■,-^ly. ■■ \zlili~z[lil-] ;:;; J:: :i ;:::;-. : EJ.l^i*i^gliii: Itliil^^ltgwMI Class O tj f r-\ Book Fa Fj CL^ GopyrightN^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv THE COUNTRY HOME THE COUNTRY HOME MONTH BY MONTH A Guide to Country Living BY EDWARD IRVING f ARRINGTON For seven years editor of "Suburban Life," Author of "The Home Poultry Book," Practical Garden Maker, Bee Keeper and Poultry Raiser, Etc. A daily reminder of duties to be performed, together with detailed and accurate directions for carrying out the various operations. All the activities of the country home and farm competently covered, with due regard for geograph- ical and climatic conditions. ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS t CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE, Inc., PUBLISHERS Copyright igi^ By Laird & Lee, Inc. MAR 29 1915 ICI.A397323 ),^ FOREWORD WITH painful recollections of the many occasions on which the author has remembered things to be done just too late to do them, this book has been written with an intent to help others in doing the right things at the right time. Duties crowd so hard in the country, especially in Spring and Summer, that many of them are inevitably over- looked, unless one has a working memorandum at his elbow. This volume is designed as a ready-made memorandum book for ready reference each month of the twelve. Yet it is more than merely a monthly reminder, for detailed and, let us trust, accurate directions for carrying out the more important opera- tions, are given. It is not claimed that the author has actually participated in all the activities described, for they cover a very wide range; yet much of the book is based on personal experience and the best authorities have been drawn upon for the rest, with due allowance for geographical and climatic conditions. Now, therefore, the book is sent on its way in the sincere hope that it will prove a reliable guide post to those who tread the pleasant paths of country living, and in the belief that, at least, it will not lead anyone astray. E. I. F. [v] CONTENTS PAGE APPENDIX . 223 JANUARY II Outdoor Work of the Month 13 Greenhouse and Window Garden 15 Stable and Livestock 16 An Important Poultry Month 18 FEBRUARY 25 Midwinter Pruning 25 Greenhouse and Window Garden 31 Stable and Livestock 33 In the Poultry Yard 35 MARCH 43 Greenhouse and Window Garden 49 Outdoor Garden Work 50 Stable and Livestock 56 A Busy Month for the Poultryman 58 APRII 65 Around the Grounds 66 In the Vegetable Garden 67 In the Flower Garden 70 Orchard and Fruit Garden 72 Greenhouse and Window Garden ']'] April Poultry Work 79 Livestock and Bees 84 MAY 89 In the Flower Garden 90 The Vegetable Garden 94 Livestock and Poultry 98 The Month's Work with Bees loi [vi] CONTENTS vii PAGE JUNE 107 Orchard and Small Fruits iii In the Flower Garden 114 In the Vegetable Garden 115 Livestock and Poultry 118 Work with the Bees 120 JULY 125 Orchard and Fruit Garden 129 In the Flower Garden 130 Work in the Vegetable Garden 133 Greenhouse and Window Garden 135 Stable and Livestock 136 In the Poultry Yard 139 Work with the Bees 142 AUGUST 147 Orchard and Small Fruits 148 Work in the Flower Garden 149 In the Fruit Garden 152 In the Vegetable Garden 152 The Month's Work in the Greenhouse 154 Livestock and Stable 155 In the Poultry Yard 155 SEPTEMBER " 163 Table of Perennials 165 In the Vegetable Garden 171 Greenhouse and Window Garden 172 General Farm Work 173 Work in the Orchard 174 Work in the South 175 Stable and Livestock 175 In the Poultry Yard 176 In the Apiary 177 OCTOBER 181 Work in the Flower Garden 183 Greenhouse and Window Garden 184 viii CONTENTS PAGE Work in the Fruit Garden 185 General Farm Work 187 Stable and Livestock 188 In the Poultry Yard 189 Bee Work 192 NOVEMBER 197 Greenhouse and Window Garden 203 Stable and Livestock 206 In the Poultry Yard 207 DECEMBER 211 Greenhouse and Window Garden 213 Livestock and Stable 217 Poultry Work 219 APPENDIX Experiment Stations 223 Period of Gestation-Animals 224 Incubation Period 224 Standard Weights of Poultry 224 Cornell Ration for Egg-Production 225 Planting Tables for Flowers and Vegetables Op. 226 Distance Table for Vegetables 226 Plants Required to Set an Acre at Various Distances .... 226 Seed Tables — Quantities to Acre 227 Time Required for Garden Seeds to Germinate 228 Weight and Size of Garden Seeds 228 Maturity Table for Vegetables 229 Analyses — Fruits and Fruit-Plants 229 Analyses of Materials Used for Fertilizer 230 Weights and Measures Used in the U. S 230 Spraying Calendar . 232 J AN U ART Piped a tiny voice hard by. Gay and polite, a cheerful cry, Chic-chic-a-dee-dee — Happy to meet you in these places. Where January brings new faces. THE COUNTRY HOME JANUARY JANUARY is the planning month, the catalogue month, the month for plotting the garden, sharpening the tools, making repairs, the month for reading a few good books on country living. There is no time for idling, even in January. It is undeniable, of course, that there is little work to do out of doors. Yet the evergreens must be kept free of snow and ice, in order that they may not break down. The stock must be given an airing and on warm days there are always little out- side jobs — suckers to clean off the apple trees, litter to burn, walks to clear, as much open-air exercise as a man needs to send the blood coursing through his veins. It is really important to make up the order for seeds and plants early. When the season is well advanced the seedsmen and nurseries will be swamped with business, there will be more delay and the likelihood of mistakes will be multiplied. It pays to make a diagram at the same time — not a little dia- gram in your notebook, but a large, workable diagram on a sheet of wrapping paper. Spread it on the floor, if you have [II] 12 THE COUNTRY HOME to, but draw the diagram to scale. Then draw a line for each crop and write the name against it. Put berries, rhubarb and asparagus where they will be out of the way. Plot your corn and other tall vegetables so that they will not shade the low- growing kinds. Use a planting table and plan a succession of short season crops, in order that you may make the most of all the garden. To paraphrase a shopworn saying, the way to have a good garden is to mix system with your fertilizer. January is none too early to order hotbed sash. The cheapest plan is to buy unpainted and unglazed sash and to order the glass by the box, setting it yourself. Photographic plates which have been discarded may be used to advantage. The emulsion is easily removed with hot water and a putty knife. Although costing more, the double glass sash are certainly preferable to the more common kind, as no mats or shutters are needed, even in the dead of Winter. They are heavy, though, and it is well for women, at least, to order what are termed "pony" sash. They are just half the size of the regu- lation 3x6 sash and much easier to handle. Painting the garden tools is a piece of work which may well be undertaken in January. A red or white band around the handles of the smaller tools will make finding them much easier, if they are mislaid in the garden or dropped in the grass. Also, tools marked in this fashion are more certain to be re- JANUARY 1 3 turned when borrowed. In some neighborhoods the borrowing habit becomes a nuisance, and good gardeners make it a point to place their initials on all their tools. It is easy to make a little tin stencil and to burn the letters into the wood with a hot poker. Another plan is to clean a small spot on the metal and cover it with wax, in which the initials are made with a nail, the letters then being filled with nitric acid. It pays to have racks or hooks for all the garden tools and to put them where they belong after they have been used. Many a weary search is avoided when this practice is adhered to. OUTDOOR WORK OF THE MONTH Grapes and other small fruits may be pruned this month in all parts of the country. Many amateurs neglect their grape- vines because they do not know just how to trim them. The advanced methods of the professional grower may not be adopted, but in order to get satisfactory results the vines should be cut back each season. Let it be remembered that grapes bear on wood of the present season, which grows from canes of the previous season. Each year several of the best canes should be selected and cut back to three eyes, the rest of the wood being cut away. The crop will be borne on canes from those eyes. When the vines are trained over an arbor or pergola, it is proper to let the main stalk or trunk grow until it reaches the 14 THE COUNTRY HOME top, but the canes which shoot from it should be cut back to the three-eye limit each Winter. Then the vine will bear an abun- dance of fruit while also providing the desired shade. With a very little work, a number of grapevines may be kept in excel- lent bearing condition. The grape is a crop which the amateur may be practically sure of after the third year. Raspberries and blackberries bear on last year's wood and a good January job is cutting away the old canes. This not only opens up the plants, but also gets rid of insect pests and fungi which may have found lodgment on them. Three to six new canes should have been grown in each hill. Currants may also be trimmed this month, but it must be remembered that they bear mostly on wood which is two years old or older. After bearing a few years the old wood should be taken out, while two or three new shoots should be allowed to grow from the roots each season. Surplus shoots should also be