House and Garden 
brittle, juicy pods. 1 he pole beans that were 
treated did equally as well, the vines running to the 
tops of the strings that were provided for them and 
making a growth of two to four feet above, falling 
over in heavy masses 
from lack of additional 
supporting strings. The 
yield of beans from the 
treated plants was from 
four to five times that 
of the row left untreated; 
and, taking everything 
into consideration, it 
seems safe to say, from 
the writer’s experience, 
that the nitro - culture 
will increase the pro¬ 
ductiveness of a given 
space planted with beans 
at least three or four¬ 
fold. 
Liberal fertilization 
and frequent waterings, 
aided by careful weed¬ 
ing and cultivation, 
also worked wonders 
with the tomatoes. Early 
in the summer the plants 
outgrew the original trel¬ 
lis made for them—and 
which, it was thought, 
would prove amply 
large—and a makeshift 
addition was necessary. 
A little later a second addition was required, the 
final structure being decidedly ragged and patchy in 
appearance. 1 he trellis, however rude, achieved 
its purpose, which was to keep the plants trained 
up off the ground, and it does not seem possible that 
finer tomatoes could possibly be grown than these 
vines produced. 1 hree of the fruits were simply 
mammoth in size; two of these had a combined 
weight of two pounds ten ounces, and the other, 
alone, weighed two pounds eight ounces. 
1 he total cash outlay for the garden described here 
was $1.25; one dollar of this was for seeds, plants 
and sets, and the remaining twenty-five cents was for 
one package of nitro-culture. The tools needed— 
mattock, spade, hoe and rake—were already on hand, 
having been used before in making flower beds. 
1 he garden produced vegetables in the following 
quantities and to the following values: 
Lettuce, radishes, onions and beets (estimated), 
$1.50; wax beans, from June 26 to July 31, nine and 
one-half pecks, the market price ranging from forty 
cents per peck, early in the season, to fifteen cents 
per peck at the close, 
and the total value of 
wax beans picked being 
$2.27. Pole beans—first 
July 1, last September 
26 — eighteen and one- 
halt pecks, from thirty- 
five cents per peck down 
to fifteen cents and up 
again to thirty cents at 
the close of the season; 
total value, $3.94. Sweet 
corn, both sorts, early and 
late, 192 ears, market 
price from thirty cents 
per dozen ears at time 
of first picking, July 3, 
to fifteen cents per dozen 
when last was picked, 
September 2; total value, 
$1.98. Tomatoes—first 
picked July 18, when 
market price was twenty- 
five cents per basket of 
six to eight; total picked* 
five and a half bush¬ 
els; value, 5470. Total 
for garden $14.39. The 
photographs accompa¬ 
nying this article, while 
not made in the height of the garden’s mid¬ 
summer luxuriance, indicate in a manner the results 
that were secured. Until the pole beans herein 
described were trained to climb strings the writer 
had never heard of this manner of growing them; 
and he has not yet met anyone who ever tried the 
experiment. 
The lack of gardening experience, as has in 
this instance been proven, need be no hind¬ 
rance to the making of a handsome, enjoyable 
and profitable little kitchen garden; and the out-of- 
door work —digging and delving in the earth, plant¬ 
ing seeds and watching the plants grow and produce 
—is a means of exercise for office men and desk 
workers than which none more pleasant and bene¬ 
ficial has ever been found. 
* Figures up to and including October 4, 1906. On the date of writing 
this, October 7, these tomato vines are still in bearing, and on the seven 
vines I counted this morning g6 green and partly ripened tomatoes. 
“ Lazy Wife ” Pole Beans on Strings Forming a Mask for 
Coal House 
124 
