50 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1913 



Get It By Parcels Post 



This is the heading of our Parcels Post Dept. 



YOU WHO HAVE SOMETHING TO SELL 



The U. S. 



The Sale: 



The Delivery: 

 The Opportunity: 



The Service: 



Parcels Post and The Garden Magazine have 

 joined hands to enable you to do business with 

 the many thousand readers of this publication on 

 a very profitable basis. Here is a combination 

 that goes a long way toward solving the problem 

 of the sale and the delivery. 



The Garden Magazine will deliver your message at a 

 reasonable rate. It will give you a proper introduction 

 to the proper kind of people — those you wish to reach. 



The Parcels Post will deliver your products, anywhere in 

 the United States, quickly, safely and at low cost. 



Ask yourself this question — Haven't you something that, 

 with this strong combination at your disposal, you can 

 now sell to advantage that you previously couldn't ? 

 Just think this matter over. It's worth it. 



The Garden Magazine has a special Parcels Post Depart- 

 ment. It will tell you the cost of sending anything (up 

 to ii pounds) to any place. If you have anything at 

 all you wish to know how to dispose of in the best way 

 — write us a letter. We have studied this subject care- 

 fully and have a lot of information to give you that will 

 be helpful. 



Address: PARCELS POST DEPT. 



DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO., Garden City, N. Y. 



Start a Fernery 



Brighten up the deep, 6hady nooks on your lawn, or that dark 



porch corner — just theplacesforourhardy wildfernsandwildflower 



collections. We have been growing them for 25 years and know 



^ what varieties are suited to your conditions. Tell us the kind 



^ of soil you have — light, sandy, clay — and we will advise you. 



Gillett's Ferns and Flowers 



will give the charm of nature to your yard. These include not only hardy wild 

 ferns, but native orchids, and flowers for wet and swampy spots, rocky hillsides 

 and dry woods. We also grow such hardy flowers as primroses, campanulas, 

 digitalis, violets, hepaticas, trilliums, and wild flowers which require open sunlight 

 as well as shade. If you want a bit of an old-time wildwood garden, with flowers 

 iust as Nature grows them — send for our new catalogue and let us advise you what 

 to select and how to succeed with them. 



EDWARD GILLETT, Box F, Southwick, Mass. 



Irrigation Will Help a Garden 



THE first year I had my garden, it was the 

 wonder of my neighbors! Among other 

 things, we had potatoes enough to last our family 

 of four until the following June; peas, lettuce, 

 beans, and sweet corn; cucumbers for daily use and 

 for many jars of pickles; and tomato plants that 

 simply would not stop bearing. 



But the turning over of the soil, the putting in of 

 fertilizer, and the planting of seed, were not the 

 only things we had to think about. The problem 

 that confronted us when our garden was started 

 had to do with irrigation. 



We had just bought a new home; the soil in the 

 garden was a light sandy loam which gave promise 

 of being too dry in midsummer. 



The neighbors told discouraging stories of how 

 their gardens dried up in summer, with the in- 

 evitable withering of vegetation. A few said they 

 prevented this by using the garden hose; others did 

 next to nothing in the way of irrigation, letting 

 nature take its course. Our next door neighbor 

 was a famous gardener in that part of the town; he 

 hoed and raked incessantly and used the hose with 

 unsparing hand. 



My garden consisted of two plots lying side by 

 side, 8o x 30 ft. and 60 x 30 ft. In the larger plot 

 were three rows of fruit trees — four in the first, 

 five in the second and four in the third — so placed 

 as to give all possible sunlight to the ground. These 

 trees had been well pruned, and though they bore 

 heavily the foliage was not so dense as to interfere 

 with the growing things. Between the trees, run- 

 ning the long way, were thrifty currant bushes. 



The plots were ploughed deep in the fall and the 

 following spring the ground was harrowed and then 

 worked over with a rake until it was fine enough for 

 any seed. In the space between the first and second 

 rows of trees five rows of potatoes were put in, the 

 hills fourteen inches apart, which gave me sixty- 

 eight hills to the row. To make the most of what 

 moisture there was in the ground the potato seed 

 cuttings were sunk four inches deeper than usual 

 so that, when covered, the top of each planting was 

 that much below the level of the garden. All other 

 seed was planted deep, too. 



In the next space were two rows of the California 

 pea bean, one of the necessities of New England 

 living, one row of kidney beans, one of string beans, 

 and a row of peas. 



In the smaller plot were twenty-eight hills of 

 cucumbers, two dozen tomato plants, four rows each 

 twenty-five feet long planted equally in beets and 

 onions. Two rows of sweet corn on the north side 

 of the plot and running the full sixty-feet length, 

 and a bed of lettuce, filled the rest of the space. 

 The tomato plants were grown from seed, and 

 started in the house. 



My garden was the butt of the neighborhood — 

 at first. All who came to see it (and that was about- 

 everybody who lived on the street excepting the 

 famous gardener whose dignity lifted him above 

 vulgar curiosity) had a lot of fun when they saw my 

 "sunken garden," as one of them called it. Low 

 planting was something that defied all their known 

 laws of procedure and therefore it received their 

 unqualified condemnation. They did not spare 

 me or my ideas of gardening, though there were a 

 few kindly souls who were really sorry for any one 

 who could do such "fool" things and expect favor- 

 able results. 



It seemed to be up to me to make a success of 

 that garden or forever after be the subject of sar- 

 castic allusions hard to bear. My fate depended on 

 securing sufficient moisture when it was most 

 needed to keep things growing. Of course, the hose 

 could be utilized as a last resort, but such an ex- 

 pedient, while effective, would turn the delight of 

 gardening into the worst kind of drudgery. 



Looking over the agricultural journals I found 

 one that told what to do with dry soils, but the 

 process involved a lot of time and labor, and I was 

 short on time. This publication advised the turn- 

 ing over of the soil to a depth that would include 

 several strata of earth. To accomplish this a 

 trench was to be dug across one end of the plot of 

 ground. The earth excavated was thrown to one 

 side; another trench was made alongside and the 

 earth from this was used to fill the first trench. 

 This operation was to be repeated until the whole 

 area had been worked over. As my garden con- 



// a problem grows in your garden write to the Readers' Service for assistance 



