00 
House & Garden- 
Every “House and Garden” Reader 
Can Profit Greatly by Our 
Home Study Course 
in Gardening 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE announces a new 
departure in horticultural journalism. It offers a prac¬ 
tical Home Study Course in gardening under the able 
direction of Mr. Arthur Smith, widely known as an author¬ 
ity on all phases of horticulture. One lesson will appear 
in every issue (monthly) of the Chronicle. 
These lessons are of particular interest to members of 
garden clubs, leaders in the Eh S. School Garden Army, 
etc. Those who study under Mr. Smith’s skillful guidance 
will be equipped to lead the thought and action of their 
respective communities, as well as to produce superior 
gardens that command attention. 
These Lessons Will Help You 
October : “Fall Preparation of the Ground for Spring Planting” 
November: “Preparing the Garden for its Winter Bed” 
December : “The Growing and Care of House Plants” 
How to Get This Home Study Course 
Besides a complete les¬ 
son of the Home Study 
Course, each issue of the 
Gardeners' Chronicle con¬ 
tains articles from fore¬ 
most writers on horti¬ 
culture and reviews the 
world’s best garden liter¬ 
ature. We will send the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle nine 
months for only $1. The 
Course alone will repay 
you many times in added 
pleasure and profit. Mail 
a dollar bill today and 
start with the next lesson. 
The GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE 
286 Fifth Ave. New York City 
DarvvinTulips 
flower Bulk Daffodi | s 
for Fall and Winter 
DAFFODILS 
DARWIN TULIPS 
Plant these in pots or Garden Beds or borders. These majestic Tulips 
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for flower beds and borders. 
Darwin Tulips. Named, 60 bulbs in 10 choice varieties for $2.50 prepaid. 
Darwin Tulips, Mixed, 40 large bulbs, for $1.25, prepaid. 
The golden trumpets that herald the advent 
of spring. Sure, effective. For growing in 
the house in pots, or for outside planting in the garden. 
Daffodils, 40 large bulbs, many kinds mixed— $1.75 prepaid. 
Water 
Flowering 
Exquisite, fragrant, white indoor bloomers in gravel and water 
or earth. French Narcissus, 12 large bulbs, for 65c. prepaid. 
( 40 Darwin Tulips 
„ . . x . _ J 40 Daffodils 
Lorn dI nRtion otTBr i 22 French Narcissus 
1 only $3.25 prepaid 
HYACINTHS, IRISES,. PAEONIES, all other Bulbs and Plants. 
Descriptive and Cultural Catalogue, 48 pages, FREE. WINTER 
ONION SETS for the back yard, plant now. 4 lbs., $1.00 prepaid. 
VAUCHAN’S SFFn STftRF 3| - 33 T - Randolph Street. Chicago. 
TnUunnli a OLLU J 1 UI\L 4,.43 T . Barclay Street. New York. 
FRENCH NARCISSUS 
Growing Plants in the House 
{Continued from page 88) 
casionally the potted ferns should be 
placed in a tub and given a bath with 
weak suds made from a good grade of 
soap. Besides removing accumulations 
of dust from the fronds the baths re¬ 
move minute insect parasites. The suds 
must be rinsed off immediately. 
Potted palms should be regularly 
watered, but not kept moist. While 
small the plants should be washed like 
ferns. When too large for such treat¬ 
ment the tops should be sprayed fre¬ 
quently with dear water. Small quan¬ 
tities of bone meal and wood ashes 
Facts About Se 
E VEN among gardeners of experi¬ 
ence and real ability, the vital im¬ 
portance of the manner of seed- 
germination is a matter not generally 
understood and appreciated. That a 
seed sprouts and develops into a plant 
is all that is actually considered by 
many workers in the soil who, in other 
respects, are very able gardeners. But 
it is a fact that the nature of a plant 
depends largely on the way in which it 
germinates. The grower can control 
the manner of germination, and it is 
in his power to determine the kind of 
stock he is to have. Many expert 
greenhouse men, who have made a life- 
study of this matter, declare that the 
size, earliness of bearing, quantity and 
quality of fruit borne, all depend in a 
vital degree on the experience of the 
seed during its first few days’ contact 
with the soil. 
Let us take a common example: the 
tomato. If tomato seed is started in a 
box in the house, a box with no drain¬ 
age, and is kept in a place where a 
constant temperature of about 70° is 
prevalent, the seed will not germinate 
for about ten days. If this same seed 
is planted in a box which has drainage 
through a sublayer of coarse ashes, 
and if over the box are placed panes of 
glass, to exclude all air except that 
caught between the glass and the soil- 
surface, and if this box is properly 
exposed to sunlight and warmth, the 
seed will be out of the ground in three 
days. But more than that. Ripe to- 
should be stirred into the soil occasion¬ 
ally, or the plants may be watered now" 
and then with manure water or am¬ 
monia water (a teaspoonful of ammonia 
to a quart of water). 
