TL'HttC KUKAL NLCW-VOKKEK 
625 
RURALISMS 
ORNAMENTAL PLANTS IN THE SHADE. 
(’ONi)moxs Involved.— A simple list 
<>f plants which will thrive in the shade 
will not greatly help one who is ignorant 
of their ornamental value, and their wide¬ 
ly differing special needs as to soil and 
treatment. Besides this, there are a few 
plants which . :o head and shoulders 
above till tin' rest in ornamental value, 
and it would he unprofitable to experi¬ 
ment with tin 1 rest. Again, there are pre¬ 
liminary preparations to bo taken into 
account. Bushes, herbs and bedding 
plants do not greatly differ in their wants 
from wheat and corn or fruit-producing 
trees and bushes. Rich, mellow soil with 
sufficient moisture available at all seasons 
is absolutely necessary for the best growth 
of anything. The opposite of u.Io con¬ 
dition is often the case around all sides 
of dwellings. Yellow earth from the cel¬ 
lar excavations supplemented with simi¬ 
lar earth from a roadside bank and fer¬ 
tilized with a very scanty application of 
strawy manure makes the filling around 
most country home foundations, and in 
town anything which will fill is used. 
Preparing Soil. —Now where the 
shade is that of a building, and the filling 
is mostly of earth, the digging in of suf¬ 
ficient good manure to renovate the soil 
to the depth of a foot is all that is ne¬ 
cessary. and it is best for the shrubbery 
planted that the making of fertility bo 
done some weeks before. Where the 
shade of a large overhanging tree is to 
be dealt with there is only one way to 
do, and that is to excavate to the depth 
of 18 inches or more, severing and remov¬ 
ing roots as well as earth, and replacing 
with soil from a fertile field—the more 
sodd.v the better. The area to prepare 
will depend upon the size of the plot ro 
be planted. Such a bed requires a large 
amount of water, and in a year or two 
the tree will invade it with new feeding 
roots, and suck JMtfh fertility and moist¬ 
ure. and such invasion must be met by dig¬ 
ging deeply at the edge every Spring and 
severing the robber roots. In planning the 
planting under overhanging trees it is 
well to bear in mind that most of the 
feeding rootlets of a tree are at the outer 
edge of tin' drip and beyond," and a bed 
near the stem of a large tree suffers less 
from robbery of moisture and plant food 
than one under the drip from the edge of 
the tree. 
Improving Conditions. —If people 
would only stop and do a little hard 
thinking they might reason out that with 
renewed soil and close attention to the 
watering a flower bed could be maintained 
dose to any large tree, and upon follow¬ 
ing up their “think” find that the experi¬ 
ment was a success. Near the highway 
entrance to my grounds a German Iris 
plant has grown for 10 years between the 
buttressed roots of a maple 50 years old, 
and in any neglected and unpastured 
ground many examples of plants so sit¬ 
uated may he set'll. Asparagus, poison 
ivy, and white ash seem especially prone 
to growing as close to trees as is possi¬ 
ble. In a suburb of Akron some 25 years 
ago a woman had a stone wall built 
around a huge cottonwood and filled in 
for a flower bed, and it was successful as 
long as she lived to care for it. and now 
in a neglected condition various weeds 
maintain themselves. 
Selecting Plants. —In choosing sub¬ 
jects to plant in the shade it may be ob¬ 
served that nearly all bushes and small 
trees are underlings .and given an even 
start with the young trees of larger growth 
at planting will hold their own for many 
years in the competition for food and sun¬ 
light. The conditions which favor, are 
those of the forest, the leaf covered sur¬ 
face of the soil never being so hot or so 
cold or so dry as open land. When we 
conn' to sort out the plants which thrive 
the best in the shade we find that those 
which make growth and flower early while 
the earth still maintains its Winter cool¬ 
ness are in this class. For example, the 
person who lias only the north side of a 
house for his flower bed will be about as 
successful with his tulips and hyacinths 
as his neighbor across the road who has 
all the sunlight possible. However, he 
"ill be a week or more later. Most of 
the flowering shrubs of the catalogue 
make their principal growth and bloom in 
the Spring months, and will grow in the 
shade of buildings. Many, however, are 
not handsome when not in bloom, and 
the tall ones will grow spindling and 
reach way out from the building in hun¬ 
ger for sunlight and warm air. 
Planting For Flowers. —This mat¬ 
ter of the general handsome appearance 
of flowering plants cannot receive too 
careful consideration when planting near 
the house or along paths in everyday use. 
