PART II

THE CHIEF'S GARDEN TALKS

I

THE SOIL

The following winter The Chief gave Friday afternoon talks to his boys

and girls. These meetings did not in any way interfere with the boys'

regular Saturday evening club.

Immediately after school each Friday afternoon they all trooped round to

The Chief's little house, which had become a centre of village interest.

Finally the men came too, for they had found out that this man knew of

what he spoke.

But we are wandering away from those Friday afternoons.

There was the strangest collection of stools and benches in The Chief's

side entry, all belonging to the boys and girls. "You must each one

bring your own seat, because you all know that I haven't chairs enough

to go around." And this called forth the collection.

It was an odd sight that first Friday in early November. A long straggly

line of boys and girls, each one with a seat of some kind, wound its

way up to The Chief's hospitable door, where he stood waiting, laughing

aloud at the sight. In they came, and made a semi-circle about the big

fireplace.

"I just love this room," said Albert, voicing the feelings of them all.

"I have thought," began The Chief, "that since our really successful

first year of gardening, we ought to be in a position to undertake and

to desire to know more about certain subjects which I shall discuss.

Each Friday I am going to take up a topic such as I should if I were

teaching you in school."

"You do not mean that we'll have to remember and answer questions just

like school? You surely do not mean that, Big Chief," broke in Albert.

"No," replied the man laughing, "no, you may forget it all if you like.

Remember it, if it seems to you useful. But if it's a strain on you,

Albert, make it your business to forget."

They all laughed at this, but none so heartily as Albert himself.

"That's one on this old head of mine," he said, banging that member up

against the side of the chimney.

"My first talk I have given you in part, but I have more I wish to add.

I believe even Albert can stand it. The subject is the soil.

"Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and

vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time

when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water

action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here

is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think

of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling

against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all

could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off,

a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together

to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why,

I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

"Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything

was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think

of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must

have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes

and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken

pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those

days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this

crumbling work.

"From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is

easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of

the great divisions of soil--sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses

of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it

would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and

vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil

resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the

sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus,

and often animal waste.

[Illustration: Constant Cultivation of the Soil Saved George's Cabbages

Photograph by Karl W. Helmer]

"Clay brings us right to another class of soils--clayey soils. It

happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water

trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution

took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called

carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes

certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions

sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did

this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call

clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference

in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where

a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with,

save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock,

and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind

of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece

of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the

sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock

mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and

end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a

portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being

an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of

chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we

have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud

soils because of the amount of water used in their formation. The slate

that Myron brought for road making belongs to the clay family, and so

does shale.

"The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime

soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view.

This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon

as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up

of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions

follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was

limestone first formed?

"At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the

water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses

about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is

representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

"As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living

matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some

limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still

visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in

character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you'd like to

know a way of always being able to tell limestone. I'll drop a little of

this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Now Albert will

drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes

place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to

buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like

vinegar will cause the same result. Albert will prove this to you.

"Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to

deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his

garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.

"I believe the boys from their last winter's work feel fairly familiar

with soils, I have in these three tumblers the three types of soil. As I

pour water on them just see what happens. Observe how little water it

takes to saturate sand. The limy soil holds more water and the clayey an

amazing quantity.

"I do not know whether you are much acquainted with the sea shore, I

doubt it."

"I am," broke in Katharine, "for each summer, except this last one, I

have spent a month at the beach."

"Then possibly you can tell us, Katharine, whether, or not, the sand

takes in, or absorbs, much heat during the day."

"Indeed it does absorb heat; why some days we used to go barefooted on

the beach right after dinner. I can tell you there were times when we

couldn't stand the heat of the sand."

"That is quite true," continued The Chief, "sand absorbs heat to a

remarkable degree. This heat is, to be sure, in the upper layers of the

sand. Had Katharine burrowed down with her toes below those upper layers

she would have found moist, cool sands. But an upper layer of soil, made

up of particles which fall apart easily because of the loose make-up, a

layer which has absorbed little water and much heat--well, to me that

sort of soil doesn't sound quite right for good gardening. Add to such a

soil, humus in the shape of stable manure in large quantities and this

same poor soil becomes very good.

"Now here is the lime soil tumbler. This soil has taken up rather more

water than the sand took. But it, too, surely needs to develop greater

power to take in and hold water. So the same sort of medicine which we

gave the sandy soil may be dealt out to the lime soil. Lime is a pretty

good substance to have in soil. Lime is a kind of fertilizer in itself;

it's a soil sweetener; it helps to put plant food in shape for use, and

causes desirable bacteria to grow. This sounds a bit staggering but all

of these things I am going to talk over with you. So just at present

forget it, Albert, if it is a heavy burden.

"The clay soil, you observe, has taken in quite a quantity of water.

That seems like a good thing. It is. But clay has a mean little habit

of squeezing tightly its particles together with the aid of water so

that air is excluded from the mass. It forms huge lumps; it bakes out

and cracks badly; and it is also very damp, cold and soggy in early

spring.

"As the problem with sand is to add something so that more water may be

held in the soil, so the problem with clay is to overcome that

bothersome habit of baking and caking and cracking. To do this we might

add sand or ashes. But perhaps it would be better yet to add manure with

a lot of straw in it. This is the easiest kind of thing for country boys

and girls to get, because the bedding swept out of horses' stalls is

just the thing.

"When I speak of clay's horrid habit of tight squeezing, I always have

to stop and talk about the two great needs of all soils. One is the need

for water; the other, for air. A soil cannot exist without these two

things any more than we can. Without these, or poorly supplied with

them, a soil is as if it were half-starved.

"That trouble always comes from a lack of one or the other is quite

sufficient to prove to us that these are essential. Just see how sand

lacks water, as does lime soil too! But there is plenty of air space,

unless these soils are too finely powdered. Now look at clay! plenty of

water, but how about the air? When clay begins its packing, then air is

excluded.

"So one of the questions to be asked in soil improvement concerns the

water and air problem. We must have air spaces, and we must have

water-holding capacity.

"Before we go home I must just speak of soil and subsoil. When you

strike your spade down into the earth and lay bare a section of the soil

this is what you see: on top is the plant growth, the soil beneath this,

dark in texture and about our locality of a depth of from six to eight

inches. This layer is called the topsoil. In sections of the West it is

several feet in depth. Now below the topsoil is a lighter coloured, less

fertile, more rocky layer, the subsoil. Beneath comes a layer of rock.

"And finally you may be a bit confused by the word loam. It is often

given as one of the classes of soils. By loam we mean clay, sand and

humus. You will often hear people speaking of a sandy loam or a clayey

loam according as there is a greater percentage of sand or clay in the

soil.

"Next Friday I shall talk about soil fertility. So trot home lively

now!"

II

PLANT FOOD

A soil, as I have said before to the boys, may contain all the food

necessary for plant growth and still not support any good growth at all.

That means then we ought to be able in some way or other so to

understand the soil that it will be possible to unlock these good things

for the plants to live on.

"I see a question in Josephine's and Miriam's faces. I guess that this

question is concerning what the plant food is in soils. That is right,

is it not?

"Well, I'll take that up first, then;--different ways of improving and

increasing the goodness of the soil.

"The foods that are necessary and essential to plants and most likely to

be lacking in the soil are nitrogen, potash and phosphorus. Now by no

means must you think that these are the only chemicals which are foods,

for there are something like thirteen, all of which do a share in the

food supply. Oxygen and carbon are very necessary indeed. Oxygen is both

in the air and in water. Carbon plants take entirely from the air. I

might go on and tell you of iron, of sulphur, of silicon and all the

others. But you would only get confused, so I am going to make you

acquainted with these three entirely necessary ones. They are

capricious; often missing, and when not missing hard to make into

available food for plants.

"The soil contains many bacteria, small living organisms. These may be

divided into two classes, the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones

acting on nitrogenous matter put it in shape for the plant to absorb or

feed upon. You see nitrogen may be in soil in quantities sufficient for

nourishment. But unless it is in a compound available for use, it is of

no value to the plant. Then there are the bad bacteria which act upon

nitrogen in such a way as to form compounds which escape from the soil

as a gas. That is pretty bad, is it not?

"How can the good bacteria be encouraged to grow, and the bad ones

prevented from forming? The necessary conditions for the growth of good

bacteria are air, water, darkness, humus matter and freedom from acid

condition of the soil. If the soil is acid then these other 'chaps' set

up their work; so we must see to it that our soils are well cultivated,

well aired, have plenty of manure, and, if acid, have a liming, so that

these bacteria missionaries can start their good work.

"The manure I spoke of above is the great source of nitrogen upon which

most plants depend. There is nitrogen sufficient right in the air, but

that again is not available. Certain plants like beans, peas and clovers

belonging to the family of legumes are a great deal more fortunate than

the rest of the plant families, for, under favourable conditions, they

develop bacteria which make it possible to take into themselves free

nitrogen. Just look here! See this narrow box; I can drop down one side

of it. Here is a sheet of glass put on so you may look at the roots of

the beans which are planted close to this glass side. Just observe the

great extent of root system. Now see on the roots these white lumps, or

nodules as they are called. These contain nitrogen-gathering bacteria.

Some farmers in order to get more available nitrogen in the soil plant a

crop of some legume. Then these root masses with their treasures on them

are spaded into the soil.

"But most plants depend for nitrogen on manure. Whenever you see sickly

looking foliage know that nitrogen is lacking, and supply manure in

order to obtain it.

"The next element is potash. Its most common source of supply is wood

ashes, not coal ashes. One may buy potash in the form of the muriate or

sulphate. I told the boys before that potash was good for seed and

fruit. Pretty necessary to have in the soil, is it not? Stunted fruit

and poor seed mean lack of potash. Phosphorus helps in this work too,

and also assists in the forming of fine flowers. Bone ash and phosphates

are the sources of this food element.

"So if we just consider the classes of soils with which we have to deal,

remember the foods that must be had, and the effects on plants where one

(or all) of these is lacking, we have in our hands a help to soil

troubles.

"Take sandy soil--what is its greatest need? I should say humus. It

certainly should have more nitrogen. So add humus in the form of manure.

Spread it on your piece of garden plot anywhere from two to six inches

deep. This spaded in will, I think, do the work. You see sand allows

water to trickle away too fast. Water must be held properly in the soil.

