HOUSE AND GARDEN | 
March, 1913 
of boxes, and fill them about half full of 
medium coarse sand. Each box will hold 
enough for at least a hundred hills, as the 
potatoes are cut up into pieces containing 
one or at the most two eyes each, before 
they are placed in the sand. These pieces 
are made narrower and longer than when 
cutting for planting in the regular way. 
The lower half may be inserted in the sand 
and the upper half left above. They are 
packed in as tight as they will go without 
touching each other, a little additional 
sand is sifted over them, and they are 
watered thoroughly, and the boxes placed 
where they can receive plenty of light, 
preferably direct sunlight, and a mini¬ 
mum temperature of forty degrees at 
night. Within a few weeks the plants will 
be ready to set out and will be found to 
have made a remarkably large root growth 
and comparatively little top growth. If 
a sprout here and there seems to be getting 
too ambitious it may be pinched off when 
four or five inches high. When the sprouts 
are ready to plant, open the furrows three 
or four inches deep and place them in the 
bottom about thirteen inches apart with 
the roots turned down, covering tops and 
all where the latter are very short. In 
fact, if they are set out before all danger 
of frost is over, it is better to have the 
tops covered in this manner so that they 
will not be cut back in case Jack Frost hap¬ 
pens to take a last look around before leav¬ 
ing for the season. For garden culture, 
where a horse will not be used, the or¬ 
dinary varieties of potatoes may be planted 
as close as twenty-eight or even twenty- 
four inches apart between the rows with 
advantage, the more densely the vines 
may cover the ground and still have room 
to mature properly, the better it will be, 
as the ensuing shade saves soil moisture. 
In case of a severe and long-continued 
drought in June, it will be necessary to 
furnish some water to potatoes started in 
this way, as otherwise the little tubers 
which have set will not be enabled to de¬ 
velop. _ 
Good Things for the Flower Garden 
FIERE are a number of very fine flow¬ 
ers which have not yet come into as 
universal use as they deserve, although they 
have been growing more popular every 
r 
When started in pots, peas are arranged thus 
before covering 
year; chief among these, perhaps, are the 
new forms of tuberous begonias. One 
thing which has kept many people from 
trying these beautiful and very valuable 
flowers is that the bulbs cost anywhere 
from seventy-five cents to $1.50 a dozen, 
and the growing plants about twice that 
amount. It should be remembered, how¬ 
ever, that each bulb without any further 
expense and very little trouble, will live 
for a great many years, giving a hand¬ 
somer showing each succeeding season. 
They should be started indoors as early in 
A small but efficient hotbed for starting early 
plants 
the spring as possible, in a warm place, 
putting each bulb by itself in a small pot, 
filled with a very light, rich compost. 
Water sparingly at first until growth 
starts, the concave side of the bulb being 
placed uppermost. As soon as the pot be¬ 
comes filled with roots, change the plant to 
a larger pot, and continue to do this as 
often as the plant needs shifting. During 
the summer, plants need to be either kept 
in the pots or set out in the ground; in 
either case, they make a truly magnificent 
display. 
Salpiglossis, which until the last few 
years has remained undeveloped, is another 
flower whose new forms are beginning 
to create quite a sensation as they be¬ 
come more widely known. This plant is 
very easily grown, is a free and continuous 
bloomer and the flowers are remarkable 
both for their wonderful velvety texture 
and the strikingly unique coloring and 
veinings. The seedlings, which are very 
easily grown, should be started indoors or 
in a hotbed early in the spring in order to 
get results early in the summer. They 
can, however, be started outdoors along 
with the main lot of the garden flowers in 
late April or May. Efowever, if you can. 
get a package now, and sow a row or two 
in one of your seed boxes. Pot off the 
199 
little plants when they are large enough 
and keep them in a frame until about the 
middle of May, when they can go out¬ 
doors. 
One still frequently sees a gladioli bed 
in which there appear nothing but the solid 
colored, small-flowered types which repre¬ 
sented this genus of flowers twenty-five or 
thirty years ago. Still worse there are 
many gardens from which their tall, grace¬ 
ful flowers are missing altogether. This 
means a great mistake on the part of the 
gardeners, because even a single bulb of 
the wonderful new sorts which have been 
introduced so freely during the past years 
will make quite a gorgeous showing, and 
from that one bulb in the course of two 
or three years you can get a fairly large 
supply, as they propagate very readily in¬ 
deed, and quite automatically. 
Proper Drainage and Irrigation 
HERE are two kinds of garden in¬ 
surance which many people neglect 
altogether, although they pay as big divi¬ 
dends as any investment which you can 
possibly make. The first of these is drain¬ 
age ; the second, irrigation. The water 
supply is an extremely important factor in 
the control of plant life of all kinds and 
the remarkable thing about it is that too 
much is every bit as bad as too little. Now 
the ordinary home garden, and the flower 
garden, and the lawn too for that matter, 
where the soil happens to be too heavy, 
could readily and cheaply be drained in 
most cases where the place does not happen 
to be situated in a hollow, and even then 
there is usually some lowest point to which 
the water could be conducted .without 
much trouble. 
Under ordinary conditions, a half-acre 
garden could be under-drained for from 
twenty-five to fifty dollars—probably 
nearer the first figure. The drains—round 
drain tiles with collars—should be placed 
at least three feet deep, and if they can be 
put four, it will be much better. The lines 
should be for the former depth, twenty to 
thirty feet apart, according to the charac¬ 
ter of the soil; if four feet deep, they will 
accomplish as much if put thirty to fifty 
feet apart—so it pays to put them in deep. 
Drainers may prove of the greatest benefit. 
Cucumber plants may be started indoors in the 
early spring 