Most rose bushes and that much-planted 
shrub, the Van TIoutte Spirsea, and the 
old-fashioned snowball arc examples of 
plants which give brilliance for two weeks 
and sink to mediocrity or below, during 
the other 50 weeks of tin' year. On the 
other hand, (he Spring bulbs give us just 
as long a period of blight loveliness and 
then efface themselves and make room for 
Summer flowers. We have several na¬ 
tive plants which are unexcelled for plant¬ 
ing in the shade or where under constant 
observation. One is the Trillium or 
birthroot of the woods. Once planted in 
soil well enriched with leaf mold it en¬ 
dures for years. The wild Hydrangea 
(arborescens) introduced into the cata¬ 
logues a few years since, is excelled by 
no other shrub that T know of. The 
Missouri currant, with its wealth of fra¬ 
grant yellow bloom, formerly found in 
every country dooryard. is desirable, as is 
the Oalyeanthus. Unfortunately the 
nurserymen have got in the habit of sub¬ 
stituting a non-fragrant sort for the true 
sweet-scented shrub, and it is well in or¬ 
dering to insist on having the genuine. 
However, both varieties are pleasing in 
habit and all-Summer appearance. The 
Thunberg Spiraea is one of the very best 
of foreign shrubs. It is one of the earl¬ 
iest things to bloom, has delicate foliage 
which in Autumn turns to a pretty yel¬ 
lowish brown, and is one of the last to 
shed its foliage. In sandstone soils the 
very best thing to plant in the shade of 
the building is tin 1 Rhododendron. It is 
evergreen, handsome the year around 
and when congenially situated flowers an¬ 
nually and abundantly about June first. 
It is useless to plant in limestone soils, 
and in heavy clay. The Chinese Azalea 
(mollis) and the Belgian or Ghent Azal¬ 
eas are good mates to the Rhododendron, 
blooming a few days later as a rule and 
floriferous and brilliant beyond descrip¬ 
tion. 
Bedding Plants. —Of cultivated flow¬ 
ers none is so much at home in the shade 
as the Begonia. At Cornell four immense 
buildings front upon a large campus of 
about 10 acres. Along each front flower 
beds six feet wide are maintained, and 
the one along the building facing north is 
mostly planted to Begonias. It makes a 
Summer show which is simply marvelous. 
Finally the plants which do not thrive 
in the shade are most all so-called bed¬ 
ding plants. The soil cannot be too hot 
or the sun too bright for geraniums, 
Coleuses, Alternantlieras, etc. The same 
is true of the variegated and yellow fol¬ 
iage shrubs. I tried a golden-leafed elder 
at tin' northeast corner of the service 
room to the greenhouse, and although a 
part of it was in the sun early in the 
day it would not yellow up worth a cent. 
Moved to a sunny, open location, it did 
its very best. This reminds me that I 
have omitted one of the very best native 
shrubs for shade, and that is the red- 
fruited elder. It is the earliest of all 
native shrubs to bloom, and if not in a 
protected situation will sometimes suffer 
from late frosts. It. is very showy and 
not given to spreading. I think it is not 
hardy enough to plant north of .‘>9 deg. in 
the Eastern and Central States. 
Pansies, all the violets, the Vincas, and 
lily of the valley grow nicely in the shade, 
but the most wonderful of all is the 
Sweet William (Diauthus barbatus). 
Once established in tin* shade it contin¬ 
ues for years hut the improved double 
varieties do better to be renewed occa¬ 
sionally. Finally, allow me to say that 
ornamental planting is not always im¬ 
proved by doing it in large and expensive 
masses. As in dressing, and furnishing 
a room, there are many things to be con¬ 
sidered, and one cannot plant for a life¬ 
time'. One does not like to live with the 
same wallpaper for a lifetime and the 
same is true of flower beds and shrub¬ 
bery. Life is too short to do much med¬ 
dling with the shade tres, but it is long 
enough so if we do not fancy a flower bed 
or bush we can change and experiment 
many times, and gain an education at the 
same time. l. b. pierce. 
Ohio. 
WAGONS BUGGIES HARNESS 
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS 
OF FAITHFUL. SERVICE 
In the fall of 1878 we needed a 
wagon to haul our wheat. Mr. Smith 
arose early o.ie morning, and riding 
one horse, led the other to Eugene, 
ten miles away, and bought a Stude- 
baker wagon from A. V. Peters, the 
Studebaker agent there. 
