OCR Text |
Show BACK YARDJARMER Interesting Pointers on Gardening Garden-ing for the City Man or Suburbanite. WHAT TO PLANT AND WHEN Advice by an Expert on Agricultural Matters Making a Good Lawn Rules for Feeding Horses Growing Blackberries. By PROF. JOHN WILLARD BOLTE. The custom of covering the ground about our homes with a grass sod or lawn is a very old one. Lawns are mentioned in one way or other in the histories of practically every nation with which we are familiar. In early days they were used only by the mighty in the land, the reigning families fam-ilies and the nobility, principally because be-cause no one else possessed sufficient land to grow grass or anything else on. Probably these lawns were rather rough in contour, and we imagine that they were not of very great extent, as they had to be clipped by means of sickles or hand shears.' Later on in England and France it became customary custom-ary to pasture a floCk of sheep on the lawns and park grounds about the country homes, and this charming pastoral pas-toral custom still maintains in many places. Quite a number Qf our city parks and clubs in this country follow this practice to advantage. The sheep eat the herbage close to the ground, and they clean up grass and weeds alike. Their droppings enrich en-rich the soil, they are not heavy enough to cut up or pack the surfafce, and their appearance and associations' cannot but give keen enjoyment to all lovers of nature. If your grass stand is thin, patchy or weedy, it will be a good plan to sow some grass seed on the moist ground as early as possible, having first raked it over and scratched up the surface. Sow the seed broadcast and sow it thickly. A good commer cial fertilizer sown at this time will help the old sod and the new seedlings. seed-lings. It is not advisable to use barnyard barn-yard manure in the spring under most circumstances, but it will have an excellent ex-cellent effect on any lawn if spread on thickly in the fall. When this . has been done, rake it off as early as possible pos-sible in the spring and sow your grass seed over the bare spots as soon as the manure has been raked off. Horse manure is better than cow manure for almost any garden or lawn purposes, pur-poses, because it is lighter and more porous, warms up quicker and its fertilizing fer-tilizing elements are much more quickly available. Be careful about the sources from which you secure manure, ma-nure, as it may contain live weed seeds which will take possession of your, lawn in a very short time. It is an excellent plan to roll the lawn thoroughly thor-oughly from time to time, while it is in a reasonably moist condition. The rough places will be leveled, the whole sod will be smoothed, and better connection con-nection will be formed between the sod and the water contained in the subsoil. As soon as the snow Is gone and the sod is firm enough to walk on, it should be raked thoroughly with an iron rake, to remove the dead grass and leaves from the roots of the grass. Be careful not to drive or walk on the lawn at any time when it is soft enough to show the tracks, as an irreparable ir-reparable amount of damage can be done in this way. The grass should not be cut until It has secured a good lush growth, but after the first cutting and throughout the spring months, it should be kept trimmed short and the clippings should be caught in a carrier of your mower, so as to prevent them from covering up the growing grass. After the weather becomes hot, and particularly particular-ly if it is dry, it Is not well to cut the lawn so often, as the sun is liable to kill the roots if they are too much exposed. ex-posed. "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: "Horse Feeding Rules." 1. Do not feed too much or too little. lit-tle. Feed just enough to hold the animal's ani-mal's weight while doing his work properly. For a 1,000-pound horse on full work a normal ration is 10 pounds of timothy or mixed hay and 12 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. Walt half an tour, feeding a little hay. When horse Is too warm for water he Is too warm for grain. 4. Water before feeding, except a little hay while cooling off. If you water wa-ter 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 or a while afterward. Water Wa-ter 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 be-fore the grain. The horse eats it slower and it aids digestion by separating sep-arating the grain instead of its forming form-ing a compact mass which the stomach stom-ach juices cannot work on well. 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 trou-bles and aggravate eye infections. 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. disor-ders. 9. A warm bran mash with a handful hand-ful of salt in it is an excellent feed for Saturday night. It loosens the bowels, prevents colic and azoturla, 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. 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 cut-tings 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 comparatively short time, hence do not plant too thickly. Blackberries will grow In almost any soil, but It must not be too dry a location, as they require a good deal of water or the fruit will be dry and pithy. They seem to do better in a mod- , erately good soil than in a very rich one, as excessive feeding produces Btalks and leaves instead of fruit. The seed bed should be well prepared pre-pared and leveled before putting In the cuttings. In setting, be sure to get the earth firm about the cuttlng3, and water occasionally during the first month. Blackberries will need some cultivation, cultiva-tion, particularly during the first year. A good plan is to grow low garden crops between the rows and give them ordinary vegetable cultivation. cultiva-tion. This will make the ground yield two crops for one cultivation. Do not allow the berry rows to spread more than two feet wide. They will form a solid mass unless kept down between the rows. Prune in the fall or winter by removing re-moving 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 are 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 bear-ing varieties like Early Harvest and Snyder do excellently In northern latitudes lat-itudes as well as in the south. Eldorado El-dorado is an old standby with small fruit farmers and it is not subject to the parasitic disease known as blackberry black-berry 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. cor-dial. 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 pick-ing running about $50 per acre. This offers an excellent proposition to the suburbanite with a few acres. |