1014. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
1013 
The Home Acre. 
NOTES FROM A MARYLAND GARDEN. 
I OFTEN wonder whether our Northern 
friends have the bother with crab 
grass (Panicum sanguinale) that we have 
here and southward. It never gets too 
dry for the crab grass, but of course it 
flourishes more with favorable weather. 
You may hoe it out, but if you do not 
rake it out it catches hold of the soil 
again and is smiling and happy in a few 
days, and clean it all out well, and in a 
day or so you will find a young crop 
starting and if now cultivated down at 
once will soon be as strong as ever. 
Where tomatoes are let tumble on the 
ground, and cultivation has to stop, the 
crab grass soon gets higher than the to¬ 
matoes, so that it is absolutely necessary 
in the gardens to train the tomatoes up 
so that the grass can be kept down. 
Earliana tomatoes have been plenti¬ 
ful since late June, but the John Baer, 
now the last week in July, is just be¬ 
ginning to ripen a few. It seems to be 
identical with Chalk’s Jewell, except that 
it is lifter. And yet we were told that it 
would make ripe fruit in 30 days after 
setting good plants. Mine were strong 
plants, started in the greenhouse and 
spotted out in frames and were set in 
the open ground the last of April, and did 
not show a ripe tomato till the 16th of 
July. I paid a dollar for a packet of 
the seed, and have that now charged to 
experience. The Brimmer, a big tomato 
of the Ponderosa type, has been giving 
some very fine fruit, and is much smooth¬ 
er than Ponderosa. My late tomatoes to 
come in just ahead of frost have now been 
set. These are mainly Globe, and I find 
the Globe excellent outside, while it is 
now largely grown under glass too. 
My plot of 2,000 Gladioli is now in 
full glory. Niagara is not white as 
claimed, but a very pale canary color, and 
as I have it beside the Blue Jay the con¬ 
trast is very pretty. I get a few of the 
best Groff mixtures every season, and am 
sure to find some fine ones in the lot, 
which I propagate to themselves. One 
crimson with a white blot on the lower 
petals bloomed this year flowers as large 
as Princeps. Then there was an exact 
counterpart of America, but with a tall¬ 
er and longer spike, and not so closely 
packed flowers as those of America. 
Sulphur King is a good yellow, but very 
slow to increase. Eucharis is the best 
nearly white of any I have. Heliotrope 
is a better purple than Blue Jay, in fact 
almost a navy blue, and about as near 
blue as will probably ever be found in 
the Gladiolus. For cutting there is noth¬ 
ing better than the compactly arranged 
flowers of America. 
One plant in my shrubbery border that 
attracts most attention now is the Big- 
nonia grandiflora, the Chinese trumpet 
flower. Trained up by the side of the 
porch it is now covered with its great 
heads of big orange-colored flowers. This 
plant is grafted on our native B. radi- 
cans, and I have to keep the sprouts cut 
out, but it seeds freely, and I have this 
Spring raised over 100 seedling plants 
from last year’s seed, and as it is a pure 
species there is no doubt that the plants 
will be true to type. 
A row of Meehan’s Marvel mallows, 
planted to hide an ugly board fence, is 
now as tall as the fence and flaunting its 
great blooms of crimson, pink and white, 
each flower almost as large as a dinner 
plate. Like the morning-glories, they 
close up in the evening. They make a 
fine background to a bed of perennial 
Phlox of various colors, of which I have 
250 plants in 11 varieties growing in 
nursery rows, and now T making a mass 
of bloom. 
The Cardinal climber, a cross between 
the cypress vine and the scarlet morning- 
glory, is now covering a wire fence 50 
feet long with its pretty cut leaves, and 
brilliant scarlet flowers. These too close 
in the afternoon, but the plant is a ram¬ 
pant grower and the foliage is handsome. 
