!Neut |}ork rtaU (JJallege of Agriculture At fljnntell MntUEtaitB 3tl)atB, S. J. » Kihranj S 501 B6 C ° me " Universi «y Library The backyard farmer. 3 1924 000 292 684 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000292684 THE BACK YARD FARMER THE BACK YARD FARMER BY J. WILLARD BOLTE CHICAGO FORBES & COMPANY 1917 Copyright, 1914, by Forbes and Company This volume on back yard happiness and health is dedicated to my esteemed friend A. M. B. whose inspiration, assistance and encouragement have made its existence possible. The Authob. CONTENTS PAGE Making the Back Yard a Garden Spot n Back Yard Dividends 15 Preparing the Garden 18 Making a Garden Productive 21 Why Gardens Fail 24 A Succession of Garden Crops 27 How to Handle the Garden in Hot Weather .... 30 Laying Out Flower Beds 33 , Blossoms for Fall 35 House Plants in Summer 38 Planting Annual Flowers 41 Midsummer Plantings 44 A Cold Frame for Fall 46, Preparation of the Garden for Next Year 48 Garden Tools 50 Vegetables in Window Boxes 53 Dwarf Tomatoes. 56 Cucurbitaceae 59 Garden Root Crops 62 Rhubarb 66 Asparagus 69 7 CONTENTS PAGE Hot Beds and Cold Frames 72 Watermelons 75 A Back Yard Orchard 78 Back Yard Fruit Trees 81 Apples 84 Strawberries 87 Raspberries for the Small Garden 90 Starting a Blackberry Patch 93 Small Fruit Pests 95 Garden and Plant Pests 98 Walks and Driveways 101 Nature's Carpets 104 Better Lawns 107 Shrubbery no Evergreens for the Lawn 1 14 Vines and Climbers 1 17 Shade Trees and Their Care 120 Using Hedges Profitably 123 Fences 126 Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets I29 The Busy Bee 132 The City Cow 135 How to Feed Your Horse 138 Horses and Spring Weather 141 Stable Sanitation 144 8 CONTENTS PAGE A Garden for the Kiddies 147 The Back Yard and the Boy 149 Boys and Pets 152 The Rabbit Hutch and the Rabbit 155 Home Canning 158 Home-Laid Fresh Eggs 160 Making the City Flock Pay 163 "The Best Breed of Chickens" 165 Starting with Chickens 168 Buying Orphan Chicks 171 Selecting the Breeding Flock 173 Feeding Baby Chicks 176 Care of Chicks in Brooders 179 Feeding Hens for Eggs: 182 Green Feed for Chickens 185 Meat for Chickens 188 Winter Eggs 191 The City Hen House 195 Caring for the Chicken Yard 199 Summer Sanitation for Poultry 202 Shade for Chickens 205 The Setting Hen's Secret 208 Breaking Up Setting Hens 212 Protecting Chicks Against Enemies 215 Parasites and Poison 219 9 CONTENTS PAGE Where Did the Chickens Come From? 223 White Chickens 226 Black Chickens 228 Buff Chickens 232 Garden Planting Calendar 235 10 THE BACK YARD FARMER Making the Back Yard a Garden Spot Every home should be surrounded by a beautiful and artistic yard. Almost all appreciate this fact, and it will not bear argument, but there is consider- able divergence of opinion as to the best way to make the yard beautiful. The keynote of landscape beauty is harmony. It does not follow that you may not use contrasting shapes and colors, but it does mean that such con- trasts must be used in a way to secure a pleasing general effect. Because city dwellings are usually without front yards of a sufficient size to permit of planting, attention must be given largely to the back yard. Almost every one who does not live in an apartment has some sort of an inclosure back of the house, and as a rule this space is simply a dumping ground for refuse, a place to hang up the washing, and a summer garden for alley cats. In the general treatment of country places the house is the dominant feature in the beautifying of the yard because there is ample land around it on ii MAKING THE BACK YARD A GARDEN SPOT all sides, and the main idea is to make a picture that is beautiful not only to the -inmates of the home but also to the passerby. If the house is of any particular architectural style, let the shape of the walks, roadway, flower beds, shrubs and trees be of such a character as to carry out the lines and spirit of the house as far as possible. The formal house should be sur- rounded by natural things in geometrical patterns — square corners, formal shaped shrubs, straight walks, etc., rather than the graceful forms. The bungalow and the less imposing and less rigid type of building must be treated in a decidedly different manner, as its lines are more on the grace- ful and beautiful order, and the lines of the sur- rounding grounds should carry out the same idea. Curved lines, even of a rather indefinite character, may be used to advantage. Flowing shapes in the trees and shrubs, profuse vines, beds and banks of wild flowers and related objects should be adhered to largely. Do not attempt to mix these two distinct styles of landscape art. Nothing can be more unattractive than a formal square house set in a woodland, unless it be a graceful, unpretentious country home in the midst of an Italian garden. 12 MAKING THE BACK YARD A GARDEN SPOT The house, while it is not really a part of the yard, is still the most important feature of the whole scene, from the standpoint of the person without. This is why we place such special em- phasis on the appearance and style of the building. In the city back yard the house may be left out of the problem to a large extent, because the passerby does not enter into the calculations and the yard is an independent unit. Of course the house forms one boundary of the yard, and the rear of the building must be so treated in the planting scheme as to make the view equally attractive in all direc- tions, but it is not necessary to plan the layout of the yard so carefully in relation to the architecture of the dwelling. The fact that we live such strenuous lives makes it all the more necessary that we provide for our- selves full opportunity to relax and regain strength amid pleasant surroundings, and a little garden spot in the back yard is one of the best places in the world for the tired city dweller. The main thing in any large landscape is the lawn, because this is the foreground of the whole scene. This feature is much less important in the back yard garden, however, as here the space is so limited that the main object is to shut the little garden spot 13 MAKING THE BACK YARD A GARDEN SPOT away from every sight that seems to connect it with the sordid things of life. When you start to make your own yard a place of beauty, first look at it from the house and decide what things you wish to shut away. Then view the yard from the center and do the same thing, as these two positions are the ones that will be most fre- quently used. After you have arranged your permanent plant- ings of trees, shrubs, and vines to isolate the yard from the outside world, you can take up the subject of planting flowers and vegetables in the yard itself in order to brighten it up and join the larger growth to the rest of the yard in a harmonious whole. Most amateur gardeners have neither the time nor the inclination to master the fundamental principles of gardening, as it involves too much research work and the unavoidable study of a lot of unimportant matter, in order to get to the important facts. For this reason this book is designed to present actual concrete facts regarding this and allied lines and they will be presented in such a way as to be imme- diately applicable to everyday garden problems. 14 Back Yard Dividends A back yard can be made to pay dividends. It will yield very high ones if helped a little. Many a back yard could annually produce, vegetables that would cost a hundred and fifty dollars if they were pur- chased at the grocer's, and the pleasure of growing them would be worth as much more to the gardener. Any patch of ground will grow something well worth while if you will give it half a chance. There probably is not a back yard in any city that would refuse to return a wonderful profit if it were planted to the right kind of crops. What an excellent thing it would be for, the community if all the land which now lies idle were to be planted to useful and beau- tiful things ! A little preliminary thought, quite a little healthful out-of-door exercise, and the results will please not only the worker, but every passerby. Of course the first thing we think of for the back yard is just plain grass. Grass is all right in its way, but it pays very few dividends in either cash or good health, where it is confined to a small yard. It is much more profitable in every way to cut down the 15 BACK YARD DIVIDENDS grass plot and devote more of our limited space to flower beds and vegetable plots. Use the borders and shady places for perennial flowering plants, and devote every inch that you can spare to vegetables. Many of the edible plants are just as beautiful in their way as the majority of our flowering plants, and they please the palate as well as the eye. Besides, we are talking about dividends and must not wan- der far from the cash consideration in this chap- ter. We have to buy vegetables unless we grow them, but we can get along without flowers if there is not room for both the flowers and the vegetables. Don't attempt to grow vegetables in a spot where the sun does not shine for half of each day at the least. It is a mere waste of time to do so, except in special cases. The city gardener can grow almost anything that any one can, but his space is so limited that he must economize as much as possible. He should have a hot bed set up next to the house in the sunniest possible spot and produce in it his early crops of radishes, lettuce, etc. He can also start cabbages, melons, squashes, tomatoes, egg plant and any other plants that will stand transplanting, and will thus gain a month to six weeks over the same plants started out of doors. 16 BACK YARD DIVIDENDS As soon as the ground is ready for planting out of doors and the seed bed has been thoroughly pre- pared, he can plant radishes, . lettuce, beets, spinach, parsley, turnips, Swiss chard, and a number of other delicacies which stand the storms and cold spells of early spring, and are not liable to be drowned out. Make the seed bed as deep, fine, rich and warm as possible. The nearer the soil granules approach to the size of the seeds, the better chance the seeds have to germinate and grow to maturity. 17 Preparing the Garden Any one who has a little patch of back yard can have a vegetable garden. It is well worth the effort. It will not only furnish delicious, fresh vegetables, but also health and pleasure. If your soil is sandy, it will produce the early crops to great advantage, and you can get radishes, lettuce, and similar vegetables several weeks ahead of your neighbor with a clay garden, but the sandy soil does not stand the hot dry weather of the summer months as well as the clay or loam. For this reason it is usually desirable to cover a very sandy plot with several inches of barnyard manure and loam or black muck soil to give it some body and moisture retaining power. This top dressing should be evenly spread on just before plowing in the spring and it should be thoroughly turned under. A loamy soil is ideal for general garden crops, the sandy loam being a little earlier, and the clay loam a little better in the hot weather. Loam soils do not need any other treatment than manure every second year, unless the location is too wet. If this 18 PREPARING THE GARDEN is the case, either surface or tile drainage will have to be installed in order to secure the best results. Clay, either blue, yellow or red, is about the toughest proposition the gardener has to tackle. It possesses plant food in abundance and can be made to bear profitably, but it will need a lot of cultivation and treatment of various kinds before it can be handled with ease. In the first place it must be plowed or spaded deeply in order to break up the solid texture of the soil. Large quantities of well rotted manure containing considerable straw should be plowed under every year, and at the same time it will be well to plow under about two inches of sand or sandy loam. After the last crop has been taken off any portion of the garden in the fall, sow the vacant ground to some fa^t growing cover crop and turn it under just before frost cuts it down. All of these factors will assist in loosening a heavy firm soil, allowing better penetration of air and water, and reducing the tendency of the soil to form large hard clods. Don't strip the sod from a new garden. Turn it under by all means, as it will make the texture of the soil very much better. The greater the amount of decaying plant matter you can incorporate in the soil, the better will be your crop. 19 PREPARING THE GARDEN Plow or spade your garden as soon as the soil is dry enough to "scour" off the plowshare nicely. Plowing before this will leave the soil in a clodded or puddled condition and it will take a couple of years' hard work to correct this mistake, if the soil is heavy. With sandy or loamy soils the time of plowing is not so important as they are not liable to form clods, and they can be plowed when much drier than a clay. The owner of the clay patch or the muck garden has to be extremely careful regarding this important feature, however. After plowing, the treatment of all kinds of soil is practically the same. Cultivate, rake or harrow the soil until the surface, which is known as the seed bed, is as fine as you can possibly get it. The finer the better for all kinds of seed. This is because the particles of soil can get into closer physical touch with the little seeds and plant roots. They hold the soil water closer, and make their food contents much more available for the roots. 20 Making a Garden Productive With proper soil treatment, the average garden will produce a half more than it now does. The ob- servance of a few fundamental principles concern- ing the soil will turn failure into success. The garden plot should be well drained and it must not be shaded to any extent. Drainage takes away surface water rapidly and keeps the soil water away from the surface, so that the roots can grow deep and the air can enter the soil and aid in decom- posing it. All soil is composed of a mineral, rocky body, usually clay or sand, and a varying amount of organic matter, that is, decomposing plant and animal remains. The growing plant lives principally on oxygen taken from the air, and nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, which are taken from the soil. The nitrogen is produced from the organic matter in the soil and is liberated by the action of bacteria, which rot this organic matter. These bacteria cannot work unless they get air, hence, the necessity for drainage. The same principle holds good for the liberation of the 21 MAKING A GARDEN PRODUCTIVE potash and phosphorus, although frost action is more potent than bacterial action here. The neces- sary phosphorus and potash are derived from the mineral elements of the soil, and all three of these soil foods are sucked up into the plant through the roots with the water. This water is evaporated through the plant's leaves and the plant foods are retained and digested in the leaves and stems. This digestive process is carried on in the little green cells which give color to the leaves. These cells, called chlorophyll cells for short, will work only with the help of the sunlight. If shaded too much they lose their color, go into a decline and the plant dies. Again let us state that a good garden must be sunny and well drained. The next feature is fertility. Almost all soil contains an immense amount of plant food. Ordi- nary virgin clays, mucks and loams contain enough potash and phosphorus for hundreds of years. Why, then, do such soils run out and fail to pro- duce good crops ? Usually because the elements and the bacteria cannot decompose the soil fast enough to get the plant foods into such shape that the plants can take these foods up and use them. It also may happen that continuous growing of the 22 MAKING A GARDEN PRODUCTIVE same crop will poison the soil as far as that crop is concerned. The nitrogen gives out first, usually, and it is most easily renewed by using stable manure. This will also help by releasing other elements and is all that most gardens ever need. The need is shown by low growth and pale color in the plants. It helps to loosen the heavy soil, gives light soil body and water holding capacity, prevents surface washing and introduces vast quantities of beneficial bacteria. Phosphorus is secured in the form of bone meal or mineral phosphate and potash comes in various com- mercial fertilizers. 23 Why Gardens Fail As we have remarked before, every man with avail- able land should make some kind of a garden on it. About one man in three who could have a nice little garden plot in the city has one. Almost everybody in the suburbs has both lawn, flowers and a vege- table garden. The fascination of this delightful pastime is amply demonstrated by the fact that so many people make gardens every year and yet the majority of these gardens are failures to a greater or less degree. They start out beautifully, with the warm, fresh mellow earth turned over from its winter's rest, and the little delicate seedlings following the. warm rains. The first crop, small things like radishes and let- tuce, develop fairly well and the gardener puts in his late crops with great expectations. When the hot, dry weather of late June and early July arrives the plants begin to shrink and shrivel. They turn brown and enter into a kind of dormant state, neither advancing nor retreating, worthless as food pro- viders and certainly unhandsome to view. 24 WHY GARDENS FAIL This unthrifty summer condition injures the most satisfactory crops, corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. The worst of it is that the same thing happens to the same gardens, year after year, and the best of it is that it need not happen at all if the gardener will use his head as much as his back, and use both of them a good deal. The two great causes of garden failures are lack of proper cultivation and lack of available plant food. In a humid climate it should never be neces- sary to water the garden if the soil is in proper con- dition to hold the natural rainfall. It needs to be plowed deeply, cultivated finely, firmed down well to make capillary connection between the soil water below and the plant roots above, and then the sur- face must be hoed, and hoed and hoed. Never let up on the hoeing. A single weed will evaporate many times its own weight in valuable soil water every day. If you permit the top soil to bake or a crust to form, direct means is established for the soil water to evaporate and it will leave the soil as rapidly as it would an open dish and possibly more rapidly. Do your best to keep your garden covered with an inch of fine, dry dust all the summer through. The roots will go deep and the plants will get all the water there is. 25 WHY GARDENS FAIL A garden must contain plant food and the best plant food is rotten vegetable matter. Make a com- post heap in some out-of-the-way corner or in a large box. Here throw your stable manure, grass clippings, leaves, waste vegetables, hen manure, in fact anything that will rot. Keep it moist and keep flies away from it. Grass sod is an excellent foundation for a com- post heap and it is extensively used by florists. Use plenty of the compost on your garden, plowing it under, and be careful not to put in too much straw, as that will dry out the soil. The compost will increase the water-holding capacity of the soil, it will permit of better ventilation, it furnishes plant food of all kinds, it lightens a heavy soil and stiffens .a sandy one. If you wish to brace up weak plants and force them, fill a barrel half full of manure and cover with water. The liquid resulting is the finest kind of quick acting fertilizer. Pour it about the plants to be forced, and the effect will be immediately perceptible. 26 A Succession of Garden Crops Our springtime enthusiasm starts the garden off in great shape and we plant some radishes and lettuce and peas. Later on we find time to plant corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. The class of vegetables which may go into the ground very early is likewise harvested very early. There is a big gap between this early harvest and the time of green corn and red tomatoes, yet we have to work just as hard dur- ing this hungry period as if we were getting a bounteous yield. Why not plan the varieties of vegetables and their planting time so as to secure a continuous and ample supply of good, fresh green things? It is just as easy as any other method of garden management, and it is much more satisfactory. Instead of having only half of your garden working after the early vegetables are gone, plan to put in other crops on the same ground so that the succession will be almost unbroken. The systematic rotation of farm crops is an abso- lute necessity, in order to secure maximum yields, and to keep down pests. Various crops have entirely A SUCCESSION OF GARDEN CROPS different effects on the soil, some taking more of one element, others feeding heavily on another. The legumes, such as clover and alfalfa, are heavy feed- ers, but they possess the peculiar faculty of trans- ferring nitrogen from the air to the soil, and this makes them our most valuable class of plants, with- out question. Garden peas and beans belong to this family. Potatoes and root crops, on the other hand, add nothing and use up a very great amount of plant food. Other plants vary in proportion and it is necessary to make frequent changes of the location of a crop in order to avoid using up all of any one element of plant food. The problem of diseases and pests is a serious one, particularly in the east. After a certain related class of plants, like potatoes and tomatoes, have been grown on the same land for a couple of seasons, it becomes infected with their enemies and the only way to get rid of them is to starve them out by using the land for a different class of plants, such as the various cucurbits — cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, gourds and melons. Ground which has been used for the early crops can then be planted to late corn or cucumbers. -By training tomatoes and cucumbers on supports, a 38 A SUCCESSION OF GARDEN CROPS much smaller amount of ground will produce the crop. Many combinations can be worked out to fit your particular crops and the main result to be achieved is to keep all your garden working all the time. Move the crops around from year to year so as to give the soil a chance to recuperate. Where a num- ber of successive plantings are desirable, as with peas, it is an excellent plan to plant a third or fourth crop between the rows of the first crop, removing the vines of the first crop as soon as the peas have been picked. 29 How to Handle the Garden in Hot Weather When hot weather visits us the fate of most gar- dens hangs in the balance. At this ,time, the garden needs our help more than at any other and we feel less like giving it the necessary care. The weather is hot and the air is still, and a hammock in a shady- nook looks better to father than any "Man With the Hoe" tableau, especially after a hard day's work. Remember that the kind of weather that gives you a very tired feeling, makes the weeds grow rank and bold and dries the garden soil until it is almost waterproof. Probably you feel that you don't need the exercise nearly as much as you did in the spring, and prob- ably you are right; at the same time it will do you good if you take it properly, and you cannot afford to have the garden go to pieces just when a little work will pull it through in grand shape. Get up half an hour earlier than usual and do your garden work then, instead of waiting until the tired eventide or trying to lump it all into a week's end job. A little daily work in the cool of the early morning will send you to your regular bread-and- 30 HOW TO HANDLE THE GARDEN IN HOT WEATHER butter job feeling many times better than would that little extra sleep. Gone is that brown taste — gone the dead-alive feeling that the long stifling summer night brings. Nature is at her loveliest while the dew is on and half of the fun of gardening is getting close to nature. Do your gardening before you are tired out and enjoy it to the utmbst. We have previously told you what to do for the weeds, which, like the poor, are always with us. Unlike the poor, however, they need no assistance, but the strongest possible resistance, because they are altogether too well able to fend for themselves. Cut off their heads, cut off their feet, 1 burn their middles, and do it before they have any offspring. Then start in and do it all over again, because they resurrect mighty fast if given the slightest oppor- tunity. Keep the soil surface in a dry, pulverized, weed- less condition, and never let it harden. Pull the weeds out of the rows, where the hoe cannot reach them, because they do more harm here than between the rows. If the garden shows lack of moisture, it must be furnished, and the best way to do this is to irrigate at night. This is better than sprinkling, because the water soaks in deeper and evaporation is much less 31 HOW TO HANDLE THE GARDEN IN HOT WEATHER at night than in the daytime. A thorough soaking once a week is plenty and the soil should be culti- vated the next morning to hold the water. This, then, is the time when a soil full of manure is appre- ciated. It holds more water and does not bake. The clay soil or the strong loam is the best for, hot dry summers, but the lighter soils may be made, more drought resisting by turning under plenty of straw and manure, and keeping the surface constantly cultivated. 32 Laying Out Flower Beds Why do people plant flowers in beds? Everyone does so, and there is hardly one in a hundred that knows why they plant them in beds instead of singly and scattered or some other way. They do it because everybody else does it. But fortunately there are good underlying reasons for so doing. ' In the first place, the herbaceous or soft stemmed plants usually look better in masses, lines or other groups. A large or continuous mass of color makes a strong impression upon the observer where a few scattered blooms would be ignored. A single sol- dier is unnoticed, but the marching of a regiment thrills the very soul. So it is with flowers, and this cumulative effect is the biggest reason for massing them together. Perhaps the only other immediate alternative would be to scatter them about over the lawn as they occur in nature — a group of blue here, a single pink there, etc. This is all very well for the yard that is kept in a wild state, but it will never do for the finished city or suburban lot. It makes a fair, smooth lawn impossible and the combination of nat- 33 LAYING OUT FLOWER BEDS ural flower arrangements and polished gardening accessories spoils the effect of both. As far as possible, the beds should be kept at the outer edges of the lawn to avoid cutting it up and making it look small. The old-fashioned, formal beds — round, square, star-shaped, diamond or cres- cent — are not in good taste now, and the lines of the beds should be irregular, although clearly defined. This applies even to walk borders, to a lesser degree, although we personally like a straight lined bed near a straight lined walk. If it is necessary to place small beds out in the lawn, the round or oval bed is probably the best in form and it should contain low flowers, so as not to hide the landscape back of it. Beds should be dug deep, thoroughly fertilized and pulverized, and the edges cut clean and smooth with an edging tool. The earth should be gently crowned from the edges to the center, to provide drainage. Do not plant the flowers so close to the grass as to interfere with clipping the grass at the edge of the lawn about the bed. 34 Blossoms for Fall The spring brings its sweet, dainty little flowers, synonymous with love and hope, the summer blazes with brilliant garish colors, and the fall has its own softer tones with which to decorate the pleasant har- vest time. Gold, brown, deep red, purple, and yel- low have long been the standard fall lines, but there are many other shades that can be enjoyed in the autumn garden. While they bring a breath of sadness with them, still the time of the golden rod and the purple aster and the black-eyed Susan is perhaps the dearest of all to those who dwell amidst natural scenes. Why not have the same beautiful wild wood colors in our fall gardens? Why not bring the harvest spirit into our own lives by growing the harvest flowers about our homes. In the early autumn days, after the riotous sum- mer blooms have gone, their places can be filled with cosmos, salvias and dahlias. Asters, with their shades of blue and purple, great blotches of warm colored marigolds, calendulas in a great many shades and forms, annual pinks, breathing of colonial days, 35 BLOSSOMS FOR FALL and the wonderful hardy chrysanthemums. Many others might be mentioned, as the fall list is very respectably long, but these few will do well under almost any condition and should be very widely grown. The scarlet salvia is an ideal flower for edging, long rows, etc. It blossoms continually until frost cuts it down, the long spike like blossoms having the most brilliant red color of any of the fall flow- ers, except the California poppy. Salvias can be grown from seed, but the easier way is to buy the potted plants from a florist and set them out in beds. The Bonfire variety is one of the newer ones and it is more compact and showy than the old reliable Salvia Splendens. Put the salvias in the tulip beds about corn planting time. The dahlia offers the flower lover more variety than any of the others, possibly, and we know one man down in Rhode Island who claims to have over 2,500 distinct varieties of dahlias in his garden. It is hard to recommend the best in such a vast wealth of material and we will not attempt it. Here are some of the good ones: White — Pius X. and Rie- sen Edelweiss. Pink — Kriemhilde and Countess of Lonsdale. Scarlet — Standard Bearer and Geisha. Dark Redt^Roland von Berlin and J. H. Jackson. 