78 
Soft Water for Every Home 
No matter how hard, how unsatis¬ 
factory your present water supply is, a 
Permutit Household Water Softener will 
transform it to clear, sparkling water 
that is actually softer than rain. And it 
will do this without changing a single 
pipe in your present system. 
Permutit is a granular material that looks 
something like sand, and possesses the remark¬ 
able property of abstracting all the hardness 
from any water that passes through it. The 
Softener is just a metal tank, containing 
Permutit, that is connected into your water 
supplyline,in the basement or other convenient 
spot, and contains no mechanism or anything 
to get out of order. No chemicals are used, 
and it operates under your ordinary house 
pressure without any additional pumps or 
motors. All equipment is fully guaranteed. 
When the Permutit has taken up its full capacity 
of hardness from the water, you regenerate it with 
common salt, which drives out the hardness that has 
been absorbed, leaving it fresh and active as before. 
The cost of salt amounts to but a few cents a day. 
Water thus treated is 
wonderfully adapted to house¬ 
hold use. It is clear, clean and 
absolutely soft, yet it is suitable 
for drinking and will perform 
wonders in your bathroom, 
kitchen and laundry. It is free 
from all the dangerous contam¬ 
inations found in rain water 
cisterns. 
W rite for our booklet “Soft 
Water in Every Home.” 
mrs Special Apparatus 
emnit 
■440 FcrurtKAve. NewYork 
This booklet contains valuable 
information about the water 
supply for your home. Sent 
free . postpaid , upon request. 
Filters Water So 
House & Garden 
A Successful Small Garden 
(Continued from page 76) 
isolated”, the owner has caught the true doubles follow closely, succeeded by th$ 
meaning. Not only does she utilize 
every inch of space, but the tops of the 
spring bulbs are buried as soon as the 
flowers are gone, to allow the bulbs to 
mature properly yet leave room over 
them for the short rooted annuals and 
the nearby spreading later favorites. 
Moreover, her Pride of Haarlem, Em¬ 
peror, and King of the Blues (for she 
knows her plants, like her friends, by 
name), appear in wonderful clumps 
that are a delight to the eye. 
In accounting for her splendid suc¬ 
cess, Mrs. Smith tells you that the first 
requisite for a fine garden is the proper 
soil, kept in proper condition. For ex¬ 
ample, her tiny wild garden (a 3' strip 
bordering the walk between two 
houses) with its almost tropical ferns 
and a Jack-in-the-pulpit that is prince 
for size, has attained its present luxur¬ 
ious growth owing to its necessary sour 
soil being fertilized regularly but only 
with leaf mould, which contains the 
phosphoric acid supplied in its native 
environment. Likewise, the lilies-of-the- 
valley grow to their wonderful size be¬ 
cause in addition to their desirable 
shady situation, and leaf-mold diet, they 
are nourished by the nodules of nitro¬ 
gen released from the roots of a nearby 
pod-bearing wistaria. 
A sunken, covered barrel in the cen¬ 
ter of the little lawn serves as com¬ 
post container, receiving every bit of 
grass-clippings, leaves and weeds, which 
are turned regularly and allowed to 
mature for two years in order to pro¬ 
vide her own tonic rich black mold. 
Then, besides giving certain plants their 
regular feedings of a special compound 
(10 lbs. sheep manure, to S of bone 
meal and 2 of soot, particularly fine for 
roses), she has had spread on this small 
garden every fall for the past fifteen 
years, a wagon-load of old, thoroughly 
rotted stable manure. A whole spade¬ 
ful goes into each hole left by the re¬ 
moval of the dahlia tubers, nourishing 
the spots for the next season. In the 
spring this top dressing is carefully 
worked in, so that her beds at all times 
have the finest soil, especially adapted 
to the needs of each particular plant. 
Two other factors are almost equally 
stressed by Mrs. Smith—watering and 
fine stock. She does not believe in us¬ 
ing the garden hose, but immediately 
after a rain rakes over the earth to 
break the air channels, letting out the 
moisture and covering with a dust 
mulch that keeps in the dampness. 
When necessary to water during a 
drought, her hose may play all night, 
to soak the ground thoroughly, but not 
be used again for months. Mere sprink¬ 
ling of the surface she pronounces seri¬ 
ously injurious to the roots. 
Then (most important in such a lim¬ 
ited space) she grows only the choicest 
varieties. No room for common things. 