Unlike the morning-glory and the qua- 
moclit, its parents, it makes very few 
seeds, and one has to watch very closely 
to get any. Last year this same fence 
was covered with moonflowers which 
made a wonderful display, and to my sur¬ 
prise I find this season many volunteer 
inoouflower plants from seed dropped and 
left all Winter. This suggests the idea 
that it may be best to plant the hard seed 
of the moonflower in the late Fall, and I 
will try it. w. F. MASSEY. 
Maryland. 
ASPARAGUS FOR HOME USE. 
W ILL you tell me about setting out 
and caring for an asparagus bed 
in the family garden? Would a 
mulch grown in the Fall on the bed be 
good for a cover, and what would you 
I’eeommend? B. M. 
Washington, It. I. 
Planting. —Asparagus being a hardy 
perennial, of long life, lasting under fav¬ 
orable conditions 20 years or more, it 
pays to give special attention to the pre¬ 
paration of the soil where it is to remain 
permanently. The bed should receive an 
application of two or three inches of well- 
rotted manure and be either spaded or 
plowed in as deeply as possible, mixing 
the manure with the soil as thoroughly 
as it can be done, and in addition a lib¬ 
eral quantity of raw bone meal may be 
used in the furrow at time of planting 
with considerable advantage. On account 
of the soft spongy nature of the roots 
and their tendency to decay when bruised 
or broken in the Fall, it is not considered 
good practice by most of the successful 
growers to plant asparagus at that time, 
as almost invariably much of the plant¬ 
ing is lost through root decay in the Win¬ 
ter following, whereas the Spring-set 
plants seldom if ever are lost from this 
cause. The planting may be successfully 
done any time in Spring from the time 
the ground is in condition to work up 
to the time growth starts, but the sooner 
it is planted after the ground is in good 
condition for working the better the re¬ 
sults. When planted in a small way for 
private use, and particularly when it is 
necessary to economize on ground space, 
plant in beds or strips, say six feet 
wide in which three rows are to be 
planted, a row on each side about 12 
inches from the edge and one in the mid¬ 
dle of the bed, setting the plants 12 to 
14 inches apart in the row. When the 
plants are set care should be taken to 
spread the roots out so that the soil may 
be easily worked in among them, covering 
the crowns about three inches deep. By 
going over the bed every few days with a 
steel rake, we destroy germinating weeds 
and keep the beds clean until the sprouts 
appear above ground, when hoe cultivation 
will be necessary. If two beds or more are 
made running parallel to each other, 
walks 24 to 30 inches wide should be 
left between them. This method of cul¬ 
ture is of course only suitable for the 
production of green asparagus. When 
white sprouts are desired the plants 
should be set in rows three feet apart 
and 12 to 14 inches apart in the row. 
This distance between the rows will be 
sufficient to admit of ridging. Good clean 
cultivation is necessary during the grow¬ 
ing season and should in no wise be ne¬ 
glected if good grass is to be grown. 
Fertilizing. —This is quite important, 
and for the best results must be applied 
twice each season, early in the Spring 
and at the close of the cutting season, 
and may be varied with great benefit to 
the plants. I find that a good coat of 
fine well-rotted manure applied in early 
Spring and worked into the soil with a 
spading fork (care being taken not to 
injure the crowns of the plants), and 
a coat of raw bone meal applied at the 
rate of half a ton to the acre and worked 
into the soil at the close of the cutting 
season, will give most excellent results. 
This method of manuring supplies the 
plants with all the manurial constituents 
they need for vigor and the production of 
first-class sprouts. 
Winter Protection. —While the as¬ 
paragus is perfectly hardy in nearly all 
sections, yet where the ground freezes 
deeply, it will be quite a benefit to the 
plants if thy recive a mulching of forest 
leaves or strawy manure at the begin¬ 
ning of Winter, the plants will go through 
the Winter in bettor condition and start 
earlier and with greater vigor in the 
Spring than if they have no protection. 
This mulching should be removed early 
so that the Spring fertilizing may be done 
before growth starts. K. 
White Ants in Flower Beds. 