36 BLOSSOMS FOR FALL Take the dahlia roots up late in the fall and win- ter them in the cellar. Separate the clumps and plant, three feet apart, in rich, well drained earth the next spring. fJo not fail to separate the clumps and leave only three or four shoots on each clump. Stake the plants up as soon as necessary, as they blow down easily. Be sure that the soil is well drained, above all else. The double cosmos blooms in late summer and may better be started indoors or secured from a florist. Lady Lenox is a wonderful new sort. In the asters, plant Comet, Ostrich Feather and Semple's Late Branching, for excellent results. 37 House Plants in Summer During the hot weather of summer we must not permit our out-of-door activities to cause us to neg- lect our house plants. The best place for grown folks, children and all living things during the summer is outdoors, where the sunshine and the fresh air can strengthen and heal, making ready for the next winter season, and therefore the winter house plants should be outdoors in summer. Of course, the closer to natural conditions they are during the normal growing season, the better growth the plants will secure and the finer plants we will have for the house in the winter. When danger from late frosts has surely passed, take less expensive plants, the geraniums, the foliage plants and others of their kind, and transplant them. Put them in good, rich, deep, loamy beds if you can, or in window boxes if the beds are unavailable. Give them lots of sunshine, so that the stalks and foliage will grow rank and strong. In transplanting, spade up the bed to a depth of at least a foot, pulverize the soil finely, mixing in 38 HOUSE PLANTS IN SUMMER fine, well-rotted stable manure, and set the plants in the ground half an inch deeper than they were in the pots. Pack the earth firmly about them after setting. It will do no harm to remove some of the old earth, but the roots cannot be pruned or broken off to any great extent, unless you prune back the foliage to an equal extent. Water the plants as soon as they are set, and water them every' other day, at least, doing the watering when the sun is not hot. If it is desired to have the flowering plants bloom early and profusely, pinch off the ends of half the branches so that the energy of the plant will go to the flowers. Most people prefer to postpone the blooming period until winter, however, and this can be accom- plished by pinching off the flower buds during the summer, as soon as they appear. The result will be a heavy growth of stalk and leaf during the growing season, and profuse blooms during the winter indoors. Tropical and semi-tropical plants, such as palms, cacti and rubber plants, usually are too expensive to risk on the lawn, and it is well to change the earth in their pots and place them in a sunny position on the porch. Ferns should have a cool, shady, damp location during the summer. 39 HOUSE PLANTS IN SUMMER If your plants have to be kept in the house, water frequently and beware of plant lice and red spider. The former attach themselves to the stems and under the surface of the leaves. Spray them with tobacco water. Plain water sprayed on daily will help the plant and drive the red spiders away in a very short length of time. Cuttings of the herbaceous or soft stemmed plants may be made in the spring or fall, as seems most desirable, but most plant lovers prefer to do this work in the spring so that the cuttings can get a good growth during the first few months. Cut good strong branches from the plant which you wish to propagate and remove half of the leaves, trimming them from the larger end of the branch. Then either immerse this end in water until the new roots appear at the joints, or plant the cuttings in moist sand. As soon as the roots are pretty well developed the cuttings may be planted in beds or pots and treated like any other house plants. 40 Planting Annual Flowers Annual flowers, that is, flowers which are grown from seed and live only one season, are very useful for decorating the home grounds, filling window boxes, etc. They are no less hardy than perennials, and they are cheaper to plant and fully as satisfac- tory in most ways. A moderate use of perennials serves as a fine foundation for a flower garden, and by using annuals for the balance, we can have an unbroken series of blossoms throughout the season, and can also vary the arrangement from year to year. Choose your color combinations with care so as to avoid having inharmonious colors blooming at the same time. Do not use mixed seeds unless you know what the colors are. Select and plant beds or borders of the same variety and color for best effect, contrasting them with other solid masses rather than mixtures. Exceedingly charming effects can be secured by mass plantings of coreopsis, poppies and many oth- 4i PLANTING ANNUAL FLOWERS ers of the simpler annual blossoms. Flowers which bear large clusters or sprays of bloom are effective in shady places and against "walls. The lower growing varieties can be used for bor- dering beds of perennials, outlining vegetable gar- dens, walks, and drives. Wild flowers should be planted in irregular groups in locations as nearly like their natural ones as possible. Do not attempt to plant them in regular beds and geometrical forms if you would secure best results. Annuals may be planted as soon as the ground is ready, and many varieties may go in successfully quite late in the spring. For mass planting, the following are rec- ommended: Scabiosa, balsam, calliopsis, coreopsis, globe amaranth, poppies, zinnias, marigold, snap- dragon, amaranthus. For border plants: Sweet alyssum, mignonette, pansies, candytuft, dwarf nasturtium, dwarf snap- dragon. For low beds: Clarkia, phlox-drummondi, ver- benas, petunias. For late blooming background masses we can rec- ommend: Castor oil beans, cosmos, salvia, and sunflower. For annual vines: Climbing nasturtium, lobelia, 42 PLANTING ANNUAL FLOWERS scarlet runner, wild cucumber, morning glory, cypress vine, and best of all flowers, the sweet pea. Plant lots of annuals. They cost little and they make the whole world happier. 43 Midsummer Plantings A good many of the short season garden products can be planted in midsummer. Onion sets will mature nicely before frost if planted now, and onion seed can be planted and harvested as onion sets ready for planting the next year. Radishes should be planted every two or three weeks as late as Sep- tember i. There is no reason why you cannot have a steady supply of radishes for your table until the frost. Good late crops of lettuce and spinach may be had by planting now. Although peas will not grow well in the hot weather, a very excellent late crop may be had by planting the seed about four inches deep in drills two feet apart at this time of the year. This will insure deep roots and hardy plants. The general rule for midsummer planting is to keep the plants well shaded during the hot part of the day. If you have no natural shade in your garden, and do not want to go to the trouble of building artificial shade for the midday sun, still good results can be had by planting your seed quite 44 MIDSUMMER PLANTINGS deeply. Plants put in at this time of year must be kept thoroughly watered, and, of course, cultivation is an ever-present necessity. In the hot dry weather that comes in midsummer, the tiny new seedlings have a hard time getting a foothold. Conditions are not favorable for strong germination, as the soil, is naturally very dry and lumpy, and the hot dry air does not treat the baby plants as kindly as the moist warm air of spring. The backyard farmer must create springlike con- ditions by artificial means if he is to succeed now, and, to many, the extra trouble seems too great for the results that may be secured. This is never the case with the true gardener, however, for he or she likes nothing better than to spend all available spare time in the garden, and there is joy as well as profit in succeeding with late plantings and having fresh green stuff long after every other garden in the neighborhood has dwindled to corn and tomatoes. 45 A Cold Frame for Fall It is really remarkable what results can be had in the garden long after the frost comes, by the use of a properly built cold frame. The most satisfactory frame we have used is made in sections, three by six feet — the number of sections to be used depend- ing on how much space you want to devote to late plants. The cold frame is nothing more than four boards nailed together to make the sides, and it should slope slightly toward the south. This is then cov- ered with sash, made of light wood, covered with cloth. Waterproof material may be gotten for this latter from most of the large seed stores, and is preferable on account of its durability. Success with cold frames in the fall depends on getting your plants well started before the frosts come. A good plan is to build your frame work, and a good size would be six by twelve feet. This would require four cloth frames to cover it, and the total expense should not exceed five dollars for materials. Inside this inclosure can be planted any late summer vegetables that you want to raise. If 46 A COLD FRAME FOR FALL the sun is particularly hot, put the cover frames on during the middle of the day, but otherwise just give the plants the same attention you would if planted in the spring. When danger of frost is at hand, put the cover frames on every night, taking them off in the morn- ing, but when the weather gets still colder leave these cover frames on all the time. You will be surprised at the excellent crop of late vegetables you will have when all your neighbors' gardens are desolate. If you want to have vegetables all through the winter, you must replace the cloth frames with glass about November i, and by this means some of the hardier plants, like radishes, beets, string beans and onions can be had practically all winter, though it will probably be well for winter use to bank your frame all around with fresh horse manure, which would turn your cold frame into a hot bed. Among the flowers, violets, pansies, English daisies and primroses will grow well during the winter in a cold frame covered with glass. 47 Preparation of the Garden for Next Year In fall the garden should be prepared for the next year's crops. After the various vegetables have ripened and the plants died, the garden should be plowed. If you are keeping chickens, it would be well to harrow and sow to vetch or rape, either of which will give you a good crop of green feed for the chickens. This can be planted as late as August 15. Sow it thickly and give it plenty of water. This crop will make a good green feed for the chickens until it gets too dry and then it can be cured and made into a water mash as needed. This makes a very good substitute for the green feed during win- ter months. If you have no chickens, and therefore have no use for a green feed, we suggest that you plant the garden to clover. Clover belongs to the leguminous class of plants, which put nitrogen back into the soil. Let this crop grow until just before frost, then plow it under. This will enrich the soil and lighten it. In any event, the garden should be plowed in the fall, particularly where the soil is heavy. This will permit the frost to break up and decompose the soil 48 PREPARATION OF THE GARDEN FOR NEXT YEAR during the winter months, making the plant foods more available in the spring. Before planting, the entire garden should be gone over with a disk harrow. It will be still better if you will cover the ground with a fertilizer before plowing. There is nothing better for this perhaps, than good sod, which accounts for better crops the first year than later on. Stable manure is good. If the soil is very heavy and sour, put lime on, in the form of air slaked lime or ground raw lime stone. 49 Garden Tools Kipling says that a, soldier is no better than his feet, and it is equally true that a gardener is no bet- ter than his tools. Much muscle, time and perspira- tion can be wasted in the garden because of the use of improper tools, or the misuse of the proper ones for the purpose. Most of this waste is due to lack of information about tools on the part of the user. It is much easier to do garden work with sharp tools. Every stroke is clean and true and it goes where it is sent with half the effort a dull tool requires. The American factory mechanic is reputed to spend three times as much time as the European workman, sharpening his tools, but he produces nearly twice as much finished product thereby. The same principle applies to the use of garden tools. Keep them sharp and in good working order. A flat, fine file is a handy tool to have about. With it you can sharpen your hoe, spade, trowel, cultivator teeth, grass shears and lawn mower. The file will make an ideal cutting edge on these tools and this edge should have a perfectly flat bevel, at So GARDEN TOOLS an angle of about 45 degrees. Hold the tool firmly and use a little machine oil to help the file cut the steel. Of course, edged tools, like the sickle, scythe, and pruning shears, have to be ground on a grindstone or emery stone, and then resharpened from time to time with a whetstone. The bevel of the edge must be as acute as possible on this class of tools. The best tool for spading up soil is not the spade, but the spading fork. It penetrates the soil much easier and pulverizes it more in turning over. If the spade is preferred, it should have as flat a blade as possible, to prevent clogging. The hoe is the most useful tool in the small gar- den and it should have a large and heavy blade. The additional width will do more work with the same number of strokes and the heavy head does more effective work because of its added momentum. A rake is of rather small importance after the seed is once planted, but it is an excellent and prac- tically indispensable implement for leveling and pul- verizing the seed bed. Use a cast iron rake of the narrower type. The wide ones are too hard to handle. For the larger garden, a hand cultivator or wheel hoe is fine and a great time and muscle saver. With 5i GARDEN TOOLS it the entire garden can be hoed easily in the same length of time one takes to hoe a tenth of it by hand. We prefer the single, high wheeled type, which runs between the rows, as it will work close enough and pushes easier. Work it with the cultivator teeth early in the season to loosen the soil and force the roots to grow deeply, changing to the weed cutting, ' horizontal blades later on. It is a real pleasure to cultivate the garden with one of these machines and they cost only a couple of dollars. 52 Vegetables in Window Boxes If you live in a flat and have, no ground available for gardening, do not give up the idea of raising some delicious fresh vegetables of your own. Many vegetables will grow in pots and porch or win- dow boxes just as well as they will grow anywhere. It is very easy to grow them, many of the plants are as decorative as flowers, and the product will be much nicer and very much less expensive than store vegetables. The location of the vegetable boxes is important. They should be placed where the sun will strike them nearly all day. Windows, porches and roofs can be used to advantage, under proper conditions. It is usually better to use boxes or trays instead of flower pots, as the former will hold more plants to a given area, dry out less quickly, and are less liable to get broken. Any dirt-tight wooden box, eight or more inches deep, will make a good vegetable box. These boxes have to be deeper than hot bed trays because the vegetables are to mature in them. Bore some half inch holes in the bottom of the box to provide drain- 53 VEGETABLES IN WINDOW BOXES age. Put in two inches of cinders, gravel or other coarse material. Cover this with from four to six inches of fine rich earth, prepared greenhouse earth, if possible. It should be thoroughly enriched with fine, well rotted manure, and some wood ashes will help, also. Coal ashes possess no available plant food. Fasten your boxes firmly in place and plant your vegetable seeds or plants as you would a regular gar- den. If possible, these boxes should be planted a month or six weeks before they are going to be placed out of doors, so as to get a good start in the house. Put them in place when danger of frost is past. Keep the soil well watered, and after the plants are up it will be well to keep the surface of the soil in a crumbled condition, most of the time. Radishes, lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, onions, garlic and leek can all be grown from seed in boxes. Magnificent; crops of cucumbers and tomatoes can be had all summer long. These, plants should be pruned and trained on supports of some kind, either wires, stakes or strings. Egg plant and pepper will , do very nicely, and we have seen a trellis completely covered with muskmelon vines growing in pots. Care must be taken to water, cultivate, fertilize 54 VEGETABLES IN WINDOW BOXES and spray for insect pests if any appear. If bees and insects do not reach the blossoms to pollinate them, it will be necessary to do this by hand, with some of the vegetables mentioned. Take a camel's hair brush and transfer the pollen from one plant to another. This insures fruit, and is quite important. Vegetables grown in window boxes usually do much better than the same plants grown in a garden, for the simple reason that they get a great deal more care because there are so few of them to care for. The big secret of success with window boxes' is to have the soil rich and to keep it well watered at all times. Remember that a garden soil draws water from the soil under it as well as from the surface watering, but if you neglect to water a window box it has no such hidden source of supply. Keep the soil moist at all times and success will crown your efforts. 55 Dwarf Tomatoes Tomatoes are one of the most popular summer vegetables. This favorite is of comparatively recent use as an edible. It was originally cultivated for its decorative features only, the fruit being called "Love Apples," and people considering, them to be poison- ous. This singular error was probably due to the fact that tomatoes belong to the "Nightshade" fam- ily, several of whose members are deadly poison to human beings. The popularity of tomatoes is due largely to the great variety of ways in which they can be pre- pared for the table. No other vegetable can be eaten in such a variety of forms, raw or cooked. No other vegetable has wider range of growth, is easier to grow, or produces more from the land. Tomatoes were originally divided into the tree and bush classes, after their manner of growth. About 50 years ago a French market gardener noticed a sturdy low growing tomato bush in a field of ordinary vines. We say bush advisedly, because it had a short, strong stalk and stood right up, holding its branches and fruit off the ground. 56 DWARF TOMATOES From this original plant "sport" has been developed a great variety of dwarf tomatoes. This peculiar variation has never re-occurred, and if this humble gardener had not preserved his remarkable plant, the world would be without a race of commercial tomatoes that bids fair to put the larger sorts out of business, so far as the large grower is concerned. We have long been familiar with tomatoes which are dwarf as to the size of the fruit and they need not be considered seriously. The new dwarf has full sized fruit of the very best quality, and while each plant bears fewer toma- toes, the dwarf will produce a great many more tomatoes from a given area than will the larger bushes, because it spreads less and may be planted closer together. Where the large varieties will go about 2,700 to the acre, planted four feet apart, and will yield about 450 bushels of good fruit, the Giant Dwarf may be planted 2.^/2, by 3J4 feet apart, nearly 5,000 plants to the acre, and has frequently yielded 600 bushels. Even if this were to be overlooked entirely, the fact that the dwarf tomato plant does not have to be tied or staked up, makes it much better for both the small garden and the market garden. The fruit is naturally kept off the ground and ripens without 57 DWARF TOMATOES rotting in the attempt. Handle them just as you have handled the large varieties and plant them closer together and forget about the stakes. The Giant Dwarf is the most common dwarf variety in this country. Thorough cultivation is necessary, as with any other tomato, and you must break up the surface after every rain. Another excellent forcing plan is to sink a bottomless tin can in the ground close to each plant and pour liquid fertilizer, or even plain water into it twice weekly. 58 Cucurbitaceae The name is a hard one to spell and a harder one to pronounce, but it means melons and cucumbers and squash and pumpkins and a lot of other inter- esting vegetables that we all like. Some of this family are natives of almost every clime in almost every country on the globe and nearly all of them are edible, either raw or cooked. It is an easy matter to, see the family resemblance between these cousins — much easier than with most of the botanical species. Who, for instance, would guess that the potato and tomato are related ? With the cucurbits, which is short for the scientific name, we find many points of resemblance. All of them are vine-like plants, loving a rich, warm, rather light soil. The flowers and leaves are quite similar, although differing in size and color. The fruit is borne in a similar manner and the edible fruits have the same general characteristics, viz., a tough outer skin, with the edible flesh adhering to it, the interior of the fruit being divided into several more or less distinct sections in which the flat, hard, pointed seeds are borne. 59 CUCURBITACEAE Cucumbers and melons are the varieties which are edible without cooking, while pumpkins and squashes require cooking to make them palatable. Inasmuch as these vegetables have the same gen- eral characteristics, the same general rules cover their successful cultivation. The soil should be light, well drained, warm and in a sunny location. The original home of this valuable family was in the tropical deserts, and sunshine is more important than water. Plant them about corn planting time, depending upon your lati- tude, or if you wish to get an early crop you can plant in pots in a cold frame and transplant to the hills when warm weather is assured. A muslin or glass covered box frame about the hills will permit of early planting right in the garden. The soil must not be heavy or lumpy. If your soil is of a gumbo or clay type, your best plan will be to excavate to a depth of eighteen inches under each hill, fill in with six inches of rotted manure and cover that with a foot of good rich sandy loam. The surface of the hill should be four inches above the surrounding soil for drainage and warmth. * Plant eight or ten seeds in each hill, the hills being eight feet apart in each direction and the seeds one inch deep. Keep them well watered and when the 60 CUCURBITACEAE seedlings appear, protect them from bugs by means of boxes, powdered hellebore or some similar plan. If you forget this the first year, you will remember it the next, as you will have no plants in a few days after the striped beetles start to work. The vines are safe after they begin to send out runners, and each hill should then be thinned down to four vines, as these four will produce more and better fruit than ten would in the same hill. The first cucumbers will be ready to pick about ninety days from date of planting, and the vines will bear until frost kills them. Melons are slower and more tender, and the only sure way to get a crop is to start early varieties in cold frames about April 15th, and transplant the last of May. 61 Garden Root Crops Among the many valuable and highly appreciated vegetables, which we ordinarily grow in our gar- dens, there is no group more valuable or more popu- lar than those included among the so-called root crops. For the sake of convenience we include under this classification not only the vegetables in which the edible portion is a true root, but also those pro- ducing edible bulbs or tubers. Practically the same rules must be followed for the successful cultivation of any of the vegetables included in this group, and we give them here briefly. The plants usually included under this group are artichokes, beets, carrots, onions, oyster plant, pars- nips, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, sugar beets and turnips. The principal requisite is a fertile, well-drained soil, good drainage being particularly important in the case of root crops because a high water level will prevent the roots from properly developing, and thus diminish the crop yield. The seeds of most of these varieties are quite small, rather hard to germinate, and they require 62 GARDEN ROOT CROPS careful handling. For this reason it is very neces- sary to have an extremely fine, level, fertile seed bed. The land should be deeply plowed or spaded and the surface worked as fine as it well can be, before planting the seed. Fertility is extremely important as the root crops are among the heaviest feeders upon plant food, and they diminish it very rapidly. Artichokes are frequently grown in the south, but they are not particularly popular as table vege- tables in the north. We do not advise their general use in small gardens, as they are extremely hard to eradicate. Beets are grown everywhere and are universally popular. Beet seeds are very hard to germinate because of their outer husk, and for this reason the seed must be planted very thickly and should be soaked in warm water before planting. Be sure that the ground is moist where the seed is planted, and pack it down well about the seed. Thin out the seedlings to about five inches apart and keep the ground well cultivated and the rows weeded. Carrots are not as popular as beets nor as widely used, but they should have a place in every kitchen garden, and the rules given for beets will serve for carrots. The seeds are finer than beet seed, requir- 6 3 GARDEN ROOT CROPS ing a finer seed bed, but they do not need to be soaked. It is much more satisfactory to plant onion sets instead of seed, as the sets will produce edible green onions much sooner than the seeds will, and they give better satisfaction all around. Plant the sets when you put in your first radish seed and keep them well cultivated. Oyster plant is a root crop and not particularly popular, but it is a dainty edible. It must be handled as carrots are handled and the seed bed must be very fine. Parsnips are a winter crop and are usually not dug until the tops of the plants have been cut down by frost. The roots form a very nutritious addition to the winter list of vegetables, and can be grown with very little trouble. Plant thickly in rows and thin out to five inches later on. One cannot afford to grow potatoes in the ordi- nary back yard garden unless space is ample for all other plants that are wanted, as they take up a good deal of room. Potato land should be mellow, warm and rich, and particularly well drained. The seed potatoes should be planted as soon as the soil is ready to work, each piece containing three good eyes. Plant one piece to a hill, three inches deep, GARDEN ROOT CROPS the hills three feet apart each way. Early potatoes are the best for the small garden. •Radishes are one of the first crops to go in the ground, and they form the first fruits of spring from the ordinary garden. Plant them early and often, in a fine warm seedbed, putting in both early and late varieties, as they always serve as a delight- ful appetizer on the table. Rutabagas, sugar beets and turnips are not very frequently grown for table consumption, for their roots are rather coarse and watery. They form a welcome change in the winter menu, however, and can be kept all winter in a cool dry place. Plant as directed for beets, thin them out, and keep them well weeded and cultivated. 55 Rhubarb How few rhubarb plants one sees growing and how fine that old-fashioned spring tonic is ! Considering the fact that it costs practically nothing to plant it and the plants come up year after year, there is no reason why we should not, all of us, have all the pie- plant pie that we can eat every spring. Half a dozen hills will supply an average family. Harvest time for rhubarb is the spring and early summer, but we frequently get a second crop in the fall. Sandy loam is best for this plant, but it will grow well in any rich, warm, moist soil. You cannot get the soil too rich for rhubarb, and it does not stand drouth very well. Do not try to grow the plants from seed if you can secure root cuttings from a good, strong old hill. Each cutting should have two buds or eyes. Plant them in rows three feet apart, with the eyes an inch below the surface. They will begin to grow at once and, if planted early, a few stalks can be pulled the first year. As fast as seed stalks appear cut them off. If 66 RHUBARB very fine, large stalks are wanted, and why not havt the best, thin out all but the center buds, sb that the entire strength of the plant will feed these. After the leaves are cut back by frost in the fall cover the plants with four inches of straw or manure. This prevents freezing and makes the next year's crop earlier. , While the plants will start early, yet the leaves will not push through this covering until after dan- ger of spring frosts is past, hence it should not be removed too soon. Many commercial growers keep the soil covered with straw the year round in order to keep weeds down and hold moisture without cul- tivation. Cover the plant's in the winter anyway. It will avoid disappointment and increase the plant food. Every three or four years it is advisable to dig up the plants, divide them and replant in another spot. If this is not done, the plants run out and the stalks grow small and pithy. Division and a new location start them off again as good as new. Any surplus can always be sold in the spring at a good price, as we seem to have a natural craving for the fresh green acid qualities of this old-time "pie fruit." Eat lots of it. Eat it raw and cooked, in pies and out of pies, put up all you cannot eat 67 RHUBARB and save it for winter, but grow it yourself if you have a two by four patch of ground where the sun shines. It costs nothing to raise and it tastes lots better when it comes out of your own patch. And, furthermore, it is a much better spring tonic than sulphur and molasses, or sassafras. 