"This last garden season we have tried two methods of raising plants: one was by seed; the other by slips or cuttings. The girls will typify still another method with their bulbs. This last method is by division. A bulb as it stores up its nourishment after the blossoming time forms new little bulbs. These may be separated from the parent tuber if large enough. You all saw me dividing my peonies. Those peonies doubtless were started years ago from one or two roots. And now when I dug them up it looked as if I were laying in a stock of sweet potatoes so great was the increase.
"There are just three other methods of propagating or increasing plants. These are layering, budding and grafting.
"Layering is done in several ways. Suppose you have a gooseberry bush you wish to layer. The time to do the work is after the flowering season is past. Choose a branch which has not flowered. Strip off the lower leaves. Now where the old and new wood meet is the place for the cut. Make a cut right into the stem which will be like a tongue. Let this be about an inch long. Hold this to the ground with the cut side down. Bank soil over this. At and under the tongue the new shoots will start, and the new gooseberry bush grow from this. This new plant may be cut off from the parent. If the twig will not stay bent down in this position, cut a forked piece of wood which shall act as a pin. Do you picture this? A branch bent so that not far from the parent plant it is buried under ground with the rest of the root protruding from the ground.
"A rubber plant may be layered or topped as it is called. Rubber plants have an ugly habit of going to top, dropping off their lower leaves as they do this. So they look as if they were trying to develop into huge bushes, and they become very ugly in so doing. The top looks all right and many a person wishes that top were off all by itself and nicely potted.
"This is the way it is topped. A slit is cut in the bark about where you would like to see roots growing. Then soil and florists' moss is bound about the wound. These may easily be kept moist. A paper pot could be put about the soil if one wished. The soil mass should be a ball of about six inches in diameter. When the new roots appear through the moss or poking out of the paper pot, cut the stem of the plant below the pot. And behold you have a little rubber plant just as good as new, I have told this before to the girls.
"Another method of layering is to cut the parent off down to the ground. What is left is called the stool. This stool should be covered with about six inches of earth. Let us suppose this is done in early spring. When fall comes around uncover the stool. There will be found a number of new shoots or plants all nicely protected. These may be transplanted. Do you know that stool can be used over again?
"This work of layering is really very simple. Myron used it with his strawberries. The runners were bent and buried just as those of the gooseberry I spoke of. In this way new strawberry plants were obtained. One shoot may be bent and buried more than once. So one may get just as easily two or more new plants from one shoot. This seems as much a miracle as the cross fertilization of plants.
"The fifth method is that of budding. Apple, peach, plum, cherry and pear trees may be budded; so, too, may roses.
"In a word, a bud is taken from some desirable tree and inserted within the bark of a tree either less desirable or young. Young fruit trees, as you know, need some help before they produce good fruit. Now if George had at home a peach tree which bore very fine fruit he would be glad to cross a young tree with this. Budding is a kind of crossing.
"This work should be done in the spring, although it may be done in the fall. But the spring is a more limber time with Nature. Sap is begining to flow; life is new and fresh again; all the plant world is ready to start up and do something. Then, too, the bark of trees should be in as flexible a condition as possible. The two things really necessary for the work are mature buds and bark easy to peel.
"Buds should be taken from the very strongest and best twigs of the last year's growth. The little seedlings in which the buds are to be inserted should be one year old. These are called the stock.
"This is the manner of inserting the bud: first make a T-shaped cut in the bark of the stock. This cut should be made on the north side of the little tree, because it will thus be more sheltered from the sun's rays. The cut should not be far from the ground on the main trunk, although it may be at the base of strong shoots. But make it in the former position for these yearlings. Then loosen the bark with the flat handle of a regular budding knife. Not many boys and girls own such knives. Some of you have scalpels. The handles of these are flat enough to use. Again, you could easily whittle a piece of wood thin and flat enough for this work.
"The next question is how to sever a bud from its parent shoot. Suppose you have chosen a nice full bud. About a quarter of an inch below the base of the bud start cutting into the wood. Run the knife up to about one quarter of an inch above the bud. Do not cut out through to the surface, but rather from the upper surface cut the bark loose and peel this carefully down until you can see the under surface of the bud. You still have the wood attached to the twig at its upper edge. If as you look at the under surface of the bud you see that it is hollow, throw the whole thing away. If it has fibres then it is all right. The proper layer is left to reunite with the stock. Now the bud and peeled-off bark may be inserted in the T-shaped slip. Bind the bud in place with raffia. Do this raffia bandaging both above and below the slit.
"In about ten days the bandage may come off, for the knitting of fibres is well under way. Now the top of the little tree should be cut right back to about two inches above the bud, because you wish all the growth to go to the bud. This is the part of promise to the tree. All its hope lies in this new bud.
"The best method of increase is that of grafting. A graft or scion, which is a shoot with two or more buds on it of last year's growth, is inserted on the stem of another plant called the stock.
