EXTERMINATING ANTS 
A S a subscriber to House and Garden I feel 
privileged to ask what will exterminate 
the ants in my strawberry garden. I broke 
new ground where there were several ant hills and 
although I plowed the ground well yet the ants 
hurrow into it and destroy my plants. J. S. M. 
As your plowing has evidently scattered the larger 
colonies they are endeavoring to find new nests. 
Make a series of holes in the nests, six to eight inches 
deep and about six inches apart. A broom handle 
will do to make the holes with. Pour a tablespoon¬ 
ful of hisulphate of carbon into each hole, and cover 
with a blanket, or fill the holes with soil. The 
fumes wdl kdl the ants. 
evergreen hedges 
Is there any thing that may be used as a very low 
evergreen hedge or border to formal beds where the 
box is not hardy Something that will bear shear¬ 
ing. S. J. E. 
Euonymus radicans may be used in such a situation 
and sheared. It is hardy and long-lived. There is 
a variegated form on which the foliage is partly a yel¬ 
lowish white. This is a very accommodating plant. 
It is content to remain a low shrub if no support is 
offered it, but if close to a stone, stump or a wall it 
will climb up quite a height. If a post be placed 
close to a plant, those shoots that can touch it will 
climb, the others remaining in shrub form. 
GROWING RHODODENDRONS 
I have bought a new place here (Milwaukee, Wis.) 
on the bluff and would like to grow some rhododen¬ 
drons, but not seeing any here I am skeptical about 
planting. Do you know about their being hardy any 
where along Lake Michigan O. A. C. 
No broad-leafed evergreen thrives in the section 
close to Lake Michigan in Illinois or Wisconsin. 
In some localities, where local influences favor them 
Berberis aqmfoltinii (Mahonia) and the Euonymus 
radicatTs, do fairly well, the latter being the hardiest, 
but rhododendrons, azaleas, or anything in the 
heath line are failures. Back from the lake some 
ten or more miles and especially at Lake Geneva, 
Wis., plantings of rhododendrons have been made, 
but those I have seen look unhappy. 
INDELIBLE INK FOR MARKING LABELS 
Please give a formula for a home-made indelible 
ink for use on zinc labels. W. J. C. 
One ounce verdigris, one ounce sal ammoniac, 
one-half ounce lamp black, one-half pint water. 
Mix in an earthenware vessel with a wooden 
spatula, bottle and shake well before using and write 
with a new pen. 
Cleanse the zinc in water with washing soda so as 
to remove all signs of grease. 
PREPARING SOIL FOR GREENHOUSES 
I am building a small greenhouse and intend 
raising my own plants for outdoor use. What is the 
best way to prepare my soilOur natural soil is 
a moderately heavy yellow clay loam. E. Y. G. 
The chances are that you have the basis for an 
ideal soil. If your house will he completed in time 
for spring use, you had better obtain some cultivated 
garden soil as a starter. Next spring plow up some 
sod from a pasture, plowing shallow, and compost it. 
Place a layer of this plowed sod where you intend to 
compost it, say eight inches thick and ten or more 
feet square, then add a layer of fresh manure of the 
same thickness, then sod and again manure, and so 
on, keeping the edges high so that when finished the 
top will be concave in order to hold moisture. Keep 
adding the loose soil that drops from the sod. If the 
field surrounding it is weedy so seeds are apt to blow 
on it, let the last coating be of manure which can be 
cast aside when removing the soil. Let it remain 
until fall, or if you have time chop it down once 
and repile, covering the top again with a coating 
of fresh manure. When carrying it to the green¬ 
house chop it down with a sharp spade unless you 
did so in the summer. In the meantime obtain some 
clean sharp sand, and if possible some leaf mould. 
You can make the latter by piling some leaves in 
{Contmued on page 14 , Advertising Section.) 
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