removed. Gooseberries are to be trimmed in the same way. This is the best month for getting in the ice crop, as a rule. Even when there is no river, creek or pond convenient, it still is possible to harvest a considerable amount of ice. Plank molds 24 inches long, 18 inches wide and a foot deep may be used, being filled with water when a cold snap comes on. When the water has frozen solid, the ice may be removed from the molds by turning the latter over and pouring hot water on them. JANUARY 15 GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW GARDEN In the greenhouse, lettuce, radishes and spinach may be sown. They will be ready for the table in February. Seeds of Prizetaker onions for growing in the open ground may be started the latter part of the month. Greenhouse plants to start from seed this month include the begonias, asparagus plumosa, asparagus sprengeri, Gre- villea robusta, Dracaena and smilax. Bougainvillea plants may now be bought for forcing. They are extremely handsome and can be flowered in about two months. Gladioli bulbs may be forced in the greenhouse or the window garden. Forcing bulbs should be specified in the order. The Christmas poinsettia should be stored until May after it has finished flowering and should be allowed to remain per- fectly dr)^ A good place for it is under the bench or in a warm room. In May cuttings may be started for new plants. Hyacinths, tulips and other bulbs should be brought into heat in order to have a succession of blossoms in the house. Proserpine, Cottage Maid, Yellow Prince and La Reine are good tulips for starting early in the month. Other single varie- ties may be started the last week, but the double tulips can not be forced successfully until the latter part of February. Most of the other bulbs, except such as will be named later for Christmas forcing, may be started after the first of January. |6 THE COUNTRY HOME None of them should be brought into heat, however, until strong root growth has been made. STABLE AND LIVESTOCK It is important to keep the horses and cattle warm, but just as important to give them fresh air in plenty. In some instances muslin has been substituted for glass in a few of the windows and the results have been as satisfactory as when muslin has been used in the poultry house. In a cold barn, the cows may be blanketed. The cows should be turned out for an hour, even in cold weather, unless a storm is raging. Good care does not mean depriving them of exercise. This applies particularly to cows about to calve. Both cows and horses need an abundance of bedding. Bed- ding keeps them comfortable and keeps them clean. The cows require grooming as well as the horses. Both must have salt, also. There are devices on sale, by means of which a cake of salt may be attached to the side of the stall or manger and kept clean. It is important that the horse be sharp shod before he is taken out on icy roads. Neglect of this precaution may result in a bad accident or a lamed horse. It is humane to warm the bits by holding them in the hands a few moments before they are slipped into the horse's mouth. JANUARY 1 7 Torture follows the touch of a moist tongue to a frosty bit. Any man is at liberty to try the experiment for himself. Rest- lessness on the part of a horse may be explained if his teeth are examined. When a horse comes in from a drive over muddy roads, the legs and hoofs should be carefully cleaned. If the horse is sweaty a light blanket should be thrown over the animal and left a short time to absorb the moisture. Then a heavier and warmer blanket may be substituted. An abundance of light in the barn is essential. Most animals respond to the influence of sunlight. A light barn, too, is more likely to be a clean barn than one that is shrouded in semi-darkness. A little whitewash will go a long way. All the manure should be saved with care. It is equivalent to cash. Plenty of bedding helps to conserve it and adds humus. Many good farmers have tanks into which the liquid manure is drained. No good farmers have a manure pile where the rain is going to wash away much of its substance. If there is no manure shelter, it is well to haul the manure directly to the fields as fast as made. In fact, the plan is a good one, any- way, unless the land is hilly and so likely to wash badly. The pigs need to be kept warm and growing. It pays to cook the feed. The pigs will respond by making extra rapid growth, if they have comfortable quarters. They need charcoal. 18 THE COUNTRY HOME AN IMPORTANT POULTRY MONTH Particular attention is needed by the poultry this month. The days are short and the birds should be kept exercising most of the time they are off the roosts. This is accomplished by feeding them hard grain in a litter from five to ten inches deep. Straw makes the best litter, but leaves will answer, although they need to be renewed frequently, for they are quickly broken up. If the weather is very cold, it may be necessary to fill the water dishes several times a day. The inexpensive fountains fitted with tiny lamps are an advantage, for the water in them will not freeze. The lamps will run several days without being filled. It is well to have burlap curtains in front of the perches for use on excessively cold nights. They may be made to slide on a wire or may be tacked to hinged frames. They should be reserved for exceptionally cold nights only. In ordinary weather the hens are better off without them. The droppings need not be cleaned from the dropping boards so long as they are frozen, for no odor arises from them then. Care should be taken to get them out as soon as they thaw. Many poultry keepers are now getting rid of their dropping boards and of a lot of work at the same time. They simply stand a single board on edge on the floor a little in JANUARY 19 advance of the perches, and the droppings are confined to that space, falling into a thick covering of litter. Cleaning out once a month is then sufficient. There are several advantages and few disadvantages to this plan. It is really more sanitary than the use of the dropping boards, for the manure is much farther away from the birds. If the supply of vegetables has given out, dried beet pulp may be substituted. It comes from the beet sugar factories and the grain dealers sell it. The price is low and it is used by many commercial poultry keepers. In appearance it is much like some of the prepared breakfast foods, but when soaked for a few minutes in hot water it swells and gives off a strong beet odor. If the hens do not seem to relish it at first, being new, a little grain and beef scrap may be mixed with it. Then they are pretty certain to eat it readily. This is the month for making up breeding pens. It is a wise plan to mate cockerels with hens which are one or two years older. If one is keeping poultry for the eggs they yield, he should choose the hens which were the earliest to lay. No difficulty in identifying them will be found if they are marked by the method which will be explained in the program for November. Some poultry keepers mate pullets with cocks one, two or three years older, but this plan has one disadvantage. If the pullets have been laying well all Winter, they will not be in 20 THE COUNTRY HOME the best condition to produce strong, rugged chickens, and if they have not been laying well, they are not suitable birds to breed from anyway. When the heavy laying pullets of one year are kept over and not forced for laying, the second season, they are well equipped to give rugged chicks and to pass along the egg-laying tendency. One point in making up breeding pens must be remembered — the male should have come from an egg laid by a heavy- laying hen. It has been shown that the male has a very strong influence in building up a strain of good laying birds. While this plan of making up breeding pens is commonly adopted, yet on some extensive plants old cocks are placed with the pullets in the laying pens and the eggs used just as they come. On one important plant lOO Leghorn pullets are kept in a flock and cocks are put with them at the rate of one to every twenty-five. The fertility is high, too. Ordinarily, fifteen pullets to a cock is considered a rather large number. With the larger breeds, fewer females are used. When breed- ing pens are used, it is well to have two males, putting them with the hens on alternate days. When birds are being bred for show purposes, the pens are small and the matings are made very carefully in order to secure chickens of desired types. Experience and skill are required when mating fancy stock. In any case, the birds in a breeding pen should be selected and put together three or four weeks before the eggs are to be set. JANUARY 21 If incubators are to be depended upon, a selection should be made at once. These machines entail a considerable invest- ment and should not be purchased without some study of the different types and their characteristics. Many of the state experiment stations are ready to give advice and to make reports on results secured with different machines. At the end of this book is a list of all the state experiment stations, with their locations. FEB RU ART Come now the lengthening days^ With drifting snow and mighty winds; A short month, though, and quickly passed. FEBRUARY WE MIGHT call February the pruning month, for there are many warm days in the average Feb- ruary, when the work of pruning the orchard trees may be undertaken to advantage. Midwinter pruning is often practiced, but it is much better to delay the work until this month. Severe freezing weather kills