The Glenwood post., 1909-02-27
roR THE
HOME GARDEN

Every year at this time come hood
of seedmans s catalogues, very bewild.
ering in the wealth of materials offer
ed, and sometimes in the overdrawn
descriptions and illuntrations. Fortun-
asely the half-tone reproduced from a
photograph is coming to be used moro
and more by the better class of seeds
men. At the present time indeed, the
use of cheap wood cuts greatly ex-
agserating plants and their products
marks the faker- among seedsmen. The
most notorious of these offenders IL
located at Lacrosse, Wis The charac.
ter of this firm Q advert ising would be
very ludicrous were it not for the fact
that many are taken in by this sort Of
yellow journalism. Packages of beans
retailed by them under highs sound.
ing name at l5 cents a package, 19OS)
had by weight only about one third as
many seeds as packages sold under
their true names at 10 cents per pack
age by reliable seed houses. Moreover,
the percentage of viable seeds ran con.
sider;,hly lower.
The first duty, then, in the prepare
tion of the home garden, is to choose
your scotsman. The second is to plan
the garden itself. This does not mean
to do it haphazard but to draw out the
garden to scale, for example, one
inch to ten feet, and Indicate by lines
whore each row of each vegetable ID
to go. The next important thing is to
order as early as possible. You secure
much better seeds in this way, because
|the dirt has a way of working to the
bottom, and late in the season if tho
seeds are kept in bulk there is more
chance of getting a lot of chaff and
broken seeds.
Mako hot bed and have some early
plants to set out when the proper sea-
son comes. Beets, cabbage, eaulifiow-
er, celery, egg plants, lettuce, peppers
and tomatoes, are all best started this
wav. 1t is absolutely necessary that
the soil in which egg plants, peppers
and tomatoes are started, shall be ster-
iiized by baking in the oven, or they
will fail to produce much fruit, be-
cause of the prevalence of fusarium
blight in Colorado soils. The other
plants, also, will be benefited by this
process.
Among other things to remember is
10 plant a succession of varieties, es-
peci;tlly of those vegetables that are
sown directly in the garden. Cabbage
plants grown in the field can be usei
for late varieties, to follow those from
early varieties grown in the hot bed.
Sow some of the hardicr plants even
earlier than your ncighbors are ac-
customed to do You may lose them Il
year or two and have to replant, but
the year you succeed in pulling them
through will more than repay you for
the losses of the the other years.
If you have a large garden, plan to
use as much horse work as possible.
Set the plants little farther apart for
this purpose. Make the lines straight
and parallel for the better accomplish
ntent of tillage. If the garden is any
smaller. use the wheen hoes, drills, etc,
Planet Jr., Iron Age, New Model, etc.,
as much as possible and save time and
backaehes. They will pay for them
selves in this way in a short time.
| AT any rate have a garden. if only
in the back yard Of a city lot. The
amount of good one can gain from it
icannot he measured in dollars and
cents.
LESLIE F. PAUL.,
Colorado Agricultural College, Fort