September, 1913 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



59 



Conducted by Ellen Eddy Shaw 



Garden Results 



RESULTS in gardening are not all there is to 

 gardening but results do tell stories after all. 

 Below are result stories. They are not all of this 

 season's work or the work of any one season. But 

 they are significant and typical showing what has 

 been done and what can be done. Some of these 

 are reports of individual work; others, reports of 

 community work: 



There were thirty children in the garden connected with The 

 Children's Home of Jersey City, ranging from five to seven years 

 ■of age. Even the smallest ones have carried stones and weeded. 

 The plot is loo x ioo ft. and part of this was laid out in thirty 

 individual plots 5 x 10 ft., one for each child. In the individual 

 plots the children raised radishes, bush beans, carrots, onions, 

 and lettuce; as second crops, kohlrabi and Swiss chard were 

 planted; also, each plot had one pepper plant. Outside of 

 these plots the children cared lor 95 tomato plants, 12 eggplants, 

 30 hills of pole beans, and successive rows 25 feet long of beets, 

 ■carrots, beans, turnips, and kale. There were two plantings 

 ol corn each consisting of 8 to 10 rows 25 feet long. Hemp, 

 ■cotton, flax, and broom corn were planted in observation beds. 

 Some chickory salad, cucumbers, spinach and parsley completed 

 the list. The harvest is not over yet and they have already 

 furnished the Home with 1,000 beets, 660 tomatoes, 84 quarts 

 of beans, 1,615 carrots, 484 onions, 1,025 radishes, 100 bunches 

 of lettuce, 386 ears of com, and 7 eggplants, besides a few cu- 

 cumbers and peppers. 



Jersey City, N. J. Anna T. Molten. 



I am seven years old and my garden plot measures 35 feet by 

 12 feet. This is what I raised in my garden: potatoes, 1 peck; 

 ■tomatoes, red, 1 peck, and 4 quarts yellow ones; bush beans, 

 1 quart; radish, 200; lettuce, 1 peck; beets, 50; carrots 60; 

 peanuts, 22 on one plant; turnips, 75; pumpkin, 8; cucum- 

 bers, 50; mustard, 2 bunches; kohlrabi, 50; cabbage, 6; 

 muskmelon, 2. 



Groton, Mass. Alfred Durant. 



I respectfully submit the crops as gathered from August 1st 

 to September 17th, of the same year inclusive, underestimating 

 ■somewhat because some children failed to enter their figures. 

 September cropping was on the 3rd, 10th and 17th only. 



Beans, 325 quarts; beets (not counting beet greens), 1,900; 

 ■carrots (just beginning to be ready to harvest) , no; lettuce 

 (summer planting), 900 heads; onions scarcely ready for harv- 

 est, so a negligible crop; radish (summer planting), 900, and 

 any that will be ready in a few day s f or tne Morris Co\ e chil- 

 dren; tomatoes, 4,050 with perhaps 500 more on the vines. 



Records were begun July 16th. but were lost for July 26-31 

 during the Director's illness. Not until July 7th did the chil- 

 dren come twice a week. 



It is to be remembered that the Morris Cove children pre- 

 ferred to come in a body of twenty even if a third of them had 

 to be content with gardens 8 x 8 ft. The total number of chil- 

 dren; was always between 46 and 50. Some sixty asked for 

 gardens of which there were sixty-two in all. Probably seventy- 

 five children did some gardening during the summer. 

 Trinity Garden School. 



Hartford, Conn. M. Louise Greene. 



I am eleven years old, my" garden measured 65 x 12 ft. 

 and this is what I raised on it; pole beans, 2 pecks; corn, 48 

 ears; beans, 2 pecks; beets, 75; turnips, 100; radish, 460; 

 turnips, 300; kolhrabi, 300; carrots, 100; lettuce, 85 heads 

 besides some small stuff. 



Groton, Mass. Ervtng Kezar. 



Last year I netted $115 from my garden of 9,000 square feet. 

 About the middle of March I planted in my greenhouse seed of 

 lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, salvias, marigold, China pinks, 

 and snapdragon. 



Tomatoes were planted the 1st of March and later trans- 

 planted into hotbeds. My greenhouse, which I built in the 

 fall of 1911, has taken up 1,200 square feet of my garden, leav- 



ing me only about 9,000 square feet to cultivate. My sales 

 from vegetables, young plants, and repotting plants for others, 

 amounted to $115.22. 



