1913 . 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
335 
GARDENING IN A CITY LOT. 
The cultivation of a few square feet 
in the rear part of an average city lot 
is such a different proposition from the 
usual garden in the country that some 
results and lessons from one who has 
been practicing the former for several 
years may not be amiss. I am a busy 
man, in active business in one of our 
large New York cities, but the physical 
exercise, the contact with the soil and 
the mental relaxation are well worth 
the cost, besides the pleasure of grow¬ 
ing and using the numerous vegetables 
and flowers that can be had from a 
small space, so I am sure if more city 
men would get about it they would re¬ 
alize as much from back-yard garden¬ 
ing as I do. 
The selection of seeds and varieties 
are of more importance to the city-lot 
gardener than to the cultivator of larger 
space. He has so little ground he must 
take no chances of losing any of it by 
poor seed or by growing varieties he 
will have little or no use for when 
grown. He ought, therefore, to buy his 
seed from dealers he has good reason 
to believe reliable. When the city gar¬ 
dener has had a few years’ experience 
he will do well to save seed of such 
kinds as mature well, and he wishes 
to use, from his own stock; but at the 
outset he must buy. The temptation to 
the amateur is to select too many kinds 
to be practical on the limited space he 
has. That must be guarded against. 
For instance, he will see many kinds of 
corn catalogued, all well recommended. 
If he had plenty of room he could grow 
several of them, but in his city lot he 
should select one only. He will not get 
corn for cooking quite as early, but the 
earliest corn is not of as good quality, 
and he can afford to grow only the best. 
The same with other vegetables and 
fruits. 
The preparation of the soil will re¬ 
quire much attention and hard work. 
It is usually the case that the rear of a 
city lot is graded with soil from the 
cellar. Such soil is infertile and gen¬ 
erally very hard and of a clay forma¬ 
tion, entirely unsuited to the growth of 
garden products. It must have ferti¬ 
lizers and humus or decaying vegetable 
matter added. Nothing is so good for 
this purpose as stable manure. If pos¬ 
sible, manure should be provided from 
stables using straw for bedding, but of 
late years shavings have displaced straw 
in the stable to such an extent that 
strawy manure is very hard to get in 
the city, so the next best article must 
be used. It would be well to get the 
manure early as possible, and turn it 
several times to prevent its burning and 
to secure the decay of the shavings 
contained. Water should be added to 
the heap at times to keep it in a moist 
state. If the lot has never been worked 
it would be difficult to apply too much 
manure. If the soil is the natural sur¬ 
face, and ordinarily rich, less will suf¬ 
fice. After the first year manure can 
be used more sparingly, and as many 
plants do better on ground not freshly 
manured, it is good practice to apply 
manure on only one-half the space al¬ 
ternately each year. Pure ground bone 
is an excellent fertilizer and should be 
used freely, scattered on the surface 
after digging or spading and well 
worked in. The manure should be 
spread before spading. Most soils re¬ 
quire potash, which chemical is not con¬ 
tained in manure or ground bone. If 
wood ashes can be had they will supply 
potash; otherwise sulphate of potash 
should be used. This is difficult to get 
in the small quantities needed in the 
city garden. Some dealers in garden 
supplies offer it in small lots, but their 
price is, as far as I can find out, un¬ 
reasonably high. If no other way is 
found it would be well to get a full 
sack of sulphate of potash from a regu¬ 
lar fertilizer dealer; use such as is 
needed—say, two or three quarts on 
each square rod—and store the rest or 
dispose of it to other small users. 
The small city garden will not per¬ 
mit the use of a plow, so it must be 
dug by man power. This is the hardest 
work the amateur gardener must do. 
The digging should be deep and thor¬ 
ough. Either a spade or digging fork 
is the proper tool to use for this work. 
Each spadeful as it is turned must be 
loosened and made fine, for fineness of 
soil is one of the essentials of success. 
A mistake is frequently made by plant¬ 
ing too early, and I am sure in the 
majority of Springs the first to the tenth 
of May is early enough in this State. 
Plants started and checked by cold 
weather are never as vigorous, and 
where the space is small, every inch 
must be made to yield its maximum. A 
few sorts, as peas, beets, onions, etc., 
may be sown as early as the ground can 
be worked, but the most of the planting 
had better be done after the ground has 
warmed and the growing season estab¬ 
lished. 
In selecting varieties for planting a 
few berries should be included, for 
everyone likes berries, and four or five 
plants of raspberries or 30 or 40 hills 
of strawberries will yield under high 
cultivation surprising crops. w. L. 
New York. 
“ Egyptian Wheat.” 
F. O., Vermont. —I have received a cir¬ 
cular of “Egyptian Wheat” with a picture 
of a man standing in what looks like a 
young forest. It is claimed that three 
crops in one year gave 100 bushels. Any¬ 
thing to it? 
Ans. —This is not a wheat at all, but 
a variety of sorghum introduced into 
the United States from India about 20 
years ago, tested in the Southern States 
qnd discarded. It has persisted, how¬ 
ever, in a few scattered localities in the 
Southwest, and within the last four or 
five years has been widely exploited 
under such misleading names as “Cali¬ 
fornia wheat,” “Egyptian wheat,” 
“Mexican wheat,” “Desert wheat corn,” 
etc. It has sold, under the latter name, 
as high as $1,500 a bushel. 