There may be only one hollyhock, but 
that will be a gem; only three or four 
roses, but every one an aristocrat, and 
bred for the longest possible period of 
bloom. Dahlias alone are grown in 
the greatest profusion, but the kinds are 
worth from $.50 a seed-packet to $5.00 
a bulb. All of which leads directly to 
the subject of definite plans and inten¬ 
sive planting. 
Periods of Bloom 
As flowers throughout the entire sea¬ 
son are the most desirable feature of 
any garden, the different periods of 
bloom should be the first consideration. 
Naturally one thinks first of the bulbs 
and root varieties, and equally import¬ 
ant, their flowering time. The dainty 
scilla, snowdrop and crocus appear in 
March. The lovely LaReine (single) 
tulip opens early in April, although half 
a dozen others precede it. The early 
gorgeous Cottage, giant Darwins, and 
the artistic bronze, buff and lavendef 
tinted Dutch Breeders up to June. And 
as even the Byblomes and Bizarres, with 
an ancestry dating back to the historic 
Dutch craze of 1635, can be bought for 
fifty cents per dozen, anyone that 
knows how to buy may enjoy them. 
Some narcissi start as early as April, 
and many run through May. The 
jonquills and daffodils being members 
of the same family are distinguishable 
by the length of the trumpet and vary¬ 
ing leaf. At this time also appear the 
hyacinths, followed by the lfly-of-the- 
valley. 
The iris, however, is one of the most 
satisfactory of all these early bloomers, 
ranging from the 6" dwarfs in April to 
the magnificent 4' Japanese, of heavenly 
shades in July. 
The modern peony is a perfect sur¬ 
prise to one who has not followed its 
remarkable development in size, form 
and color, and it occupies an important 
place on the chart for May and June. 
And the hardy lilies—they can be chos¬ 
en for bloom from June to October! 
The dearly loved roses begin in June, 
too, and many, including the ever- 
blooming, continue up to Thanksgiving. 
It is to the perennials, with a couple 
of the biennials, that we should look 
in the hardy garden, for the greatest 
profusion of choice bloom. Starting 
early in April with rock madwort, Ice¬ 
land poppy, English daisy, we can fol¬ 
low in May with the creeping phlox, 
blue Virginia phlox (perfectly adorable 
with certain tulips), columbine, bleed¬ 
ing-heart, Canterbury bells, running into 
June with Oriental poppies, hardy 
candytuft, baby’s breath, pyrethrum, 
foxglove and delphinium. 
Midsummer Flowers 
For midsummer come many of our 
grandmothers’ favorites — anchusa 
(Dropmore variety), Sweet William, 
Rose campion, monkshood, lupin, saxi¬ 
frage, red-hot-poker, rocket, sneezewort, 
spiderwort, forget-me-not, coreopsis, 
coral bells and snapdragon (considered 
an annual, which may be carried over 
if protected) many of which bloom on 
into the fall. At this latter time we 
can also have the bellflower, the balloon 
flower, the perennial phlox, second 
blooming of delphinium, meadow sage, 
shrubby clematis, Japanese anemone, 
leadwort, and blanket-flower. The late 
fall brings the wide range of hardy 
chrysanthemums, now of particular 
beauty. Just preceding them, as it were 
in a class by themselves, are the dah¬ 
lias which can be grown so as to flower 
any time from July to frost. And the 
Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), the 
only permanent border plant with ever¬ 
green foliage, blooms in December and 
January, even under the snow. 
But as no one would think of at¬ 
tempting to have them all, and the 
chosen favorites leave gaps in color as 
well as the blooming season, the an¬ 
nuals have an important place to fill. 
Among those invaluable come the sweet 
alyssum and cornflowers, blooming 
steadily for months and reseeding them¬ 
selves year after year; snapdragons and 
cosmos, flowering from July to Novem¬ 
ber, asters from August to October, 
sweet peas—some varieties good for four 
months—and then the wealth of differ¬ 
ent poppies, for bloom the entire season. 
Then the tiniest garden must have its 
share of shrubs and vines, and against 
the house and fence, for background, 
Mrs. Smith has her buddleia, clematis 
(Jackmani), spirea (Van Houttei), and 
forsythia, with other favorites, many of 
which furnish cuttings for a breath of 
spring indoors in midwinter. 
Olive Hyde Foster. 