back the tender bark and the healing of the wounds is retarded. Peach and other fruit tiees easily winter-killed should preferably be left until the buds start, or even until the blossoms have fallen, in order that the full extent of the damage done by Jack Frost may be ascertained. Perhaps there will be no need of addi- tional cutting back. The proper trimming of trees is a science. Lopping off a branch here and there in the haphazard manner often seen is not pruning at all; it is simply tree butchery. A tree is a living thing. The elimination of a single limb influences the growth of the entire tree. Winter pruning causes an increased growth of wood. Summer pruning adds to the number of fruit buds formed. Young trees are best trimmed a little each season, much of this trimming being merely the rubbing out of buds. Shortening back the branches, the removal of dead wood or [ 25 ] 26 THE COUNTRY HOME broken limbs and the trimming away of suckers will constitute most of the February work in an orchard which has been well cared for. All trees must be kept headed in and the new growth prop- erly directed. The object of pruning should be to keep the head low, in order that the work of spraying the trees and pick- ing the fruit may be made as easy as possible, and open, so that the sunlight may reach all the fruit. Trees with a great mass of wood and foliage bear mostly on the outside branches. The rule is not the same for all sections, however. In the middle West, where the sun's rays are very hot, the trees are not grown as open as in New England or the Northwest. When apple trees have been neglected and have grown out of all bounds, drastic February treatment is necessary. All the dead wood should first be cut away. Then limbs which cross must be removed. If left, they will chafe until a wound is made and decay will set in. Limbs growing straight into the air should, as a rule, be taken out, and when parallel limbs close together are found, good pruning demands the removal of one of them. Farmers of yesterday commonly sawed off the lower limbs of their trees and left those in the top. Such high headed specimens are not practicable in these days of fungi and insect pests, and the renovation of an orchard containing trees of this character must be preceded by the removal of all the high FEBRUARY 27 limbs, even though this means the literal decapitation of the trees. Future crops will be produced on wood forced from below. It is wise to spread this work over several years, for heavy cutting is naturally a severe shock to the tree. A minia- ture forest of water sprouts is pretty certain to appear the next summer, and they will have to be cut away. These water sprouts are not always an unmixed evil. Occasionally one is found located just where a bearing branch is needed. It, of course, should be allowed to grow. It is important to know something about cutting large limbs before the renovation of an old orchard is undertaken. The cut should always be made close to the trunk or limb from which the branch to be removed grows and exactly parallel to it. There is no excuse for leaving a stump. If a heavy limb is sawed entirely from above, it is almost sure to split down the bark when it falls. This is avoided by first making an under cut, which will cause the limb to make a clean break. A sharp, light pruning saw is needed. There is no place for an axe in the orchard. Every cut must be smooth. Nature provides for the protection of wounds to some extent by causing the cambium layer to grow over them, seal- ing them up the way a glass of jelly is sealed with paraffine. If the wound is large, though, decay is likely to set in before the wound has been covered. The fruit grower helps Nature 28 THE COUNTRY HOME by painting the wound with good linseed oil paint, which keeps it free from spores until it has time to heal. Every wound over an inch in diameter should be painted without tail. There is no better time for trimming shade trees. Although it may be left until March if deemed desirable, the pruning of shrubs may also be done this month. This ap- plies, though, only to the late-blooming shrubs. If those which bloom early were to be pruned, there would be but few blos- soms, for shrubs in this class form their buds the previous Fall. Among the shrubs and vines to prune now are hydrangea pani- culata, altheas, viburnums, rose bushes, honeysuckles and clematis Jackmani. The early flowering shrubs are to be pruned just after they bloom. Shrubs often get more pruning than is good for them. With a few exceptions, they look best when allowed to grow naturally and the knife needs to be used only to cut out dead wood and to remove a little of the new growth, if very heavy. Nipping of the ends is to be avoided. When cutting is to be done, let it be at the base of the plant, taking out an entire cane. Hydrangea paniculata diifers somewhat from most shrubs. It is most obliging in its habits and may be cut and trained in any way desired. It may be grown as a dwarf or as a tall shrub, trimming being done without hesitation. In some parts of the country roses may be trimmed this FEBRUARY 29 month. In other sections it is better to wait until March. Most of the roses need cutting back at least one-fourth, often more. The weaker the plant the more severe should be the pruning and the canes should be cut back carefully to a point just above an outside bud. Climbing roses do not require much trimming. Removal of the old wood and a slight cutting back is sufficient. The pruning of shrubs is worthy a little study, for the different sorts have quite different habits. Orders for fruit trees, shade trees and shrubs should be placed at once, if they have not already gone to the nursery- men. Delay is likely to mean disappointment. By the last of the month the manure for the hotbeds should be drawn. Fresh horse manure is the kind needed and if it contains about one-third straw, so much the better. For best results it should be piled under cover and turned every other day for a week. If it does not begin fermenting at once, a few pailfuls of hot water may be poured over the pile. Turning will make the fermentation uniform and keep the manure from burning. Commercial vegetable growers start their beds in February. Washington's birthday, the 22nd, is considered the proper date for sowing tomato seeds. In the home garden, March will be early enough to begin operations. It is well to look over the various fruit trees around the place in order to detect the nests of insect pests. In New England many brown tail and gypsy moth nests will be discovered, 30 THE COUNTRY HOME without doubt. They must come off. The tent caterpillar has a much wider range and is not so easy to detect. The eggs are laid on the tips of the twigs and covered with a smooth sub- stance like varnish, which protects them from the weather. Fortunately, spraying early in Spring with arsenate of lead for the codling-moth will kill these pests. If left to themselves, tent caterpillars when numerous will strip an orchard clean. This is also a good time to look for black knot on the plum trees. It is indicated by a swelling and must be dealt with promptly. The best plan is to cut ofF the affected limb a foot below the swelling, the part removed being burned. If there is snow on the ground, it is advisable to tramp it firmly around the trees to keep mice from lodging under it and feeding on the bark. Snow on the bee hives will help to keep the inmates warm, but it must be kept away from the entrance. Otherwise ice may be formed and the air supply cut off. Bees need air, even in winter. It is wise to look over the apples and potatoes this month, those which are not keeping being promptly removed. It is really worth while buying a little kitchen evaporator for using up fruit which is not keeping well, if one has a considerable quantity. A small cider press may also be used for working up apples which are beginning to decay. It will stimulate the rhubarb to give the plants a heavy FEBRUARY 3 1 dressing of old manure late in the month. A few early stalks for the cook may be secured by placing boxes over several roots, heaping fresh horse manure over the boxes to force the growth. Roots dug from the garden in the Fall and frozen, may still be forced in boxes in the greenhouse or a heated cellar, being kept dark. In many of the Southern states, fruit trees as well as strawberry, raspberry and blackberry plants, may be set out this month. GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW GARDENS February is none too early to sow seeds of bedding plants, when a greenhouse is available. Asters, hollyhocks, cosmos, ageratum, cockscomb, petunias, salvia, Drummond's phlox, snapdragon and forget-me-nots are among those recom- mended. Sweet peas, stocks, mignonette, may be started for bloom- ing in the greenhouse before there are flowers out of doors. The asparagus ferns may be started, too, to provide plants next winter. This is also true of the cheerful looking Jerusa- lem cherry. New aspidistras may be secured simply by divid- ing the roots of a well established plant. Cuttings from fuchsias will make good plants for next sea- son. In fact, this is a good month to make cuttings from many plants, — better than January, for there is more light. 