Besides above sales I supplied one family of six and another 

 of four with vegetables all summer. 



Worcester, Mass. Roger Newton Perry. 



Uncle Sam's Newest Experiment 



TOMATO RAISING has suddenly become ex- 

 tremely popular among the girls of the rural 

 communities and small towns of Alabama. 



Clubs are formed by State agricultural instruc- 

 tors, and seeds and printed matter are furnished by 

 the Government. Each member is pledged to 

 cultivate one tenth of an acre and to use the regula- 

 tion 3-pound cans and the club label for her can- 

 ning. Little expense is attached as only a capping 

 iron, a "tipper" and a stove are necessary for this 

 part of the work. 



The state champion, Ava Hovater, raised and 

 canned 1,510 quarts on her plot. These were ex- 

 hibited at a local fair and sold at a profit of $101. 



One eight-year-old girl made a record of 803 

 cans, and a stocking-mill worker earned as much 

 from her tomato patch, cultivated before and 

 after mill hours, as she received for her summer's 

 toil in the factory. Next year she will "do nothing 

 but raise tomatoes." 



Birmingham, Ala. Lee McCrae. 



School Fairs 



THE old time public examination held before 

 the Christmas holidays has unfortunately gone 

 out of fashion to a large extent. It was a useful 

 and enjoyable institution. It furnished an en- 

 ticing occasion for the parents to visit the school 

 and thereby keep in touch with the children's and 

 teacher's school work. With the increasing in- 

 terest in the vocational work of school children, a 

 school fair can be made to take the place of the 

 public examination in some respects. 



Perhaps the month of September will be found 

 the most suitable month for it as a general rule. 

 If the exhibits are to be chiefly of early flowers, 

 pupils' school work in drawing, writing, etc., the 

 Fair may be held in June. If the exhibition is to 

 take the form of a fruit show, the month of October 

 will be preferred generally. But in September, the 

 exhibits may include vegetables, flowers, fruits, 

 grains, and field roots. 



In preparation for the Fair the date should be 

 announced at an early date and means taken to 



have the purpose of this phase of school work made 

 known to the neighborhood. Invitations should 

 be issued, these being prepared by the pupils, a 

 brief programme of songs or drills prepared and 

 arrangements made for the decoration of the school, 

 the judging of exhibits, and the distribution of 

 prizes. If the people of the district support the 

 scheme well, a lunch might be provided for a picnic 

 on the school grounds. 



On Fair Day, the morning should be spent by 

 pupils and teachers in placing the exhibits, decorat- 

 ing the school and putting everything in good order 

 so that the visitors may be pleased with "their 

 school." The judges should come early after 

 dinner, before there is any crowd, and place the 

 awards on the exhibits. A programme should be 

 placed in the hands of the master of ceremonies 

 and strictly carried out. The teacher should 

 take the opportunity of addressing the parents and 

 explaining what she was attempting to carry out 

 and what help she desired. In distributing prizes 

 if it is decided to have anything more than ribbons 

 or cards, there should be an endeavor made to give 

 every one presenting a worthy exhibit some credit. 

 In place of a few money prizes going to a few ex- 

 hibitors there should be many prizes consisting of 

 books, pictures, bulbs, seeds, vines, apple trees, etc. 



Guelph, Canada. S. B. McCready. 



Seeds in the Bulb Bed 



OCILLA SIBIRICA and Puschkina made plenty 

 *J of seed in my garden in 191 2. The berry-like 

 green three-celled pods on prostrate stems opened 

 on to the ground in July and discharged five or six 

 seeds each, almost as big as an elderberry, and 

 blacker. I planted them at once, because most of the 

 lily family resent having their seed staled by drying. 

 With the blooming of the plants in March, 1913, 

 the seeds germinated — an arrangement for 

 parental chaperonage, as it were, that is almost 

 an affectation in a wild flower of the open steppes 

 destined by nature to fend for itself through life. 



Puschkina seedlings look and behave in all 

 respects like the scillas (which is to say, exactly 

 like young Prizetaker onions). They grow close 

 together, and as I keep a number of hives of bees 

 their parent flowers had every opportunity to be 

 crossed. I shall watch with interest to see whether 

 a Puschkiscilla will appear in the little Russian 

 family party; or whether "In spite of all tempta- 

 tions, He remains an Englishman." 



Pennsylvania. E. S. Johnson. 



This garden received a cash prize of $25. It is a good type of home garden 