"By means of this process of grafting, trees bearing poor fruit are made to bear good fruit. Wild fruit trees are brought under cultivation, and a given tree may bear several varieties of its given fruit. For example, I have in mind a tree, the marvel of my childhood, which bore big sour apples, beautiful Gravensteins, and a good quality of Baldwins. This sort of experimenting with trees is not only as good as a puzzle, but is of great value. To make a wild apple tree with its gnarly, little sour apples into a really truly, well-behaved tree bearing good fruit is worth while, is it not? Grafting is not only a method of improvement but of taming stock, which is after all improvement.
"There are certain necessary precautions to take in this operation of grafting; for this, like budding, is a surgical operation.
"In all woody branches the outer layer is the bark; next comes the green layer. Between this layer and the real wood is a mass of fibres which go by the name of 'cambium'. The cambium layer of the stock and the scion must be one against the other in grafting in order that the sap may flow freely as before. This layer of cambium might be likened to our blood system. The two cambium layers must be pressed closely together so that the operation may be successful. And finally no cut surface should be left exposed to the air. It is air, you know, that plays havoc with flesh wounds. More and more we see that tree doctors have a work something like our own physicians.
"Grafting is usually done in the spring—in March or April—about the time sap begins to flow. The grafts or scions may be cut before this. Choose the tree from which you wish to take a scion. You choose it because of its fine-flavoured, sound fruit. Perhaps the fruit is especially large, too. Size of fruit, however, does not denote fine fruit. I once had an apple that weighed a pound. It was a beauty, fair to look upon. But what a tasteless, pithy piece of fruit it was. Appearances in fruit are often deceitful. The scions were to be of the last year's growth with two or more buds. The shoots should be clean, healthy and vigorous. You must transmit no disease along with the scions. These may be cut off in January or February, and stuck into the soil for about four to six inches. Keep away from direct sunlight. The buds of scions cut at this time are dormant as they should be.
"Grafting is named according to the manner in which the scion is put into the stock. There is whip grafting, and cleft grafting. Whip grafting is sometimes spoken of as tongue grafting.
"This latter method is accomplished in this way: Suppose you have a scion in your hand. Cut across the end of it diagonally. Use a sharp knife for this, and make a clean cut, as I now cut across this twig. About two-thirds of the distance back from the narrow or more pointed end of the cut make a vertical cut of about an inch right up into the scion. Cut the stock in a similar way. Then insert the tongue of the stock into the slit of the scion. Press these together carefully. Bind with raffia. Whenever this work is done outdoors, as it would be in the case of any of you who try this experiment, the union must be sealed over. As official documents are sealed with wax, so this union is legally sealed in wax. One can buy a regular grafting wax. Sometimes people mix clay and grease together. That is simple, but pretty sticky sounding.
"Realgrafting wax is made this way: To two parts of beeswax, add four of resin. Melt these together with one pound of tallow or linseed oil. When all are melted together, pour into cold water. Pull like molasses candy until it is light coloured. One's fingers should be greased to apply this wax properly.
"Cleft grafting is almost described by its name. A cleft or cut is made in the stock after the stem has been neatly cut across. The cleft is a vertical cut of about an inch in length. This is made through the centre of the stock. The scion is made to fit down into this, so naturally it is cut like a wedge. But there should be cuts made on both sides of the scion diagonally to form this wedge. So two cut surfaces of cambium are laid bare to fit against two similar surfaces of the stock. If the stock is several times thicker than the graft or scion, there should be two of these latter inserted. Place one at either end of the cleft. Bind and wax.
"If the stock is the same thickness as the graft then these two fit perfectly one into the other.
"This is only a little bit about grafting; but I trust this is enough to get you all interested in this work.
"'Is grafting really necessary?' I heard Albert whisper a while ago. It does seem like a great deal of work. The trouble with starting fruit from seed and expecting to get good results lies in this point: Fruit trees seems to lose in their development from seed the ability to produce fruit as fine as the parent stock; and so grafting becomes a necessity. Strange that this should be so, but it is.
"Start with a peach stone or seed. It came from a fine tree; the fruit was luscious. And yet the little seedling which comes from that very stone as a rule must be grafted to bear fruit of equally fine flavour as that of the original peach. Fruit trees have a tendency to revert to old wild poor forms. And so we must save them and help them.
"If any of you should start a little orchard he would wish to know how far apart the trees should be. Apple trees should be set thirty to forty feet apart each way; pear trees twenty to thirty feet each way; plums and peaches sixteen to twenty feet each way. Trees need room in which to spread out and develop; hence the distance given them. I am glad that Myron has made a start on small fruits. His strawberries were a success. I'd like to think that next season each of you was to have in his garden, vegetables, flowers, one small fruit and one of the larger ones, such as a seedling apple or peach."
"I suppose the talk to-day will seem to you all merely a repetition of things you already know. Beginnings, however, are most important. Results often take care of themselves, but beginnings never do. Gardens started wrong always go wrong; that is, unless one tears up one's work and begins over again.
"The first thing in garden making is the selection of a spot. Some of us are saved that trouble, since we have no choice; or like Josephine, have nothing at all in the way of space. Without a choice, it means simply doing the best one can with conditions. With space limited it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely a box garden is better than nothing at all. At least, Josephine felt this to be true, and proved that parsley grows (with care) as well in a box as in the garden. I claim that everyone may have something of a garden if he be willing to take what comes to hand.
