10-1 



The Readers' Service will aid you rr\ tt "n r~* » "r» n t^ tvt h it a r~i t rr t \t -n 

 in planning your vacation trip i ti t, b A E U Ji JN M A \Ji A Z 1 JN Jl, 



March, 1012 





Nitrate Is Necessary To Beautiful Lawns 



Enough Nitrate quickens and thickens the growth of grass and gives to it that deep, cool 

 green which makes some lawns inviting. A rapid growth of trees and shrubs and a foli- 

 age, almost tropical in density, follow close upon an application of Nitrate in the form of 



Nitrate of Soda 



Nitrate of Soda is the cheapest form of nitrogen because it is immediately and entirely available. Its 

 effect is seen sooner than that of any other fertilizer. It is clean, odorless and easy to handle. Use it now 

 and have a finer lawn and more beautiful trees next summer than ever before. Write for literature. 



DR. WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director, Chilean Nitrate Propaganda, 17 Madison Avenue New York 



No Branch Offices 



[SWIFT'S ARSENATE OF LEAD 



^— ► HIGHEST QUALITY 



Insect Pest Destroyer! 



Easy to mix — sure to kill. Death to all leaf -eating insects. Save your trees, fruits and vegetables. 



Put Up in paste Or dry form. (Conforms to the National Insecticide Act of 1910.) 



Be Sure and Ask for SWIFT'S 



and thus always secure GUARANTEED HIGHEST QUALITY. 

 FOR SALE BY LEADING DEALERS EVERYWHERE 



MERRIMAC CHEMICAL CO. 



Send for Circular. 30 Broad Street, Boston, Mass. 



^Planet Jr^ 



This name is a guarantee all over the world of the most modern 

 scientific farm and garden tools manufactured. Hvery Planet Jr 



cuts your work in half 



These tools double your crop yield, pay for themselves in a single season and 

 last a life-time. Built to do the work, by a practical farmer and manufacturer 

 with over 35 years' experience. 



Planet Jr Hill and Drill Seeder, Single Wheel Hoe, Cultivator and Plow 

 Combined plants all garden seeds accurately in hills or drills; hoes, cultivates. 



and plows quickly and thoroughly. Popular with farmers and 



gardeners everywhere. 



No. 6. 



Planet Jr Twelve-tooth Harrow, Cultivator and Pulverizer is inval- 

 uable in strawberry and truck patches and the market garden. Its 12 

 chisel-shaped teeth and pulverizer leave the ground in finest condition 

 without throwing dirt on plants. 



C , 13 'C' WJ 1 t A 64-page illustrated 



r rvCiCi • garden hand book ! 



For the asking you can get this bookful of valuable inform 

 ation on all crop growing. You 

 can't afford to miss it. Send *"* 

 ^"Vf* postal for it today! 



T ^ S L Allen & Co 



Box 1108S Philadelphia Pa. 



for that purpose with telling effect. In exposed 

 positions, as on open lawns which are apt to be 

 wind swept, the bedding varieties ought to be 

 used. The Crego, Semple's Branching and Mikado 

 types make splendid dot plants for the herbaceous 

 border. 



The Express Comet varieties, which are the 

 earliest of all, if started under glass in March, 

 will bloom early in July; sown outdoors in May 

 they will bear flowers at the end of July. Queen of 

 the Market started indoors at that time will bloom 

 the middle of July; sown outdoors, early in August. 



White Fleece and Lavender Gem, started in- 

 doors, will bloom in early August, and toward the 

 end of the month if the seed is sown outdoors. 



Paeony-flowered, Victoria, Daybreak or Purity 

 class, and Electric will bloom the middle of August 

 from seed sown indoors in March; outdoors, earl} r 

 in September. 



Tall Branching, Crego, Rochester or Mikado, 

 Waldersee, and the Single blossom from the middle 

 to the end of August if the seed is started under 

 glass in March, and from early September onward 

 from seed sown outdoors during May. 



Pennsylvania. G. W. Kerr. 



As to Double Primroses 



I CARE little for double flowers as a rule and 

 even have been wont to look with pity on 

 those who would double the primrose. But I 

 confess that I have had to back water since I have 

 come to be the owner of a double white primrose. 

 In May, 1909, I purchased one plant of Primula- 

 acaulis alba plena, just to show how right I was, 

 and got my first blossoms a year later. The May 

 following found the plant the daintiest imaginable 

 cushion of soft green studded with more than fifty 

 beautiful white flowers as double as double could 

 be and — I was converted on the spot. So long 

 as I have a garden there shall be a place for this 

 charming flower, which is admirably placed near 

 the yellow of my P. vulgaris and the mauve of what 

 I bought for P. Cashmcriana but I believe is P. 

 dcnticulata. I have another double primrose that 

 doesn't know whether it is rose or magenta and has 

 a way of getting along with just enough petals to 

 keep it out of the single class. Though I hate to 

 throw it away, it is scarcely worth garden room. 

 The next time that I am in England I shall hunt 

 for the famous old double red called Pompadour — 

 it will come high, but I must have it to go with 

 my white. I have found the double white prim- 

 rose most easy of culture and inclined to form new 

 crowns with a fair degree of rapidity. I give it 

 full sunshine in spring but shade in summer. The 

 soil must be well drained and the bed raised a few 

 inches above the garden walk. 

 New Hampshire. L. C. 



The "Escaped" Bellflower 



IT IS rather singular that the bellflower that 

 probably has been longest in cultivation here 

 is not only among the least familiar but is known to 

 few by name. This is the European bellflower 

 {Campanula rapunculoidcs), once a favorite in 

 gardens but now seldom seen excepting as an 

 "escape." In fact I can recall no garden other 

 than my own where I could be sure of finding it, 

 though I know of plenty of old dooryards where it 

 still seeks a haven by a fence. Once in a while it 

 is found straying out to the very roadside. We 

 call it "bluebell" in New England. I think, how- 

 ever, that the old name was rampion. At any 

 rate I can distinguish no difference between this 

 and the Campanula Rapunculus whose roots are 

 edible and which is much liked in France; where 

 its name in the vernacular, raiponcc, sounds so 

 much like rcpousc, that manger des raiponees is 

 used as a play on words. I have never eaten 

 rampion, but I do like this time-honored bellflower 

 that so long has been an outcast. It is an excel- 

 lent border plant, if kept within bounds, and by not 

 allowing it to go to seed one may be sure of its 

 graceful spikes of purplish blue blossoms through 

 the summer and into October; it is a most per- 

 sistent bloomer. An excellent place for it to grow 

 unrestrained is by a wall and nowhere does it look 

 better; or it may be naturalized, either in full 

 sunshine or partial shade. 



New York. H. S. A. 



