182 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 1913 



allowed to make matted rows two feet 

 wide and one foot apart. Sixty-four 

 quarts of the finest berries, carefully selec- 

 ted, were sold for $8, leaving sixty-four 

 quarts for the use of the family. 



Two four-year-old Downing gooseberry 

 bushes, put four feet apart, yielded the 

 crop of eight quarts. Seven White Grape 

 and Fay's Prolific currant bushes, of the 

 same age, that were set three and one-half 

 feet apart, bore twelve quarts. One dozen 

 Loudon raspberry stock, planted four 

 years ago, made a patch 6 x 14 feet, that 

 yielded the eight quarts of that delicious 

 high-priced fruit. 



The strawberry patch and currant, goose- 

 berry and raspberry bushes, three bunches 

 of rhubarb and a vegetable plot, 22 x 30 

 feet, make the north side of the garden. 

 The raspberries, currants, gooseberries and 

 rhubarb take the place of a fence close to 

 the north line of the lot. Ashes that had 

 been thrown into a low place, to fill it, 

 stopped me from pushing the strawberry 

 patch farther east toward the alley. 



A brick walk separates the north from 

 the south side. Just south of the walk is a 

 fifty-foot row of nine grape vines, set 

 seven feet apart and trained on a five-foot 

 trellis of four wires. The varieties chosen 

 were Moore's Early, Campbell's Early, 

 Brighton and Agawam. Fresh fruit for 

 the table, jelly for the pantry and wine for 

 the cellar was their contribution to the 

 household stores. The vines were set out 

 five years ago. The vine at the east end 

 of the row is trained on an L-shaped trellis 

 and against the side of the shed. Not being 

 pruned as closely as the others, its foliage 

 screens the rather unsightly little building 

 which, in turn, hides the ash-box and gar- 

 bage-can that are behind it. 



South of the grapes the two apple and 

 three cherry trees were planted in two rows, 

 the trees being set seventeen feet apart the 

 shorter distance. One of the apples is a 

 Duchess of Oldenburgh; the other is a 

 Northwestern Greening, a very hardy 

 winter variety. These trees have grown 

 rapidly during the five years since they were 

 set out. 



Two of the cherries are Early Richmond ; 

 the third is a Montmorency, a splendid 



Jiedqe of old fashioned coses 



A little backyard fruit garden 60 x 45 ft. that gave a family a full 

 year's fruit supply 



later variety, but a slower grower. The 

 south side of the garden is completed with a 

 plot, 7x13 feet, just south of the shed, for 

 small vegetables and a hedge of old-fash- 

 ioned red, pink and white roses. The lat- 

 ter does service for a line fence on the south. 

 The little vegetable plot is planted to rad- 

 ishes, onions and lettuce. Protected and 

 sheltered by the shed this patch produces 

 these small vegetables earlier than the 

 average garden of the neighborhood. 



Part of my success with the garden was 

 due to the care taken in setting out the 

 nursery stock, so that, with the exception 

 of some of the strawberry plants, none of it 

 died. Manure has been applied freely each 

 spring and the cultivation has been frequent 

 and thorough. Every winter a mulch pro- 

 tects the strawberries and grapes. Both 

 summer and winter pruning has been at- 

 tended to when needed and some spraying 

 has been done each season. 



Exclusive of the strawberries and late 

 cherry, the other cherries and the grapes, 

 raspberries, currants and gooseberries have 

 borne for two previous seasons, each year's 

 crop being larger than the next preceding. 

 None of them has yet reached its maximum 

 of fruitfulness. 



Mistakes were made, the most serious of 

 which was setting two of the trees too close 

 to the grapes. In a few years the vines will 

 be so shaded that their productiveness will 

 be lessened. An attempt was made to 

 grow black raspberries, but they were not a 

 success. Rot got into the canes and the 

 canes spread so by drooping and taking 

 root, they covered so much ground that 

 they had to be dug up. The strawberry 

 patch came very near being a failure before 

 it was a success, but that's another story. 



Just a word about the vegetable garden. 

 While it is rather a side issue of this little 

 fruit farm its roasting-ears were ripe last 

 summer when they were worth 25 cents a 

 dozen and early potatoes were dug from it 

 in June when the grocer was getting 60 cents 

 a peck for them. All this in spite of the 

 fact that the soil is a heavy clayey loam. 



An unsightly high, tight board fence, 

 beyond the private alley in the rear of the 

 lot, was an eye-sore until I coaxed a vine of 

 a wild grape, that was growing on the other 

 side, through a large knot 

 hole in one of the boards. 

 Encouraged to do its best 

 by being fertilized and 

 given strips of cloth, 

 tacked to the fence to 

 cling to, this sturdy 

 climber has spread ram- 

 pantly north and south 

 along the fence for thirty 

 feet, curtaining the dis- 

 colored boards with its 

 luxuriant leaves. In a 

 few more 'years it will 

 completely hide the 

 fence. 



This amateurish effort 

 illustrates the possibili- 

 ties of a small backyard. 



Potatoes and Tomatoes on One 

 Vine 



By C, P. Halligan, Michigan. 



THE potato and tomato being closely re- 

 lated plants, take readily upon each 

 other when grafted. By growing a potato 

 plant, then, and grafting the tomato upon 

 it, we may readily grow plants like the 

 illustration with tomatoes above and po- 

 tatoes upon the roots. 



The grafting is very easily done. A 

 potato plant is started in the same manner 

 as for field culture, and a tomato plant is 

 grown in a four to six-inch pot so that it 

 will reach a height of six to ten inches 

 about the same time as the potato. Then 

 the tomato plant is placed close enough to 

 the potato so that the main stems of both 

 may be tied together without seriously 



This is the result one obtains by grafting a tomato 

 upon a potato plant. 



bending either. For a distance of about 

 an inch along the stem on both plants, at 

 a point where they may be brought into 

 direct contact with each other, the outer 

 bark of each is scraped off, or a very thin 

 slice is cut away, exposing the inner bark 

 or cambium layer. The two stems are 

 then tied firmly together. Sphagnum moss 

 or other suitable material is then wrapped 

 about the graft that it may be kept uni- 

 formly moist. As the winds are apt to dis- 

 turb the graft, small stakes are used to 

 support the stems because it is absolutely 

 essential that they be held perfectly rigid at 

 the point of graftage until a complete union 

 has taken place. 



Under favorable conditions, there is a 

 complete union in from three to six weeks 

 and the stem of the tomato may then be 

 cut off just below the union. 



