50 
House & G ard en 
YOUR PATRIOTIC PATCH 
Precautions Which Will Remove the Stigma from the Fair Name of Amateur 
Gardener, and Make Even the First Season’s Planting an Unqualified Success 
If the soil around the 
small fruit trees is kept 
stirred the underground 
moisture will he con¬ 
served and better root 
ventilation provided 
Lest the newly trans¬ 
planted seedlings wilt in 
the hot summer sun, 
cover them with old 
berry baskets as soon as 
they are set out 
S OME bright morning, 
when you have 
coaxed your little 
plants along successfully 
for a time, through their 
various stages of sprout¬ 
ing and transplanting and 
thinning and weeding, you 
may stand sadly but phil¬ 
osophically in the midst 
of your garden, contem¬ 
plating a mass of ruins 
where all was sturdy 
growth before. 
“Why,” you may medi¬ 
tate, as you gaze upon 
your blighted hopes, “why 
in Sam Hill is Nature's 
conduct so erratic? Why 
does she grow here a 
lusty cabbage, and at the 
same time bring up a fat 
cutworm to kill it? Or 
why does she rear this 
tropical - looking young 
squash, only to send down 
in destruction upon it out 
of the air an evil-smelling 
bug, black as a pirate’s 
flag and ugly as Sin?” 
Nature will not answer these questions. We 
have, to be sure, found out the reason—or at 
least a reason—for some of her tricks. For in¬ 
stance, she gives the columbine a blue dress in 
countries where it is pollinated by the bee, and a 
red one where the ruby-throated humming-bird 
does the work. She knew, long before any spec¬ 
tacled scientist ever discovered it, that the bee will 
go for a bonny blue flower, while the humming¬ 
bird is sure that red hides the sweetest honey! 
But when we face the problem of protecting our 
plants in vegetable and flower gardens—as the 
statesmen say, “it is a fact, not a theory, which 
we confront.” 
He who plants a garden must expect trouble, 
and should prepare to prevent it; or, where that 
is not possible, to meet and control it. In gar- 
Increased size and quality of fruit , be¬ 
sides earlier maturity, result from 
keeping each tomato plant thinned to 
a single stalk 
Much is to be gained and nothing lost 
by pulling up the bean plants as soon 
as they finish bearing, to make room 
for other things 
dening, be it said, preparedness counts, and one 
little ten minute dose of prevention is more effec¬ 
tive than many long and weary hours of cure. 
Clean culture is in itself a matter of the great¬ 
est importance in this business of prevention. It 
means not only clean ground and freedom from 
weeds but plenty of space for the plants. Thin 
out your plants just as soon as they are big 
enough to be thinned. The gardener who is too 
weak-minded or lazy to destroy ruthlessly his 
surplus plants, where the growth is too thick, is 
inviting trouble and is sure to get it. Over¬ 
crowding always produces weaklings, ready to 
succumb to the first unfavorable condition. More¬ 
over, the crowding creates an environment which 
encourages the unseen development of both in¬ 
sects and disease. Let in the air and sunshine, 
give the cleansing wind a chance to blow around 
and through each individual plant, and you will 
find that you have cut down your gardening 
troubles by half. The aphides, squash bugs and 
other pests are most frequently found where 
leaves touch or stems crowd together, and black 
rot and mildew set in where fruits touch. 
Comparatively little injury is caused by the dis¬ 
eases in the ordinary mixed garden. There are two 
kinds of diseases: those directly due to the effect 
of the injurious bacteria, introduced from out¬ 
side and then multiplying in the tissues of the 
Brush is not essential for successful pea 
growing. A trellis of horizontal and ver¬ 
tical strings will serve the purpose 
plant; and those which at¬ 
tack the whole constitu¬ 
tion of the plant. To the 
former class belong the 
various wilts, blights and 
troublesome rusts. 
Far more important are 
the insect invaders which 
may, in general, be div¬ 
ided into four classes, ac¬ 
cording to method of at¬ 
tack : those which suck; 
those which chew; those 
which bore; and those 
which attack the roots. 
The sucking insects 
thrive by extracting the 
plant juices while doing 
little or no injury to the 
leaves or stems on which 
they are at work. They 
include, beside the aphides 
and plant lice, soft and 
hard shelled scales and 
the nymphs or young of 
such things as the squash 
bug, white fly and oyster- 
shell scale. The uninitiated 
gardener will scarcely be- 
_ _ lieve that a few soft little 
insects can be causing his plants to fail so sud¬ 
denly. Because these insects take their food from 
beneath the bark, poisons are useless and they 
must be asphyxiated or destroyed by a contact 
corrosive, such as kerosene or soap. In the small 
colonies in which they at first appear, the sucking 
insects can be exterminated by a prompt and ener¬ 
getic attack. Since they multiply with almost in¬ 
credible rapidity, it is next to impossible to get 
rid of them once they have gained a start, espe¬ 
cially in thick vines or foliage. 
The chewing insects include the potato beetle, 
rose bug, tomato worm, cutworm and the like. 
Unlike the sucking insects, they usually attack 
as matured specimens and the first onslaught may 
mean great damage. Fortunately they may be 
(Continued on page 68) 
