132 
The Readers’ Service is prepared to 
advise parents in regard to schools 
Why Waste Time 
and Labor? 
trimming and edging a lawn 
or garden with back-break- 
ing shears, clippers and 
edging tools, when the 
Capitol Lawn Trim- 
mer and Edger 
will do the work much bet- 
ter, easier, and in a fraction 
of the time. Saves its cost 
in less than a season. An 
absolute necessity for lawn 
gardens, parks, and ceme- 
teries. If your dealer does 
not handle it, write us for 
Catalog “C.” Don’t putit off. 
The Granite State Mowing 
Machine Co., 
Hinsdale, N. H. 
Sweet Corn| 
If you intend to have a vegetable garden next sum- 
mer and would like to raise the most delicious corn 
ever grown, you need not plant any variety other 
than Ordway’s Golden, because it possesses all the 
qualities of the ideal, being early. tender juicy and 
Sweet. 
In order to obtain the best results it becomes 
necessary to use the best seed, therefore order that 
which is pure and carefully selected. It will be 
sent by return mail at the following prices: 
Trial packet containing enough seed to plant 35 hills, roc 
Half-pint 20c. Pint 35c. Quart 65c. 
0. P. ORDWAY Saxonville, Mass. 
VINES FOR VERANDAS 
C. E. G., Ont.— Some of the best vines for a house or 
veranda in your locality would be the Virginia creeper 
(Ampelopsis quinquefolia), virgin’s bower (Clematis Vir- 
giniana) and Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia Sipho). The 
scarlet trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) also 
does well. 
HOW TO GROW MOSS PINK 
R. J. W., Ont.— The moss pink (Phlox subulata) 
should prove hardy with you. .t does not need protection, 
but it will be advantageous to scatter some strawy manure 
over it each winter. You will find that it will lose its 
beautiful green color in late summer or early fall and as- 
sume a rather rusty color. Plant it in the spring as soon 
as the ground can be worked and buy pot-grown plants 
to imsure success. Field-grown plants are much more 
liable to die when being shipped. 
BOOK ON PERENNIAL FLOWERS 
G. R., New York.— The only book I know of that is 
entirely devoted to perennial flowers and still procurable 
is “Hardy Perennials and Old-Fashioned Garden Flowers” 
by John Wood, published by Gill of London and imported 
by Messrs. Charles Scribners’s Sons, New York, price $1.40. 
The book measures 4% x 74 inches, has 330 pages and 112 
line engravings. The cultural information is not always 
applicable to America, as the author was an English nur- 
seryman, but it is very interesting, telling many simple 
but ingenious ways of multiplying plants. 
CLIMBING FERNS FROM SPORES 
J. T. W., N. J.— The climbing fern (Lygodium palma- 
tum) is easily propagated by division if old plants are 
obtainable, or by spores sown in midsummer in a shallow 
pan filled with peat loam, and sand in equal parts. The 
pan should not be filled quite full, for it is necessary to 
cover it with a pane of glass to keep the surface uniformly _ 
moist, but this must be removed once or twice a day and. 
the collected moisture drained off. Set the pan in a saucer 
filled with water; this is all the watering that will be neces- 
sary until the young ferns appear, when they can be liberally 
sprayed with water which has been filtered through char- 
coal. It is better that all water used in the germination 
of fern spores be filtered. When the young plants have 
taken root and the prothallus nearly gone transplant them 
into pots or boxes. 
HOW TO GROW WATERCRESS 
S. H. C., W. Va.— Nothing is simpler than growing water- 
| cress, provided you have the water facilities. The ideal 
situation is a stretch of level land that can be flooded at pleas- 
ure, or which is usually flooded but from which the water 
can be diverted at pleasure. It will not grow well in partially 
stagnant water. Watercress demands clean, slow and con- 
stantly moving water—not by any means stagnant — and it 
only needs half an inch or an inch of depth. All that is neces- 
sary to start the beds is to set out cuttings, perhaps weight- 
ing them slightly with a small stone until’ they have secured 
ahold. Water is desizable in making a tender growth, but it 
is not absolutely necessary for the plants growth. Watercress 
can be successfully grown in a bed in a garden border, which 
is sheltered and can be easily watered. Sow the seed 
broadcast in the early spring. In raising for market, 
the flat, shallow, wide-spreading beds are best divided 
into channels with planks raised on blocks so as to 
facilitate the picking. 
