HOUSE AND GARDEN 
December, 1910 
375 
Straw berry-Patch Mulch 
T HE quality, quantity and proper ap¬ 
plication of manure is of the utmost 
importance in all garden operations. Few 
have any conception of the immense quan¬ 
tity necessary to produce heavy crops. I 
am almost tempted to say that one could 
not use too much. 
It is quite possible, however, to mulch 
too early. I made that mistake last year. 
After a heavy mulch of night-soil and 
leaves put on my strawberry-patch in the 
middle of November, I found the plants 
blooming in December. I counted sixty 
blossoms in the space of a few yards. 
Such experience shows that December 
15th is early enough. 
Cover the patch well with leaves of 
every kind that falls about the grounds, 
then lay a liberal amount of manure over 
the leaves. I find it a good plan to 
change the fertilizer often. This year I 
have used cow-manure. 
Each year I add two rows of a new 
variety of plants at one end of the patch 
and spade two rows under at the other 
end, planting with something else. I find 
this a most satisfactory proceeding. It 
keeps the patch new and gives a variety 
of berries. 
Mulch acts as a winter protection to 
the plants. Without it thev are easily 
subject to frost-bite, and sometimes are 
even crowded out of the ground showing 
a total loss of labor and expense. 
Nature Through a City Backyard 
By Daniel H. Overton 
^PEAKING on outdoor life and recrea¬ 
tion at a parents’ meeting at one 
of our public-school kindergartens a 
short time ago, I noticed on their program 
a striking little cut, which I learned later 
was done by an artist friend of mine. It 
was the cut of a window opening out of 
a library, and above it was this legend: 
“In good sooth, my masters, this is no 
door; yet it is a little window that looketh 
upon a great world.” 
Now, that is just what my backyard is 
to me. It is not a door, but just a little 
window looking out upon the great world 
of country life, and of growing things. 
My study desk is by a window that looks 
out through the backyard, into the great 
world. I have been studying Nature 
through that little window for nearly 
thirteen years, and have been in touch 
with her for ten months of every year. 
Even in the winter when the snows lie 
deep this vista is not without interest, but 
during all of the growing months of the 
year it is full of plants and flowers. When 
I leave it for a time to go out into the 
real country I find it nearer and dearer 
to me because I have been studying it 
through my little window. 
That backyard of mine is full of peren¬ 
nial plants and flowers. We like those 
best because they come in the early spring¬ 
time, and because they come very largely 
of themselves. 
• <■> !! 
The Neighbor-Maker 
CAVAGES built rude 
^ bridges so that they 
might communicate with 
their neighbors. These 
have been replaced by 
triumphs of modern engi¬ 
neering. 
Primitive methods of 
transmitting speech have 
been succeeded by Bell 
telephone service, which 
enables twenty-five mil¬ 
lion people to bridge the 
distances that separate 
them, and speak to each 
other as readily as if they 
stood face to face. 
Such a service, efficient¬ 
ly meeting the demands 
of a busy nation, is only 
possible with expert oper¬ 
ation, proper maintenance 
of equipment, and central¬ 
ized management. 
The Bell System provides 
constantly, day and night, 
millions of bridges to carry 
the communications of this 
country. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
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