188 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1912 



against fungus enemies but never let it 

 actually burn in the greenhouse. The 

 fumes are deadly to all plant life, not alone 

 the lower types. 



The ways to use it are vaporized over a 

 lamp, dusted on the plants, or mixed into a 

 paste and spread on the heating pipes. 



Oils, emulsions, and soap solutions, either 

 bought ready prepared or mixed fresh for 

 use, are convenient and cleanly materials 

 for destroying the aphis, mealy bug, and 

 mites of various kinds. 



For foliage eaters, hellebore and pyre- 

 thrum are often better than the arsenical 

 mixtures which sometimes injure the ten- 

 der tissues of hothouse plants much more 

 quickly than they would affect the same 

 varieties outdoors. 



The red spider (which is really a mite) 

 thrives in a dry air; therefore, when he 

 appears, syringe freely and keep the house 

 as moist as is safely possible. 



On the other hand, slugs and snails usu- 

 ally increase under such conditions ; however, 

 they are large enough to be hand picked 

 whenever they become really troublesome. 



Make the Most of Winter 

 Evenings 



IF YOU are on the mailing list of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and your 

 state experiment station, it is dollars to 

 doughnuts that you haven't read all the 

 bulletins they have sent you. Why not 

 spend some evening going over these, and 

 getting out the material that would be of 

 real help next season? 



If you don't file all these publications you 

 should have a scrap book for clippings from 

 them. 



And if you do file them, a card index 

 system is practically essential. Now is the 

 time to bring it up to date. 



The records of your garden made during 

 the summer are not always in neat, conven- 

 ient shape. A permanent, well bound book 

 into which all valuable data can be tran- 

 scribed becomes each year of greater inter- 

 est and value. 



News and Comment 



PLANS OF THE GARDEN MAGA- 

 ZINE FOR 1913 



THE hope is strong within us that 1913 

 will see The Garden Magazine take 

 on renewed strength and interest. Not 

 often have w-e felt so pleased wdth the 

 prospect. Here are some of the serial 

 features which are already in hand: 



Ten Acres Enough or The Little Farm. 

 A new rendering of the most famous book 

 ever published on farming. Everybody has 

 heard of it and here it is brought down to 

 date. 



The Garden Doctor. — Once upon a time — 

 and not a hundred years ago — a lady, 

 presumably young and charming, fell ill and 



for a number of months spent a good deal of 

 her time studying her own symptoms. 



This, the psychological doctors tell us, is 

 often the beginning of a more or less con- 

 firmed invalidism. To enjoy ill health is 

 called by a long Latin name which at the 

 moment we have forgotten how to spell. 



The lady we have in mind looked out of 

 her window upon a city yard; it might have 

 been a lovely country and been all the same 

 to her, because her "inner eye" was ab- 

 sorbed with reflections upon her compli- 

 cated and somewhat disordered depart- 

 ment of the interior. One day she saw her 

 neighbor, an elderly German, clipping at 

 his fence vines. Absently she watched, 

 then became interested. She, too, w r anted 

 a share in the springtime — she wanted to 

 do something with plants. Soon after she 

 received a rough box labelled "Live Plants. 

 Perishable. Open at once." She never 

 had liked uncouth packages; a few days 

 before she would have objected to doing 

 anything "at once," to bother with "per- 

 ishable " stuff would have been a nuisance, 

 for she had come within an ace of missing 

 the one thing most needed by her to insure 

 her life-long happiness — but something had 

 waked up inside. To summarize: she 

 opened the box. Up to the country went 

 she and the pansy plants the box contained, 

 and wdth them the lady began a garden in 

 the place where the garden ought to have 

 been but wasn't. And the lady turned out 

 to be a real woman, a different being from 

 the limp hypochondriac of our first ac- 

 quaintance. 



The reader can imagine the sequel. In 

 his or her mind's eye he can trace the slow 

 absorption of the garden interest, the wan- 

 ing, of the hypochondriacal attitude, and 

 the "marvelous recovery" brought about 

 by the Garden Cure. 



