78 
House & Garden 
Increased 
Soil 
Fertility 
Early sowings under glass will produce 
perfect plants if their soil is nourished and 
built up with 
^^The Essence of Fertility” 
The seeds will possess unusual vigor and 
vitality when set out of doors. 
Sodus Humus is a natural silt and leaf mold 
fertilizer that promotes plant growth and pro¬ 
ductiveness. Absolutely odorless. 
Use it on House Plants, Lawns, Shrubbery; 
in Hot Beds and Truck Gardens. 
Packed in i-peck box for Home Use and in 
2-bushel sack for Garden Use. 
By the carload for large users like Farms, 
Greenhouses, Nurseries and Golf Links. 
Prices on request. 
Send for interesting literature. 
SODUS HUMUS COMPANY 
192 Main Street 
. BENTON HARBOR, MICH 
THE GARDEN 
T he “Garden Consultant” is com¬ 
paratively a new comer but is met 
oftener each season as more and 
more women are finding occupation and 
self-expression in relation to vegetables 
and flowers. We are quite familiar with 
women as landscape gardeners, garden- 
designers, farmerettes and we know of 
a number of nurserywomen—(often 
specialists in one or two flowers)—even 
occasionally we meet women-florists. 
Now who and what is the “Garden 
Consultant”? She comes to fill a long- 
felt want—as a friendly adviser who 
will purchase “everything for the gar¬ 
den”—and who is also a practical 
planter, getting down on the ground to 
show with her own hands how to 
group bulbs and plants instead of stand¬ 
ing around all day repeating “Where 
shall I put it?” as do many highly paid 
representatives from nurseries. She 
talks over plans with her client who 
does not employ a trained resident, too 
often domineering, gardener, and then' 
she endeavors to inspire with fresh en¬ 
thusiasm the woman who has struggled 
by herself to work out a special idea 
of color or to obtain more bloom at a 
difficult season, as August. She “makes 
over” gardens as the old-fashioned 
dressmaker did our dresses. She studies 
our taste, personality and circumstances, 
measuring vacant places in the flower 
beds, helping to a choice of suitable 
material in plant life, both as to length 
of bloom and best color for any month, 
the most becoming and suitable one, 
choosing the color, tones, as white, blue 
or pink for the hot months of sum¬ 
mer and the warmer colors, reds, yel¬ 
lows, etc., for autumn. In buying sup¬ 
plies the Garden Consultant is a sort 
of “shoppers”. She visits Flower Shows 
and Nurseries for new ideas, and studies 
prices everywhere, perhaps even import¬ 
ing directly from Holland or Japan. 
She tries to select the best of every¬ 
thing at the most advantageous prices, 
often saving the client money as well 
as time. In case new gardens are to 
be laid out or large estates landscaped, 
the Garden Consultant secures the ser¬ 
vices of a landscape architect or garden 
designer with whom she co-operates. 
The Consultant perhaps produces most 
satisfactory results when visiting the 
same garden periodically, viz., spring 
and fall, often remaining over a night 
to save cost of traveling expenses and 
to utilize evenings for conferences, re¬ 
leasing every hour of daylight for out¬ 
door work. It has always been cus¬ 
tomary for English portrait painters to 
reside in the country homes of their 
patrons while studying and painting 
them. Why should not the Garden 
Consultant have the same hospitality? 
Possibly only advice is needed with 
written suggestions sent to the client 
after one visit to the garden. This 
CONSULTANT 
brings one to the subject of terms for 
services rendered. Prices vary from the 
amount charged for groups of days of 
practical planting to one day’s visit for 
consultation when the ideas and ex¬ 
perience of years may be summoned 
for the benefit of a client who may be 
shown the way to escape expensive : 
failures and to achieve lasting success ’ 
in her garden. Where several women ■ 
wish advice on only a few special ' 
points, they can combine for a con- i 
ference with the Consultant, or she may ; 
be invited to a garden club which has i 
sent her a list of questions in advance i 
of a meeting. Finally, consultation 
may be by photographs and corre¬ 
spondence, though this is the least satis- ■ 
factory method. Of course, where the 
owner wishes only help in selecting va- • 
rieties and to buy in the best places, 
the Consultant can place lists of seeds, \ 
etc., with suitable dealers without see- i 
ing the garden. If this beautiful coun¬ 
try wishes to escape from the monoto- i 
nous repetition of the same shrubs and i 
plants and trees in garden after garden : 
each planting must be individualized, , 
and here the outsider, the Garden Con- i 
sultant, appears upon the scene, bring- | 
ing with her new ideas. 
The Garden Consultant may be a i 
young student from the school of horti- i 
culture, or a person of long years of 
crowded study and practice in a gar- ! 
den of her own, which, thus giving her 1 
membership in a garden club, has of¬ 
fered her points of contact with other i 
women’s ideas and gardens. Whatever 
the background of training and ex¬ 
perience may be, certain essentials 
should be sought when engaging a Con- i 
sultant, viz.: a broad and sympathetic i 
intelligence for interpreting the client’s | 
ideas, tact in correcting her mistakes, i 
and the gift to inspire enthusiasm. | 
Equally important are practical experi- i 
ence in planting seeds, bulbs, plants, 
etc., intimate personal knowledge of the 
habits of families of plants and ac¬ 
quaintance with the sources from which i 
the best may be obtained at least cost. ' 
The supply of Garden Consultants is ■ 
limited, so women wishing their help : 
should lose no time engaging it. 
Few will agree with the landscape 
architect who describes flowers as the 
trimmings of gardens. Many will be¬ 
lieve with the well known member of 
the same profession that “the construc¬ 
tion and setting of the garden, essential 
as these may be to its success, are sec¬ 
ond to the floral ensemble.” Fully 
realizing the fundamental importance of 
line and design, the choice and arrange¬ 
ment of flowers and shrubs furnish the 
fullest expression of the soul of the 
garden and its owner. All hail to the 
woman who helps us cultivate this sou', 
•—the Garden Consultant! 
Ellen P. Cunningham. 
The Ancestor of the Chair 
{Continued from page 38) 
austere from the ankles up, but ever 
they lent kindly encouragement to foot¬ 
rests, primative in form though these 
were. However, when a sitting height 
was reached, stools became as austere as 
Elder Brewster himself. 
Probably, after the luxury of Rome 
was swept away, furniture became as 
desperately uncomfortable as monastic 
ingenuity could make it. During the 
Middle Ages few were the pieces of 
furniture to be found in any of the 
houses. Even the castles of the nobles 
were sparsely endowed with such lux¬ 
uries. A bench, a table and a bed, with 
perhaps a chest (for those who were 
fortunate enough to have need of such 
articles) comprised the household chat¬ 
ties. In those days life was lived m 
the open, and nearly as much so in 
winter as in summer. 
With the advent of the Renaissance, 
when the luxury of the ancients was 
revived, and city life developed, the 
making of furniture and its general use 
advanced with tremendous strides. Soon 
the Italian furniture-makers were '•e- 
{Conlinued on page 80) 
