The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-08-22


law made him), but an expensive floor
in the barn was too much. He gave
me one plying look, and walked away.
The floor was laid, however. and
when 1t was completed, and the drain
age adjusted. Hard Cider trimmed up
the supports of the barn cellar door
and the two cellar window frames be-
bind. and built in substantial screens.
Then I showed them to him, and told
him he was to keep them closed under
penalty of his job, and he was further
to sprinkle chloride of lime on the ma
nure once a week
We'll, | never seen screens on
barn before" said he. "and I guess
nobody else liver did. Shure, it's to be
spendin' your money azy We are. Are
yez goin to put in bathroom for the
horse?"
Bert was almost as scornful of the
screens as Mike, though be understood
the cork-asphalt floor, having. in fact,
unconsciously persuaded me to install
it by telling me how the cows of
dairyman in the next town had been
My floor had the advantage of con-
crete, but gave the cows a footing.
There had never been screens on q
barn in Bentford before, however, nor
any chloride of lime used. This wSs
too much for Bert But Mrs. Bert was
interested. After our screens had been
on ten days and the barn cellar had
hot
the number of flies caught on the fly
paper on the kitchen door had de-
creased at least 400 per cent. "And
think what's there now come down
from your place." she added to Mrs.
Bert. The next thing we knew, Bert
was talking of screening his stable.
Truth compels me to admit, however,
that he never got beyond the talking
stage.
In the face of these expenditures
our garden expenses were a mere song
yet we had begun to plant and plan
| for the following year as soon as the
pool was done. We knew we were
green. and we did not scorn the advice
of books and still more of our best
practical friend-the head gardener Of
one of the large estates, who knew the
exactions of our climate and the con-
| ditions of our soil.
"Plant your perennial seeds in as
| rich and cool place as you can" he
| told us, land expect to lose at least
three-fourths of your larkspur When
your foxglove plants are large enough
to transplant, make long trenches in
| the vegetable garden, with manure at
| the bottom and four inches Of soil on
| top, and set In the plants. Do # early
in September if you can, so that they
can make roots before our early frosts.
| Then you'll have fine plants for bed
ding in spring. If you buy any plants,
get 'em from a nursery farther north
| if possible They have to be very
| hardy here"
We went through the seed catalogues
as one wanders amid manifold tempta-
| tons, but we kept to our purpose OF
| planting only the simpler, more old
fashioned blooms at present. In addi-
ton to the bulbs, which came later,
we resolved to SOW pansies, sweet Will
liam, larkspur, Canterbury bells. fox
| glove, peach bells, oriental peoples,
platycodon, veronica, mallow (for back
ing to the pool especially, hollyhocks,
phlox (both the early variety, the di-
varicata, blooming in May, and, OF
| course, the standard decussata. The
| May phlox we secured in plants). All
these seeds were carefully planted in
the new beds between the pool and the
| orchard, where we could water them
| plentifully, and Stella, with the in.
stincts of the true gardener, babied
and tended those seedlings almost as
If they were human. Without her
care, probably, they would never have
pulled through the dry, hot weeks
which followed.
| We used to walk down to see them
every morning after breakfast, when
| Stella watered them, dipping the water
from the pool and sending Antony
and Cleopatra scurrying Antony and
Cleopatra were the goldfish which the
Eckstroms, true to their promise, had
sent us. The poor things were I'M
named when they arrived, but their
aspect-the one dark and sinuous, the
other pompously golden = betrayed
| their identity. Stella called a few days
after their arrival to convey our thanks
carefully waiting till she saw the
Eckstroms driving out in their car!
Their curiosity having been satisfied
regarding us, and our thanks having
| been rendered to them, further inter
| course lapsed. We have never tried
to maintain relations with those of our
neighbors who bore us, or with whom
we have nothing in common. Life is
too short Not only did Stella water
the seedlings religiously, but she kept
| the soil mnlched and the weeds out,
working with her gloved hands in the
earth. All the seeds came up well
save the phlOX, with which we had
small luck, and the Papaver Orientalis,
with which we had no luck at all. Not
a seed came up, and not seed ever
has come up in our soil. We have had
to beg plants from other people. Even
as the gardener predicted, the tender
| little larkspur plants mysteriously
died. We ringed them with stiff paper,
we surrounded them with coal
ashes, we even sprayed them with
| bordeaux and arsenate Of lead.
But they still were devoured at
the roots or the tops, or mys-