HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 
1914 
289 
He took it very nicely, with a quizzical look — and apologized! 
And then Miss Lucy rescued us and him and the situation. “We 
were on our way to see you, I think,” said she, as calm and sweet 
as ever, “for I believe this is Mr. Parke Gladden — is it not?” 
It was; and whether it was Mrs. Addicks’ severity or Miss 
Lucy’s sweetness, or the two in combination, I do not know, but 
he was evidently tamed instantly and completely — if ever lie had 
been wild. He was simply lovely to us, and we had really very 
little difficulty in getting his promise to come and give the seedbed 
talk this month; and he showed us about over a great deal of the 
farm, which is wonderful, of course. 
All of this was really an achievement, for it is said that he has 
not gone outside the boundaries of “Stone Acres” more than half 
a dozen times since he brought the wreck of his mad wife, and of 
their two lives, to its seclusion nearly seventeen years ago. And 
he has not received half a dozen visitors in that time, either, so. 
they say. Yet he is a perfectly charming man; and the fame of 
the “Stone Acre” products is a great deal more than State wide. 
I do not know how many valuable hybrids he has originated, nor 
how many fruits and vegetables and flowers bear his, or the 
farm’s, name (of course, his name is not really Gladden, nor is the 
farm “Stone Acres”), but I know they are many. 
We are all making our seedbeds exactly as he told us — or, at 
least we hope and think we are. (I notice they are not all being 
made the same — which is interesting, considering this hope and 
belief!) Particularly, he dwelt upon the need for a sturdy, com¬ 
pact growth in seedlings, with a strong root system. I had never 
thought but that rich soil was as helpful to them as to anything 
else; but this is altogether wrong, it seems — and I can see why, of 
course. For rich soil stimulates them to grow too fast, and they 
spin up and get weak and top-heavy on it — whereas masses of root 
and strong, well-balanced top is the standard to be taken and 
worked for. 
Once get the right spot for a seedbed, he told us, and one may 
go on using it year after year, indefinitely — for, of course, seed¬ 
lings take little from the soil. And, once the soil is well prepared, 
it is a great waste to turn the space into other uses, for its prepa¬ 
ration is a matter of great care and considerable labor, according 
to the formula he gave us. 
The ground is to be well drained, but not on a slope—and it 
does not matter greatly what the natural soil is, for proper soil 
may be substituted without much trouble or expense, unless the 
thing is all being done on a large scale. The general depth of the 
bed proper — of the soil substituted tberefor, if substitution is 
necessary—is only four inches. And he recommended that we 
make the space narrow, suggesting a maximum width of two feet. 
The length is dependent, of course, upon the quantity one wishes 
to raise. 
We are to have the space spaded two or three times over, and 
every stone picked out to the four-inch depth or a little more, and 
the soil worked over to the last degree of mellowness and gentle¬ 
ness (this was his word for it, and I think it delightfully ex¬ 
pressive), providing it is earth that will so work. He gave us the 
usual test of crunching a handful of it together and then opening 
the hand to see if it would fall apart. 
If it does not, sand can be added some¬ 
times, to get tbe texture right, with sat¬ 
isfactory results. But if it cannot — if 
the earth is very heavy and stiff and un¬ 
yielding — we are to have about two 
inches taken out; and then we are to fill 
this excavation with the four inches of 
soil prepared by mixing any reasonably 
good top soil, screened free of stones, 
with half its quantity of woods humus — 
which is the rich dirt under the leaves in 
a woods—and, adding to this enough sharp, clean sand to make it 
soft and friable — or “gentle.” After this soil is in place, a sod 
margin is to be laid on the slant up from the general ground level 
to the level of the surface of the bed; this to hold the earth secure, 
as well as to give a pleasing, neat finish. 
Right alongside the seedbed he advises the transplanting beds — 
which were quite a new idea to all of us. I have always trans¬ 
planted tiny plants pretty nearly helter-skelter, as I could find a 
space, if their permanent locations were not ready for them — and 
thought that there was no other way of doing; but this is not 
efficiency in garden practice, it seems. 
Instead, we must move the seedlings from their first home into 
a second temporary one that has been prepared in exactly the same 
way as the seedbed, except that its soil is six inches deep instead 
of-four, and has well-rotted manure mixed into it in place of the 
woods humus. Many things he transplants from the seedbed and 
then transplants twice again from one transplanting bed to an¬ 
other to secure the highly desired dense system of fibrous roots. 
This means four times shifting before the plants are finally set¬ 
tled ; and, as every shift means much new root growth, and as new 
root growth means increase in feeding capacity, and this means 
greater strength in the plant, it is easy to see what one of the 
secrets of “Stone Acres’ ” superior products is. 
Another thing which he was very emphatic about was not sow¬ 
ing seed too deep; and he reminded us in this connection that 
Nature only scatters it upon the surface of the ground, or into 
little crannies or “wrinkles” of the earth. Even those seeds 
which she covers are covered lightly with just leaves and wind- 
blowings, generally; and the little plants have really almost no 
effort to make to pierce their way up to light and air. Just deep 
enough to “keep them dark and evenly moist when carefully 
watched,” is his rule — which seems elastic, indeed, and radical. 
But I am not going to plant anything to more than twice its depth 
this year, and only sprinkle the earth over them at that. 
Watching the seedbed is as important as seeding it, evidently— 
if one is to have plants; and watching, he was particular to say, 
did not consist in giving it a glimpse over once a day. Three 
times a day in dry weather, and twice a day in cloudy, it should 
be visited; for an even degree of moisture all the time is its abso¬ 
lute essential—not a wetting down and then a drying out. 
Lath screens, elevated on twelve-inch legs, are to be kept in 
place all of the time on sunny days, and mostly all of the time in 
any case, for they protect the bed from rain, as well as sun, which 
beats down little plants dreadfully, as I very well know from my 
experience trying to raise phlox last summer. The laths are laid 
their own width apart on frames two by three feet in size, these 
frames being of strips seven-eighths of an inch thick and one and 
one-quarter inches wide. We do not cut the lath, although it is 
laid across the shortest dimension of the frame; this leaves a six- 
inch projection on each side, so even the slanting sun rays can¬ 
not reach the sides of the beds. And I am planning to have only 
half of my frames with legs; these can then be set almost three 
feet apart, and the legless ones laid on them between, to fill the 
gaps. Everyone is making these now, and lath will go up, I 
expect—for we are each to have enough 
for seedbed and transplanting beds. And 
they are very useful to set above plants 
newly transplanted into the garden, too, 
so I may have a few extra made, just for 
good measure. 
Of seedbed space one does not need a 
great amount, of course—I am having 
only six feet in length — but of trans¬ 
planting beds I am having twenty feet 
prepared, divided into two ten-foot beds 
on each side of the seed-bed. 
