El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-21
MAKING A GARDEN;
LOTS OF FUN.


the gardening of today is not the
same as it was generation ago Iheil
1T was pulling weeds by hand, ana
working, with hoe. Improved wheel
hoes and the like now have eliminated
nearly all of the backacheS and head
aches from gardening Some suburban
ties do not happen TO have these hand
blows. but their more fortunate neigh
Dor may possess horse hoe In one
case an impecuniOus suburbanite Dor
rowed a horse hoe and operated II py
hand power. Re put broad wheels on
it and was careful to adjust the handles
we'll While he could not make much
s1eed he found that il was still seven
times faster than hoeing with an Old
fashioned hoe
Free Government Seed
Some persons profess to think that
the free seed distribution by congress
is not popular But let him who thinks
so go among the housewives and the
small gardeners and see In one nelgh-
borhood will be found women who try
every seed that is sent them. All may
not do well, but some of them will
When their neighbOrs visit them they
exchange notes and the woman who
has the successful new plant will be
asked to save some Of the seed for her
neighbor Investigation has shown
that in some instances a score OF house
wives have been furnished with seed
from the first years crop from con-
gressional distribution packet
certain HOoSier hustler has tipped
off a lively suggestion to those who
are tired of wrestling with the problem
of making a little salary cover big
living expense. It is to raise persim-
mons One does not need TO have fine
bottom land for that business The
stonier and rougher the land the better
persimmOns seem to thrive And they
are practically pest proof. for no worm
or bug or bird cares for the persimmon
flavor ard pucker Grated persimmons
of good variety net the grower about
5 cents a box. A good bearing per-
simmon tree will yield from 100 70 $50
boxes d season, or from IS TO $3.50 per
tree
From % TO so trees an acre may be
planted and thus an income of from
s125 TO s225 an acre insured. It takes
time to grow persimmOn trees, but II
too many people do not start into the
business because of this tip there is
money in it. 1t is a generally accepted
theory that persimmOns do not lose
their peculiar pucker until the frost
falls. The Hoosier persimmOn grower
declares this to be an error and that
the pucker is in the variety and not the
lack of frost. He says that the best
Garden on Porch.
In some cases the suburbanite uses
even his front porch for unitarian gar
den purposes. One man last year made
a porch trellis of lima beans He had
all the shade that might be given by a
Virginia creeper. and in addition lib
eral supply of lima beans for his table
BY intensive methods the city gardener
gets vastly more from his small garden
than many rural gardener from big
rambling truck patch
Recently an urban agriculturist. with
a farm of 500 square feet, declared
that he grew twice as much produce on
that lot as the folks back home" grew
in a garden three times as large Near
~ all of these intensive city farmers
use nitrate of soda as a fertilizing
agent. and il gives up its wealth OF
plant food so rapidly that sometimes
the gardener fears for the fate of his
vegetables; fears that the watermelon
vines will grow so vast that they will
wear out the melons dragging them
over the ground
Gardening for Pleasure.
Liberty Hyde Bailey. who headed the
Roosevelt Country Life commission, is
an enthusiastic advocate of gardening
for suburbanites. He says that even
If the inexperienced cannot grow any
thing but pigweed, burdock and dande-
lions, all of which grow themselves
there is great pleasure in gardening.
He thinks IL is all in the mental atti-
tude, and that getting we'll acquainted
with pigweed and burdock will pave
the way TO q successful introduction
into higher plant society. He tells n
good story on his gardener. Under his
window he kept burdock The neigh
bors and the gardener wished to exter-
inmate that worthless weed
But the Cornell farmer philosopher
told the gardener that he was mis-
taken; it was not a burdOck, but Lap
pa major Since that the gardener has
a deep respect for the plant. so that
Prof Bailey concludes that after all
there Is quite a lot in a name
Lots of Pleasure.
But aside from the utiiltarfan aspect
of gardening, it is productive of a vast
amount of pleasure, and is responsible
Tor the restoration of roses to MANY
sallow cheeks In fact the fun and
the health 10 be derived from making
a small garden is more than worth the
labor and expense involved, even if
there We're no crop of vegetables. The
nelShbor's chickens and that inertia
winch often OvertakeS the amateur gar
dener later in the season. may prevent
the gathering of harvest. but moth
ing can take away the memory of the
heaIthful and delightful experience of
that greatest of springtirne sDorts
making a garden
TomorrOw-Bees and Hopa,-