"The clay soil really needs air. The good bacteria will not work without

this. So spade the soil up in the fall, and leave it weathering in huge

lumps. Sand or ashes added in the spring helps the air question too. A

sprinkling of lime over the surface tends to sweeten the entire soil;

for clay soil, so often too wet, is liable to get sour. Lime also adds

another plant food called calcium. It would not be bad to add some humus

in order to have an even greater supply of nitrogen.

"The lime soil, light and sweet, needs humus too. It should have this to

add body and ability to hold water.

"Sometimes it is well to add in the spring a sprinkling of phosphates;

that is a chemical fertilizer. Chemical fertilizers are like tonics to

the soil.

"All this very briefly puts us in touch with plant foods. I think you

all know from your school work that plants take their foods in liquid

form. These solutions of foods are very, very weak. That is another

reason why we should see that, if possible, there is plenty of

nourishment available in the soil, and plenty of water too.

"These bean roots and rootlets show the feeding area or places of

plants. Notice the small roots which apparently have a fringe on them.

These fringes we call the root hairs. These absorb, soak up the dilute

food which is in the soil.

"It is very wonderful what power they have of penetrating the soil. See

the bit of blotter I have put down the path of one bean's root course.

It would seem to shut the rootlets entirely off from the soil.

"Jay will gently press the bit of blotter away from the soil. See here

and there how these root hairs have wound their way through the blotter

to the soil, their feeding place. It is well that plants have this power

of seeking and finding food. Because it greatly increases their food

chances.

"So much very briefly for plant food. I have not told you very much to

be sure, but it is quite enough, I think, for a 'starter,' I wish to

tell you a bit about the plant itself soon. A few experiments may liven

up the subject. So I shall ask Josephine, Miriam, and Ethel to attend to

those for us. We can take turns at demonstrating as Jay and Albert have

to-day. So you girls must remember to drop in to see me--say, Wednesday

of next week."

III

SEEDS

Now before we begin just have a look at these geraniums. They have

turned entirely around again and are looking out of the window at the

sun. The power which plants have to move is very clearly shown, is it

not? I am going to talk a little this afternoon about seeds.

"Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but even

so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all

right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power, to produce a

hardy plant.

"If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose carefully.

Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms shall you

decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider, but

the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one

fine blossom. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think

of the numberless equally lovely plants you are going to have from the

seeds. But just as likely as not the seeds will produce plants like the

parent plant.

"So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it

sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly

number of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.

"If you boys and girls should happen to have the opportunity to visit a

seedsman's garden, you will see here and there a blossom with a string

tied around it. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the

whole plant with care you will be able to see the points which the

gardener held in mind when he did his work of selection.

"Last winter we had quite a discussion on corn seed selection. So we

will not discuss that further. Only let me say this for the benefit of

the girls in order to show them the care which must be exercised in

selection. Should a finely formed ear of corn have one or two black

kernels on it, then that shows a cross or taint, do not use such an ear

for the old trouble may crop out. Take an ear of seed corn, notice the

small and rather undersized kernels at the top; do not use these. Select

kernels, the largest, plumpest and best shaped.

"In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Suppose Peter

had bought a package of bean seed. Pull the little envelope out of your

pocket, young man, and open it up. Just look at those seeds as Peter

spreads them out here. Now we know no way of telling anything about the

plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must give

our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that

there is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far

plumper, too. By all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The

reason is this: When you break open a bean--and this is very evident,

too, in the peanut--you see what appears to be a little plant. So it is.

Under just the right conditions for development this 'little chap' grows

into the bean plant you know so well.

"This little plant must depend for its early growth on the nourishment

stored up in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose the food

is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to

eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon. And so if we

choose a large seed, we have chosen a greater amount of food for the

plantlet. This little plantlet feeds upon this stored food until its

roots are prepared to do their work. So if the seed is small and thin,

the first food supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the

little plant.

"You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is called a

cotyledon if there is but one portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are

aided in the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like

the pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have either one or

two cotyledons.

"Some plantlets, as they develop and start to push above the ground,

bear along the cotyledon. This is true in the case of the bean. Jack and

Peter have planted corn and beans in this box, not to have succotash but

to show you about the habits of seeds. See the bean plantlet, big,

sturdy, fellow, is still clinging to its seed leaves or cotyledons, its

baby nourishment. Now look at the corn: there is absolutely no sign

above ground of its one seed leaf.

"So from large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is the reason

why it is better and safer to choose the large seed. It is the same case

exactly as that of weak children. Look at Myron, great strapping fellow!

Hasn't he a fine chance in the world? Do you remember that little sickly

boy who was in school last spring? He was as old as Myron, yet see how

handicapped he is. Try not to bring weak little plantlets into the plant

world. Bring strong, sturdy, healthy ones by careful seed selection.

"There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble is

impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in

appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor

business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in

with large seed are very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed

over and make it clean. By clean is meant freedom from foreign matter.

But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, well nigh

impossible, to make them clean.

"The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We know from our

testings that seeds which look to the eye to be all right may not

develop at all. There are reasons. Seeds may have been picked before

they were ripe or mature; they may have been frozen; and they may be too

old. Seeds retain their viability or germ developing power, a given

number of years and are then useless. There is a viability limit in

years which differs for different seeds. This matter, along with

directions for testing, the girls may get from our club secretary,

Albert. All of this we took up last year in our preliminary garden work

before we started outdoor work.

"From the test of seeds we find out the germination percentage of seeds.

Now if this percentage is low, don't waste time planting such seed

unless it be small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why

does the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When

small seed is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs

sprinkle the seed in very thickly. So a great quantity of seed is

planted. And enough seed germinates and comes up from such close

planting. So quantity makes up for quality.

"But take the case of large seed, like corn for example. Corn is planted

just so far apart and a few seeds in a place. With such a method of

planting the matter of per cent, of germination is most important

indeed.

"Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used but this is

too low a per cent. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The

percentage is seventy. That per cent. would pass you in school, but it

does not pass muster here. For if such low-vitality seeds were planted,

we could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent. coming up.

But if the seeds are lettuce go ahead with the planting. Peter will pass

around these germinating per cent. tables which he has printed for you.

I'd advise you to paste these in your garden diaries. After a test refer

to this table which is from a United States Agricultural Dept. list for

seeds not over one year old. You then know at once whether the seed is

worth using.

--------------------------------------------------------

PER CENT. OF GERMINATION

--------------------------------------------------------

Beans 90 | Leek 80 | Pumpkin 87

Cabbage 90 | Lettuce 85 | Radish 90

Carrots 80 | Muskmelon 87 | Spinach 84

Cauliflower 80 | Okra 80 | Squash 87

Celery 60 | Onion 80 | Tomatoes 85

Corn 87 | Parsley 70 | Turnips 90

Cucumber 87 | Peas 93 | Watermelon 87

Eggplant 80 | Peppers 80 |

--------------------------------------------------------

"After being sure of good seed the next step to consider is when to

plant the seed. It is well to start certain seed inside and so get a bit

ahead of the season. Other seed may as well wait, and be planted out in

the open when the ground is warm.

"Such vegetable seed as the following may be started inside.

--------------------------------------------

INDOOR PLANTING TIME-TABLE

--------------------------------------------

FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL

--------------------------------------------

Artichoke | |

Cabbage | |

Celery | Cucumber |

Egg plant | Egg plant |

Lettuce | Lettuce | Muskmelon

Onion | Pepper |

Radish | Radish |

Tomato | | Tomato

--------------------------------------------

"Flower seeds I will take up later because I wish to think over the

flower garden by itself.

"When shall we plant seeds outdoors? Now no one under the sun can say

plant such and such a seed on May 30th or April 1st. It is the same

absurd case as saying change your winter clothes for summer ones on May

1st. Many writers will cover this subject by saying plant seeds when the

earth is warm. But even that is a pretty general sort of direction.

"Nature has given us a planting guide. She tacks her notice on the fruit

trees. When those early blooming trees, the peach and the plum, put out

their beautiful blossoms the first planting time is on. To be sure the

temperature then is a bit low, only about 45 degrees, so the planting is

not of the more tender vegetables. Get your seed of beet, carrot,

cabbage, cauliflower, endive, kale, lettuce, parsley, parsnip, onion,

pea, radish, turnip and spinach. These may all be planted.

"The next signal to watch for is given by the blooming of the apple

trees. This is the planting time for the more tender seed. These need a

temperature of about 60 degrees in the shade, real apple-blooming time.

Corn, beans, egg plant, melon, squash, cucumber, pumpkin, tomato and

pepper seeds may be planted.

"But when is the time to put out the hotbed, or indoor-started

seedlings? When the apple blossoms drop their petals and have passed by

is the signal for them to go into the ground. Of course, they naturally

would be the last, for they are made very tender from their glass-grown

coddling.

"When it comes to the planting of seed there are certain things to

remember always. First the ground should be made very fine. This is an

easy matter if the planting is done in the hotbed, but more of a problem

in the outdoor garden. It is foolish to plant at all if one does not

intend to do things right. So work over the seed bed thoroughly. After

all is fine and deeply worked, say to about a foot deep, the next thing

to consider is this--how deep should a seed be planted?

"The depth depends upon the size of the seed. Take such small seed as

poppy, parsley, even lettuce, and these may be just sprinkled on the

surface of the ground. Then tread them in with the foot or place a board

over them and walk on the board. In this way the small seed are pressed

into the soil quite sufficiently.

"For seeds in general the following might answer for a rule: There are

seeds like corn, oats, wheat and the grasses which come up unhampered by

their seed leaves. Such seed may be planted deeply--say ten times the

thickness of the seed. Other seed like beans, squash, radish, etc., push

and carry their seed leaves up through the soil with them. So these,

because of this extra work, should be planted nearer the surface. Four

or five times the thickness of the seed is a safe rule to follow.

"When the seed becomes entirely or nearly saturated with water then

germination begins. Sometimes people soak their corn in tepid water

before planting. This hastens germination. But on the other hand if the

soil is very wet and cold the soaked seeds may rot in so much moisture.

Certain seeds have very thick coverings. Canna, date and nut seeds are

examples. Their cases are so hard and absorb moisture so slowly that

germination is a long process. To hasten this little holes may be

drilled in the case, thus giving the plant germ a chance to get out.

