52 
V 
House & Garden 
How Much Shall You Plant? 
{Continued from page 45) 
with Bordeaux mixture to prevent the 
blight, you should have the largest crop 
of cramps that any family of five ought 
to battle with. 
Who was it said “From the sublime 
to the ridiculous”?—or cucumbers to 
melons, for that matter. Anyway, mel¬ 
ons of quality do not belong anywhere 
near cucumbers; they don’t speak the 
same language. You cannot can them 
for winter, simply because you couldn’t 
grow enough for this purpose; but you 
can make provision now for about eight 
hills, and a little later we will tell you 
the secrets of growing good ones. 
Peppers and egg-plants are so pro¬ 
ductive that a few plants of each are 
all that is required. The exception to 
this might be where one is very fond of 
green pickles of various kinds, for which 
the peppers are used generously. How¬ 
ever, not more than twelve plants will 
yield all the peppers required for a fam¬ 
ily of five. 
Selecting Types for Canning or Table 
There are very few types of vege¬ 
tables compared to the many thousand 
varieties that the ambitious seedsmen 
list. The average seed catalog would 
make you believe that the salt in the 
ocean and the North Pole are both in¬ 
ventions of theirs. It tells you what a 
wonderful creation the kohl-rabi was, a 
cross between a cabbage and a turnip 
(who couldn’t guess that it originated 
in Germany?). 
Generally speaking, a goo.d table vege¬ 
table is also the proper type for can¬ 
ning, so the first consideration is to 
select types that are best suited for your 
purpose. The common error in the 
gathering of all kinds of, vegetables is 
that they are not used when young and 
tender, but are allowed to get some¬ 
what coarse and woody. The cause of 
this is usually sowing in too large quan¬ 
tities; the secret of good gardening, if 
there be any, is frequent sowing in 
usable quantities. 
Do you prefer a long beet or a round 
one; a long, intermediate or a stump- 
rooted carrot; a wrinkled or smooth 
pea; a bush or a pole lima; a yellow or 
green podded bush bean? These ad¬ 
jectives refer to the different types and 
not to varieties. Many varieties are the 
result of a clever fancy, but types are 
not. Study the new varieties carefully 
to make certain that they are of the 
types that you prefer; and when select¬ 
ing the varieties for your home garden 
keep that one motto, “quality,” before 
you all the time. 
Quantity Versus Quality 
The commercial grower must always 
have a full erop, or better, to succeed; 
the productive value of the various va¬ 
rieties is his chief concern. He must 
always judge the merits of a variety by 
its productiveness. Furthermore, the 
best varieties are poor shippers; or in 
other words, a fine quality vegetable 
deteriorates more rapidly than a poorer 
grade. The seedsman is compelled to 
list these sorts along with the real qual¬ 
ity varieties, so the task for the home 
gardener is to select these latter from 
among the rest. This is much easier 
than it would seem if you select varie¬ 
ties that are mentioned only for their 
quality. Don’t pay any attention to 
others that are said to be equally good 
and more productive; these varieties 
have merit for the farmer, but the best 
for you are the varieties that the seeds¬ 
man uses as a basis of comparison for 
others. Their quality is unsurpassed 
and their quantity sufficient. 
When a successful salesman enter¬ 
tains his guest, he picks up the menu, 
runs his finger down to the best and 
most expensive dish, and then says, 
“For two.” That is the spirit to apply 
to the home garden. One good dish of 
peas is worth ten ordinary ones; one 
quart of luscious strawberries is worth 
a whole patch of hard, inferior varie¬ 
ties. Start out with the intention of 
having a 100% quality garden, in selec¬ 
tion as well as planting and care. 
Ordering for Each Individual 
I firmly believe that the proper sys¬ 
tem of gardening is the budget system. 
Make a careful survey of your needs 
and then order to meet them. The 
value of this is that you have a pre¬ 
arranged plan that you will strive hard 
to live up to. Where the supplies are 
secured as occasion demands there are 
too many openings for delayed sowings 
or other neglected detail. You know the 
size of your garden, so you should know 
how many rows of various things you 
can sow and what quantity will be re¬ 
quired for a seeding. 
How to Handle Color in Decoration 
^.Continued jrom page 39) 
and cheerfulness, especially where there 
is little sunlight. Where there is abun¬ 
dant sunlight, the quieter shades of yel¬ 
low may be safely used. Quietness need 
never mean dullness. If one wishes to 
use quiet shades of yellow, there is no 
objection to quietness if the combina¬ 
tion has life, that is, enough of yellow 
or of orange in its composition to avoid 
dullness. . 
Red and its derivatives in which red 
strongly predominates make for strength, 
vigor, vitality and warmth. It and its 
near relatives are most useful in deco¬ 
ration, but, owing to its great activity 
and power, care must be exercised in 
the amount used or in the modifications 
adopted, else it will dominate every¬ 
thing else and upset the balance. 
Blue and its derivatives in which blue 
is the dominant element, such as blue 
greens or very blue violets make for 
coolness, stability, poise and elegance. 
Blue is a difficult color to use in quan¬ 
tity and with divers shades. It is a 
highly sensitive color and it is hard to 
get different shades to “go together”. 
With yellow this difficulty does not ex¬ 
ist, and even divers shades of red will 
agree better than a variety of blues 
which are apt to be quarrelsome unless 
tactfully handled. Heed to this warn¬ 
ing may save the reader much vexation. 
Blue also is cold and demands relief. 
The properties and uses of the sec¬ 
ondary colors may readily be gauged by 
considering the nature and properties of 
their components. So also may we 
gauge the tertiary and quarternary col¬ 
ors. It is necessary, however, to add 
this practical caution regarding green— 
while a thoroughly wholesome and rest¬ 
ful color, it universally needs relief. An 
all green room would be well nigh un¬ 
endurable ; its sedative effect would 
grow benumbing. 
If it be vitally necessary to have the 
right color in the right place, it is no 
less vitally necessary to successful fur¬ 
nishing, as the reader has probably sur¬ 
mised by this time, to have the right 
amount of the right color in the right 
place. That is to say, there must be 
{Continued on page 54) 
