May, 19 18 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



179 



TRAfN NOW— THE WAR WILL DEPEND ON THE KIND OF GARDEN 

 YOU HAVE NEXT SUMMER! 



( kcep vou* eve on the. 



\ RANT-i.tr THE O' 

 \ FOLLOW THE5TTCOKE 



yuxouND " 



> Youre sac*l wofir 

 <;er ooixe when the 



TIME COMEi Ttt Pul^. 



practice fi^rciNC. — 



A MERV SIMPLE. DEVICE CAN 

 BE RICKED UP AT 5nflLi- 

 ETPENSE AND MUCH COMFORT 1 

 THE ReST OF T»E FAMILY 



^Reproduced by permission from the New York World 



come off wrapped up in the nest-webbing. 

 Brush this webbing, etc., into a large tin pail, 

 the contents of which may be burned or 

 otherwise destroyed as the gleaner may prefer. 

 I have found this Catcher far preferable to 

 the usual way of burning the nests, which 

 latter method injures the trees and is also 

 dirty and troublesome to use. — Wm. H. Rock- 

 wood, New York City. 



Coboea Scandens as a Porch Climber. — 

 During the last three years I have been 

 delighted with Coboea scandens as an annual 

 climbing vine for my porch. The seeds were 

 started and the plants grown for me in two 

 inch pots in a cool greenhouse (the Carnation 

 house of a local florist) though I could have 

 grown them in the dwelling without trouble. 

 They were set out the latter part of May — 



The Cup-and-Saucer flower (Coboea scandens) is a quick 

 growing annua! vine for the porch. Set out plants late in 

 May 



three of them by the porch pillar. During 

 July they began to blossom and continued 

 until killed by frost in October. One year 

 I had the greenish-flowered variety. But 

 this I consider inferior to the one that starts 

 greenish and turns purple within a couple of 

 days. As the flowers are as large as the large 

 trumpet Narcissus they are very striking. 

 This is one of the quickest, most satisfactory 

 annual climbers I have ever grown. — M. G. K. 



The Soy Bean. — Attempts of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture to introduce the Soy 

 bean into domestic use are meeting with some 

 success in a commercial way. In 1916 three 

 large canneries were known to be using Soys 

 in certain brands of tinned baked beans. 

 A bulletin issued September, 1917, speaks of 

 "the increased use of this bean for human 

 food" resulting in "an enormous increase in 

 the acreage." The same bulletin says that 

 "Soy beans yield more seed per acre and are 

 more cheaply harvested than any other 

 variety of bean" and they are very rarely 

 attacked by weevils. When we recognize 

 that Soy beans contain 35 per cent, of protein 

 and 18 per cent, of fat we realize their very 

 great possibilities for human food. The 

 fact that they were, in November, 1917, 

 available as first grade seed beans at j\c. 

 per lb., while the inferior Navy bean was 

 selling in retail groceries at 25c, does not 

 diminish their significance. I have served 

 cooked Soy beans, both black and white 

 varieties, to at least 50 people in the last 

 three 'years, and have yet to find any one 

 who does not like them. Consequently, 

 last spring I bought a 5 cent packet of seed, 

 in order to have some plants on exhibit in 

 our college botanic garden. About -f of the 

 packet, however, found a place in my own 

 home garden. Planted in May, about 6 

 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart, they grew 

 splendidly. The bushes attained a height 

 of about 2 ft., with a spread of about 18 

 inches. This, was also on the poorest soil I 

 could find. The flower of the Soy bean is 

 small and almost hidden by the large hairy 

 trifoliate leaves. But along in August the 

 bushes become heavily draped on all the 

 branches with the short bristly pods. As 

 these ripened, there was a stage just before 

 drying, where the full grown beans could be 

 easily shelled out. Knowing how delicious 

 are all the ordinary bush beans when boiled 

 at this stage, I sacrificed a medium large Soy 

 plant. It bore 167 pods, containing a total of 

 418 beans, measuring just \ pint. They were 

 easily cooked, and the result was highly sat- 

 isfactory. But think of 418 beans from a 

 single parent! And Robbins says 600 to 

 800 may be expected. Truly, no other bean 

 is so prolific. My total crop shelled out four 

 pounds of dry beans. The variety I raised 

 was a large white one of early maturity. The 

 bureau of foreign seed and plant introduction 

 lists about 75 varieties, in many shades and 

 sizes as available for experimenters. It 

 should, perhaps, be said that the dry bean, 

 after 24 hours soaking in water, cannot be 

 cooked entirely soft by ordinary methods. 

 It remains crisp, but becomes very tender and 

 brittle. If you want your beans to become 

 completely softened, they require a soaking 

 of two to four days, or a pressure cooker. 

 The high fat content of Soy beans makes it 

 undesirable to cook pork with them. This 

 fact contributes to making the Soy beans the 

 most economical as well as most nutritious 

 meat-substitute in all our lists of foods. — 

 Henry S. Conard, Grinnell, Iowa. 



The New Deutzias. — I have read with much 

 interest Mr. McFarland's article in The 

 Garden Magazine for February, but I cannot 

 refrain from remarking that he could have saved 

 much printer's ink, if he had had his plants 

 rightly named, because then he would have had 

 no opportunity to discourse at length on this 

 terrible name D. Schneideriana laxiflora. The 

 fact is that his large-flowered Chinese Deutzia is 

 not that species, but D. discolor. I do not know 

 how he got hold of that name; he states that 

 he received the plant as Wilson's No. 570 

 which was determined as D. discolor, as stated 

 in Plantae Wilsonianae. The photograph struck 

 me at first glance as having no resemblance 

 to D. Schneideriana which resembles D. 

 scabra and has an elongated rather loose 

 inflorescence, smaller flowers with narrower 

 petals and very short triangular calyx-teeth, 

 and none of these characters can be found 



Soy Beans. Earlier maturing variety at right .is the kind 

 for the home garden 



in the pictured plant. The English name 

 used "Large-flowered Chinese Deutzia" is 

 also not fortunate, as there is a D. grandiflora 

 from northern China, and one might suppose 

 that this plant was meant. — Alfred Rehder, 

 Arnold Arboretum. 



Golden Bell Flower Buds Killed. — Every 

 year I force in my house a lot of sprays of 

 Forsythia. This year no flowers but plenty 

 of leaves; and I have been told by several 

 people that this has also happened with them. 

 Can it be possible that the awful cold of last 

 winter has blasted the flowers ? What will our 

 spring be without the Forsythias? I hope 

 that I am wrong in my conclusions and that 

 we shall have these beautiful bushes in all 

 their glory as usual. A few short weeks will 

 tell. — Frank H. Presby. 



— No doubt your surmise is correct, and 

 the blame must be put on the weather of 

 winter. It is of interest to note in this con- 

 nection that the flower buds of different 

 species of Forsythia are frequently killed in 

 the Arnold Arboretum, whereas those of the 

 several hybrids are more resistant to cold. 

 This was specially noted in the winters of 

 191 5-16, and 1916-17 when the spectabilis 

 form of F. intermedia alone came through 

 with a real display of bloom. — Ed.'\ 



Field Mice and Bulbs. — My place is in- 

 fested with field mice which last year de- 

 stroyed my bulbs as well as inflicting other 

 damage. What can I do to get rid of them?— 

 James P. Baxter, Portland, Me. 



