HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 19 n 
capped right now, for how, without it, are 
you going to know what seeds you need? 
_and they should be ordered at once if 
your list has not already been sent in. 
Stick to the standards! Order novelties 
by the packet only. Order from a reliable 
mail-order house — buy fresh seeds instead 
of gayly lithographed envelopes at some 
local store. 
What to Plant Now 
S TART the first lot of cabbage, lettuce, 
cauliflower, beets, kohl-rabi, and on¬ 
ions (early sowing and transplanting to 
the field makes more difference with them 
than with any vegetable I know). Arti¬ 
chokes are not so well known as they de¬ 
serve ; start a few now. Also celeriac and 
early celery — just a little. And while you 
are at it, two or three boxes more will 
hold a great number of flower seedlings. 
Start your favorite hardy annuals ; include 
Phlox Drummondi, calliopsis and pansies. 
Don’t buy a dozen pansy plants in the 
spring from the florist, which are in the 
last stages of bloom, but start a hundred 
nice, thrifty plants for yourself. They 
grow like weeds when once transplanted, 
and want very little heat. 
About the Grounds 
A RE your shrubs and fruit trees all 
pruned? If not, finish them up 
now before warmer weather calls you off 
to other things. Remember that some 
shrubs flower on the old wood; these 
should not be cut until just after they get 
through blossoming. The fruit trees 
should be put in shape, and sprayed. 
Walks, culverts, newly seeded or sodded 
spots, and trees or shrubs set last fall 
should be attended to. Plan now what 
new shrubs and vines are wanted, and get 
them in early. Don’t loaf, for improve¬ 
ments are possible on even the smallest 
place. 
Are You Buying Fruit? 
'C'RUIT, in proportion to its importance, 
is more neglected than anything else 
about the small place. I suppose one rea¬ 
son is that the methods of fruit culture 
are not so well nor widely known as those 
of vegetables or flowers, and that the re¬ 
turn for the expense and care involved is 
not so immediate. But what a rich divi¬ 
dend it is when declared! It is worth 
working and waiting for if anything in 
gardening is. There is not much that the 
ground yields us which gives greater 
pleasure through the winter than the ap¬ 
ple barrel—to say nothing of peaches, 
pears and plums in profusion in their sea¬ 
son. These are better than you can buy, 
because ripened on the trees, and stored 
without shipping and bruising and cold 
storage. Fruit culture, once understood, 
is not difficult. Further, it is not expen¬ 
sive — a few dollars’ worth of trees (which 
can be purchased for from fifteen to fifty 
cents each, according to sort and size), 
will, after a few years, pay an annual re¬ 
turn of more than one hundred per cent. 
— counting the pleasure as a by-product 
not credited on the account. 
Forsythia in Winter 
HE trimming of forsythia has been 
done at various times of the season, 
fall, winter and spring, with no other defi¬ 
nite purpose than to make it appear well- 
groomed when summer comes. Half the 
pleasure that might be had from it is de¬ 
stroyed by not knowing other results that 
may be had with but little or no trouble. 
Practically every twig that is clipped from 
the bush, if properly placed in a jar or 
can of water and allowed to stand in the 
cellar for two weeks, will bring out the 
blossoms as rich and glorious as when 
they appear on the shrubs in the early 
spring. 
There is absolutely no reason why 
those who own forsythias should not have 
a bouquet of these blossoms throughout 
the winter months. Trim your bushes as 
you want your bouquets, and you will find 
that the shrub thrives as well under this 
treatment as if it were completely trimmed 
of its superfluous runners at any one time. 
For several winters I have had con¬ 
stantly in evidence a beautiful bouquet of 
Clip a few branches from your forsythia 
bush, and let them blossom indoors now 
forsythia, dating from January first to the 
time when the shrub itself begins to bloom. 
Instead of trimming my bushes at one 
time, I have simply taken as many sprigs 
as I required to make up a bouquet to 
meet the demand, putting fresh sprays in 
the jar in the cellar, as the developed ones 
were taken to decorate the living-rooms. 
B. B. Buck 
How one home-owner solved the problem ot securing an effective and unobtrusive place 
for raising seedlings in the early spring. Unfortunately, not many houses have a roof 
of this form, but perhaps there is some other place about your own home in which 
you can build a garden under glass 
