The RURAL NEW-YORKEF 
539 
has been cut. and one can then stand on 
the floor. Cold water may be used in¬ 
stead of warm, but the warm water causes 
the vapor to rise more readily. I have 
seen swarms of flies like bees in the 
maple woods during the day, and as soon 
as night came they swarm into the house 
at every crack and crevice. Dozens of 
them follow persons into the house while 
passing through a door. As dead flies are 
harmless flies, we took pains to see that 
those which entered the house did not go 
out again. I think there will be less next 
year, as the thousands which were caught 
could not lay eggs to hatch in the Spring. 
JESSIE. 
Planning the Flower Garden 
Happily the joy of producing a flower 
garden does not depend on the size of it, 
nor the amount of money expended on it, 
and wonderful achievements can be 
gained though the planter has but little 
leisure time to work it out, and often un¬ 
promising conditions in the way of soil 
and situation. The beginner usually 
starts with annuals, and those easiest to 
grow are the most desirable. A strip of 
ground three or four feet wide along the 
southern exposed side of a building, wall 
or fence, makes an ideal spot for a small 
flower garden. 
Here you may have both single and 
double hollyhocks, sweet peas, asters, 
marigolds, Zinnias, Petunias, Phlox, pop¬ 
pies, cornflowers, nasturtiums, Alyssum, 
mignonette and candytuft, and, if there 
is space enough, plant plenty of them; 
have enough to make the effort worth 
while, and let them grow free and easy. 
Place the taller ones, like the hollyhocks, 
next the wall, or for a background; then 
graduate with others less tall on down to 
the low-growing ones in the border. 
The successful flower garden begins 
when the soil is properly prepared, and 
if your spot is hard and compacted you 
will have to spade it industriously and 
thoroughly, then turn the soil over and 
break it up finely, and enrich it with some 
good fertilizing material. Barnyard ma¬ 
nure is best; muck and leaf-mold are 
often used in ameliorating either a very 
bard or loose ground; work whichever 
is used in well with the soil until the 
whole becomes fine and uniform in tex¬ 
ture. Owing to the difference in soil 
there can be no hard and fast rules as to 
how much fertilizer should be used. How¬ 
ever. one must be careful not to use too 
much. lest the plants run to vines and 
leaves and not blossom well, as is often 
the case with sweet peas, nasturtiums and 
scarlet sage. Two parts of ordinary gar¬ 
den loam mixed well with one part of 
barnyard manure, which should be at 
least one year old, and to one bushel of 
the composite one quart of bonemeai and 
a very little air-slaked lime will make a 
soil fit for the well-being of most garden 
plants. 
The middle of April is usually the time 
fo make a flower garden, although in 
some localities it is better to wait until 
the very last end of the month. Plant 
your sweet peas in trenches running 
north and south, if possible, for there 
should be plenty of sunshine on all sides. 
Have these five or six inches deep and 
about three inches broad. Enrich the 
soil, and sow the seeds rather thickly, 
cover with an inch of soil and firm this 
down well with the back of the trowel. 
When the seedlings appear thin out until 
they stand two or three inches apart, and 
when these are 10 to 12 inches high fill 
the trenches, but not before. Brush or 
wire then at the time of sowing, and keep 
the trenches well moistened. If you think 
the soil is not sufficiently enriched give 
the plants an application of liquid ma¬ 
nure twice a week and during dry weather 
water them every other evening. 
Do not plant your sweet peas year 
after year on the same spot. If this 
cannot be avoided, remove the soil to the 
depth of three feet and replace with 
fresh; do this every two or three years 
and you will always have a satisfactory 
crop each season. 
Nasturtiums are easily grown, either 
the climbing or dwarf varieties, because 
they thrive well in almost any soil; in 
fact, the lighter the soil the better they 
seem to blossom. Sow the seeds in the 
open ground as soon as it is ready. The 
dwarf varieties will bloom in two months 
after sowing, and if not permitted to go to 
seed will continue to blossom until frost 
comes. 
