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GARDENING 

 YOUNG^FOLKS 



CONDUCTED BY ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



June in the Garden 



THE month of June is one of the busiest of all 

 in the school garden, because it must either 

 produce results now (before school closes) or it 

 must be put into excellent condition for a long 

 summer's campaign. 



Lettuce, radishes, beet tops, young onions from 

 sets and carrots are ready for eating. Late peas 

 may be planted now, and Swiss chard and turnips 

 for late crops. Of course, sowings of lettuce and 

 radish may be made right along at intervals of a 

 week or ten days. 



If peppers or eggplants were started indoors 

 long ago, they may be set out now. 



But the three big pieces of work, after all, are 

 the cultivation of the soil, weeding, and fighting 

 insect pests. 



If the soil is frequently stirred moisture is re- 

 tained in it. The light, loosened area acts as a 

 blanket to hold the water and keep it near the 

 roots. 



Be careful to keep the garden free from weeds. 

 It is not enough merely to cut off the tops of weeds; 

 root them up and so be certain that they, at least, 

 are out of the way for good and all. Onion beds 

 often become very weedy. 



We must be on the watch all the time for the 

 pests which attack both vegetable and flower 

 gardens. This should be one of the subjects for 

 study in the school garden. The children should 

 be taught remedies for the most common of- the 

 insect pests and how to apply them. The work 

 of Mr. Ernest K. Thomas, in Providence, R. L, is 

 worthy of attention. He teaches the older boys 

 who are in garden work the uses of different sprays, 

 and how to mix and apply them. After mastering 

 this phase of the work the boys demonstrate these 

 practical lessons on insect pests to groups of younger 

 boys and girls. This is an effective method of 

 teaching. 



The insect pests found on cultivated plants are 

 of two kinds — those that chew and those that 

 suck — and they must be fought accordingly. 

 The chewing forms may be internally poisoned, 

 while the sucking ones should be smothered with 

 oily solutions or powders. 



The remedies usually used for the first class of 

 pests are paris green, arsenate of lead and bordeaux 

 mixture. Perhaps a safer remedy to handle is 

 hellebore powder. This may be sprinkled on the 

 leaves of the plants when the dew is still on them. 

 For the sucking insects use kerosene emulsion, 

 whale oil soap, tobacco dust or sulphur. 



Kerosene emulsion is made by shaving up a 

 quarter of a pound of hard soap into two quarts of 

 boiling water. When the soap is dissolved add a 

 gallon of kerosene by beating it in. When using 

 this for a spray add ten times the amount of water 

 to the quantity of the emulsion taken. Spray 

 this on to the plant or plants infested. 



Cutworms are very common in the garden. 

 They have soft bodies varying in color from black 

 to gray. They rest in the ground all day, coming 

 out to feed at night. They cut right through the 

 stalks of plants. Use hellebore powder. Make 

 a ring about the stalk of the plant at a distance of 

 two inches from the main stalk. Sprinkle helle- 

 bore powder inside of this ring. It is the contents 

 of this magic "ring" which do the work. 



Beets may have preying on them a sucking bug, 

 about one quarter of an inch long, brown in color 

 with black and yellow marks on it. They are 

 called plant bugs and hide in rubbish. Therefore, 

 if the garden is kept clean, these bugs may never 

 appear. But if they do, spray with kerosene 

 emulsion. 



All of us have seen the green worm on cabbage 

 plants. It is a slender worm about one inch in 

 length. It eats so many holes in the cabbage 

 leaves that they are quite riddled. Use hellebore 

 powder sprinkled on the leaves. 



Squash, pumpkin, cucumber, and melons, may 

 all have squash bugs. They are flat, black bugs 

 having a disagreeable odor. At night lay boards 

 near the plants and the bugs will crawl under 

 them. In the early morning lift up the boards and 

 kill the bugs. 



Potato beetles are most offensive. They are 

 yellow in color, with black stripes. Bordeaux 

 mixture is the spray most generally used. As this 

 is a poison it should be carefully handled. Boys 

 and girls should be taught how to use this, if there 

 is occasion for its use. Let the first lesson be one 

 of preparing the mixture. Buy five ounces of 

 copper sulphate (blue vitriol) from the drug store. 

 Place the vitriol in a cheese cloth bag and hang 

 this into a tub with five gallons of water in it. Five 

 and one half ounces of stone lime should be dis- 

 solved in the water. Strain and use as a spray. 

 Often times arsenate of lead is added. Use about 

 five ounces of this. The mixture sounds deadly; 

 it is a poison and should be so handled. 