I well remember his getting home 
at midnight, for I sat up and kept his y t 1 .. • n N 
supper warm for him. HeF DdLuV IS FLOW j5 
My eldest child, born in June, was _ - _ 
three months °id years old—born year 
The old Studebaker is still our _ _ * 
d1uon. to wagon “ u in 8 ° od con Studebaker was bought 
M „. w. T s™.K. o ^ JWTRS. SMITH of Natron, Oregon, 
tmiwiiniiialiiniimimimiimiiuiiiuiiimiiimiiuimiiiuiu . . r^neniljer. ihe ^ er ^ s “ 
band drove home the btudebaker, tor 
her little one was three months old. 
And during all the years he was passing through babyhood, boyhood 
and on to full-grown man’s estate, that faithful wagon was at work 
making money for the family and cutting down the cost of the in vestment. 
Built with a reputation for durability 
Such durability would not seem sur¬ 
prising to you if you knew the methods, 
the material and the men on which the 
reputation of Studebaker wagons is based. 
Studebaker wagons owe their long life 
to the manner in which they are built, and 
the materials built into them. Air dried, 
selected lumbet alone is used. Steel and 
iron are tested for ability to stand strain 
and stress. Even the paint and varnish 
used on a Studebaker wagon undergoes 
a chemical analysis. 
And there is a great deal more in man¬ 
ufacturing wagons than the mere fact of 
putting wheels, gear and body together. 
A wagon must hang right and ride right. 
It must be built to stand rough work, to 
carry all sorts of loads and to travel over 
311 kinds of roads. 
Studebaker has been building farm 
wagons for sixty-three years, and they 
know how. Skilled workmen, a model 
plant that covers over 100 acres, and ex¬ 
traordinary purchasing facilities all help to 
make the Studebaker Wagon the best. 
Studebaker also manufactures Buggies 
and Harness of the same high standard 
of excellence. 
STUDEBAKER, South Bend, Ind. 
N AO _- te CHICAGO DALLAS KANSAS CITY DENVER 
Mu ..cAPOLIS SALT LAKE CITY SAN FRANCISCO PORTLAND. ORE. 
Adv. 203> 
Studebakers last a lifetime 
lant 7 to 10= 
m daily. One horse 
XAk enough. Acts auto- 
matieany, regu¬ 
larly d roppf ng seed 
and fertilizer at just the distance you s«*t it. 
Important! None of the working parts 
move while drive wheel revolves except at 
the tiino of planting. It's accurate and pos¬ 
itive every time. Rightly is this great 
machine named 
“KING OF THE 
CORNFIELD ” 
CORN PLANTER 
And Fertilizer Sower 
Will stand the rough, continuous service which such 
tools got. Nothing Complicated. Simple, strong, reliable. 
Onr sixty-two years are behind it.; 
Dealers sell it. If none near you. write us. Catalog 
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Agri¬ 
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Box No. 76, 
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Cushman Light Weight Engines 
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Most useful farm en¬ 
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CUSHMAN MOTOR WORK 
847 North 21*t Sir.. 
Lincoln, N.bra.t 
| Throttle Governed-Steady Quiet 
GROUND-^ 
g IHHgr STONE 
INCREASE 
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oldest and the largest quarries 
in Central New York. All moist¬ 
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—A BIG SAVING TO YOU. 
Rock-Cut Limestone 
is extra high grade and ground 
just right to sow finely through 
a. grain dr’ 1 ) or lime sower—and 
not “bridge over.” $1.50 bulk — 
bag, $2.50. Write for freight 
rates. 
ROCK-CUT STONE CO. 
531-541 Union Bldg., Syracuse, N-Y. 
'— _ / 
Rock Phosphate 
Paid 
$5.85 increaeed crops from $1.05 
invested. 12 years test at Penn. Ag. 
College. 
8.4 bu. corn, 4.7 bu. wheat. .49 ton hay from 
81.16 worth of phosphate Ohio Mxp. Station. 
$22.11 wortli of corn, wheat and hay from $1.86 
worth of phosphate at Md. Exp. Station. 
$8.00 worth of crops for each dollar invested 
in 56 tests at Ill. Exp. Stations. 
Those reports are the experience of some of 
our best farmers and are given in our booklet 
“ Profitable Production.” Send for this booklet 
to-day and get our prices on Rock Phosphate. 
FEDERAL CHEMICAL CO. 
Ground Rock Dept. 
30 W. Main St. COLUMBIA. TENN. 
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