90 
House & Garden 
I 
The Modern Home 
Has sanitary equipment because eflicient refrigeration means 
healthy food. A AIcCray Refrigerator is economical, easy to 
keep clean, efficient in every detail, and it gives you perfect 
refrigeration. Arranged to he iced from the outside, it is con¬ 
venient and keeps the iceman out of your kitchen. Make your 
home really modern by installing a built-in 
Sanitary Refrigerator 
The U. S. Pure Food Experts selected the klcCray for use in 
the Pure Food Laboratories in Washington after the most 
careful tests. You can safely he guided by their judgment. 
Lined with Snow White Opal Glass—stain proof and acid 
proof—the McCray is easy to keep clean and absolutely sani¬ 
tary. There are no cracks or corners for germs to multiply— 
even the metal bar shelves are removable—and the entire in¬ 
terior can be kept always spotless. All impurities and odors 
are quickly discharged through the air-tight water-sealed drain 
pipe. 
Let us send you illustrated catalog which shows a great variety of sizes 
at prices from $30 up for almost every requirement. Special sizes and 
finishes to conform with floor plans and match interior finish are built to 
order. 
Any of these catalogs mailed on request: 
No. 92 for Residences. 
No. 51 for Hotels, Restaurants, 
Clubs. 
No. 70 for Grocers. 
No. 74 for Florists. 
No. 62 for Meat Markets. 
McCRAY REFRIGERATOR GO. 
716 LAKE STREET KENDALLVILLE, IND. 
Agencies in all principal cities. 
Wing’s Flower Seeds 
Are of Highest Quality 
Bloom from Early Spring to Frost 
We can supply you with all your old fav¬ 
orites as well as many new and rare spe¬ 
cialties. 
Trial Offer 
*1 SPECIAL PACKETS f fkc 
1 W MAILED POSTPAID FOR 1 vF 
The following collection is easily grown. Aster, 
Cosmos, Gaillardia, Larkspur, Marigold, Pansy, 
Petunia, Pinks, Poppy and Zinnia. 
Write for New Catalog 
We have just issued a very attractive seed guide. Completely 
illus^trated. Describes every variety of vegetable, old and new, as 
well as 125 varieties of Gladioli, 150 Dahlias, 165 Iris, 150 Pseonies, 
the world’s finest Sweet Peas and everything that makes a garden 
beautiful. Be sure and write for your free copy today. 
The Wing Seed Co., Box 1027, Mechanicsburg, Ohio 
Making the New Garden 
{Continued from page 42) 
(1) Pulverize the soil as finely as it 
is possible to get it. 
(2) Add plant foods which are to a 
large extent available for im¬ 
mediate use. 
(2) Incorporate with the soil all the 
humus possible. 
(4) Distribute throughout the soil as 
evenly and as plentifully as pos¬ 
sible “friendly” bacteria. 
(5) Keep the soil well supplied with 
moisture by thorough prepa¬ 
ration, by cultivation and irri¬ 
gation. 
That is the answer in a nutshell, 
but, like any other nut, there is some 
cracking to be done before the meat 
can be of much practical use. And so 
the gardener must interpret these 
condensed general principles into ac¬ 
tual garden activities, and prepare to 
do it at once for results this year. 
The first thing of all in the actual 
work of preparing the new garden is 
to make sure of good drainage. I 
merely mention that as a reminder 
in passing, because no soil, old or 
new, in which the surplus water re¬ 
mains after a rain is good for gar¬ 
dening purposes. Unless the subsoil 
beneath your proposed new garden 
and its position assure good drain¬ 
age naturally, you will have to sup¬ 
ply it artificially. This may be done 
in the individual bed, border, etc., 
by digging the soil out to the depth 
of XyC or more, and putting in a 
layer of small stones, coal ashes, or 
some other roughage, making this 
layer about 18" or so deep. Cover it 
with another layer of inverted sod, 
dead leaves, or strawy manure, etc., 
to prevent the new soil from washing 
down through the tiny crevices in the 
stone layer. In some cases subsoiling 
or draining with tile may be neces¬ 
sary. Details of doing this w'ork may 
be found in the former numbers of 
House & Garden. 
Pulverizing the Soil 
The question of getting the new 
garden finely pulverized is one of 
hard work; there is no getting away 
from that, no matter whether you do 
the work yourself or stand over some 
one else to be sure it is done right. 