Experiments conducted by this bu¬ 
reau through a series of years with 
this crop in Texas and adjacent States 
show it to be of much less value for 
the dry-land areas than the standard 
grain sorghums, such as Millo and Kafir 
varieties, and such forage sorghums as 
Amber, Sumac, Orange, etc. No experi¬ 
ments have been conducted by this de¬ 
partment with this variety under irri¬ 
gation, but from a knowledge of the 
behavior of other varieties under irri¬ 
gation there is no reason to believe that 
it will make yields even approximating 
those claimed for it in the material you 
sent and others similar thereto. 
B. T. GALLOWAY. 
Dept, of Agriculture. 
* —r'x 
uv -\ -> , 
u -JS 
V 
$1.75 
Use an 
Acme Rotary 
Corn Planter 
and insure a good stand 
of corn. Save furrowing and 
Covering and stooping when 
you plant potatoes, by using an 
Acme Potato Planter. You just 
walk and swing the planter in 
either hand. It balances per¬ 
fectly and drops accurately 
at an even depth. 
ACME 
Corn and Potato 
PLANTERS 
Acme Corn Planters have a center-hung 
pressed-steel hopper with a full 
rotary disk at bottom, that is 
operated by a durable double-coil 
spring. A thumb-screw regulates 
the number of kernels to the hill. 
Acme Potato Planters save 
your back and drop potatoes m 
three times as fast as by hand. II 
Also save tramping and roll¬ 
ing of horse-drawn machinery. 
Cost little, last for years. 
300.000 Acme Planters in use: 
10,000 users added every year. 
Every one is satisfied. If your 
dealer can’t supply you—write 
for free book “The Acme of 
Potato Profit” and name of 
nearest dealer. Either 
planter sent prepaid di 
rect where there is no 
dealer. 
Potato Implement Co. 
301 Front Street 
Traverse City 
Mich. 
n * rvwfc n*nn 
[Acme} ^M1 
POTATO PLANTER 
V 
Better Than Money 
In the Bank 
is money put into good paint. 
Good paint will earn you a far bigger dividend on your in¬ 
vestment than the paltry 3% or 4% which banks allow. 
Good paint, from the day it’s put on, adds every penny it 
costs or more, to the valufe of your buildings. Oftentimes it 
increases property values 10 to 33£%. 
Well painted buildings are a delight to the eye and a pride to 
the owner. What better enjoyment can money bring? 
Good paint is not expensive. But it protects and preserves 
property that i* expensive and saves untold expense in indefin¬ 
itely postponing repair and rebuilding. 
Invest liberally in paint—but be sure you get good paint. 
Otherwise it will be a disappointment instead of an investment. 
You can bank on the goodness of 
They are assure to be good quality as U.S.dollars are sure to be 
worth 100cents. Good paint materials areas standard in value as gold. 
Our methods of selecting good materials and combining them intopaint are 
as standard as the methods of coining gold dollars, too. We never guess 
or take a chance. We select our materials according to chemical analysis. 
We take no one else's word that they are pure aud right, but prove them 
ourselves. 
Brains, Experience, Equipment 
Count Most in Paint Making 
Our experience dates back sixty- 
four years. Our men in charge have 
had twenty-five to forty years exper¬ 
ience with us. They are the best 
paid, most careful and loyal force of 
paint-makers anywhere. The equip¬ 
ment with which our huge plant is 
filled is the most modern, efficient 
and dependable in the country. 
64 Years* Experience Concentrated in Lucas Paint 
Our established standard is the 
finished perfection of 64 years’ of 
paint-making. Every batch of fin¬ 
ished paint is compared with stand¬ 
ard for color, working quality and 
strength and must match perfectly. 
FREE BOOK 
tells the important things to know when buying paint, varnish or enamel 
It is all this greater experience and 
brains, all this mistake-preventing 
inspection, that makes “Lucas” 
mean certain satisfaction on a can of 
paint, and that makes "Lucas” the 
kind of paint it will pay you to buy. 
“When and How 
to Paint** 
important tilings to Know wnen Duyia* intiui, »u,u»uui cumtre.. Will 
help you select the right paint for your housebuildings, etc.—tall you bow to 
refinish furniture—how to enamel an iron bed, sink or bath-tub— i»w to paint . 
screens, porches, pantry shelves—farm machinery—vehicles—ana aozens of 
other things. YooMl keep this book always as a reference book. Send the 
coupon today for a copy. Be sure to giro 
the name and address of your dealer. 
Office No.3893 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
I JOHN LUCAS & CO. Inc. 
* Office No. 3893 
| Philadelphia, Pa. 
Please send me your book “'When 
| and How to Paint." 
Name... 
Address- 
My nearest dealer is_ 
PLANTS EAT 
When you give them the food they like and can take up readily — fertilizers that 
are easily dissolved fey the rains — you get quick growth. When you add 
materials that retain their plant food values throughout the growing season you 
get large well developed crops. You get these re¬ 
mits with WILCOX FERTILIZERS — 
FERTILIZERS THAT FERTILIZE 
We manufacture our fertilizers with in¬ 
finite pains and a definite knowledge as to 
what each species of plant requires for 
quick growth and perfection at maturity. 
Send to-day for oar Booklet 
The Wilcox Fertilizer Co. Mystic, Conn. 
