Garden Su 
CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
Author of Home Vegetable Gardening and Gardening 
Indoors and Under Glass 
October 
T is almost as if this glorious autumn 
weather were made to order to meet 
the needs of busy gardeners who have so 
much to do that they must work at full 
speed — and those who have stuck to the 
job through July and August, and have 
attended to late plantings and have never 
given up the fight with the persistent 
weeds. These are days that should be full 
of reward to the gardener. 
Last month we had something to say 
about handling and keeping the earlier 
tenderer things, such as melons and so 
forth; if you have not attended to these 
things yet, and they still, on account of a 
Charitable climate, have been spared, look 
up those directions and get them in at once. 
A True Conservation Policy 
GREAT deal of damage is done every 
fall and winter by allowing plots of 
ground, and especially sloping ground, to 
lie bare through the late fall, winter and 
early spring. Even where the soil itself is 
not washed away, as very frequently hap¬ 
pens, plant foods in the soil are either 
washed out or carried down below the 
reach of plant roots; so it frequently hap¬ 
pens that a crop of roots, stubble and veg¬ 
etable refuse of various sorts, which would 
be quite valuable to the soil if turned 
under, is left literally to “dry up and blow 
away.” Therefore, spade up or plow up 
every square foot of ground which is re¬ 
leased from work during the autumn 
months and sow it to rye, or, better, rye 
and vetches. No special preparation is 
required for it. Just have enough soil to 
cover it lightly, and long after the first 
frost it will still be growing, making a 
green mat in the otherwise bare landscape, 
while the roots of it are busy down under¬ 
neath the soil’s surface collecting foods 
that would otherwise be washed away 
from use, and taking up still other plant 
food that will be in a more available form 
for the things in your garden to use an¬ 
other year. The vetches are still further 
valuable as soil enrichers, as they belong 
to the nitrogenous group, including peas, 
clovers and so forth, and after growing 
leave the soil richer in the important ele¬ 
ment of nitrogen than they found it. 
Winter Storing of Vegetables 
EFORE there is danger of hard freez¬ 
ing—which often comes suddenly and 
does not let up again the way we expect it 
to do — attend to the root crops, the harder 
leaf crops, and the fruits. Of course, your 
cellar, in anticipation of this work, has 
been made clean and sweet and dry, has 
been whitewashed and any rat-holes not 
“plugged up,” but cemented, with a little 
broken glass mixed in. 
Here are the two rules for vegetable 
storing: 
First, that everything put away shall be 
clean, sound and dry. Or they may start 
to decay and cause endless trouble. Even 
a small amount of moisture may start 
sprouting or decay even with perfectly 
sound fruit. Second, give plenty of ven¬ 
tilation whenever the outside temperature 
will allow it, and at the same time be very 
careful to keep the temperature of the 
place of storage as evenly at the required 
temperature, which is usually 33 to 38 de¬ 
grees, as possible. 
An improvised but successful garden rubbish 
burner made of bricks 
The root crops, beets, carrots, turnips, 
rutabagas, will stand early frost all right 
before being dug, but the roots after dig¬ 
ging should not be exposed to any freez¬ 
ing at all. All these may be kept for a 
while simply stored in bags or boxes — 
which should be well ventilated, — but far 
better results will be obtained by packing 
them down in sand or in sphagnum moss, 
slightly moist, in which case they will re¬ 
main almost as plump and fresh as if fresh 
dug from the field. Parsnips and oyster 
plant may be taken up in the same way, but 
these are much hardier and part of the 
crop should be left in the ground to be 
used as soon as they can be dug in the 
spring; or they may be dug and buried in a 
trench made in a well-drained position and 
covered with a few inches of soil and over 
this a foot or two of litter, put on after 
the ground is frozen an inch or so, to make 
it easier to get at them. Potatoes, of 
course, are simply stored in bins, bags or 
boxes without any covering or packing. 
Any beans which have not been used in 
the green state should be put under cover 
as soon as the pods are thoroughly dry, as 
they are apt to mold or sprout if left out. 
Pole beans may be taken in poles and all 
and picked later when there is not so much 
to do. 
Selecting Seeds for Next Year 
W HILE in these days of cheap, clean 
and honest seeds I do not believe it 
pays the home gardener to bother saving 
most sorts, nevertheless there are a few 
kinds which he will do well to keep him¬ 
self. Foremost of these are potatoes, 
sweet corn and field corn. Do not simply 
dump all your potatoes together in the bin 
and save whatever you may get in the 
spring. If you are digging them by hand, 
as you probably will where only small 
quantities are grown, select only the best 
medium-sized potatoes, ignoring the extra 
large or distorted shaped ones, from the 
very best hills. Leave these on the ground 
when you pick the others up. It will not 
make any difference how sunburned they 
get—the more so the better. Put them 
away, if possible, where they will be ex¬ 
posed to the full sunlight for a week or 
two, and store carefully in the cellar be¬ 
fore there is any danger of their being 
touched by frost. If you do this two or 
three seasons, using good methods of 
growing, you will be very greatly surprised 
at the large number of pounds of potatoes 
you will be able to get from your small 
home garden patch. In saving corn for 
seed select only those ears which are well 
rounded out at the tips and which are 
thoroughly ripened up, as will be indicated 
by the firmness with which the kernels are 
fixed to the cob. But with corn you must 
be absolutely sure that no other variety 
has been growing near the one you want 
for seed, else mixing is likely to occur. 
( 237 ) 