The author is now a well-known (?) gar- 

 dener, and the spontaneous and genuine 

 humor with which these "confessions" are 

 given proves the completeness of the garden 

 cure. Who the gardener is, we do not say. 



The Gardener's Graphic Guide. — A series 

 of photographic illustrations showing the 

 actual work of the garden during the 

 various seasons. This will supplement 

 "The Month's Reminder." 



Reducing the Cost of Living via the Back 

 Yard Garden. — An interesting series by 

 Roger W. Babson. These articles will 

 appear in six consecutive issues, and we con- 

 sider this one of the most important features 

 that has ever appeared in the magazine. 



The Most Profitable Half Acre. — A series 

 of true experiences received in response to 

 our offer of $500.00 for the best account and 

 exact report of this achievement. A help- 

 ful and suggestive series. Look for the 

 prize winners in the January number. 



Home Building and the Garden. — An 

 entirely new feature of practical construc- 

 tion articles, which wall be especially help- 

 ful to the prospective suburban dweller 

 telling him how 7 to choose or how to build 

 his house, in relation to the garden, for best 

 practical results and artistic quality. 



The Homeside Farm. — A series of articles 

 dealing with practical and scientific farm 

 and garden problems, by an eminent 

 authority who has achieved success in both 

 branches of the craft — a former college 

 professor, now a successful small farmer. 



The Best Plants to Grow. — A composite 

 series in which leading specialists will dis- 

 cuss the better kind of plants and better 

 varieties, and bring before the reader the 

 most up-to-date information. A sound 

 guide to what to buy. 



SOCIETY DOINGS 



AT THE meeting of the Vegetable 

 Growers' Association of America, held 

 in Rochester early in September, the fol- 

 lowing officers for 1912-1913 were elected: 

 President, H. F. Hall, Moorestown, N. J.; 

 Vice-president, Chauncey West, Ironde- 

 quoit, N. Y.; Secretary, E. A. Dunbar, 

 Ashtabula, Ohio; Treasurer, M.L.Ruetenik, 

 Cleveland, O. With some 180 members 

 representing twenty-five states, this organi- 

 zation is in a position to accomplish much 

 in the direction of better conditions for both 

 producers and consumers. Even the ama- 

 teur gardener will find much of interest and 

 value in the addresses delivered at the 

 annual meeting. 



The horticultural world, and especially 

 the fruit growers, were pained to learn of 

 the death of Prof. John Craig, of Cornell 

 University in the early fall. He had been a 

 great factor in recent progressive move- 

 ments and largely through his energies the 

 Cornell Horticultural Department had 

 become closely identified with the various 

 "special" societies described as the peony, 

 the sweet pea, the gladiolus, etc., in variety 

 tests and standardization. Professor Craig 

 was also the secretary of the American Po- 

 mological Society; his successor in this office 

 is Prof. E. R. Lake of Washington, D. C. 



With the opening of the year the Presi- 

 dent-elect of the Society of American Flor- 

 ists takes his seat in directing the only 

 national Horticultural Association of gen- 

 eral scope. Mr. John K. M. L. Farquhar, 

 of Boston, is a widely experienced horti- 

 culturist and traveler. He has also been 

 instrumental in introducing some of the 

 newer Chinese discoveries of Mr. E. A. 

 Wilson, and by virtue of his office will have 

 the directing hand in the great National 

 Flower Show to be held in New York City 

 April 5 to 12 next. 



During the last session of Congress, 

 there was passed by the House the Lever 

 Agricultural Extension Bill, which provides 

 for federal and state support of a plan to 

 maintain an agricultural and expert adviser 

 in every county of all the states. 



To insure its favorable consideration by 

 the Senate during the session soon to open, 

 there wall be needed vigorous cooperative 

 effort and a generous support. Informa- 

 tion about the movement, its progress and 

 the kind of assistance needed, can be ob- 

 tained from the National Soil Fertility 

 League, Chicago, 111. 