68 Asparagus One of the finest things about being a back yard farmer is the fact that you can have all of the asparagus that you want to eat if you just take the trouble to once plant it. You will never have to plant it again and the bed will keep right on pro- ducing almost as long as the house will last. If you like asparagus at all you like it very much, as it is one of those vegetables of a very decided char- acter which are either extremely tasteful or equally distasteful. Few people realize that asparagus not only has a sojt of medicinal value, but that it actually contains as much muscle forming food as does a similar weight of meat. It has a very high protein content and should be much more generally grown than it is. If you have a sunny patch of ground, twelve feet long by about six feet wide or more, you can plant it to asparagus at a very little expense, and next year and each succeeding year you will have all the asparagus that your family can eat. The plants will begin to come through the ground early in the spring and will remain in edible condition, under proper 69 ASPARAGUS handling, until well into hot weather. Of course, you could cut a few stalks the first year, but your results will be very much better in the end if you do not attempt to use any of the crop until the fol- lowing year. Asparagus must have a comparatively light, fer- tile, well drained soil. Heavy clay will not grow satisfactory asparagus and if your garden is heavy and cold you will get much better results by excavat- ing a bed or trench to a depth of 18 inches or 2 feet and filling in the hole with mellow sandy loam before planting. It is better to plant asparagus on soil that has been used for a garden for several years than to put it in newly broken soil. Spade the ground as deeply as possible, the deeper the better, as the roots run deep and do not do well in a very compact soil. Then fine the soil with hoe and rake until it is in a fine mellow condition, although not necessarily as fine as for seed. This should be done about the first of May in most climates, although it may be done much earlier in the South. The plants cost between one and three cents each, depending upon the size and variety. They should be secured from some local seedsman, or from an old asparagus bed and set in rows or hills with the 70 ASPARAGUS crown of the plant about 8 inches from the surface of the soil. Have the rows a foot apart and the plants six inches apart in the rows. The tip of the new plants should just about reach the surface and the ground should be covered with several inches of stable manure. Keep the patch free from weeds during the first season. The second spring you can begin to cut the tender green and white stalks as soon as they begin to push through the ground. Use a regular aspara- gus knife, as it brings the stalks to the surface and prevents injury to the roots. Cut every tip that shows, as they get tough as soon as the light strikes them, and if you let any of them go to seed that plant will cease sending out new shoots for that sea- son. Cut the shoots early in the morning before the sun wilts them. After the season is over and the hot weather has come the bed should be permitted to go to seed, and it should be kept free from weeds at all times. After the plants have ripened they should be cut down and burned, the ashes being thrown back on the bed for fertility. I do not know of any garden crop that will return a bigger profit for the money and time invested than asparagus. 71 Hot Beds and Cold Frames Cold frames are glass-covered boxes used for get- ting garden plants, both flowers and vegetables, started earlier than is possible out of doors. They are built from one to two feet high and of any con- venient width and length, slanting decidedly toward the south, so that the sun may strike all of the plants and the rays come as straight as possible through the glass covering. A hot bed is the same as a cold frame, with the exception that it is supplied with artificial heat in some manner. The heat is usually secured by the decomposition of stable manure placed under the bed and banked around the outside, of the frame. Because of this auxiliary heat, the hot bed can be used to produce small fresh vegetables and flowers all winter, if handled properly. Every person who plants a vegetable garden should at least have a good sized cold frame. So situated you can have radishes, onions, parsley and lettuce ready for the table before it is warm enough to even plant the seed out of doors. At the same time, you can start your cabbages, tomatoes, egg plant, pep- 72 HOT BEDS AND COLD FRAMES pers, cucumbers, squash and melons a month or six weeks ahead of the season, and thus get a very much earlier and better crop. The best scheme is to plant the seed in small pots, filled with fine, rich earth, and transplant directly to the garden, dirt and all, as soon as the weather is settled. The plants will be stronger and less liable to parasitic attacks, and it is no more trouble to look after a cold frame than it is to feed the canary. A cold frame is a simple thing to build. Get two or three storm window sashes and build a wooden frame out of one-inch hemlock boards, so that the sashes will just cover the top when laid side by side, with the long way of the sash north and south. Have the north side of the frame eighteen inches high, and the south twelve inches high, the ends sloping. Place the frame on the ground in a sunny, sheltered spot, preferably near a building, for protection from the wind. Bank the sides of the frame on the outside with earth or horse manure, to keep the interior as warm as possible. If you want a hot bed instead of a cold frame, it is necessary to excavate about two feet of soil under the frame, fill in eighteen inches with damp horse manure, and cover it with six inches of fine, rich 73 HOT BEDS AND COLD FRAMES soil. This soil must be thoroughly wet from time to time, to keep the manure fermenting properly. Small fresh vegetables may be grown in the soil of the bed or in flat trays of wood. Plant the seed as you would out of doors, and just as close together as the plants will develop. Keep the window sash on during cold weather and remove it wholly or in part on warm days. Remember that ventilation is as necessary as heat for plants. Cover the glass with quilts, papers or boards on very cold nights. After the plants are well developed, the glass may be entirely replaced by muslin or burlap frames, if the weather is warm, and these frames should be put a foot above the beds for shade, if plants are grown in the frames during the summer months. 74 Watermelons What is the choicest product of any vegetable gar- den ? The. man with the hoe says : "Corn on the cob." Ask the lady of the mansion, and like as not she will tell you "lettuce or spinach," but the small boy knows what is best of all, and he says, "melons." He is right, too, and it has always seemed remark- able to us that people with gardens will pay freight and four profits on melons when most of them can grow excellent melons of their own at practically no cost whatever. To get watermelons to ripen in the North plant early maturing sorts, and start them in cold frames. Even some of the wonderful southern thin skinned melons can be grown in the latter way, and if you were never in the South, you never tasted real watermelon. In Virginia, they grow melons a yard long, striped like a garter snake, and filled up with a sort of honey and wine. They literally intoxicate one with pure deliciousness, but the skin is so thin that they cannot be shipped. So far as we know, the large, thin skinned melons have never been adapted to our short growing sea- 75 WATERMELONS son, but some of the smaller varieties have, and they certainly pay for the growing. Watermelon seed should be planted in hills like cucumbers, six or eight seeds to the hill, and the hills eight feet apart. Before planting, dig out the ground six or eight inches deep, put in a forkful of rotted manure, and fill in with warm, sandy loam soil. Plant the seeds an inch deep in this, but' do not plant them until danger of frost is past, unless you intend to put a cold frame over each hill. This plan is excellent, and will make a success- ful crop a surety. Take a tight box without top or bottom and lay it over the hill, banking the earth about it. Saw the top so that the slides slope to the south, and cover with glass. Lay a cover over the glass on frosty nights, and do not take the box away until settled weather, when the plants will be well started and a month ahead of all others. When bugs begin to cut down the seedlings, sprinkle them while the dew is on with powdered hellebore or air slaked lime. After the plants begin to send out runners thin out each hill to three plants. If you wish to hurry the ripening or increase the size of the fruit, pinch off some of the blossoms or small fruit as soon as they set. If the ground is well cultivated the melons should 7 6 WATERMELONS be as fine as any you can buy, unless you should plant them near cucumbers or squash, in which case the melons will not help the squash any and the squash will ruin the melons. It will be a good plan to plant about three times as many vines as you need for your own consump- tion. Remember how much better a purloined melon tasted to you in your youth, and grow enough extra to provide some for yourself after the small boys of the neighborhood have had their share. A melon patch is looked upon as the property of the first one to harvest the crop, and the more excited you get over your losses, the happier feel your sons and their youthful confederates. Always figure the boys into the size of the melon patch. 77 A Back Yard Orchard Let us see what we can do by way of an orchard in the back lot. There is hardly a back yard in any town that would not grow fruit of some kind if handled in the right way. The main thing is to have the desire to grow it and then to find out that highly essential thing, the right way. Of course, what you grow is a matter of choice, as there are several kinds of fruit for every set of conditions. If your space is very small, but is well exposed to the sun, you can certainly grow currants and most of the bush berries nicely. Besides beautify- ing your backyard, they will yield you a crop every year, and will furnish you with an abundance of fresh fruit and delicious jellies and preserves. A good thing about these low shrubs is that they require very little work, they are inexpensive to plant, and they grow well in practically any soil and climate. They can be transplanted successfully at almost any time of year, although the spring or fall are prefer- able. They come into bearing quickly and do not have off years, as do many of the tree fruits. 78 A BACK YARD ORCHARD If you have a rather rich, yet light soil which warms up quickly in the spring, a strawberry patch will give you more keen pleasure and profit than any other patch of ground on the whole place. It should have the warmest and dryest, sunny spot in the yard. It is an excellent scheme to have at least one row of grapes. They can well be planted along the west or south side of a fence or house, and may be trained to cover the entire fence. When this is not possible, set up a row of fence posts, string three smooth wires between them, and tie the young grape vines to the wires in order to keep them off the ground. Besides their edible virtues, grape vines possess the highest decorative qualities, and should be planted more generally, if for this reason only. The Concord is one of the best varieties for North- ern states, and if part of them fail to ripen before frost, they can be made into excellent pickles or preserves. In the tree fruits, nothing is more popular than the sour red cherry. It is hardy, prolific, and sub- ject to few pests. All one has to do is to plant the young tree and let nature take her course. The ripe home-grown fruit is a great treat. Peaches, plums, and apples can all be grown suc- 79 A BACK YARD ORCHARD cessfully, and the last two are almost independent of climatic conditions, but peaches are not so uni- versally successful in the North. Pears do excel- % lently under proper treatment, and magnificent pears can be grown by following the English fashion of training a pear tree flat against the south side of a brick wall, where it receives the reflected as well as the direct heat of the sun's rays. 80 Back Yard Fruit Trees One interesting and possibly discouraging feature of the back yard fruit tree is the fact that very few of these trees produce enough fruit to be noticed. They produce the shade and the beautiful blossoms to perfection, but they also produce such a large crop of bugs and- parasites of other kinds that there is no room for the fruit. It is freely admitted that it is harder to secure a good crop of fruit from one or two trees alone than from the same trees in an orchard, but it is by no means an impossibility. In the orchard there is less wind to blow off blossoms and fruit. There are other trees to cross fertilize and there are more bees to carry the pollen. On the other hand, there are also more trees to propagate diseases and bugs in the orchard, and if the back yard fruit grower will but give his trees the same medicine that the com- mercial fruit grower does, he will get the same amount of fruit. If you have some sour cherry trees in your yard, all you have to do is prune out the suckers and inter- fering branches and keep the birds away from the 81 BACK YARD FRUIT TREES reddening fruit. Nature will attend to your yearly reward. Keeping the birds away is the great job, and it is practically impossible unless you cover the entire tree with mosquito bar just before the fruit begjns to turn. Peaches do not stand pruning well, but plums, apples and pears should be pruned every year. Cut out the suckers and the inside branches. Trim off the tops of vertical limbs that promise to grow too high for easy picking from a ladder. Keep the tree free from dead and diseased branches and clean out the center so that the air and sunshine may reach the fruit. Old trees that are past their prime may.be reju- venated by cutting in half one-third of the big limbs each year until the entire tree has been cut back. This will make the root system larger than the leaf system and the result will be a heavy growth of young fruit-bearing branches. If the variety is not desirable, secure some twigs from a good tree and top graft your old poor trees. Should your trees be infested with scale insects of any kind, spray them thoroughly with a solution of lime, salt and sulphur early in the spring. Just when the petals drop and three weeks after also, the trees should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture to 82 BACK YARD FRUIT TREES kill the apple worm ; and put in a little paris green to get the caterpillars. These remedies will prevent leaf curl also. If there are plant lice on the leaves a good spraying with kerosene emulsion will put an end to them. Any of these sprays can be applied with a bucket force pump, and your seedsman can supply both the materials and full directions. Old rough-barked trees, or trees that are badly infested with parasites, should have the rough out- side bark scraped off with a blunt scraper. A hoe will serve the purpose if a scraper is not available. This old scaly bark serves as a hiding place for scale and larvae and it is impossible to reach all of its hidden crevices with any spray. Remove it up to the first large branches before you apply any of the sprays recommended above. 83 Apples How rare a thing it is to see the householder in city or suburb planting apple trees in his yard. Many of the older places have apple trees upon them, but few are being set out in new homesteads. Why this valuable and beautiful tree is not widely used upon small places is hard to determine. Apples will grow upon any soil and in almost any climate in this country. The trees are inexpensive, easy to plant and easy to care for. If taken in hand early and pruned in a proper manner they can be formed up in almost any desired shape and will add materially to the artistic features of any home. The trees grow rapidly and will begin to blossom and bear fruit in from two to six years after setting out, this time depending upon the age and variety of the tree and the climate in which they are grown. They are unsurpassed for shade, and nothing is more attractive than an apple tree covered with its wonderfully sweet pink and white blossoms of the spring, particularly if it be your own apple tree. No tree will furnish more shade in a shorter length of time, and because of their low habit of growth they 84 APPLES do not obstruct the view from the upper part of the house, nor keep the shingles damp. Entirely aside from! the landscape value of apple trees, their fruit is a very important item, and good home-grown apples need no recommendation. A Striped Astrakan, or a Snow apple, picked fresh from the tree and eaten "alive" can't be surpassed. The horticulturists have demonstrated that one can have a good crop of apples every year with the right kind of management. The secret of the plan is to keep the trees well fed and sprayed, and then thin out the fruit as soon as it sets, so that there is only one apple to a single twig. You may not get so many apples this way, but they will be bigger and much better, and you will have them every year. Potash is the food that makes the apple blush. Your soil contains tons of it, but only a little is digestible, hence it will pay to work a little sulphate of potash into the soil around each tree every year. Don't neglect to spray your apple trees, or any other trees or bush fruits, for that matter. Get your spray material from your local seedsman, and spray it on with a bucket sprayer. Use lime, salt and sul- phur before the leaves are out, to kill scale insects, etc., and spray with Bordeaux mixture when the petals begin to fall, and ten days later, to dispose of 85 APPLES apple worms. The reason your neighbors have poor luck with apples is because they do not prune and spray. In planting new apple trees, buy trees that are two or three years old, and plant them early in the spring, the earlier the better. Summer varieties are usually better than winter kinds because they give you early fruit, and that is what the back yard apple tree is for. If you have some old trees that are not bearing well, clean them up, cut back the tops, prune out the useless wood, and spray. 86 Strawberries Strawberries will grow on almost any soil that will produce ordinary garden crops, but they must have sunshine and the land must be well drained and fertile. The best kind of a place for a strawberry bed is on a patch of fertile soil which has been used pre- viously for a garden, as the soil will then be in good tilth and it will be fertile if the previous crops have been handled properly. Perfect drainage is of the greatest importance and must not be overlooked. Plow or spade the ground six or eight inches deep, turning under a good top dressing of stable manure, and make the surface good and fine, although not necessarily as fine as for a seed bed, as strawberries are propagated by means of plant cuttings. After the ground has been properly prepared make a furrow or trench just deep enough so that the plants will set well and the crown of the plant comes just above the surface of the soil. These rows should be two and a half to three feet apart where the bed is to be cultivated by hand. Set the plants abput eighteen inches apart in these trenches and 87 STRAWBERRIES pack the dirt carefully around the roots, being care- ful not to get dirt in the crown. As soon as the plants are set in the ground, water them well to bring the soil particles in close contact with the roots, and then either cultivate the ground between the rows or cover it with straw to prevent weed growth. The cultivation is much preferable during the first season. However, many successful growers find it advisable to cover the ground with straw until after the fruit is harvested from a bear- ing bed, as it not only prevents the growth of weeds by shading them, but it keeps the ripening fruit from being covered with mud when it rains during the picking season. The dead leaves and blossoms, if there be any, should be picked off the plants, and the runners should be cut back so that all of the energy of the plant may be devoted to getting a good start the first year. It is not desirable to secure any fruit the first year, as the bed will not do so well in future years. Be very careful not to let the roots of the plants dry before they are placed in the ground. While very satisfactory plants can be secured from any reliable seedsman, the best plan is to secure plants from some neighbor's bed, as they can be transplanted more quickly and will be acclimated. 88 STRAWBERRIES Be sure that your cuttings are from a bed that was set out the previous year, as plants from an old bed will not live very long. One peculiarity of the strawberry plant is that part of the plants are incomplete and cannot fertilize their own blossoms, hence it is necessary to put in some complete plants at regular intervals. The best variety for any locality depends upon so many features that one must depend upon infor- mation from the neighbors or the local seedsmen in selecting. In climates afflicted with cold, late springs, or very cold winters, the bed should be covered with straw in the fall and the covering should not be removed until spring has come. 89 Raspberries for the Small Garden There is no fruit more desirable or more easily grown than the red Or black raspberry. The plants cost little and one can get them for nothing by mak- ing cuttings from wild bushes. They are much more easily grown than strawber- ries, and are much less trouble. The strawberry bed must be hoed, trimmed and weeded regularly or it will be completely covered up, but the rasp- berry will produce luxuriantly under adverse condi- tions and even downright neglect. Two thirty-foot rows, one of a good red and one a black variety, will furnish abundant fruit for the average family and the entire cost of having all the raspberries you want for a month's time every year need not exceed the cost of a little fertilizer and a little Bordeaux mixture. A raspberry patch will bear some fruit the second year and it will carry a heavy crop thereafter, for as long as ten years. Raspberries will grow well in any well-drained, fertile soil and the black varieties require a little 90 RASPBERRIES FOR THE SMALL GARDEN richer soil than the reds. Neither will do as well as the blackberry on sandy or poor soils. Buy your plants from a nursery man and put them into a well prepared seed bed in the spring. Plant in rows, having the plants about two and one-half feet apart. Set the plants a little deeper than they, were at the nursery, firm the soil well and water occasionally for a week or two. The ground should have a liberal covering of stable manure before turning over, and it will be well to work into the soil around each plant about one-fourth of a pound of a mixture of bone meal, three parts, and muriate of potash, one part. Fer- tilize in this proportion each year, keep the ground cultivated and'you should have heavy crops of large, juicy berries every year. Beds located in exposed positions in very cold climates will need to have the canes laid down and covered with earth and straw during the winter. When the bushes are properly pruned and fer- tilized, it will not be necessary to support them, but there are many advantages in tying the canes up to wire supports. Be careful in the pruning. After the first year cut all the old canes out as soon as they have fruited. At the same time cut out surplus and feeble canes. 9* RASPBERRIES FOR THE SMALL GARDEN In the early spring cut out all canes which have been winter killed and trim all remaining stalks about a third. Rust and anthracnose are the most common dis- eases. Spray with Bordeaux for the first one and cut out and burn the diseased canes if rust appears. Slugs or worms can be killed by spraying with helle- bore or arsenate of lead. Raspberries frequently produce 2,500 quarts of fruit per acre in a single year. 92 Starting a Blackberry Patch New plantings of blackberries should be made just as soon as the ground is free from frost and dry enough to work with. Plant the cuttings in rows, three feet apart in the row, and have the rows from six to eight feet apart. Remember that blackberries multiply and form a solid row of canes in a com- paratively short time, hence do not plant too thickly. Blackberries will grow in almost any soil, but the location must not be too dry, as they require a good deal of water or the fruit will be dry and pithy. They seem to do better in a moderately good soil than in a very rich one, as excessive feeding pro- duces stalks and leaves instead of fruit. The seed bed should be well prepared and leveled before putting in the cuttings. In setting, be sure to get the earth firm about the cuttings, and water occasionally during the first month. Blackberries will need some cultivation, partic- ularly during the first year. A good plan is to grow low garden crops between the rows and give them ordinary vegetable cultivation. This will make the ground yield two crops for one cultivation. Do not allow the berry rows to spread more than 93 STARTING A BLACKBERRY PATCH two feet wide. They will form a solid mass unless kept down between the rows. Prune in the fall or winter by removing all of the old stalks, cutting them off at the ground. Cut back the new wood a half with the pruning shears. This causes the formation of fruit buds instead of wood and leaves. There is a rather large number of good varieties to select from and your seedsman will be glad to advise you regarding which to plant. Early bearing varieties like Early Harvest and Snyder .do excel- lently in northern latitudes, as well as in the South. Eldorado is an old standby with small fruit farmers and it is not subject to the parasitic disease known as blackberry cane rust. This disease is hard to overcome and the best cure is to cut out all infected canes as soon as the rusty spots are noticed. Blackberries are hardy and bear every year. The fruit is delicious, either preserved or fresh, and it can be made into excellent wine or cordial. On a larger scale one can count on selling at least an average of $200 worth of berries yearly per acre, and often as high as $300 to $500 worth, the expense of cultivation and picking running about $50 per acre. This offers an excellent prop- osition to the suburbanite with a few acres. 94 Small Fruit Pests Garden vegetables are remarkably free from diseases and insect pests. This is due to the fact that they are nearly all annuals and they are grown in small quantities and on different locations every year or so. Small bush fruits, on the other, hand, are almost certain to be seriously damaged by a number of parasites unless they receive the necessary care to protect them. The conditions under which this class of back yard crops grows are favorable to the development of these pests. The plants are long lived and frequently carry the larvae or the spores of their respective parasites over from season to season. As handled by most people, the diseased stems, leaves and fruits are left on the ground about the bushes, and parasites propagate in such rubbish with vigor. Probably the most general and the most destruc- tive pest encountered on the bush fruits is some form of foliage eating worm, like the larva of the sawfly. These worms appear almost as soon as 95 SMALL FRUIT PESTS the leaves are out and they will soon strip the entire bush of its foliage unless they are promptly exterminated. It is fortunate that they can be killed very easily if properly treated, and the treat- ment will apply equally well with any leaf-eating worm. The saw-fly's eggs are laid on the under side of the leaves, especially those leaves located well down in the center of the plant. Watch your berry bushes closely and get busy as soon as you notice little holes in any of the lower leaves, as that means that the worms are there and are getting in their work of destruction. If taken in hand now, there will be little trouble or expense involved, so act promptly. Get some powdered white hellebore and dust it on all of the foliage in the region where the worms have begun work. Scatter it thickly and get it on both sides of the leaves. Do the dusting early in the morning, before the dew is off the leaves. The powder will then stick fast and will remain until the next heavy rain. If it should rain immediately, powder again. The whole bush should be treated if the worms have got a good start, and if you allow these worms to strip the foliage the fruit will be small, shriveled and tasteless. Remember that the leaves are both 96 SMALL FRUIT PESTS the digestive and respiratory organs of the plant, and without them it can neither eat nor breathe. If large numbers of ants appear on the bushes, investigate the under surface of the leaves for tiny green aphis, or plant lice. A good spraying with tobacco water will fix them. Cane borers, gall beetles, tree crickets, etc., kill individual canes and the only remedy is to cut out and burn all infected canes and clean up all rubbish. Red rust is prevalent in some sections and it is very deadly and especially contagious. It is a par- asitic disease which causes spots of rusty-looking fungi to appear on the stem. Cutting out and burning diseased canes and spraying the rest fre- quently with Bordeaux mixture is the only means of combating it. The mixture is hard to handle in a small garden. Anthracnose is another deadly disease and is indicated by the presence of purple patches on stems and foliage. Treat as for rust. Certain varieties are more resistant to these diseases, and these should be planted in localities known to be infected. . For mildew on currants and gooseberries, use powdered sulphur and apply it in the form of dust while the dew is on the leaves. 