"But we will now suppose that it is possible to really choose just the right site for the garden. What shall be chosen? The greatest determining factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless it were absolutely forced upon him; because, while north corners do for ferns, certain wild flowers, and begonias, they are of little use as spots for a general garden.
"If possible, choose the ideal spot—a southern exposure. Here the sun lies warm all day long. When the garden is thus located the rows of vegetables and flowers should run north and south. Thus placed, the plants receive the sun's rays all the morning on the eastern side, and all the afternoon on the western side. One ought not to have any lopsided plants with such an arrangement.
"Suppose the garden faces southeast. In this case the western sun is out of the problem. In order to get the best distribution of sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast.
"The idea is to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible for the longest period of time. From the lopsided growth of window plants it is easy enough to see the effect on plants of poorly distributed light. So if you use a little diagram remembering that you wish the sun to shine part of the day on one side of the plants and part on the other, you can juggle out any situation. The southern exposure gives the ideal case because the sun gives half time nearly to each side. A northern exposure may mean an almost entire cut-off from sunlight; while northeastern and southwestern places always get uneven distribution of sun's rays, no matter how carefully this is planned.
"The garden, if possible, should be planned out on paper. The plan is a great help when the real planting time comes. It saves time and unnecessary buying of seed. Last winter we drew some plans to a scale. Peter, Philip, and Myron did this work in fine shape. They offer to take groups of you girls and show you how to do it; so whenever you are ready for this, the boys are ready, too. Sometimes we do change our plans some, anyway a change is easily made when a plan has been drawn as a basis.
"New garden spots are likely to be found in two conditions: they are covered either with turf or with rubbish. In large garden areas the ground is ploughed and the sod turned under; but in small gardens remove the sod. How to take off the sod in the best manner is the next question. Stake and line off the garden spot. The line gives an accurate and straight course to follow. Cut the edges with the spade all along the line. If the area is a small one, say four feet by eighteen or twenty, this is an easy matter. Such a narrow strip may be marked off like a checkerboard, the sod cut through with the spade, and easily removed. This could be done in two long strips cut lengthwise of the strip. When the turf is cut through, roll it right up like a roll of carpet.
"But suppose the garden plot is large. Then divide this up into strips a foot wide and take off the sod as before. What shall be done with the sod? Do not throw it away for it is full of richness, although not quite in available form. So pack the sod grass side down one square on another. Leave it to rot and to weather. When rotted it makes a fine fertilizer. Such a pile of rotting vegetable matter is called a compost pile. All through the summer add any old green vegetable matter to this. In the fall put the autumn leaves on. A fine lot of goodness is being fixed for another season.
"The girls, I suppose, think this is a wretched heap to have in the corner of a garden. So it is. But it is possible to screen it. Plant before the space allotted to this, castor beans, tall cannas or sunflowers. Perhaps the castor beans would be the best of all. Sunflowers get brown and straggly looking before the season is past its prime.
"Even when the garden is large enough to plough, I would pick out the largest pieces of sod rather than have them turned under. Go over the ploughed space, pick out the pieces of sod, shake them well and pack them up in a compost heap.
"What is to be done with the rubbish often found on new garden sites? If this be only weeds and other vegetable matter it may be very easily burned on the garden spot. But suppose it is a grand collection of tin cans, bottles and such things as cannot be burned? What can we do with them? Cities have public dumps where lots are to be filled in. All such trash may go to these. Oftentimes it is possible to find suitable places in the country for dumping. But do not dump where the rubbish is to be unsightly for others as it has been for yourself; far better have a dump heap on your own land and screen this as the compost heap was to be shielded from view. We take the wrong point of view if we dump rubbish anywhere, for the sake of getting rid of it. You remember your plan is to help make a more beautiful village.
"How must the small garden be spaded? A method called trenching, is good because it is so thorough. Here is a diagram George has made. Just get your heads around this, and I'll explain it.
From this plan see the scheme of trenching. Top soil from AA' is carted to EE'. Then the top soil from BB' goes into AA'. Continue this method and see that the soil on EE' finally goes into trench DD'. So all the top soil in this given area is worked over and is still kept on top.
From this plan see the scheme of trenching. Top soil from AA' is carted to EE'. Then the top soil from BB' goes into AA'. Continue this method and see that the soil on EE' finally goes into trench DD'. So all the top soil in this given area is worked over and is still kept on top.
"This rectangle is supposed to be the plot which needs digging. Line it off into strips one foot wide. Have your wheelbarrow right beside AA'. Dig one foot of top soil out of strip A' along all its length. Put this into the barrow and dump it into the strip marked EE' outside of the garden proper. Do the same thing to strip BB', only throw the soil into trench AA'. The top soil from CC' goes into BB'; that of DD' into CC'. Now the soil that was dumped outside the garden upon the strip EE' of course is already to go right into trench DD'.
"The value of this work is to get the soil of the bed entirely worked over. Most people dig but poorly. Digging is hard work; so a boy digs a little here, and a little there, throughout the seed bed and thinks the work is all done. It is really done when the above method is used. And after all we have said about the necessity for airing soil, and the need of stirring things up so that the good bacteria may do their work, I know you will all see the point immediately.
