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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 19 18 



(Corydalis) have much the same charm, 

 bulbosa pleases by its delicate leaves and 

 healthy growth, nobilis is a little too heavy 

 and strong for so small a place; but the native 

 Dicentras (so closely related) are just right, 

 with finely cut glaucous foliage and rose, 

 white or yellow flowers. 



PHIS is but a beginning. The glory of the 

 -*■ rock garden is over in June, much of it 

 is at its best before the vegetable planting 

 season opens, the area is small, the labor 

 in proportion, and the pleasure without 

 end. 



Growing Rose Slips 



TN MAY and June I gathered slips of the 

 -*■ Roses I wanted to grow, taking for this 

 purpose the young shoots that were not 

 going to bloom. The books and papers say 

 to wait until August, but I never have done 

 so and have had splendid success, rarely 

 losing a plant or having one that does not 

 take *root. The slip, when trimmed ready 

 to plant, has four or five buds and is plant- 

 ed with two buds above the ground, in the 

 garden in oidinary soil, watering well, and 

 covering immediately with a Mason fruit jar. 

 The slips were well watered every evening 

 and shaded with a board from eight until six 

 on sunny days. 



They began to grow in from three to five 

 weeks, and as soon as the little leaves began 

 to show, I gave them air by inserting a little 

 stick under the edge of each jar. This open- 

 ing was made larger as the plants grew until, 

 when they were well leaved out, I removed 

 the jars altogether. But they were shaded 

 with boards on all the hot dry days of summer, 

 and watered thoroughly at night. By fall 

 they were thrifty little Roses. After frost, I 

 gradually gathered leaves around them until 

 they were even with the tops of the plants, 

 and thus they were wintered safely under the 

 snow. In the spring they were set out in 

 their permanent places. 



My experience proves that any one can 

 raise Roses this way if they have the patience 

 to wait a year, and are not in a hurry for 

 immediate results. And the garden lover can 

 appreciate the fascination of this kind of 

 work. 



Iowa. E. L. W. 



Flowering Cosmos Under Glass 



SOME interesting experiments in the 

 flowering of Cosmos under glass 

 have been made by H. W. Vose, 

 of Hyde Park, Mass. Mr. Vose 

 has been able to produce flowers quite as 

 large as those grown outside, and he thinks 

 that his success has been due to the fact that 

 the seeds were planted late. He has found 

 that the flowers will come as quickly as on 

 plants of the same variety started much 

 earlier, but that the plants will not attain so 

 great a height. Of course, it is a distinct 

 advantage to have the plants dwarf when they 

 are to be grown under glass. 



Even when Lady Lenox is planted early in 

 the spring in the Northern states, the plants 

 are often killed by frost in the fall before 

 they have blossomed. Mr. Vose, however, 

 waits until the first of August. Then he sows 

 seeds of Lady Lenox in the open ground, 

 moving the plants to the greenhouse before 

 hard frosts come. The plants are then from 

 a foot to two feet high. Last fall many of 

 the plants were budded when taken inside, 



late in October. Apparently the plants 

 received but little check, for all the buds 

 opened, and the flowers began to come in 

 great profusion. They kept on blooming 

 until after Christmas. 



Cosmos handled in this way does not need 

 any coddling. The plants will do well in a 

 house where the temperature drops as low as 

 40 degrees at night. Some gardeners in 

 times past have tried taking in Cosmos plants 

 started in May. Usually these plants have 

 soon drooped and even though they recovered, 

 have lost their lower leaves. Mr. Vose 

 finds that plants started as late as August 

 1st are much more compact, keep their 

 leaves better, and have a more thrifty 

 appearance. 



There seems to be no reason why every 

 amateur who has a private greenhouse 

 should not be able to prolong the Cosmos 

 season until late in the year. There is just 

 one point to be remembered. The plants 

 must not be showered. Wetting the foliage 

 injures it, although water may be applied at 

 the roots in abundance. 



Massachusetts. E. I. Farrington. 



Keeping Up Fertility for Next Year 



TNTENSIVE gardening proves a heavy 

 ■*■ drain on soil fertility. By the time the 

 average row has yielded two or three crops, it 

 needs replenishing with nearly all'the elements 

 necessary to sustain plant life. 



The present lack of proper fertilizers will 

 make itself felt more and more, as the season 

 progresses. It will prove still more embar- 

 rassing next spring, unless we take steps to 

 enrich the soil as we go along. 



The one sure way to improve your garden 

 soil is to keep it busy. With the help of the 

 proper kind of plants, your garden may be 

 turned into a plant food producing laboratory 

 as fast as space becomes available to sow new 

 seeds. 



