Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-04-26
By
Frederic
j. HaSkin

dening. Some suburbanites do not hap
pen to have these hand plows. but their
more fortunate neighbors may possess
horse hoe. In one case an impecunious
suburbanite borrowed a horse hoe and
operated it by handpower. He put broad
wheels on it and was careful to adjust
the handles well. While he could not
make much speed he found that it was
still seven times faster than hoeing with
an oId-fashioned hoe.
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 sinai
gardeners and see. In one neighborhood
will be found women who try every see(
that is sent them. All may not do we'll
but some of them will. When theii
neighbors visit them they exchange note
and the woman who has the successful
new plant will be asked to save some
of the seed for her neighbor. Investiga-
ton has shown that i'm some instances a
score of housewives have been furnished
with seed from the first years crop from
a congressional distribution packet
a certain Hoosier hustler has tipreI off
lively suggestion to those who are
tired of wrestling with the problem of
making a little salary cover big living
expense. 1t is to raise. persimmons. One
does not need to have fine bottom land
for that business. The stonier and rough
er 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 and quicker
Grated persimmons of good variety net
the grower about cents a box good
bearing persimmon tree will yield from
100 to $50 boxes season, or from So To
$3.50 per tree. From % to 30 trees an
acre may be planted. and thus an income
OF from sl25 to s225 an acre insured. II
takes time to grow persimmon trees. but
IL too many people do not start into the
business because of this tip there is
money In it. It is a generally accepted
theory that persimmons do not lose their
peculiar pucker until the frost falls. The
HoosieT pCrsimmon 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 persimmons ripen in
August.
In some cases the suburbanite uses even
his front porch for unitarian garden
purposes. One man last year made a
porch trelis of lima beans. He had ali
tine shade that might be given by a Vir-
ginia creeper. and in addition a liberal
supply of lima beans for his table. BY
intensive methods the city lot gardener
gets vastly more from his small garden
than many a rural gardener from a big
rambling truck patch. Recently an ur-
ban 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
rlx~ oil Of thaGn n q a
city farmers use nitrate of soda as a
fertilizing agent, and it gives up its
wealth of plant food so rapidly that
sometimes the gardener fears for the fate
of his vegetables fears that the water
melon vines will grow so fast that they
will wear out the melons dragging them
over the ground.
Liberty Hyde Bailey. who headed the
Roosevelt Country Life commission, is an
enthusiastic advocate of gardening for
suburbanites. He says that even If the In
experienced cannot grow anything but pig
weed, burdock and dandelions, all OF
which grow themselves. there is great
pleasure in gardening. He thinks ii is all
in the mental attitude. and that getting
well acquainted with pig weed and bur-
dock will pave the way to successful
introduction into higher plant society. He
tells good story on his gardener. Under
his window he kept a burdock The neigh
bors and the gardener wished to exter-
inmate that worthless weed. But the Cor
nell farmer-philosopher told the gardener
that he was mistaken: ii was not bur-
dock, but Lappa major. Since that the
gardener has a deep respect for the plant.
so that Professor Bailey concludes that
after all there is quite lot in a name.
But aside from the unitarian aspect