"Mere spading of the ground is not sufficient. The soil is still left in lumps. Always as one spades one should break up the big lumps. But even so the ground is in no shape for planting. Ground must be very fine indeed to plant in, because seeds can get very close indeed to fine particles of soil. But the large lumps leave large spaces which no tiny root hair can penetrate. A seed is left stranded in a perfect waste when planted in chunks of soil. A baby surrounded with great pieces of beefsteak would starve. A seed among large lumps of soil is in a similar situation. The spade never can do this work of pulverizing soil. But the rake can. That's the value of the rake. It is a great lump breaker, but will not do for large lumps. If the soil still has large lumps in it take the hoe.
"Many people handle the hoe awkwardly. Get up, Jay, and show us just how to hold it! Walk along as you hoe, drawing the hoe toward you. The chief work of this implement is to rid the soil of weeds and stir up the top surface. It is used in summer to form that mulch of dust so valuable in retaining moisture in the soil. I often see boys hoe as if they were going to chop into atoms everything around. Hoeing should never be such vigorous exercise as that. Spading is vigorous, hard work, but not hoeing and raking.
"After lumps are broken use the rake to make the bed fine and smooth. Now the great piece of work is done. To be sure I have said nothing of fertilizing. The kind and amount of fertilizer depends on the kind of soil. Well-rotted manure being the best all-around fertilizer, we will say that we have spaded that into the seed bed after the trenching operation is over.
"Now the plan made on paper comes into practical use, and garden stakes, cord and a means of measuring are the things necessary to have on hand. Jay and Albert have made their garden stakes one foot in length. They will serve as a good rule in furrow making. On their hoe handles Jack and Elizabeth have marked two feet off into inches. This is another scheme for measuring. George has a pole four feet long which he uses. This has inches marked on one foot of its length. Katharine has a seventy-five foot tape measure. And Leston and Helena have made this tool I have here in my hand. It looks like a wooden toothed rake with its teeth eight inches apart. This dragged over the surface of a nice, fine garden bed marks off furrows. It makes the most regular furrows you ever saw because it cannot help itself. Miriam used a board last summer. She laid this across her seed bed, kneeling on it, then she drew a dibber along the board's straight edge, pressing firmly into the soil with the dibber. This also made a good straight furrow.
"Peter and Philip always use a line and two stout garden stakes. Their hoes do the rest.
"We usually think of furrows, or drills, as they really should be called when little soil is removed, as being about a half inch or even less in width. Sometimes certain seed, beans and peas, for example, are placed in double rows in a wide drill.
"I think you all understand hill making. Then you remember how we planted certain seeds broadcast, as grass and poppy seeds. Remember that seeds thus sown need only a dusting of soil over them.
"But in general, drill sowing for both vegetables and flower seeds is the most satisfactory method.
"Most boys and girls sow seeds too thickly. The seedlings as they come up are too crowded for proper amounts of sunlight, air and food. You have seen lettuce seedlings crowded together growing small and weak. Why? Lack of light and air, lack of moisture and food are the reasons for this. Thin out pretty severely. Wait, of course, until the seedlings are an inch or more high. Then look over the little plants and gently take out the weakest and smallest specimens. Press the soil firmly about those which remain. If the first planting has been very thick have two times of thinning. It is a bit easier on those seedlings remaining if too many comrades do not go at once.
Jack's Rake Handle as a Measuring Stick
Jack's Rake Handle as a Measuring Stick
Albert Sowing Large Seeds Singly
Albert Sowing Large Seeds Singly
"Of course, some of these seedlings may be transplanted. They should be about two inches above ground for this purpose. Lettuce, cabbage and peppers transplant beautifully; so do asters. I would not try to transplant beets, radish or turnips. The reason is that these plants have long tap roots. Usually a portion of the root is left in the ground and the transplanted seedling has an injured root. So you either lose it, or it does poorly.
"Beets may be allowed to grow thickly for a time. Then when the thinning is done, the tender beet tops may be used for greens.
"Transplanting is a delicate operation. A trowel or a thin garden marker, a can of water and dibber are the necessary tools for the business. A cloudy day is a good thing to have on hand, also. If this is impossible, place the sun behind a cloud. The little seedling should be taken up with great care from its old home. A little soil should come with the roots. This gives the little plant a home feeling in its new quarters. The thin stick is often better to use than the trowel. If the soil is watered a bit about the small plant, one is far more likely to get the soil up with the roots.
"Now make the hole in the ground with the dibber just where you wish. A motion, like that of a revolving top, is the one to use in working the dibber. Water the hole. Drop a little soil in the bottom of the hole. You see the dibber leaves an awkward little peak there at the bottom of the hole. Water lodges there and stays. The tiny rootlets do not quite reach into the bottom of the hole, and perhaps dangle in the water and begin to decay. A little soil dropped in prevents all this. Now a little plant goes in. Do not place it too low, nor too high in the hole. Have the roots uncramped. Drop soil in gently and finally firm it all with both hands.
"The sun must not shine too hotly for the first few days on these little plants in their new home. They are not yet used to their surroundings and must be coddled a bit if they are to do well.