If drainage has to be put in, all but 
the best of the soil removed should 
be thrown to one side separately, and 
there worked over and pulverized 
and re-pulverized with a fork or 
spade before it is put back. In the 
vegetable garden or large flower gar¬ 
den or shrubbery border where the 
soil cannot be throwm out, the plow¬ 
ing or spading should be done with 
the greatest care, as otherwise, in 
turning over the soil, there will be 
very many large, hard lumps buried 
beneath the surface, escaping atten¬ 
tion at the time, but doing their share 
tow'ard making the garden unsatis- 
factorj' during the summer. It is a 
good plan to prepare the various 
pieces of ground as early in the 
spring as the ground can be worked 
and where possible, to w'ork them 
over again just as carefully right be¬ 
fore planting. In this way the very 
little extra work demanded will give 
your new garden soil the equivalent 
of two or three seasons’ pulverizing 
done in the ordinary way. Where the 
soil is deep enough to allow it, it is 
best to "trench” the bed or garden in¬ 
stead of merely spading it—that is, 
dig it two spades deep, roughly break¬ 
ing up the lower layer in addition to 
thoroughly pulverizing the top one. 
The surface of the soil, by repeated 
workings over it with a wide prong 
hook and iron rake, should be made 
fine and free from roots, stones and 
trash to a depth of at least 2" or 3". 
When it comes to manure and fer¬ 
tilizers, only the oldest and finest ma¬ 
nure you can get (preferably from a 
last year’s heap, scrapings from the 
manure pit, or compost from a hot¬ 
bed) should be used. If you make 
use of a complete ready mixed fer¬ 
tilizer, get only the best grade with 
an analysis high in nitrogen. You 
can be more certain of getting quick 
results, however, by using guano, 
dried blood, or the highest grade 
tankage, as the nitrogen in all these 
becomes available more rapidly than 
in the fertilizer. There are Several 
kinds as well as several grades of 
ground bone. For your purpose, use 
bone “flour” or very fine ground bone, 
for at least half of the application to 
be made. The bone contains both 
phosphoric acid and nitrogen. The 
analysis for fine ground bone is about 
3 % of phosphoric acid. 
A Garden Mixture 
Potash is less likely than either of 
the other ingredients to be the lim¬ 
iting factor, so far as food is con¬ 
cerned in your new garden. Never¬ 
theless, it wdll be well to use for it 
all the wood ashes you can get. The 
ordinary sources of potash will be 
e.xceedingly scarce this year. If you 
wdll make the following mixtures for 
use in your garden: 25 lbs. of nit¬ 
rate of soda; 50 lbs. of dried blood; 
100 lbs. of acid phosphate and 25 lbs. 
of muriate of potash, and use this at 
the rate of 5 lbs. for each 100 square 
feet of garden space, supplementing 
it by a good dressing of unleached 
wood ashes, raked into the surface, 
the things you plant will not lack 
available plant food the first year. 
Next, there is the important ques¬ 
tion of humus to consider. Formerly, 
the only practical source of humus 
for immediate results was the manure 
pile or the compost heap. There is 
nothing better for the new garden 
than thoroughly rotted, well-fined 
manure—it being remembered, how¬ 
ever, that there are a few things in 
which too much nitrogen at plant¬ 
ing time should be avoided. But 
manure, and especially horse manure, 
which is the quickest acting, is be¬ 
coming increasingly hard to get; and 
besides manure under many condi¬ 
tions is inconvenient and disagree¬ 
able to handle. Fortunately, there is 
now available a very satisfactory sub¬ 
stitute, or rather supplement, in the 
prepared commercial “humus,” which 
has the water absorbing and bacteria 
breeding properties of manure, and 
has the added advantage of being 
more concentrated and free, from 
straw and more convenient to handle. 
For stiff, heavy soils the very bulki¬ 
ness of manure is an advantage, but 
on such soils as these dead leaves or 
straw can be used in addition. In 
buying “humus,” however, care should 
be taken to select a good, well-pre¬ 
pared grade wdiich has been so treated 
that you are not paying most of 
your money and express charges for 
water, and that it is a good medium 
for bacteria. 
Sod growing on the ground where 
the new garden is to be made will 
furnish humus after it decays, but 
it will be weeks and even months, 
particularly if the season is dry, be¬ 
fore it is of much use. In small gar¬ 
dens and borders, especially where 
flower seeds are to be planted, it will 
(Continued on page 92) 
