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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



255 



Even in the impoverished soil and restricted conditions of 

 an apartment house yard a good corn crop was raised by 

 constant feeding 



Soapy Water for Poor Soil. — I had an 

 experience with a little garden last summer 

 that I think is worth repeating because of 

 the information that might be drawn from 

 the treatment of this spot and which might be 

 profitably applied to conditions similar to 

 those which were found here. My soil 

 was very sandy, in fact, it was this poor con- 

 dition and unwillingness to spend a lot of 

 money for manure and necessary hard work 

 that made me reluctant to attempt the culti- 

 vation of the land. I worked very hard in 

 loosening the soil and I planted the seeds, with 

 a faint heart, but still I worked faithfully and 

 with as much enthusiasm as might be reason- 

 ably expected under such conditions. When 

 the soil broke and the beans tumbled out of 

 the soil — I should say gravel — the wonder of 

 it all fired me with a delight that roused my 

 interest to the highest pitch for I felt that I 

 had witnessed a miracle. To see the great 

 clods of earth being raised up by the tiny, 

 tender little plants striving to reach the light 

 really startled me and made me tremble 

 with delight, and I said (aloud I think), 

 that if these little seeds were willing to do 

 such a masterful work I would be a coward 

 not to help them. So I worked and worked, 

 early and late, and the plants grew up to a 

 certain point and then they seemed to stop. 

 I knew I was asking too much and that I had 

 not done my part in the matter of supplying 

 nourishment. At this time a friend advised 

 me to save all the soapy water that I could 

 and to apply this to the ground. I lived in 

 an apartment house and to facilitate the 

 work of getting the soapy water to the garden 

 with the least labor I hit upon a device which 

 solved the difficulty. Outside each apartment 

 on the veranda I placed an earthen pan fast- 

 ened to the railing; from this I ran a hose to 

 the yard where I had sunk a barrel. Into 

 this barrel the water that was emptied out by 

 the occupants of the different apartments 

 flowed. From the time I began to apply this 

 soapy water to the vegetables, growth was re- 

 newed, and up to the present time there 

 has been no let up and my vegetables seem 

 to have found in the soapy water the neces- 

 sary food elements to complete their growth. 

 The supply of water was most liberal and I 

 applied it without stint, nothing unpleasant 

 happened, and I feel that I can safely 

 recommend to all those growing vegetables 

 under poor soil conditions the advisability 

 of using soapy water in liberal quantities. — 

 Minnie Boudrot, New Dorchester, Mass. 



M. Emil Lemoine, the well-known French 

 nurseryman and plant breeder, under date of 

 March 12, makes some complimentary com- 

 ment on the Garden Magazine and continues 

 in reference to a statement about his family on 

 page 21, February issue, as follows: "In the 

 note 'Two Chinese Deutzias of Merit' the 

 author states that two of my sons have been 

 sacrificed to the European Moloch in defence 

 of France. Fortunately for me, this is an 

 error. Of my four sons, three are with the 

 colours, and still alive. The second, Infantry 

 Lieutenant, was severely wounded three times, 

 and is still in hospital. The author has pro- 

 bably in mind the name of the famous raiser 

 of Roses, M. Pernet-Ducher, of Lyons, whose 

 both sons fell for our country." All horticul- 

 turists in America will join their felicitations 

 to the veteran Frenchman whose establish- 

 ment at Nancy, at this present writing, is so 

 seriously threatened by the enemy. — L. B. 



Arsenicals and Vegetables. — The ordinary 

 garden beet of the million home gardeners 

 may, under certain conditions, surpass in 

 malevolent cunning and near-tragedies the 

 never-identified persons who put ground glass 

 in commercial canned tomatoes. I had an 

 experience with these vegetables that is 

 worth printing as a warning to other stnvers 

 after intensive agriculture, lest the beet over- 

 come them and a German spy myth of 

 mysterious poisonings disturb their friends. 

 Young beets were coming along slowly near 

 some rows of potatoes, tomatoes, and other 

 tall succulent things, the leaves of which 

 were not to be eaten. Certain army-worms, 

 caterpillars, beetles, and insect rabble got 

 together and began to eat for salad the leaves 

 which I wanted to keep on my plants against 

 the time of fruiting. I sprayed arsenate of 

 lead on the area — and the insect rabble were 

 no more. Weeks afterward, I cooked for the 

 table these sneaking beets that had been hud- 

 dled down inconspicuously on the day of the 

 execution. I burned their leaves, though I 

 could not see arsenate traces on them and 

 thought they were of subsequent growth, for 



A half barrel was sunk in the ground and connected by 

 hose to the stories above whence soapy water was collected 

 for the garden 



fear of poisoning the neighbors' chickens, or 

 some human lovers of "greens." Of course, 

 one takes beets with the stubs on — and the 

 stubs come out of a flat, rough top, scarred 

 with ridges of past leaves. That rough top 

 must have held dried arsenic, originally 

 spouted down by the channelled stems of the 

 beets' young leaves on the day I sprayed the 

 neighboring tall plants. An hour's boiling 

 before the beets were peeled seemingly 



"A family photograph taken in the autumn of 1916, when by an extraordinary chance the three soldiers were on leave 

 together, for only one day. Since, the officer has won a new wound, losing the use of his left arm, and a 4th star to his war 

 cross." — E. Lemoine 



