82 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1918 



delivery but this is less desirable than having it 

 delivered in the fall either for immediate plant- 

 ing or for heeling-in as just described. 



What May be Deferred 



pHE only exceptions I would make to fall 

 -*■ planting and perhaps also delivery would be 

 such things as raspberries, blackberries, and 

 other plants that are either very fibrous rooted 

 or that do not fully ripen their twigs before cold 

 weather. \\ hen placing an order it is well to 

 insist that the leaves shall have fallen naturally 

 and not been clipped or stripped from the twigs. 

 Trees whose leaves drop naturally may be 

 safely planted in the fall; those whose leaves are 

 stripped off are sure to suffer even if they don't 

 die — which the}' perhaps usually do. 



Young Trees Bear Best 



TT IS a great mistake to buy old trees and 

 ■*- large trees. Many people think that they 

 should get quicker returns from large and old 

 trees than from young and small ones. The 

 strongest evidence that this is a mistake is the 

 fact that commercial fruit growers invariably 

 plant one-year-old peach trees, raspberry and 

 blackberry bushes — never old ones — and that 

 they never plant apple, pear, plum, cherry or 

 quince trees older than two years while perhaps 

 the majority strongly favor one-year trees. With 

 currants, gooseberries, and grapes, the choice is 

 about evenly divided between one-year and two- 

 year plants. 



Once the principles are understood no one will 



plant old or large stock unless this has been root 

 pruned in the nursery, a process which doubles 

 the cost. The older the tree the more it has be- 

 come established and the greater must be the 

 injury to its roots when dug, also the slower will 

 it be to recover from such injuries. Losses 

 among trees increase with the age of the nursery 

 stock. One-year trees thrive best when trans- 

 planted because they suffer least when dug. 



But there's another point. One-year trees are 

 far more amenable to training than are older 

 ones. They usually have no branches but when 

 they have, these branches are generally well 

 placed. In view of the advantages of having 

 branches low — so low that the lowest touch the 

 ground when bearing fruit — it is important to 

 secure trees which are mere switches or "whips," 

 as the nurserymen call them. The branches may 

 then be developed where the grower wants 

 them. On the other hand older trees have the 

 branches already developed where the nur- 

 seryman has compelled them to develop in posi- 

 tions that are frequently undesirable from the 

 grower's standpoint. 



And There's Economy Too 



"DESIDES these important points are several 

 • L * others worth considering. For instance, 

 young stock costs less than older. The express 

 or freight charges are smaller. None but thrifty 

 trees can be sold while young, the others being 

 too small. Often the two-year and older trees 

 were the runts when one year old. They were 

 too small to sell then so were allowed to grow 



one or more years longer. It is a question if a 

 runty tree ever develops into as thrifty or satis- 

 factory a one as the tree that has developed 

 sturdily from the start. 



The above remarks have special reference to 

 those trees known among the nursery trade as 

 "cut-backs," trees that could not be sold at one 

 year because too small, but were cutback to near 

 the ground and started over again. They have 

 roots one year or more older than the tops. 

 Very rarely do they make satisfactory trees be- 

 cause their old roots are injured as seriously when 

 dug up as if they were allowed to develop their 

 tops for the same length of time. When buying 

 stock, therefore, it is well to insist that the trees 

 be genuine one-year stock, not cut-backs. 



After Planting — What? 



NEVER fear to plant in the fall, where ordin- 

 ary precautions such as those enumerated 

 are taken. One caution yet remains, however; 

 protect the trees wherever there is danger of 

 rabbits or mice gnawing the bark. The latter 

 may be kept away by having the ground bare 

 of anything that could serve as a harbor or nest- 

 ing place. Also piling earth 6 inches high around 

 the trunks and tramping it down firmly will 

 help keep the mice away. A more positive pro- 

 tection against both mice and rabbits is galvan- 

 ized hardware cloth or wire netting of 5-inch 

 mesh. This may be cut in strips large enough to 

 inclose the tree until the 6th or 8th year and 

 high enough to extend above the reach of rabbits 

 standing on their hind legs. 