97 Garden and Plant Pests Practically all of the domestic garden pests can be killed without difficulty by the proper treatment. Yet few people seem to realize this and every- where we see plants and house flowers struggling for existence and supporting a host of parasites when just a little intelligent treatment would turn these plants from sickly weaklings into hardy pro- ducers. Some of the commonest pests, together with the proper treatment to eliminate them, are: Aphis or Green Lice. — This is a parasite about one-half the size of the head of a pin — green in color and shows but little activity. They are found particularly on the cucurbits, that is, the vines of the cucumber family, and on all sorts of house plants. If ants are present on your outside plants, look out for these green lice. They are sometimes called ant's-cows, for the ants seem to tend them, stroking them with their feelers, when the Aphis gives out a sweet secretion, of which the ants are fond. The treatment for green lice is tobacco tea, which is readily made by boiling tobacco stems in water. Spray the plants with a spray gun three or four times at two or three day intervals. 98 GARDEN AND PLANT PESTS Red Spider. — The red spider is a little red bug. It moves rapidly over the plants. Merely a spraying with tobacco tea or plain, clear water will get rid of this pest. Its size is about the same as the green lice. Striped Beetle. — The striped beetle is one-eighth of an inch long, and the fact that it can fly makes it a danger to any garden. It is found in the soil at the base of the stems of the cucurbits. It kills the young vines. But after the vines begin to send off runners they are safe from this pest. The treat- ment is powdered white hellebore scattered around the hills and on the plants, or the plants can be sprayed with water and the hellebore dusted on, or a suspension solution may be made and the plants sprayed. Another treatment is air-slacked lime in suspension solution, or cow manure plastered over the ground near the vines. Cut Worms. — These may attack any plant in the garden, cutting it off under the ground. They have a special liking for peas and beans. If young, tender plants die quickly, or you find that the plants from the seed are not appearing above ground, look out for cut worms. Mix one pound of bran with enough water to make a dough; add a tablespoon ful of some sirup and another tablespoonful of white 99 GARDEN AND PLANT PESTS arsenic; mix well and scatter a little about the plants. The cut worms will eat this and die. Potato Bugs. — This familiar pest can be quickly gotten rid of by spraying the potato plants with a suspension solution of paris green. Spray two or three times to kill the young. Paris green con- tains arsenic, and in using this or the white arsenic, care should be used, as it is exceedingly poisonous. Tomato Worms. — If you find your tomato plants are losing their leaves, look out for these worms. They are anywhere from three to six inches in length and as large as three-fourths of an inch in diameter. It is seldom that more than two or three appear in the garden at one time, and they are quickly killed by hand. Cabbage Worms. — To kill these, dust the plants with powdered hellebore before the heads form. Later dust the hellebore on the outside leaves as the worms appear. A little attention to getting rid of garden pests will pay well in the increased production of the garden. ioo Walks and Driveways Where the householder is merely seeking a means of walking from his house to some outside point, without wetting the sole of his shoe in damp weather, there is no substitute for a cement walk. It is clean, dry, smooth and practically imperish- able, but it is not artistic, no, not even pretty. And lots of us prefer to be artistic at any cost. Cement sidewalks do not harmonize with formal gardens. Neither do they fit into the beautiful or picturesque landscape, because in both they are too regular and mechanical. In fact the best pavement known to man has a hard time pleasing the doctors of curve and perspective. They tell us that there is little sense in going to a lot of trouble to get the lawn flower beds, garden, shrubs and trees, all parts of a harmonious picture, and then ruin the entire effect by drawing a white chalk mark across the beautiful canvas, in the form of a straight cement walk. Of course these sentiments would not apply to walks which are much traveled, but where some effort is made to have the home and its surround- IOI WALKS AND DRIVEWAYS ings both beautiful and in harmony, the character and course of the private walks and driveways is of great importance, because it is by them that we approach or leave the house, and along these approaches the eye most frequently travels. If we must have cement walks, let them be modest in their demeanor, their tint a gray, or, best of all, a pale green. The edges snugly joined to the turf; bordered, if you will, by beds of perennials, with clumps of shrubs in the bends, so as to hide the successive views until the full effect is made instantly, upon rounding each bend. This rule applies to roadways as well as walks. Do not curve a road or walk without some apparent reason. A curve without any excuse is merely a wiggle and it is worse than a straight line — far worse. This does not mean that long lines may not properly be curved, because they should be, but if there is no natural object to curve them around, plant something there, a flower bed, a tree or a clump of bushes. Nature may abhor a vacuum, but she abhors a straight line too, and all of her curves have some reason. A brick, tile or flag walk is permissible in a formal garden or landscape, because it is ancient in usage, not because it is natural. In beautiful or 102 WALKS AND DRIVEWAYS picturesque scenes the very best taste in walks is close-cut greensward, high enough to dry off rapidly. Next in good order, and certainly the most popular natural walk, is gravel, round gravel from some old water course or beach. Gravel is also the best material for the private drive, with the possible exception of crushed lime- stone. Make the foundation of your gravel walk or driveway firm, with a good crest in the center. Make the first two inches coarse and the next two finer, binding all with a liberal top coating of sand, cinders or fine crushed stone. Roll it with a heavy roller and keep vehicles off when wet. Rake the surface smooth after each rain and keep the weeds out. A good way to kill weeds is to soak them with a solution of one pound arsenate of soda to three gallons of water. 103 Nature's Carpets If you have ever been in the bad lands of our own country, or the grassless plains of South America, you know the horrors of a land without a carpet. The slightest breath of wind sends clouds of strangling dust heavenward, and it seems to pene- trate to every corner of the human body. The sun seems twice as hot as it does anywhere else, and its glare upon the poor baked earth is unbearable to the eye. Were these same grassless deserts covered with a greensward, they might be pleasing and habitable, for our impression of any place is largely governed by its appearance, and nothing gives the impression of comfort and plenty so much as a wealth of growing green stuff. The weather would not only seem cooler, but it would actually be cooler, for all growing plants cool the surrounding atmosphere by the large volume of water they give off into the air. Nature covers the naked soil with a green growing carpet, not only to make it more beautiful, and to hide its unlovely spots, but also to temper the climate for us. Upon the hills and in the valleys the trees and 104 NATURE'S CARPETS grasses grow thickly, and form a heavy carpet that holds back the torrential rains and melting snows of spring and fall, forcing them to proceed toward the sea with slower speed, thus preventing the rapid washing away of the surface soil of the farmlands near the hilly regions. Let these carpets be re- moved, as they have been in the Southern states, and the loss in fertility from the adjacent farms, will be more in one season than the total value of the trees whose removal made possible the wash- ing away of this fertility. Think of what it would mean if all of the lumber cut in a single season were thrown into the Mississippi and washed out to sea, and then ponder over the fact that the rivers of this country are washing away fully the same value in plant food from hillside farm land yearly. But let us direct our attention to the outward carpets around our own homes. The green lawns, the wild flowers, our own flower beds, the vegetable gardens, and all of the various things that Nature uses to cover the earth with, have uses and meanings that few of us ever realize. We all appreciate the beauty of these carpets, but how many know that it is the growing green things that keep us healthy and free from disease in the humid regions? Upon the surface of the earth falls a tremendous i°5 NATURE'S CARPETS amount of dead vegetable and animal matter, and all manner of filth. This material decomposes rapidly in a moist, warm place, and if the products of its breaking up were permitted to escape unhindered they would soon make the region about them exceedingly unhealthy. This can best be exemplified by thinking of a large city that did not have its garbage and sewage removed from the vicinity of the homes for five or six months. Nature has provided against any such deadly conditions in the country by covering the soil with plants that eagerly absorb all of the products of decomposition, and the live plants eat up the dead plants and animals as rapidly as they die. Then more animals eat the live plants, and, dying in turn, are eaten themselves by other animals or live plants, depending upon the place and manner of their going. It is a sort of endless chain that never ceases. Nature's carpets keep us healthy, as well as happy, and from the uncarpeted hills the wealth that should be preserved for our descendants sweeps merrily away to the bottom of the sea. 106 Better Lawns As soon as the snow goes it is time to look over the lawn and lay plans for mending the worn places. If the grass is thin, or the soil bare in spots, the thing to do is to scratch the ground there very thoroughly with an iron rake, and sow grass seed and some good mixed fertilizer or bone meal, very thick. This may be done early, the earlier the better, as grass seed will stand almost any amount of cold weather, and the seedlings will commence to grow as soon as the warm sun strikes the ground. After sowing the seed, rake it in so that the moist soil will come into close contact with the seeds and the wind cannot blow them away. Then go over the newly planted spots with a roller. The lawn roller is almost as important an imple- ment for a good lawn as is the lawn mower. There are a number of good kinds, and any heavy, smooth roller is a good one if it is used well and often. The newly planted lawn should be rolled as soon after planting as possible. Every lawn, new or old, should be rolled several times in the spring, while the soil is soft, to smooth the surface of the soil, make a better connection with the soil water below. 107 BETTER LAWNS and cause the grass to thicken up by sending out more shoots. A very good plan is to roll the lawn after every rain throughout the summer, and the results will pay well for the effort. If there is a low spot in the lawn that you would like to raise, or a high one that needs lowering, cut the sod in two feet by one foot strips and lift it off the spot. Then cut or fill to level the bad spot and replace the sod, pounding it down hard, and keep it watered. Keep the walks and drives trimmed with an edge cutting tool, making the bevel cut in the sod about two inches wide and two inches deep. This will make it much easier to finish the grass edges smoothly and it will also aid somewhat in drain- age. One of these edge cutters is very handy for edging flower beds also, and many people use them to cut away about tree trunks, but we do not favor the latter plan because it breaks the natural union of the tree trunks with the soil and looks too fussy. Dandelions are the greatest enemy of good lawns in many sections, and they can be completely erad- icated if taken in hand early enough. The only sure way to get rid of these pestiferous weeds is to keep them mowed close to the ground during their blooming season, and spray the lawn with 108 BETTER LAWNS a solution of sulphate of iron. The constant mow- ing will prevent the majority of the blossoms from seeding, but the dandelion is a cunning plant, and after its tall blossoms have been cut off four or five times it will begin to send out blossoms that lie close to the ground, below the reach of the lawn mower. These later blossoms, and the everlasting plants themselves, will do the damage and render all of your mowing useless, unless you spray them with the solution mentioned, as there is no other way to get rid of them effectively. This sulphate of iron comes in the form of a powder, and can be secured at any seed or drug store, at a cost of about five cents a pound. Dis- solve a pound in a gallon and a half of water, and spray the entire lawn with it while the sun is hot. The solution will kill the dandelions, but will not harm the grass. If one application does not finish the job, repeat until the dandelions are exterminated. The liquid may be sprayed from an ordinary sprinkling can, but a regular spray pump is much more effective, as it sends out a fine mist, which "covers the foliage completely. Start the lawn mower early, and catch the clip- pings in a carrier, as they do not help the grass, and they make fine garden fertilizer. 109 Shrubbery Shrubbery about the house is a constant joy to all who behold it. Breaking up harsh lines and joining together the more antagonistic features, it gives a finish and an air of permanency to any place. Lawn shrubs should be planted early in the spring, preferably before the leaves have started. The plant is then in its dormant state and the severe root and branch pruning that is necessary does not set the plant back materially. In choosing varieties for special uses, particular attention should be given to the form, color and character of blossoms, and foliage, together with blooming period and general appearance of the shrub. "Tall, straggling shrubs, like some of the lilacs and azaleas, give better effects when placed at a distance, and either massed or planted against buildings, fences, etc. More symmetrical shrubs and the smaller varieties can be planted singly or grouped in beds in the foreground. For planting about porches, nothing is more handsome or more graceful than bridal wreath. It can well be supplanted with several other shrubs which bloom at different times, however. no SHRUBBERY The hardy snowball is more satisfactory planted alone in an expanse of green lawn. This is also the case with any of the larger symmetrical shrubs. For hedges, probably nothing will give better results' than California Privet or Arbor Vitae. Barberry, Japanese Quinces, Sweet Briar and many others are frequently used for lower and less com- pact hedges, road borders, etc. Where it is desired to conceal buildings, noth- ing is better than lilacs, sumach, and some of the dwarf evergreens. Shrubs which come from a commercial grower or dealer have a portion of the dirt left on the roots, usually, and this is a point that you should insist on in ordering shrubbery. Remember that the shrub feeds almost entirely through the tiny hair-like rootlets, and these are either torn off Or dry up if the moist soil is removed. The more soil you pay freight on the better are your chances of having the shrubs live and flourish. In certain cases where the distances are comparatively short and the plants small, the roots may be protected in a bag of moist sand or wet sphagnum moss. Have the holes dug for the shrubs before they arrive, so that the roots can go in the ground at the earliest possible moment. The hole should be dug m SHRUBBERY a foot deeper than necessary and this extra foot should be filled in with six inches of well rotted stable manure, covered by six inches of rich earth. After trimming off broken or decayed root ends, set the shrub in the hole, having the roots about three inches farther in than they previously were. - Cover the roots well with fine earth mixed with a quarter pound of bone meal, wet the soil down thoroughly and fill the rest of the hole, heaping the earth high to take care of settling. The earth should be tramped down thoroughly to support the shrub and to form a close connection between the roots and the surrounding soil particles. After setting the new shrubs, the tops must be systematically pruned back in just the same propor- tion that the roots have been pruned in digging the plant up. If this is not done, the tops will produce too many leaves for the diminished root system to feed, and the whole bush will suffer and probably perish. If circumstances make it necessary to hold the bushes some time before planting them, it will be necessary to lay them down in a trench with the roots covered with wet earth and keep them watered. Keep newly planted shrubs and trees well wa- 112 SHRUBBERY tered during the first growing season, flooding them with water at night once or twice a week. If you live near enough to the countryside to get your shrubs from the woods, you can beautify your lot at practically no expense. Among the many wild shrubs that transplant well are willows, both red and white, alders, sumach, hazel, hawthorne, wild crabapple, roses, woodbine, Virginia creeper, and many others. The lay-out of your lot will suggest the proper location of the different varieties available, and the only general rule to observe is that shrubbery be kept near the borders and the varieties should not be mixed up. In digging wild shrubs, make a circular trench about the trunk, seeking to avoid cutting off any more of the roots than is absolutely necessary, and cut down under the plant with mattock and axe. Leave a large ball of earth containing the roots, and, if there is danger of the earth shaking off, tie up the ball with sacking. "3 Evergreens for the Lawn No trees or shrubs are more satisfactory for the lawn than are the members of the evergreen family. Chief among them in beauty and hardiness stands the Colorado Blue Spruce. It will grow in almost any soil with proper care, and its beautiful change- able colors of greenish blue make it a sort of con- necting link in the natural color scheme between the green of the turf and the blue of the sky. Arbor Vitae is another very popular evergreen for hedges and lawn planting, and in the large trees nothing grows faster or makes a more satisfactory appear- ance than the Douglas or Norway Spruces and the Scotch Pine. Evergreens are much harder to handle and get started than are the deciduous trees and shrubs, because they never are in a dormant state. Plants in general are easier to transplant in the dormant state, because they then suffer very little shock or setback through being dug up and put in a new location. The evergreens remain more or less active and in a green condition throughout the year and they must be handled with very much more care 114 EVERGREENS FOR THE LAWN than other plants if you are to have success in transplanting them. The sap of the evergreen is also radically dif- ferent from that of other plants. A deciduous shrub which has become badly dried out can be restored by burying its roots and branches in the moist earth for a few days. In the case of an evergreen under similar conditions the resinous sap in the branches solidifies and once in this condition no amount of water will restore it to a fluid again. It is very hard indeed to tell when a transplanted evergreen has been dried out in this manner, as the leaves will look bright and green for several months after this has happened and the first intimation you will have that something is wrong will be the drop- ping off of the leaves, which may occur long after you have planted the tree. In putting out evergreens it is a good plan to secure them from as near home as possible, so as to avoid any possibility of having them dried out in shipment. If this cannot be done, insist upon hav- ing the nurseryman take extraordinary precautions to keep them in a live condition, and plant them as soon as they are received. They should be trans- planted very early in the spring or luring the rainy season of the fall, to avoid any possibility of "5 EVERGREENS FOR THE LAWN drought occurring before the roots become estab- lished in the new soil. As a rule evergreens are not pruned or trimmed back as much as other kinds of shrubs or trees, because they are purchased so young that the entire root system comes with the tree, and there is no necessity of trimming the top. Do not make the mistake of buying evergreens which are too large. A tree that is four feet high has not over half as much chance to live and thrive as a tree that is only two feet high when transplanted, and by the end of five years you won't know the difference. The smaller trees are cheaper and much easier to handle, and should be chosen in every case if possible. 116 Vines and Climbers The function of vines and climbing plants in landscape art is to screen and soften mechanical features, to hide unsightly objects, to blend together into a harmonious whole, various dis- cordant elements. Varieties are a matter of taste. The truth is that good vines are almost always in harmony, no matter where they are placed. Use them freely wherever you have a bare place. Many an untidy fence can be made into a bower of delight by properly placed vines. The honey- suckles, woodbine from the deep woods, Kudzu vine, wild grape, clematis paniculata, and many others, can be secured at a trifling expense, grow quickly, and are hardy. In the more southern states, Smith's hybrid moon-vine is particularly delightful. The jewel of porch climbers is the Jackmanii type of clematis. White, lavender and pink, the blossoms come in reckless profusion, and if you are careful to get strong pot-grown plants, plant them in a rich, deep earth, without disturbing the 117 VINES AND CLIMBERS roots, and do your transplanting about June I, you will almost certainly succeed. Be sure to plant in a sunny spot, where water from the eaves will not compact the earth. Water well until the plant gets a good start. A fast growing, pleasant vine for the new porch is the Japanese Ivy. A few plants put in the soil alongside the porch in the sun will rapidly spread by way of the roots, and will form a thick, fragrant curtain of light green, clear to the top of the porch by the middle of summer. This plant increases so rapidly that one must be careful to prevent its crowding out other less aggressive neighbors. Scarlet runner beans are a great favorite in northern climes for yearly planting, as are the wild cucumbers with their tracery leaves and tendrils and their cool prickly fruit pods. Of course, where climbing roses can be success- fully grown, there is absolutely nothing to compare with them in their gorgeous magnificence. They call for the same soil conditions and care as bush roses, but they are less hardy as a rule in the inland and northern states. In the eastern states and anywhere that cool, moist summers and even winter temperature pre- vails, the English Ivy grows in profusion. Nothing 118 VINES AND CLIMBERS can be more satisfactory, particularly in connection with stone or brick structures of massive appear- ance. It seems to live forever in hospitable environments, and it will frequently cover an entire house, even to the chimney top. It is well to pre- vent it from covering wooden surfaces, however, as its thick foliage holds moisture and hastens the decay of the wood, the rusting of nails, etc. Many ways of supporting vines are used, from strings to graceful wooden trellises. Chicken wire may be used to advantage, and will last a number of years. no. Shade Trees and Their Care The main factor of beauty in any landscape is the shade tree. It is considered above all other pic- turesque features when we select a location for our own home, and if there are no trees growing on the land our first thought is to have some planted. Yet with all our care in securing good trees, we give them practically no attention. Shade trees need care just as much as do fruit trees. A beautiful elm or maple which it has taken fifty years or more to grow may be absolutely ruined within a couple of years by neglect. In the eastern section of this country whole counties have been practically denuded of live ornamental trees through the ravages of uncontrollable pests, before the inhabitants of the territory fully realized what was upon them. This is appalling and almost incomprehensible to persons not familiar with these conditions, but the destruction of shade trees in the West through the agencies of known parasites, decay and neglect, achieve even as huge proportions, although the effects are less noticeable because the destruction is going on more slowly. 120 SHADE TREES AND THEIR CARE Perhaps the most needed and the easiest care to give to most trees is regular pruning. Every two or three years you should go over your shade trees and cut off the decayed, broken or diseased limbs. In cutting off a limb there is only one right way to do it. The greatest caution must be exercised to avoid tearing the bark below the limb. Use a sharp saw and make a good deep cut on the under side of the limb before cutting on top. Make the cut as close as you can to the trunk, make it smooth and parallel to the trunk. By so doing the scar will be smooth and the bark will grow over it and heal it up tightly, so that there will be no chance for decay to set in. The scar should be painted at once to prevent the entry of decay before the bark grows over. If there are holes in the trunk of the tree, clean them out well, remove all decayed wood, paint the inside of the cavity and fill it with a rich mixture of cement. Should any of your trees show a tendency to split at the crotch, run a heavy galvanized bolt entirely through each of the limbs that are separating, and fasten the bolts together with a chain or heavy wire, to take the splitting strain off the crotch. If there is any danger of your trees being 121 SHADE TREES AND THEIR CARE attacked by foliage eating caterpillars or other insects, you should paint each tree with a wide band of tree tanglefoot, or some similar substance, and the time to do it is before the parasites get up into the tree. Of course one must bear in mind that these precautions will be useless if your trees are too close to other trees which are not so protected. Should any serious pest appear, com- municate at once with the state entomologist. 122 Using Hedges Profitably The hedge is one of the most valuable landscape assets that we have, and at the same time one of the most abused. Tremendously popular twenty years ago, it fell rapidly into disuse about the same time that the front yard fence began to be abolished. The ornamental hedge is beginning to come back to its proper field now, and we trust that it will be more generally used, in its proper place. The formal hedge, particularly the evergreen hedge, has no place on the small lot. It is as much out of place as six two-story Ionic pillars in front of a portable bungalow'. And that means that hedges of any kind are in bad taste on most small lots. If the house itself is not close to the sidewalk, or it is desirable to use a hedge on a small lot because of unusual conditions, use a low, informal hedge such as barberry or Japanese quince. The main use of the hedge is as a beautiful boundary partition on large grounds, or as a screen to furnish privacy and shut out disagreeable views. In such locations the evergreen hedge cannot be 123 USING HEDGES PROFITABLY surpassed, because it is equally effective in winter and summer, its life is from fifteen to twenty years, and it forms an excellent background for deciduous planting. Use American arbor vitae for the lower hedges and hemlock for the tree hedges. The effect is somber and the view from the house will be bright- ened by planting some Colorado blue spruce and a line of red barked flowering dogwood against the hedge. More graceful and cheering effects can be secured by putting in California privet, barberry or Japan- ese quince, and they are fully as satisfactory in their own way. For screens nothing can surpass hemlock or some of our beautiful deciduous shrubs, such as the hardy lilacs and syringas. In moist, cool regions, such as prevail along the coast line of New England, the boxwood plant is almost universally used, and it makes a hedge as smooth and solid looking as a bank of turf. Planting directions vary with the season, the soil and the plants used. Hedges may be planted successfully at any time of the year that the ground can be worked, but spring and fall are the best times. Be sure to 124 USING HEDGES PROFITABLY fertilize well and plant thickly . enough. About fifteen dollars' worth of plants will make an ordi- nary hedge three hundred feet long. If a hedge is to be used in beautifying your grounds, though, see that it is kept in perfect shape at all times or it will detract far more than it adds. Gaps in a hedge are unsightly and therefore the plants which die for any reason should be imme- diately replaced by planting in others of the same height. Evergreen hedges, and others of the same char- acter, should be trimmed at regular intervals with- out fail, but it is usually more effective to leave the deciduous hedges in their natural shape. 