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The Readers' Service will give information 

 about the latest automobile accessories 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1912 



MOON'S EVERGREENS and the 



ediate effect they produce 



MOON'S EVERGREENS FOR AUTUMN PLANTING 



A stock of over ioo acres; an assortment unexcelled anywhere. There are varied forms in dwarf and 

 tall growing kinds and infinite tones of green, golden and blue, in sizes from one to twenty-five feet. 

 Space for symmetrical development of the branches and ceaseless cultivation make these trees 



LOOK WELL AND MOVE WELL 

 If you are going to plant evergreens, first write us. Our catalogue of Hardy Trees and Plants for 

 Every Place and Purpose will interest you. Send for it. 



THE WM. H. MOON CO. 



Morrlsvllle,I"a 



Hardy Ferns for Autumn Planting 



Send for list F 



North Shore Ferneries Co. 



Beverly, Mass. 



APPLE 

 GROWING 



The healthier the tree, the 

 better the fruit. The longer 

 trees are sprayed with "SCALE- 

 CIDE " the more beautiful, 

 healthful and fruitful they 

 become. "SCALECIDE" is the acknowledged leader of all 

 soluble oils— the only one containing distinct fungicidal 

 properties. "SCALECIDE" will positively killall soft-bodied 

 sucking insects without injury to the tree. Let us prove these 

 statements. Sendtodav for free booklet "SCALECIDE — 

 the Tree Saver." Address B. G. PRATT CO., Mfe. Chemists, 

 SO Church Street, N. Y. City. 



ORCHIDS 



Largest importers and growers of 



Orchids in the United States 



LAGER & HURRELL 



Orchid Growers and Importers SUMMIT, N.J. 



Competent Gardeners 



The comforts and products of a country home are in- 

 creased by employing a competent Gardener; if you want to 

 engage one write to us. Please give particulars regarding place 

 and say whether married or single man is wanted. We have 

 been supplying them for years to the best people everywhere. 

 No fee asked. PETER HENDERSON & CO., Seedsmen 

 and Florists, 35 and 37 Cortlandt Street. New York City. 



Wagner's Bulb and 

 Plant Catalogue 



■WRITE FOR IT. FREE 



The Fall Best of All! Plant now 



Follow the successful growers. 



They are fall planters, largely. Conditions are 

 better, risk of loss is less. 



Your garden will be noticeably earlier, far hand- 

 somer, far more certain. 



Get your bulbs into the ground this fall. 



WAGNER PARK NURSERIES 



Our catalogue tells you of the finest hardy 

 nursery stock. 



Everything for grounds and garden — 



Everything Wagner quality 



"The man who knows" plants in the fall. Get 

 the Catalogue. Make up your list. Plant NOW! 



Box 674 SIDNEY, O. 



other germs, which by growing more rapidly de- 

 stroyed the proper bacteria, so that the cultures 

 were of no value. 



The next step was to withdraw the dry cotton 

 culture, and to substitute liquid cultures, put up in 

 sealed glass tubes. But it is well known that 

 bacteria perish rather quickly in liquid cultures, 

 and the nitro-bacteria proved to be no exception 

 to the rule. Many of these cultures were found 

 to be dead, and therefore worthless, and on the 

 whole at least, unreliable. 



The next advance was to prepare the cultures 

 on a jelly-like medium in appropriate vials or 

 bottles. It is quite evident that in this shape the 

 bacteria will retain their vitality for a longer time 

 than in the other ways, and if the cultures are pure, 

 of high virulence, and entirely fresh they should 

 be quite reliable. There is no reason why reliable 

 cultures should not be prepared and reach the 

 gardener in good condition. 



It has been a mistake to have gardeners make 

 their own cultures from bacteria sent them in any 

 form, since these cultures are very liable to become 

 grossly contaminated and develop foreign germs 

 likely to prohibit the development of or to destroy 

 the proper organisms. 



Inoculating seed with home made cultures, or 

 with water}' extracts of pure cultures, is also open 

 to objection, since it is necessary to dry the seed 

 after it is wet with the culture, before it can be 

 sown, and in this drying the majority of the nitro- 

 bacteria will perish. 



It is better if the seed is to be inoculated to use 

 onlyenoughof the culture to barely moisten the seed, 

 and to immediately mix the seed with enough dry 

 sifted soil to take up the excess of water, so that the 

 seed can be handled, when it should be planted 

 at once. 



Another method would be to apply the culture 

 to a quantity of sifted soil, to mix thoroughly, and 

 then broadcast at the rate of, say, five hundred 

 pounds to the acre on well prepared land, after 

 which it should be immediately harrowed in. 



It may be safely stated that if cultures of nitro- 

 bacteria are properly prepared and absolutely 

 fresh, then properly applied under right conditions 

 we should see a large proportion of benefits from 

 their use. 



That so many results in the past have been 

 negative has been due first, to worthless or dead 

 cultures; second, to faulty methods of applying 

 them; and third, to their application to soils al- 

 ready containing the proper bacteria, or to soils 

 whose reaction was such that the nitro-germs 

 failed to develop; and fourth, to expecting benefits 

 on crops that were not leguminous. 



Unless the grower can determine beforehand 

 whether a particular soil intended to grow a par- 

 ticular legume is in need of a particular bacterium 

 he is working entirely in the dark, and runs prob- 

 ably 50 chances out of ioo of not deriving bene- 

 ficial results. 



Do not therefore condemn nitro-cultures on 

 general principles because your own experiments 

 have been unfavorable, when it may have been 

 due to one or more of the causes of failure just 

 named. 



WHAT EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN 



Experiments of the New York Experiment 

 Station have shown that in the attempt to grow 

 alfalfa in New York State failure was largely due 

 to a deficiency of the proper germ in the soil, and 

 that decided benefits were derived from artificial 

 inoculation of land with soil from successful alfalfa 

 fields. 



The commonly reported failures with cultures 

 on garden peas indicate that most garden soils 

 are already sufficiently supplied with the bacteria. 

 The unsuccessful results of soil and seed inocula- 

 tion in the southern cow-pea districts appears to be 

 due to the double fact, first, that the cow-pea germ 

 seems to be omnivorous in its habits and capable 

 of infecting the roots of different legumes indis- 

 criminately, and second, because these southern 

 cow- pea lands are usually heavily charged with the 

 germs in question. 



The most favorable results from the use of nitro- 

 bacteria are obtained on poor land, or on land 

 which has not previously grown a particular 

 legume; which condition is not hard to determine. 



Pennsylvania. Frederick D. Chester. 