Nurserymen crack the nuts in order to help matters along. You can

readily see what a really difficult piece of work it is for a tiny

embryo or baby plant to break open a thick case.

"If seeds are planted too deeply again, a tremendous piece of work is

imposed upon the little plant. To push up through, say one inch of soil,

would be quite a task for a lettuce seedling.

"Finally in seed planting, the soil must be safely compacted or pressed

about the seed. The object of this is to bring in contact with all parts

of the seed soil particles with their films of water. Suppose a radish

seed is planted and no soil happens to come in direct contact with the

seed. That distance, so slight to us, is a well-nigh impossible one for

the rootlets to extend to.

"There is a possibility of course, of too close compacting. This occurs

when the soil is very wet. Do not compact at all then. In fact, such

soil condition represents a very bad time for planting, anyway. Moisture

is necessary for germination, but superabundance of water is fatal. It

is simply ideal when after a planting a gentle rain comes--germination.

"I remember once seeing a garden which school children had planted so

close to the surface that after a rain most of the seeds were lying all

sprouted on the surface of the soil. Take care not to plant in such a

manner.

"This talk has been largely for the purpose of bringing to your minds

certain necessary points. Let me sum them up: Cheap seed are expensive

because they are often full of impurities and lack vital power. Buy

good seed and test _them_. Plant large seed, because the storage of food

is greater. Make the soil conditions right in order to give every help

to the seed. Plant neither too deep, nor too near the surface. Compact

the soil, and so aid germination. The first start of work must be right;

otherwise, trouble comes."

IV

THE PLANT ITSELF

"To think of a plant as a breathing, growing thing is wonderful, but it

is far more wonderful to think of it as something possible for even boys

and girls to train and improve. Here is a bed of petunias, let us say;

do you know just how it is possible to have larger, finer petunias next

year?

"A slight operation performed, and behold magic has been worked!

"First, we will go over the life history of a plant, and then I'll tell

you of this magic and how to work it. Or better yet my assistants here,

Josephine, Miriam and Ethel, will do the trick.

"A plant really goes through much the same operations in life as does an

animal. Only to be sure, these operations are performed in a rather

different way. A plant has a digestive, or feeding, system, a breathing

apparatus, the power to rid itself of waste and to make seed; it moves,

and it grows, too. Philip looked a bit skeptical when I said it moves.

Well, it does. Of course, a plant does not walk about, and move from

spot to spot. But a plant can and does move. Why it can turn itself

around back to, even. Just look at my geranium slips there! they seem to

be breaking their backs to peep out of the window and look at their best

friend, the sun. Turn all of them around, George. See, they face us now!

remember to look at them next Friday.

"But to start over again. A plant has just three necessary and important

parts: these parts are the roots, stem, and leaves. No, Elizabeth, the

fruit and flowers are not separate parts. Why? Well, merely because by

some queer provision of the plant world, the leaves are responsible for

making or forming both the flower and the fruit. If you watch a bud form

and unfold, you will notice that the entire little bud seems to be a

series of leaves. And if your fingers were clever enough you could take

tiny leaves and fold them into the parts which go to make up the flower

and the fruit. This last, like most of the rest of that I am telling

you, is just one of the miracles of nature.

"The root, rootlets and root hairs all go to make up the root-system of

a plant. This system is a feeding and food storage system; cold storage,

we might call it.

"I have spoken before about how the root hairs absorb food. Food is

soaked up something as a blotter soaks up ink. Underground plant food

must be liquid in nature. This is because plants, like babies, must have

very dilute food. Plants can no more get food out of a dry lump of soil

than a little baby can get its food from a hunk of bread or a thick

slice of corn beef. But let that soil be water-soaked, and have the

proper bacteria at work, and the material is in plant-food form.

Josephine has here an old, old experiment. What was a white pink is now

a red one. It has been in that glass of red ink and a little water. And

lo, up the stem the red fluid climbed until it suffused the white flower

and made it red. Notice as Miriam holds that lump of sugar only just

touching the surface of the water, the water moves up that lump. In this

way water and liquid food rise up the stems of plants. Just so, too,

water rises in the soil from the lower layers up to the feeding place of

the roots, and even up to the surface of the ground.

"As the roots are feeding and storing places, so the stem is a sort of

passage way for the passing back and forth of liquids. Take a stem of a

big plant, like an oak tree, and you see in the wood where storage of

fibre has gone on. But the great work is that of interchange.

"Leaves are very active portions of the plant. They represent a great,

busy manufactory. Manufacturing what? That question I see stamped on

Myron's face so plainly he need not speak it out. Manufacturing real

food out of raw material--that is the work of these plant shops.

"Let me tell you about this. Ethel has in her hands two little plants.

The one in her right hand has been growing in the light; the other, in

her left hand, has been put away in the dark to grow. The absence of

green colour is very marked in this latter plant. So you see it takes

light to form this green, or chlorophyll as it is called. The

chlorophyll-saturated cells, absorbing carbonic acid and the

water-diluted food from the soil, literally break them up. And when

broken, food is found suitable for plants to absorb. Wonderful, is it

not?

"I spoke of carbonic acid; well, this is a gas, as some of you have

found out before, made up of carbon and oxygen. It is a gas which we of

the animal kingdom breathe out as waste from our bodies. The plant takes

it in through the leaf--and, by the way, I ought to explain that. It is

this way: if we had a magnifying glass we should find over the inner

surface of leaves, pores, or stomata as they are called. They open in

the presence of light; and from these openings what the plant has no use

for passes out, and gases from the air may pass in. Some call these

openings breathing pores.

"Quantities of water pass out through these pores. When this process

goes on too rapidly a plant will wilt.

"So, to go back, we will suppose that carbonic acid gas has passed into

the leaves. Straightway the chlorophyll bodies get to work. The gas is

broken up, and oxygen and carbon are left. The carbon is wood the plant

builds. Some of the oxygen passes out into the air and some is kept for

plant food use.

"It is a good thing for us that some of the oxygen does escape into the

air for we need it. So you see we, in our respiration, and the plant, in

its breathing, are doing each other a good turn.

"Of course, there is the dilute food from the soil, which is largely

mineral matter and water. The chlorophyll bodies work away on these

minerals, and make them into foods. A great body of water, as I have

said before, passes out of the plant through the stomata.

"I have told you a thing that the plant can do which we are not capable

of doing. A plant takes a mineral and makes it over into food. You and

I, unless we happen to be circus glass-eaters, are not built to do this

work. But the vegetables which we eat do the work for us.

"A great deal of plant food is in the form of sugars and starches. I

remember Katharine and Peter told me last winter that in their

physiology they learned how sugars and starches were made in our own

bodies. And lo and behold, the geranium can do a similar thing.

"Some plants store up lots of starch, as the potato. Others store

quantities of sugar, as the Southern sugar cane and the beet. Wonderful?

Well, I guess it is. If we could hear and see all the work these

energetic little chlorophyll bodies are doing, we should be amazed.

"You will remember that I told you some plants could take the very

necessary chemical nitrogen from the air; most of them, however, must

get it from the soil. And so again this from the soil solution is worked

over into available food.

"After all we must not fail to see that water is most important. It

floats all the important food elements to the leaves for the work to be

done there. The food carbon, of course, is an exception to this rule and

I will say again in certain cases nitrogen is, also.

"Thus you boys and girls now understand how necessary it is that a soil

should be of the right texture to hold water. If it is not, it must be

helped to be so. Sand, you will remember, had to be doctored to hold

water. Clay needed treatment in order to make it quit its bad habit of

baking out.

"Here is a rather interesting experiment set up by Josephine and Ethel.

Look at the first piece of apparatus--a tumbler partly full of water, a

piece of cardboard over the top of the tumbler, and passing down through

a hole in the cardboard a piece of plant just stem stripped of leaves,

and finally a second tumbler clapped over the first. The second piece of

apparatus is exactly like the first, only that the stem, one end of

which is in the water, has leaves on the other end. Notice that the

upper glass in the second case has moisture on it. The upper tumbler of

the other set is perfectly dry. Whence, then, came the moisture? It

must, of course, be the leaves which gave it off, since they represent

the only difference in the two pieces of apparatus.

"I wish we might go on with whole sets of experiments, but for that we

have not time.

"You understand a little of the mission of root, stem and leaf. The root

does a good work in holding a plant in place. It is the foundation

material of the plant. There is much, much more to be learned about all

these subjects. This little is just to open your eyes to the wonders of

the work each plant is performing all the time.

"I said I would show you some magic. Well, this magic has to do with

plant improvement. It is not much of a trick to raise a plant, but it is

a great one to be able to improve that plant.

"Let me tell you of a friend of mine whom we will call Rodney, because

that is his real name. One day Rodney noticed the gardener doing

something with a little flat knife to a pansy. Then he tied a little

paper bag over the pansy, of course leaving the whole thing on the

plant.

"'What are you doing?' asked the lad. 'I am fixing that pansy so that

the seed from it shall be finer seed than they otherwise would be.'

"Then the old gardener explained this to Rodney: There are two parts to

flowers which are very necessary, absolutely necessary to making seed.

One part is the pistil, the other the stamen. Some flowers have both

pistils and stamen, while others have just the pistil and one has to

hunt for another plant having the stamen. You can tell the stamens in

this way: they are the parts which have in their care the pollen. Most

of you know pollen as a yellow powder or dust. Sometimes it is a sticky

gummy mass. The pistil is that part of the flower which ends in the seed

vessel. It very often takes a central position in the flower, standing

up importantly as if it were the 'part' of the flower. And after all, it

is. Now, when this pollen powder falls on the pistil it does not

explode. The pistil merely opens up a bit and down travels the powder

into the seed vessel to help form seed. There would be no real fertile

seed without the pollen.

"Sometimes the pollen from one flower falls on its own pistil, sometimes

the wind, the bees, the birds carry the pollen to flowers far off and

drop it on their pistils. Marvelous, is it not? Everything has to be

just right, or the pollen does not do its work nor the pistil, either.

Pollen has to be ripe to help make the seed.

"But how can the work of the wind and the bees and the birds be improved

on? Just as the old gardener was doing it. He had one pansy, oh such a

large one, but not at all beautiful in colour. He had another one, small

but exquisite in colouring. If he could but grow those two together,

shake them up, say a magic word and get a pansy both beautiful and

large!

