84 
House & Garden 
DoesWork 
o/FiveHand 
Mowers 
Ideal Power Lawn Mowers 
are great labor savers. Any 
man with an Ideal can easily 
cut as much grass as five hard-working men 
could with hand mowers. Moreover, as the 
Ideal is designed with the roller as an in¬ 
tegral part of the machine, the grass is 
rolled every time it is cut —this keeps the 
turf firm, smooth and in the finest possible 
condition. 
Cuts Four to Five Acres a Day 
The mower has 30-inch blades and with 
one man to guide it, cuts four to five acres 
of lawn a day, on an operating expense of 
about fifty cents for fuel and oil. The Ideal 
is of extremely simple design with no com¬ 
plicated clutches nor gears. All the opera¬ 
tor has to do is to guide the machine and 
operate the starting and stopping lever. 
Uses Tractor Principle 
The cutting blades operate by the traction 
of their side wheels upon the ground, just 
the same as the blades on a hand mower 
operate. This eliminates the difficulties that 
are almost sure to occur where an attempt 
is made to drive the blades direct by power 
from the engine. 
You 
today for special literature. 
Ideal Power Lawn Mower Company 
R. E. OLDS, Chairman 
403 Kalamazoo Street, Lansing, Michigan 
Boston. 51-52 No. Market St. 
Philadelphia, Pa.. 709 Arch St. 
New York. N. V., 2 70 West St. 
Chicago III.. 163 N. May St 
Toronto, Ont., 17-19-21 Temperance St. 
IDB\L 
TRACTOR. 
IMNMOWERS 
The Third Year Living Room 
{Continued from page 82) 
‘Polly with a Past” chair, 
$30.00, plus V/s yds. sateen @ 
$1.80 . 32.40 
Coffee table. 18.S0 
Over-mantel vases. 16.00 
$524.16 
Second Year 
High-backed upholstered chair, 
$60.00, plus 4 yds. velvet @ 
$6.75 . $87.00 
Desk, $78, plus chair, $32. 110.00 
Lamp and shade . 25.00 
Table scarf . 5.50 
Over-mantel painting . 115.00 
Third Year 
Couch redone in velvet, 10 yds. 
@ $6.75, plus $12.00 labor of 
covering. $79.50 
2 taffeta cushions @ $16.00_ 32.00 
1 upholstered chair, $60.00, plus 
5 yds. material @ $5.00. 85.50 
1 chenille rug 9' x 12'. 144.00 
Curtains— 9% yds. damask @ 
$9.75 plus making, lining and 
trimming, $38.00. 130.52 
Under curtains—83^ yds. gauze 
@ $3.00 . 26.00 
$342.50 
$497.52 
Are These Your Problems ? 
Some of the answers which have been given by our 
Information Service to subscribers who had garden questions to ask. 
Inquiry —Will you kindly give me 
some information and advice in regard 
to varieties and planting of locusts? 
I have a flower garden situated on 
the almost level top. (very slightly high¬ 
er in the middle) of a high bank fringed 
by a thicket of locusts. The very young 
locust trees are used as retainers of the 
soil on the aforesaid steep bank, and 
their tops, feathery and green and 
healthy throughout a long season in this 
locality, shade the border of my garden 
and are very beautiful. 
I want to use this sometimes very 
objectionable tree in another place on 
higher ground in the garden as an or¬ 
namental shrubbery group or border to 
a walk in company with rose acacia or 
pink locust. 
I presume the locust already here is 
the common yellow locust—not the 
honey locust. In the spring part of 
these trees have quantities of beautiful 
white blossoms and others have no 
bloom at all. W'hy is this? Are some 
of them sterile, and is there any way I 
can tell, in transplanting, which will 
have flowers and which will not? Also, 
can I successfully transplant young lo¬ 
custs (there are quantities of seedlings 
in this section which I can get for the 
digging) in the fall of the year; and if 
so, about what time should it be done? 
Is it necessary to observe any particular 
rule? I know that the common locust 
tree is not a tender plant by any means, 
but I want to do the work to the best 
advantage in order to have it success¬ 
fully established the more quickly in my 
garden. 
Will you also tell me something of the 
requirements of the rose acacia? Can 
I plant it any time this fall? 
Answer —Botanically speaking, there 
is no reason which would account for 
the absence of blossoms on some of your 
locust trees, nor is there any peculiarity 
of form which would enable you to dis¬ 
tinguish between the bloomers and the 
non-bloomers. It is possible, however, 
that soil conditions may have something 
to do with the matter. 
The trees that blossom may have the 
proper food elements to make blossoms, 
and the others may lack them. Are all 
your trees growing close together, in ex¬ 
actly the same sort of soil? Especially 
if they are not, I would suggest that 
you experiment with bone meal and 
lime worked in around the non-bloom¬ 
ing individuals. Of course, locusts as a 
rule need very little coddling, but in this 
case it might be successful. The stimu¬ 
lant should be applied in the spring- 
Another possible explanation is that 
some of the trees have been attacked by 
borers to such an extent that their vital¬ 
ity has been seriously impaired. If this 
is the case, you would be quite sure to 
suspect the trouble because of the pres¬ 
ence of dead brariches and the generally 
debilitated appearance of the tree. 
Locusts are usually propagated by 
seeds or budding, but I know of no rea¬ 
son why the young trees could not be 
transplanted with a fair certainty of suc¬ 
cess. The fall would be the best time 
to make the experiment. Take them up 
carefully, with particular efforts not to 
injure the roots, and reset as you would 
other deciduous trees and shrubs. Be 
sure to mulch the roots through the first 
winter, to prevent alternate freezing and 
thawing. Dead leaves are a good ma¬ 
terial for this purpose. 
The rose acacia calls for the same sort 
of treatment as the common locust, and, 
like it, is never at its best in sour soil. 
October would be the best time for 
transplanting any of this family. 
Inquiry —We moved into our house 
in May, but were so busy doing over the 
interior that we could not spend time 
on the exterior. I have learned, how¬ 
ever, that our heavy clay soil will not 
produce anything! I did succeed with 
some morning glories and carrots plant¬ 
ed by the side of the garage, and some 
gladioli! did fairly well on the south 
side; 
The soil has never been worked by 
previous tenants and building stones and 
bricks are still in the ground from the 
time the house was built. 
We are on a short, tucked-away 
street, with many fine old forest trees 
about. Across from us is a wooded hill 
which belongs to a beautiful estate. 
Next us on the north is a large lot with 
many old trees—we do not know its 
fate. In the rear of our lot, at the back 
and side, are unsightly backyards. 
My idea in general is to inclose our 
place, thus shutting out all that is ugly 
and retaining only the woodsy atmos¬ 
phere. I like the seclusion without the 
shut-in feeling that French homes have. 
Of course, in these war times I’d like 
a vegetable garden and fruit trees and 
even berry bushes. How can I have all 
this on a lot 50'x 178'? 
The backyard is about 75'. The en¬ 
closed clipping from House & Garden 
I believe is something of my idea—with¬ 
out the pool, simply the bird bath. 
I am also enclosing photographs of 
{Continued on page 86) 
