54 
The Garden Magazine, September, 1920 
Revitalizing Worn 
Out Soils 
Each summer, plant life takes from the soil which sustains 
it certain elements of productiveness. 
¥JSQDUSr« 
flUMUJ 
“The Essence of Fertility” 
puts them back in generous abundance. 
Now is the time to use this wonderful natural fertilizer to 
replenish and build up run-down soils. 
\ ou will be glad you did so when next spring rolls 
around. The results will well repay you. 
A sweet and odorless silt and leaf loam that improves the 
growth of flowers, vegetable plants, shrubs, trees and lawns. 
Full directions for all uses accom- 
pany each shipment. Order a 
2-bushel sack, at least. 
Prices on ton and carload lots upon 
request to large users like Golf 
Courses, Nurseries, Greenhouses and 
Estates, etc. 
SODUS HUMUS COMPANY 
190 Main Street Benton Harbor, Mich. 
Irises, Peonies, Gladioli 
Importe s and growers of choice varieties. 
600 varieties of Irises — Catalogue free. 
Rainbow Gardens ^T^uuminT 
Edith Ripley Kennaday 
Consultant in 
Practical and Decorative Gardening 
Naturalistic Plantings 
Perennial Plantings Shrubbery Plantings 
The charm of little gardens ami the balance and beauty of 
larger gardens are due to careful thought and consideration 
STUDIO 22M 119 East 19th Street, New York City 
PEONIES and IRISES 
To our comprehensive though simple price list, you are welcome. 
First 
Quality 
Roots 
Clarencv w. HubbarP 
A Peonies&TriseS A 
6144 LAKEWOOD AVE. 
True 
to 
Label 
CHICAGO, ILL. 
(Continued from pa$f 5 /) 
small boy on the edge of the patch with a shot 
gun. 
Then there are the robins which might more 
appropriately be named robbers. Theorists tell 
us to plant Mulberries on the principle that 
the robins will eat them in preference to the Cher- 
ries. Practical experience, however, shows that 
they eat both, and their capacity seems limited 
only by the supply. In foreign countries it is a 
common plan to protect the Cherries by covering 
the trees with netting, and that is feasible here in 
a small garden before the trees have grown large. 
It is a simple matter to make a netting from fly 
screening, although at present prices it is a ques- 
tion if the screening isn’t worth more than the 
Cherries. Still the netting can be made to serve 
a double purpose, or perhaps I should say a triple 
purpose, for after the cherries have been saved 
it can be spread over the Strawberry bed and 
later transferred to the Currant bushes. When 
the Strawberries first begin to ripen the robins 
often do a great amount of damage and protect- 
ing them with screen cloth is worthwhile, even 
though the Cherries are left to suffer. 
For that matter, though, there are other ways 
by means of which at least a few of the Cherries 
may be saved. Something is accomplished by 
hanging pieces of looking glass or shining tin in 
the trees. The birds are quite suspicious of the 
reflections and the noise. Windmills and clap- 
pers are sometimes used with success, but the 
very best plan which I have discovered is the 
simplest of all. When I have robins in the 
Cherry trees, I immediately sneak out as quietly 
as I can and plug them with pieces of clod or 
pepper them with handfuls of loose earth. It is 
remarkable to find how effectual this method is 
for frightening the robins away and causing them 
to remain suspicious for some time. And it has 
the added advantage of not actually hurting the 
birds, which is greatly in its favor. 
Alas and alack, however, no such simple ex- 
pedient will serve with the starlings, which un- 
fortunately are moving relentlessly northward 
and seem to have taken up their permanent resi- 
dence in New England. These are the most 
rapacious and brazen of any feathered creatures 
that I know of. So far 1 have heard of only one 
method which has been at all successful in thin- 
ning their numbers. In Connecticut the plan 
has been tried of building bird houses with double 
floors, the upper floor being pivoted so that it 
will give way and allow any bird that steps 
upon it to fall into the opening below. A good 
many starlings have been caught in this ingeni- 
ous kind of a trap. 
E. 1. Farrington, Mass. 
AN EXCEPTIONAL PEA 
T HE best of nine varieties tried was Sutton’s 
Discovery. This surpassed on a heavy clay 
soil Thomas Laxton which, though pronounced 
the best there is by M. B. Keeney, the veteran 
Pea shark, with me was distinctly inferior. Little 
Marvel was also grown; and this is the hardest 
to pull and to shell of any ever tried! On the 
other hand, Sutton’s Discovery was easy to grow, 
easy to pick and shell, prolific and the most lus- 
cious “second big help” variety that I have ever 
grown. Indeed, it is in every way exceptional 
and greatly to be recommended. 
M. G. Kains, L. /. 