"Rodney's gardener used magic but not a magic wand. He took a little

knife called a scalpel. He carefully took some pollen from the beautiful

pansy and then rubbed it gently over the pistil of the big pansy. The

pollen was all ready to drop, and by this he knew it was ripe.

"Why did he place a bag over the pansy? Well, simply because he didn't

wish that pansy interfered with. Suppose the bag were not on; suppose

after he had put the pollen on, the wind had blown other pollen to this

same pistil? Let us suppose that this other pollen came from a very

inferior flower. The experiment would have been spoiled.

"Any of you can try this plant improvement. I see by Katharine's eyes

and Dee's also that they are going to try it. It is well if you have a

pair of forceps. Then you need not use your fingers against the plant at

all. Gently pull the pistil a bit forward, gently place the pollen on

with the scalpel and you have performed the operation entirely with the

proper instruments.

"The girls did some saving of fine specimens of flowers this fall, but

the kind of work of which I have just told you means far more. In the

one case you choose from what you have; in the other case you make what

you want.

"Good-by, again, until next Friday afternoon!"

V

INCREASING PLANTS

"This last garden season we have tried two methods of raising plants:

one was by seed; the other by slips or cuttings. The girls will typify

still another method with their bulbs. This last method is by division.

A bulb as it stores up its nourishment after the blossoming time forms

new little bulbs. These may be separated from the parent tuber if large

enough. You all saw me dividing my peonies. Those peonies doubtless were

started years ago from one or two roots. And now when I dug them up it

looked as if I were laying in a stock of sweet potatoes so great was the

increase.

"There are just three other methods of propagating or increasing plants.

These are layering, budding and grafting.

"Layering is done in several ways. Suppose you have a gooseberry bush

you wish to layer. The time to do the work is after the flowering season

is past. Choose a branch which has not flowered. Strip off the lower

leaves. Now where the old and new wood meet is the place for the cut.

Make a cut right into the stem which will be like a tongue. Let this be

about an inch long. Hold this to the ground with the cut side down. Bank

soil over this. At and under the tongue the new shoots will start, and

the new gooseberry bush grow from this. This new plant may be cut off

from the parent. If the twig will not stay bent down in this position,

cut a forked piece of wood which shall act as a pin. Do you picture

this? A branch bent so that not far from the parent plant it is buried

under ground with the rest of the root protruding from the ground.

"A rubber plant may be layered or topped as it is called. Rubber plants

have an ugly habit of going to top, dropping off their lower leaves as

they do this. So they look as if they were trying to develop into huge

bushes, and they become very ugly in so doing. The top looks all right

and many a person wishes that top were off all by itself and nicely

potted.

"This is the way it is topped. A slit is cut in the bark about where you

would like to see roots growing. Then soil and florists' moss is bound

about the wound. These may easily be kept moist. A paper pot could be

put about the soil if one wished. The soil mass should be a ball of

about six inches in diameter. When the new roots appear through the

moss or poking out of the paper pot, cut the stem of the plant below the

pot. And behold you have a little rubber plant just as good as new, I

have told this before to the girls.

"Another method of layering is to cut the parent off down to the ground.

What is left is called the stool. This stool should be covered with

about six inches of earth. Let us suppose this is done in early spring.

When fall comes around uncover the stool. There will be found a number

of new shoots or plants all nicely protected. These may be transplanted.

Do you know that stool can be used over again?

"This work of layering is really very simple. Myron used it with his

strawberries. The runners were bent and buried just as those of the

gooseberry I spoke of. In this way new strawberry plants were obtained.

One shoot may be bent and buried more than once. So one may get just as

easily two or more new plants from one shoot. This seems as much a

miracle as the cross fertilization of plants.

"The fifth method is that of budding. Apple, peach, plum, cherry and

pear trees may be budded; so, too, may roses.

"In a word, a bud is taken from some desirable tree and inserted within

the bark of a tree either less desirable or young. Young fruit trees,

as you know, need some help before they produce good fruit. Now if

George had at home a peach tree which bore very fine fruit he would be

glad to cross a young tree with this. Budding is a kind of crossing.

"This work should be done in the spring, although it may be done in the

fall. But the spring is a more limber time with Nature. Sap is begining

to flow; life is new and fresh again; all the plant world is ready to

start up and do something. Then, too, the bark of trees should be in as

flexible a condition as possible. The two things really necessary for

the work are mature buds and bark easy to peel.

"Buds should be taken from the very strongest and best twigs of the last

year's growth. The little seedlings in which the buds are to be inserted

should be one year old. These are called the stock.

"This is the manner of inserting the bud: first make a T-shaped cut in

the bark of the stock. This cut should be made on the north side of the

little tree, because it will thus be more sheltered from the sun's rays.

The cut should not be far from the ground on the main trunk, although it

may be at the base of strong shoots. But make it in the former position

for these yearlings. Then loosen the bark with the flat handle of a

regular budding knife. Not many boys and girls own such knives. Some of

you have scalpels. The handles of these are flat enough to use. Again,

you could easily whittle a piece of wood thin and flat enough for this

work.

"The next question is how to sever a bud from its parent shoot. Suppose

you have chosen a nice full bud. About a quarter of an inch below the

base of the bud start cutting into the wood. Run the knife up to about

one quarter of an inch above the bud. Do not cut out through to the

surface, but rather from the upper surface cut the bark loose and peel

this carefully down until you can see the under surface of the bud. You

still have the wood attached to the twig at its upper edge. If as you

look at the under surface of the bud you see that it is hollow, throw

the whole thing away. If it has fibres then it is all right. The proper

layer is left to reunite with the stock. Now the bud and peeled-off bark

may be inserted in the T-shaped slip. Bind the bud in place with raffia.

Do this raffia bandaging both above and below the slit.

"In about ten days the bandage may come off, for the knitting of fibres

is well under way. Now the top of the little tree should be cut right

back to about two inches above the bud, because you wish all the growth

to go to the bud. This is the part of promise to the tree. All its hope

lies in this new bud.

"The best method of increase is that of grafting. A graft or scion,

which is a shoot with two or more buds on it of last year's growth, is

inserted on the stem of another plant called the stock.

"By means of this process of grafting, trees bearing poor fruit are made

to bear good fruit. Wild fruit trees are brought under cultivation, and

a given tree may bear several varieties of its given fruit. For example,

I have in mind a tree, the marvel of my childhood, which bore big sour

apples, beautiful Gravensteins, and a good quality of Baldwins. This

sort of experimenting with trees is not only as good as a puzzle, but is

of great value. To make a wild apple tree with its gnarly, little sour

apples into a really truly, well-behaved tree bearing good fruit is

worth while, is it not? Grafting is not only a method of improvement but

of taming stock, which is after all improvement.

"There are certain necessary precautions to take in this operation of

grafting; for this, like budding, is a surgical operation.

"In all woody branches the outer layer is the bark; next comes the green

layer. Between this layer and the real wood is a mass of fibres which go

by the name of 'cambium'. The cambium layer of the stock and the scion

must be one against the other in grafting in order that the sap may flow

freely as before. This layer of cambium might be likened to our blood

system. The two cambium layers must be pressed closely together so that

the operation may be successful. And finally no cut surface should be

left exposed to the air. It is air, you know, that plays havoc with

flesh wounds. More and more we see that tree doctors have a work

something like our own physicians.

"Grafting is usually done in the spring--in March or April--about the

time sap begins to flow. The grafts or scions may be cut before this.

Choose the tree from which you wish to take a scion. You choose it

because of its fine-flavoured, sound fruit. Perhaps the fruit is

especially large, too. Size of fruit, however, does not denote fine

fruit. I once had an apple that weighed a pound. It was a beauty, fair

to look upon. But what a tasteless, pithy piece of fruit it was.

Appearances in fruit are often deceitful. The scions were to be of the

last year's growth with two or more buds. The shoots should be clean,

healthy and vigorous. You must transmit no disease along with the

scions. These may be cut off in January or February, and stuck into the

soil for about four to six inches. Keep away from direct sunlight. The

buds of scions cut at this time are dormant as they should be.

"Grafting is named according to the manner in which the scion is put

into the stock. There is whip grafting, and cleft grafting. Whip

grafting is sometimes spoken of as tongue grafting.

"This latter method is accomplished in this way: Suppose you have a

scion in your hand. Cut across the end of it diagonally. Use a sharp

knife for this, and make a clean cut, as I now cut across this twig.

About two-thirds of the distance back from the narrow or more pointed

end of the cut make a vertical cut of about an inch right up into the

scion. Cut the stock in a similar way. Then insert the tongue of the

stock into the slit of the scion. Press these together carefully. Bind

with raffia. Whenever this work is done outdoors, as it would be in the

case of any of you who try this experiment, the union must be sealed

over. As official documents are sealed with wax, so this union is

legally sealed in wax. One can buy a regular grafting wax. Sometimes

people mix clay and grease together. That is simple, but pretty sticky

sounding.

"Realgrafting wax is made this way: To two parts of beeswax, add four of

resin. Melt these together with one pound of tallow or linseed oil.

When all are melted together, pour into cold water. Pull like molasses

candy until it is light coloured. One's fingers should be greased to

apply this wax properly.

"Cleft grafting is almost described by its name. A cleft or cut is made

in the stock after the stem has been neatly cut across. The cleft is a

vertical cut of about an inch in length. This is made through the centre

of the stock. The scion is made to fit down into this, so naturally it

is cut like a wedge. But there should be cuts made on both sides of the

scion diagonally to form this wedge. So two cut surfaces of cambium are

laid bare to fit against two similar surfaces of the stock. If the stock

is several times thicker than the graft or scion, there should be two of

these latter inserted. Place one at either end of the cleft. Bind and

wax.

"If the stock is the same thickness as the graft then these two fit

perfectly one into the other.

"This is only a little bit about grafting; but I trust this is enough to

get you all interested in this work.

"'Is grafting really necessary?' I heard Albert whisper a while ago. It

does seem like a great deal of work. The trouble with starting fruit

from seed and expecting to get good results lies in this point: Fruit

trees seems to lose in their development from seed the ability to

produce fruit as fine as the parent stock; and so grafting becomes a

necessity. Strange that this should be so, but it is.

