112 



The Garden Magazine, October, 1919 



put one cup of sour milk and two cups of kerosene in an ordinary 

 twelve-quart bucket. Tip up the pail between your feet so as to 

 collect all the liquid in one spot. If you use a garden syringe, put 

 it into the milk and kerosene, draw it full and squirt it back with full 

 pressure, continue this until the white mixture "blubs" and is like 

 very thick cream. Then fill the pail with water and you have a pail 

 of fine white milk which is death to all soft bodied insects which 

 breathe through their bodies. (Of course the emulsion makes a film 

 over their bodies and smothers them). If you do not own a garden 

 svringe, the sour milk and kerosene can be beaten together with a 

 Dover egg beater, and the result is equally satisfactory. A whisk 

 broom is an excellent substitute for any form of spraying machine, 

 if after being dipped into the diluted emulsion the broom is given a 

 quick, snappy jerk which throws the emulsion in a fine spray. In 

 France the grape vines were sprayed for many years with a brush. 

 If you have only one bush to spray and need only half a pail of 

 emulsion, use half a cup of sour milk and one cup of kerosene and 

 fill your pail only half full. If the bush is young and small, one 

 quarter of a cup of sour milk and one half a cup of kerosene in one 

 quarter of a pail of water will be all you need. If you use only a 

 small quantity, the milk and. kerosene are more easily beaten to- 

 gether in a bowl with a Dover egg beater. ; It does not injure the 

 egg beater for its more legitimate use. We usually make the kero- 

 sene emulsion for Snowballs and currant bushes at the same time 

 and whenever one has a dose, give it to the other as a means of pre- 

 vention. — Frances G. Markham, Dorrancetown, Pa. 



anything that has upset the even tenor of their ways. Transplant- 

 ing except out of pots at the proper time — is always a shock; and in 

 a large plant of short life is really serious. We would be better 

 off if we transplanted all young seedlings into pots (pricking off) and 

 later on planting out from the pots without shock. Some progressive 

 nurserymen are doing this even with herbaceous plants and- it is 

 the only way to insure a continuous planting season. — Ed. 



Experience with 

 a Soy Bean 



IN THE June number of the Garden 

 Magazine mention was made of a new 



What is a Suitable 

 Peace Tree? 



TO ME the Tupelo that Mrs. Wilder 

 (page 66 of March) suggests as a 

 "Peace Tree" is hardly as symbolical as a 

 sturdy, far-shading Oak but in its way nothing gives me greater joy. 

 As I see it in the Arnold Arboretum, a not 

 large, rather slenderly pyramidal tree marked 

 by smooth limbs and foliage, or in the fall 

 gorgeous in its coloring, it does not seem 

 characteristic; but in the wild, by the 

 windswept shore or on a damp high blue- 

 berry pasture it develops an unusual pic- 

 torial quality. The flattened head, the 

 horizontal branch development and the bared 

 and twisted trunk seem to carry one among 

 the weirdly domesticated conifers of a Japan- 

 ese garden. — R. A. S., Mass. 



, T . 1 AST year, early in 



Verbascum L the season I 



Olympicum From sowed a package of 



beed seed of the Greek 



Mullein (Verbascum olympicum). The seeds 

 germinated well and the strong seedlings were 

 transplanted into rows in the nursery, where 

 they have developed into large plants, but 

 with no promise of bloom this second year. 

 Four seedlings were allowed to remain undis- 

 turbed in the seed-bed, and one vagrant, un- 

 invited, took up -a home elsewhere. These 

 five plants have all been blooming since about 

 the twentieth of May and the stalks are now 

 more than six feet in height. This experience 

 leads me to think that transplanting, even 

 though the seedlings are young and robust, 

 adds a year to the period of growth, and that 

 the plants had better be sown where the bloom 

 is desired and the surplus seedlings removed. 

 — Anita S. Reynolds, Greenwich, Conn. 

 — Yes! Many plants are very sensitive to 

 "shock" and cannot proceed about their nor- 

 mal course of life until they have overcome 



Soy bean, a variety named Easy Cook. 



As this is not yet available it may be of 

 interest to know that one of the older sorts can be cooked without 

 much difficulty. I refer to the Hollybrook Early which is sold by 

 all the seedmen. I planted this variety last year with success. It 

 certainly resists drought to a remarkable degree. Its bright green 

 foliage was in marked contrast to the yellowing vegetables about 

 the row during the very dry weather of 1918. I have been using 

 the shelled beans during the winter and spring, and do not find them 

 difficult to cook. I allow an hour and a half for the soaked beans 

 if they are cooked by a steady fire, but often start them on the stove 

 and finish in the fireless cooker. I have had lima beans stored two 

 years which it was almost impossible to cook tender. These soy 

 beans do not, in my experience, take longer than navy beans if they 

 are from a fresh home-grown crop. Of course, they do not get 

 "mushy" or break to pieces, but that is rather an advantage than 

 otherwise. One can have them thoroughly cooked and tender 

 but not broken. Until we can buy seed of Easy Cook the 

 Hollybrook Early is well worth growing. But I prefer to raise 

 my own and know the age of the beans before I attempt to cook 

 them. — A. H. Botsford, Edgemoor, Del. 



New Lamps 

 For Old 



TWTOST of the wo- 



IT PAYS TO BUY GOOD BULBS 



These two bulbs are about the same 

 size but that on the left cost most and 

 they gave different results. Judge a bulb 

 by weight and solidity rather than bulk — 

 the biggest is not always the best 



men who helped 

 win the war have 

 been demobilized, 

 and might consider favorably the following 

 suggestion as to a new job. Taking our own 

 suburb as typical, it is essentially a place of 

 homes and gardens. The large estates present 

 no especial problem, but the man operating an 

 acre or less does. He wants fruit, flowers and 

 vegetables, cannot afford a trained gardener, 

 and has neither the time nor the knowledge 

 to do the work himself, or to direct common 

 labor. All states have agricultural courses 

 now, where it is possible to learn about soils, 

 fertilizers, drainage, cropping, pruning, and 

 fungicides. A woman with that training could 

 act as overseer for many places, agreeing be- 

 forehand on the work to be done, the price 

 charged, and bringing her own force with her 

 to do it. She would have the fruit trees and 

 Roses pruned and sprayed, the soil properly 

 fertilized, hotbeds built, started, and cared 

 for, drainage attended to, and shrubbery set 

 out. The raising of poultry might also be 

 added to the list. Some degree of uniformity 

 in planting and color would be an advantage 

 to any community, and a woman of taste and 

 tact could work wonders. A supplementary 

 occupation for December, January,and Febru- 

 ary would be necessary, but even so this 

 work should have a strong appeal for those 

 who enjoy being out-of-doors, and protest 

 against the old life with its lack of a 

 definite objective. — Kate B. Burton, Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. 