"The remaining garden operations are weeding and constant cultivation. A part of the work in the flower garden is close picking, if constant bloom is wished.
"I have said nothing about how to plant different seeds because each of you had tables to cover all of that.
"The object of this talk is to impress upon you the necessity for careful preparation. Well-prepared soil, carefully handled tools and plants are ways to success.
"Good tools, good seed, good hard work make for results such as will satisfy your highest hopes. But it is not the result only that is worth the struggle; the knowledge and the power are the greater glories."
What a delight it would be if we could garden without weeds. But that is well-nigh impossible. For these rascals, the weeds, are such persistent fellows, so clever in their devices for getting over the surface of the earth, so able to live where nothing else in the plant world can live, that it is a discouraging matter to attempt to exterminate them. They always seem to me like pushing sort of people trying to live among those who do not want them. Then, too, they crowd the better class of inhabitants out.
"There are a certain number of plants which we always looked upon as weeds, such as burdock and wild carrot, for example. But if a beautiful garden plant should persist in living and spreading itself over our vegetable garden, then that, too, would become a weed. Over across the sea in England the poppy grows wild in the fields. It looks very beautiful to the traveler, because it makes lovely red splashes of colour through the field. But I doubt very much if it looks really attractive to the farmer. These things depend largely, do they not, upon one's point of view?
"Even a question like weeds we have no right to look at from one point of view only. The good points of weeds do not balance up the bad points; but it is well to give even weeds their due. Rid the world of weeds and unless these despoiled spots were cultivated, think of the great waste places there would be over the earth's surface. The weeds shade the ground thus preventing too great surface evaporation. Then the weeds are a signal to farmers and all gardeners to get busy. We people of the world are lazy, just naturally so, and perhaps if there were no weeds we might cultivate the soil too little. Years ago certain weeds were much used in medicine. This is more or less true, to-day. The dandelion with its bitter secretion was good, it was believed, for the liver, a sort of spring tonic. The Department of Agriculture has printed a pamphlet on 'Weeds Used in Medicine' (Farmers' Bulletin, No. 188). Jack and Jay each sent for a copy last spring. You all might start a garden library with these pamphlets for a basis. They are sent to you free and are invaluable in your work. Get together all the helps you can on the subject you are studying. Boys and girls receive free so much in the present day that it seems a shame not to make use of these things. The boys have written to the Department of Agriculture and each month it sends to the club a list of the publications sent out or reprinted during the previous month. You girls might follow this good example set you by the boys.
"Well, we have wandered a bit from the subject in hand. Weeds are again discouraging because they have such facilities for travel. Talk about flying machines—weeds are centuries ahead of men along these lines. Look at a milkweed seed; it is a complete flying apparatus. With its perfect ballast it flies beautifully along over field and river ready to alight in proper seed style, end down.
"There is a piece of mechanism in the end of each burdock seed that seems to make travel possible, and dissemination sure. Never was fish hook more cleverly made than this hook of the bur seed. It catches on to your clothing and travels until you feel its pull. Then you pick it off and cast it aside. So it goes. It sticks to the furry and hairy coats of animals and again is carried along.
"Did you ever observe the seed of wild carrot? It, too, is arranged with clinging points all around and about its seed. If you should give just a little attention to the subject of the means of distribution of wild seeds you would have a greater respect for the ways and means of Nature.
"Here is another discouraging side to the weed question. Weeds produce so many, many seeds! Look at a single stalk of plantain. This stalk does not stand for one seed capsule, but all up and down the stalk are the seeds; again, not one seed here and one there, but each capsule or seed case holding many seeds. When these become ripe, then the top of the capsule comes off just like the cover of a box, or the top of a salt cellar, and the seeds are sent out. It would not be a useless thing to count sometimes the number of seeds on one plantain stalk, and thus gain an idea of the tremendous possibilities of increase which the weeds have.
"A lad I once knew counted the number of seeds in a milkweed pod which he had, and found very nearly two hundred. I do not remember the exact number. It was between one hundred and ninety-five and two hundred. Think of one pod scattering that number of seeds! Think again of the number of pods on one milkweed plant! It is staggering, is it not? To be sure we can remember the parable of the sower and have some hope, for some seed may fall on soil in which they will never come to maturity.
"Weeds, like the wild morning glory, form new plants not from their seed only, but from their travelling, trailing branches.
"If, then, the chances are so good for renewal of weeds, what is the plan of campaign which we should follow? Once a German gentleman who loved and cultivated roses was asked how to get rid of rose bugs. 'Kill them,' he said. 'Pick them off by hand and kill them by foot is the sure method!' he continued.
"So, to get rid of weeds, just destroy them. Persistently and constantly weed them out and cultivate the soil. Clean cultivation is the only sort for good crops and freedom from weeds.
"Weeds, as flowers, drop in the three classes of annuals, biennials and perennials. Any annual is easy enough to hold down. Just pull such weeds up. Some merely cut the weed off at the surface of the ground, but it is a better way to be rid of the thing entirely. And should you not be quite sure of the kind of weed, then pulling up is the only really safe plan. For if the weed happened to be a perennial, leaving the root in the ground would be the worst possible thing to do.
