162 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 19 18 



Gladiolus 

 "Kunderdi" 



The Wonderful New Races 

 With Wavy or Ruffled Petals 



New Class New Types 

 New Colors 



XTO OTHER strains are near 

 so beautiful and your collec- 

 tion cannot be up-to-date with- 

 out them. Send for our 1918 

 Free Catalogue of 52 pages with 

 many beautiful illustrations. It 

 describes nearly 300 varieties 

 (all of our own production). 83 

 extra grand new ones now of- 

 fered for the first time and only 

 obtainable from us. It con- 

 tains the most complete cultural 

 notes and valuable information 

 on gladiolus, including how to 

 grow Giant or Prize winning 

 blooms, and how to have them 

 flowering throughout the entire 

 summer and fall, until freezing 

 weatlier sets in. It is time to 

 plant now. 



Address the originator 

 of the Ruffled Gladiolus 



A. E. KUNDERD 



Goshen Indiana 



Blame Your Own Undue Haste, 

 Not the Bean Seed 



I KNOW of no vegetable — my experience is 

 confined to California — that can act so 

 like a child spoiled with too much petting as 

 the lima bean. The first year that I tried 

 its growth, I had the soil carefully prepared 

 and well soaked hefore I sowed the seed, and 

 by way of good measure I turned the water 

 down the furrows afterward. A few stunted 

 leaves, the seeds, spotted yellow and sickly- 

 looking, still clinging to them, made their 

 way up through the moist earth. But most 

 of the poles, placed at three-foot intervals, 

 stood bare and expectant. I reseeded the 

 ground, with the same result. I then had no 

 doubt, since all else was right, that the seed 

 was poor. But a fresh purchase brought no 

 better returns. 



1 he next season I repeated my struggle, 

 but this time I sowed my seed in another part 

 of the ranch, in the rich, alluvial soil known 

 as "tule." The sowing occurred in April, 

 while the ground was still very moist from 

 spring rains, and the weather, although good 

 "growing weather," had not yet settled down 

 to any steady temperature. I had the same 

 old disappointment, and as everything in the 

 "tule" grows like mad, I knew the trouble 

 could be nowhere but with the seed. 



A month later, May 15, my brother sug- 

 gested as we were passing an unused bit of 

 land that had been plowed the previous fall 

 and replowed in the spring, that I make use 

 of it for a garden. I replied that it was too 

 late in the year, and the ground too dry. 

 Still, as I was garden-mad, I tried it with 

 my lima bean seed, throwing it in by the 

 handful, until my brother remarked that if 

 I were to do ranching on a large scale it would 

 take the bank of England to finance me. 

 It was a week later before I passed the spot 

 again, and then I almost reeled in my saddle. 

 Every bean that I had put in the ground had 

 sprouted, and was simply rioting with all 

 the primal force of nature. Of course, I had 

 to thin them out to four in a hill, and it nearly 

 broke my heart. I prepared immediately 

 to baby those left. The patch — perhaps 

 50 x 400 ft. — was on the bank of a slough that 

 meandered through the land. I insisted on a 

 siphon being installed and ordered a quantity 

 of willow poles cut. The man to whom I 

 intrusted this job, smiled and asked me to let 

 him tell me what he knew about lima beans in 

 Ventura County, whence train loads are ship- 

 ped east every fall. 



Beginning with the seed, he told me that 

 they never sowed them until the ground had 

 partially dried from the spring rains. Under 

 no circumstances must they be sowed in 

 wet, soggy ground. He added that he had 

 known ranchers make an entire re-planting, 

 when unexpected late rains had wetted the 

 soil. Secondly, the weather must be settled 

 and warm. Chilly days or nights so dis- 

 courage the bean that it is apt to give up the 

 ghost. After they are up, hoe them and keep 

 down the weeds until they begin to run, then 

 leave them to themselves. Poles are un- 

 necessary, a detriment in fact. The running 

 vine forms a shade for its roots that acts like 

 a mulch. There is no danger from mould or 

 rot in the long, rainless, California season. 



I followed the man's advice. When my 

 vines had four leaves I dug up several and 

 found that their roots measured a foot in 

 length. As they were so spry in seeking 

 moisture in depths where it could be found, I 

 (Continued on page 164) 



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