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Garden 
Suggesti° ns 
and 
Queries 
Edited 
. By 
Gardner 
Teall 
The Editor will be glad to answer in these columns queries that appear of general interest pertaining to individual problems connected with the 
garden and grounds. IVhen a direct personal reply is desired, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. 
The New Year 
TT APPY New Year! May the sunny 
months that follow Nature’s rest¬ 
ing-time find every garden-lover secure 
in the joys of a prolific flowering of all 
his hopes and all his plans! 
Happy indeed will lie be who, provi¬ 
dent of the Seasons, pausing now to look 
out over Winter’s blanket of snow, holds 
in his mind’s eye the image of Yesterday’s 
verdant cover and To-morrow’s promise 
of fair flowers and fat vegetables. The 
poetry of anticipation and the prose of 
practicality must ever go hand in hand! 
So, while we are thinking of our June 
gardens let January find us making well 
considered plans for them. We must take 
down all the Christmas greens by Twelfth 
Night and burn them, if we would show 
reverence for the old-time traditions that 
are woven around this ceremony; yet, 
as we watch the smoke curling up from 
the now dry and crackling branches of 
holly and mistletoe and brittle greens, 
we will find it a sweet incense to remind 
The garden in winter 
us of the fragrance of coming months, in 
whose gardens and fields and woodlands 
fresh greenery will be grown. And when 
the busy housewife is sweeping up the 
dropping pine-needles, setting the house 
to rights after its holiday revelry, she 
will be sweeping up all of Yesterday’s 
mistakes, if we believe in such things as 
they did in the good old medieval days 
when the Yule-log spluttered on the 
hearth, and King Wassail was monarch 
for twelve days. 
So, having set the house to rights, 
we may sit down in comfort and quiet to 
plan out To-morrow, that from the seed 
of forethought fair gardens may blossom 
through the Seasons to come. 
January Plans 
TTAVING given thought to the plan- 
A ning of your next season’s garden, 
and the things you may wish to plant in 
it, do not forget the important matter of 
anticipating its careful cultivation, — of 
the garden tools and implements which 
you will need in working it properly. 
There will be spades, hoes, lawn mowers, 
trowels, knives, sprayers, etc., to think of 
and to select from the best devices offered 
by progressive manufacturers. In gar¬ 
dening, like in everything else, good tools 
facilitate good workmanship and are 
great time-savers. 
This is a good time to put greenhouse 
benches in shape, for nothing is more dis¬ 
couraging than to find them rotting away. 
Spray them with copper sulphate, and 
after that as often as necessary with your 
whitewash mixture. 
Spraying is an important considera¬ 
tion for January and the month to come. 
Look well to it that you are not neglect¬ 
ing your fruit and shade trees, and that 
spring and summer do not come to find 
shrubbery and trees destroyed by scale 
and other pests. Let your “ ounce of 
prevention” be dissolved into a good 
liquid and spray trees and bushes around 
your lawn and garden. At the same time 
do not forget that your neighbor’s care¬ 
lessness in such matters may negate 
everything you will have done, for no fence 
ever kept off insects, scale or blight. It 
will pay you to talk over the matter with 
Mr. Neighbor, for there is little doubt of 
his co-operation in your efforts to pre¬ 
serve the natural adornment of your 
yards, lawns and gardens. 
Bordeaux mixture will prevent fun¬ 
gous diseases. It is compounded in the 
usual formula as follows: 
Copper sulphate. 6 lbs 
Lime. 4 lbs 
Water .35-50 gals 
The copper sulphate is dissolved in the 
water, milk of lime being added. It is 
better not to use Bordeaux mixture that 
has stood an unusually long time. 
You will find other mixtures for the 
San Jose scale, and you cannot afford to 
neglect looking into any of these matters. 
Apropos the matter of Fungicides and 
Insecticides it is interesting to note that 
at the last session of Congress a bill was 
introduced in both the Senate and House 
providing for the government control of 
the purity of fungicides and insecticides, 
in much the same manner as the purity 
of foods and drugs is now controlled. 
The passage of this bill, again introduced 
at the present Congress, would make 
special legislation on the matter by the 
separate states unnecessary. 
Look well to your outbuildings, for a 
hammer in time saves nine kegs of nails. 
Perhaps a glance out of your window 
over a strip of ground that now appears 
bleak and dreary to you will suggest that 
another January should find a tree, or a 
clump of shrubbery, with bright stems to 
give some sense of color and winter de¬ 
sign to the landscape. It is just that 
difference between the monotony of 
snow-covered prairies and snow-blanketed 
woodlands that brings Nature to teach 
man some of her decorative arts. 
A clump of Spireas will bring you both 
color and decorative form next winter — - 
Spircea ariefolia, which retains its dead 
flower clusters a long time, a pleasant 
(42) 