32 THE COUNTRY HOME Cyclamen is one of the very best plants for house decora- tion this month. Not only does it make a splendid display in pots, but the flowers will last a week or more in water. They are very handsome on the dining table and a few plants are worth growing simply to furnish cut flowers. It is better not to actually cut the blossoms, but to remove them by twisting off the stem. Flowering bulbs may still be forced. The double tulips force better now than earlier. Some of the seedsmen sell bulbs in pots ready to bring into heat. They are not expensive and in this way it is made very easy to have flowers all winter. Usually the bulbs may be forced without trouble if kept in a room which is not excessively warm and not placed where the plants will be in a draft or exposed to hot blasts, as from a register or fireplace. This is an excellent month to repot the palms. The mis- take often made of increasing the pot several sizes is to be avoided. Unless considerable growth has been made, the plants may be replaced in the same pot. Forsythias, lilacs, flowering almonds and even fruit tree branches may be flowered in the house if brought in the latter part of the month. Branches with well developed buds should be cut and placed in water in a sunny window. The forsythia is the easiest and quickest of the shrubs to bring into flower in this manner. FEBRUARY 33 A start with vegetables may be made by planting lettuce, cabbages and cauliflower in the greenhouse, the plants to go to the cold frames when large enough. In the South, gladioli may be started this month in the open ground and many seeds sown in cold frames. Pansies may be sown where they are to flower. . Most of the hardier vegetables may be started in the course of the month, and even cucumber and melon seeds may be sown, if garden frames can be used over the young plants. STABLE AND LIVESTOCK Many young pigs will come into the world this month and next. It is best to wean the youngsters when six weeks old and to let the sow run with the boar at once. Even young pigs may be fed corn this cold month and a diet containing potatoes and other vegetables will help keep the mature animals con- tented when closely confined. It should be remembered that hogs suffer when exposed, like other animals. The young calves will also begin coming this month. If they are to be dehorned by the caustic potash method, the work should be done when they are from two to five days old. The hair is clipped away from the budding horn and a space as large as a cent is moistened, but not enough so that the caustic will run over the skin. A caustic pencil is used, generally be- ing wrapped in paper to protect the hands, and is rubbed 34 THE COUNTRY HOME thoroughly over the horn bud. A scab is formed, which drops off in about a month, and the horns do not grow. It is dis- tinctly an advantage to have all the cattle on a country place without horns. What was said in January about ventilation applies with equal force this month. Many regulations, some of them hardly more than fads, have been made to secure pure, clean milk, but the facts have been established that the chief re- quirements are light, well ventilated stables, clean cows and clean milkers. Without doubt the cows should be groomed every day, and it is well to have this work done at stated hours. Cows are creatures of habit to an exceptional degree and thrive best when cared for by the clock. Before they are milked, the udder should be wiped off with a damp cloth and the first stream should go into a special receptacle, to be fed the pigs or thrown away. The milk yield can often be in- creased by studying the individual needs of the animals, rather than feeding them all alike. Early lambs require particularly careful handling. Those that come in February will need a warm stable, possibly with a little artificial heat. They will be able to endure more cold when a week old and when two weeks old may be castrated. Sheep are profitable where they can be safely raised. The dog nuisance seems to be the greatest stumbling block. A man may be fortunate in his dogs, as in his friends. FEBRUARY 35 Some dogs are well worth keeping. Others are a menace and a detriment. Probably the first choice of a farm dog would lie between a collie and an airedale terrier. When a home pro- tector and friend is wanted, the best plan is to buy a spayed female. Such a dog will not wander away, will not pick up quarrels and will not attract other dogs. Never should a horse be permitted to stand unblanketed after a hard drive at this time of the year. If there is no blan- ket at hand, the animal should be walked about until cool or else stabled in a warm barn. It is an excellent plan to give the horses a bran mash once a week, say on Saturday night. The way to make the mash is to turn boiling water into a bucket, the bran then being mixed into the water, and a little salt added. The bucket should be covered and the mixture allowed to steam for two or three hours or until cool enough to feed. It is not well to feed the mash on an evening before a long drive is to be made. FEBRUARY IN THE POULTRY YARD The incubators should be set up and made ready for use this month, even though they are not to be heated before the first of March, which is early enough for setting the eggs of any of the breeds except the Asiatics — the Cochins, Brahmas and Langshans. Eggs of these heavy breeds should go into the machines this month. 36 THE COUNTRY HOME It is none too early to put in orders for hatching eggs, or day-old chicks. It is worth noting that many breeders have stopped hatching at home, and are either sending their eggs to custom hatcheries or buying day-old chickens. The coming of mammoth hatching machines, accommodating from 1,200 to 20,000 eggs at one time, has practically revolutionized poultry keeping. Immense plants are devoting themselves to the sale of chicks just out of the shell, some of these plants selling as many as 100,000 youngsters in a season. The price runs from ten to forty cents each, depending upon the stock. There is usually a gamble in buying day-old birds, unless the buyer is acquainted with the flock from which the eggs came. The chicks may turn out well and they may not. Breeders who are known to have high class stock may be dealt with, of course, without much fear of getting poor birds. They are likely to be flooded with orders though, for March, April and May delivery. The man who wants to hatch from his own eggs but dis- likes to bother with broody hens or an incubator may send the eggs by parcel post to hatching plants which feature custom hatching. He pays a small fee and gets his chickens by ex- press when they are ready for him. Both professional poultry keepers and amateurs are falling into the habit of having their eggs hatched in this manner. There are now hatching concerns in most communities. FEBRUARY 37 In some localities there is a steady demand for broilers and the best prices may be secured if the incubators for hatching the eggs are started early in the month, in order to have the chickens out about the first of March. Then the machines may be filled again and the pullets from the second lot of chicks kept for layers, the cockerels being marketed. Eggs to be used for hatching should be gathered several times a day, in order that they may not be chilled. They are best kept at a temperature between forty and sixty and it is not wise to set eggs which are much over two weeks old. If the litter on the floor of the poultry house has been packed hard, it should be renewed. It is very necessary to keep the hens exercising, and there is no better way to accomplish this object than to feed grain in a deep litter. Glass windows should be washed and muslin curtains cleaned. These curtains give little ventilation when the pores are filled with dust; and dust collects upon them very quickly. If a start with ducks, geese or turkeys is to be made, eggs or breeding stock must be ordered at once. Geese should really be mated up in the month of December or earlier, and it is better to buy eggs rather than breeders at this season. Toulouse and Emdens are the two popular breeds. The former are white and the latter gray. Both weigh about twenty pounds. White or Brown Chinese geese are classed among the ornamentals, but are really very good table birds. 38 THE COUNTRY HOME Gray African geese are not commonly considered profitable for market, but are among the best for home use, as the meat is fine of hbre and excellent in flavor. Both the Africans and the Chinese geese have peculiar knobs at the base of the bill. If they have wide range, geese are very easy to raise and the owners of many country homes with meadows, marshes or rough pasture land make a mistake in not keeping a flock of these birds, which graze much like cattle and require only a little shelter from hard storms. As only a few eggs are laid, they are rather expensive — 25 cents apiece. They are large, too, and a good sized Plym- outh Rock hen can hardly cover more than six or seven. From 28 to 30 days are required for incubation and it often is neces- sary to help the goslings out of the very tough shells. It is customary to hatch the earliest eggs under hens and to let the goose incubate the last clutch. Among the ducks, Pekins, Indian Runners and Rouens are raised in considerable numbers and their popularity ranges in the order given. Indian Runners are constantly growing in favor, though, and promise to take the lead eventually, except on large commercial plants. There are three varieties, fawn and white, penciled and pure white. They are not large, and are inferiors of the Pekins when meat is the object, but as egg producers they are wonderfully prolific, being termed the Leghorns of the FEBRUARY 39 duck family. From 125 to 200 eggs a year may be ex- pected from each duck in a good flock. The eggs are white, or