"Start with a peach stone or seed. It came from a fine tree; the fruit

was luscious. And yet the little seedling which comes from that very

stone as a rule must be grafted to bear fruit of equally fine flavour as

that of the original peach. Fruit trees have a tendency to revert to old

wild poor forms. And so we must save them and help them.

"If any of you should start a little orchard he would wish to know how

far apart the trees should be. Apple trees should be set thirty to forty

feet apart each way; pear trees twenty to thirty feet each way; plums

and peaches sixteen to twenty feet each way. Trees need room in which to

spread out and develop; hence the distance given them. I am glad that

Myron has made a start on small fruits. His strawberries were a success.

I'd like to think that next season each of you was to have in his

garden, vegetables, flowers, one small fruit and one of the larger ones,

such as a seedling apple or peach."

VI

GARDEN OPERATIONS

"I suppose the talk to-day will seem to you all merely a repetition of

things you already know. Beginnings, however, are most important.

Results often take care of themselves, but beginnings never do. Gardens

started wrong always go wrong; that is, unless one tears up one's work

and begins over again.

"The first thing in garden making is the selection of a spot. Some of us

are saved that trouble, since we have no choice; or like Josephine, have

nothing at all in the way of space. Without a choice, it means simply

doing the best one can with conditions. With space limited it resolves

itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely a box garden is better

than nothing at all. At least, Josephine felt this to be true, and

proved that parsley grows (with care) as well in a box as in the garden.

I claim that everyone may have something of a garden if he be willing to

take what comes to hand.

"But we will now suppose that it is possible to really choose just the

right site for the garden. What shall be chosen? The greatest

determining factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless

it were absolutely forced upon him; because, while north corners do for

ferns, certain wild flowers, and begonias, they are of little use as

spots for a general garden.

"If possible, choose the ideal spot--a southern exposure. Here the sun

lies warm all day long. When the garden is thus located the rows of

vegetables and flowers should run north and south. Thus placed, the

plants receive the sun's rays all the morning on the eastern side, and

all the afternoon on the western side. One ought not to have any

lopsided plants with such an arrangement.

"Suppose the garden faces southeast. In this case the western sun is out

of the problem. In order to get the best distribution of sunlight run

the rows northwest and southeast.

"The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible

for the longest period of time. From the lopsided growth of window

plants it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly

distributed light. So if you use a little diagram remembering that you

wish the sun to shine part of the day on one side of the plants and part

on the other, you can juggle out any situation. The southern exposure

gives the ideal case because the sun gives half time nearly to each

side. A northern exposure may mean an almost entire cut-off from

sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always get uneven

distribution of sun's rays, no matter how carefully this is planned.

"The garden, if possible, should be planned out on paper. The plan is a

great help when the real planting time comes. It saves time and

unnecessary buying of seed. Last winter we drew some plans to a scale.

Peter, Philip, and Myron did this work in fine shape. They offer to take

groups of you girls and show you how to do it; so whenever you are ready

for this, the boys are ready, too. Sometimes we do change our plans

some, anyway a change is easily made when a plan has been drawn as a

basis.

"New garden spots are likely to be found in two conditions: they are

covered either with turf or with rubbish. In large garden areas the

ground is ploughed and the sod turned under; but in small gardens remove

the sod. How to take off the sod in the best manner is the next

question. Stake and line off the garden spot. The line gives an accurate

and straight course to follow. Cut the edges with the spade all along

the line. If the area is a small one, say four feet by eighteen or

twenty, this is an easy matter. Such a narrow strip may be marked off

like a checkerboard, the sod cut through with the spade, and easily

removed. This could be done in two long strips cut lengthwise of the

strip. When the turf is cut through, roll it right up like a roll of

carpet.

"But suppose the garden plot is large. Then divide this up into strips a

foot wide and take off the sod as before. What shall be done with the

sod? Do not throw it away for it is full of richness, although not quite

in available form. So pack the sod grass side down one square on

another. Leave it to rot and to weather. When rotted it makes a fine

fertilizer. Such a pile of rotting vegetable matter is called a compost

pile. All through the summer add any old green vegetable matter to this.

In the fall put the autumn leaves on. A fine lot of goodness is being

fixed for another season.

"The girls, I suppose, think this is a wretched heap to have in the

corner of a garden. So it is. But it is possible to screen it. Plant

before the space allotted to this, castor beans, tall cannas or

sunflowers. Perhaps the castor beans would be the best of all.

Sunflowers get brown and straggly looking before the season is past its

prime.

"Even when the garden is large enough to plough, I would pick out the

largest pieces of sod rather than have them turned under. Go over the

ploughed space, pick out the pieces of sod, shake them well and pack

them up in a compost heap.

"What is to be done with the rubbish often found on new garden sites? If

this be only weeds and other vegetable matter it may be very easily

burned on the garden spot. But suppose it is a grand collection of tin

cans, bottles and such things as cannot be burned? What can we do with

them? Cities have public dumps where lots are to be filled in. All such

trash may go to these. Oftentimes it is possible to find suitable places

in the country for dumping. But do not dump where the rubbish is to be

unsightly for others as it has been for yourself; far better have a dump

heap on your own land and screen this as the compost heap was to be

shielded from view. We take the wrong point of view if we dump rubbish

anywhere, for the sake of getting rid of it. You remember your plan is

to help make a more beautiful village.

"How must the small garden be spaded? A method called trenching, is good

because it is so thorough. Here is a diagram George has made. Just get

your heads around this, and I'll explain it.

[Illustration: From this plan see the scheme of trenching. Top soil from

AA' is carted to EE'. Then the top soil from BB' goes into AA'. Continue

this method and see that the soil on EE' finally goes into trench DD'.

So all the top soil in this given area is worked over and is still kept

on top.]

"This rectangle is supposed to be the plot which needs digging. Line it

off into strips one foot wide. Have your wheelbarrow right beside AA'.

Dig one foot of top soil out of strip A' along all its length. Put this

into the barrow and dump it into the strip marked EE' outside of the

garden proper. Do the same thing to strip BB', only throw the soil into

trench AA'. The top soil from CC' goes into BB'; that of DD' into CC'.

Now the soil that was dumped outside the garden upon the strip EE' of

course is already to go right into trench DD'.

"The value of this work is to get the soil of the bed entirely worked

over. Most people dig but poorly. Digging is hard work; so a boy digs a

little here, and a little there, throughout the seed bed and thinks the

work is all done. It is really done when the above method is used. And

after all we have said about the necessity for airing soil, and the need

of stirring things up so that the good bacteria may do their work, I

know you will all see the point immediately.

"Mere spading of the ground is not sufficient. The soil is still left in

lumps. Always as one spades one should break up the big lumps. But even

so the ground is in no shape for planting. Ground must be very fine

indeed to plant in, because seeds can get very close indeed to fine

particles of soil. But the large lumps leave large spaces which no tiny

root hair can penetrate. A seed is left stranded in a perfect waste when

planted in chunks of soil. A baby surrounded with great pieces of

beefsteak would starve. A seed among large lumps of soil is in a

similar situation. The spade never can do this work of pulverizing soil.

But the rake can. That's the value of the rake. It is a great lump

breaker, but will not do for large lumps. If the soil still has large

lumps in it take the hoe.

"Many people handle the hoe awkwardly. Get up, Jay, and show us just how

to hold it! Walk along as you hoe, drawing the hoe toward you. The chief

work of this implement is to rid the soil of weeds and stir up the top

surface. It is used in summer to form that mulch of dust so valuable in

retaining moisture in the soil. I often see boys hoe as if they were

going to chop into atoms everything around. Hoeing should never be such

vigorous exercise as that. Spading is vigorous, hard work, but not

hoeing and raking.

"After lumps are broken use the rake to make the bed fine and smooth.

Now the great piece of work is done. To be sure I have said nothing of

fertilizing. The kind and amount of fertilizer depends on the kind of

soil. Well-rotted manure being the best all-around fertilizer, we will

say that we have spaded that into the seed bed after the trenching

operation is over.

"Now the plan made on paper comes into practical use, and garden stakes,

cord and a means of measuring are the things necessary to have on hand.

Jay and Albert have made their garden stakes one foot in length. They

will serve as a good rule in furrow making. On their hoe handles Jack

and Elizabeth have marked two feet off into inches. This is another

scheme for measuring. George has a pole four feet long which he uses.

This has inches marked on one foot of its length. Katharine has a

seventy-five foot tape measure. And Leston and Helena have made this

tool I have here in my hand. It looks like a wooden toothed rake with

its teeth eight inches apart. This dragged over the surface of a nice,

fine garden bed marks off furrows. It makes the most regular furrows you

ever saw because it cannot help itself. Miriam used a board last summer.

She laid this across her seed bed, kneeling on it, then she drew a

dibber along the board's straight edge, pressing firmly into the soil

with the dibber. This also made a good straight furrow.

"Peter and Philip always use a line and two stout garden stakes. Their

hoes do the rest.

"We usually think of furrows, or drills, as they really should be called

when little soil is removed, as being about a half inch or even less in

width. Sometimes certain seed, beans and peas, for example, are placed

in double rows in a wide drill.

"I think you all understand hill making. Then you remember how we

planted certain seeds broadcast, as grass and poppy seeds. Remember that

seeds thus sown need only a dusting of soil over them.

"But in general, drill sowing for both vegetables and flower seeds is

the most satisfactory method.

"Most boys and girls sow seeds too thickly. The seedlings as they come

up are too crowded for proper amounts of sunlight, air and food. You

have seen lettuce seedlings crowded together growing small and weak.

Why? Lack of light and air, lack of moisture and food are the reasons

for this. Thin out pretty severely. Wait, of course, until the seedlings

are an inch or more high. Then look over the little plants and gently

take out the weakest and smallest specimens. Press the soil firmly about

those which remain. If the first planting has been very thick have two

times of thinning. It is a bit easier on those seedlings remaining if

too many comrades do not go at once.

[Illustration: Jack's Rake Handle as a Measuring Stick]

[Illustration: Albert Sowing Large Seeds Singly

Photographs by Edward Mahoney]

"Of course, some of these seedlings may be transplanted. They should be

about two inches above ground for this purpose. Lettuce, cabbage and

peppers transplant beautifully; so do asters. I would not try to

transplant beets, radish or turnips. The reason is that these plants

have long tap roots. Usually a portion of the root is left in the ground

and the transplanted seedling has an injured root. So you either lose

it, or it does poorly.

