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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1912 



Fall vs. Spring Planting Again 



IN VIEW of your warning in the October 

 "Month's Reminder" not to attempt fall 

 planting in the Middle West, my experience may 

 be of interest. 



The climatic conditions prevailing along the 

 west shore of Lake Michigan north of Chicago are 

 exceptionally trying, and the winter of igio-n 

 was typical, perhaps even more so. In November, 

 1910, I planted some 175 hardy shrubs, consisting 

 of viburnums, berberis, cornus, deutzias, spireas, 

 wiegelas, hydrangea, altheas, loniceras, snow- 

 berries, ribes, and cydonias. These were all 

 fairly large stock, some of the varieties exceptionally 

 so. The entire planting came through the winter 

 without loss of a single shrub, and are in fine con- 

 dition. Only the bush honeysuckles showed any 

 abnormal amount of dead wood, and as they were 

 of exceptional size I am not certain that a similar 

 condition would not have resulted from planting 

 in the spring. 



I am the veriest novice and do not feel that 

 exceptional care in planting or thereafter assured 

 this result. The ground was a heavy clay, and in 

 order to make it friable we put a layer of sand and 

 another of manure over the border, spaded it to a 

 depth of twelve or fifteen inches and allowed it to 

 stand for about four weeks, when the operation 

 was repeated. After planting, when the ground 

 had frozen up, a mulch of leaves and manure was 

 spread over all to a depth of about three inches, 

 and this was not removed until all danger of freez- 

 ing was over in the spring. In contrast, I planted 

 some Philadelphus and Spiraea prunifolia last 

 spring, and while the former has made a fair be- 

 ginning, neither approaches the condition of the 

 fall-planted shrubbery. 



Glencoe, 111. Chas. von Weller. 



Why We Lime the Garden 



THE practice of liming farm lands is more than 

 a century old, yet the scientific mechanism 

 of the action has never been fully understood until 

 recent years. It has always been said that "sour" 

 soils need lime to "sweeten" them, and that is true. 

 Some farm crops such as clover will not do well in 

 sour or acid soil, but this acidity is more safely cor- 

 rected by limestone dust than by burnt lime. Each 

 neutralizes acid, but the limestone has no effect 

 on the other materials of the soil. On the other 

 hand, caustic lime goes farther and decomposes 

 organic matter, such as the humus of the soil, mak- 

 ing it more readily available for crop needs. This 

 is objectionable on a farm, for the land is thus 

 robbed of its plant food too rapidly, and in the 

 long run, the total yield is lessened unless heavy 

 manuring is done so as to replace the excessive 

 drains. 



In a garden the economic considerations are 

 different. It is necessary that a great deal of plant 

 food be made rapidly available in order to force 

 the vegetables. The special needs and returns 

 make a powerful soil stimulant, such as burnt lime, 

 a profitable agent. The gardener can afford and 

 is willing to replace these heavy losses of food from 

 his soil by frequent applications of fertilizers. 



Be careful, however, not to mix the lime with a 

 fertilizer containing ammonium salts as the am- 

 monia will be driven into the air by the caustic 

 action of the lime. They must be applied at dif- 

 ferent times. 



To sum it up. the garden does not demand lime 



unless it is actually sour, but a light application 

 will force the vegetables by converting the plant 

 food into a more soluble form. The extra loss from 

 the soil must be made good by that much more 

 fertilizer. 

 Indiana. Harry N. Holmes. 



A Note from a Suffragette 



MY LOVE for gardening is so great that if I 

 can inoculate others and teach them a 

 little of the joys of garden ownership, I shall not 

 have lJved m vain. 



My garden is a "suffragette," ruled and cared 

 for by a woman. It only needs a man's strength 

 when new beds are made or the grass cut, and 

 even that is within my power, were not my hus- 

 band's reputation as a husband at stake. Either 

 he would suffer in the minds of the neighbors or 

 I would develop a reputation for insanity. As 

 it is, probably I'm pointed out as a harmless 

 monomaniac, because my gardening operations 

 have to be performed in public, and they are 

 pretty constant. Trying to have a bit of lawn, a 

 tidy garden free from weeds, with plants well 

 staked, and dead blossoms clipped off, keeps one 

 busy when not otherwise engaged. I make that 

 time uncertain, endeavoring not to discourage 

 tentative gardeners. The truth is that if you 

 love your plants you want to be eternally with 

 them. 



After reading many of the garden guides, listen- 

 ing to the opinions of every authority who will 

 discourse learnedly, and trying each method 

 recommended, I have evolved ways of my own. 



My first bed was dug by an experienced old 

 gardener who rather scratched over the soil with 

 a spade and incorporated a quantity of exhausted 

 manure that had been lying on the lawn all winter. 

 I viewed the operations with distrust, but, for 

 some contrary reason, that has proved my most 

 satisfactory bed, the texture of soil light, the color 

 dark; plants flourish and blossom there and never 

 seem to be afflicted with disease or death. 



The next beds were constructed in a more 

 business-like fashion, and according to printed 

 directions were dug out to a depth of two feet and 

 filled in carefully with top soil and well rotted 

 manure. They looked ideal but have proved 

 unsatisfactory, because they dry out too rapidly 

 and their inmates sulk — refuse to blossom, and 

 disappear on the slightest provocation. 



