March, 1912 
beginners think, that 
the seeds should be 
planted on miniature 
mounds, but that the 
seeds or plants are 
put in at regular dis- 
tances— usually the 
same in each direc- 
tion—with the pur- 
pose of cultivating 
both ways, as with 
corn (sometimes), or 
Asparagus 
Lee ee ee 
Carrots, Early 4 45 
melons, or squashes. Beets ,_ Ear! 
One thing above all Beets, Late 4 
must be kept in mind jUEnipS= mare Pau 2: 
in planting seeds, 
“ee de 
weather -— firm the 
Peas, Late 2 6 
OS OIE AT ie 3 
Water Melons hummer Bush 6H 4 
I2 Hills Squash Vine 4H 4 
I h | 8 
Winter eauast 
seeds in the soil. 
Seeds, particularly 
small seeds, planted 
loosely in dry soil are 
the cause of more 
poor _ germination 
than any other single 
garden error. After 
sowing, and before 
covering, press the 
seeds down into the 
soil firmly, with the back of a narrow hoe or rake or the 
flat of the shoe. If it is important to get the soil firm in 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
110 feet. 
Diagram of a home vegetable garden 110x110 feet square 
97 
sowing seeds, it is 
doubly so in setting 
out plants. Having 
got the ground ready 
and the rows marked 
out, take the plants 
out of boxes or pots 
with as little disturb- 
ance as possible, 
make a hole with 
fingers, trowel or dib- 
ber, and set the ball 
of roots down into it. 
Cover in with fresh 
soil and press down 
evenly and firmly as 
possible. Then, when 
you finish the row, 
come back over it and 
set the plants still 
more firmly by plac- 
ing the soles of the 
shoes one on either 
side of the plant and 
letting the weight of 
the body bear down 
upon them. The ma- 
jority of plants so 
“‘firmed,”’ even in the 
very driest of weather, may be thoroughly relied upon to 
live, and this operation in planting must not be overlooked. 
Seed - Bed | 
Cabbage, Early 
Cabbage Late 
Wer Far! Pe 
awe Ate m= 
ruesels - sprouts 
Lettuce 
l 
3 
> 
Mus Melons 
6 
Potatoes, Early 4 10 
Potatoes, Late | 
A Chalet on the Maine Coast 
By Russell F. Porter 
CHANCE summer wanderer to Land’s End, 
late in the season of 1909, was very much 
taken with a certain spot on the ocean shore 
where the ledges formed a natural bathtub. 
By this is meant a depression in the rocks, 
just below high tide, where the salt water 
is warmed by the sun, and bathing in the cold waters of 
the Maine coast is rendered comfortable. Twice a day, 
high tides clear and replenish the reservoir. 
“Build me a cottage here,” said the summer pilgrim, 
standing on the raised beach directly back of the bathtub. 
“Cut no more trees than necessary; construct the building 
so as to accommodate three or four persons, but make it 
cozy; reduce household drudgery to a minimum; give me a 
sleeping-porch and a fireplace, and use whatever style you 
will. But it must come under six hundred dollars and you 
must first find me drinking water.” 
With these requirements on the part of his client, the 
artist-builder set to work. He was fortunate with the well, 
over which he had held grave doubts. After all, a sure 
source of good water is a first essential. Fall was then well 
over, but he knew the value of getting the foundations down 
before Winter set in, for he must lay the sills before the 
frost was out of the ground the following Spring. But the 
cottage would not take shape, neither in his mind nor on 
paper, and time went by. 
In January he went sketching in Italy. On his flying re- 
turn across the Continent he passed through Switzerland in 
the daytime, by the St. Gotthard route. ‘‘There,” he ex- 
claimed, as the train emerged from the long tunnel and 
pulled up at a small hamlet where the firs and spruces walled 
in the houses in dense masses of deep green. ‘‘There,” he 
exclaimed again, the blue shadows on the snowdrifts making 
him homesick for New England, “I will build for my Sum- 
mer home a Swiss chalet such as these. ‘The setting will be 
highly appropriate. Why not a Swiss chalet, modified to 
fit the Maine coast ?” 
As the train wound down through the valley, the artist- 
builder was busy with his sketchbook, catching fugitive de- 
tails needed from the brown huts hugging the mountain sides. 
And so the chalet was born. Bedrock was just under the 
grass roots, and it allowed him a concrete floor to the porch, 
also a hearth to the fireplace that completely filled the ingle- 
nook, at a low cost. Gravel ranging from coarse sand to 
pebbles the size of hens’ eggs was there for the asking, and 
a few barrels of cement did the rest. 
The colossal scale of the gable being the characteristic 
feature of Swiss houses caused the builder some concern, as 
this construction is entirely honest and the beams are all 
hewn by the axe. He solved it by buying an old nearby barn, 
tearing it down and using the heavy frame for the living- 
room posts, the floor beams overhead and the roof purlins. 
A shipyard furnished six huge ship’s knees, which amply 
bracketed out and supported the porch and the roof over- 
head. 
The brown, almost black, color of Swiss beams was 
obtained by staining them with tar and linseed oil. Cypress 
shingles laid well to the weather covered the walls down 
to the line of the window stools, and from there down the 
walls, after first applying a heavy builder’s paper, were 
covered with spruce slabs, the bark on, their sides edged, and 
running up and down. This up-and-down treatment per- 