"Beets may be allowed to grow thickly for a time. Then when the thinning

is done, the tender beet tops may be used for greens.

"Transplanting is a delicate operation. A trowel or a thin garden

marker, a can of water and dibber are the necessary tools for the

business. A cloudy day is a good thing to have on hand, also. If this is

impossible, place the sun behind a cloud. The little seedling should be

taken up with great care from its old home. A little soil should come

with the roots. This gives the little plant a home feeling in its new

quarters. The thin stick is often better to use than the trowel. If the

soil is watered a bit about the small plant, one is far more likely to

get the soil up with the roots.

"Now make the hole in the ground with the dibber just where you wish. A

motion, like that of a revolving top, is the one to use in working the

dibber. Water the hole. Drop a little soil in the bottom of the hole.

You see the dibber leaves an awkward little peak there at the bottom of

the hole. Water lodges there and stays. The tiny rootlets do not quite

reach into the bottom of the hole, and perhaps dangle in the water and

begin to decay. A little soil dropped in prevents all this. Now a little

plant goes in. Do not place it too low, nor too high in the hole. Have

the roots uncramped. Drop soil in gently and finally firm it all with

both hands.

"The sun must not shine too hotly for the first few days on these little

plants in their new home. They are not yet used to their surroundings

and must be coddled a bit if they are to do well.

"The remaining garden operations are weeding and constant cultivation. A

part of the work in the flower garden is close picking, if constant

bloom is wished.

"I have said nothing about how to plant different seeds because each of

you had tables to cover all of that.

"The object of this talk is to impress upon you the necessity for

careful preparation. Well-prepared soil, carefully handled tools and

plants are ways to success.

"Good tools, good seed, good hard work make for results such as will

satisfy your highest hopes. But it is not the result only that is worth

the struggle; the knowledge and the power are the greater glories."

VII

COMMON WEEDS

What a delight it would be if we could garden without weeds. But that is

well-nigh impossible. For these rascals, the weeds, are such persistent

fellows, so clever in their devices for getting over the surface of the

earth, so able to live where nothing else in the plant world can live,

that it is a discouraging matter to attempt to exterminate them. They

always seem to me like pushing sort of people trying to live among those

who do not want them. Then, too, they crowd the better class of

inhabitants out.

"There are a certain number of plants which we always looked upon as

weeds, such as burdock and wild carrot, for example. But if a beautiful

garden plant should persist in living and spreading itself over our

vegetable garden, then that, too, would become a weed. Over across the

sea in England the poppy grows wild in the fields. It looks very

beautiful to the traveler, because it makes lovely red splashes of

colour through the field. But I doubt very much if it looks really

attractive to the farmer. These things depend largely, do they not, upon

one's point of view?

"Even a question like weeds we have no right to look at from one point

of view only. The good points of weeds do not balance up the bad points;

but it is well to give even weeds their due. Rid the world of weeds and

unless these despoiled spots were cultivated, think of the great waste

places there would be over the earth's surface. The weeds shade the

ground thus preventing too great surface evaporation. Then the weeds are

a signal to farmers and all gardeners to get busy. We people of the

world are lazy, just naturally so, and perhaps if there were no weeds we

might cultivate the soil too little. Years ago certain weeds were much

used in medicine. This is more or less true, to-day. The dandelion with

its bitter secretion was good, it was believed, for the liver, a sort of

spring tonic. The Department of Agriculture has printed a pamphlet on

'Weeds Used in Medicine' (Farmers' Bulletin, No. 188). Jack and Jay each

sent for a copy last spring. You all might start a garden library with

these pamphlets for a basis. They are sent to you free and are

invaluable in your work. Get together all the helps you can on the

subject you are studying. Boys and girls receive free so much in the

present day that it seems a shame not to make use of these things. The

boys have written to the Department of Agriculture and each month it

sends to the club a list of the publications sent out or reprinted

during the previous month. You girls might follow this good example set

you by the boys.

"Well, we have wandered a bit from the subject in hand. Weeds are again

discouraging because they have such facilities for travel. Talk about

flying machines--weeds are centuries ahead of men along these lines.

Look at a milkweed seed; it is a complete flying apparatus. With its

perfect ballast it flies beautifully along over field and river ready to

alight in proper seed style, end down.

"There is a piece of mechanism in the end of each burdock seed that

seems to make travel possible, and dissemination sure. Never was fish

hook more cleverly made than this hook of the bur seed. It catches on to

your clothing and travels until you feel its pull. Then you pick it off

and cast it aside. So it goes. It sticks to the furry and hairy coats of

animals and again is carried along.

"Did you ever observe the seed of wild carrot? It, too, is arranged with

clinging points all around and about its seed. If you should give just a

little attention to the subject of the means of distribution of wild

seeds you would have a greater respect for the ways and means of Nature.

"Here is another discouraging side to the weed question. Weeds produce

so many, many seeds! Look at a single stalk of plantain. This stalk does

not stand for one seed capsule, but all up and down the stalk are the

seeds; again, not one seed here and one there, but each capsule or seed

case holding many seeds. When these become ripe, then the top of the

capsule comes off just like the cover of a box, or the top of a salt

cellar, and the seeds are sent out. It would not be a useless thing to

count sometimes the number of seeds on one plantain stalk, and thus gain

an idea of the tremendous possibilities of increase which the weeds

have.

"A lad I once knew counted the number of seeds in a milkweed pod which

he had, and found very nearly two hundred. I do not remember the exact

number. It was between one hundred and ninety-five and two hundred.

Think of one pod scattering that number of seeds! Think again of the

number of pods on one milkweed plant! It is staggering, is it not? To be

sure we can remember the parable of the sower and have some hope, for

some seed may fall on soil in which they will never come to maturity.

"Weeds, like the wild morning glory, form new plants not from their

seed only, but from their travelling, trailing branches.

"If, then, the chances are so good for renewal of weeds, what is the

plan of campaign which we should follow? Once a German gentleman who

loved and cultivated roses was asked how to get rid of rose bugs. 'Kill

them,' he said. 'Pick them off by hand and kill them by foot is the sure

method!' he continued.

"So, to get rid of weeds, just destroy them. Persistently and constantly

weed them out and cultivate the soil. Clean cultivation is the only sort

for good crops and freedom from weeds.

"Weeds, as flowers, drop in the three classes of annuals, biennials and

perennials. Any annual is easy enough to hold down. Just pull such weeds

up. Some merely cut the weed off at the surface of the ground, but it is

a better way to be rid of the thing entirely. And should you not be

quite sure of the kind of weed, then pulling up is the only really safe

plan. For if the weed happened to be a perennial, leaving the root in

the ground would be the worst possible thing to do.

"The greatest business of all annuals is to form seed. Now I know you

wish to say that this is the business of all plants. It is. But with

annuals there is only one chance to produce seed. That chance is the one

short year of their lives, and this is doubtless the reason why these

chaps work so hard at seed forming, and produce so many seed. Therefore,

the thing evidently to be done is to make it impossible for annuals to

form seed.

"The biennials and perennials must have further treatment than just that

of preventing seed formation. The underground part of such weeds must be

destroyed. For these live in the ground ready to come up again.

Biennials may be killed out by deep hoeing. Get rid of all the young

plants, keep at the older ones with the hoe and prevent seed formation,

too. Biennials are found most abundantly in waste places along woodsides

and where the soil for a long time has been left undisturbed.

"Perennials need about the same treatment as biennials. But even greater

persistency should be exercised in destroying the underground portion.

For these underground plants produce new plants as surely as seeds do.

The bindweed has a creeping root, wild garlic has a bulb, and such forms

are always producing new forms underground while the seed above the

ground is able to do the same thing.

"Ploughing helps destroy perennials, as the roots are exposed to direct

sunlight and so destroyed. Another method of treatment is that of

cutting off the top down to the root and putting salt on the freshly cut

root tap. Then again these roots may be starved out by never allowing

the top or leafy part to form. You will remember that it is the leaf

which makes the food. And if there is no food then there will be none to

store away in the root for new root formation. Some farmers smother

roots. This is done by planting such crops as hemp, clover or cowpeas.

These crops choke out the weeds. They cover the ground very completely,

and so the weeds have less of a chance.

"I give the following table of a few very common weeds in order that you

may know just how to handle them.

"I must speak especially about snapdragon or butter and eggs. It came to

our country as a garden flower. It has spread and spread, partly by its

seeds and partly by its root stalks, which are creeping ones, and now it

is a perennial weed. For since it has become a nuisance it must be

classed as a weed. As it spreads along it tends to force out other

plants.

"This weed, like the wild carrot, is really very lovely. Could such

weeds be properly held down in small garden areas they would be very

ornamental. I saw a little flower garden once, quite beautiful, with two

small clumps, one of wild mustard and one of field daisy, among the

other flowers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

COMMON NAME CLASS SEED TIME COLOUR OF

FLOWER

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Burdock Biennial Aug.-Oct. Purple

Bur-marigold or Annual July-Nov. Yellow

beggar ticks

Canada thistle Perennial " " "

Chickweed Annual Mar.-July White

Cocklebur " July-Oct. Green

Dandelion Perennial May-Oct. Yellow

English bindweed or " Aug.-Oct. White

morning glory

Moth Mullein Biennial July-Nov. Yellow

Narrow-leaved Annual July-Oct. Blue

stickseed or

beggar tick

Ox-eye daisy or Perennial Aug.-Oct. White

white daisy

Pigweed Annual Aug.-Nov. Green

Prickly lettuce, " July-Nov. Yellow

milkweed

Purslane, pursley " June-Dec. "

Rib-grass, plantain Biennial July-Nov. White

Ragweed, Roman wormwood Annual Aug.-Nov. Yellow

Russian thistle " " " Purplish

Smartweed Perennial Aug.-Sept. Pink

Sorrel Perennial June-Nov. Red

Wild carrot, Biennial July-Nov. White

Queen Anne's lace

Wild garlic, onion Perennial July-Oct. "

Wild mustard Annual June-Oct. Yellow

Wild parsnip Biennial July-Oct. "

Yellow daisy, " July-Sept. "

ox-eye daisy,

brown-eyed Susan

Yellow dock Perennial Aug.-Oct. Green

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"The seeds of the wild mustard, like those of the plantain and other

weeds, get in with the grain seed and so cause constant trouble. Farmers

feel that such weeds must be thoroughly gotten out of the fields.