"The greatest business of all annuals is to form seed. Now I know you wish to say that this is the business of all plants. It is. But with annuals there is only one chance to produce seed. That chance is the one short year of their lives, and this is doubtless the reason why these chaps work so hard at seed forming, and produce so many seed. Therefore, the thing evidently to be done is to make it impossible for annuals to form seed.
"The biennials and perennials must have further treatment than just that of preventing seed formation. The underground part of such weeds must be destroyed. For these live in the ground ready to come up again. Biennials may be killed out by deep hoeing. Get rid of all the young plants, keep at the older ones with the hoe and prevent seed formation, too. Biennials are found most abundantly in waste places along woodsides and where the soil for a long time has been left undisturbed.
"Perennials need about the same treatment as biennials. But even greater persistency should be exercised in destroying the underground portion. For these underground plants produce new plants as surely as seeds do. The bindweed has a creeping root, wild garlic has a bulb, and such forms are always producing new forms underground while the seed above the ground is able to do the same thing.
"Ploughing helps destroy perennials, as the roots are exposed to direct sunlight and so destroyed. Another method of treatment is that of cutting off the top down to the root and putting salt on the freshly cut root tap. Then again these roots may be starved out by never allowing the top or leafy part to form. You will remember that it is the leaf which makes the food. And if there is no food then there will be none to store away in the root for new root formation. Some farmers smother roots. This is done by planting such crops as hemp, clover or cowpeas. These crops choke out the weeds. They cover the ground very completely, and so the weeds have less of a chance.
"I give the following table of a few very common weeds in order that you may know just how to handle them.
"I must speak especially about snapdragon or butter and eggs. It came to our country as a garden flower. It has spread and spread, partly by its seeds and partly by its root stalks, which are creeping ones, and now it is a perennial weed. For since it has become a nuisance it must be classed as a weed. As it spreads along it tends to force out other plants.
"This weed, like the wild carrot, is really very lovely. Could such weeds be properly held down in small garden areas they would be very ornamental. I saw a little flower garden once, quite beautiful, with two small clumps, one of wild mustard and one of field daisy, among the other flowers.
"The seeds of the wild mustard, like those of the plantain and other weeds, get in with the grain seed and so cause constant trouble. Farmers feel that such weeds must be thoroughly gotten out of the fields.
"It is not our own native weeds which are so troublesome but the foreign ones. Most of our worst weeds are foreigners. They have come to this country as stowaways from across the seas. They have fought for centuries and can keep the fight up over here.
"I am not going to give you a description of each weed we have. This table, a copy of which is for each of you, will be, I think, of true help. The study of weeds is something quite by itself. It is for you to help prevent the seeding of weeds everywhere. Do not carelessly scatter seeds. Keep your own garden plots free from these pests by clean and careful cultivation. Remember, too, the value of cover crops.
"There is another pest to fight. This pest is of the animal kingdom and not of the plant kingdom. Next Friday our talk is on animal pests, and how to destroy them."
If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little foes—little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make.
"As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.
"There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.
"Each girl and boy gardener should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden. If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat but not to kill, since toads prefer live food. How can one "fix up" for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad.
"Suppose a certain crop in your garden has had an insect pest. Do not plant this same crop next year, for it would doubtless have the same pest. Don't let the soil get full of insect troubles; therefore, keep the soil open and aired and study it well.
"There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. Plant lice belong here, as do mosquitoes, which prey on us. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants.
"Now can we fight these chaps? The gnawing fellows may be caught with poison sprayed upon plants, which they take into their bodies with the plant. The Bordeaux mixture which Peter used is a poison sprayed upon plants for this purpose. So, too, is Paris green.
"In the other case the only thing is to attack the insect direct. So certain insecticides, as they are called, are sprayed on the plant to fall upon the insect. They do a deadly work of attacking, in one way or another, the body of the insect. The kerosene emulsion made by the girls for their infested house plants worked this same way. Tobacco water and tobacco dust sprinkled on act in similar manner.
"Lime, soot, and sand are other means of blocking and choking off insects.
"Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at work. You have seen a garden covered with ant hills. Here is a remedy, but one of which you must be careful.
"Carbon bisulphid comes in little tin cans. It is a liquid of a vile smell, something like onions and rotten eggs mixed. The girls' noses are going up sky-high now. But it does the work of ant killing. You must be careful in handling this. It has a horrid explosive habit. Pour about a teaspoonful down an ant hole. Do not use a good silver spoon from the dining room. Get an old spoon, or buy a tin one. For you will never use it again except it be for carbon-bisulphid work. After this liquid has been poured down the hole, place a bit of a chip over it, for there may be a slight volcanic action underground. It is well to do this on a damp, cloudy day when all the ants are at home.
"Remember this stuff is not to be fooled with, as it is poisonous and also takes fire readily. Never open the can inside by a fire, in too great a heat, or near a lighted match. Invite your fathers to help in this. By no means do anything silly. Keep the can closed except when pouring out a teaspoonful.
