The Huttig news., 1908-02-29


pride a woman takes in successful
garden that her husband has raised.
You would almost imagine that she
had done the work herself. To get the
full benefit of this, just trail her
while she shows the garden to Wis
itors. The word Eve" is much in evil
dence. With a dainty wave of her
hand she will boost" the gardening
game most effectualy. I'VE" planted
this, I'VE" planted that; our" best
luck was with the dwarf peas; and
maybe she held string to get the
rows straight.
At any rate we found the garden
not only very volume of experience
and instruction, but the addition to
our table was something really sur.
prising. And the difference between
an onion snaked out of the ground in
the early dawning, with a pearly drop
of dew on its brow, and the same veg
etable, culled from green grocers
planks, with spurious drop of city
water pasted on it from disreputable
looking sprinkler, is one of those
had not eaten any real vegetables for
years until we came to the farm. l
failed to see any hardship with tho
ACKNOWLEDGMENT story about being
turned out to grass, after having the
experience of a garden. think Neb.
had a pretty easy time of it, after all.
The rabbits gave us some trouble
for awhile, but l managed to even up
with them quite frequently. They
used to hide under the broad leaves
of the squash vines during the day
and then feed on the truck" during
the night time. But l came to the
knowledge of this trick, and used fire.
quently to sally out early in the morn
ing with revolver in one hand and
basket in the other and after picking
mess of greens" at one end of the
garden l would go slyly down to the
other and peek under the squash
leaves until l sighted sBrer'' rabbit
sitting mighty quiet under his green
canopy, and then / would carefully
sight down the barrel of the 80 and
it would be a case of fare you well
Brother Watkins, ah."
Young rabbits are powerful tooth
some in the summer, and my garden
fed Dummies often graced the family
| larder.
We were not near enough to the
| timber to be bothered with the squir-
rels, and the field corn matured fast
| enough to keep them busy with roast
| ing ears without molesting our sweet
corn. But about the time our domain
! of green stuff was promising best
there came fell destroyer that gave
us no end of trouble. 1t was no less
| than the mole. Of all pests to which
an amateur gardener is subjected, this
! is the worst. One good live mole can
| do more damage to a garden in day
| than an army with banners. Some
times they zigzag over an entire gar
| den, making a crazy-quilt. patchwork
| that just breaks the surface Of the
soil, and everywhere they, go the
growing plants wither and shrivel up
| as though fire had blasted them. At
| other times they will travel up and
| down the rows, undermining whole
colonies of peavines or radisEes, and
| everlastingly destroying the entire
output.
When I saw the sign manual of the
mole in our gordon l knew there was
trouble ahead, and SO it proved. My
recourse to the oracles pro dced the
| information that you must watch when
| they were travelling and then spade
them up and kill them. watched the
| garden for days, hours, weeks, and
| never caught one Of them in the act.
| Bumps and ridges would rise appar-
| emily right under my very nose, and
| l would dig frantically up and down
| the line of the trail but never mole
| did l find. These pesky little nui-
sances were the worst things we had
/ to contend with, but as bad as they
| were our garden was a great success,
! There is something peculiarly de-
lightful in working in the soil, and
pottering and puttering about a gar
den plot. We both of us enjoyed to
the utmost the peeping tiny green
sprouts that broke the crust of soil
| t@Au OoulC uP oO AOpCAuhy anu WIN
such an eager desire, apparently, to
| be eaten. Birds came there often;
the blackbirds, robins, catbirds, red
| headed and golden winged wood-peck-
ers, sparrows, and occasionally doves.
| And later, in the fall, a bevy Of quail
made it's rendezvous there for awhile
until routed them out with salute
| from my double-barrel as they darted
| for the corn fields.
When the first frosts came, the chill
| fell on our vines and plants and the
| glory of our little enterprise dropped
away. The tomatoes and melons were
the first to feel the touch, and crisped
and writhed like fire-scorched twigs.
| But underneath the grass which / had
then allowed full sway, there were
some few hardy parsnips and carrots
which we could bring from an earthly
| storehouse and several times we sur
prised the chard vigorously sending
out it's shoots under the matted growth
above 1t which sheltered and fostered