"It is not our own native weeds which are so troublesome but the

foreign ones. Most of our worst weeds are foreigners. They have come to

this country as stowaways from across the seas. They have fought for

centuries and can keep the fight up over here.

"I am not going to give you a description of each weed we have. This

table, a copy of which is for each of you, will be, I think, of true

help. The study of weeds is something quite by itself. It is for you to

help prevent the seeding of weeds everywhere. Do not carelessly scatter

seeds. Keep your own garden plots free from these pests by clean and

careful cultivation. Remember, too, the value of cover crops.

"There is another pest to fight. This pest is of the animal kingdom and

not of the plant kingdom. Next Friday our talk is on animal pests, and

how to destroy them."

VIII

GARDEN PESTS

If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack

plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time

we must watch out for these little foes--little in size, but tremendous

in the havoc they make.

"As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so

pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste are

lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost

pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite

trouble.

"There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up

of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air and

water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins,

chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help

in this way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds

of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads

are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The

toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.

"Each girl and boy gardener should try to make her or his garden into a

place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled

about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay

a while in your garden. If you wish toads, fix things up for them too.

During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he

is ready to go forth to eat but not to kill, since toads prefer live

food. How can one "fix up" for toads? Well, one thing to do is to

prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size

underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves,

would appear very fine to a toad.

"Suppose a certain crop in your garden has had an insect pest. Do not

plant this same crop next year, for it would doubtless have the same

pest. Don't let the soil get full of insect troubles; therefore, keep

the soil open and aired and study it well.

"There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their

work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its

system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work.

Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the

juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. Plant lice

belong here, as do mosquitoes, which prey on us. All the scale insects

fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants.

"Now can we fight these chaps? The gnawing fellows may be caught with

poison sprayed upon plants, which they take into their bodies with the

plant. The Bordeaux mixture which Peter used is a poison sprayed upon

plants for this purpose. So, too, is Paris green.

"In the other case the only thing is to attack the insect direct. So

certain insecticides, as they are called, are sprayed on the plant to

fall upon the insect. They do a deadly work of attacking, in one way or

another, the body of the insect. The kerosene emulsion made by the girls

for their infested house plants worked this same way. Tobacco water and

tobacco dust sprinkled on act in similar manner.

"Lime, soot, and sand are other means of blocking and choking off

insects.

"Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at work. You

have seen a garden covered with ant hills. Here is a remedy, but one of

which you must be careful.

"Carbon bisulphid comes in little tin cans. It is a liquid of a vile

smell, something like onions and rotten eggs mixed. The girls' noses are

going up sky-high now. But it does the work of ant killing. You must be

careful in handling this. It has a horrid explosive habit. Pour about a

teaspoonful down an ant hole. Do not use a good silver spoon from the

dining room. Get an old spoon, or buy a tin one. For you will never use

it again except it be for carbon-bisulphid work. After this liquid has

been poured down the hole, place a bit of a chip over it, for there may

be a slight volcanic action underground. It is well to do this on a

damp, cloudy day when all the ants are at home.

"Remember this stuff is not to be fooled with, as it is poisonous and

also takes fire readily. Never open the can inside by a fire, in too

great a heat, or near a lighted match. Invite your fathers to help in

this. By no means do anything silly. Keep the can closed except when

pouring out a teaspoonful.

"This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell what insect is

doing the destructive work?' Well, you can tell partly by the work done,

and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not always

so easy to accomplish. I had cutworms one season and never saw one. I

saw only the work done. If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be

pretty sure the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is

a hard question because his family is a large one. Should you see

sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm.

But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and

working by night, it is difficult to catch sight of one. The cutworm is

around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalks of the

hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them. A

very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones,

about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the

plant.

"Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are often green in

colour. But they may be red, yellow or brown. Kerosene emulsion is the

medicine for plant lice. Lice are easy enough to find since they are

always clinging to their host. As sucking insects they have to cling

close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them. But the

biting insects do their work, and then go hide. That makes them much

more difficult to deal with.

"Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out the body

of the leaves, so that just the veining is left. They are soft-bodied,

green above and yellow below. Since they are eating insects Paris green

will kill them. But the kerosene emulsion penetrates their soft bodies;

so this also may be used.

"A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves.

It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it. This beetle, as its name

implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running

lengthwise. White hellebore powder kills these pests. Ask the druggist

for five cents' worth and you will have a great plenty for any of your

gardens. It, too, is a poison. This poison is also good to use for the

caterpillars that eat many of our garden plants. Make a circle four

inches from the stalk of an infested plant and sprinkle the powder in

this. Evening time is good for this, because the dew moistens the powder

just enough to make it a nuisance to the insect.

"Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug will devour

almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They lay

lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up

rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other

single insect pest. You can discover them in the following way. There

is a trick for bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day

time. You see they rest during the day below ground. So just water the

soil in which the slugs are supposed to be. How are you to know where

they are? They are quite likely to hide near the plants they are feeding

on. So water the ground with some nice clean lime water. This will

disturb them, and up they'll poke to see what the matter is.

"Beside these most common of pests already mentioned, pests which attack

many kinds of plants, there are special pests for special plants.

Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes

and cabbages, as George well knows. In fact, the vegetable garden has

many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very bothersome, the

cutworm and the slug have a good time there, too, and ants often get

very numerous as the season advances. But for real discouraging insect

troubles the vegetable garden takes the prize. If we were going into

fruit to any extent, perhaps the vegetable garden would have to resign

in favour of the fruit garden.

"A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm. This is a

large yellowish or greenish striped worm. Its work is to eat into the

young fruit.

"A great, light green caterpillar is found on celery. This caterpillar

may be told by the black bands, one on each ring or segment of its body.

"The squash bug may be told by its brown body, which is long and

slender, and by the disagreeable odour from it when killed. The potato

bug is another fellow to look out for. It is a beetle with yellow and

black stripes down its crusty back. The little green cabbage worm is a

perfect nuisance. It is a small caterpillar and smaller than the tomato

worm. These are perhaps the most common of garden pests by name. It

might be well to take up the common vegetables and flowers mentioning

the pests which prey on each one.

"Let us take the vegetables first. None of us have grown asparagus yet;

but it will be well to know about this vegetable. There is a beetle

which may trouble asparagus plants. It is red with markings of black.

The grub of this beetle is dark green. Look out for the asparagus beetle

during April and May, for these are the months when it appears. The eggs

are laid on young shoots of the plant. Such shoots should be cut right

off. After the cutting season is over the plants should be sprayed.

This may be done in August. Very dilute Bordeaux mixture or Paris green

may be used for a spray.

"Next in the alphabet come beans. The most common trouble that beans

have is one called anthracnose. That staggering word means that the

leaves become covered with spots which are round with purple borders.

Again, a spray of Bordeaux mixture should be used. The plants should be

sprayed until the pods form. Look for this trouble in July.

"Beets are prone to leaf spots. As soon as such spots appear, the plants

should be sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture. Every two weeks give the

plants about three sprayings.

"The cabbage worm I have spoken of. This worm works all summer.

Cabbages, if neglected, become literally alive with the little

caterpillars. They eat and eat the foliage, riddling it completely. They

eat into the heads so that the cabbage plant is completely spoiled.

George treated his with pyrethrum powder. This he mixed with five times

its bulk of dust. It was then dusted or shaken over the cabbage plant. A

very good thing to do before trouble begins is to dust the soil and

tender plants with lime. After the plants have begun to head use

hellebore powder.

"Lice appear on cauliflower. The kerosene emulsion which we use on our

indoor plants is all right for this work, too. The lice appear on the

foliage in great white masses. They suck the life and goodness from the

plant. They come all through the summer at any time. Whale oil soap is

another good spray to use. Peter has typewritten receipts for these

sprays which you may have at the close of this talk. Sometimes the root

of the cauliflower is attacked. Little white maggots mine or burrow

through the root. They are quite likely to begin their bad work in June

or July. That rather dangerous carbon bisulphid is the medicine for this

trouble. Make a hole in the soil as you did when treating the ant. Do

not make this too near the plant. I should say six inches away would be

about right. Pour a teaspoonful of the poison into the hole and it will

take care of itself. Cover the hole over as you would in the case of the

ant. When cauliflower plants begin to look sickly pull one up. If it is

full of maggots that is easy to determine. But it may be that you will

find great lumps or knots on the root. Since these knots appear during

the same months as the maggots, you can only be sure of the real cause

by pulling up a plant. If these knots are on the root, then you have a

very serious trouble to contend with. So serious is the club root

condition that the only safe thing to do is to pull up and completely

destroy the diseased plants. Dig the soil up after this. Then lime it.

Put a lot of lime on, not just a dusting over the surface of the soil.

This represents soil that is in trouble, so do not plant cauliflower

here again, or its coarser cousin, the cabbage.

"Sometimes a little red or orange and black bug appears. This is called

the harlequin bug from its fantastic appearance. This bug may come all

summer long at any time. The whale oil soap spray is the one to use.

Celery may be troubled with the light green caterpillar with the black

bands before spoken of. This caterpillar arrives in August. It is not

difficult at all to see, so many may be picked off just by hand. One may

use Paris green as a spray.

"None of you had any trouble with corn being infested. But sometimes a

worm, called the earworm, which is like the tomato worm, will appear

during June and eat the tips of the young ears. A little Paris green

sprinkled on the leaves, at their base will kill them.

"Cucumbers and melons, as I have before said, are prone to be preys of

the cutworms, squash bugs, striped beetles, and lice or aphis. You know

treatment for cutworms and lice. The squash bug may be destroyed by

hand. Sometimes when bits of sticks are placed on the ground the bugs

will crawl under them. Next morning a small harvest of bugs can be

killed. The squash bug lays its eggs on the under surface of the plant's

leaves. These leaves should be removed and burned. The striped beetle is

kept off by the Bordeaux mixture spray. This beetle appears in June. A

spraying during this month often prevents a blight of the leaves in

July. This blight appears first as a spotting on the leaves, after which

the leaves soon wither up.

"Onions, as well as radishes, are affected by maggots which will mine

through the onion bulb as well as the stems of the young, tender plants.

