February, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



31 



What Fits the Small Garden 



/"VWNERS of gardens of an acre, or more, can 

 ^-^ find profitable use for a small tractor if they 

 cultivate intensively. And no garden, large 

 or small, is anything more than an abused play- 

 thing if it is permitted to take care of itself after 

 the seed has been planted. 



The tractor will plow the ground; better if 

 anything than horses will do it. A small disc 

 harrow will prepare an ideal seed bed. On 

 account of its easy adjustability and perfect 

 control, cultivation with a small tractor • can 

 be begun as soon as desired after the plants are 

 above ground, and with practically no loss. One, 

 two and three rows can be cultivated at a single 



operation — depending upon the space between 

 the rows. Cultivation can be carried into the 

 small fruit section without injury to the bushes, 

 and orchards thrive when cultivated well up to 

 the roots of the trees. 



In fact the uses of the small tractor are mul- 

 titudinous. When not in use in the garden it 

 may be used to mow the lawn. Attached to a 

 small mowing machine it will do the work of two 

 horses in the hay field. It can be belted to a 

 feed grinder, and earn its keep. Belted up to a 

 double-tub washing machine, time and labor 

 is saved. The tractor has power sufficient to 

 operate a small spray rig and turn loss into profit 

 in spraying the fruit trees. Attached to a pump 



jack the problem of solving the water supply 

 is easy. 



In truth it seems that the garden tractor has 

 made the care of the garden almost play. A 

 woman or a boy can operate it successfully. The 

 hired man will be contented to stay on the place 

 where a tractor relieves much of the drudgery 

 that present-day independence abhors. And 

 finally, the lovable old family horse is emanci- 

 pated from slavery, and if sentiment is deeply 

 attached to Old Dobbin's retention he may be 

 pensioned during his declining years, with noth- 

 ing more to do than make an occasional trip to 

 the store, or to church when the auto is out of 

 commission. 



Don't be fooled by the tempera- 

 ture of the air in spring. The 

 ground, remains cold a long time so 

 only the hardiest seeds should now be 

 risked in it. On April 26th in cen- 

 tral Pennsylvania the temperature 

 rose to more than ninety but for a 

 month following it seldom rose above 

 sixty and several times was below 

 freezing point. Better wait until 

 spring is really here before making 

 a start. 



FEBRUARY 



The Reminder is to "suggest" what may be done during the next few weeks. Details ofhozu to do each item 

 are given in the current or the back issues of The Garden Magazine — it is manifestly impossible jo give 

 all the details of all the work in any one issue of a magazine. References to back numbers may be looked 

 up in the index to each completed volume (sent gratis on request), and the Service Department will also cite 

 references to any special topic if asked. 



In calculating times to plant out of doors New York City is the usual standard. Roughly fifteen miles a 

 day is the rate at which the season advances. Thus Albany which is one hundred and fifty miles from New 

 York would be about ten days later, and Philadelphia which is ninety miles southwest about a week earlier. 



Dr. Hopkins (page 20) estimates four days for each one degree of latitude or five degrees of longitude, or four 

 hundred feet of altitude. 



Only six or eight- weeks before 

 spring! Are you ready? How 

 about seeds, labels, stakes, pea 

 brush or netting, strings, insecti- 

 cides, fungicides, baskets, tools, 

 and other necessities? Look 

 through the sundries list in the 

 large seedsmen's catalogues and 

 lay in supplies according to your 

 needs. There is ample time to- 

 attend to all comfortably — yet no- 

 time to waste! 



71HIS MONTH! Send orders early, start 

 early vegetable seeds indoors; also 

 flower seeds for fall and winter plants; 

 also cuttings for spring plants; make 

 flats; clean old pots and order new; give the 

 greenhouse a general clean-up; finish dormant 

 pruning; also winter spraying; throw out spoiling 

 fruit and vegetables; overhaul dormant bulbs 

 and roots; order hotbeds and coldframes; make 

 up first hotbeds and get others ready for next 

 month. 



What to plant this month? See list on page 17 

 of the February, 1917, Garden Magazine. Look 

 over last month's Reminder to make sure you 

 have missed nothing that needed your attention. 



Every year make observations as to nature's 

 developments so as to guide you in your planting. 

 Some shrubs and trees leaf out or even blossom 

 almost before the snow is off" the ground. Hardi- 

 est vegetable seeds may be sown then. Others 

 come into bloom weeks or months later so they 

 serve as guides for the more tender kinds. Here 

 is an interesting study in itself. 



Sift out the small seeds from your home grown 

 supplies and from the bought ones of uneven 

 sizes. The large ones sprout best and make best 

 plants. 



Don't attempt to grow in the house or the green- 

 house the Dutch bulbs that you forced this year, 

 but don't throw them away. Plant them in the 

 garden in some place where you don't mind their 

 failing to produce flowers the following season. 

 They will usually take two years to recover from 

 one season's forcing. 



Look over the vegetables in the root cellar. 