125 Fences The time once was when no home was complete without its surrounding fence, or possibly hedge. The fence idea is an inheritance from the ancient days when each man's house was his fort, and his fence was likely to be a three- foot stone wall twenty feet high. Times changed, and the battlemented walls, no longer needed, gradually gave way to more deco- rative and less expensive barriers. They were just as necessary as during the feudal times, however, because with peace came increasing crops and in- creasing cattle to molest them. The cattle ran at will and were just as fond of trespassing in a vege- table lot as they now are. For this reason every home was fenced in, and the custom still prevails almost universally in Eng- land and some parts of the continent. It is hardly respectable there not to be fenced in. This custom came to America, with the first settlers, the Virginia colonists using white picket fences largely, and the Puritans developing that 126 FENCES l^M^I JJ n -. i i. i ■ .. ... - i ■■ • most charming of all fences, the New England stone wall. Westward they moved, taking their fences with them. Stone walls changed to rails and pickets to upended stumps, until the timberless, stoneless plains were reached. Here fences were needed most of all because this was an ideal cattle country and increasing numbers forbade their roaming at will. It naturally was an American who invented the barbed wire and woven fencing, and today there are more miles of fence in America than in all the rest of the world combined. Of late years we have begun to awaken to the fact that there are advantages in not fencing in private yards that are free from objectionable neighbors. We do not need fences to protect our front lawns from cattle in our cities and suburbs, and their only value is a sentimental one. By removing the front yard fences from a block of suburban residences, we secure the effect of a street twice as wide and much more spacious grounds about each house. If a front fence is desired, let it be in keeping with the character of the house and grounds. While a tall, ornamental iron fence is the ideal type for a formal city mansion, it is decidedly out 127 FENCES of place in a suburban setting. Nothing is prettier than a white picket fence for a colonial dwelling, and a cut stone wall is very attractive for large estates. Fences ' for the city and country yards are still very popular, and properly so. It is in the back yard that the garden grows, the children play and the clothes hang out to dry.. Here is the waste paper barrel, the garbage can, the ash pile and the chicken yard. Let us have a little privacy, a place where we do not have to be presentable. Let us put a high board fence or a hedge or some other screen around the back yard, and do just as we please out there. We can plant vines and fruit trees against the fence and hide it, beside making it bear tribute. A six-foot board fence will serve the purpose, or a lower one with a clump of high shrubs before it. Cement walls may be made as thin as three inches and as high as eight feet, if a more permanent fence is desired. 128 Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets A comparatively small number of the people in our large cities have the ground available for a vegetable garden. A much larger number have some little plat that will raise flowers, but the flat dweller has nothing of the kind. This does not indicate that flat dwellers may not have flowers in summer, however, as they can always have them in window boxes and frequently in porch boxes and hanging baskets. Flowers of many kinds and hues will grow to fullest, perfection in boxes of various kinds and all they need is sunshine and a little careful atten- tion. They constitute the chief joy of the sum- mer season and no one should be without them from May until frost time. Almost any sort of a box will do so long as it is deep enough for the roots to grow in, and strong enough to hold the earth. An excellent window box can be made of three-quarter inch lumber, one foot deep and one foot wide, the length being regulated, of course, to the size of the opening in which the box is to fit. The width of the window or 129 WINDOW BOXES AND HANGING BASKETS porch box is immaterial, but the depth should not be less than ten to twelve inches. Bore a few three-quarter inch holes in the bottom to allow for drainage and fasten the box firmly in place, as it will weigh a great deal after being filled. Fill it with rich greenhouse or garden earth, having mixed in a quantity of well rotted manure. Some fine wood ashes will assist the blossoms won- derfully, but coal ashes are a detriment. Have the earth fine and mellow and plant the flowers as soon after filling the box as possible. The quickest and most satisfactory way to stock these boxes is to buy potted plants from the florist and transplant them. They are more sturdy than plants grown from seed in the boxes and they bloom much earlier. The cost is prohibitive in many cases, however, and almost any annual flowers will grow from seed in such boxes. Where the amount of sunshine is limited it is almost neces- sary to put in plants instead of seeds. Geraniums are probably the most satisfactory flowering plants for the formal window box, and they are very widely used. Foliage plants are excellent and withstand the hot afternoon sun better than flowering plants. Ferns do well in shaded locations. 130 WINDOW BOXES AND HANGING BASKETS Small plants of English Ivy, Wandering Jew and many of the smaller vines are useful for draping effects and we have seen some of the larger grow- ing annual vines, such as Wild Cucumber, Scarlet Runner Beans and Morning Glory, used in window boxes with excellent results, the long, graceful vines either climbing in the usual way or trailing down over the side of the box. Hanging baskets, either fern balls, moss baskets, or boxes, can be hung in any sheltered location, and they are very satisfactory. We recommend the use of self- watering hanging baskets, as the ordinary hanging device is inconvenient to handle and it must be watered constantly. Remember that success with boxes demands lots of water every day, three times as much as you would give the same plants in a bed. 131 The Busy Bee There is no domestic animal or fowl that pays us as big dividends as the honey bee. She works for nothing, boards herself, supports her queen and the royal male harem, fertilizes the blossoms for miles around, and frequently furnishes us with enough honey in one year to buy the entire hive, bees and all, twice over. Hives of bees are frequently kept in large cities, as well as in the country. We have seen a number of hives on roofs of buildings, etc., where the owners had no other space available, and the bees will do just as well there as on the ground, pro- vided the hives are shaded from the hot sun. One's success in keeping bees depends upon one main factor, and that is the food supply. They gather their food in the form of nectar and pollen from all sorts of blossoms. The nectar is eaten by the bee, undergoes certain changes, and is stored in the comb as finished honey. The pollen is treated in a somewhat similar manner, and is worked over into bee bread with which the young are fed. A fairly constant succession of flowering plants must 132 THE BUSY BEE be available for your bees, and there must be enough of these flowers so that the bees can gather more honey than they need. Remember that you don't get any honey until the bees have all they need. You get the surplus only. Before you buy a hive of bees, look over the ter- ritory within a radius of a mile and size up the feeding possibilities. If there are considerable amounts of clover you are safe. Sweet clover, fruit trees and bushes, basswood and mustard, buckwheat and flax are heavy honey bearers. Of course, ornamental flowers do their share, but they are of much less importance. If you find plenty of feed without too much com- petition from other beekeepers, your next step is to secure a good standard beehive with a strong colony of Italian bees and a tested Italian queen. The eight frame Langstroth hive is an excellent one for the beginner. While your bees might be secured cheaper from some farmer, it is easier to have them come right in the hive at the start. The complete outfit will cost about fifteen dollars. Most people can handle Italian bees without the slightest danger of getting stung, after a little practice. Before then it is well to use a bee veil and tie your sleeves tightly. 133 THE BUSY BEE Your colony will increase from one to five hundred per cent each year, and each colony will produce from fifteen to a hundred pounds of honey, depending upon the season. It will not take ten minutes a week to care for them, but you will spend a lot more time than that watching them, as they are most interesting in their habits. *34 The City Cow It is a surprising fact to many to learn that there are a very considerable number of cows kept within the limits of every great city. Cows are a familiar sight on the streets of many small towns, but in our congested urban centers the sight of one is very unusual. Of course the number of cows in the cities is much smaller in proportion to the popula- tion, and it is very unfortunate in many ways that it is not larger. The city cow, when owned and managed by a professional milkman, has proved to be a con- siderable menace to health in the past, entirely due to the way in which such animals have been handled. We do not wish to be understood as advocating the operation of commercial dairy herds under urban conditions, but we do believe firmly that it would be a great agent for the better health of city children if there were more city cows owned by their parents. Census figures show that the infant mortality rate in large cities is much higher than among 135 THE CITY COW children of the same class, age, and mode of life in smaller towns or in the country. While a number of factors combine to bring about the early passing away of a comparatively large proportion of the little children who are unfor- tunate enough to be born in a large city, the scientists who give their time and thought to these serious problems are almost unanimously agreed that the greatest single factor behind these atro- ciously high infant death rates is that of impure milk. Impure milk has, and still does reap a terrible harvest, and among those who are least able to help themselves. . Carrying its disease germs, its decomposed organic matter, its filth of various kinds, in a liquid form, it is taken of necessity by many children without having been purified in any way. Its malignant contents attack the child in its weakest organs, those of digestion, and the results enter into those census figures referred to. Much can be done to safeguard the milk supply of the cities; much is being done now and more will be done in the future, as the public awakes to the tremendous importance of the subject. The very best and most satisfactory way to secure pure milk at the lowest possible cost is to 136 THE CITY COW keep a cow yourself, 1 if your circumstances will permit. All you will need is a small stable, and a lot or paddock where the cow can get out into the fresh air for exercise. Even under city or suburban conditions, where all the feed must be bought, milk can be produced for from three to five cents a quart. Many a city man is getting all the milk his family wants for their own use and is selling enough be- sides to pay for his cow's entire keep. Milk, when taken from the cow in the proper manner, is as clean as any article of food that we have. The sooner it reaches the consumer and the fewer hands it has to pass through, the smaller the opportunity for foreign matter and disease germs to get into it. The city family that owns, feeds and milks its own cow enjoys one of those great privileges that make the country a better place to live in than the city. 137 How to Feed Your Horse Over one-half of the diseases which horses are subject to are caused by wrong feeding. Correct feeding is really such a simple matter that there is no reason why every horse should not be fed properly. Violation of one of a few simple rules spells death to thousands of horses every year. It will pay every horse owner to learn these rules by heart and put them into practice. Here they are : i. Do not, feed too much or too little. Feed just enough to hold the animal's weight while doing his work properly. For a 1,000 pound horse on full work a normal ration is ten pounds of timothy or mixed hay and twelve pounds of oats a day. 2. Feed three times a day and at the same time each day. Regularity keeps the horse from fretting and aids digestion. 3. Do not feed grain or water when too warm and tired. Wait half an hour, feeding a little hay. When a horse is too warm for water he is too warm for grain. 138 HOW TO FEED YOUR HORSE 4. Water before feeding, except a little hay while cooling off. If you water after feeding the horse drinks too much and it chills the stomach and interferes with digestion. Give all the water he wants, but at the proper time. Even a very warm horse may have a dozen swallows if he is kept traveling for a while afterward. Water too dirty or stale for you to drink is too dirty for your horse. Give clean water only. 5. Feed hay or other roughage before the grain. The horse eats it slower, and it aids digestion by separating the grain instead of its forming a com- pact mass which the stomach juices cannot pene- trate. 6. Never use moldy or damaged feed. It is cheaper in price but much dearer in the long run because it often causes colic and acute or chronic indigestion. 7. Dusty hay or grain must be moistened or it will cause wind troubles and aggravate eye infec- tions. Dust is a frequent cause of heaves. 8. Make changes in the ration very gradually or your horse will go off feed and may develop violent disorders. 9. A warm bran mash with a handful of salt in it is an excellent feed for Saturday night. It 139 HOW TO FEED YOUR HORSE loosens the bowels, prevents colic and azoturia, and keeps the horse in fine condition. 10. Finally, use good horse sense. See that your horse is comfortable before you look out for yourself. Start him easy, work up to the pull gradually, protect him when overtired or heated, feed as outlined and your horse will rarely have digestive troubles. 140 Horses and Spring Weather It is a very good practice -to clip horses, partly or entirely, in spring. We believe that the European custom of clipping the legs and belly as high as the traces come is rather better than our own usual method of either clipping all over or stopping just above the knees and hocks. Any clipping which frees the lower part of the horse's body from long hair is a decided advantage while the muddy period lasts, and this is particularly true during the raw cold spring weather and late winter. Half clipping allows the mud adhering to the belly and legs to be easily removed, and the skin then dries rapidly. Nature is surprised by the first warm weather in the spring, the horse still has his heavy coat of winter hair, and he perspires pro- fusely at his ordinary work. Most of the sweat soaks down on the legs and belly, keeping the whole horse wet from its vapor. If this can be over- come, the rest of the horse's body can be dried off with comparative ease. The only way to overcome it at this time of year is to clip the lower half of all of the body. 141 HORSES AND SPRING WEATHER Clipping the lower part of the legs only simply aids in keeping these parts free from mud, and this sort of clipping is done more to save work than to save the horse. There are not many who advocate or practice clipping the entire body early in the spring. This is a valuable and perfectly feasible practice where the driver knows his business and protects the horse from sudden changes and bad weathers, but it is safer to follow the half clipping plan for most horse owners, until warm weather has come to stay, and with its advent most of the reason for clipping horses departs. Pneumonia and kindred diseases are more prev- alent at this time of year than at any other, and this prevalence is due more to changing seasons and work than to any other one cause. As far as possible, avoid getting your horses too warm, and protect them carefully while they are cooling and drying off. While it is desirable to get them dry as soon as possible after stopping work, they must not run any risk of chilling while drying. Where horses have box stalls or can roll around on an ample supply of dry bedding they will dry out fairly soon. If there are a large number of them in the same room, means must be provided 143 HORSES AND SPRING WEATHER to drain the liquid manure from the stall floors as fast as possible, and the stable room must be thor- oughly ventilated without drafts. Horses which are clipped all over do not suffer from the first warm weather as much as undipped or partly clipped horses. They perspire less, and hence dry off faster. For this very reason it is necessary to blanket them carefully during cool weather in order to keep them from drying too rapidly and contracting colds. With the opening of the spring season many horses which have been doing but light work during the winter will be required to start in doing a full day's work, and this change will be made very sud- denly. As a result, they will develop the various troubles that afflict green horses, and it is well to take all possible precautions against such troubles. Start them in as easily as possible, increasing the work gradually. 143 Stable Sanitation One of the most imperative needs from the stand- point of health in great cities, is stable sanitation. Thousands upon thousands of horses are stabled in every large city. If proper care is taken of these horses and their stables, no one can object to their presence, because they are reasonably quiet and a properly cared for stable ' is practically odorless. You will say immediately that you never saw a properly cared for stable, and that is probably right, as there are very few of them. The sanitary stable should have waterproof floors, built of some material that will not absorb the liquid manure, and sloped to drain properly. Cement is undoubtedly the best of these, and it should be covered with a slatted board flooring in the stalls to keep the horses from sleeping on the cold cement, and to prevent slipping. The question of bedding is very important in many ways. Its function is to keep the horse off the floor and to absorb the liquid manure. It also is better for the horse's feet than a hard floor. Wheat or oat straw is the best bedding known, as it is light, 144 STABLE SANITATION dry, warm, springy and highly absorptive. Barley and rye straw would be equally good if it were not for the "beards" or barbed tips of the grain husk, which irritate the horse's skin. Marsh hay has little value because it is coarse, flattens down and absorbs very little. Shavings and tanbark are poor bedding for the same reason. Horses should be cleaned very carefully in warm weather, and it is an excellent plan to wash their mouth, head and legs with cold water at noon and night. The most important part of the stable sanitation from the other fellow's standpoint is the disposal of the manure. The liquid manure should be absorbed by the bed- ding and the bedding changed every day. The solid manure should be cleaned up morning and evening and thrown in a flyproof box or vault. If possible have it hauled away daily. Remember that house flies breed in horse manure in preference to any other place, and the only way to keep them down is to keep them away from the breeding place. Horse owners should be particularly watchful of new horses taken into the stable, as they may have a mild form of glanders or farcy, both of which are 145 STABLE SANITATION incurable, deadly and extremely contagious to horses and to human beings as well. A horse with a run- ning nose may be as dangerous as a mad dog. Any wood used in locations where it comes in contact with manure should be impregnated with creosote or some other good waterproofing liquid before it is put in place. It will last much longer because no moisture or decay germs can gain entrance to the fiber of the wood, and this treatment will prevent the wood from absorbing liquid manure and giving off offensive odors. The walls and ceilings should be kept free from dust and it is an excellent plan to paint them with whitewash or some form of white factory interior paint. The whole barn will be lighter inside, and the health of both the horses and the men who care for them will be greatly improved. 146 A Garden for the Kiddies It seems strange that so many people who are inter- ested in back yard farming let the interest stop with themselves. Children are told to keep out of the garden for fear they will tramp down vegetables or pick the green fruits. One of the very best plans that can be adopted to keep the little ones out of mischief and to give them a larger fund of practical knowledge, is to let each boy and girl have a little patch of their own in the garden. The children become quickly interested in this kind of work-play combination and almost unconsciously absorb a great deal of knowledge which will stand them in good stead all their lives. Even where it is not practical to let each child have a separate little patch of his own, you will find that the children take great interest in the planting and in watching seeds grow and in picking the ripened fruit and vegetables. It can be brought to them as another form of play and with the right explanation of the germination of the seed and growth of the plant and the fertilizing of the blos- soms, the work will become of great interest to them. 147 A GARDEN FOR THE KIDDIES In New York and Chicago a great many children in the vacation schools have been interested in this sort of work and it has been found to work very successfully, for it not only amuses and instructs the children, but it gives them something really of profit in the harvest of crops, and best of all, per- haps, keeps them off the street. This last considera- tion, in fact, seems to be the principal one. In the writer's experience, one of the most irk- some details of the garden was taken care of by the children, much to their delight. The garden had a natural slope, so that a miniature irrigation system was arranged by letting the water run from the garden hose at the highest spot in the garden, and from there little streams were directed toward every point in the garden, which, if kept clear, served to bring the water to the entire plat. The children enjoyed immensely watching the course of these little streams and keeping them clear. Interest your children in your garden. Encour- age them to learn the entire scheme from the plant- ing of the seeds to the harvesting of the crop. It will be of real interest and profit to them. 148 The Back Yard and the Boy In these enlightened and worrisome days we hear a great deal about the "Boy Problem." Learned men spend their time trying to devise educational schemes which will keep the boys headed in the right direction, and agitated feminine orators get the women's clubs all excited over everybody-else's boys, but things go on about as before, and the police department is kept busy chasing down youth- ful criminals. Why is it that this boy problem seems to be almost exclusively confined to the cities? Are the boys in the country places and on the farm made of any better material than those of the towns and cities ? It does not seem reasonable to think so, but there is very little talk about the boy problem in the country, and in fact there is no such problem recog- nized, because it does not exist. The whole secret lies in the fact that the boys are kept busy in the country, while in the city they have nothing to occupy their spare time except mischief. On the farm everybody works most of the time, the 149 THE BACK YARD AND THE BOY boy as well as his parents, and when he is not work- ing he is always within the observance of someone who knows him. The result is that he has neither time nor opportunity to go wrong. The thing that we must accomplish with the city boy is toJceep him busy during his spare time and keep him in sight during his recreation. See that he has work to do after school and during vacation time, and everybody will be better off, especially the boy. Let it be of an interesting nature, if possible, but keep him busy at something if you love him. The best place in the world for the boy during the long vacation is a farm where he will have the association of good people and plenty of out-of-door work. He will come back in the fall stronger than ever, and with that heritage from nature which the city boy misses throughout life. But if this privilege be denied your boy through force of circumstances, you will have to put him in charge of the back yard farm. Make work for him at home. Let him make the garden and cut the lawn. Have him wash the windows and beat the rugs. It makes little difference how well able you are to have the work done or how distasteful it is to the boy, you are fighting to make him the kind 150 THE BACK YARD AND THE BOY of a man to be proud of and this is the best way to protect him from evil associations. Make his home so attractive that the other boys will come there instead of taking him away. Give them a tennis court if you can, or a pony tennis court if your lot is only fifty feet wide. Let him have all the pets he wants and make him absolutely responsible for them, but whatever you do and in whatever way, keep the boy busy. 151 Boys and Pets Farming might be defined as the art of producing valuable crops from the' soil and disposing of these soil products in a profitable manner. This definition is lame, academically, but it carries our idea. The back yard farmer must include a great many other factors in his operations, as the pecuniary profits he derives are of much less importance than the beautifying of his surroundings and of the lives of his entire family. No intelligent person can live amid beautiful ennobling scenes without being influ- enced for the better, even though it be unconsciously. In the same manner, bare, sterile, uninteresting homes tend to have an adverse effect upon their inhabitants, which will affect them throughout their entire lives. Thoughtful people are realizing more and more that unless the mind is in sympathy with nature, unless the garden of each person's inner self is fer- tile and responsive to cultivation, there is small hope of betterment from outside influence. The adult mind which has been denied helpful influences may become impervious to them in time, but the hope of the race lies in his children. IS2 BOYS AND PETS The child's mind is a fertile garden, which cannot produce its own flowers and fruit, but which responds readily to the treatment it receives, and bears fruit or evil weeds according to what we plant therein and how it is cultivated. One of the most beautiful and hopeful things about the whole scheme of creation is the fact that every normal child is born square with the world. He inherits neither his parents' bodily or mental diseases. But from the instant he first cries, his future depends almost absolutely upon the care he receives. There comes a time in every boy's life when the childish amusements no longer suffice, and he seeks interests out of doors. This is the time when the mother ceases to have an eye on his every move- ment and he begins to associate with other boys of his own age, but of totally different bringing up, in many cases. As far as possible, the boy should be kept under observation at this time, as he is at the crucial stage. Make his home more interesting and have his playmates there. Nothing serves to make home interesting to boys at this age so much as pets of their own. It is a calamity to have a boy grow up without having owned a dog. Rabbits, pigeons, and especially bantam chickens, 153 BOYS AND PETS are dear to the heart of the developing lad, and he is just as much entitled to the helpful companion- ship of pets as he is to a school education. Let him have full responsibility for them, and the results will take care of themselves. 