232 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
May, 1917 
early potatoes may be planted the first week 
in April. If the season is backward, time may 
be saved by sprouting the seed in a warm cel- 
lar. By planting the sets in a furrow eight 
or ten inches deep, gradually filling in as they 
grow, they may be given level cultivation, 
which prevents the evaporation of moisture 
that is attendant on the old hilling system. 
Companion Cropping. In the arrangement 
of the garden, perhaps, more than in anything 
else do we learn by experience. When one has 
but a limited space available for a garden plot, 
it is necessary to utilize every inch of it 
throughout the summer. By allowing a little 
extra space between the rows two crops may 
often be grown as companions, with great 
saving of space. Some combinations which I 
have found especially good are: 
(i) Early Peas, Lettuce and Tomatoes: 
The early peas are planted in two double rows 
with a 3-foot strip between the double rows. 
By planting in double rows one row of brush 
supports two of peas. After the peas are in, a 
shallow furrow is plowed through the middle 
of the 3-foot strip, plenty of fertilizer is worked 
in, and young lettuce plants from a frame are 
set in the furrow, placing them six inches apart 
and leaving a 12-inch space after every second 
lettuce plant. In these empty spaces tomato 
plants are set about the middle of May, the 
supporting stakes being first set. I he peas 
are out of the way by July 1st, and are followed 
by celery plants in one row and Chinese 
cabbage in the other. Thus we are able to 
grow peas, lettuce, tomatoes, celery and 
Chinese cabbage in a strip five feet wide and 
fifty feet long. 
(2) Late Peas and Corn: The late peas 
are also planted in double rows, with a 3-foot 
strip between, and in this strip is planted 
about June 1st Golden Bantam corn for suc- 
cession, putting a few winter squash seeds in 
the row at intervals of four feet. The squash 
and corn have the ground after the peas are 
done. 
(3) Onion Sets and Green Peppers: 
These form an excellent combination. The 
onion sets are planted about the first of April in 
two shallow furrows eighteen inches apart. 
They are placed three inches apart in the row, 
skipping a set every eighteen inches. The 
latter part of May, sweet pepper plants are 
set in the empty spaces. Both onions and 
peppers may be cultivated freely, and by the 
time the onions are ready to pull, the peppers 
are beginning to branch and will occupy the 
ground until frost. 
(4) Potatoes and Late Corn: By leav- 
ing a 4-foot space between the potato rows 
instead of the regulation three feet, a row of 
late corn may be planted between them May 
15th, setting some pumpkin seeds in the row 
with the corn. Squash or other vines may be 
used as well. The point is that the corn and 
vine crops will flourish in the same row and will 
use the ground until frost. 
(5) Corn and Cucumbers. Our cucumbers 
are planted in rows instead of hills, setting four 
or five seeds of early corn every two feet in the 
row. We prefer the drill system for cucumbers 
because the ground may be cultivated more 
easily with the wheel hoe, and by pegging 
them with forked sticks the vines may be 
trained along the row, taking up less room and 
enabling the fruit to be gathered without 
trampling the vines. 
(6) Radishes: No special part of the garden 
is set aside for radishes; instead, the quick- 
germinating seeds are used as a marker for 
those which germinate more slowly, or the seed 
is sown in rows which a few weeks later will be 
used for other vegetables. We have found 
Icicle excellent. 
There are one or two points which must be 
borne in mind in planning for companion and 
succession crops. The ground must be well 
fertilized. Sufficient room must be left for 
frequent cultivation, except with vine crops 
which ultimately cover the ground and render 
cultivation unnecessary. Vegetables which 
must be sprayed with poisonous solutions 
should not be planted near those whose edible 
portions are exposed above ground. In even 
the smallest garden rotation of crops should be 
practiced. The accompanying plan has been 
proved by use. 
How the 
Modern Lilac Came to Be THE0 A -J^ EMEYER 
RECOUNTING THE STORY OF MR. LEMOINE’S WORK AS TOLD BY HIMSELF 
F ROM the time of my first acquaint- 
ance with the modern Lilac, I have 
been a devoted admirer. Compared 
with the original plant — the Com- 
mon Lilac of the old-time gardens — these of 
to-day with their great variety of color, larger 
flowers that will in some cases cover a five 
dollar gold piece, greatly increased size of 
truss, are hardly to be mentioned in the same 
breath, except for the fact that they are all 
Lilacs. What vision it was that led the won- 
derful f rench nurseryman, Victor Lemoine, 
to grasp the latent possibilities of this magni- 
ficent flowering shrub! Ably assisted by his 
wife, as the old gentleman has himself told 
me, he worked for years in developing the 
Lilac into what we have to-day. 
But to go to the beginning: the 
development of the Modern Lilac 
dates from 1843 when M. Libert- 
Daminont, a nurseryman of Liege, 
Belgium, obtained a Lilacwith small 
double lilac-blue flowers, described 
by Charles Morren, a botanist of * 
Liege, under the name of Syringa 
vulgaris fl. plena “Liberti,” this plant, in- 
teresting as a curiosity, but without any orn- 
amental value was also mentioned in the lists 
of other nurserymen of the day, under the 
name of Syringa vulgaris azurea plena. It 
would be difficult indeed to find it now, any- 
where. 
T his was the variety that Victor Lemoine, 
C erhaps the greatest hybridizer, and plant 
reeder the world has ever known, had the idea 
of crossing with the Single Lilacs in an effort 
to produce a race of ornamental Double Lilacs. 
Now the flowers of these plants are small. 
This work of crossing demands good eyesight 
which Mr. Lemoine did not then have, and so, 
he told me, he sought the aid of Madame and 
placed into her care the very delicate work of 
cross fertilization. I his work, first started 
during the Franco-Prussian War, when Nancy 
was occupied by the Germans, solely as a 
diversion from the trials of the time, was 
carried on by Mme. Lemoine for many years 
under the direction of her husband. 
Syringa azurea plena was most difficult to 
work on, the minute flowers being formed of 
* ^ , 
One of the progenitors of the modem Lilacs. Syringa 
oblata, which was used by Lemoine 
many petals, nearly microscopic, without 
stamens, and with a pistil covered with the 
lobes of the interior petals, malformed and 
sterile. Yet this was the plant selected for the 
seed bearing. It was necessary to work from 
a step ladder on account of the size of the bush, 
uncovering a number of flowers to expose the 
pistil and then apply the chosen pollen to the 
flower when one was found in which the pistil 
was not too much malformed. The pollen 
was supplied from the handsomest varieties of 
Single Lilacs available; and Syringa oblata, a 
Chinese early flowering species, the flowers of 
which were often destroyed by the late frosts. 
Thus it will be seen that the plants finally 
attained were the achievement of patience and 
tedious work. Even so, the results were ever 
in doubt, and from more than 
one hundred flowers crossed, 
the first year produced only 
seven seeds. The following 
year thirty fertile seeds were 
gathered, and the work con- 
tinued. 
The first fruits of the work 
of Mr. and Madam Lemoine 
were seen in 1876 when three bushes 
flowered. The first received the name 
of Syringa hybrida hyacinthijlora 
plena, and was a true hybrid between 
Syringa oblata and Syringa azurea 
plena. The thyrses of this variety 
were quite well developed, the flowers small, a 
little separated, double, of a lilac-blue color 
and flowering fairly early. 1 he foliage recalled 
that of Syringa oblata and took a purple 
autumn tint that rendered it attractive. 
This variety was put in commerce in 1878, 
and is not cultivated now; but a specimen 
can be seen in the Lilac collection of the 
Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Mass., where it 