 Remove those that show signs of decay. Open 

 the doors on the days when the thermometer is 

 above the freezing point. 



Get all the free literature the government and 

 your state experiment station offer on the lines 

 of gardening you are interested in. They will 

 give you general information. Then look to 

 The Garden Magazine for news, new wrinkles, 

 plant personalities, and the thousand and one 

 things that the writers of such routine literature 

 pass by. For books on any phase of gardening 

 or rural interests write " Book Service," Garden 

 Magazine, care of The Editor. 



Starting a garden in a new place? Then decide 

 first of all upon the trees, next the shrubs, third 

 the hardy perennials you will need as permanent 

 residents on the property. During the first few 

 years while these are getting established fill in 

 the blank spaces with annuals. 



Make a plan of your garden large and clear 

 enough to show details and after inking it take 

 it in the tool house where you can see it every 

 time you need to. 



Remember that every standard variety was 

 once a novelty. Therefore while not discarding 

 any tried and true friend become acquainted 

 this season with some of the novelties. 



If you want to augment the earliness of your 

 garden avoid spreading manure until just before 

 you want to plow or dig. The thicker the dressing 

 the more slowly the frost will leave the ground 

 and the later the area will be in consequence. 



Our Garden Neighbors can be of real service 

 to each other this year if they will test several 

 varieties of each kind of crop they grow and then 

 write the editor their opinions and experiences. 

 Though novelties are rather scarcer than before 

 the war there are still enough to compare them 

 with the old standbys grown under the same 

 conditions. 



Getthe "Fruit" of Your Own Labor 



Prune cane fruits — i. e. — raspber- 

 ries, blackberries and dewberries 

 this month or next. If you didn't 

 cut out the old canes as you should 

 have done last July do that first. 

 Then remove all but three or four strongest 

 canes in the black raspberry and dewberry hills 

 and thin out the blackberry and red raspberry 

 canes to stand at the rate of not more than two 

 to the foot. The smaller the number of canes 

 the larger and more luscious the fruit. Don't 

 cut back the branches until flowering time 

 unless you know where the blossom buds are 

 borne. 



Prune out the puny sprouts of currant and 

 gooseberry leaving only the two or not more 

 than three strongest ones. Do this each year 

 and in July or August after the fruit has been 

 gathered cut out the stems that have borne three 

 times. They are the oldest ones and as they 

 become older than this they not only produce 

 less and inferior fruit but become subject to 

 insects and diseases. 



If you have a currant or a gooseberry bush 

 that has done exceptionally well and if you want 

 to propagate this one so as to have all your 

 bushes as good, save the one year shoots that 

 you prune off this month, tie them in bundles, 

 bury them in a cold place and as soon as the 

 ground can be dug plant them so only the top 

 two or three buds are above the surface. Pack 



the earth firmly by tramping and keep the young; 

 plants free from weeds. 



See that the mulch on the strawberries is prop- 

 erly "down." 



Fearful of Insects, Diseases, Blights? 



What though twenty-five to fifty 

 species of insects attack each of 

 our tree fruits! Will you hoist 

 the white flag and let them dictate 

 'terms when effective ammunition 

 and gumption will compel them to 

 surrender? 



Don't let the spraying schedule frighten you. 

 Start early, do the work thoroughly, repeat at 

 stated times: first, while the trees are still dor- 

 mant but the buds just ready to swell; second, 

 soon after the leaves appear but before the flower 

 buds open; third, after the petals fall; fourth, pos- 

 sibly a month later, maybe not a fourth time,, 

 depending on the condition of the fruit which will 

 largely depend on the thoroughness and timeliness 

 of the first three sprays. 



Get into the habit of using the term "blight" 

 for bacterial diseases such as fire-blight of pear,, 

 and wilt of melons and cucumbers. "Rust" and 

 "rot" are terms to apply to fungous diseases. 

 The former cannot be fought successfully by 

 external treatment; the latter can. 



Pare dead and diseased bark and wood of 

 fruit trees affected by collar-rot. Swab the 

 wounds with corrosive sublimate solution and 

 when dry paint with white lead in which there is 

 no turpentine. 



While pruning raspberries and blackberries 

 cut off and burn any swellings two or more inches 

 long because they contain the larvae of the red 

 necked cane-borer, a different species from the 

 one that causes wilted shoots in early summer. 



If you want your apples free from rust destroy 

 cedar and wild apple trees. The former breed 

 the disease known as "knobs" upon the smaller 

 branches. When these open they look like 

 orange-colored sponges. 



Those black or dark brown swellings on plum 

 and sour cherry branches are caused by a fungous 

 disease, not an insect. Cut the branches off 

 several inches below the swellings and burn 

 them at once. Spraying will not cure the knots 

 though it will prevent their formation to a large 

 extent. 



Gather the "frothy-glue" egg masses of the 

 apple-tree tent caterpillar from the small twigs of 

 apple and wild cherry. Store them out of doors 