Rubber plants should be treated much 
as are palms, but the soil should be kept 
somewhat more moist. Oleanders may 
be treated practically like palms. Aspi¬ 
distras require less attention than the 
other plants mentioned. They should 
be kept rather drier than palms and 
rubber plants. A dry, sandy soil is re¬ 
quired for cacti. 
ed Germination 
matoes from plants in the latter box 
will be gathered in the garden from 
two to three weeks ahead of tomatoes 
from the plants in the box which had 
their growth and, let us say, their eager¬ 
ness stunted and chilled by a slow and 
cold germination. This matter has been 
very thoroughly tested with the to¬ 
mato, and the conclusion is a fact. 
Other seeds were likewise tested; 
among them were peppers, eggplants, 
and corr. The results were the same 
as in the former experiment, though in 
each case, because of the nature of the 
plant in question, forcing could not be 
so rapid as with the tomato. Yet the 
principle held good. 
To have a plant stunted by sudden 
cold is a common experience, and 
every gardener knows how difficult a 
matter it is to persuade such a plant 
to resume normal growth. Usually it 
is impossible. Even more true is it 
that seeds, discouraged at the time of 
germination, never develop into perfect 
plants. How vital is it therefore that 
seeds should be planted only under 
those conditions which assure easy and 
rapid germination. 
The chief conditions are proper 
warmth and sunlight, good drainage, a 
light soil (50% sharp sand and 50% 
loam or woods earth), sufficient mois¬ 
ture, and a very light covering of soil 
over the seeds. For all seeds of the 
type of the tomato, 1/16" is the best 
depth at which to plant. 
—Archibald Rutledge. 
Fall Measures to Combat Rose Diseases 
R OSE gardeners should take advan¬ 
tage of the fall season, say spe¬ 
cialists of the FT. S. Department 
of Agriculture, to make their plants as 
free as possible from disease, by meth¬ 
ods that can not well be followed dur¬ 
ing the growing season. It is true in 
general that whatever the disease, the 
affected portions of the plants should 
be cut out in the fall and the shortened 
bushes sprayed. It is assumed, how¬ 
ever, that spraying will not have been 
delayed until fall, but will have been 
carried on as a control measure at fre¬ 
quent intervals since spring. The dis¬ 
eased wood removed in the fall, together 
with the old leaves and debris under 
bushes, should be burned. In case of 
attacks by rusts, canker, and leaf spots, 
the diseased wood or leaves should be 
removed and burned even during the 
growing season. 
For powdery mildew, the control 
sprayings for the summer spores should 
be with lime-sulphur or potassium 
sulphid. After cutting back in the fall, 
the plants should be sprayed with lime- 
sulphur or strong Bordeaux mixture. 
The control sprayings for rusts should 
be ammoniacal copper carbonate. The 
fall spraying should be with a strong 
Bordeaux mixture. For leaf-spot, leaf- 
blight, and anthracnose, the control 
sprays may be either Bordeaux mixture 
or ammoniacal copper carbonate, and the 
fall spraying should be with the former. 
Leaf blotch, also known as black- 
spot, is a common and very injurious 
disease. The first symptoms are the 
appearance of irregularly shaped, black¬ 
ish spots on the upper surface of nearly 
full-grown leaves. In this stage the 
trouble may be controlled by several 
sprayings with ammoniacal copper car¬ 
bonate or Bordeaux mixture, but if 
these precautions are not taken another 
stage of the fungus develops in the 
same spots. The fungus in this later 
stage lives over the winter on fallen 
leaves and sets up a new infection in 
the spring, which can only be prevented 
by raking up and burning the fallen 
leaves and spraying the dormant bushes 
with strong Bordeaux mixture. 
Another disease to which roses are 
subject is canker, which starts with 
the appearance of small reddish patches 
on the green parts, generally of one- 
year-old growth. Such infected areas 
may increase until the entire stem is 
surrounded and may extend for several 
inches along the branch. The only ad¬ 
vice to be given is to cut away rigor¬ 
ously all diseased branches, and it may 
be necessary to cut back entire bushes 
if badly infected. Cover the exposed 
surfaces made by this cutting with 
paint or tar. This diseased material 
must be burned and the dormant 
bushes sprayed with strong Bordeaux 
mixture in both Jhp autumn and early 
spring. 
