December, 1912 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



197 



the nut at the blossom end. It is a very- 

 easy matter to start the seedling trees; 

 and the grower will find that, for the first 

 few years at least, the length of the tap- 

 root will considerably exceed the height 

 of the little tree. 



Very few efforts have been made so far 

 in a scientific and systematic way to im- 

 prove the shellbark. Dr. Robert T. 

 Morris advises against using seedling shell- 

 barks for grafting stock, and urges that 

 instead cions from first-class trees be 

 established on young pecans, since the 

 grafted pecan will come into bearing when 

 about eight years old. It takes a seedling 

 shellbark from fifteen to twenty years to 

 come into bearing. The objection to this 

 scheme for the average man (though it 

 appears excellent for those who expect 

 to make nut-culture a business) is the fact 

 that it is difficult and rather expensive 



to secure pecan stock fit for grafting; 

 that proper shellbark cions are hard to get 

 and exceedingly difficult to get started; 

 and that by such experiments a loss of 

 several years may be occasioned, which, 

 had it been spent on the normal growth 

 of seedling shellbarks, would have gone 

 into the development of trees of permanent 

 beauty and worth. 



Practically the only marked improve- 

 ments in the size and quality of shellbark 

 nuts and in the productiveness of trees 

 have been secured through the slow de- 

 velopment of seedlings. Mr. J. W. Kerr, 

 of Maryland, has had some marked suc- 

 cess in this work. Of some fifty trees 

 which he grew from nuts for experimental 

 purposes, he reports that twenty have 

 shown superior qualities. These trees 

 came into bearing in about sixteen years 

 from planting; and during their growth, 



aside from a little pruning to give them 

 shape and symmetry, they had no at- 

 tention. 



Of course, in a single lifetime, a man 

 cannot hope to see more than two genera- 

 tions of shellbarks of his own development; 

 but that should be no discouragement to 

 the average man who has some space on 

 his country place or on his farm to devote 

 to the growing of nut trees. Aside from 

 the attempts to develop a variety, which, 

 if successful, might greatly enhance the 

 commercial value of the nuts, every man 

 should plant shellbarks in the stray corners 

 of his place for the beauty of the trees and 

 for the investment thereby afforded. Shell- 

 barks are certain to pay. They take time 

 to develop, but when they do arrive, they 

 come to stay; which is perhaps as sure a 

 -rirtue as that of the quick-growing peach 

 that dies a few years after it begins to bear. 



New 

 York 



Sixty Suggestions for New Gardens— By wilhelm Miller, 



IDEAS THAT CAN BE DEVELOPED BY CLEVER AMERICANS INTO UNIQUE GARDENS FULL OF THE OWNER'S 

 PERSONALITY, AND MORE PERMANENT AND ECONOMICAL THAN THE FLEETING GARDENS OF TO-DAY. 



THE theme of a garden cannot be 

 expressed in practical terms. For 

 a flower garden is a poetic con- 

 ception and the soul or motive of 

 it can be expressed only in the language of 

 imagination. The object of these sugges- 

 tions is to stimulate the imagination and 

 encourage originality, for gardens are in 

 danger of looking too much alike the world 

 over. Necessarily these ideas must be 

 stated in the briefest form — so brief that 

 some of them will give no inspiration, 

 arouse no mental picture. In every case, 

 however, we have in mind some concrete 

 example of a new and better kind of garden. 



SUGGESTIONS BASED ON YOUR PERSONALITY 



i. Why not combine two hobbies, one 

 of which is gardening? The following list 



may help you decide on 

 the two features of out- 

 door life you like best, 

 and how to blend them; 

 photography, birds, 

 sport, nature study, as- 

 tronomy, children's work 

 and play, travel, music, 

 social life, outdoor theat- 

 ricals, handicraft, camp- 

 ing, profit, charity. For 

 example, if you are 

 fond of music and gar- 

 dening, consider Nos. 2, 

 3 and 4. 



2. Bees are the most 



famous insect musicians 



in European gardens, but 



the oldest and most 



pictur- 



This garden has a 

 of the maker; 



A type of nature's own garden. Native forms transplanted into an 

 open wood 



esque 

 bee 

 hives 



or skeps are inefficient 

 compared with modern 

 hives. If Loring Under- 

 wood and A. I. Root got 

 together they could blend 

 the beauty of the old and 

 efficiency of the new. 



3. The musical insects 

 of Japan are sold in cages 

 and sometimes, no doubt, 

 are kept in gardens. 

 Lafcadio Hearn describes 

 them. The musical in- 

 sects of America are de- 

 scribed in "Ways of the 

 Six-Footed" by Mrs. A. 

 B. Comstock. 



4. Has any one consid- 

 ered a music room in a 



feeling of seclusion and displays prettily the hand 

 suitable for a "period" or "purpose" style 



garden? The song of birds, the hum of 

 bees, and the sound of water are usually 

 enough, but in a princely garden there 

 might be more. 



IE YOU ARE A BIRD LOVER 



5. The most artistic bird garden, pos- 

 sibly, is one designed by Jens Jensen for 

 Mr. Loeb in Chicago. It consists of a 

 nature-like pool, surrounded by shrubs with 

 edible berries, among which nestles the 

 Von Berlepsch apparatus. Near by is a 

 martin box. 



6. To provide birds with berries the year 

 round let your borders include the following 

 shrubs which are arranged by Rehder in the 

 approximate order of ripening: Red-berried 

 elder, shadbush, bird cherry, spicebush, 

 osier dogwood, alternate-leaved dogwood, 



