32 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1919 



where the worms can't get anything to eat; but 

 where the tiny parasites that pass the winter in 

 many of the eggs may escape to do their helpful 

 work of killing other insects. 



Gather the frothy looking egg clusters of 

 tussock moth on apple and other fruit trees and 

 destroy them. 



Remember that slugs -work at night; so if you 

 find irregular holes in your plants or mushrooms 

 either under glass or out of doors and see a 

 glistening whitish substance on the plants or 

 nearby you may find the creatures under boards, 

 stones, rubbish, etc. The best remedies are lime 

 or salt scattered toward evening near where the 

 creatures hide, boiled sweet or Irish potatoes 

 sprinkled with arsenic, and, of course, tidy prem- 

 ises. 



Be sure to order your supplies of insecticides 

 and fungicides this month so you will have them 

 when needed. They will not deteriorate. Good 

 insecticides include black-leaf forty, aphine, 

 Paris green, arsenate of lead, hellebore, kerosene 

 emulsion, scalecide, pyrethrum, whale-oil soap, 

 vermine, and carbolic acid; slug-shot is a Vermi- 

 fuge. Good fungicides include corrosive sub- 

 limate, bordeaux mixture, copper carbonate, for- 

 malin, potassium sulphide, sulphate of iron. 

 Two that have both fungicidal and insecticidal 

 properties are lime sulphur wash, Horriacum and 

 Pyrox. Use all of these according to directions. 

 (See December, 1918, Garden Magazine.) 



Don't try to make your own insecticides. 

 You may not succeed, there is always risk of 

 poisoning, nothing is saved in cost, and you can 

 buy better standard brands than you can hope 

 to make, unless you are a skilled chemist or unless 

 the insecticide is simply the soaking of tobacco 

 stems to make tobacco tea. Even then black- 

 leaf forty and nicotine sulphate are superior 

 because you may know exactly how strong your 

 solution is by measuring. 



For the small gardener an excellent book is 

 "Insects of Economic Importance," by Herrick. 

 It is less than one hundred and fifty pages, costs 

 only a dollar ($1.10 by mail), but gives condensed 

 descriptions of all the principal insects that af- 

 fect fruit and vegetable crops, poultry, etc., 

 together with very complete' methods of pre- 

 vention and control. 



east and 

 to save 



The Plan of Operations 



In laying out a garden have the 

 long way north and south if pos- 

 sible and make the rows run this 

 /way. Time is saved and better 

 Iresults secured from such arrange- 

 ment. If the plot runs longest 

 west make your rows run that way 

 time in cultivation. But plant the 

 tall growing crops like corn, pole beans and tall 

 peas on the north side so their shade will not 

 affect the lower crops. 



Arrange for rotation by grouping together- 

 kale, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, mustard, etc.; 

 the root crops by themselves — potatoes, beets, 

 parsnips, turnips, carrots, etc.; the fruit crops in 

 another group — tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, 

 melons, etc.; and the pulse crops in still another— 

 peas and beans. Divide the garden into four 

 parts and plant each group in a different part 

 each year. This will give best results. 



Decide upon some unit distance between rows 

 so the wheel hoes need not be reset and time lost 

 thereby. Eighteen inches is a good one since 

 most crops do well at that distance. Double that 

 is plenty for most of the large growing plants like 

 lima beans and tall corn; and half the distance, 

 nine inches, will do for extra quick growing small 

 crops like onion sets and radishes. These may 

 alternate with the eighteen inch rows of slower 

 KrowinL' vegetables. 



Arrange your plantings of vegetables so at least 

 a third of the garden may have hairy vetch scat- 

 tered among the growing crop about September 

 first to supply nitrogen and vegetable matter 



when plowed or dug the following spring. Group 

 the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, cu- 

 cumbers, melons and other plants that either die 

 with the first frost or have practically run their 

 course by October first so the vetch may be sown 

 among them. Keep roots, crops, potatoes, etc., 

 in another group. (See January Garden Maga- 

 zine page 173.) 



W hen_ necessary to grow vegetables and fruits 

 in a limited area keep the fruits and the perennial 

 vegetables (rhubarb, asparagus, etc.) as much to 

 the sides or one end as possible so the balance of 

 the area may be cultivated to best advantage. 

 To plan the vegetable garden to make efficient 

 and economical use of the soil refer to the ma- 

 turity tables in the Farm and Garden Rule Book 

 or The Garden Magazine of March, 1915, 

 1916. 



For earliest vegetables use a hotbed. This will 

 forward and protect the plants so several weeks 

 may be gained. Try bean, beet, carrot, celery, 

 corn salad, cress, cucumber, dandelion, eggplant, 

 endive, lettuce, muskmelon, mustard, New 

 Zealand spinach, onion sets and seed, parsley, 

 pepper, radish, turnip, spinach and tomato. Of 

 course, all of these must not be sown this month — 

 only the hardy ones — the others to follow in 

 March or April. A hotbed is worth while for 

 tomatoes alone because it will forward the season 

 four to six weeks! 



Get away from the old style method of raised 

 plots or beds for your garden crops. It is a time 

 waster. Plant on the level to get maximum 

 returns from minimum effort. Raised beds are 

 useful, however, in damp places because they dry 

 the soil. 



Tools for Victory! 



If your garden is only fifty by 



seventy-five feet, or even less, it 

 will be worth while to own a wheel 

 hoe. It is a wonderful time and 

 labor saver. 