should be, and run six to the pound. Some strains lay many green shelled eggs, and when the beginner buys either stock or eggs for hatching, he should be particular about this point. The hatching period is 28 days and hens or incu- bators may be used. Ducks occasionally become broody, but cannot be depended upon. The White Pekin is the market duck. On some large plants from fifty to a hundred thousand are raised each season. They are marketed when they are ten or eleven weeks old, at which age they should weigh five or six pounds. These ducks are very fat and there is much waste when they are prepared for the table. When raised for one's own table it is better not to force them so hard. Dealers frankly call the fat young ducks "gold bricks." Growing ducklings for market is a prof- itable but highly exacting business. Rouens are good ducks for farmers to raise, for they require but little care and the meat is excellent. The plumage is dark. In February and early March the breeding turkeys should not be fed many beef scraps or much other nitrogenous food which would be likely to induce early laying. The last of March or early April is the time for turkey eggs to come. Usually there is wet weather late in May and it is well if the turkey poults do not come out of their shells until after that 40 THE COUNTRY HOME period. The first of June is early enough. When eggs are to be purchased, they may be ordered now, but later delivery should be arranged for. The beginner, at least, is pretty cer- tain to fail with early hatched turkeys. MARCH "^ke stormy March has come at last, With zvind, and cloud, and changing skies!' — Bryant. M MARCH ARCH is a wonderful month; the month when Na- ture, awake from her long sleep, gives her rich treasures again into the hands of men; the month of plowing and harrowing, of bonfires and garden renovation; the month to make lawns and plant the hardiest of the vege- tables—a very busy month, indeed, for the maker of gardens. One can not specify definitely all the work to do in IVIarch. Much depends upon the season, for March is a most fickle month. It may be possible to get the garden into perfect con- dition for planting. On the other hand, much of the work may have to go over until April. It is not well to be hasty in uncovering protected shrubs and beds. The litter from the bulb and strawberry beds is best removed gradually, at any rate. Strawberry plants which may have been raised by the frost should be pressed back with the foot. It is an excellent practice to pull the straw from the beds into the rows between the plants to mulch the ground and keep the berries from the earth. In severe winters privet hedges are often badly damaged. In order to save these hedges they must be cut back to living wood. This often means only stubs a few inches long. No [43] 44 THE COUNTRY HOME other treatment is necessary, except that the burning of leaves along the hedge rows must be avoided. Plants that have been cut back are easily killed by the heat. This is one of the best times to spray the orchard trees for San Jose scale. Lime sulphur wash or miscible oils may be used. With only a few trees it is best to buy prepared mix- tures. In many sections men with the necessary apparatus can be hired to do the work. The job is a dirty one and to be avoided when possible. On large estates and farms a spray- ing outfit is indispensable. A barrel pump on a wagon is con- venient. New lawns may be made and old lawns repaired. The seed is very hardy and may even be sown on the last snov/. The proper making of a new lawn is not a matter to be under- taken hastily. Many lawns are midsummer failures because they were not well made. Good soil is imperative. If it is not already on the plot to be seeded, it must be hauled there. Also, it must be cultivated deep and well — and the earlier the better. With sod land, it is well to grow a crop of potatoes one season, to get the ground into a satisfactory condition of tilth. Deep culture will encourage the grass roots to burrow down where they will be safe from the scorching ra3^s of a summer sun. Making the plot perfectly smooth is a job for an expert. An iron rake and a roller are needed. It is easv to detect MARCH 45 uneven spots on ground which has been rolled. The addition of well rotted manure, pulverized sheep manure or a good commercial fertilizer will give the grass something to feed on for years. Only the very best seed should be sown. The best is none too good, and to buy poor seed is but to throw one's money away. On the whole, there is no better plan than to buy a seed mixture from a reliable dealer. For special situations, like shaded spots, terraces and tennis courts, there are special mixtures made of grasses best suited for such places. When a large lawn is to be made, it may pay to buy sepa- rate seeds and mix them. A good mixture is composed as fol- lows : Kentucky blue grass, 9 lbs. ; Rhode Island bent grass, 3 lbs.; red top, 4 lbs.; English rye grass, 3 lbs.; white clover, 1 lb. Mr. Leonard Barron in his book on lawns recommends the following special mixtures : For shady places — Kentucky blue grass, 8 lbs. ; crested dog's tail, 2 lbs. ; wood meadow grass, 4 lbs. ; various leaved fescue, 2 lbs. For sandy soil — Kentucky blue grass, 5 lbs.; creeping bent grass, 6 lbs.; Rhode Island bent grass, 6 lbs.; fine leaved fescue, 3 lbs. For clay soils — Ken- tucky blue grass, 10 lbs.; English rye grass, 4 lbs.; tansy red top, 6 lbs. A still and preferably a dull day is to be chosen for sowing grass seed, which is very light. The earliest hour of the day is likely to be the quietest. It requires some skill to distribute 46 THE COUNTRY HOME the seed evenly, though conditions be perfect. For large plots, a seed sower working automatically is needed. When the hand is used, it is wise to sow first lengthwise and then crosswise the plot. After the seed has been sown, an iron rake may be used to woi*k it lightly into the ground. Then the roller should be brought into play. A roller is of great importance in making a lawn and in keeping it in condition. It should be a heavy roller, though, in order to do good work. If it is heavy enough to require the muscle of two men, so much the better. At this season there is likely to be rain in abundance, but if it does not come, watering will be required, for the grass plot should be kept moist until the surface of the ground is covered with a fine green mist. An examination at this time will show any bare spots, calling for extra seed. Old lawns in need of repairs may be renovated in several ways. Sometimes the best way is to plow it up and start over, but even a poor lawn may often be improved by mixing sheep manure with good loam and scattering the combination an inch deep over the grass. The iron rake should then be used to work the loam and manure well down into the grass, which will quickly grow through it. The sowing of additional grass seed may be a help. Most lawns several years established are benefited by an application of pulverized sheep manure or commercial ferti- MARCH 47 lizer, but feeding of this character is really necessary when the grass shows signs of running out or when lack of vigor is shown by the appearance of weeds. A thrifty lawn will crowd out most weeds. If there are bare spots, they should be covered with good loam and grass seed sown thickly. In all seeding, it is a mistake to be niggardly in the amount used. Use of the roller in the Spring is beneficial, on new or old lawn. This is a good time to gather all the rubbish, tree trimmings and the like and to make a lively bonfire on a quiet day. This fire should be in an open spot and not under trees, for the latter are easily injured by intense heat. Grafting unsatisfactory trees may be done just before the buds swell, but the scions should be cut while the weather is still cold and buried in sand in a cool cellar or possibly buried in the field. Grafting is a great aid to the fruit grower. When trees are found which produce fruit of inferior quality or of a variety not adapted to the location, it is a simple matter to make grafts; in three years fruit of the desired sort will be borne, if the operation is a success. It is possible to have a dozen varieties of apples on one tree, and amateurs who have only a few trees often find it an advantage to graft several different varieties on them. Farmers with many trees often increase their profits by grafting on varieties which are in greater demand than those they have. Of late many orchards have been grafted wholly or in part to Mcintosh Reds, 48 THE COUNTRY HOME Even wild plum trees along the fence rows may be made to produce palatable and marketable fruit. Beurre Bosc pear, which is a rather hard variety to grow, may be grafted nicely on some more common sort. Old trees are often entirely changed over by top working, which means grafting all the main limbs and gradually cutting away all the old head. Scions come best from wood of the past year's growth and from the ends of bearing branches. They should come, too, from prolific trees bearing fruit of the highest quality. This is important. The best limbs to graft are from one to three inches in diameter and should be cut oif square at the time of grafting. A grafting knife will be needed for inserting the scions, one end having a wedge. The knife is first used to split the limb just enough to receive the scions, after which it is knocked out and the hook used to hold the cut open. Good scions should be about five inches long, a quarter of an inch thick and contain three to five buds. The lower