Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-05-03
Your War Garden

| With the coming of warmer weather
| and for short time after cabbage.
tomato and other plants have been set
out the amateur gardener will have
! his first experience with insect pests.
| The commonest of these, and one that
| may do great damage to young plants,
| Is the cat worm He Is a greenish
! brown worm, half - three quarters Of
an inch long, and burglar by nature.
| He sleeps under ground in the day time
| and energies at night, to chew off the
stems of plants close to the ground or
side shoots and leaves farther up.
These he reaches by climbing the
stem. He is destructive in the extreme
and malicious beyond words. for after
chewing off plant he, leaves 1t with
out attempting to eat it.
Fortunately for the home gardener
| It is com paratively easy to beat the cut
| worm at. his game. There are several
effective ways. one way to destroy
him. and at the same time do the gar
! den good, is frequent shallow cultiva-
/ ton. Since the cut worm spends the
/ days under ground to the depth OF an
| inch or two he can be easily reached
with the teeth of a garden rake. He
can not live in the warm sunshine
when turned up to the sun ne soon
swells up and bursts and that is the
end OF t,le cut worm
When plant IS found gnawed Off.
stir around the plant. The chances
are good that the cut worm will be
| turned up and can be destroyed. A
| little mash made OF meal of most any
kind. with little paris green mixed
in it. sprnkled around the plants will
kill the worms. A preventive measure,
! but tedious way, is to make collars
OF stiff paper or cardboard by curling
| it around the STEM of the plants and
holding it in place by forcing the edge
| of the cardboard into the ground. Such
a barrier two or three inches high Is
a higher fence that the cut worm can
| climb
With the coming Of the first really
warm days late in May or June the
period of the activity Of cut worms
ends, for they can not survive in the
summer heat, or when the ground be-
, comes dry.
Celery in this latitude furnishes a
| crop for late in the summer, the fall
| and the winter. II properly handled.
Probably the best way TO produce the
| most celery on a small patch Of ground
| is TO set the plants six inches apart in
| rows and the rows six inches apart
| While rather hard to cultivate fire.
| quent,y-and celery requires constant
| cultivation-this method has this ad-
vantage that a large crop is produced
| from a small space and the plants
| shade each other and produce the
| blanch desired. The outside rows not
being shaded, will have to be shaded
with boards set upon edge beside them
and held in place with stakes.
Successful cultivation of celery de-
ponds on few important details. The
soil should be very rich, having pre-
ferably been MANFRED the previous
fall. The cultivation must be shallow
and frequent and the plants require
much moisture. SO plan, IL you intend
to grow celery to see to it that you
can food the patch with hose DUR
ing dry weather. Set out now, the
celery will be ready for the table late
in summer Planted a month, or two
months from now. it will be ready in
early and late fall. and the latter crop
can be store. well into the winter.
The ordinary method of cultivation
is TO plant In rows, and bIanch with
boards staked alongside the rows, or
with tile, or cylinders Of heavy paper
slipped down over the stakes. Any Oh
these methods are successful. the inn
portant thing in blanching to remem-
Der being not to try to blanch with
earth drawn up around the stalks.
i They will rust, rot and be undesirable.