T H E G A R 1) E N M A G A Z I X E 
June, 1917 
286 
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March of seed sown in April. Cuttings made 
in April or even in May will give flowers the 
next spring. Plants should be set about 
twelve inches apart on the benches and nour- 
ishment given as needed in the form of bone 
meal, sheep manure or decayed cow manure. 
Of course no flowers must be permitted to 
form in the course of the summer and the 
young plants must be kept growing steadily. 
Snapdragons are excellent flowers for grow- 
ing in the private greenhouse, for they are 
easy to handle and give quick results. Pew 
flowers are better for cutting, as they last a 
long time and lend themselves admirably to 
all sorts of decorative schemes. Even without 
a greenhouse it is still possible to have 
Snapdragons indoors, for they are very satis- 
factory as house plants. Sometimes plants 
may be taken into the house in the fall and 
will continue to flower for several weeks. It 
is also easy to make cuttings from the stems 
of cut flowers purchased in the late winter. If 
rooted in damp sand in a box or pan in the 
kitchen they will make good plants to set 
outdoors as soon as the garden season opens 
and plants started in this way will give ex- 
ceptionally early flowers. 
Bedding Antirrhinum, which is useful for general purposes 
Here’s a hoe that serves several purposes. The sharpened 
“ear” is used for fine work (see below) 
Nelrose, one of the recent introductions among Snapdragons 
What Hoeing and Weeding Does 
PAUL E. TRIEM 
I NDISCRIMINATE hoeing is sometimes 
worse than no hoeing at all. Decide 
what you want to accomplish, then pick 
out your “weapons” intelligently- We 
cultivate the soil for one or all of three pur- 
poses: first, to kill the weeds; second, to form a 
“dirt mulch, ”or layer of fine, loose earth, which 
because of its mechanical condition shall be a 
poor conductor of moisture and so shall pre- 
vent, to a certain extent, useless evaporation; 
and, third, to aerate the soil. 
Weeds can be killed either by removing 
them from the ground or by decapitating 
them. With some of the more tender un- 
desirables in the garden, one beheading is 
sufficient; with the average weed, however, 
the process must be repeated. No plant can 
survive continuous treatment of this kind; 
In the average sized vegetable garden, 
weeds are most efficiently kept in control by 
the use of hand or wheel hoes. The old- 
fashioned, straight-edged hoe is best for work 
between the rows. For fine work, close to the 
plants, a Warren hoe, with its “ears” beveled 
to a good cutting edge, will enable the gar- 
dener to nip out individual weed stalks. A 
satisfactory hand weeder can be made by 
bending the heated blade of a case knife into a 
right angle and sharpening both edges. With 
this you can work close to the row without 
disturbing the roots of the law-abiding citizens 
of the garden patch. Probably the least effi- 
cient form of w T eeder though a good cultiva- 
tor is the one which is built like a human 
hand, with bent fingers. It has a chronic 
failing of leaving tenaciously rooted weeds in 
the ground, while covering them with a film 
of dirt. It takes more than this kind of treat- 
ment to kill a determined weed. 
Tillage with hand tools may be shallow 
or deep. Shallow cultivation serves to kill 
weeds and to establish a dirt mulch. It is 
best accomplished with a straight-edged hoe, 
wheel or hand. When the gardener is dealing 
with vegetables, such as tomatoes, which have 
a tendency to root widely and shallowly, tillage 
of this sort is usually best; also during times 
of drought, when the moisture in the soil 
needs to be conserved. Shallow hoeing pro- 
tects the soil by blanketing it from too great 
exposure to the air, where deeper cultivation 
would open the texture of the soil about the 
roots, and so encourage evaporation. Some- 
times it is preferable to mulch such plants as 
tomatoes with straw or well-decayed manure, 
rather than to cultivate close to them during 
dry weather. 
The various processes of soil formation and 
plant growth progress only in the presence of 
approximately correct proportions of air and 
water. If the soil is waterlogged, nitrification 
does not take place as it should. It is esti- 
mated that not more than 6o per cent, of the 
possible soil saturation should be present for 
the most favorable growth of the average 
plant. Interpreted in terms of actual gar- 
dening, all this means, that if moisture is 
abundant or excessive, tillage, if the condition 
of the soil makes is possible at all, should be 
deep rather than shallow. At these times, 
the kitchen gardener should use his Warren 
hoe or the cultivator attachment to his wheel 
hoe, and should work deep. During drought, 
on the other hand, cultivation should be 
shallow. 