end must be cut into a wedge, with a single clean stroke on each side with a sharp knife. The wedge may be an inch or an inch and a half long and one side should be a little thicker than the other. The scions are to be prepared just before using, in order that they may not dry out. Two scions are in- serted in each stub, one at each side, the thicker edge outward. The purpose should be to have the inner bark of the graft and that of the stub touch. It is there that the two are to unite. MARCH 49 When the scions are in position, the wedge is removed and the cleft holds them tight, there being special pressure on the thicker outer edge. The graft once made, every precaution must be taken to bind up the wound so that decay will not set in. Grafting wax is relied upon for this purpose and may be bought ready made. The wax must be soft, even if it has to be melted, and it can be used easily only when the hands are well greased. Every crack and crevice must be filled with the wax, with a little laid around the scions at their base and a bit on the upper end. An additional application of wax may be needed for sev- eral seasons. If both scions start to grow, one must be cut away in mid- summer, preferably, of course, the weaker one. By using two at the start, the chances of success are doubled, but one only must grow into a limb. The average man can do a job of grafting after reading these directions, but it will be much better for him to watch an experienced man at work before he goes ahead. GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW GARDEN Plants from cuttings rooted in February will be ready to shift this month. Propagating may still be continued. Bou- vardia is easily started from root cuttings in bottom heat, treated like seeds. Plants for bedding may be made from 50 THE COUNTRY HOME geraniums and lantanas. To propagate violets it is only nec- essary to separate the rooted runners from the old plants. They should be potted up and planted outdoors in April or May. If lilies in the greenhouse are wanted for Easter and seem backward, more heat must be given them. They must be kept free of lice at all events. Flowering bulbs may still be forced in the house. More people should try the tulips, for they make a splendid display at a season when bright colors are to be appreciated. Many people throw away their azaleas when they have finished blooming, but this is not necessary. If plunged in a shaded spot in the garden and given a little water, they will bloom well the next season and even for several seasons. It hardly pays to carry cyclamens over, however. Another plant- ing of lettuce and radishes may be made in the greenhouse. OUTDOOR GARDEN WORK March is the month for starting the hotbed, a great help in getting an early garden. It should be put into operation the first week, even in the northern states. A cold frame, which is a duplicate of the hotbed, except that it has no bottom heat, often may be started before the end of the month, de- pending on weather conditions. Less work is involved in pre- paring a cold frame and most amateurs will find it satisfac- MARCH 51 tory, if they can start the seeds of a few plants in the house. With a hotbed, however, it is possible to have lettuce and radishes for the table before they can be planted outside. Sash for hotbeds come in a standard size, 3x6 feet. "Pony" sash, which are half the standard size, are also made and are easier for women to handle. There are both single and double sash, llie latter cost more but may be used without mats, such as are needed for single-glass sash on cold nights. Sash are often bought open and the glass put in at home. When this plan is followed, mastic putty should be used, as it hardens very quickly. Single-glass sash complete ought to be bought for not over $2.50. Any number of sash may be used side by side, the size of the hotbed being governed accordingly. A two-sash bed, which is just six feet square, will be large enough for starting a great many plants. It is not a bad plan to divide the bed, in order that one side may be kept a little cooler than the other. Such vegetables as tomatoes, peppers and egg {)lants need more heat than cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower and similar kinds. The same end is attained by starting the seeds in pots or shallow boxes, for then the plants may be shifted to the warm- est or coolest spots in the bed at will. Paper pots and dirt bands may be used to great advantage ancl cost but little. The plants grown in them may be set in the garden without remov- ing the pots or bands, which will prove a barrier to cutworms. 52 THE COUNTRY HOME The bottoms need merely be torn from the pots; the bands are bottomless. When making a hotbed it is best to dig an excavation 30 inches deep and a little larger than the area of the proposed bed. If the ground should be frozen, manure may be heaped up two feet deep and the frame set on that. It is much better to have a pit, of course. Commonly stout stakes are driven at the corners and the planks for the frame spiked to them. It is best to have the frame about two feet at the back and I ^ inches in front, the slope being toward the south or south- east, in order to capture all the rays of the sun. If it should be desired to take the frame apart in summer the corners may be fastened together with bolts. It is well to have the frame extend into the ground about three inches. In permanent beds, sub-frames are often constructed. They may be of plank or brick or cement. All-cement frames are beginning to be used. Heat for the bed is to be supplied by fresh horse manure, preferably mixed with some straw or leaves, for then the heat lasts longer. The manure is best piled under cover for sev- eral days and turned a number of times to secure even fer- mentation. If it does not heat readily, a bucketful of water may be thrown over it. When ready, the manure should go into the bed and fill it. Throwing it into the pit a layer at a time is best, each MARCH 53 layer being well trodden. To be just right, the manure should contain enough litter to make it a little springy under the feet. Good soil to a depth of six inches is needed over the manure. With the bed filled, the sash are to be put on and left until the heat has dropped to 80 degrees, a thermometer being driven into the soil. In two or three days the bed will be ready for planting the earliest seeds. Tomatoes, egg plant and peppers will need to go in at once to give garden plants. Radishes, lettuce, peppergrass and mustard may be matured in the bed. Three weeks will give cuttings of grass and mustard. But little longer is needed for the early forcing radishes. Set onions may be had in a month. A hotbed must be watched, water applied intelligently and ventilation given on every fair day. It is best to leave the sash raised a crack at all times, when the weather is at all warm. Gardeners use a brick for raising the sash, placing it flat, on its side or end, according to amount of ventilation required. Plants must not be allowed to grow spindling. Often a cold frame is used as an adjunct to the hotbed, started plants being shifted to it from the latter. All the plants named may be sown in it, however, when the weather has become sufficiently mild. When only a cold frame is used, tomatoes, peppers, egg plants and celery may be started in boxes in a kitchen window, the plants being transferred to the frame when large enough. 54 THE COUNTRY HOME Early flowers of many varieties are to be enjoyed onlv when the seeds are sown under glass, either in a. hotbed or a cold frame. China asters, pot marigolds, candytuft, snap- dragon, gypsophilia, stock, nitociana, salpliglossis, godetia and many other flowers are included in the list. After a hotbed has served its purpose of starting early vege- tables, the sash may be put away and the uncovered beds used for growing melons or cucumbers to maturity. Feeding on the exhausted manure, the plants make very rapid and strong growth, usually being much ahead of those in the open. Of course it is not necessary to have either a hotbed or a cold frame in order to start plants early. Boxes and kitchen win- dows have been relied upon for generations. It is well, how- ever, not to start the seeds quite so early as when the outdoor accessories are to be used. Otherwise, they get too large or become spindling. Peas are the earliest seeds for the open ground. The smooth sorts are a little hardier than the wrinkled varieties and may be planted earlier. Spinach may go in at about the same time. The asparagus bed should be dressed with bone meal or a ready mixed fertilizer. Manure may be used, but is likely to introduce weed seeds. Onion sets may also go in early. Much depends upon the season, whether cold, warm, wet or dry. It is foolish to work the ground when it is sticky. In- MARCH 55 deed, it is possible to ruin a garden by being in too great a hurry. Plowing the garden a little deeper than last year will add to its fertility. Harrowing is very important and an effort should be made to get the soil fine. Much may be done with an iron rake to give a finishing touch to the work. Manure is needed, of course — lots of it. One need have little fear of getting on too much. Well rotted manure is much to be preferred, especially for root crops and particularly for potatoes. Fresh manure will answer if it is drawn on early. It is best well distributed as near the first of the month as possible and turned under when the garden is plowed. Many times garden and farm seeds prove a disappoint- ment. Seed testing is always