154 The Rabbit Hutch and the Rabbit Wild rabbits live in warrens and tame rabbits live in hutches in England. In America wild ones live in burrows, and the tame ones in a soap box or a box stall or any other place the small boy can rig up for them. Every right-minded boy loves rabbits, especially white ones with red eyes and a nose that wriggles all of the time. Lots and lots of boys never know the pleasure of having some rabbits of their own to care for and play with and gloat over. A white rabbit is worth more to the average boy's happiness than a thousand dollars are to his dad, and if you want that boy of yours to have all the pleasure that youth should bring to him, get him a pair of rabbits and watch him enjoy them. Of course, the rabbits may, and probably will, have a hard time of it. They will go hungry part of the time and if he is not careful a cat or a terrier may get at them, but these things are part of the bunny's life and the bunny ought to be part of the boy's life as well. Distinctly do I remember my delight over four 155 THE RABBIT HUTCH AND THE RABBIT tiny white baby rabbits that I brought home one day. They were just about six inches long, but the puffy little tail and the long ears and the pink eyes were all there. It took more than moral suasion to> pre- vent me from taking them to bed with me that night, but I was finally induced to house them in an empty stall in the barn. I fenced in the entrance with chicken wire and the tiny white things went through it like quicksilver through a tin horn. They were finally captured and blocked in with some boxes. When I went out to the barn before breakfast the next morning I found a happy looking fox terrier inside the pen with three dead bunnies. I never have cared for fox terriers to this day, but I learned then that rabbits must have a fence over as well as around them. A box stall makes a fine rabbit pen. Lay some boxes on the floor with little doors cut in one end and cover the whole floor with a foot of dry straw, having holes down to the box entrances. Keep their water in a self feeding chicken fountain and tell the boy to give them all they will eat of whole corn and oats once a day. A few cabbage or lettuce leaves, a carrot or two and a handful of clover hay will keep them fat and happy. They increase like compound interest. I started 156 THE RABBIT HUTCH AND THE RABBIT in with two one spring and sold forty-eight the next spring. If you have never seen an old fighting buck thump the floor with his hind legs — if you never learned how to eat spaghetti by watching a six-inch rabbit tackle an eighteen inch stalk of celery, then let your boy have the fun of keeping some rabbits. 157 Home Canning For many years the housewife has canned all man- ner of fruits, and we all know that the home prod- uct is better than that we buy in the market; but you will find but few housekeepers who put up vege- tables from the home garden and the reason is a simple one. In most cases they have met with failure. However, the home canning of vegetables is just as practical as the canning of fruits and the prod- uct far superior to the commercial article. The great reason being that vegetables lose their sweetness and flavor if any appreciable time lapses between picking and canning, and this is inevitable in a large cannery. The germs that ferment the fruits are readily killed at a comparatively low temperature, which permits one to pour boiling fruit into jars and then seal them. This is not the case with vege- tables, and general directions for canning vegetables might be to put them in the jars uncooked and then set the jars in the bottom of a wash boiler, having first laid small boards in the bottom of the boiler to prevent the jars from cracking by the heat. Put iS8 HOME CANNING about four to six inches of water in the boiler, cover it, and boil over a brisk fire for several hours. String Beans. — Cut the beans, boil for ten min- utes, then put into jars, adding a little salt and fill up with water and seal. Boil in the boiler for two hours. Set aside and repeat the boiling next day. Corn. — Cut off the cob, mix in a little salt and press the corn into the jars until the milk overflows the can, seal and boil two hours and repeat the next day. Peas. — Fill the jars and then fill up with water and seal. Boil one hour and repeat the next day. Tomatoes. — Scald to remove the skins, put in jars, whole or cut up as desired. Fill the jar with water, put on the caps, boil for one hour, repeating the next day. The principal feature in canning vegetables is to give them a thorough boiling after the jars are sealed, as the germs that spoil the vegetables require a considerably higher heat than the fruit ferments. 159 Home-Laid Fresh Eggs Anyone with a small yard and the ambition to try can easily keep enough chickens to furnish eggs for the family and enough extra to pay for the keep of the flock. This fact is so well proven that there are hundreds of people doing it in every city and town in the country. A space of 20 by 30 feet is enough yard for 50 hens, when handled properly. All it requires is the ground and a reasonable knowledge of the principles of poultry-keeping. In fact, we know a number of people who are keeping poultry successfully, and the laying hens have never set foot outside of their houses. Of course, this intensive method calls for considerable skill and experience in order to avoid disease and kindred afflictions, due to the very close confinement, but fowls can be handled successfully in this way, and the details of this method will be taken up in a later chapter. There is absolutely no reason why fowls will not lay as many eggs and do as well in the city as in the country, under normal conditions, and it is pos- 160 HOME-LAID FRESH EGGS sible to produce eggs as cheaply one place as another, buying the same amount of food. Fowls kept in confinement are usually more profit- able than fowls that have free range, all things being considered, hence the city flock is as well off as the country flock. City dwellers also have the advan- tage of having easy access to sources of cheap feed, like bakery and hotel waste, fresh bones from the butcher shop, etc. The poultry house is one of the most important factors to success, and success means many eggs at a low price. The house should face in such a way that the maximum amount of sunlight shines on the floor during the winter months. This means dry, healthy floors and freedom from disease and colds. A house 10 by 10 feet will allow sufficient floor space for from 20 to 30 hens, provided the house is kept scrupulously clean, and there is an abundance of fresh air at all times of day or night. Have most of the south side of the house either glass or muslin sash, and fully half of it should be the muslin. Avoid cross drafts and keep the house as dry and clean and sweet smelling as your own. What sort of hens shall we use ? The breed makes absolutely no difference as far as your success is concerned. All of the commercial breeds are profit- 161 HOME-LAID FRESH EGGS able when handled with common sense, and there is a far greater difference between the different strains and flocks in the same breed or variety than there is between the different breeds taken as a whole. The owner of the city flock can feed his hens at a cost of about a dollar each per year. His return in eggs should be higher per hen than the manager of the large commercial flock gets,! and an average of a dozen eggs per hen per month is not at all out of the way for any small flock properly handled. Figure out the profit on 30 hens on your back lot for yourself. It is not necessary or advisable to keep a rooster with the city flock, as the hens will lay better, if anything, without his presence, and you can buy your young pullets each year just about as cheaply as you can raise them in the city. This does away with the biggest objection to city flocks of poultry, namely, the rooster's crowing. 162 Making the City Flock Pay Many people keep chickens, but few make them pay. The city flock of hens can be made to pay and pay well, but they cannot be fed and housed like pigs if they are to produce a profit. Anyone can make hens pay if only enough are kept to eat up the table scraps. Local conditions vary, but the following general rules must be observed in making the city flock profitable : i. Hatch the chicks before April 15th, so that the pullets will start to lay before cold weather. 2. Don't board any roosters. Buy your hatching eggs. It is cheaper. 3. Furnish shade in summer and sunshine in winter. 4. Half of the south front of the hen house should be entirely open or covered with cloth only. This keeps the air fresh, the house dry and the hens healthy. Only healthy hens lay. , 5. "Never let a louse or a mite live overnight. Furnish a dust bath in a sunny place. Change the bedding and nest straw every month, and spray nest9 and perches with lice paint every two weeks. 163 MAKING THE CITY FLOCK PAY 6. Don't doctor a hen that is really sick. Kill her. 7. Give the hens meat food and green food at least three times a week. 8. The chicken yard must be kept fresh and sweet. Spade it up at least twice a year, turning under some slaked lime to correct the acidity of the soil. Sow rye in the fall for spring green feed and to sweeten the ground. 9. No hen is worth enough merely as a layer to be kept through her second molt. Kill her or sell her before she starts to molt. 10. Don't feed too much and don't feed too lit- tle. Grain morning and night is enough, partic- ularly, if dry mash is kept before the birds and the grain should be fed in deep litter. There is great satisfaction in a flock of chickens if they will do their duty when it will have the greatest effect. Winter is the time when eggs are highest and fresh ones scarcest, and the biggest fac- tor in getting winter eggs is to hatch the pullets early. A combination of healthy early hatched pullets and lots of nourishing food always makes winter eggs, but few people seem to have recognized the factors of this simple equation. 164 "The Best Breed of Chickens" What is the best breed of chickens ? Easiest ques- tion in the world. Ask your friends and every one of them can answer it right off hand, but each one will name a different breed or variety and when you ask their reasons for their choice, very few of their reasons would hold in court. One man proves that the White Orpingtons are the "best breed," because he got Mme. Paderewski to admit she paid $5,000 for five of his chickens. Another man clinches the pennant for the White Plymouth Rocks by saying that a pen of 30 hens earned $3,500 for him last year, their eggs selling for $30 a setting. And so it goes. Asking a poul- try man to name the best kind of chickens is like asking an automobile man to name the best automobile. The fact of the matter is that there is no one "best breed" of chickens. There are four or five "best breeds," with from two to seven "best vari- eties" in each breed. As far as the city or suburban poultry keeper is 165 THE BEST BREED OF CHICKENS concerned, he can make his choice of chickens entirely upon sentimental grounds. Remember, that the breed determines the size and shape of the fowl, and the variety determines the color — choose the shape and color that you think is prettiest and you will have the best breed for you. Now, however, comes the really important prob- lem of the individual strain of blood within the variety. The difference between profit and loss, eggs and no eggs, lies in the individual and not in the breed or variety. There is no marked difference in the production, growth and hardiness of five or six of the principal breeds, and there is the same simi- larity between their established varieties, but there is a tremendous difference between different flocks or individuals of the same variety. A poultry-man who understands his business can take an ordinary flock of any standard variety and he can beat any similar flock of the same or any other variety, which is handled by an inexperienced or careless person. Inheritance of profitable qualities is of the greatest importance. For this reason scrub or cross-bred fowls are worthless for breeding, because their off- spring cannot possibly, improve in size or produc- tivity for any length of time and practically never hold their own. Never use anything but pure-bred 166 THE BEST BREED OF CHICKENS chickens. Get a setting of eggs or a pair of young birds from the heaviest laying hen you can find in the variety you elect to keep, and build up your flock from this start. We have known two pullets of the White Wyandottes, one of which laid 17 eggs in a year and the other laid 243. You could not tell them apart by looks, either. Three of the good hen's daughters laid over 200 eggs each in a year. That is why strain counts more than breed. 167 Starting With Chickens Thousands of new flocks of chickens are started off every year with great enthusiasm and still greater expectations. The fifty or sixty odd poultry papers, the hundreds of agricultural and horticultural jour- nals, the several hundred poultry shows given each year by as many local poultry associations, the thou- sands upon thousands of established breeders of pure fowls, the agricultural colleges and experiment sta- tions — all of these agencies are doing a mighty work in their efforts to interest all of us in poultry keeping. We believe, with the poets, that "'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved," and * it is doubly true that any one will be better off and have a broader outlook, be nearer what he or she should be, by having got back into touch with nature through the care of little chickens and their parents. If, at the same time, you have not made a financial success, it will be nobody's fault but your own, unless you are a victim of circumstances beyond control. Small flocks of chickens can always be handled profitably by observing a few very simple rules. It 168 STARTING WITH CHICKENS is only with the big flocks that the odds are against us. In starting out in early spring one can either buy eggs and hatch them or day-old chicks can be purchased and raised, either with hens or small brooders. For a person entirely unfamiliar with poultry, the ideal scheme is to go to some poultry raiser and buy from him a hen with her chickens already hatched. Take them home and place the hen in a good coop that will confine her in a dry, shady place and will permit the chicks to run out and in at will. Be sure the ground under the coop is dry and clean. Move the coop frequently. Dust the hen thoroughly with Persian insect pow- der as soon as you get her home and repeat in a week's time, to kill vermin on her and her chicks. Feed the hen a handful of cracked corn and wheat twice a day. Start young chicks on barely moistened bread crumbs three times a day and a prepared chick food twice a day. Get this food from any seed or poul- try supply ' house. Feed Only what they will clean up quickly. Succulent green food should be fur- nished frequently. If the chicks have a large range you need not bother about grit, charcoal or meat food, but these 169 STARTING WITH CHICKENS articles must be supplied if chicks cannot pick up gravel and insects. After chicks begin to feather, keep cracked dry bone before them; give two feeds of a mixture of cracked corn two parts, wheat one part, hulled oats one part, and one feed of very stiff prepared wet mash every day. The mash can be secured ready mixed and it must not be fed too wet Feed a little meat three times a week. Clean water must be sup- plied at all times. A good water fountain is a tin can inverted in a dish. A hole near' the edge of the can lets the water out, when the level of the water in the dish is lowered enough to allow air to enter the can through the hole. 170 Buying Orphan Chicks The business in orphan chicks has grown tremen- dously within the last year or two, and there are literally millions of baby chicks shipped all over this country every spring. Except in the case of very fancy show stock, this plan seems destined to largely supplant the old practice of buying eggs for hatching. The great advantage of buying ready-hatched day- old chicks instead of eggs, lies primarily in the fact that you buy an actual, living, healthy chicken, instead of an egg that has only nine chances out of ten to be fertile, and one chance out of two to hatch a healthy chick. You can well afford to pay twice as much for a live chick as for the egg it was hatched from at these odds, especially when you consider the fact that someone else takes all the time and risk to hatch the chick out for you. These orphan chicks are hatched in mammoth incubators, which contain several thousand eggs at the same time. Chicks are hatched and fresh eggs put in every day during the hatching season, and the entire incubator is heated by one hot-water boiler. As fast as the chicks are hatched, they are placed 171 BUYING ORPHAN CHICKS in shallow boxes, each compartment containing 25 to 50 chicks, and the top of the box is covered with cloth. The outfit is then ready for a safe journey to any point within a couple of thousand miles. The closely huddled chicks keep warm without artificial heat, and they will live and thrive for a week with- out feed or water. In fact, they are much better off without food, as the last thing the developing chick does before leaving the shell, is to absorb the yolk of the egg, and this must all be digested and eliminated from the system before other food can be eaten with safety. If you own a brooder, you can put the orphan chicks into it upon arrival. Have the hover heated to 90 degrees and place water and a little chick feed or rolled oats and millet before them. Even for the poultry keeper who cannot handle more than four broods of chicks a season, it may pay well to buy fifty orphan chickens and slip them under four setting hens when they arrive. 172 Selecting the Breeding Flock An old saying with breeders of live stock is that the best cross is with the feed bin. We say that this is the only cross that should ever be made with chickens. History fails to show a single instance where any man gained in his breeding operations through cross- ing two distinct breeds. It is perfectly true that the resulting offspring are frequently sturdier and grow faster than either of their parent breeds. They may even lay more eggs, but they are almost certain to fail totally in passing on desirable characteristics, and the third generation will be far inferior to the original breeds used in the cross. Crossing breaks up all the lines of heredity and is of value only in producing new breeds, and very rarely then. Don't try to get better chickens by crossing two established breeds, because you will surely fail, and don't waste your time trying to grade up a scrub flock by using pure-bred males, because life is too short. Start with pure breds and bring up the health and productivity of your flock by weeding out the non-producers and selecting the young breeders with 173 SELECTING THE BREEDING FLOCK great care. Pick out next year's breeders while they are small and watch them carefully as they develop. Strong, rugged health and early maturity are the two great points to consider for the poultryman who wants flesh and eggs above feathers. Separate the pullets from the cockerels as soon as you place the youngsters in the colony roosting coops. Both sexes will develop better from then on if separated as far as possible. Have birds of the same size together to avoid crowding and stunting the smaller ones. Remember that the pullet which shows a red comb first will usually lay first, and the one that lays first has the best constitution, makes an excellent breeder and lays the most eggs. Watch for these precocious little ladies and then mark or brand them at once, so that you can put them in the best pen the follow- ing breeding season. A good constitution is of the very greatest possible importance. It is indicated by bright red comb and wattles, sleek plumage, strong, round legs, good frame, bright full eyes, short broad head, short strong curved beak and early maturity. The breast bone should be deep and the back broad. Legs set wide apart indicate a large chest and body cavity. Avoid like a plague a long, lean, rangy bird with a hawk beak, narrow head, sunken eye and 174 SELECTING THE BREEDING FLOCK knock-kneed legs. They are worse than useless, regardless of the excellence of their coloring. Sort them out while they are young, before' their mature plumage covers up the most glaring defects. • All other things being equal, pick out for a breeder the cockerel that matures first, as indicated by red comb and wattles, general scrappiness and early crow- ing. His offspring will develop earlier than those of his slower maturing brother. They will lay earlier on the female side and be ready to kill earlier on the male side. 175 Feeding Baby Chicks It is a rather simple matter to hatch chicks under ordinary circumstances. Of course, the eggs must he fertile and fresh to start with, but with good eggs the hen can practically tend to the whole job without assistance, and the modern incubator requires but fifteen minutes' attention daily. We have placed twenty-one students in charge of as many incubators, and they hatched twelve hun- dred chickens from less than fourteen hundred Rhode Island Red eggs, and not one of those students had ever run an incubator previously. Hatching out the chicks is really about the sim- plest part of the poultry business. As soon as the chicks are hatched we are confronted with the most difficult problem of the business, and that is the handling of the chicks from the incubator stage until they are feathered out. This is the crucial period, and it is the Waterloo of practically every large, and a great many small, poultry farms. We are almost certain to raise the chickens to a marketable age if we can only keep them alive and growing strongly until they are fully feathered. 176 FEEDING BABY CHICKS The baby chick has about twice as many chances to die as any other domestic animal, except squabs and turkeys. He cannot get along without auxiliary heat of some kind and a chill finishes his career in short order. Wet feet, a few lice, small animals, his mother's clumsy feet, anything bigger than a dollar dropped on him — all will kill him with ease. These menaces to longevity can be classed as acci- dental, and hence preventable in large measure. The one factor that kills more chicks than improper heat is wrong feeding. On these two factors, heat and feed, depend the success of any flock of young chickens. Really the feeding question is very simple if one will only be satisfied to stick to proven principles and stop experimenting. The ration for growing chicks must be a complete ration; that is, it must contain, in proper proportion, sound grains, green food, mineral matter, animal matter, grinding mate- rial and plenty of clean, fresh water. The propor- tion of each varies with the age and size of the chick. While many variations will give good results, perhaps the best ration which we have used under city conditions is the following: First week. — Rolled oats and bread crumbs five times daily, on clean sand or boards. 177 FEEDING BABY CHICKS Second and third weeks. — Pinhead oats, fine cracked corn, millet, three times daily; scatter in dry hay-mow litter or clover chaff. Fourth, fifth and sixth weeks. — Hulled oats, cracked wheat, coarse cracked corn, three times daily in litter. After the first week keep limestone grit, granu- lated charcoal and granulated bone before them all the time. Also give them access to a hopper or tray of dry mash, consisting of equal parts of bran, corn meal, middlings, meat meal and a little salt. Any soft green feed, roots, etc., may be fed three times a week if chicks have no forage. Beware of tainted or moldy feed, and if any wet feed is given use the smallest possible amount of water. If milk is fed let it sour and mix with mash. Move the chickens before the ground gets sour, not afterward. Dust frequently for lice. i 7 8 Care of Chicks in Brooders A brooder is any device for housing baby chicks and furnishing them with the protection and warmth that they get from the hen under natural conditions. Like all domestic fowls, the baby chicken lacks the power to keep himself warm enough to develop, and he must receive heat from outside sources at regular intervals, even in mild weather, or he will die. It is really remarkable how many different things can kill chicks, and it is the losses during the brooding period that cause most poultry farms to fail. The use of artificial brooders is absolutely neces- sary where the eggs are hatched in large numbers by incubators, because it is hard to get hens to care for chicks which they have not hatched, and it takes no more time or space to handle a hundred chicks in a good brooder than to manage a hen and a dozen chicks. Hens will usually rear a larger proportion of the chicks, though, because they call the babies to them when it grows cold or stormy; they are constantly on the lookout for danger, teach the chicks to eat 179 CARE OF CHICKS IN BROODERS and are always on the job. Man's inventive genius has developed brooding devices that do everything but think like the hen, and the man in charge must do the thinking or he will fail. Brooding devices may be classified as follows: Indoor Types. — Fireless, lamp-heated, electric heated and continuous hot water heated brooders. Outdoor Types. — Lamp-heated, lamp-heated col- ony house and gasoline-heated colony house brooders. For the small poultry keeper who does not wish to use hens, we unhesitatingly recommend the use of the indoor lamp-heated brooder. Because of his modest requirements, the only other type of brooder that fits his needs is the individual out-door lamp- heated type, and this device is too much exposed to the temperature changes to be safe for the amateur, unless he is about the place all day. Fireless brood- ers are not advisable except for experts, as they derive their heat from the chicks themselves and the heat varies too much. The brooder, should have three compartments — the hover, which is the directly-heated portion, a cooler chamber around it, and an exercising room or sun parlor. The temperature in the hover is the thing to watch. Start it at ioo degrees, and keep it at that point for 180 CARE OF CHICKS IN BROODERS the first week. For the next two weeks 95 degrees is proper, then dropping five degrees a week until 85 degrees is reached. Keep it here until- the chicks have feathered, at which time the lamp may be put out or the chicks moved to a warm colony coop. It is better to have too much heat than too little in the hover, provided the chicks can get away to cool off when they wish. Clean out the brooder carefully once a week and keep the floors sanded. Disinfect it after each lot of chickens has left it, but be careful not to put a fresh lot in while the fumes are strong. The greatest care is necessary to prevent the chicks from becoming chilled or over-heated, as either is fatal. Sunshine is an excellent disinfectant for the brooder, and the whole thing should be exposed to it on warm days. Get the little chicks out on the ground during pleasant weather after they are old enough to run in for heat when they get cold. Keep them shut in closely for the first few days, until they learn where the hover is and what it is for. 181 Feeding Hens for Eggs Any good healthy pullet would produce eggs profit- ably during the winter months if hatched early enough, regardless of the exact feeding method used. This fact is perfectly true to a degree, and if we had to choose between late hatching with scientific feeding and early hatching with unskilled, but plen- tiful feeding, we would choose the latter every time. The hen is not very particular where she finds her food, and she has an omnivorous appetite, but nature makes her balance up her ration pretty well, provided she has access to the various elements needed. At the same time, the early-hatched fowl will be benefited just as much by scientific feeding as will the late-hatched one, and the few simple rules gov- erning poultry feeding should be thoroughly under- stood and followed by every poultry keeper. By scientific feeding we mean the nearest prac- tical approach to the exact requirements of the fowl's body in producing eggs, tissue, heat and energy. 182 FEEDING HENS FOR EGGS If a hen needs a pound of protein or flesh-forming food and only four pounds of fats and starches, we must not feed all corn, because in this case she will have to eat about twelve pounds of starch to get her pound of protein, and the surplus eight pounds of starch will be wasted, make her too fat to lay or make her sick. The whole secret is to mix the food in order to save that surplus of starch and make the hen lay at her top speed. Here is what your flock must have in order to do their very best for you : Mixed grain twice a day, about one handful to the fowl, each feed. Cracked corn, wheat and clipped oats makes an excellent mixture. Barley may be used in place of oats and kaffir corn is a good grain in the Southwest. Do not feed whole corn to hens in a mixture, as it is harder to digest and they neglect the rest of the mixture. Feed grain in deep straw during winter months. Ground grain, or mash, is absolutely necessary for economical results, and it can be kept before them at all times in an automatic hopper; an excellent mixture is two parts cornmeal, one part middlings, one part bran, one part oil meal, one part alfalfa meal, one part meat meal. Green food is essential to the fowl's health and 183 FEEDING HENS FOR EGGS the color and body of the eggs. Pasture in summer and alfalfa, cabbage, clover-chaff, sprouted oats, etc., in winter will serve the purpose. Vegetable food is necessary for health, and a semi-weekly feed of roots, potatoes or cabbage will head off bowel trouble. Animal products are best supplied by a little green cut bone every other day, but meat meal in the mash is an excellent substitute. They are of the very highest importance to fowls which do not have free range. Lime, for egg shells, is supplied in crushed oyster shells, plaster or marble grit. Grinding material must be had, and marble grit serves a dual purpose here. Charcoal is an excellent corrective for digestive disorders. Water is just as necessary for fowls as for humans and it should be clean and always available. 