THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1918 



worm can be neatly lifted out of the deepest 

 recess at the base of a leaf, a retreat where 

 he is safe from attack with nearly all other 

 weapons. Two seasons ago I split the blade of 

 an ordinary six-inch hoe. The whim took me 

 that winter to redrill and rivet anew one half 

 of the blade to the old shank and round off 

 the corner of the break, so as to have a three- 

 inch hoe. With it I can stand erect and 

 cultivate a hotbed of lettuce after the plants 

 nearly cover the ground, and similarly around 

 all individual plants and in narrow rows it is 

 a very efficient implement. It is excellent 

 in the strawberry bed. And I can snip off a 

 head of lettuce from the far side of a bed with- 

 out tearing a leaf, either of the one cut or 

 its neighbors remaining. We use it more 

 than any other one hoe we have. I have 

 obtained many valuable suggestions from 

 "Among Our Garden Neighbors" and believe 

 that these two items are worth passing on to 

 serve others as they have served me. — 

 Ralph F. Perry, Watertown, Mass. 



Something Like an Apple. — Has anybody 

 seen an apple that approaches the size 

 and weight of one recorded in the English 

 Gardeners' Chronicle for November 3, 1917? 

 The variety is Peasgood's Nonesuch, a popular 

 apple in England, weight two pounds, four 

 ounces! The measurements are 18 inches 

 over eye and stalk, and 17! inches around. 

 Can any American fruit grower beat this? 



Lettuces for Hot Weather. — It is a 

 simple matter to head up lettuces in early 

 summer and again through September and 

 October, but in the two most torrid summer 

 months most of the varieties will bolt quickly 

 to seed before making any head. We have a 

 number of varieties which can be classed as 

 reliable hot weather sorts such as Salamander, 

 Hansen, and Black-seeded Tennisball, but the 

 best cabbage lettuce I have grown for some 

 years is Standwell. This has never failed 

 to give us nice firm heads even in the hot- 

 test weather. We plan to give midsummer 

 lettuces a little shade, and water when neces- 

 sary, this latter being applied at night. Many 

 small growers fail to head up lettuces satis- 

 factorily. Such leafy crops must have a 

 rich soil containing preferably well decayed 

 stable manure in some form. As a stimulant 

 for lettuce about ready to head up I have used 

 a light top-dressing of poultry manure, well 



Anyone can grow watercress at home in the window garden 

 or other convenient r.iacc. Simply start 



"Murphy at the bat" — Minnesota Stale Food Administration 



worked in with the cultivator to good ad- 

 vantage. The Cos or Romaine lettuces are 

 satisfactory hot-weather subjects, standing 

 heat better than the cabbage section. If when 

 these are headed up, they are lifted and 

 planted on the floor of a cold cellar such 

 as vegetables are stored in they will keep 

 very much better than outdoors. — W. N. C, 

 Mass. 



Watercress in the Indoor Garden. — In 

 these days when everybody wants to be 

 growing something, it is worth while trying 

 the cultivation of the salad plant watercress. 

 This will flourish, even in a room, on the novel 

 lines indicated. Get a pot and fill this with 

 soil. Then on to the mould scatter a few 

 seeds of the watercress; these can be obtained 

 from any plant store. Or if some of the salad 

 has been purchased, small bits of the plant 

 may be stuck into the soil as cuttings. It 

 will be found that these root freely. Then 

 stand the pot in a bowl of water. It is im- 

 portant that this should be kept fresh and 

 clean and it is a good plan to change it every 

 day. The watercress will start to grow at a 

 great rate and the young shoots are simply 

 picked off as required. In a few days quan- 

 tities of fresh shoots start away from the 

 lower parts of the stem and one may go on 

 picking the salad indefinitely. A few pots 

 fixed up in this way will keep the household 

 supplied with watercress. — S. Leonard Bastin. 



Garden Catch Crops. — Early last August, 

 before leaving for a month's holiday, I looked 

 over my garden to see where I could slip in a 

 catch crop or two that would give something 

 fresh and green on our return home. All my 

 garden land had been planted and interplanted 

 and the only ground on the lot not in use was 

 the chicken yard. The last of my winter 

 layers was in a fattening pen preparatory to 

 going into our lunch box. The soil of the 

 hen yard was very rich in nitrogen from the 

 droppings of the chickens. To balance it up 

 I gave it a top-dressing of acid phosphate 

 and wood ashes and plowed up the soil as 

 deep as I could work it with my wheelhoe. 

 I levelled it by cross raking and gave half of 

 it a "salt and peppering" of turnip seed and 

 seeded the balance also broadcast in lettuce 

 and radish. Off we went for our holidays 

 and I never thought of that chicken yard 

 until our return. When we got back, the 

 fence was so draped in morning glory vines 

 that had run riot in my absence that it was 

 some time before I could see inside. What a 



mass of foliage and wealth of green! The 

 proverbial Jack's beanstalk could not have 

 beaten those quick-growing crops in that 

 highly enriched soil. We had plenty of crisp 

 radish and tender succulent lettuce for use at 

 once and the turnips were already beginning 

 to swell their roots. By judicial thinning 

 we had lettuce and radishes from tr at chicken 

 yard until frost and plenty of turnips to last 

 us all winter. — H. N. Hutt, N. C. 



The Purpose of the Label.— "Tag Days" 

 for Tulips and Gladiolus might be a suggestion 

 for keeping separated many varieties of 

 flowers from these bulbs. So often I am 

 asked "How do you keep all these different 

 varieties of Tulips and other things separated 

 from each other, so as to plant in harmony of 

 colors another year?" It would be absolutely 

 impossible, I reply, if it were not for labels, 

 especially where I try to get certain color 

 effects by planting the bulbs in drifts with 

 other spring-flowering things; also are the 

 labels necessary when you are ready to take 

 up your bulbs at the end of the blooming 

 season. I find much pleasure during winter 

 evenings in making my labels for this purpose. 

 I take good manila paper either light or dark 

 brown, a heavy wrapping paper which is 

 tough and waterproof. I cut this in strips 

 three inches long by one and a half inches 

 wide, fold it lengthwise and sew twice through 

 one corner with any kind of colored string 

 that suits the flower, leaving just enough 

 string to tie around each plant. With the 

 name written inside the folded paper, tied 

 at the base of the plant while in bloom it is 

 not conspicuous and saves much confusion. 

 I find this system of tying, too, very satis- 

 factory for saving seeds. One surely feels 

 repaid for the little time it takes to do it. I 

 have used many kinds of labels, and like 

 many others have been disappointed to find 

 the name entirely obliterated just when I 

 most wanted to know it. A few years ago I 

 made several hundred of these labels for a 

 very busy friend on a farm, who also grows 

 flowers for profit; she found them so good 

 that she has used them ever since. — Mary 

 Blumke, Saginaw, W. S., Michigan. 



Is There Any Way to Eliminate the Grass- 

 hopper? — They are devouring the buds of my 

 Chrysanthemum patch and I haven't been 

 able to find enough paris green to feaze 

 them. Besides, I think they like it. — Sher- 

 man R. Duffy, Chicago, III. 



Whoever would have thought of looking for an apple low 

 down on the trunk of a tree? But such freak growths are not 

 uncommon 