wise, and where a large plot is to be planted should certainly not be neglected. Count a hundred seeds of each variety, fold them in a strip of blotting paper and insert the paper in a pan of moist sand, and the test is easily made. If the sand is kept moist and warm for several days, possibly a week, the best of the seeds will have sprouted. If at least 75 of each 100 seeds have not started into life, there is something wrong. In order to have very early gladioli the corms may be planted in boxes of earth this month and kept in a cool, shaded place indoors. The plants should not be set outside until danger of frost is past, but the gardener who tries this plan 56 THE COUNTRY HOME will surprise his neighbors with gorgeous blooms before their plants have shown a bud. Usually sweet peas may be started this month. Rich soil is needed and should be thoroughly worked for perfect flowers. Sweet peas are rather fickle and like to be coaxed. Good garden makers dig a trench six inches deep, plant the seeds and cover them with two inches of soil, gradually filling the trench as the plants shoot up. Annual poppies are very robust, but dislike being moved. They may be sown this month where they are to flower. The newer varieties are wonderfully fine and glorify the garden all summer, if several later sowings are made. Late this month canna roots may be started indoors, being separated and the pieces, each with some of the crown at- tached, planted in boxes or large pots. In the Southern states, all the tender vegetables and flow- ers may be started in March. STABLE AND LIVE STOCK Spring clipping of horses is much better than fall clipping, in spite of custom. Any one who has seen a clipped horse in zero weather may be pretty certain of the animal's opinion. The wise and humane farmer makes certain that the col- lars worn by the work horses fit. By so doing he saves the animal from having sore shoulders, which are commonly seen MARCH 57 at this season. Bathing the shoulders after the harness has been removed is worth while, and the collars should have a daily cleaning. Dusty hay is often found at this season. It is bad for horses unless dampened before fed. It pays to give the cows plenty of exercise and fresh air. The)^ need it after the winter's close confinement. What to feed the cows often bothers new farmers. Half meal and half ground oats by weight, then half bran by bulk, is a standard formula and a good ration to be fed with hay. Gluten and similar high protein feeds must be used with care, but have their place in the commercial dairy. Cold skim milk is not advisable for young calves, at least until they are six months old. The milk is needed, but it should be warmed. When teaching a calf to drink, there will be less trouble — and possibly less strong language — if a pan instead of a pail is used. The calf is frightened to find its head in a pail. March calves sell when veal is high. After lambing, the ewes may be fed a handful of shelled corn to a pint of oats a day. Lambs coming this month will be worth a long price, if pushed. Oats and bran, with a very little corn, make a good ration for the brood sows. Warm farrowing pens are needed and a little help at farrowing time may be required. Some lambs may well be kept to renew the flock. Usually 58 THE COUNTRY HOME sheep are not profitable after five years. Good ewes should give ten pounds of wool when sheared. A BUSY MONTH FOR THE POULTRYMAN This is the amateur's hatching month. Eggs of such breeds as the Plymouth Rocks, the Rhode Island Red, the Wyan- dottes and the Orpingtons should be set the first week; those of smaller breeds like the Leghorns and the Anconas a week or two later. The pullet which is hatched early — but not too early — will make the winter layer. If an incubator is used, it should be run a day or two be- fore the eggs are entrusted to it, and carefully regulated. Also, it should be placed where the temperature is equable, where direct sunlight will not fall upon it and where it will not be exposed to drafts, but where the ventilation is good. A house cellar is often the best place, if there be no special incu- bator cellar. No wise breeder will start his machine in such a situation, however, until he has obtained a permit from his in- surance company, costing him a small fee. As a rule, it is best to use a machine holding at least 120 eggs, for it will require no more attention and little more oil than a smaller machine. When the egg chamber can be held at 103, the eggs may go in. The operator should be very sure about his thermometer; they sometimes go wrong. It may be tested by comparison with others. MARCH 59 A day or more may be required for the eggs to become heated and the temperature will run low until then. Then the thermometer should be held at 103 for the 21 days of the hatch. With duck eggs, the machine is often run half a degree knver until the fourth week, 28 days being required to bring out ducklings. An occasional variation of a few degrees is not cause for alarm and it is a mistake to throw eggs away until one is sure they will not hatch. Embryonic chicks get a sturdy hold on life after the first week of incubation. After the second day the eggs should be shifted about with the hand night and morning. Air may be given at the same time and the eggs are usually removed on their tray, the door of the incubator being closed. At first they should be out but a short time. After a week more air is needed and espe- cially when the weather is warm. Some breeders place a ther- mometer on the eggs when they have been turned and restore them to the machine when the mercury drops to 85". The 18th day is the last for turning and cooling the eggs. It is then time to close the machine with a determination to keep it closed until the chicks are out of their shells. Help- ing out weak chicks seldom pays. On the other hand, it is often necessary to assist ducklings, for the shell membranes are very tough. In very dry climates it may be well to sprinkle all eggs with water at a temperature of 103 before hatching begins. 60 THE COUNTRY HOME On the seventh day of incubation the eggs are to be tested by holding them between the eye and a strong light, a simple device being supplied with all incubators. If infertile, the egg will be clear; if there be a chick in it, an opaque spot will indicate the fact. On the seventh day lines may be seen radi- ating from this spot. An egg with a dead germ will not be clear but will have no blood lines. Such an egg is worthless, but the infertile eggs may be saved and boiled hard for the young chickens' first meals. Commonly a second test is made on the fifteenth day. Eggs are often pipped on the twen- tieth day and the chicks should be out by the end of the twenty- first. With a good hatch, the shells break in the middle and the youngsters all appear pretty close together. Yet hatches are often delayed. The chicks should be left in the incubator until thoroughly dry. Meantime, the brooder may be made ready for them. Running an incubator is not difficult, if the machine is a good one, but no necessary duty must be overlooked. The best oil is needed, the lamps must be scrupulously clean and the wick trimmed daily. There should be a new wick at the be- ginning of each hatch. A very helpful device is an electric alarm connected with a bell at the head of the operator's bed. If the temperature runs too high at night, the bell sounds a warning. It is not a bad plan to set several hens at the time the incu- MARCH 61 bator is started. At the end of ten days, fertile eggs from under the hens may be placed in the machine as a substitute for those tested out. Several hens should always be set at the same time, in order that the chickens may be doubled up and given to one or more hens. It is foolish to have a hen running with only half a dozen chickens — perhaps only one. It is well to test eggs under hens as well as those in ma- chines. If many are tested out, two clutches may be combined and one hen released. Amateurs often neglect one most important point, which is dusting of the hen with lice powder. Hundreds of hens die on the nest every season from the plague of lice. This is both cruel and unnecessary. Dusting every week will keep the ver- min down. The sitting hen should have access to food, water and a dust bath. Corn is the best ration. APRIL ''Sweet April! Many a thought Is wedded unto thee^ as hearts are zved; Nor shall they fail 'til to its Autumn brought^ Life's golden fruit is shed." — Longfellow. APRIL A WONDERFUL month is April. Nature then seems intent on but a single mission, to cover the whole earth with a carpet of green and to renew the life of every tree and flower and garden plant. April to the garden maker is a month of toil, the planting month, when the hopes and de- sires of a winter's breeding are buried with the seeds to spring up later in the fruits and flowers of summer's harvest. Usually there is much to be done around the house and grounds, too, — gutters to be cleaned out and minor repairs to be made. In many sections it is found that the red squirrels do no little damage in winter, which means that they should be driven from the neighborhood. Pert and saucy as they are, they must not be included among our pets, for they prey upon the friendly birds and are mischief-makers in general. Fences should be repaired this month and barns whitewashed. In fact, April might well be called the renovation month. The general farmer finds much work afield at this season. As a rule, all the plowing and harrowing may be completed. Oats, wheat and barley should