184 Green Feed for Chickens Some folks say we need lettuce because it is good for us. They also seek to force upon us dandelions, spinach, beet tops and all manner of greens, using the same reason. Now what we want to know is this : If we admit that green foods are good for us, what is the reason ? They contain about 99 per cent water, which comes too expensive in this form, and the rest is mostly just plain green color. There is a trace of fiber and a trace of starch, a little mineral food and that is all. Then where is the virtue? One cannot very well say, but it is a proven fact, that a mod- erate amount of greed food acts as an appetizer, keeps the digestion good and the whole works run- ning smoother. So it is with the hens, whose appetite and tastes come closer to that of the human being than any other domestic beast except the pig. She eats grain, whole or ground, cooked meat or raw, vegetables of all kinds in all shapes, green food, salt, charcoal and lime, and she drinks what we do, outside of intoxi- cants. She will eat anything we will and lots of 18s GREEN FEED FOR CHICKENS things that we won't. The hen needs green feed for all the reasons that we need it and for several pri- vate ones of her own. The most important one of the private reasons is the color of the yolk of her eggs. We all know how pale the yolks of most eggs are in winter. Perhaps you have never figured out why this is, but just charged it to cold storage or some- thing like that. The fact is that perfectly fresh eggs have much lighter yolks in winter than they do in summer, and the reason is lack of green food. In summer the hen picks up leaves and stems and all manner of succulent green stuff. This green matter, or at least the coloring part of it, is changed to orange or yellow in the hen's body and the result is deep-tinted yolks. So it is necessary to feed lay- ing hens green feed the year round, both for her health and the color of the eggs. The best summer green food is tender green pas- ture. If the flock eats it down, plant part of the chicken park to rape and keep them off it until it is well started. Rye makes excellent pasture for early spring. Winter is the hard time to secure fresh green feed. Cabbage serves very well and can be secured in barrel lots for about five cents a head. Ensilage, 186 GREEN FEED FOR CHICKENS greatest of green feeds for cows, does not seem to be of much value for hens. Chopped clover or alfalfa hay steamed to tenderness, is very satis- factory, and sprouted oats have become a great favor- ite of late years. The oats are soaked with warm water and sprouted in trays, being fed liberally as soon as the sprouts are good sized and green. Do not confuse vegetables with green feed, as it takes the green colored chlorophyll grains to make deep orange yolks in the winter eggs. i8 7 Meat for Chickens Chickens are scavengers to a very decided degree. They choose their food by sight alone, as they are almost entirely without the senses of smell and taste, so far as we can tell. Like most other young animals, however, they do not know how or what to eat until they have been taught, either by older fowls, human efforts, or a series of experiments on their own behalf. Being possessed of an insatiable and omnivorous appetite, coupled with a most powerful and daunt- less digestion, the chicken eats everything she meets that can possibly be digested and much that cannot. Mighty few victuals are missed by those bright eyes, in spite of lack of auxiliary senses. If a speck wiggles, jumps, crawls or flies, it is certainly alive, hence good to eat. If it shines, she will take a chance on it, and if it is yellow it must be food. Anything goes, from potato bugs to live mice, from bird seed to whole corn on the cob. If it happens to turn out a shingle nail, pebble or piece of glass, it stays in the gizzard and helps grind up the rest of the food. 188 MEAT FOR CHICKENS When chickens run loose on the farm they pick up most of their living in the fields. During the season of heavy laying, the spring months, they secure nearly as much insect and animal food as vegetables or grain. The eggs begin to diminish about the time that the insect life retires for the winter. Is this merely a coincidence, or natural cause and effect? It is undoubtedly true that the shortage of flesh food will cut down the egg yield and when the hens cannot find this animal food it must be supplied to them. It is not possible for the hen to produce eggs economically from grain alone, because the propor- tion of grain elements and meat elements remains about the same in eggs, regardless of the hen's diet, and an all-grain diet does not furnish meat elements to balance its starch and fat. At least a twelfth of the ration should be flesh food. The form it takes depends upon circumstances. Table scraps may be sufficient for a small flock, if there is meat in them. Burn or bury any refuse that they leave, day by day. Green cut bone, that is, raw bone shaved to edible size in a bone cutter, is a good form of flesh food. Feed a handful per hen every other day. Beef scrap, if not too fat, is an excellent meat 189 MEAT FOR CHICKENS feed where green cut bone cannot be used. It is fed in a hopper, or mixed with the ground; grain or mash. Meat meal is the same as beef scrap, but finer, and better for use in dry mash, as the fowls cannot pick it out. To be sure that these two pack- ing house products are good, drop a pinch into boil- ing water, and if the odor is bad, send the product back. Never feed chickens putrid or rotten meat, as it gives them limber-neck or blind staggers. Blood meal is a most concentrated animal food and it should be fed cautiously, principally to young chickens. Granulated milk, or milk albumen, is a fine protein feed, but rather too expensive to use except for very small chicks. Fish scrap takes the place of beef scrap in the East and South. It contains valuable minerals as well as the coveted protein. 190 Winter Eggs Anyone can get hens to lay in the spring and sum- mer, for this is the natural laying season and the hens will lay then in spite of neglect. It is the man or woman who knows how to get eggs in profitable quantities in the fall and winter that makes the big money out of chickens. You may know someone in your town who has the "knack" of making hens lay while all the other neighbors are depending on storage eggs. This is not a knack at all. It is simply the possession of a few simple facts and the determination to carry them into effect. Anyone can have winter eggs if they will go after them in the right way. Remember that in getting eggs in the winter you are going against nature, and nature will stand con- siderable fighting before she gives in. It goes with- out saying that your hens must be kept free from lice and mites and your henhouse must be kept clean. The most important factor in securing eggs in the fall and winter is hatching the pullets out early enough to get them laying by the middle of Septem- 191 WINTER EGGS ber. This means that Leghorns must be hatched by the middle of April, and the heavier breeds should be hatched by the first of March. By so doing the pullets will get started long before the cold weather comes upon them, and they will keep it right up through the fall and winter if they are housed and fed properly. Another factor in getting winter eggs is getting rid of the old hens. Never keep a hen through her second molt for market eggs alone, because it does not pay. In fact, a great many hens should not be kept through their first molt, as they always lay less and eat more their second year. If they are prop- erly fed and handled through the first molt the yearlings will get started to lay about November or December, and will help out with the winter eggs, but you must depend upon first year pullets for the fall supply. Don't stunt the pullets by feeding too little, or by failing to feed enough meat and green feed. It is practically impossible to feed growing pullets too much of a good balanced ration, and liberal feeding will rush them to the laying stage, which is exactly what the winter-egg man is after. This is not the case with the yearling hens, though, for they will lay on fat easily and the extra feed will be an actual 192 WINTER EGGS detriment instead of a help. With them it is to be a case of just enough feed and lots of exercise. Remember that a cold, dry house with lots of good feed and exercise is what makes winter eggs grow in the nests. A warm house is not as good as a cold one, just the same as a furnace-heated room is not comfortable for a man with his winter over- coat on, and a damp or filthy house is a regular hen morgue. Knock out most of the front windows in your hen house and fit them with removable cloth curtains to keep the snow from blowing in, and your hens will be more healthy and lay more eggs next winter than they would if you kept them in a greenhouse. Of course, it will gain nothing if you hatch the pullets out early and then stint them on feed. Let them have the run of a large yard, if possible, and be sure that the ground is not poisoned by the drop- pings. Give them plenty of palatable, tender, green feed and be sure that they are liberally supplied with sweet cut green bone, or good beef scraps. Keep a good mixed dry mash before them all of the time in a self feeder, and have the water fresh and clean. Shade is absolutely essential in hot weather, and there is nothing more important than plenty of sun- shine in the poultry house in the winter time. 193 WINTER EGGS There is absolutely no advantage in double walled houses, glass fronts, heated houses, hot mashes, and all of the coddling things that were considered essential to securing winter eggs a few years ago, and the simple rules here given will bring the results if they are applied with good judgment. 194 The City Hen House The hen house for the city or suburban flock of hens must receive more attention than the one used on the farm for several reasons. In the first place, the hens are much more closely confined and the sanitary features must be very carefully considered. There are usually more hens to a given area in the house and yard, hence both must be kept cleaner than, larger quarters need be, and if this work is to be done properly the house must be arranged so that the work of cleaning can be done without much incon- venience, or it will not be done. Again, because of the close proximity of neigh- bors the house must not only be clean and odorless, but it must possess some degree of artistic fitness, if it is not to be an eyesore to the passerby. It should harmonize with the surrounding buildings or the house to which it belongs, both in style of architecture and color. If possible the front of the hen house should face the south, so that it will get the full benefit of the «un's rays during the long winter months. Plenty 195 THE CITY HEN HOUSE of sunshine upon the floor will do more to keep the flock healthy while they are confined indoors than any other one thing. The top of the south windows should be as far from the ground as the house is wide, so that the sunlight will reach to the back wall, and the bottom of the south windows should be about three feet from the ground, or high enough so that the chickens cannot look out. We do not object to their looking out, as the time they waste in so doing does not interfere with their output, but this wall protects them from direct wind and cold storms from the south. The walls can best be made of two layers of boards, with a sheathing of building or tar paper between them, but an air space is not necessary. The main thing in the walls is to have them air tight, water proof, and free from harboring places for rats, lice and mites. The roof may be either single or double pitch, but if it is to pitch toward the south be sure to have an eaves trough there to keep the front of the building dry during the spring months, and the warm days in winter, as here the fowls will con- gregate, long before the snow has gone from the rest of the yard. Be sure that the roof pitches enough to carry the rain water off rapidly, to pre- 196 THE CITY HEN HOUSE vent rotting of the roof, and do not make the mis- take of so many near economical poultrymen, who build their hen house so low that at some point they cannot stand upright while cleaning it. Let me emphasize that again. Never under any circum- stances let your roof drop so low at any point in the building that you have to stoop in doing any of your work because of it. Nothing is more aggravating than working in a stooping position in a hot hen house, and you will find some of the work unpleas- ant enough even under the most desirable conditions. We ordinarily figure that each hen needs eight feet of floor space in the house and at least fifty feet of yard space. This is automatically reduced as the size of the flock and the gross size of the house and yard increases, and your hens can get along with less, even in a small flock, if you keep everything scrupulously clean. Never have the hen house floor made of wood. It is a waste of good wood in the first place, and it harbors rats in the second. Make it of cement with half-inch chicken wire or metal lath in it to keep the rats from gnawing through, if you want a solid floor, but a good raised dry dirt floor will serve every purpose. Be sure that it is higher than the ' surrounding ground to prevent water from running 197 THE CITY HEN HOUSE in, and change the top inch or two of dirt once a year for sanitary reasons. In the small house a droppings platform is neces- sary, and a good one is a zinc or galvanized pan which is clamped on to brackets and can be' removed easily for cleaning and washing. The nest boxes should be dark and they should be removable for cleaning and spraying for vermin. The roosts should be 2x4 timbers, and they should be removable. During the summer there is little need of straw on the floor, but in the winter it should be kept cov- ered with 6 inches of clean, dry oat or wheat straw. Do not use hay, as it gets wet and causes colds. 198 Caring for the Chicken Yard Very few people appreciate the importance of look- ing after the chicken yard properly. It is usually a bare, slimy patch, covered with an accumulation of manure, garbage and rubbish of all kinds. Noth- ing will grow there and the fowls are expected to lay and keep healthy in surroundings that would dismay a hog. It is not normal for hens to live under such con- ditions, as they are naturally quite clean in their habits. Their natural habitat is the jungle regions of Java and India and here they lead a normal life in clean, natural surroundings. Since they have been domesticated by man they have been associated with the dung hill through no fault of their own, and it is only of recent years that we have fully realized how much more profitable it is to furnish the hens with decent care and healthful surroundings. The yard is of just as much importance as the house, when the healthful production of egg and flesh is to be considered. Here the flock lives in summer, the time when disease germs and decay microbes flourish. Here is their water, and here 199 CARING FOR THE CHICKEN YARD most of their food is thrown. The only way to keep hens healthy and happy is to keep them in good appetite and free from disease and parasites. The yard should afford about twenty-five square feet for each hen in the flock. The larger the flock the smaller may be the number of feet per individual. If feasible, it is an excellent plan to have the yard cut into two parallel sections, each one having a separate entrance from the house. With this admir- able arrangement it is possible to have a green crop growing in one yard while the flock is using the other section. There is nothing so efficacious in keeping the soil sweet and the flock healthy as growing crops. By turning the soil over twice a year and growing some crop that demands a great deal of nitrogen, the soil will be freed from the poisonous waste elements and they will be turned into most excellent feed for the flock. Even if the two yard plan is not possible it is absolutely necessary that the soil be turned over once a year or the ground will become very sour and dangerous to health. Perhaps the best plan to follow in growing green feed in the yards is to plant rye in the fall and and turn the hens onto it as soon as the snow is gone in the spring. As soon as they have cleaned 200 CARING FOR THE CHICKEN YARD up one yard, turn them into the other, and sow the first yard to dwarf rape. By the time the second crop of rye is gone the rape will be ready to pas- ture and rape can be furnished in one yard after the other all summer. The manure pile from the stable should not be thrown into the poultry yard because it does no good there except to breed' flies. Do not, under any circumstances, throw garbage, sour milk or any other similar matter upon the ground in the hen house, or the yard, because some of it will certainly be left to decay and poison the ground. -Such feed must be used with judgment and fed only in water tight utensils that can be emptied. and cleaned out thoroughly. If it is impossible to grow green feed in the chicken yard and the soil is sour, spread air slaked lime over'the surface to be turned under, as this will stop the action of many of the bacteria and will sweeten the soil. 201 Summer Sanitation for Poultry Summer brings flowers and little chicks, and all manner of beautiful things. In contemplating these pleasant sights, one must be careful to remember that the same conditions which make them possible also encourage the production of vermin and disease. The spring and summer are the very busiest months for the poultrykeeper, not only because he has all of the added labor of rearing the young chicks, but because of the much greater care he must exercise to prevent trouble with both young and old. Success is the result of eternal vigilance and prompt and thorough care. Both body and head lice are a warm weather pest and they must be kept off the young chicks par- ticularly. Infection comes from the older fowls and infected buildings, old litter, etc. If you hatch with hens, have a clean nest in a clean place, and dust the hen with pyrethrum twice during the incu- bating period. Should the chicks appear droopy after they have begun to feather, dust them. Head lice appear on them earlier and a little lard oil on 202 SUMMER SANITATION FOR POULTRY the back of the head and under the wings will dis- pose of these. The older fowls must have access to a sunny, dry dust bath. If they show signs of lice, disinfect the hen house with whitewash and carbolic acid, put in clean nests and litter, and dust the hens with pyrethrum. The entire interior of the house should be white- washed about four times a year and the roosts and surrounding area should be painted or sprayed with kerosene or some coal tar disinfectant every two weeks in hot weather to keep down the red mites. Do not let the young chicks mix with the old fowls or inhabit their quarters. Change their run frequently to avoid fouling the ground, as this sour condition of the soil causes bowel trouble. If sloppy, wet feed or table scraps are fed, do not throw them on the ground. Use a trough or box and throw the refuse away where the chickens can- not get to it, or trouble will surely result. The ground near the watering place, the feeding place and the house becomes foul first, and it should be spaded up frequently to furnish fresh soil. Clean water is of the greatest importance. Use some fountain feed device and scald it out fre- quently. Never let it run dry or the fowls will over- 203 SUMMER SANITATION FOR POULTRY load when it is filled again. A tablet of potash permanganate in the water from time to time is a good mild disinfectant and corrective. Give all the pasturage and green feed available, plenty of shade, cool fresh air to sleep in and keep the vermin down, if you value your profits. Watch the youngsters when you have taken them away from the hen or the brooder, for this is a critical time in their development. They have been used to external heat all their short lives, and they miss it greatly for the first few days. Visit their coop after they have settled down for the night and you will be likely to find them all crowded together in a heap. Many a promising young cockerel or pullet has been smothered or crippled for life in a jam of this kind, and the chickens should be divided up into such small groups that their crowding cannot offer danger of this kind to the smaller members of the flock. 204 Shade for Chickens When straw hats begin to bloom, it is time for chickens, young and old, to have shade during the heat of the day. Chickens are probably less well able to stand the extremes of heat than any of our domestic animals, because they do not sweat to any great extent, hence are deprived of that safety valve that all of the domesticated animals possess. It is undoubtedly true that the chicken's comb and wat- tles serve to cool off its blood to a very marked degree, but even they will not avail in very hot weather and shade of some kind must be always provided. This is especially true with baby chicks, as they cannot stand the direct rays of the summer sun nearly as well as the other fowl can. Many chicks are victims of sunstroke or apoplexy every year, and it is usually the strongest and best developed ones that are overcome. Natural shade is best of all because it is usually formed by trees and high bushes, sufficiently dis- tant from the ground to permit free movement of air, and the sun can get around to disinfect the 205 SHADE FOR CHICKENS ground at certain times. By all means have your hen coops, brooders and colony coops located in the shade during the middle of the day. If there is no shade available in the yard where the baby chicks run, it will be necessary to provide some. A very good scheme is to build a frame about two feet off the ground and cover it with four inches of sod or a foot of straw, weighted down. This heavy thick roof prevents the radiation of heat from its under surface and is quite water- proof, thus having the advantage over boards or canvas. The ground under this shelter should be dry and dusty and the little fellows will spend the long, hot, noontime hours resting in the cool and dusting themselves. With the older chickens, the problem is fully as serious and shade must be provided. This is some- times done by raising the floor of the hen house a couple of feet above the ground, but this plan is objectionable because of its cost and the fact that the hens lay in this scratching compartment. An orchard forms the very best location for the chicken park, as the trees furnish shade and dam- aged or decayed fruit, while the hens eat the tree insects and enrich the soil. For the back yard flock 206 SHADE FOR CHICKENS of hens, either sunflowers or sweet corn will pro- vide plenty of shade if planted thickly and early. The hen house is usually of little value for shade within, because the roof is too low and the breeze cannot blow directly through. If cross ventilation is provided and there is an air space or straw loft under the roof, little outside shade needs to be pro- vided. Wherever possible, have the house so located that there is room for the chickens to get in the shade on any side of it, out of doors. 207 The Setting Hen's Secret The setting hen has a secret that has baffled man- kind since the time of Pharaoh. The fact that she does not know her own secret has no bearing upon its solution, because she could not tell it if she knew. Ever since the days of ancient Egypt's glory, men have been trying to hatch eggs artificially, and to get as many strong lively chicks from the same num- ber of eggs as the hen, but she is still in the lead, and seems likely to remain so. This does not mean that artificial incubation is a failure, because a good incubator properly managed will do almost as well as hens, and its economies place it far in the lead as a financial proposition. But we would like to know why hen-hatched chicks are a little greater in number, why they hatch out a little stronger and live a little better than a machine-hatched brood. One thing in her favor is the fact that her temperature does not vary, and the eggs are properly warmed at all times, except when she leaves the nest. Ventilation is another great fac- tor in successful incubation, and no incubator has 208 THE SETTING HEN'S SECRET yet mastered it perfectly. The heat from the hen's body is applied by direct contact to the eggs, while the incubator heats them with a current of warm air. The result is that the incubator eggs dry out too much, the shell lining gets tough, and the con- stant removal of carbonic acid gas takes away its beneficial action in decomposing the eggshell so that the chick can break the shell easily. It is hard to determine which drawback is the most serious, and some authorities believe that the hen's method of turning the eggs accounts for her superior hatches. Incubating eggs must be turned over from time to time to prevent the germ from rising to the top and sticking to the shell. This is done twice a day with the incubator, but the hen may turn her nest of eggs three or four times a day, as she is constantly working at them with legs, feet, wings, breast and beak. All things considered, it is better to use hens for hatching and rearing the chicks unless the poultry- keeper has a sufficiently large flock to require the hatching of at least one hundred chicks each year. It is no small trick to hatch chickens with hens, though, and a few simple rules to follow are very handy. Trust no hen until you have tried her. The broody hen will be found on the nest at night, after 209 THE SETTING HEN'S SECRET the others have gone to roost. Remove her to a shallow concave nest in a secluded spot, put some dummy eggs under her, and cover her with a box. Let her off the nest at dusk the next day to eat and drink. If she returns to the nest and stays there all the next day, it will be safe to put the good eggs under her. The hen should be well dusted with insect powder when placed on the nest, and again in two weeks. Keep whole corn and water and a dust bath handy and then let her alone. If several hens are setting in the same room, be careful to see that they go back to the same nests after eating, as two will fre- quently get on one nest. Use an odd number of eggs, depending upon the size of the hen and the season. Thirteen in cold weather and fifteen in warm, is about right for a Plymouth Rock hen. It is a good plan to set two hens at the same time and give all of the chicks to one hen after they are hatched. Investigate each nest for broken eggs once a week. If any are found, remove the whole eggs to a new nest after washing them in warm water. A nest which is too deep causes the hen to break eggs in stepping in. One in too dry a place dries 210 THE SETTING HEN'S SECRET out the eggs unduly, and if the nest corners are not filled in, some eggs are liable to roll into them and become chilled. Never set a hen in a haymow or upstairs room of any kind, for it is too dry to permit of good hatches as a general rule. If the hen has her own choice she will make her nest under the barn or in the tall weeds, but always on the ground. Perhaps the mysterious life-giving magnetism of old Mother Earth helps the chicks to hatch, but the scientists say that it is the moisture and the low-lying car- bonic acid gas that enables the hen who steals her nest away to bring off a full hatch. Be that as ,it may, the closer we follow her methods in locating and building a nest, the more successful we shall be. 211 Breaking Up Setting Hens Contrary to general impression, broodiness in hens is not a fever and we have no evidence to show that it is contagious. ,The ailment, if we may term it thus, appears without warning. The fowl may have been laying steadily and acting in a perfectly nor- mal fashion, when suddenly she becomes imbued with a great distaste for active pursuits. She betrays a very crabbed disposition, rushing at her erstwhile friends and pecking them viciously whenever they approach her. Her plumage sticks out at right angles, making her appear about twice as large as usual. With head drawn deep into her hackle feath- ers, and wings and body taking up as much space as possible, she mounts guard over her chosen nest and defies all comers. As a purely scientific note it may be interesting to know that her temperature is oftener a little lower than normal instead of at fever heat, and her pulse and respiration show no change as far as our information goes. Her appetite is less keen, nat- urally, and she does not leave her nest oftener 212 BREAKING UP SETTING HENS than twice a day, and usually only once, to attend to bodily wants. The hen becomes broody because nature prompts her with a sudden desire for a brood of chicks. She probably does not know why she does it, as she will take to potatoes of door knobs as kindly as to eggs, but she sets when the time comes just the same, and she will keep on setting until you break her up or let her hatch out a brood of chicks. This pertinacity would not be so important if it were not for the fact that she quits laying and stays quit. She has decided upon a vacation and she refuses to work during this period. The loss of a couple of months of a hen's time is not to be thought of at any period, and especially during the spring, which is the natural time for setting and heaviest egg production as well. If we do not wish to set the hen on eggs we will have to adopt strenuous means to dissuade her from her purpose and start her to laying again. There are a number of successful ways of doing this, and conditions will indicate the most favorable. The main thing is to act promptly and be thorough. Remove the broody hens from the nests each night, as they are most easily detected then. They stick to the nest instead of going to roost. Dust 213 BREAKING UP SETTING HENS them thoroughly with insect powder and confine them in an open slat crate or cage in a cool, light location. Keep water before them and give nothing to eat except a little whole wheat and green stuff once a day. This will not hurt the hen and about three days of this "water cure" will convince her of the error of her ways. Another good way is to have a separate pen with absolutely bare floor and walls, and no possible place to nest, and place all of the broody hens in it, in the company of two or three vigorous male birds. This scheme is frequently used on large poultry farms. The heavier breeds are especially addicted to broodiness, the Asiatics being the worst offenders and the Plymouth Rocks and R. I. Reds leading in the American class. Leghorns and Minorcas and Hamburgs set so rarely that they cannot be depended on to raise their young. For this reason the Leg- horns are the most popular breed for large egg farms, as they waste no time setting and the young are easily raised artificially. 