112 



Do you intend to build a poultry house? 

 Write to the Readers Service. 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1911 



A Little Shelf of 



House-Building Books 



HOUSEHOLD PLUMBING 

 AND SANITATION By YSti 8 ^i"""" 



HPHIS is an illustrated and exceedingly interesting volume em- 

 -■■ bodying the results of more than a quarter of a century's 

 study and research in sanitary plumbing, theoretically and prac- 

 tically. The work is written in a simple, popular style with a 

 view to meeting the practical needs of the general public as well 

 as of legislators and sanitary engineers. Mr. Putnam is rec- 

 ognized as one of our foremost authorities and has been con- 

 sulted many times by civic commissions. Based upon his 

 achievements, this volume will mark a new epoch in sanitation. 



Many Illustrations. Net, $3.75 {Postage 35c.) 



The Country House 



By Charles Edward Hooper 



A practical manual of house-building. 

 Elaborately illustrated. 



Net, $3.00 (postage 30c.) 



Principles of 



Home Decoration 



By Candace Wheeler 



Embodies the principles of all art. Illus- 

 trated. 



Net $1.80 (postage 20c.) 



How to Build a Home 



By F. C. Moore 



Complete hand-book with specimen draw- 

 ings, plans, etc. $1.00 



Country Residences in 

 Europe and America 



By Louis V. Le Moyne 



An authoritative and beautifully illustrated 

 work. 



Net, $7.50 (postage 35c.) 



Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, New York 



C.V«£f our New Book-shop in the Pennsylvania Terminal, New York 

 LET ME SEND YOU MY FREE BOOKLET 



STRAWBERRY PLANTS THAT CROW 



Describing a full list of varieties with prices. Also INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLANTING AND CULTURE 

 of STRAWBERRY, RASPBERRY, BLACKBERRY, CURRANT, GOOSEBERRY and GRAPE 

 PLANTS; also ASPARAGUS and RHUBARB ROOTS, 



All Stock Warranted First-Class and True-to-Name or MONEY REFUNDED. 

 C. E. WHITTEN'S NURSERIES BOX 10, BRIDGflAN, MICHIGAN. 



RHODES DOUBLE CUT 

 PRUNING SHEAR 



PHE only pruner made 



that cuts from both 



sides of the limb and does not 



bruise the bark. Made in all 



styles and sizes. We pay Express 



charges on all orders. 



Write for circular and prices. 



Paris green for the green lettuce worms. A 

 broadcast sowing, before planting, of bran and 

 Paris green sweetened with syrup generally pre- 

 vents the ravages of cutworms. Some farmers 

 make a second application of fertilizer between 

 the rows after planting, but is it of questionable 

 benefit to this quick-growing crop. Shipping 

 should begin five weeks from setting. 



Lettuce is usually packed in half-barrel hampers, 

 averaging thirty heads to the hamper. The heads 

 often attain such a size that a hamper can hold 

 only eighteen or twenty. It is shipped in re- 

 frigerator cars to northern and western markets. 

 The average cost of production with an average 

 yield of 500 hampers per acre is about forty cents 

 per hamper, including the cost of crate material. 

 A net profit of $500 per acre is not unusual with 

 prices ranging around $1.50 here. 



Though lettuce is the salad plant par excellence, 

 few people know that the outside leaves, cooked 

 like spinach, make a delicious vegetable; and the 

 heads stripped down to hard little balls, boiled 

 and served whole with a cream dressing, are fit for 

 a gourmet, even though it may offend the ethics 

 of some epicures to cook a salad. 



The lettuce crop is usually followed by celery, 

 by potatoes, or by a second crop of lettuce. In 

 the last case weather conditions are just reversed; 

 during the growing period the weather is cold and 

 the plant hardly attains a good size before heading. 

 Frost will not hurt young lettuce, but will detract 

 from the appearance of lettuce about ready to 

 cut. On the other hand, if early hot weather 

 should come when the lettuce is mature, it is apt 

 to make the plant throw up a seed stalk. It is, 

 therefore, evident that this second crop is risky, 

 but for that reason, usually brings a handsome 

 return if successful. Potatoes planted last season 

 after a lettuce crop without additional fertilizer 

 in one case yielded as high as 125 barrels to the 

 acre. 



Florida. P. N. Holst. 



For Quack Grass Pasture 



ON MY farm in Central New York State I 

 had a sixteen acre field that had produced 

 nothing but a few scattering weeds for many 

 years; the soil was supposed to be as nearly 

 worthless as any in that locality, being composed 

 largely of a gravel loam with some clay and shale 

 intermixed, with a clay subsoil. The same ridge 

 of poor soil ran through other farms in the vicinity. 

 We had, on the more fertile part of our farm, a 

 field which we wished to grow to winter wheat, 

 but found it nearly impossible to do so because 

 the soil was completely filled with long and very 

 healthy quack grass. We plowed the field to 

 properly prepare the soil for seeding, but the 

 roots left lying on top of the ground would send 

 down their fibrous roots into the soil, and grow 

 and flourish as though they had not been dis- 

 turbed. We then commenced gathering^ them, 

 drawing them away and piling them at a distance, 

 but still they grew, and so quickly would they 

 take root and so tenacious were they of life that, 

 if the weather was not particularly dry, we seemed 

 to make but little headway in getting rid of the 

 pest. 



Finally we decided that our barren field with 

 the very poor soil should be the repository for all 

 the roots we could gather. By the cart-load we 

 scattered them, after having loosened the soil 

 with a two-horse cultivator. When the_ work 

 was completed, we paid no farther attention to 

 the field until the following spring, when to our 

 satisfaction, we found the roots alive and flourish- 

 ing. From the fact that these roots were left 

 on the surface of the soil, we decided not to put 

 the stock into the field until later in the season, 

 so as to give the roots an opportunity to make 

 good their claim upon the soil. In the month 

 of August, the grass was standing about a foot 

 high, so we mowed it and left it lying upon the 

 ground to rot. In October, eighteen cows, one 

 hundred and eighty sheep, and eight horses and 

 colts were turned into the field, our desire being 

 to test to the utmost the staying qualities of the 

 grass under adverse circumstances. The stock 

 were kept in the field constantly from October 1st 

 until the 10th of November, when the eighteen 