Now I have my Italian laborer cut .off -the sod 

 and loosen up the earth to the depth Of one foot, 

 laying the sod, upside down, at the bottom of the 

 bed. I have one load of well-rotted manure put 

 on top of a bed fifty by six feet. Mixed with 

 the earth rather casually at first, and allowed to 

 settle for two weeks if there is plenty of rain to 

 help it, or longer if necessary. Then it is worked 

 over until fine and well mixed. That seems to be 

 the perfect plant home, but my ground floor and 

 cellar are naturally advantageous with a good 

 rich soil and a clay subsoil. 



None of my annuals or perennials throw their 

 roots any distance down except a few monopolists 

 like roses and hollyhocks, and they have beds 

 specially prepared for their needs. 



If the earth is sour — and you'll find clover 

 won't grow where there is excess of acidity, and 

 sorrel will — correct the condition by mixing 

 lumps of lime with the soil, plowing it in. This is 

 a better way than scattering the pulverized lime 

 over the surface. 



About twenty-five bushels of lime to the acre 

 seems right. It is so hard to get advice as to the 

 right amount, opinions varying. I have been told 

 to use anything from two to fifty bushels, and one 

 friend whose business is growing plants, frankly 

 acknowledged that he "didn't know." Another 

 said, "enough to make the ground look as though 

 it had been visited by a baby snow-storm." 



If my readers will dig as constantly and per- 

 sistently as I do, they'll settle all undecided points 

 for themselves. 



My first and second years were failures; by 

 the third year I had plenty of nasturtiums, and now 

 I have everything I want. Perhaps this proves 

 that time and hard work will bring success to 

 other suffragettes! 



Pennsylvania. A. L. T. 



FERTILIZERS 



Mix Your Own Fertilizer 



YOU would not call a farmer a good business 

 man, were he to buy somebody's "Complete 

 Prepared Food" for cows, instead of going into the 

 market and buying corn-meal, wheat bran and 

 cotton seed meal at market prices. The so-called 

 "complete prepared food" would probably con- 

 tain the same ingredients mixed together and the 

 price would be perhaps double what they could be 

 bought for separately. It is the same with plant 

 foods. Buy them in the cheapest and best forms 

 and mix them yourself. 



By e. "complete" fertilizer is meant a fertilizer 

 containing phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash. 

 The two principal sources of phosphoric acid are 

 bones and rock phosphate, the latter being the 

 cheapest. The phosphate rock is found in large 

 deposits in Florida and South Carolina, and is 

 supposed to be composed of the petrified bones 

 and excrements of extinct animals and when 

 ground and treated with sulphuric acid, the larger 

 part of the phosphoric acid contained becomes 

 soluble in water. Nitrate of soda and cotton 

 seed meal are most commonly used to obtain 

 nitrogen. 



Cotton seed meal is cotton seed with the hull 

 removed and the oil extracted and, on an average, 

 contains 7 per cent, nitrogen, 25 per cent, phosphoric 

 acid and ij per cent, potash. The nitrogen, how- 

 ever, is not as soluble as that contained in nitrate 

 of soda. 



The cheapest sources of potash are muriate of 

 potash and wood ashes. Wood ashes, if unleached, 

 contain from 3 to 5 per cent, of potash depending 

 upon the kind of wood they are from. Muriate of 

 potash, after being refined, contains about 50 per 

 cent, actual potash. v> 



For a complete fertilizer analyzing say 10 per 

 cent, phosphoric acid, 3 per cent, nitrogen and 3 per 

 cent, potash, you will pay in the neighborhood of 

 $30 per ton. The 10-3-3 goods are used commonly 

 in the South for cotton and corn. To mix one 

 ton of fertilizers so analyzing, and save at least 

 $6, will require: 



Acid phosphate 14% . . 1484 lbs, at $0.75 per 100 $11.13 

 Nitrate of soda 16%.. 391 " ' 2.50 '' 9.78 



Muriate of potash 50% .. 125 " " $2.50 " 3.12 



Total 2000 lbs. cost, $24.03 



Cotton seed meal may be substituted wholly 

 or in part, bearing in mind that 16 per cent, nitrate 

 of soda means that each 100 pounds contains 16 

 pounds of soluble nitrogen and that cotton seed 

 meal contains 7 pounds nitrogen, i\ pounds 

 phosphoric acid and i| pounds of potash for each 

 100 pounds. How can the farmer save money 

 more easily than by buying the three necessary 

 plant foods separately and mixing them himself? 



Four or five hundred pounds is the most con- 

 venient amount to mix at one time. Shoveling 

 the pile over three or four times or until it is a 

 uniform color is sufficient. O. A. Spencer. 



An Ever-Blooming Bellflower 



MOST bellflowers have a sharply defined period 

 of bloom, but the wild harebell (C.rotundi- 

 folia) gives scattering bloom all summer, and so does 

 the Carpathian bellflower. We have seen a good 

 many flowers on the latter as late as the middle of 

 September. It might be called the only ever- 

 blooming bellflower. It is the most perma- 

 nent of the dwarf bellflowers also. Once 

 established it multiplies so that you can make 

 edgings of it. W. M. 



