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HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 1912 
O-U-T-EN-6 
HANDBOOKS 
The new text¬ 
books for outdoor 
work and play 
Your DOG, HORSE and HENS 
Among the recent addi¬ 
tions to this practical series 
are: 
THE AIREDALE—Wil¬ 
liams Haynes. Origin and 
development of breed. 
Selection, breeding, 
training, curing diseases. 
THE HORSE, His Breed¬ 
ing, Care and Use - David 
. Buffuin. Thoroughly 
practical. Specially de¬ 
signed for owner of one 
or two horses. 
PRACTICAL POULTRY 
KEEPING—R. B. Sando 
Comprehensive manual of instruction for 
raising poultry on large or small scale. 
PROFITABLE BREEDS OF POULTRY— 
A. S. Wheeler. Rhode Island Reds, Ply¬ 
mouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Mediterraneans, 
Orpingtons, etc. 
SCOTTISH AND IRISH TERRIERS-Wil¬ 
liams Haynes. Origins, standard types, dis¬ 
eases, kenneling, training, etc. 
Purchase from bookstores or direct at 70 
cents a copy. Postage extra, 5 cents. 
Send for free Outing Handbook catalogue. 
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
OUTING MAGAZINE YacT>tir>3 0-U-T-I-N-G HANDBOOKS 
iti-145 WEST 3fc>TK ST NEW YORK l22 S. MICHIGAN AVE CHICAGO 
NEW CANAAN NURSERIES. 
We have a large assortment of all kinds of Nursery 
Stock, and now is the time when one can see Trees 
and Tlants in leaf and flower, to make plans for 
Fall planting. 
We will assist you if you will send a card for 
our Catalogue, and tell us your wants. 
STEPHEN HOYT’S SONS CO., 
Tel. 79-2. New Canaan, Conn. 
“The Wood 
Eternal.” 
For a Most Beautiful Lawn 
Sow KALAKA. It is specially selected, specially tested grass 
seed, and pulverized manure—the ideal combination to grow 
quick, hardy, lasting turf. For seeding new lawns or putting 
new life into the old lawn nothing equals 
Packed in 5 pound boxes at $1.00 per box, express paid east , 
or $1.25 west of Omaha. Write and ask for prices on special 
mixtures for special locations and purposes. Order today 
and have the best seed money can buy. Get our/reelawn book. 
THE KALAKA CO., 16 Union Stock Yards, Chicago 
The BEAUTY OF A CEMENT HOME 
maynowh. enhanced by 
(QBmmm©mCQ 
waterproof finish in beautiful soft tones of 
White, Buff, Green. Gray, etc., overcoming 1 
all objections to the severe plainness and 
cold look of Cement. 
For old houses as well as new. 
Send 10 c for book of valuable information. 
THE OHIO VARNISH CO . 8602 Kinsman Rd. Cleveland 
Made to ordei—to exactly match 
the color scheme of any room 
“You select the color—we’ll make 
the rug.” Any width — seamless up 
to 10 feet. Any length. Any color 
tone—soft and subdued, or bright 
and striking. Original, individual, 
artistic, dignified. Pure wool or 
camel’s hair, expertly woven at 
short notice. Write for color card. 
Order i ough your furnisher. 
Thread & Thrum Workshop 
Auburn, New York 
sounded? Old Kelpius of philosophical 
bent with true German ponderosity set up 
this inscription: 
Lass Neider neiden, 
Lass Hasser hassen, 
Was Gott mir gibt 
Muss Mann mir las sen. 
Another old English overdoor motto of 
frequent occurrence is ‘‘East, West, 
Hame’s best.” John Bartram, the famous 
botanist, carved a rude couplet between 
two of the windows of his house—because 
all the doors were tucked away in insig¬ 
nificant corners and didn't show—which 
read: 
“It is God alone, almyty Lord, 
The Holy One by me ador’d. 
John Bartram 1770.” 
Turning from mottoes with their direct¬ 
ness we come to the symbolic devices such 
as the sage and the owl who keep vigil 
together over the door of a country house. 
The combination of the tongue in leash and 
the owl evidently alludes to the still tongue 
that “maketh a wise heart.” Some of the 
devices are Renaissance medallions carved 
by the doorheads or floriated designs bear¬ 
ing a date. One and all, however, they 
add a graceful touch and attract the in¬ 
terest of a stranger. 
