Show BACK YARD FARMER In interesting teresing pointers on an gardening for the city man or suburbanite WHAT TO PLANT AND WHEN advice by an expert on an agricultural matters care of the garden Ft raising alsing sweet peas hot weather pointers by PROF JOHN WILLARD BOLTE every roan man with available land should make some borne kind of 0 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 vegetable 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 melloyd earth turned over from its winters rest and the little delicate seedlings following the warm rains the first crops small things like radishes radl shea and lettuce 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 providers and certainly unhandsome to view this unthrifty summer condition knocks out 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 jf it the gardener will use his head as much as an 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 bo be necessary to water the garden it if the soil Is in proper condition to hold the natural rainfall it needs to be plowed deeply cultivated finely firmed down well to make capillary connection between tile the soil water below and the plant roots above and then the surface must be hoed and hoed and hoed never let up an on the hoeing A single weed will evaporate many times its own weight in valuable soil water every day if you permit tho the top soil to bake or a crust to form direct means Is established for the tha soil water to evaporate and it will leave tl the to soil as aa rapidly as it would f n open dish and possibly more r rap apin edily 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 next fertility A garden must contain plant food and the best plant food la Is rotten vegetable matter make a compost heap in some out of tho the way corner or in a large box here throw your stable manure grabs clip j pings leaves waster waste vegetables hen manure in fact fac t anything that will rot keep it moist and keep flies away from it grass sod Is an excellent foundation for a compost 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 BOJI 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 it you wish to brace up weak plants and force them this summer fill a barrel halt 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 |