"This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell what insect is doing the destructive work?' Well, you can tell partly by the work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not always so easy to accomplish. I had cutworms one season and never saw one. I saw only the work done. If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be pretty sure the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is a hard question because his family is a large one. Should you see sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm. But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and working by night, it is difficult to catch sight of one. The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalks of the hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them. A very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones, about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the plant.
"Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are often green in colour. But they may be red, yellow or brown. Kerosene emulsion is the medicine for plant lice. Lice are easy enough to find since they are always clinging to their host. As sucking insects they have to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them. But the biting insects do their work, and then go hide. That makes them much more difficult to deal with.
"Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out the body of the leaves, so that just the veining is left. They are soft-bodied, green above and yellow below. Since they are eating insects Paris green will kill them. But the kerosene emulsion penetrates their soft bodies; so this also may be used.
"A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves. It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it. This beetle, as its name implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running lengthwise. White hellebore powder kills these pests. Ask the druggist for five cents' worth and you will have a great plenty for any of your gardens. It, too, is a poison. This poison is also good to use for the caterpillars that eat many of our garden plants. Make a circle four inches from the stalk of an infested plant and sprinkle the powder in this. Evening time is good for this, because the dew moistens the powder just enough to make it a nuisance to the insect.
"Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug will devour almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single insect pest. You can discover them in the following way. There is a trick for bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day time. You see they rest during the day below ground. So just water the soil in which the slugs are supposed to be. How are you to know where they are? They are quite likely to hide near the plants they are feeding on. So water the ground with some nice clean lime water. This will disturb them, and up they'll poke to see what the matter is.
"Beside these most common of pests already mentioned, pests which attack many kinds of plants, there are special pests for special plants. Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages, as George well knows. In fact, the vegetable garden has many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very bothersome, the cutworm and the slug have a good time there, too, and ants often get very numerous as the season advances. But for real discouraging insect troubles the vegetable garden takes the prize. If we were going into fruit to any extent, perhaps the vegetable garden would have to resign in favour of the fruit garden.
"A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm. This is a large yellowish or greenish striped worm. Its work is to eat into the young fruit.
"A great, light green caterpillar is found on celery. This caterpillar may be told by the black bands, one on each ring or segment of its body.
"The squash bug may be told by its brown body, which is long and slender, and by the disagreeable odour from it when killed. The potato bug is another fellow to look out for. It is a beetle with yellow and black stripes down its crusty back. The little green cabbage worm is a perfect nuisance. It is a small caterpillar and smaller than the tomato worm. These are perhaps the most common of garden pests by name. It might be well to take up the common vegetables and flowers mentioning the pests which prey on each one.
"Let us take the vegetables first. None of us have grown asparagus yet; but it will be well to know about this vegetable. There is a beetle which may trouble asparagus plants. It is red with markings of black. The grub of this beetle is dark green. Look out for the asparagus beetle during April and May, for these are the months when it appears. The eggs are laid on young shoots of the plant. Such shoots should be cut right off. After the cutting season is over the plants should be sprayed. This may be done in August. Very dilute Bordeaux mixture or Paris green may be used for a spray.
"Next in the alphabet come beans. The most common trouble that beans have is one called anthracnose. That staggering word means that the leaves become covered with spots which are round with purple borders. Again, a spray of Bordeaux mixture should be used. The plants should be sprayed until the pods form. Look for this trouble in July.
"Beets are prone to leaf spots. As soon as such spots appear, the plants should be sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture. Every two weeks give the plants about three sprayings.
"The cabbage worm I have spoken of. This worm works all summer. Cabbages, if neglected, become literally alive with the little caterpillars. They eat and eat the foliage, riddling it completely. They eat into the heads so that the cabbage plant is completely spoiled. George treated his with pyrethrum powder. This he mixed with five times its bulk of dust. It was then dusted or shaken over the cabbage plant. A very good thing to do before trouble begins is to dust the soil and tender plants with lime. After the plants have begun to head use hellebore powder.
"Lice appear on cauliflower. The kerosene emulsion which we use on our indoor plants is all right for this work, too. The lice appear on the foliage in great white masses. They suck the life and goodness from the plant. They come all through the summer at any time. Whale oil soap is another good spray to use. Peter has typewritten receipts for these sprays which you may have at the close of this talk. Sometimes the root of the cauliflower is attacked. Little white maggots mine or burrow through the root. They are quite likely to begin their bad work in June or July. That rather dangerous carbon bisulphid is the medicine for this trouble. Make a hole in the soil as you did when treating the ant. Do not make this too near the plant. I should say six inches away would be about right. Pour a teaspoonful of the poison into the hole and it will take care of itself. Cover the hole over as you would in the case of the ant. When cauliflower plants begin to look sickly pull one up. If it is full of maggots that is easy to determine. But it may be that you will find great lumps or knots on the root. Since these knots appear during the same months as the maggots, you can only be sure of the real cause by pulling up a plant. If these knots are on the root, then you have a very serious trouble to contend with. So serious is the club root condition that the only safe thing to do is to pull up and completely destroy the diseased plants. Dig the soil up after this. Then lime it. Put a lot of lime on, not just a dusting over the surface of the soil. This represents soil that is in trouble, so do not plant cauliflower here again, or its coarser cousin, the cabbage.