It must be borne in mind that overdoor 
devices and inscriptions are not to be had 
ready made. Each one must be specially 
designed and executed for the place it is 
to occupy. This, to be sure, means added 
expense in building, for unless the work 
is well done it is better not done at all. 
The game is worth the candle, however, 
and after the device is once in place the 
amount of permanent satisfaction it will 
give will far outbalance the consideration 
of initial cost. One excellent thing about 
overdoor devices and inscriptions is that 
they can be put in place at any time at all, 
especially those that are made of metal 
or wood and do not have to be built into 
the masonry. 
Year by year we are coming to pay 
more heed to the little refinements in 
house-building and overdoor devices, and 
inscriptions are growing in favor. A 
number over a house door is prosaic and 
uninteresting and makes no lasting im¬ 
pression on the observer; but an inscrip¬ 
tion or device above the threshold, even 
when it does nothing else, gives distinc¬ 
tion and individuality not soon forgotten. 
Gladiolus Hints 
T HREE years ago I started with a 
dozen bulbs of gladiolus — selecting 
three varieties from descriptions in a local 
catalogue: America, the delicate flesh 
pink, so prized by florists; Shakespeare, 
white with rose marking, and Octaroon, 
fine salmon. The first season, by raising 
the stalks from their various recumbent at¬ 
titudes, I could see good color, small size 
and short stems. By the following year I 
had gained a few points by observation 
and interrogation, and blooms were fairly 
good. This summer, Americas have meas¬ 
ured six inches across and the others 
nearly that. With their splendid, tall 
spikes and erect carriage, they have surely 
reached the point of very good. 
Best of all, a fine new seedling has 
shown up which promises to be well worth 
the price of admission. The possibility of 
this occurring in a garden at any time is 
one of the fascinating features of bulb 
culture. With all its splendid features, this 
fine flower promises to offer several un¬ 
satisfactory problems for the home gar¬ 
dener. 
Specialists tell us to allow the stems to 
dry without cutting back after the flower 
spikes are removed, this being to throw 
strength into the bulb. They take their 
own time about it and the effect of a long 
bed of half-dried stems is not pleasing. 
We are warned, too, of the danger of 
bulbs deteriorating if given the same loca¬ 
tion two years in succession, and yet all 
growers unite in urging “full exposure to 
the sun.” In the moderate sized garden— 
whose owner usually is under the spell of 
more than one garden wonder, it is not 
easy to find sunny positions, and, where 
many perennials have place, not possible 
to keep shifting. 
Professional growers who plant in long 
rows in the open field realize none of these 
difficulties. They have no garden picture 
to be marred by two or three months of 
unsightly drying stems, and shifting plants 
from one place to another is part of their 
business. With the growing interest in 
gladioli culture everywhere I believe it 
will not stop short of perfection, in every 
way. If one is growing them in any quan¬ 
tity, which, with the immense variety be¬ 
ing developed, any enthusiast is likely to 
do, another rule laid down to us seems 
very unpractical: “Cut every spike when 
the first bud shows color, and allow to de¬ 
velop in water.” Still we know the flow¬ 
ers do fade quickly if left on the plant— 
some varieties, particularly. This is nota¬ 
bly true of America, one warm day leav¬ 
ing the flowers very wilted. Then again 
comes in the difference in viewpoint be¬ 
tween the commercial and the home 
grower. The farmer raises for the market, 
and the fact that the spikes open perfectly 
in water, and show better keeping quality 
when cut, is all the better for him. The cut 
flowers are off his hands, and the bulbs can 
be ripening for later profits. But the gar¬ 
den person wants to see them blooming in 
the garden and doing their share toward 
making it beautiful. As cut flowers, we 
can easily keep them from a week to ten 
days, and after filling- our own vases, and 
sending a handful to a friend occasionally, 
there would still be days at a time when 
there would be no place for them to fill, if 
cut. And they should mean everything to 
the garden if uncut. 
“Every man his own wizard” would be 
a good slogan for the garden, and gladio¬ 
lus forms a good subject for experiment¬ 
ing. For my own garden, I have been 
considering several possibilities, which 
seem reasonably worth trying. 
This fall I will plant, closely, Montbretia 
bulbs in a long bed bordering a division 
In writing to advertisers please mention House and Garden. 
