May, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
133 
their feet and do it before they 
have any offspring. Then start in 
and do it all over again, for they 
have a wonderful way of resur- 
recting if given half a chance. 
When hot weather comes the gar- 
den needs our help more than at 
any other time for then the weeds 
seem to grow the fastest. And 
then it is that we feel less like giv- 
ing it the necessary care. 
The weather is hot, the air is 
still and the mosquitoes are all 
out for blood, so that a hammock 
in a cool corner of a screened-in 
porch looks better to us than any 
“Man with the Hoe” tableau— es- 
pecially after a hard day’s work. 
Probably we feel that we do not 
need the exercise nearly so much 
as we did in the spring, and prob- 
ably we are right, but at the 
same time it will do us good if we 
take it properly; and we can not 
afford to let the garden go to 
pieces now when a little work will 
save it. 
Let us get up an hour earlier 
than usual in the morning and do 
our garden work then instead of 
waiting till evening when we are 
all tired out. A little daily work 
in the garden in the cool of the 
morning will do us much more 
good than would that little extra 
sleep. Nature is at her loveliest 
while the dew is on, and half of 
the fun in gardening is getting 
close to nature. So let us do our 
gardening before we are tired out 
and enjoy it to the utmost. 
The pecuniary profits derived 
from a garden are of no more im- 
portance than the beautifying of 
our surroundings. No one can 
live amid beautiful and ennobling 
surroundings without being influ- 
enced for the better, even though 
it be unconsciously. 
In these days we hear a great 
deal about the “Boy Problem” in 
our cities, but in the country this 
problem is scarcely ever heard of. 
It seems to me this is simply be- 
cause in the country the boy is 
kept busy while in the city so 
many boys have nothing to do 
so much of the time and “Mis- 
chief always finds some work for 
idle hands to do.” 
The thing we must do in the 
city is to find something to keep 
our boys yes, and our girls, too, 
busy, and the back-yard garden 
is a splendid place in which to do 
this. Right here is where the 
mother of a family can get bene- 
fits beyond calculation for the 
boys and girls if she is clever 
enough to interest them in gar- 
dening and that there is just as 
much fun in using a hoe as in 
wielding a tennis racket. It is 
then much more than gardening, 
it is character building of whicn 
we read so much and see so little 
in actual practice. 
A Back Yard Garden to Aid Food 
Production. 
Sow at once carrots, onions, 
parsnips and salsify for early use 
and what is not needed may be 
left for the winter supply. Mix 
these seeds with radish seeds 
which will come up in 2 or 3 
days, thus enabling one to culti- 
vate or hoe between the rows, giv- 
ing the other seeds a much better 
chance to come up especially if 
heavy rains fall and pack the 
ground. This also gives you rad- 
ishes for the table without extra 
expense to your garden. Spin- 
ach and lettuce may be followed 
by potatoes and early peas by 
turnips and rutabagas. Toma- 
toes may follow early beets by 
pulling a few beets where the to- 
mato is to be set, or early beets 
may be followed by late beets, 
turnips and rutabagas. Thorough- 
ly cultivate and sow these seeds 
between the rows when early 
beets are nearly full grown. 
By planting Golden Bantam 
sweet corn 3 by 3 ft. five kernels 
of corn and 4 Refugee or 1,000 to 
1 Beans in the same hill both will 
do better than if planted alone 
and produce a large quantity of 
food. Golden Hubbard Squash 
may be planted so as to climb on 
your porch, fence or a tree and it 
will not demand any room in your 
garden and will produce more 
than if left on the ground. 
If you have only a strip of 
ground, say 2 by 15ft. beside your 
house or fence, plant Champion 
of England peas, Kentucky Won- 
der Beans and Late Stone toma- 
toes, grow on stakes or trellis and 
plant root crops below and per- 
haps one squash seed at either 
end. You will be surprised at 
the amount of vegetables which 
can be produced on this small 
space. 
N. A. Rasmussen. 
First Principles. 
A large part of this issue is de- 
voted to the A. B. C. of garden- 
ing, largely timely and practical 
bulletins issued by the horticul- 
tural department of the Agricul- 
tural College. While most of 
these articles have been printed 
in whole or in part in the daily 
and weekly papers of the state, 
such papers are rarely preserved 
and the bringing together of these 
practical hints in one place should 
prove helpful to many of our 
readers. 
Give cauliflower, cabbage, and 
celery plants that are in frames, 
plenty of air. 
