuts and mendacious wash 
drawings. They overpraised everything; 
and_ substitution — whew! 
“But, bless my soul, what a change. 
The whole outfit seems to have experienced 
a moral and esthetic regeneration. You 
can see it in the catalogues. Last year I 
handed my stenographer a copy of the March 
GARDEN MacGazineE and told her to send 
a postal card to every nurseryman who 
advertised therein. My! I’ll never do that 
again! But I winnowed them down to a 
dozen which I love so well that I have had 
them bound and the volume, spick and span 
from the binders, lies before me.” 
We never expected to see a catalogue as 
sumptuous as that swan song of Pitcher 
and Manda in 1895, but there are already 
some that clearly surpass it. One contains 
nearly five hundred photographs all taken 
on the nursery grounds. 
But more wonderful still, the whole idea 
in selling has changed from mere “‘boosting”’ 
everything indiscriminately to rendering 
Specific service. For example, one classifies 
all the perennial flowers according to season 
of bloom, color, and height, so that you can 
be sure of having flowers in your hardy 
border every day in the year. Another is 
a veritable guide to landscape gardening, 
indicating the best trees and shrubs for 
every purpose, such as hedges, plants for 
MARCH, 1908 
} ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
| FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY 
winter effect, ground covers, tall evergreens, 
material for formal gardens, etc. 
The big change, of course, is the special- 
izing. We have catalogues wholly or 
chiefly devoted to evergreens, roses, straw- 
berries, grapes, peonies, phlox, rhodo- 
dendrons and their allies, water-lilies, berried 
shrubs, Japanese plants, and even gladioli. 
And in all of them you notice the same 
tendency—a desire to get orders not by 
overpraising plants but solely as a result of 
helping you to make a better garden. 
Another evidence of progress: Look at the 
specific facts given, the height of every tree 
and bush—and sometimes even the width. 
Why the nurserymen as a class have 
changed we don’t know. Most of them, of 
course, have always been straight. Perhaps 
the general increase of wealth is chiefly 
responsible. But the great reductions in 
freight and express rates on plants and seeds 
have done wonders. Without them we 
should never have had three great nurseries 
in the South competing for Northern busi- 
ness. Anyhow, the whole nursery business 
has made a complete change of front within 
the last five years and it behooves each one 
of us to keep informed of the great improve- 
ments that are now being made. 
THE BIG JOBS 
Before March ist, if possible, do two 
things. First. Order seeds, plants, tools, 
fertilizers, and spraying materials, so as to 
avoid the spring rush, the risks of late plant- 
ing and the possibility of the thing you most 
want being ‘‘out of stock.”” Have compas- 
sion on the poor clerks who work till mid- 
night every evening from the middle of 
March through April. 
Second. Make or buy a hotbed and cold 
frame and you can probably save their value 
in a single year, for every square foot 
under glass is worth a nickel. You can 
have tomatoes from four to six weeks 
longer in this way. 
From March ist and rsth, or before the 
frost is out of the ground, the big jobs are 
four: 
1. Start vegetables and flowers under 
glass or on the window sill for the early crop. 
2. Repair the old lawn or make a new one. 
3. Get all the manure you can and spread 
it evenly and thinly on the ground. Scatter 
nitrate of soda on the lawn and on the beds 
of asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry. 
4. Spray scale-infested fruit trees and 
ornamental shrubs with soluble oils or lime- 
sulphur wash, both of which you can get 
at any seed store. The last chance to use 
strong solutions with little danger is before 
the trees wake up. 
About March 2oth, or as soon as the soil 
is mellow, plow and harrow your garden, 
or spade and rake it. 
Plant deciduous trees and shrubs. 
About March 25th, plant hardy roses, 
pruning them a little more severely than 
established ones. 
It you want a detailed memorandum list 
of all the things to be done in March, so 
that you can plan ahead and check off the 
items as far as they are done, see GARDEN 
MacazineE for March 1907, page 61. 
FARM AND FIELD WORK 
The first farm work of the season is to 
get the tools in working order so that there 
will be no delay when they are needed. 
Order parts needed to replace those that 
are lost or broken. Mend the harness or 
buy new. Repair fences and make or 
build any new ones. Make repairs on 
barns and sheds while they are practically 
empty and while you have time. Graft 
the fruit trees and do the necessary pruning 
in the orchard. 
In the fields there is but little work. It 
does not pay to plow wet lands. Wait until 
the March winds have dried them out. As 
soon as frost is out of the ground, do any 
necessary ditching and draining. Look 
over the recently seeded grass lands as soon 
as frost is out and reseed the bare places 
that have winter-killed. Liming of fields 
should be done early as well as hauling out 
and spreading the winter accumulation of 
manure. 
Keep the stock out of the pasture lots 
until the grass is dry. There is no pasturage 
yet, and their hoofs cut up the sod and ruin it. 
FLOWER GARDEN HINTS 
Begin now to plan for flowers next winter 
if you have a greenhouse. Don’t let the 
opportunity pass. For instance, canna seed 
put into flats in March will make good 
sized plants for winter flowers. Marguerite 
carnations can also be treated that way by 
potting up before frost sets in. Start coleus 
cuttings from the old stock plants. Helio- 
trope is one of the most grateful winter 
flowers because of its fragrance. Oxalis, 
stock and Torenia may also be sown now 
in heat, and vinca sown in a frame and pot- 
ted off later will be of flowering size for 
winter and fall. 
Palms and ferns that have been indoors all 
winter may now be repotted as they are start- 
ing into growth. 
Seed new lawns that were prepared by 
breaking the ground last spring. Fertilize 
first and see that the grade is right. Sow the 
seed at the first opportunity. Rake over old 
lawns. Trench deeply all beds that are to 
be planted this spring. 
