December, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
53 
farming this season in spite of a se- 
vere hailstorm June 22 and 23. We 
can cite several cases of young people 
and others who have done some real 
good gardening and who are much en- 
couraged as beginners. 
So far as I know, all are planning to 
stay in the game for next year. Many, 
to adapt scripture, have a zeal of gard- 
ening but not according to knowledge. 
An office man planted potatoes for the 
first time in his life this year. In 
August he reported that he was dis- 
gusted with growing potatoes and 
should not try it again — they had not 
even blossomed but were turning yel- 
low and seemed to be dying. Upon 
being advised to carefully dig up one 
of the plants to see what was the mat- 
ter, he was overjoyed to find a good 
crop of spuds. — J. T. Fitcliett, Janes- 
ville. 
Dear Sir: 
In response to your inquiry, please 
look the following over. 
Beginners in gardening are made 
like beginners in farming. In both 
cases “there is land galore as the boy 
says, but there is nothing doing.’’ 
They work while the spring fever lasts 
and when the weeds begin to interfere, 
their work is done. There is only a 
small per cent of the good intentions 
that are not carried out to completion, 
and those are such that like to start 
the race to coax others along and not 
patriotic enough to finish. 
An amusing incident occurred to one 
of the old members of the Garden Club 
who had potted hyacinths. After all 
her patience had exhausted, she com- 
plained to one of her maids that the 
bulbs were failures. After investigat- 
ing it was discovered that the bulbs 
were standing upon their heads. 
Think of it. Member of a Garden 
Club. Will you please pour me some 
more tea? 
As a whole we have done wonder- 
fully well. One young man did not 
recognize the sprouted seeds of many 
things he had sown, but his persist- 
ence in the work made him succeed. 
Inexperienced beginners should not 
spend too much time on novelties of 
the garden, like Brussels sprouts, cel- 
ery. lima beans, egg plants, peppers. 
Celery will do if we persist and know 
how. Navy beans were not what they 
should be on account of late and ear'y 
frosts. Beans crowded for space on 
rich soil were a complete failure. We 
had new troubles with onions and cu- 
cumbers. The former rotted when the 
bulbs were good size. The onion mag- 
gots usually attack in the early sea- 
son. The cucumbers in many gardens 
died completely. The attack was near 
the root system or base of the vine. 
Could not find stem borers which I 
suspected. On light soils this did not 
happen. 
“We’ll make our fish story a potato 
story . Because of the shortage of 
seeds and wanting something for noth- 
ing, a young Mrs. handed her husband 
a pan of potato peelings which he 
should plant. It will not do to tell of 
his indignation and look he gave his 
wife, so she planted a short row in his 
absence, but requested him not to in- 
terfere with her garden, and she got 
results. This w y as land never cropped 
before. A few hills produced tremen- 
dously. Twenty-eight potatoes in one 
hill. Yes. But how large were they? 
That I’ll not say, but will say that it 
was an even market basket full. 
Three tubers were too small for any 
use, but not too small to plant next 
spring. 
Our local weather conditions were so 
good, i. e., in rainfall that fully nmety- 
five per cent of the beginners will try 
again. 
One discouraging feature of this 
gardening is the excessive rent ex- 
acted by holders of idle lands. Acres 
and acres lay idle, but the moment 
anything becomes productive a tax is 
charged. In some cases more than 
the parcel of land can produce and the 
beginners not knowing its productiv- 
ity. pays the rent and fails to get prof- 
itable returns, hence discouraged. — 
A. H. Lemke, D.D.S., Wausau, member 
of Gardener’s Council Advisory. 
(The owners of vacant lots in Wau- 
sau must be a fine patriotic, generous, 
charitable bunch! This is the first 
and only instance known where a cent 
has been charged for the use of vacant 
lots which were used for gardens. — 
Editor.) 
Regarding the Gardener’s Advisory 
Council I have had some experiences 
which I think must have been with 
real amateurs. Two different people 
have phoned to know “what is the 
matter with my cabbage, its all crack- 
ing open?” Quite a large number 
have called up about tomatoes. One 
woman wanted to known if she should 
pick the blossoms off. One complained 
that they were getting no tomatoes, 
and on going to see, I found a very 
fine kitchen garden of about four or 
five square rods of land. Everything 
in it was good and well cultivated: 
some things were very fine. The one 
stumbling block was the tomatoes. I 
or some one else had told them to 
prune off all the side branches and 
train to one or two stocks to the plant. 
They were cutting off everything and 
leaving bare arms, the trouble being 
that they did not know the difference 
between a large compound leaf and a 
branch. This seems to be a common 
error. Several people have called to 
know if they would have any potatoes 
because there were no blossoms, or 
because the blossoms all fell off. Of 
course I told them the crop of potatoes 
was not dependent on blossoms, while 
the woman with her tomatoes was told 
to leave the blossoms on. 
We all of us intend to “come back” 
next year with renewed zeal, and excel 
all previous records. Yours for good 
gardens next year. — Scott S. Dey, 
Wyocena. 
As Gardener’s Counsel around Plrtte- 
ville, I had many back lot gardens to 
look after, and by keeping at owners 
to till the soil more and in some cases 
using water during dry times, the re- 
sults were fair although many were 
well satisfied. Many small lots fur- 
nished the family with winter vege- 
tables, as returns for their labor, and 
hope during 1918 to increase the work, 
making special effort to have more 
spraying done at proper times. I am 
making special effort to secure better 
seed for 1918. — N. E. France, Platte- 
ville. 
In reply to your letter of inquiry re- 
garding “Beginners’ Gardening,” will 
say that much was done both in the 
country and city to induce beginners 
and particularly school children to do 
something. For the past several years 
I have had, as county superintendent, 
the country pupils make gardens or 
at least take an active part in their 
parents’ gardens. Every fall practi- 
cally every country school had an 
agricultural exhibit in their school 
(Continued on page 55) 