To my mind there are few flowers more 
exquisitely beautiful than the poppies, 
and they can be grown in any garden, 
requiring very little care, and their varie¬ 
ties are numerous. Sow in great num¬ 
bers if you have room for them. One can 
never have too many. Among the an¬ 
nuals are the lovely Shirley poppies, the 
most beautiful of all garden flowers, and 
the Californians, which furnish gorgeous 
tints of yellow 7 no other variety can give. 
Then there are the European varieties— 
scarlet vdth black centers, and the single 
and double ones, growing on tall .slender 
stalks, white, pink and scarlet, with 
daintily fringed petals. For your poppy 
bed work the soil very, very fine, and sow 
the seeds sparingly, then rake in lightly 
and firm the soil slightly. Always sow 
these tiny seeds near the surface, for if 
planted too deeply they will not germinate 
well. 
Plant your Cosmos, asters and Salvia 
as early as possible in a warm, sheltered 
spot, and keen the soil moist on top by 
covering with a layer of damnened cotton 
batting until the seedlings appear, and as 
soon as the plants are large enough to 
handle transplant or thin out. allowing 
six inches between each plant. Shade 
them for a few days from the direct rays 
of the sun, or until they are well started. 
Vines have always had their mission, 
and there is scarcely a garden in which 
they cannot be used to good advantage 
in covering unsightly places. Many an 
ugly wall has made an ideal trellis for 
some beautiful clinging vine, the pushing 
little tendrils penetrating cracks and crev- 
ics until what once was an eyesore be¬ 
comes a thing of beauty. Among the 
annuals are the morning glories, common 
and Japanese, the Japanese gourd, the 
Japanese moonflower. the flowering bean, 
scarlet runner and the butterfly bean. 
For a rapid growth among the com¬ 
moner hardy vines is the Virginia 
creeper; thia not only grows very rapidly, 
but it lends itself to training more read¬ 
ily than any other vine. The kudzu vine 
is splendid for covering porches, Summer 
houses and pergolas. It is a herbaceous 
vine dying down to the ground in the Fall, 
its large, deep green leaves not affected 
by disease or insects, growing along the 
stems and branches, make a perfect thatch 
of green from June until frost comes. 
The trumpet vine grows very quickly, 
too, when once started, and its gay or¬ 
ange and scarlet blossoms make a brilliant 
showing during the late Summer and 
early Fall months. Then there is the 
Clematis of various varieties, the honey¬ 
suckle, sweet-scented and vigorous; both 
the white and purple Wistaria, which 
will grow up to the eaves if twined over 
a heavy wire frame, and the over-popular 
Ramblers, red. pink and white. 
ROSAMOND I.AMPMAN. 
Notes from Texas 
I have been reading of the terribD bliz¬ 
zard that has caused so much suffering 
in New York and other Eastern States. 
"We only felt the edge of the storm, just 
a cold north wind and very little snow; 
some rain fell also. The thermometer 
only went down to 24 degrees above. To¬ 
day (February 24) is like Summer. I 
saw several blooms on the peach trees, 
and soon the leaves will all be out and 
the pasture turn green. Nearly everyone 
has planted their gardens excepting irish 
potatoes, and those will be planted within 
a week. We have made our hotbed for 
sweet potatoes and tomato seeds, and will 
bed out the potatoes in another day. Wo 
are planting the Porto Ricans this year. 
They are a deep yellow, and very sweet. 
The farmers are hopeful for good crops. 
They certainly have had much to discour¬ 
age them. The cotton was almost a com¬ 
plete failure owing to the boll weevil. 
Then the price kept going down, and most 
of it was sold at a loss. Last year it sold 
around 40c per lb. It has been down this 
year to 5c. The farmers are cutting 
down their cotton acreage this year, 
planting grain and feedstuff instead. We 
are all hoping that conditions will get 
back to normal in another year, and that 
we can get prices for our crops, etc., that 
will enable us to live without a burden 
of debt. 
