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The Readers' Service will aid you rr, TT -,-, /~< a t-» t-x -n >t t» /r 1 r*\ 1 rr -r -kt t\ 

 in planning your vacation trip THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1911 



For Universal Service 



The Press and the Bell System 



The power of the individual writer is 

 multiplied by the printing press. In the 

 same way the power of the individual 

 telephone is multiplied by the Bell system. 

 In both cases, increased usefulness comes 

 from progress towards universal service. 



By means of the press the knowledge 

 and thoughts of writers are spread 

 throughout the land, maintaining among 

 all the people the common language and 

 the mutual understanding which makes 

 for national co-operation. 



By means of the Bell system, each 

 individual telephone becomes connectable 



with every other telephone and each 

 unit in the nation is given a personal 

 membership in the most highly developed 

 system of communication that the world 

 has ever seen. 



The press prepares people for co-opera- 

 tion ; the Bell telephone system enables 

 them to really co-operate. The press 

 educates people separately; the telephone 

 enables them to act upon their mutual 

 knowledge immediately and at any 

 distance. 



By co-operation with telegraph and 

 cable systems, universal service for com- 

 munication is being made international. 



American Telephone and Telegraph Company 

 and Associated Companies 



One Volicv One System Universal Service 



"Reeco" Water Supply System 

 ■Backed by 70 years' Reputation 



Nearly 50,000 "Reeco" Rider and "Reeco" Ericsson Hot Air 

 Pumps are now in operation. 



Some of these have been in constant use for 25 years without 

 any important repairs. 



The "Reeco" system is the most efficient, most dependable 

 and safest made. No noise; no complicated parts — no gasoline 

 with its attendant dangers. So simple a child can operate it. 



The "Reeco" system delivers water, fresh and clean to all 

 parts of house, barn and garden. Ample fire protection. 



Write for descriptive catalog U to nearest office. 



RIDER-ERICSSON ENGINE CO. 



New York Boston Philadelphia Montreal, P. (). Sydnej, Australia 



Also Makers of the "Reeco" Electric Pumps 



An Ancient Garden City 



DID you ever hear of a town that has been 

 famed for the quality of its vegetables 

 since St. Bonifacius first wrote Pope Zacharias 

 about it in 742 A. D.; a town that has brought 

 forth more new varieties of vegetables and flowers 

 of merit than any other on earth; a town which 

 to this day is famous as the gardening centre of 

 Europe? Erfurt, Germany, a thriving city in the 

 Thuringian Mountains, claims these unique dis- 

 tinctions. 



Historians agree that the place mentioned in 

 Caesar's "De Bello Gallicc" as the Hercynian 

 forest is the spot now occupied by the City of 

 Erfurt. At that time swamps covered that sec- 

 tion of Germania and only after many centuries 

 of diligent labor, much of it done by monks of the 

 cloister established by St. Bonifacius, the land 

 became drained and proved of seemingly inexhaust- 

 ible fertility. The original drainage canal is found 

 to-day in the Gera River, which is remarkable for 

 its characteristic winding course. It was led to 

 wherever there was a surplus of moisture and only 

 in recent years have the city authorities attempted 

 to curb its irregular way by eliminating side 

 streams and straightening the main bed. 



The arrival of the Benedictine monks in the 

 ninth century, whose orders contain the regulation 

 to devote time to gardening and farming, gave 

 still further stimulus to Erfurt's development as a 

 garden city. Throughout the middle ages we 

 find historians comment on the fertility of the 

 "Geradale." In the tenth century monks brought 

 with them from the Rhine the grape and a thrifty 

 industry developed, about which was issued the 

 first historical gardening document, dated A. D. 



"33- 



Beginning with the seventeenth century, Er- 

 furt has exported some of its horticultural seed 

 products which, at that time, were mainly herbs, 

 poppy, radish, beet, and beans. 



DISCOVERY OF THE " DREIENBRUNNEN " 



The real beginning of Erfurt as a gardening city 

 dates from the fifteenth century, when the dean of 

 Erfurt's university realized the tremendous fer- 

 tility of the lowlands southwest of Erfurt, known 

 as the Dreienbrunnen, so called after three springs 

 which kept this land continually under water 

 for lack of proper drainage. In 1665, a gardener 

 named Hartzen rented portions of this land, drained 

 them, and produced in the drainage canals for 

 the first time on a commercial scale the abundantly 

 growing wild watercress. From that day, Dreien- 

 brunnen water cress became famed far beyond the 

 German borders, and the production and selling 

 of watercress is one of Erfurt's thriving industries 

 to this day. Carloads of it are shipped throughout 

 the season, which extends through the greater part 

 of the winter, as the warm springs, which feed the 

 canals, never freeze. Cress is tied in wreaths about 

 ten inches in diameter, in which shape it is offered 

 on the market. 



THE WORLD'S FIRST BURBANK 



In 1685, Erfurt gave birth to its first gardening 

 genius, a man who became known beyond the 

 boundaries of Germany, and whose name is rever- 

 enced by every thinking German gardener. Chris- 

 tian Reichart has been called the father of German 

 gardening. His books on the subject are master- 

 pieces and his true insight into the very heart of 

 things, together with visionary ability, make them 

 gold mines to the student of gardening. To him 

 we are indebted for the first authentic information 

 regarding seed selection, and his treatise on the 

 valuable characteristics of certain important 

 vegetables is considered to-day one of the best 

 books ever written on the subject. 



Under Reichart's intelligent direction the Drei- 

 enbrunnen became a regular goldmine. Drainage 

 canals were run regular distances apart through 

 the district which covers nearly two hundred and 

 fifty acres. These canals were connected by feeders. 

 Between the feeders, beds were built on which 

 were raised vegetables of all kinds. By means of 

 long, scoop-like shovels, the water of these feeders 

 was used to irrigate the beds between. The 

 feeders containing watercress are nearly three 

 times as wide as those used for irrigation only. 

 The warm water of the three springs, together 