A solution made from carbolic soap and water is excellent with which to

water the soil about the plants.

"Peas have green lice as melons and cucumbers do. The lice appear early

in May and June, and are killed and kept down by the regulation

treatment. Many times during the latter part of summer peas may become

mildewed. You can tell this by a growth of white down on stem and

leaves. Put some soap in the Bordeaux mixture and spray.

"From May to October potato bugs flourish. Paris green is the spray to

use. In the start they may be hand picked. But do not let them get ahead

of your hand. A very serious potato disease is that of scab. Scales

appear on the potatoes themselves. To prevent this, uncut seed potatoes

are soaked in poison. But this is not a work for you to do alone by any

means.

"The squash bug naturally seeks out the squash vine. He should be

treated as we said when we talked of the same bug and melons.

"Tomatoes have numerous troubles. The cutworm, the tomato worm, the horn

worm, potato beetle and various blights may come to tomatoes. The horn

worm is a large green worm named from the horn at one end of its body.

It appears in midsummer. Such large worms usually may be hand picked. If

you should see a tomato plant wilting for no reason at all, pull it up

and burn it; it probably has an infectious trouble which is carried from

one plant to another by insects. It is really an infectious disease.

"These are the most common vegetable garden pests and their remedies.

"As the girls know, the flower garden is not without pests, too. Plant

lice are plenty enough. These may appear at one time or another during

the entire year.

"Some plants become covered with a little red spider. It attacks the

foliage and does great damage. This may be due to lack of moisture with

house plants. I do not mean lack of watering, but a dry condition of the

air of the room. Often just a spray of clear water is sufficient to rid

the plant of the mites.

"Roses have more troubles than any one other flower. The rose bush may

have lice or it may have a little green bug that jumps very quickly and

so gets its name of leaf-hopper. Kerosene emulsion is good to use. Often

slugs will feed upon the surface of the leaves. A dusting of lime over

the leaves keeps these feeders away. There is a brown beetle called the

rose chafer, which eats the flower itself. Hand picking is about the

best weapon to employ against this enemy. A scale sometimes comes on the

stems. This scale looks like a white crust. It is wise to spray such

rose bushes with kerosene emulsion. And better still, if possible, cut

off and burn such scale-encrusted parts.

"Cutworms bother the early bulbs and the violets, too. A great many of

the larger pests may be hand picked. The lice should be sprayed.

"And for the remedies. The following will be the ones you will need the

most:

KEROSENE EMULSION

Soap (Ivory) 1/4 pound

Boiling water 2 quarts

Kerosene 4 quarts

"The soap should be shaved up and dissolved in the water. To this add

the kerosene (of course not when the soap and water is on the stove) a

little at a time. Beat it with an egg beater to be kept for that

purpose; or shake it vigorously.

"For use against plant lice add to one cup of this emulsion 8 cups of

water. For scale insects dilute with four cups of water.

BORDEAUX MIXTURE

I. Copper sulphate (blue vitriol) 1 lb.

Water 1 gal.

Dissolve the sulphate in the water.

II. Slaked lime 1 lb.

Water 1 gal.

Dissolve the lime in the water.

To one bucket (2-1/2 gallons) of fresh water add four pints of the first

solution. To another bucket of fresh water add six pints of the second

solution.

Stir these together. Keep the rest of the solutions I. and II. for later

mixing when it is needed.

WHALE OIL SOAP HOT WATER SOLUTION

Whale oil soap 1 pound

Hot water 6 quarts

This is the right dilution for plant lice but for scale insects it is

too weak; for them use about two quarts of water to one pound of soap.

"The best way to apply liquid sprays in small gardens is to use a whisk

broom. Just dip the little broom into the mixture needed and shake the

brush over the plant. Then the hands need never come in contact with the

poison. Careful children can use sprays without any trouble. Josephine

has used kerosene emulsion in this fashion: she pours a little into a

saucer, takes a bit of cheese cloth and dipping it into the emulsion

wipes the lice off an infested part. Usually one application is enough.

This sounds like a much more disagreeable task than it really is. A

plant syringe may be used. But personally I like the hand method. Of

course if there are lots of lice on many plants this would not be

practical at all.

"It stands to reason that sick plants need medicines of some kind.

Sometimes to be sure they need better living conditions. Often the soil

is sour, water-logged, unaired and totally unfit for a self-respecting

plant to live in. The whole thing resolves itself into a study of

conditions, and a desire to help the plant have as comfortable a time as

possible in life."

IX

VEGETABLE CULTURE

"As a rule, boys and girls choose to grow bush beans rather than pole

beans. I cannot make up my mind whether or not this is from sheer

laziness. In a city backyard the tall varieties might perhaps be a

problem since it would be difficult to get poles. But these running

beans can be trained along old fences and with little urging will run up

the stalks of the tallest sunflowers. So that settles the pole question.

There is an ornamental side to the bean question. Suppose you plant

these tall beans at the extreme rear end of each vegetable row. Make

arches with supple tree limbs, binding them over to form the arch. Train

the beans over these. When one stands facing the garden, what a

beautiful terminus these bean arches make.

"Beans like rich, warm, sandy soil. In order to assist the soil be sure

to dig deeply, and work it over thoroughly for bean culture. It never

does to plant beans before the world has warmed up from its spring

chills. There is another advantage in early digging of soil. It brings

to the surface eggs and larvae of insects. The birds eager for food will

even follow the plough to pick from the soil these choice morsels. A

little lime worked in with the soil is helpful in the cultivation of

beans.

"Bush beans are planted in drills about eighteen inches apart, while the

pole-bean rows should be three feet apart. The drills for the bush limas

should be further apart than those for the other dwarf beans--say three

feet. This amount of space gives opportunity for cultivation with the

hoe. If the running beans climb too high just pinch off the growing

extreme end, and this will hold back the upward growth.

"Among bush beans are the dwarf, snap or string beans, the wax beans,

the bush limas, one variety of which is known as brittle beans. Among

the pole beans are the pole limas, wax and scarlet runner. The scarlet

runner is a beauty for decorative effects. The flowers are scarlet and

are fine against an old fence. These are quite lovely in the flower

garden. Where one wishes a vine, this is good to plant for one gets both

a vegetable, bright flowers and a screen from the one plant. When

planting beans put the bean in the soil edgewise with the eye down.

"Beets like rich, sandy loam, also. Fresh manure worked into the soil is

fatal for beets, as it is for many another crop. But we will suppose

that nothing is available but fresh manure. Some gardeners say to work

this into the soil with great care and thoroughness. But even so, there

is danger of a particle of it getting next to a tender beet root. The

following can be done; Dig a trench about a foot deep, spread a thin

layer of manure in this, cover it with soil, and plant above this. By

the time the main root strikes down to the manure layer, there will be

little harm done. Beets should not be transplanted. If the rows are one

foot apart there is ample space for cultivation. Whenever the weather is

really settled, then these seeds may be planted. Young beet tops make

fine greens. Greater care should be taken in handling beets than usually

is shown. When beets are to be boiled, if the tip of the root and the

tops are cut off, the beet bleeds. This means a loss of good material.

Pinching off such parts with the fingers and doing this not too closely

to the beet itself is the proper method of handling. I throw this in for

the benefit of our future cooks, the girls.

"There are big coarse members of the beet and cabbage families called

the mangel wurzel and ruta baga. About here these are raised to feed to

the cattle. They are a great addition to a cow's dinner.

"The cabbage family is a large one. There is the cabbage proper, then

cauliflower, broccoli or a more hardy cauliflower, kale, Brussels

sprouts and kohlrabi, a cabbage-turnip combination. George has worked

out cabbage culture successfully. I refer to him for full particulars.

"Cauliflower is a kind of refined, high-toned cabbage relative. It needs

a little richer soil than cabbage and cannot stand the frost. A frequent

watering with manure water gives it the extra richness and water it

really needs. The outer leaves must be bent over, as in the case of the

young cabbage, in order to get the white head. The dwarf varieties are

rather the best to plant.

"Kale is not quite so particular a cousin. It can stand frost. Rich soil

is necessary, and early spring planting, because of slow maturing. It

may be planted in September for early spring work.

"Brussels sprouts are a very popular member of this family. On account

of their size many people who do not like to serve poor, common old

cabbage will serve these. Brussels sprouts are interesting in their

growth. The plant stalk runs skyward. At the top, umbrella like, is a

close head of leaves, but this is not what we eat. Shaded by the

umbrella and packed all along the stalk are delicious little cabbages or

sprouts. Like the rest of the family a rich soil is needed and plenty of

water during the growing period. The seed should be planted in May, and

the little plants transplanted into rich soil in late July. The rows

should be eighteen inches apart, and the plants one foot apart in the

rows.

"Kohlrabi is a go-between in the families of cabbage and turnip. It is

sometimes called the turnip-root cabbage. Just above the ground the stem

of this plant swells into a turnip-like vegetable. In the true turnip

the swelling is underground, but like the cabbage, kohlrabi forms its

edible part above ground. It is easy to grow. Only it should develop

rapidly, otherwise the swelling gets woody, and so loses its good

quality. Sow out as early as possible; or sow inside in March and

transplant to the open. Plant in drills about two feet apart. Set the

plants about one foot apart, or thin out to this distance. To plant one

hundred feet of drill buy half an ounce of seed. Seed goes a long way,

you see. Kohlrabi is served and prepared like turnip. It is a very

satisfactory early crop.

"Before leaving the cabbage family I should like to say that the

cabbage called Savoy is an excellent variety to try. It should always

have an early planting under cover, say in February, and then be

transplanted into open beds in March or April. If the land is poor where

you are to grow cabbage, then by all means choose Savoy.

"Carrots are of two general kinds: those with long roots, and those with

short roots. If long-rooted varieties are chosen, then the soil must be

worked down to a depth of eighteen inches, surely. The shorter ones will

do well in eight inches of well-worked sandy soil. Do not put carrot

seed into freshly manured land. Another point in carrot culture is one

concerning the thinning process. As the little seedlings come up you

will doubtless find that they are much, much too close together. Wait a

bit, thin a little at a time, so that young, tiny carrots may be used on

the home table. These are the points to jot down about the culture of

carrots. I am saying very little about depths and distances because

these were all worked out by the boys last winter and tables may be had

for the asking.