PRUNING APPLE TREES 
L. A., Wis.—That pruning has been delayed until March 
is not any great detriment to the apple trees for the author- 
ities seem to agree that in the colder parts of the United 
States like Northern New England, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 
etc., the wounds made by winter pruning are a decided 
check to the tree because of the loss of moisture which 
evaporates from the wound during the cold weather. In 
any climate it is really better to prune trees at a time when 
the plant can immediately set about covering the wound. 
During the winter months no growth takes place, therefore, 
the wounds lay bare until growth starts in the spring. Start 
now and give a moderate pruning, i.e. remove the dead 
wood and “water sprouts” and suckers and then if neces- 
sary open up the head enough to allow the suh to enter. 
The amount of wood which it is necessary to take out differs 
with the locality. On the dry plain, little or no pruning 
is necessary. Here in the East it is necessary to remove 
considerable wood each year. Read ‘‘Tilling the Home 
Orchard” by Prof. S. W. Fletcher in the June, 1906, 
GarDEN MaGaziINeE.~ - * - wet ht A 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
APRIL, 1908 
| ANNOUNCEMENT | 
The Henry Sanders Company 
of Chicago, and 
Hartmann Bros. Mfg. Company 
of Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 
Manufacturers of Koll’s Patent 
Lock Joint Columns 
Have consolidated their 
interest under the name of 
Hartmann-Sanders Co. 
‘| The main office and factory will be 
»| at Webster and Elston Avenues, | - 
Chicago, Ill.,ana the eastern office | 
at 1123 Broadway, New York. 
The best columns, for porch, 
pergola or interior use. | 
Send for catalozue H of col- 
umns, or H of sun-dials, pedes- 
tals, etc. 
Mushrooms 
For Big and Quick Profits 
Small Capital to Start A Safe Business 
I am the largest grower in 
America. Ten years’ experience 
enables me to give practical in- 
struction in the business worth 
many dollars to you. No matter 
what your occupation is or where 
you are located, here is an oppor- 
tunity to acquire a thorough knowl- 
: Meee edge of this paying business. 
Send for Free Book giving particulars and information, 
how to start, cost, etc. Address 
JACKSON MUSHROOM FARM 
Dept. 130 3243 N. Western Ave., Chicago, Illinois 
HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS 
These are the Old Fashioned Hardy Flowers, the Peony, 
the Phlox, the Iris, the Larkspur and the like so de- 
servedly popular at the present time. 
To secure these in good variety, of large size, well packed 
and satisfactory in every respect, at moderate cost, send 
your orders to 
RED OAK NURSERIES Fiskeville, R. I. 
OLD ENGLISH 
GARDEN SEATS 
SEND FOR CATALOGUE OF 70 DESIGNS 
North Shore Ferneries 
BEVERLY, MASS. 
Lawn Seed 
The kind that grows, looks right and is right. Our 
SHADY PLACE MIXTURE meets a long felt 
want. Customers get the result of our thirty, years 
experience. Special Descriptive List free. , Write 
LAWN SUNDRIES CO. bye 
SOUTH BEND - - - - - INDIANA 
The “Lou Dillon” Tandem 
Garden Cultivator... 
It can be set to stir the soil any depth desired, and to 
cultivate astride the row or between the rows. 
key One third quicker and easier than any other garden culti- 
vator, easier to push than a lawn mower. f 
No gardener can afford to be without one. ; 
+ Write for descriptive catalogue and testi- 
: monials. If your local dealer does not 
handle them, write to us for special intro- 
ductory price. 
Dept. D. 
') THE SCHAIBLE MFG. CO. 
ELYRIA OHIO 