When sharpening tools push the 

 file from you to make its teeth do good work. 

 At the end of the stroke lift the file so it does not 

 touch the blade when you draw it back for the 

 next stroke. If you try to make it cut on the 

 return stroke you will break its teeth. It is 

 made to cut only as it is pushed. If you have 

 many tools to sharpen a tool grinder will save a 

 great deal of time and elbow grease. 



For effective spraying be sure to have the nozzle 

 that will make the finest mist-like spray. The 

 rotary or eddy-chamber style is best for general 

 use. Its original form is the Vermorel. Later 

 modifications are "Mistry" and "Friend." 



After spraying always empty out any of the 

 mixture left in the spray tank; partially fill this 

 with clean water; rinse it out thoroughly and 

 force some through the hose and nozzle. This 

 will not only prevent corrosion of the apparatus 

 but also the formation of hard particles that 

 might clog the valves and nozzles. 



If you use dust as a fungicide or insecticide in a 

 small way a tin can punched with holes in the 

 bottom or a loosely woven sack will answer. But 

 for better work Norton's plant duster, Wood- 

 ason's powder bellows, or Liggett's champion 

 powder gun are superior in the order stated, the 

 superiority depending upon the amount to be 

 done. The last named will handle two rows at a 

 time about as fast as a man will stroll between. 

 Pay the difference in price and get the brass 

 spraying apparatus rather than the iron or gal- 

 vanized iron kinds. It costs more in the start, 

 but will lasc several times as long. 



No one best sprayer! The little hand squirt 

 guns are all right for a few plants but they're too 

 hard and too slow for an ordinary commuter- 

 size garden, even — and utterly useless for trees! 

 For bushes and other low plants the bucket pump 

 and the compressed air sprayer are just the thing 

 for small gardens — portable, effective, inexpen- 

 sive. For garden and orchard larger than half 



an acre the barrel type is best. It may be mounted 

 on wheels or carried in a wagon. 



Birds Can Be Made Useful 



Make bird houses now so they will 

 be ready next month to put in place. 

 If you can't afford to buy the pretty 

 houses advertised don't let that 

 prevent your putting up shelters. 

 Birds are not particular. Even 

 tomato cans have been used for wrens and blue- 

 birds. Surely nothing is cheaper than an empty 

 tin can. 



Read "How to Attract the Birds," by Neltje 

 Blanchan (by mail £1.65). It gives many easily 

 applied and inexpensive methods, especially as 

 to shrubs and trees to plant for ornament and 

 bird food. The fruit of some of these plants is 

 more attractive to the birds than are cherries, 

 strawberries, and raspberries. Thus they protect 

 the more valuable fruits. 



Protect your cherries and berries against 

 birds by growing mulberries of several varieties 

 to extend over the season. New American and 

 Downing are good for dessert. Russian seed- 

 lings are too mawkish. 



Feeding for Better Crops 



It is a convenient way to prevent 

 waste and misapplying of fertilizers 

 P to remember that nitrogenous fer- 

 tilizers and manures induce rapid, 

 succulent growth of leaves and 

 stems and are therefore most useful to apply to 

 cabbage, lettuce, spinach and similar "leaf" 

 vegetables; that potash "hardens" the plants so 

 is desirable as a root crop fertilizer; that the 

 phosphate fertilizers improve fruit crops such as 

 apples, peaches, tomatoes and cucumbers; and 

 that lime "sweetens" the soil and releases other 

 plant foods in it. (Most garden soils need lime, 

 except where Rhododendrons are to grow.) 



Before mixing manures or commercial fertiliz- 

 ers together look up "Incompatibles in Fer- 

 tilizer Mixtures" on page 53 of "The Farm and 

 Garden Rule Book" (by mail, price #2.20). 



To deJav now means you may be unable to get 

 fertilizer at all this season. Order now! 



When Your Knife Is Sharp! 



Remember these laws for pruning: 

 finish so no stub or shoulder will be left 

 Jjr where the branch has been removed; 

 paint with creosote only the heart 

 wood of wounds where limbs larger 

 than two inches have been removed; remove all 

 dead wood and one of each pair of branches that 

 interfere or chafe; have a good reason for every 

 cut; when in doubt wait a year; save all fruit 

 spurs — the gnarly and stubby twigs — on apples, 

 pears, cherries, and plums; clean up around the 

 trees; bring in all your tools, rub them with 

 kerosene, and sharpen them so as to be ready for 

 next time. 



Do it now! Prune the grapes. If you wait 

 until any growth of any kind of plant starts you 

 are sure to injure the vines. The later the 

 pruning the more the "bleeding," the more the 

 vines suffer and the less the fruit. 



Make grafting scions this month. Choose 

 twigs of moderate growth from trees of the 

 desired varieties. Bundle and label them and 

 bury them in an ice house or on the north side 

 of a building to keep them dormant until after 

 the buds on the trees begin to swell. Then is 

 the time to graft. 



While the trees are dormant collect and label 

 twigs for grafting in late March or early April. 

 Choose well developed but not too bushy ones. 

 Bundle them and bury them in the damp saw- 

 dust of the ice house or under straw, leaves, or 

 other covering on the north side of a building so 

 they will remain dormant longer than if on the 

 trees. 



_ For a supply of early blossom for indoor decora- 

 tion, late this month and continuing through 