C AN you tell me how to destroy white 
ants that infest my flower beds? 
Last year they destroyed my geran¬ 
iums. This year the geraniums were un¬ 
molested but they attack the pansies near¬ 
by. The ants work up through the center 
of the stalk, sometimes cutting them off 
like a cutworm; they come about the first 
week in June and are gone by the mid¬ 
dle of July. m. V. c. 
Seymour, Conn. 
The species of white ants that occur 
in this country are blind and live within 
decaying logs, stumps, and roots and oc¬ 
casionally in the woody stems of living 
plants, like geraniums and nursery trees. 
In every case in which the author has 
observed these insects injuring living 
plants he has found them abundant in 
the near vicinity in decaying wood of 
some kind. Moreover, when the decay¬ 
ing wood that seiwed as the home of the 
ants was removed, they quit injuring the 
living plants. I venture the opinion with 
a good deal of confidence that M. V. C. 
will find some decaying log, stump, roots, 
rails, ‘or other pieces of wood near or in 
the garden in which the white ants have 
found a home and from which they have 
migrated and have become troublesome to 
the geraniums. If these pieces of wood 
are removed the trouble will soon cease. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Machine for Barn Thrashing. 
W HICH will give the best satisfaction 
for barn thrashing, a separator 
with wind stacker and self-feeder, 
or one fed by hand, with raddle carrier? 
Jamestown, N. Y. N. B. 
I would advise that you use a self- 
feeder and wind stacker. The wind stack¬ 
er will place straw almost anywhere with¬ 
in the building with little assistance from 
a pitchfork. The air separates straw, 
dirt and grain, so that the operator 
knows just how well the riddles are 
working by the amount of grain thrown 
out of the stacker. In the old belt stack¬ 
ers the grain was so mixed with straw 
that its presence could not be detected; 
but the heavy growth of young plants 
around the base of the pile bore eloquent 
testimony to its presence. L. E. iiazen. 
Reground Fertilizers. —On page 852 
D. A. R., Florence, Mass., complains of 
lumps in nitrate of soda and potash. In 
placing his order he should order the 
goods reground, which I always do, and 
have no trouble along this line. 
Cheshire Co., N. H. t. j. f. 
Irritable Old Man : “Say, does this 
car always make this racket?” Chauf¬ 
feur: “No, sir; only when it’s running.” 
“From the way you are staring at me. 
madame. I conclude I look like some one 
you know.” “So you do. You remind 
me so much of my dear old English bull 
terrier.”—Baltimore American. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
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A splendid, glossy, black 
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Booklet on request. 
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Philadelphia Boston 
St. Louis Cleveland 
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Kansas City Minneapolis 
Seattle Birmingham 
Everyet 
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Hardwood Ashes 
BEST fertilizer in use. 
GEO. L. MUNROE S SDNS, Oiwtgo, N. T. 
ROCK PHOSPHATE 
PRODUCED 
25 bu. Wheat at a cost of $2.40 
9 T. Silage “ “ “ “ 3.20 
2^T. Clover “ “ “ “ 3.20 
In each case more than three-fourths of 
the Phosphorus remained in the soil and 
gave increased yields in the future crops. 
DAYBREAK ROCK PHOSPHATE 
260 pounds Phosphorus per ton 
Ground 95% through 10,000mesh screen. 
Will pay you big profits, and build up 
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BOOKS WORTH BUYING 
The Rose, Parsons. 1.00 
Plant Diseases, Massee. 1.60 
Landscape Gardening, Maynard.... 1.50 
Clovers, Shaw. 1.00 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
333 WEST 30th ST., NEW YORK. 
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In’t y< 
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now 
Good - bye, 
Mr. Fertilizer Agent 
I’m going to mix my own fertilizer, 
and save $ 1 0 per ton. Got better 
crops, at less cost, last year with 
Home Mixing 
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106 Pearl Street, New York City 
Send me, without obligation. Free 
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