264 



The Garden Magazine, January, 1922 



suggest standing the pots of Fuchsia on a table or bench over which a 

 layer of sand has been spread an inch or two deep. Keep this sand 

 wet and this will keep the air moist about the plants. For a plant 

 already infested — and it shows this condition by the curling and drop- 

 ping off of its leaves — it is just possible to dislodge the spider by forcibly 

 spraying the under side of the leaves with water; or invert the pot, 

 holding the plant in with both hands, then churn the foliage up and 

 down quickly in a bucket of water. 



The Fuchsia roots readily from cuttings of the tender growth and I 

 would suggest starting new plants every year rather than depend upon 

 the old plant surviving the hot dry southern summer. 



Have any of the Texas readers had success with Peonies? If so, 

 please tell me what variety — all I have tried and all I have ever seen 

 tried or heard of grew well and some budded — but none bloomed. I 

 read last year that they required a great deal of water when the buds 

 were appearing. I watered mine every day from their first peep out 

 of the ground, but every bud blighted as usual. I am curious to know 

 if it is possible -to have them bloom in this climate. — Miss Bettic 

 Mar key, Chat field, Texas. 



Too Much for the Mole 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



\TEAR our house moles ran from tree to tree destroying the lawn. 

 •I- ^ Last spring we heard they liked Castor Oil beans, to their sorrow. 

 We made holes with a small round stick in their runways two or three 

 inches below the surface and dropped a bean in each. That part of the 

 lawn has been clear since. Only a few beans sprouted and the mower 

 cut them. We put in plenty of beans. Our experience has been more 

 damage from uprooting rather than from the actual eating of roots. 

 — Mrs. Thos. A. Wynne, hid. 



— Mrs. Applegate's cry for relief from moles in September recalls the 

 following which was published by Maurice Fuld. I have not had occa- 

 sion to try it. Mr. Fuld said, "Watch for the newly made runner, for 

 the mole will always return in the same day. Secure some calcium 

 carbide, the same that is used to manufacture acetylene gas, in crystal 

 form, open up the runner and drop a few crystals in each hole and cover 

 the holes. It will turn to a killing gas quickly and reach the mole no 

 matter where he is, and good-bye to the mole." — J. H. B., Vermont. 



SOWING THE SEED IN HUMANS 



JHE mind of a child may be an asset to the community 

 or it may become a dangerous liability. "Catch 'em 

 young" is not only a maxim of animal trainers but it 

 also embodies the belief and practice of the religious 

 body which through centuries of study of the human mind has 

 learned best how to hold its followers. It is simply recognizing 

 the fact that impressions received in childhood are potent in the 

 moulding of the man or woman of adult years. 



The Garden Magazine became very much interested during 

 the past summer in a practical effort to make better future 

 Americans of New York's tenement children. It took the form 

 of occupying the minds and spare time of some hundreds of 

 children with the ambitions and pleasure of gardening instead 

 of leaving them to register on their little brains the good and 

 bad — mostly bad — of what they could pick up playing in the 

 streets. Their play became really work and training and 

 learning, but the tasks were joyous ones and there was keen 

 competition among the children to share in them. Only a 

 percentage of those who applied could be given the privileges of 

 the Avenue A Gardens. We hope during the coming spring 

 months to interest our readers in this valuable movement to the 



extent of largely increasing the opportunities it offers in the way 

 of wholesome and improving occupation to children who would 

 otherwise be left to drift. 



The results of the season's work in Avenue A are material 

 as well as spiritual. From their gathered crops the children, 

 through one of their number as spokesman, sent to Mr. John D. 

 Rockefeller, by whose aid the ground for the gardens had been 

 secured, a basket of vegetables of their own raising. In ac- 

 knowledgment they received the following letter: 



Dear Adolph: 



Thank you for yours of the 21st, with the fruit from the garden which 

 you and the other boys have cultivated. I hope you will all learn not 

 only to be good gardeners but to earn your own living and make your 

 own way in the world, and be of use to yourselves, not only, but to your 

 families and the world; and to this end I send each and every one of you 

 my every best wish. 



Sincerely, 



John D. Rockefeller. 



As said before, The Garden Magazine will have more to tell 

 about the Avenue A Gardens when planting time comes. 



WAITING FOR THE GATES TO OPEN 

 Young gardeners anxious to get to their work in the Avenue A Gardens, New York City 