Starting Next I ear's Food Garden 



Professor Lumsden of Cornell Writing of His Own Home Garden Tells How He "Takes Time by the Forelock" and Gets an Early 



Start in the Spring. Adding Fertility and Defeating Disease 



EVERY householder to-day is alive to 

 the fact that the production of luscious 

 vegetables materially assists in lowering 

 the cost of living, as well as supplying 

 the family with wholesome food which will keep 

 the body in a healthy state. At this time while 

 looking over the season's achievements I wish to 

 emphasize the great importance of fall prepara- 

 tion of the soil, as one of the principal factors 

 concerned in producing quantity as well as quality 

 in vegetables. Also and by no means of less im- 

 portance, the combating and eradication of many 

 obnoxious insect pests, wire worms, larvae of the 

 various beetles, grubs, and 

 stem borers which of late 

 years have manifested them- 

 selves in the gardens, and 

 which are responsible for 

 much damage done in the 

 average garden. This hint 

 is offered as an encourage- 

 ment to any one who was 

 not quite satisfied with re- 

 sults on a new garden this 

 year. Now is the time to 

 begin next season's garden! 

 I speak from experience 

 in my own garden, a rect- 

 angle of 60x80 feet, in which all the work 

 was done by myself aided occasionally by a 

 young son, eleven years of age, who has fully 

 acquired the garden spirit. I he type of soil 

 could be classified as a heavy clay, quite sticky 

 and retentive in character — a very undesirable 

 soil from a vegetable gardening standpoint. 



Making a Stiff Soil Good 



TN AMELIORATING this stubborn soil, the 

 •*■ following was the modus operandi: Dur- 

 ing the fall of 1916, the date when the garden 

 was taken over, a dressing of hydrated lime, two 



pounds to each 25 square feet of surface, was 

 applied, together with a liberal dressing of coal 

 ashes, passed through a screen with a |-inch 

 mesh. The lime being used to correct acidity and 

 flocculate the heavy soil, the coal ashes to im- 

 prove its sanitary condition. This material 

 was spaded under and well incorporated with 

 the soil. The following spring a liberal dress- 

 ing of well-decayed horse manure was added 

 and spaded deeply into the soil, and previous 

 to sowing the seeds, wood ashes, which are 

 always saved from the hearth of the open fire- 

 place, were applied, scattered evenly over the 



By mid-summer the frames were occupied by cucumbers 

 as a succession crop 



Where, earlier, lettuce was growing, romaine was grown 

 outside on the extension bed 



surface of the ground and worked in by aid of 

 the garden rake. Unleached wood ashes are a 

 valuable fertilizer for the garden, as they contain 

 calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, potassium oxide, 

 with small quantities of phosphoric acid, all 

 valuable ingredients assisting in building up 

 plant tissue. 



During the year 1917 miscellaneous vegetables 

 were grown with gratifying results. In the fall 

 of that year the entire plot was given a dressing 

 of two loads of decayed manure, supplemented 

 with the decaying leaves from the trees sur- 

 rounding the garden. Leaves are a good source 



of humus for the soil and it is to be regretted 

 that so many persons in the suburbs of a city col- 

 lect their leaves and burn them, destroying one of 

 the valuable sources of humus indispensable to 

 soil fertility. This material was spaded under 

 and the surface of the ground left during the 

 winter in a broken, uneven condition to allow 

 the frost to act upon it, frost being a good ame- 

 liorator of soil, as well as a destroyer of many 

 insect pests which hibernate in the ground. As 

 early as the ground could be satisfactorily worked 

 in the spring it was spaded over and then given 

 a dressing of wood ashes applied at the rate of one 

 pound to each 25 square 

 feet of surface; this fertilizer 

 was well worked into the 

 surface soil. 



A Hotbed For Early Crops 



A HOTBED is an impor- 

 -*■■*■ tant addition to the 

 home garden, as on it plants 

 may be grown to maturity 

 in the early spring or late 

 autumn, and with such half- 

 hardy and quick-maturing 

 vegetables as lettuce and 

 radishes, a gain of several 

 weeks may be secured in the maturity of the 

 crop. 



Preparation was therefore made for a hotbed 

 in the fall of the year 1917, by excavating the 

 soil to a depth of 18 inches in the section south- 

 east of the garage, where the frame was after- 

 ward placed. The hotbed was prepared in the 

 usual manner, fermenting horse manure being 

 used to furnish the medium for heat. The ex- 

 cavation was filled with the manure which ex- 

 tended above the excavation to a height of 

 about 9 inches, it being broadened out over 

 the surface of the ground in order that the 



