NOTES FROM THE EDITORS' GARDENS. 



673 



Lasius). This is a charming shrub with cliaste and 

 elegant foliage, slightly aromatic, and a profusion of 

 spikes of bright blue flowers. About the central plants 

 arrange an irregular line of Japan anemones, white, rose 

 and crimson, and to the outside of these, some plants of 

 autumn monkshood and Gaillardia crisiata. The forego- 

 ing will give a pretty assortment of flowers for a long 

 time following September i. All the subjects named 

 have handsome foliage, fitting them to adorn any lawn 

 bed, however conspicuous its place. The plants can 

 be obtained at a moderate cost from any dealer in a fair 

 assortment of hardy perennials. Once planted, such a 

 bed would show to fine advantage for years. 



Manure Effects. — We have seldom been so lavish in 

 the use of manures before. A number of plots, some of 

 them already well manured last year, and moderately so 

 the year before, received a dressing of selected and com- 

 posted mixed manure from the Buffalo stock yards, at 

 the rate of about 

 three large car-loads 

 per acre, besides 

 light doses of con- 

 centrated fertilizers 

 and chemicals. . ■ ' 



Other port ions, 

 especially those 

 planted with coarser 

 vegetables, such as 

 sweet corn, tomatoes, and also 

 strawberries, received only about / ^ 

 one-half or one-third as much. It ' 

 should be understood that all the 

 land used in our gardening opera- 

 tions at the beginning, three years ago, was 

 nothing but ordinary farm soil, which no 

 one would have called fertile, much less in 

 a good state of cultivation. The success in 

 gardening achieved here was therefore not 

 due to favorable soil conditions, but simply 

 and exclusively to manipulation, especially 

 manuring. The effects of the heavy dress- 

 ings this year are truly astonishing, and in 

 many cases far exceed our own expecta- 

 tions. Seldom have we seen such thrift in 

 onions, cabbages, cauliflowers, and in fact all 

 other vegetables planted there, nor such num- 

 bers of cucumbers, melons, squashes and 

 pumpkins. The cucumbers, especially, just lay in heaps. 

 They grew faster than they could be gathered ; and all 

 this on the same soil where but a year ago peas, potatoes, 

 and other vegetables refused to bear any kind of a crop, 

 merely on account of the lack of needed plant food in 

 the soil. 



During the early part of the season, which was 

 characterized by a seven weeks' drouth, the plants 

 made little headway ; but just as soon as the rains came 

 and dissolved the plant foods, thus helping the roots to 

 get hold of them, the growth began at a truly wonderful 

 rate. We had not made provisions for such luxuriance 



by giving extra space, and thus the vines ran together 

 and over each other in a wild tangled mass, making it 

 difficult for any one to walk through the patch. Still the 

 results, as already stated, were highly pleasing, for the 

 ground underneath this sea of verdure was covered with 

 the desired fruits. 



One lesson which this impresses upon our mind is the 

 desirability, for the sake of convenience in management, 

 especially in gathering the crop, of adjusting the space 

 between plants or hills to the fertility of the soil. On 

 excessively rich soil, we must plant especially wide apart. 



On poor soil we can plant quite 

 closely. Our pumpkins and 

 winter squashes were planted in 

 hills about ten feet apart each 

 way. This will do very well, 

 although a space of twelve feet 

 square for each hill, with two 

 plants to the hill, would have 

 been better in many respects. 

 I But with these crops the ground 



should b e well occupied, 

 since nobody has any busi- 

 ness in the patch from the 

 time the vines begin to cover 

 the ground until the crop is 

 to be harvested. 



It is different with cucum- 

 bers. Here we must provide 

 for convenience in gathering 

 the fruit almost from day 

 to day. Our six foot space 

 from hill to hill was not suf- 

 New Giant Gladiolus Comte Horace ficient for the ordinary varie- 

 DE Choiseul. Drawn life-size on ties. It will do for dwarf 

 the Editor's Grounds. growers, like Early Russian ; 



but White Spine, the Long 

 Greens, Paris Pickling, etc., require, on this heavily 

 manured soil, a space of no less than eight feet apart 

 each way for each hill, in order to give the women a 

 chance to gather the crop in a convenient and orderly 

 manner. 



The question now is. Does the lavish use of manure in 

 the garden pay ? The experience of this season only 

 emphasizes a lesson learned by us long ago, but which is 

 a most important one to all. It is, that " manure makes 

 the crops grow." The question of success in gar- 

 den operations is almost entirely a question of manure. 

 Without manure, noteworthy results are hardly possible ; 