"Sometimes a little red or orange and black bug appears. This is called the harlequin bug from its fantastic appearance. This bug may come all summer long at any time. The whale oil soap spray is the one to use. Celery may be troubled with the light green caterpillar with the black bands before spoken of. This caterpillar arrives in August. It is not difficult at all to see, so many may be picked off just by hand. One may use Paris green as a spray.
"None of you had any trouble with corn being infested. But sometimes a worm, called the earworm, which is like the tomato worm, will appear during June and eat the tips of the young ears. A little Paris green sprinkled on the leaves, at their base will kill them.
"Cucumbers and melons, as I have before said, are prone to be preys of the cutworms, squash bugs, striped beetles, and lice or aphis. You know treatment for cutworms and lice. The squash bug may be destroyed by hand. Sometimes when bits of sticks are placed on the ground the bugs will crawl under them. Next morning a small harvest of bugs can be killed. The squash bug lays its eggs on the under surface of the plant's leaves. These leaves should be removed and burned. The striped beetle is kept off by the Bordeaux mixture spray. This beetle appears in June. A spraying during this month often prevents a blight of the leaves in July. This blight appears first as a spotting on the leaves, after which the leaves soon wither up.
"Onions, as well as radishes, are affected by maggots which will mine through the onion bulb as well as the stems of the young, tender plants. A solution made from carbolic soap and water is excellent with which to water the soil about the plants.
"Peas have green lice as melons and cucumbers do. The lice appear early in May and June, and are killed and kept down by the regulation treatment. Many times during the latter part of summer peas may become mildewed. You can tell this by a growth of white down on stem and leaves. Put some soap in the Bordeaux mixture and spray.
"From May to October potato bugs flourish. Paris green is the spray to use. In the start they may be hand picked. But do not let them get ahead of your hand. A very serious potato disease is that of scab. Scales appear on the potatoes themselves. To prevent this, uncut seed potatoes are soaked in poison. But this is not a work for you to do alone by any means.
"The squash bug naturally seeks out the squash vine. He should be treated as we said when we talked of the same bug and melons.
"Tomatoes have numerous troubles. The cutworm, the tomato worm, the horn worm, potato beetle and various blights may come to tomatoes. The horn worm is a large green worm named from the horn at one end of its body. It appears in midsummer. Such large worms usually may be hand picked. If you should see a tomato plant wilting for no reason at all, pull it up and burn it; it probably has an infectious trouble which is carried from one plant to another by insects. It is really an infectious disease.
"These are the most common vegetable garden pests and their remedies.
"As the girls know, the flower garden is not without pests, too. Plant lice are plenty enough. These may appear at one time or another during the entire year.
"Some plants become covered with a little red spider. It attacks the foliage and does great damage. This may be due to lack of moisture with house plants. I do not mean lack of watering, but a dry condition of the air of the room. Often just a spray of clear water is sufficient to rid the plant of the mites.
"Roses have more troubles than any one other flower. The rose bush may have lice or it may have a little green bug that jumps very quickly and so gets its name of leaf-hopper. Kerosene emulsion is good to use. Often slugs will feed upon the surface of the leaves. A dusting of lime over the leaves keeps these feeders away. There is a brown beetle called the rose chafer, which eats the flower itself. Hand picking is about the best weapon to employ against this enemy. A scale sometimes comes on the stems. This scale looks like a white crust. It is wise to spray such rose bushes with kerosene emulsion. And better still, if possible, cut off and burn such scale-encrusted parts.
"Cutworms bother the early bulbs and the violets, too. A great many of the larger pests may be hand picked. The lice should be sprayed.
"And for the remedies. The following will be the ones you will need the most:
"The soap should be shaved up and dissolved in the water. To this add the kerosene (of course not when the soap and water is on the stove) a little at a time. Beat it with an egg beater to be kept for that purpose; or shake it vigorously.
"For use against plant lice add to one cup of this emulsion 8 cups of water. For scale insects dilute with four cups of water.
To one bucket (2½ gallons) of fresh water add four pints of the first solution. To another bucket of fresh water add six pints of the second solution.
Stir these together. Keep the rest of the solutions I. and II. for later mixing when it is needed.
This is the right dilution for plant lice but for scale insects it is too weak; for them use about two quarts of water to one pound of soap.
"The best way to apply liquid sprays in small gardens is to use a whisk broom. Just dip the little broom into the mixture needed and shake the brush over the plant. Then the hands need never come in contact with the poison. Careful children can use sprays without any trouble. Josephine has used kerosene emulsion in this fashion: she pours a little into a saucer, takes a bit of cheese cloth and dipping it into the emulsion wipes the lice off an infested part. Usually one application is enough. This sounds like a much more disagreeable task than it really is. A plant syringe may be used. But personally I like the hand method. Of course if there are lots of lice on many plants this would not be practical at all.
"It stands to reason that sick plants need medicines of some kind. Sometimes to be sure they need better living conditions. Often the soil is sour, water-logged, unaired and totally unfit for a self-respecting plant to live in. The whole thing resolves itself into a study of conditions, and a desire to help the plant have as comfortable a time as possible in life."