I believe a farmer is much more inde¬ 
pendent than town folks. We have our 
own butter, eggs, milk, vegetables and 
meat, and have our corn ground into 
meal, also plenty of fresh air; always a 
view of the distant hills and plains,' the 
song of birds all day in the trees, and a 
heart full of hope that the seeds we plant 
will not fail us. airs. Ar. lr. ai. 
Feather Mattresses 
I saw a recent request for information 
about feather mattresses. We had sev¬ 
eral good feather beds, which we had not 
used for years. Last Summer we were 
in need of some new mattresses, and hav¬ 
ing several friends who owned feather 
mattresses, and were loud in their praise 
of them, we hunted up a firm that makes 
them. This firm renovates the feathers 
and uses new ticking if needed, and we 
were very well satisfied with the resulting 
mattresses. The ticking is stitched across 
every nine inches, making a series of pads, 
rounded on one side and left flat on the 
other, so that side resembles the original 
feather bed, only the feathers cannot all 
accumulate in one spot. The mattress 
can be used either side up. just a« one 
chooses. From our four feather beds we 
had two large mattresses and one light “ 
one. which can be used as a pad on top 
of another mattress, and the three cost 
us just about the price of one new silk 
floss mattress. I think nearly every large 
town or city has a firm that makes them 
nowadays. airs. w. i\ f. 
Don’t buy a Pid in a poke 
Runts aren’t profitable, whether they’re 
pigs or furnaces. They take a lot more 
care than healthy ones—and in the end 
the dollars are a minus quantity.*^ 
Good furnaces cost more than poor ones 
—they have to. It costs more to make a 
Sterling Furnace than a poor one—both 
because of special features like the side- 
pipe construction and also because good 
workmanship is not cheap, and good 
workmanship is built into every 
M P Sterling Furnace 
The One Register Furnace 
1 AC UIWIC l 11(111 
Lino U11ICICULC III 
fuel saving and longer life. Look under the 
case of your furnace when purchasing. You 
wouldn’t buy a “pig in a poke.” 
Well gladly tell you all its ad- 
vantages if you'll simply mail 
us a postal saying “Why. 7 ” 
SILL STOVE WORKS 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
f Water Lilies Are ^ 
Always Interesting 
Many farmers find it worth while to grow 
Water Liliesin their farm ponds—their 
broad leaves and pretty blooms always 
attract favorable comment. You can 
grow them in a half-barrel if you like, 
for all they need is sunlight and air. 
Send today for our li)21 catalog, you’ll 
find it full of useful information. 
Independence Nurseries 
Box R, Independence, Ohio 
TELL TOMORROW’S 
White’s Weather Prophet fore* ¥*7 - % 
casts the weather 8 to 24 hours yV 0211001* 
advance. Not a toy but , 
scientifically construc¬ 
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An Ideal Present 
Made doubly interesting by the little figures of 
Hansel and Gretcl and the Witch, who come in 
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Agents Wanted. 
DAVID WHITE, Depl 114,419 E. Water Si., Milwaukee, Wis. 
$125 
: Great Opportuniies in fV 
Canadas Maritime Provinces^ 
—the historic scene of early settlement in what are now the 
Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward 
Island—may today be the land of opportunity for which you have 
been looking. Lying out into the Atlantic, close to the biggest 
markets in America, nearer to Europe than any port in the U.S.they 
Offer Special Advantages to the Farmer 
fruit raiser, dairyman and market gardener. Land of great natural fertility, 
in many cases with substantial improvements, may be bought at very reason¬ 
able prices from farmers who are retiring to enjoy the reward of their fore¬ 
sight and industry. The apple, potato, and fodder crops of these Provinces 
are world famous, and modest capital will here start you on the highway to 
success. Industrial cities and towns afford a ready market for produce of 
the farm, and near at hand are ocean ports awaiting your shipments to the 
great centers of the world. If your present conditions do not assure you 
^ of the success you desire, investigate what these Provinces can do for you. 
kvA For illustrated literature, maps, etc., write Department of Immigration. 
%\ Ottawa. Canada, or 
\ 
V\ O. G. RUTLEDGE, 301 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, H. Y 0 
Canadian Government Agent. 