214 Protecting Chicks Against Enemies If all of the baby chicks which are hatched this year could be grown to maturity without loss, this country would possess three times as much poultry next fall as it ever had before. Ignoring the loss of chicks in the shell before they are hatched, it seems safe to state that not over one chick in five that are hatched ever reaches the killing age. The causes of this tremendous mortality of baby chicks are of many descriptions and it is almost impossible to tell what does carry them off in some instances, as they seem to just naturally die. There are certain enemies of the chicks that are recognized, however, and most of these can be warded off with proper care. Among the recognized enemies, the most easily controlled are the domestic and wild animals which prey upon chickens when the opportunity presents itself, the external parasites which stunt and render the chicks less able to resist disease and exposure, and one or two of the bac- terial diseases which have been studied and con- quered by the medical fraternity. 215 PROTECTING CHICKS AGAINST ENEMIES Of the animals which prey upon baby chicks, the rat is the most destructive. The writer has known of instances where rats have killed several hundred chicks in one brooder house in a single season, and in one particular case a female rat with a nest under an outdoor brooder killed eighty-seven week-old chicks in a single night. When one is planning to go into the chicken business, no matter how small the scale, rats must be taken into consideration. Care must be taken to avoid harboring places for the savage pests and brooders should be so handled that it will be impos- sible for a rat to gain entrance after the brooder has been closed for the night. Chicks with a hen are much safer, but even here the hen coop must not be placed near a building where rats harbor. Cats are exceedingly troublesome in some neighborhoods, and after they once get a taste of young chicken they develop great willingness in securing more of the same diet. Do not locate your brooders or hen coops near high grass or any sort of covert through which a cat can creep upon the unwary chickens. Weasels and skunks make away with great numbers of little chicks each season, and your only protection against them, if they make trouble in 216 PROTECTING CHICKS AGAINST ENEMIES your neighborhood, is to poison or trap them, and protect the chicks at night. Disheartening as it is to have a choice lot of young chickens killed by some "varmint," many poultrymen allow even greater slaughter to go on under their very eyes without realizing what is hap- pening. Body and head lice destroy more chickens every year than do all of the four footed enemies put together. The distressing part of it is that all this trouble could be absolutely overcome by a little preventive care on the part of the poultryman. If the chicks are hatched under a hen the nest should be dusted with lice powder before she is put on it, and she should be dusted three times be- fore the eggs hatch. When she is placed out of doors with the baby chickens she should be dusted at least once a month, the coop should be thor- oughly sprayed or painted with a good lice paint, and the little chicks should be greased about the head, throat and vent with melted lard. If placed in brooders, they will be absolutely free from lice at the start, and if the brooder is kept clean and the chicks are kept entirely away from the older chickens and the places they frequent, there will not be the slightest chance of them getting lousy. The brooder should be thoroughly cleaned and 217 PROTECTING CHICKS AGAINST ENEMIES • disinfected before the chicks are put into it, and it should be disinfected and cleaned at least once a week thereafter. White diarrhoea or chicken cholera may be pre- vented by thoroughly disinfecting the interior of the incubator before putting the eggs into it, and by being careful to use eggs from healthy, vigorous breeding stock. 218 Parasites and Poison Lice and eggs do not go together, but lice and hens are almost inseparable companions. If you want a profitable combination of hens and eggs you must get rid of lice. I have been in some thousands of heri houses in the course of my study of this industry, and to the best of my belief I have never seen a farm flock of hens that was not more or less lousy. This is the reason that the average hen in the United States does not lay enough eggs to pay for her keep, if any one thing may be assigned as the reason. There is no reason why -the city and suburban poultry keeper should have lice on his fowls, and he must get rid of them if he is to be thoroughly successful. Chicken lice are- divided into two groups, head lice and body lice. The former are relatively unimportant, as they do not interfere with grown fowls to any great extent. They are a source of great danger to baby chicks, however, and they infest almost all chicks that come into con- tact with mature fowls, or the places that they frequent. 219 PARASITES AND POISON Head lice attach themselves to the feathers and skin of the head, under the wings, and around the vent of the baby chick. They can only be over- come by first keeping the chicks away from sources of infection, and second, by greasing them thor- oughly with lard when they are first placed with the hen, and keeping careful watch for later infection. Body lice are the great plague of the domestic fowl, and they are even more common than fleas on dogs. These vermin run about on the skin of the chickens, eating the outer layer of the skin, and keeping them constantly irritated. In aggra- vated cases they will even cause the blood to break through the skin. They infect chickens and turkeys more than water fowl, and they never leave the body of the host voluntarily. The price of freedom from lice is eternal vig- ilance. Be sure that any chickens you introduce to your hen house are free from lice. Powder them well with insect powder before turning them loose. Have a dry dust bath in a sunny spot and if the hens do not use it on fair days change the spot, for the only way a chicken has to cleanse itself and smother out the lice is by dusting. Have the interior of the house and the nests whitewashed thoroughly at least twice a year, put- 220 PARASITES AND POISON ting some carbolic acid in the wash. Once every two weeks in winter, and twice a week in hot weather, paint the roosts with a good strong solu- tion of lice paint about two hours before the hens go to roost. Be sure to get it into all of the cracks and crevices. Change the nesting straw at least once a month and use only clean straw. When you change it paint or spray the interior of the nests with the lice paint. Red or spider mites are not lice, but they do just as much, if not more harm. They feed on the fowls' blood at night, sucking it like a mosquito, and in a badly infested house they have actually been known to bleed the hens to the point of exhaustion and subsequent death. Fortunately they are easily controlled and by the same methods that are used to kill lice. Be sure that the roosts and nests are kept clean and disinfected with lice paint. Do it as thoroughly as one would for bed- bugs in the home and you will soon get rid of the mites. These miserable little pests live on the perches and walls of the hen house, and about the nests. They avoid the light during the day time and some- times are present in large numbers without being 221 PARASITES AND POISON detected. Take no chances, but keep the roosts saturated with lice paint, and if possible have the roosts supported away from the walls so that they cannot hide between the end of the roost and the walls. For those who can afford the investment, there are a multitude of vermin-proof poultry house ap- pliances. These range from medicated nest eggs which are supposed to fumigate the hen every time she lays, up to galvanized iron houses which can be smoked out by a medicated smudge. There are roost brackets which have cups of oil or lice paint entirely surrounding them, to prevent the mites from crawling up onto the roosts. But be the method what you wish, you must keep your poultry reasonably free from vermin or they will turn your profits into losses. 222 Where Did the Chickens Come From? Did you ever wonder where all of the different kinds of chickens came from and what makes them different? The various authoritative bodies in the world, having to do with chickens, recognize some- thing over a hundred distinct varieties, which breed sufficiently true to type to be entitled to recogni- tion as such. The fanciers, those enthusiasts who sell ordinary two legged be feathered chickens for as much as a six cylinder car will bring, say that "shape makes the breed and color the variety." Thus we have Buff, White, Barred, Columbian, Partridge, and Golden Plymouth Rocks. All are required to have the same identical shape, together with the distinc- tive color that marks the variety. To tell the inside truth, practically no two of these varieties of Rocks are any closer related than you and I are, the only two of true consanguinity being the Barred and the White. The rest of them are the result of experiments and crosses of other established types. Nowhere has the work of man achieved more startling results in effecting changes in animal 223 WHERE DID THE CHICKENS COME FROM? characteristics than in the poultry field. So far as history shows, all of our domestic chickens are descended from the wild Indian jungle fowl (Gallus Bankiva). Some of the learned profes- sion dispute the exact species that was the original fount of fresh eggs. Regardless of which jungle fowl they all come from, one of them is guilty. These interesting little chickens still exist in large numbers in their native land and they look almost exactly like so many Brown Leghorns, being slightly smaller in size. The funny thing about the whole argument is that while this seems to be the only possible source of supply, yet it is practically impos- sible to cross the domestic fowl with its aboriginal ancestor, either in confinement or running at large. From this original stock has been produced the mighty Brahma, which can stand on the ground and eat off the top of a barrel, and at the other end we find Bantams almost small enough to crawl in through the bung hole. In between the two come an assortment of shapes, colors, sizes, combs, etc., that almost defy classification. The mammoth Cochins have been bred by monks in the interior of China for so long that they have outlived record of the start. 224 WHERE DID THE CHICKENS COME FROM? Silver Spangled Hamburgs are the favorite of the Dutch, who call them "Every Day Layers." Leg- horns came originally from the Italian city of that name, but have been developed almost entirely out- side of their native land and it is nearly impossible to find one true to type in Italy. They are still called Italian fowl in many European countries, and they are similar to the people who first bred them — in that they mature early and raise large families. The pure colors in pure bred fowls are white, black, buff and the blue of the Anconas. The recognized color markings are partridge, spangled, barred arid laced. Inasmuch as these markings come in all sorts of colors and tones a great variety of changes is possible, to say nothing of making mixtures of the various solid colored feathers on the same fowl. After the breeders go as far as they can in creat- ing new breeds by varying the color scheme they begin to vary the combs, wattles, feathers on the legs, tufts on the top of the head, and they have even produced distinct varieties having no tail or with feathers all curled, or without any web to the feathers, the whole covering being a silky mass. 225 White Chickens The three solid or self colored types of domestic fowls are the White, Black and Buff. The scientific men tell us that white is not a color. It is the result of a total absence of all color, a color vacuum, as it were. These wise men also tell us that the white chicken is not a natural product but is a sport, a kind of a joke on the old folks. . The father and mother of all .. our domestic breeds of chickens belonged to one of the two or three pure breeds of original jungle fowl. These old time antediluvial paleolithic, or is it neolithic, chickens lived and still do live a lively life in equatorial jungles. Crossing of the wild birds and changes in their environment as they were carried north by the early migrations of the human tribes, caused changes to occur in the size and color of some of the young chickens. These different colored and shaped chickens were preserved as curiosities by the owners and by degrees a great number of dis- tinct types of domestic fowl were created. Spotted, barred, striped and variegated colors were produced quite early and the first of the solid 226 WHITE CHICKENS colors produced was undoubtedly the black, early black breeds being the Black Spanish, Minorca and Java. From the crossing of the Black Java and the old time Dominick came the barred Plymouth Rock and one of the very first white chickens known was a White Plymouth Rock, an unexpected product from the mating of two pure bred Barred Plym- outh Rocks. This white fowl produced a few others when mated with very light colored Barred Rocks and in this manner one of the most popular of our white varieties had its origin. Many of the other white varieties were created by crossing White Rocks upon other colored breeds and then crossing the offspring with the White Rock again. The second generation was largely white and the form of the colored breed was recovered by rigid selection. Among our more prominent white varieties today we number Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Games, Minorcas, Bantams, Polish, Frizzles, Silkies and Langshans. The whites are quite easy to breed true to color and they enjoy great popularity with both practical poultrymen and fanciers. 227 Black Chickens White is the absence of all color and black is the combination of all colors. At least that is what the artists tell us. But it would not be advisable for you to try to create a new breed of black chickens by crossing several breeds of various colors together because you probably would fail. Black chickens have always enjoyed more or less popularity with the fanciers, but they have never been taken up by the rank and file of poultry keepers to any great extent. This is probably due to the fact that the black varieties are quite hard to breed true to color, and there is something funereal in the color that does not appeal to the general public. One of the earliest of the true black breeds to be recognized was the Black Java, the female progenitor of the popular Barred Plymouth Rock. This old fashioned black breed presumably came' from the Island of Java and enjoyed considerable popularity in the eastern states before the Civil War days, but it was almost swept out of existence by 228 BLACK CHICKENS the flood of Barred Rocks that spread over the country shortly after the creation of this breed. Another of the early black breeds was the Black Minorca, from the island of that name. This breed is still quite widely bred and is much more popular than its white sister, but it is not destined for a very great future, because it has no advantages over the Leghorn and the latter has the backing of a very much larger and more influential body of admirers. The Black Minorca will always have its place, how- ever, and as a large bodied heavy layer of the largest white eggs produced, it merits attention. No one can tell just when and where the Black Langshan and the Black Cochin were first developed, as both came from the interior of China, where they had been bred pure by the monks for generations. The Langshan is the largest of the black breeds and was at the height of its popularity shortly after the war. Since then it has gradually declined in numbers, although recently it has been undergoing a little boom which has revived inter- est in this valuable breed. It remained for the Black Orpington to truly demonstrate that a black breed could compete with any other color and hold its own against all comers. This comparatively new breed was brought out in 229 BLACK CHICKENS England by Thomas Cook, the originator of all the Orpingtons, and it is the largest, truest, and pos- sibly the most popular of all of this wonderfully popular family of fowls. The large, chunky body, the short, clean legs, the small comb, rapid growth and early maturity combine to make it as much a farmer's fowl as a fancier's pet, and there seems to be no reason for it ever losing ground. Black Wyandottes can never overcome v the lead of the Orpington, and Black Leghorns have never been popular. The purely fancy breeds, like White- Crested Black Polish, Houdans, etc., have a small field among those who breed chickens purely for the pleasure they derive from this national pastime. One advantage of breeding black fowls for show purposes is that ostensibly it is not necessary to use the double mating system in order to secure males and females of the same shade of color, but you will find that most of the successful showmen use double mating even with solid colored varieties, like the blacks, as certain birds are much better pullet breeders than cockerel breeders, and vice versa. Double mating is also used to get the correct shape in the self colored breeds. In breeding black fowls there are serious prob- lems entirely aside from those of shape and size, 230 BLACK CHICKENS that make the game well worth the trouble for the true poultryman. Years of effort may do away with white and red feathers in your strain, but he who can get a dead black color without purple bars upon the surface of the plumage is indeed a past master. If you once achieve this victory let me caution you never to introduce a male bird into your flock from any outside source. When you need new blood always buy a female and use one of her cockerels the next year. 231 Buff Chickens The Buff breeds of fowls are equally popular with the Blacks, but much less so than the Whites. The earliest Buff chickens of which we have any record are the Buff Cochins. These heavily upholstered members of the well known Hen Family were introduced into this country from China ports by some sea captain who was in the China trade in the old days of the Yankee clipper ships. Tradition says that they were well and favorably known in China and Manchuria for cen- turies before and the pair which were brought to this country were saved from the pot only by chance. The breed achieved considerable popularity along the New England coast and would undoubtedly hold a very commanding position in the poultry world today were it not for their friends. Early in the American history of the breed, cer- tain misguided Cochin fanciers conceived the idea that "if clothes make the man, feathers make the chicken," and that was the beginning of the end for the unfortunate Buff Cochin. These enthusiasts so 232 BUFF CHICKENS arranged the standard description of these fowls that it was necessary to produce a tremendous growth of feathers upon show specimens in order to win prizes, and the result was that the breed was changed in its character, the young ones took almost a year to mature to the laying age, laying ability was very seriously interfered with, and the utilitarian value of the breed for the farmer was entirely destroyed. From this original buff breed came a great many of the valuable Buffs that we now have, however, so they have been of some service to the poultry- keeping public. It is an undoubted fact that Cochin blood was used in the development of some strains of Buff Wyandottes, Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, Games, Leghorns, and even the Rhode Island Red contains its quota of Cochin blood. The cham- pions of many of these breeds will indignantly deny this imputation, but it can and has been proved in the case of each of the Buff breeds named, and really it is nothing to be ashamed of. Buff, as understood by the poultryman, is a solid old gold tone, which is to be aimed at but never quite reached. In reality most buff chickens are a wonderfully discouraging mixture of lemon, orange, red, black and white, these colors being so 233 BUFF CHICKENS tangled up that the breeder despairs of ever getting them straightened out. The red shows on the shoulders and the hackle and saddle. The white comes in the wing and tail feathers, and it is some- times so bad that there is no hope of dyeing it or biting the white spots out so the judge cannot detect it. The black comes in the wings most fre- quently, and its removal is often so impossible that the breeders have to arrange their standard descrip- tion to make black flight feathers legal and desirable, in order to avoid having all of the birds disqualified. Owing to that old Cochin blood, the breeder of Buff fowls has a fine time preventing his smooth legged breed from growing feathers on the legs. The Cochin has as many feathers on his legs and feet as a pigeon has in his wings, and they keep cropping out in any breed that possesses Cochin progenitors. Another thing that bothers the Buff fanciers is the vulture hock of the Cochin. At the hock or knee joint will appear a bunch of long stiff feathers that is not accepted in polite chicken society, and this is one of the things that makes the Buff breeders of today abuse the memories of the man who first thought of using Buff Cochins to make Buff Wyandottes. 234 Garden Planting Calendar ASPARAGUS — Put in the plants as early as possible, trenching deeply with well-rotted manure, covered with rich soil. Plant four inches deep, one foot apart, rows three feet apart. BEAN'S — STRING can go into the ground about May ist, or with the coming of settled weather. Light, dry, warm soil. Plant £4 inch apart, J4 inch deep, rows 18 inches. WAX BEANS— May be planted in the same way and about ten days later. Make successive plantings of both at intervals of ten days. POLE AND LIMA BEANS — Plant four feet apart, rows four feet apart, J4 inch deep. Plant same in the latter part of May. BEETS — Early varieties may be planted before April 15th, if soil is ready, three to six inches apart, J^ inch deep, rows eighteen inches. Thin out later on. Plant every two weeks for four plantings. Plant early crops thicker than later ones, to overcome poor germination. CABBAGE — Early cabbage about the middle of April to the ist of May. Late cabbage the last part of May. Cut back leaves of late cabbage when transplanting. Set plants in rich earth, iy 2 feet apart, rows 2 feet apart. CARROTS — Start as soon as soil is ready, make very fine seed bed, sow two inches apart, J4 inch deep, rows 15 inches apart. 235 GARDEN PLANTING CALENDAR CAULIFLOWER — Set out when warm weather is as- sured, making three plantings at two week intervals, the last one a good fall variety like "Dry Weather." Plant two feet apart, rows two feet apart. Have a rich soil and water plants while heads are .forming. CELERY — Plant in seed bed early. Thin out and trans- plant to trenches when six inches high. Plant seed two inches apart, J^ inch deep, rows one foot apart. CORN — Three plantings at ten-day intervals from May 1st to June ist. Plant in 3-foot hills, 5 seeds to the hill, about 2 inches deep. Place the earliest planting in, a warm, protected location. Plant later seeds 4 inches deep. Thin to 3 plants to a hill and cultivate thor- oughly. CUCUMBERS— May ist to 15th, in well fertilized and drained hills ; 10 seeds to the hill, 1 inch deep. Hills 4 feet apart. Thin out after danger of bugs is past. EGG-PLANT— In late May or early June. Very rich ground, water in dry weather. Set plants two feet apart. LETTUCE — Plant as soon as the ground is ready; plant in short rows and at intervals of ten days thereafter to get a constant supply. Sow thickly in very fine seed bed, J4 i ncn deep, rows 15 inches apart. HEAD LET- TUCE may be set out at the same time, about a foot apart, but must be protected for a few days. Shade late plantings in hot, dry weather. MELON (MUSK)— Plant late in May in rich, light hills, well drained and well fertilized; 10 seeds to the hill, 1 inch deep, hills 6 feet apart. Protect from bugs and 236 GARDEN PLANTING CALENDAR thin out when safe. Do not plant near cucumbers, squashes or any other vines. MELON (WATER)— "Coles Early" is a good northern variety. Follow same directions as for musk melons. ONION — Plant onion seeds as early as possible and thin out when necessary, two inches apart, J4 inch deep, rows 15 inches apart. Plant onion sets 4 inches apart about May 1st. Cut tops back 1/3 and roots back 2/3 when setting out. PARSLEY — Plant early, soaking the seed for several hours in lukewarm water. Seeds 4 inches apart, J4 inch deep, rows 1 foot apart. PEAS — First planting an early smooth variety, as soon as ground is ready; follow with wrinkled varieties at 10-day intervals until four or five plantings have been made.' Plant in double rows, 8 inches between rows, and set brush or other supports between them. Plant 4 inches apart, 3 inches deep, with 2 feet between outside rows. PEPPER — Set out about June 1st, in very rich ground. Water during dry weather. Set plants 2 feet apart. POTATOES— Plant early potatoes about May 1st. Late potatoes about June 1st. The early seed should be sprouted two weeks, then cut into pieces with two sprouts or eyes to each piece. Sow four inches deep, 1 foot by 2 feet apart. Late potatoes need not be sprouted. Have seed bed and bottom of furrow fine and loose. Do not let fresh manure touch the seed potatoes. 237 GARDEN PLANTING CALENDAR PUMPKIN — Middle of May. Handle as for cucumbers. Hills 6 feet apart, seed i inch deep. RADISH — Sow early and at io-day intervals up to May 15th. Globe radishes at first, working into long va- rieties later. Seeds 2 inches apart, J4 inch. deep, 1 foot apart. SPINACH — One planting early will furnish a continuous crop of "greens." Use "New Zealand" and plant 8 inches apart, 1 inch deep and rows 18 inches apart. SQUASH — Summer squash is planted about the middle of May and should be treated like cucumbers. Winter squash (Hubbard) should be planted about June 1st and handled in the same way. SWISS CHARD — Handle like spinach, planting about May 1st. Do not cut leaves too close in harvesting. TOMATO — Set out the latter part of May, using good strong plants. Protect from frost and stake up as soon as necessary. Keep suckers trimmed off. Set plants four feet apart in a sunny spot. 238 MAKING THE FARM PAY By C. C. BOWSFIELD This very important book tells how to get the big- gest returns from the soil and make farm life more attractive and successful. Farming opportunities, the marketing of produce, the raising of vegetables, fruit and poultry, dairy products, and all phases of agriculture are discussed by an expert. A book that every city man ought to read and by which every country man would profit. — -New York American. It gets down- to the bed rock of farming. — Boston Ad- vertiser. The book is packed with new, practical, money-making ideas. — St. Louis Times. Of immense value to a farmer in any part of America. —Portland (Ore.) Journal. Important and helpful to city man and farmer alike. A splendid guide for any adventure in farming enterprise. — Philadelphia North American. Full of sensible advice. The author avoids exaggeration and shows he has given the subject his best thought. The book is cheap only in price — in that it certainly is cheap. — Jacksonville, Fla., Times Union. An important, practical book, treating the subject with great care. — Boston Transcript. An admirable text-book because it is the farmer's best friend. It will make any farmer make his farm pay. — The Journal of Education, Boston. Full of useful information, with every phase of farming dis- cussed with commendable clearness. — Mail and Empire, Toronto. An immense amount of information for those who intend to take up farming as well as for the farmer. — The American Cultivator, Boston. 300 Pages. Cloth. 12 Mo. $1.00 Net; by Mail, $1.13 For sale by all booksellers or supplied by the publishers Forbes & Co., 443 S. Dearborn St., Chicago SUCCESS WITH HENS BY ROBERT JOOS A complete guide to poultry raising that thoroughly covers the subject by an expert. It is clear, practical and up to date. The fifty-five chapters give full directions for the hatching and brooding of chickens, incubation, feed- ing and housing, increasing the egg supply, cure of diseases, the marketing of eggs and fowls and every- thing pertaining to the care of hens. Nothing is given but the best methods and only those which have been proved by the experience of successful poultry keepers. The small and large poultryman, the beginner and the experienced, will find this book indispensable. It will reduce losses and increase profits. SOME OF THE CHAPTERS Profit and Pleasure with Poultry- Method to Be Used" Starting in Spring Starting in Fall Early Hatching Early Fertility Late Hatching Convenient Equipment Artificial Incubation Development of 'Chicks Feeding the Growing Stock Building Up a Laying Strain Winter Egg Production Why Hens Don't Lay Marketing and Grading Eggs Fattening — Killing — Marketing Causes of Disease Attractively Bound in Cloth 12 Mo. $1.00 Net; by Mail, $1.13 For sale by all booksellers or supplied by the publishers Forbes & Co., 443 S. Dearborn St., Chicago