The big, light green worms found on tomatoes 

 are picked off very easily by hand. These worms 

 are called horn worms, and from their cocoons 



One of the older boys demonstrating to the younger child- 

 ren how to prepare the spray mixtures 



sphinx moths emerge. Rose bugs also must be 

 hand picked. Slug shot is excellent to use for 

 rose troubles. 



In our flower garden we are troubled mostly 

 with red spider and with lice. Sprays of clean 

 water and kerosene emulsion are used. Also dust 

 on tobacco powder wherever the lice are found. 

 Sometimes, as is the case with golden glow, the 

 pest stays on a few flowers or branches of the plant. 

 This makes it easy to combat. Cut off the in- 

 fested parts and burn them. 



Perhaps you did not know that if you do not 

 plant dahlias until the last of June or the first of 

 July they will grow quite as well, if not better, than 

 those planted earlier. In August, if growth is slow, 

 water the dahlia plants each week with ammonia 

 water. Add a tablespoonful of household ammonia 

 in a gallon of water. 



Look at the tomato vines and see if they need 

 support. Perhaps the staking plan, used by Mabel 

 Musser and explained in the May number of The 

 Garden Magazine, will appeal to you as worth 

 trying. 



The city school, wishing to give a gardening 

 impetus to its scholars for all the summer, should 



300 



have a June garden exhibit. Ask the children to 

 bring in specimen plants from those raised in their 

 own home gardens, started by themselves from the 

 seed. If such plants are taken up and put into 

 boxes of soil a few days before the exhibit, they 

 will be in good condition. The plants then have 

 time to recover from wilt. Leave the boxes out- 

 doors in a sheltered spot in the garden until the 

 day of the exhibit. One of the Brooklyn public 

 elementary schools tries this plan with good suc- 

 cess. The interest lasts, the fall exhibit showing 

 this very plainly. 



So in June cultivate, weed, and fight garden pests. 



A Garden Story from Texas 



ADJOINING and surrounding the Maple 

 Avenue School in Austin, Tex., were heaps 

 of tin cans and other trash. Being in a very poor 

 section of the city the place was a veritable dumping 

 ground for a certain part of the city. 



One of the teachers gradually led up to the idea 

 of a garden, and when the enthusiasm became 

 intense, the trash was all gathered into large heaps 

 by the children, and the city wagons hauled it 

 away. 



The garden, a plot 20 x 50 ft., was dug up by 

 any available tools and raked into beds, and seeds 

 planted. The first spring a radish party proved 

 the crowning event, when the counted and washed 

 radishes seemed to all a delightful feast. Another 

 occasion was a dinner, with mothers and friends 

 as invited guests, when the vegetables from the 

 precious garden were cooked and served in the 

 school grounds. 



The pupils not only keep the school garden and 

 yard in order, but there are vines on the trees, and 

 the rear lot, extending to another street, has been 

 cleared of all rubbish and has become a little 

 park. 



The following September found the garden full 

 of tall weeds, and ten boys pulled them up, pre- 

 pared the soil, and planted turnip^. The plot is 

 20 x 50 ft. The work was done in one week. 



Since its beginning, the garden has been enlarged 

 and fenced in, flowers and vines make the building 

 and yard attractive, and the work has caused home 

 gardens to appear here and there in the neighbor- 

 hood. 



Texas. Mrs. M. K. Russell. 



Two Soil Experiments 



r EST for acidity of soil. Dampen the soil, 

 burying in it a piece of blue litmus paper. 

 Use for soil the garden samples. The litmus can 

 be bought at the drug store. Touch another 

 piece of blue litmus with an acid such as vinegar. 

 Note how an acid changes blue litmus to red. 

 Leave the litmus in the soil for an hour. See if 

 it is red when it comes out; if so the soil is acid 

 and needs liming. 



Effect of lime on soils. Take a tin can or plate. 

 Punch holes in the bottom of the receptacle. 

 Spread clay one half inch thick over the bottom. 

 Pour water on the clay. It does not drip through. 

 This shows to a class how a clayey field acts in 

 winter. Now do the experiment over again but 

 this time sprinkle lime on the surface of the clay 

 before pouring on the water. Notice that soon 

 the water begins to trickle through. This shows 

 the effect of lime on a clayey soil, breaking 

 up the clay and thus allowing air and water to 

 enter. If you take a mass of clay and knead 

 lime into it, you will find that the clay becomes 

 less sticky. Lime sweetens the soil too and 

 helps in the growth of certain plants. The ques- 

 tion arises concerning the amount of lime to 

 use. Farmers often estimate on 1,000 pounds to 

 the acre; or say a bushel to an area of about 1,500 

 square feet. 