Agriculturists have long recognized the 

 importance of legumes as soil enrichers. 

 These same legumes will prove the salvation of 

 American home gardens another year. Briefly, 

 legumes are plants of the bean, pea, and 

 clover family. They absorb nitrogen from 

 the air and store it in the soil through nodules 

 that grow on their roots. The rank-growing 

 tops or plants proper, dug into the soil, sup- 

 ply humus. Add some lime to hasten decay 

 of tops and roots, besides counteracting acid- 

 ity, and the garden will be in better shape 

 after a year's work, with legumes for a finish, 

 than it ever was before. 



Legumes for present planting are cowpeas, 

 soybeans, and velvet beans, all of which 

 revel in warm soil and thrive luxuriantly 

 throughout the summer. The clovers, of 

 which crimson clover and bokhara are the 

 two most practical because of their rapid 

 growth, may be sown throughout summer and 

 fall. Hairy vetch, of the bean family, is 

 hardy and stays at work all winter. 



No special soil preparations are necessary 

 to succeed with any of these crops. Clear 

 the ground of previous crops, break the sur- 

 face to a depth of two or three inches with a 

 wheelhoe, broadcast seeds or sow in drills, 

 rake them in and roll lightly to insure 

 prompt germination. 



Two to three pounds of seeds of cowpeas, 

 soybeans, or vetch will prove ample to seed an 

 area of 40 x 50 ft., while one pound of the 

 clovers suffices for the same area. All will 

 make a strong growth between July and 

 October. 



"Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley 

 Grows." 



THE remembered childhood rhyme 

 goes on to state, "You nor I nor 

 nobody knows." Ignorance of 

 "wheat substitutes" caused nc 

 ripple of dismay then. But to-day the deter- 

 mination to send to the Allies the wheat 

 they must have has sent us to our gardens, 

 our cook books, and our geographies for in- 

 formation on wheat substitutes. We want 

 to know what to eat in place of wheat, how 

 to grow it, and if we cannot grow it, where 

 to get it, and how to use it. 



The substitutes which probably will be 

 most used in place of wheat are Irish potatoes, 

 buckwheat, rice, barley, oats, and corn. 

 Others not so well known are the soy bean, 

 feterita, and sweet potato flours. 



The soy or soja bean is found in the South 

 Atlantic states, especially in the two Carolinas. 

 Soy bean flour, which has a slight starch con- 

 tent, may well be used in biscuits, muffins, 

 and bread, very much as is corn meal. 



Feterita flour is found in Oklahoma, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and the Panhandle part of 

 Texas. It is very similar to milo flour. Good 

 batter cakes can be made with feterita, and 

 in the regions where it is grown it has proved 

 itself useable just as is cornmeal. Feterita 

 has the good characteristic of being a drought 

 resistant crop. 



Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, 

 and the Carolinas lead in the production of 

 the sweet potato, while the Irish potato is 

 grown especially in the North, the chief 

 producing states being Michigan,. New York, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 



New York and Pennsylvania grow more 

 than two-thirds of the buckwheat raised in the 

 United States. • West Virginia and Michigan 

 are the other two buckwheat states. This 

 flour is being increasingly used for human 

 food especially in cities. 



Barley flour is fairly new to us. We have 

 known the little polished grains in barley 

 soup, but we have not realized that, mixed 

 with wheat, barley flour makes a very palat- 

 able and nourishing bread. Barley is an 

 oily flour and will not keep as long as some of 

 the others. The barley states are California, 

 Minnesota, and the Dakotas. 



Rice, although especially a food of the 

 Orient, has also its many votaries in the 

 Occident. Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and 

 Arkansas are the chief rice growing states, 

 and California is rapidly joining the group, 

 Broken rice, or brewers' rice, can be ground in 

 any ordinary roller mill. It makes an 

 excellent flour for bread and cakes. 



Oats, which we connect mostly with 

 breakfast porridge, w'e have not begun to 

 exploit. Oats can be mixed with wheat to 

 make a very good bread, and, without wheat, 

 delicious cookies and puddings. The great 

 oat states are Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and 

 Nebraska. Our oat crop for 191 7 was 

 1,537,286,000 bushels, a record one. 



But of all on the list of substitutes, corn is 

 king. Corn is our own peculiar contribution 

 to the world's dinner table; it is our own native 

 grain. The chief corn producing states are 

 Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Ind- 

 iana, but corn is] grown all over the country. 

 Our 1917 corn crop was a bumper one, 

 3,159,494,000 bushels. 



Corn is for every section of the country. 

 Every American can elect it to be the greatest 

 general in the food fight, the general to lead 

 the food forces to a victorious finish. 



