258 



If you are planning to build, the Readers* 

 Service can give you helpful suggestions 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



Mat, 1909 



NOVELTY IN 



Japan Salad Plant 



(Udo Moyashi) 



Blanched root of Udo ready for cooking, just like 

 asparagus, or can be used for salad. 



Tried by the Department of Agriculture 

 and declared equal to the tenderest shoots of 

 celery, of a crisp freshness like the midrib of 

 lettuce. The flavor suggests pineapple. Can 

 be prepared same as asparagus, lettuce or 

 celery. Full directions for growing this 

 NOVELTY given with every plant. We 

 offer a limited quantity of young plants at 

 50c. each, postpaid. 



Japanese Kudzu Vine 



The fastest growing 

 and most beautiful 

 climber for covering 

 porches, verandahs, 

 trellises with amaz- 

 ing rapidity. Is per- 

 fectly hardy. Foliage 

 a bright green, glos- 

 sy, free from insects, 

 the flowers rosy lilac, 

 delicately fragrant 

 and borne in rich 

 clusters. This vine 

 is called " Jack and 

 the Bean Stalk," as 

 you can " SEE it 

 GROW from day to 

 day." The picture 

 shows one season's 

 growth. 



One year old 

 plants, 50c. each, 

 3 for $1.00. 



Two year old 

 plants, $1.00 each, 

 3 for $2.50. 



Send for our 1909 

 Spring Catalogue, 

 full of the most 

 interesting novelties for your garden 



H. H. BERGER & CO. 



70 Warren Street, New York 



FERTILIZERS 



Fertilizer Advice for Amateurs 



NO ONE can write a fertilizer article of any 

 pretensions without using a lot of big 

 words that most people will be forced to skip. 

 This is no reflection on the intelligence of the 

 readers either. Investigation of the properties of 

 fertilizers requires a definite scientific knowledge, 

 and even then it proves extremely baffling. How 

 much, then, of this mass of facts and theo- 

 ries do you and I, with our small garden, need to 

 know, and how much can we "forget." 



It is pretty hard to say very much that is definite 

 anyway without indulging in lots of guess work. 

 Fertilization is not an exact science. We know, 

 broadly speaking, what happens, but we don't 

 know "why" and the man who tries to tell us "why" 

 usually covers up his shortcomings with words 

 we can't understand. 



Having this in mind, and judging from the 

 hundreds of questions that are asked every year 

 by subscribers, as to what are the most troublesome 

 points, this article will try to show, in a very brief 

 way, the most vital things concerning fertilizers, 

 and how to use them intelligently, simply con- 

 sidering the man with a small place — a lawn, 

 vegetable garden, flowers and shrubbery, per- 

 haps. 



The books tell us that there are three elements 

 necessary to plant growth — nitrogen, potassium, 

 phosphorus, and perhaps a fourth, lime. This is 

 misleading, to begin with. The point is not that 

 these four alone form a large part of the structure 

 of a plant, but that they are the only ones liable 

 to exhaustion from constant cropping of a soil. 

 All the other things exist or are supplied in prac- 

 tically unlimited quantities by soil, air, and 

 water. 



The man with a small garden can simply con- 

 sider that as far as he is concerned there are only 

 three kinds of fertilizers — manures, commercial 

 fertilizers, and lime — and that soil texture and 

 weeds and insect pests and diseases, sunshine and 

 rain, are far more important than supplying 

 just the right amount of this, that, or the other 

 chemical to his soil for certain results. Adding 

 to the fertility of land is not a natural practice, 

 anyway. A fertile soil requires no doctoring; in 

 the great farms of the West the practice of fer- 

 tilizing is practically unknown. 



VALUE OF FERTILIZER 



When we add manure or fertilizer to ground 

 we are supplying something in which it is deficient. 

 In other words, we are doctoring a sick soil with 

 drugs, and we must try to give the dose in the 

 right amount or the remedy may be worse than the 

 disease. A little fertilizer may do a lot of good; 

 a lot of it (say, ten times as much) would abso- 

 lutely destroy the plant growth or, as the farmers 

 say, "burn it up," but this does not apply as a 

 rule to stable manure. And here we come to 

 the most important stumbling block of many gar- 

 deners who have read "not wisely" but too much 

 about fertilizers. It refers to the use of barnyard 

 manure. Some people are afraid to use it because 

 it may not have just the right proportion of nitro- 

 gen, potash, and phosphorus. Remember just 

 one thing, even if you lose sight of all the rest of 

 this article: Plenty of good barnyard manure 

 will grow almost any crop, and if you are lucky 

 enough to have plenty of it, use it. If it is well 

 rotted, so much the better. Don't be afraid to 

 use it because some book says that the best fer- 

 tilizer for this or that crop is so many per cent, 

 of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. Don't 

 use any fertilizer at all while the manure pile lasts. 





No! No!! 



Let me spell it for you ,, 



P-E-A-R-L-I-N7E 



PEARLINE is concentratecj 

 Soap in the form of a Pow- 

 der for your Convenience. 



PEARLINE takes, as it 

 were, the Fabric in one hand, < 

 the Dirt in the other and lays £ 

 ""them apart — comparatively 

 speakjng — Washing with 

 little Work. As it Saves the 

 Worst of the Work, so it 

 Saves the Worst of the Wear. 

 It isn't the use of Clothes 

 that makes them old before 

 their time — it's Rubbing and 

 Straining, getting the Dirt out 

 by main Strength. 



For all sorts of Washing 

 — Coarsest and most Deli- 

 cate; for all sorts of Women 

 —Weakest and Strongest ; 

 for Scrubbing, House-clean- 

 ing, Dish washing, Windows, 

 PE/ 



"Leant make you-out— but if you 

 want the Best Soap Powder you 

 should have PEARLINE the 

 Original and stjj l_the Best — all 

 others are followers. ^ 