be sown, even in Nevv^ England. Oats and peas make a valuable combination, providing fodder for the cattle and straw for winter. The oats and peas often [65] 66 THE COUNTRY HOME are fed directly from the field, where the cows have no pasture. It is customary to sow a bushel and a half of peas to the acre, plowing them under about three inches. After that, the oats are drilled in at the rate of a bushel to the acre. AROUND rilK GROUNDS This is a splendid month for planting shrubs around the home grounds, for they will then get a good start before hot weather comes. There ar(^ good shrubs in great variety, but j)erhaps no better list can be made than the following, giving flowers practically the summer through: Forsythia, Lilacs, Tartariau I lonevsuckles, daj)anese Ouince, Spireas, Weigela, Syringa, Hydrangea Panicidata, \'iburnum or High Bush Cranberry, Jaj^anese Barberry, and Althea or Bose of Sharon. Shrubs usually look better wIumi massed along the sides of the garden or in a corner or possibly against a building. Hy- drangea Paniculata is very commonly grown as a specimen and makes a gorgeous show. Jap:niese Barberry is one of the best h(\lge plants. Wherever planted, the ground should be thor- oughly worked over. It is useless to stick a shrub into a hole in the sod ami (^xpect it to grow. Box and privet hedges should be trimmed this month, pref- erabl) before they start to grow. This is a good month to plant a hedg(\ too, and the best hedge plants are undoubtedly Japanese Barberry and California Privet. The latter grows the APRIL 67 taller. Usually a barhcrry luHif:;;^ may hv allowiul to "^anj;- its ain fX•^i^" 'i"^ tli<^ Scotch say, but a privet hed^e will need con- stant slieariiii; to keep it trim and neat. /Vibor vita' is best for an excr^reen hed^e. A ])()int commonly overlooked when planting a hedge often brin<;s eml)arrassment later. All these plants have a wide spread and uidess they are set well back from the sidewalk they will soon grow over the line. Evergreens may be set out more successfully in April prob- ably than at any other time in the year. As a rule they are given no heading back. It is advisable to dig around all the lawn trees in order that they may not become choked, and then to mulch them. If the soil is at all stiff, it will be found an advantage to dig in some coal ashes. A few shrubs may be trinmied this month, but not those which bloom early. Tt is advisable, however, to cut away the suckers which spring up around the Persian Lilacs or the bushes will soon become a tangled mass. Tt is necessary to go slow in trimming the roses, but the work should not be left until they send out shoots. Often many su("kers may be dug up from around the Wichuriana roses and set out in other places around the grounds to make new plants. IN THE VEGETABI-E GARDEN It is a mistake to plant the vegetable garden, as many amateurs have learned to their sorrow, before the soil has been 68 THE COUNTRY HOME thoroughly prepared. It is wise even to wait a week or two in order to secure this result. Most of the hardier vegetables may be planted this month even in the northern states. The list includes peas, beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, salsify, spinach, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, Swiss chard and curly Scotch kale, along with started lettuce, onion and early cabbage plants from the cold frame. Early cabbages can stand more cold than is generally supposed and may be set out as soon as the ground can be worked. Even a flurry of snow will do the plants little or no harm. If one is in doubt about varieties, the following may be selected with reasonable assurance of satisfaction: Beets, Early Egyptian; Swiss chard, Lucullus; cabbage, Surehead, Copenhagen Market, Drumhead, Savoy and Danish Round- head, the latter being particularly good for winter; carrot, Dan- v€rs' Half Long; lettuce. Big Boston, Grand Rapids, May King, \yayahead. Black-seeded Tennis Ball and Salamander, the last for midsummer; parsnips. Student; peas, Gradus, Nott's Excelsior, Alderman, Stratagem and Telephone; spinach. Round thick-leafed and Longstanding. It is worth while planting peas and early potatoes just as soon as the ground can be made ready. Even if there is a frost or two later, no harm will be done and the crop will be ready at a time when these vegetables are scarce and high. Most vegetable gardens will profit by an application of lime APRIL 69 to be harrowed in, but it is just as well to omit the lime where potatoes are to be grown. To prevent scab on potatoes, sus- pend them for an hour and a half in a coarse sack or basket in a solution made by dissolving two ounces of corrosive sublimate in two gallons of hot water with enough cold water added, after the mixture is cold, to make fifteen gallons. After removing the potatoes, spread them out to dry. Extra early potatoes may be secured by sprouting the tubers in trays or on the floor in a warm, light room before the ground is ready. Sowings of lettuce, cress and radishes may be made every two weeks from now on to insure a constant supply. Leeks have a flavor which is more delicate than that of onions. The seeds should be sown in rows about six inches apart and one inch deep. In order to beat your neighbor with early sweet corn, seeds may be sown in strawberry boxes in the house or in a cold frame. The corn "may be transplanted without difficulty after danger of frost has passed. Late cabbage and cauliflower seed may be started in cold frames or in a seed bed. Celery grown in boxes indoors should be transplanted to cold frames. For directions for planting, see the planting table in the Appendix. Rhubarb and aspar- agus may be hastened by covering a few roots with barrels or boxes and heaping fresh manure around them. This is the month for setting out both these vegetables. Rhubarb requires 70 THE COUNTRY HOME very rich ground and a quantity of manure should be spaded in every Spring. When planting an asparagus bed, it is best to purchase one or two-year-old roots and they should be set twenty inches apart in a trench six inches deep and at least a foot wide. It used to be thought that it was necessary to have several inches of manure under the roots, but it has been found that the root growth is usually lateral instead of downward, so now it is the custom to work plenty of fertilizer into the ground between the rows. After the asparagus comes into bearing, it may be cut for about three weeks the first two years, and after that, for six weeks. An asparagus bed is good for about twelve years. An old bed is benefited by a liberal application of well rotted manure this month, and many people like to use salt or kainit as well. Argenteuil and Conover's Colossal are good kinds and Palmetto is often grown for commercial purposes. Radish seeds germinate quickly. Sown with the slow-grow- ing root crop like carrots and parsnips, the little plants will soon mark the rows for cultivation. IN THE FLOWER GARDEN All the bulb beds and herbaceous borders should be uncov- ered by the middle of the month, as a rule. It is well to do some spading in the borders and to work in some well rotted manure or bone meal. Many annuals may be sown by the end of the APRIL 7]_ month, if the season is an open one, and the perennial plants may be set out after danger of frost is over. Gladioli can go in safely even before the end of the frost period, but in order to get extra early flowers the corms should be planted in boxes of earth and kept in a cool place away from direct sunlight, indoors. The started plants may be set out when all danger of frost is past. Then gladioli should be planted every two weeks up to the first of July, to have a suc- cession. Commonly the bulbs or corms are not planted deep enough. Six inches is none too deep for large specimens. It is an excellent plan to grow a row or two of gladioli in the vege- table garden, cultivating them like the other crops, in order to secure an abundance of blooms for cutting. America is one of the best bulbs for this purpose. Sweet peas should go in this month, if they could not be planted in March. Other bulbs to plant in April include the Montbretias, which should be much better known than they are. The bulbs should go in about four inches deep. Tigridia, or shell flower, is another interesting bulb for April planting and this is none too early for putting bulbs of Hyacinthus candicans into the ground. Pansy plants may be set out as soon as the ground is ready and will flower continuously if the blossoms are kept picked. The little Bellis, or English daisy, can be planted at the same time and makes an excellent border for the pansies. Pansy 11 THE COUNTRY HOME plants will grow in partial shade, but can not do their best if placed under trees. ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN Both orchard trees and small fruits should be planted as early as the ground can be prepared, but thorough preparation is well worth while. If the trees or plants arrive before the ground is ready for them, it is best to heel them in. This means simply digging a trench and setting the nursery stock into it, slightly at an angle and with only the tops protruding, the trench being then filled in with earth. If the spot chosen is dry, the stock will keep safely until it can be planted out. Many people have the foolish notion that they can expect a tree to grow, if they merely dig a hole in the ground and thrust the roots into it. A tree is a living thing and must be treated as such. Proper planting of a fruit tree means opening up an excavation large enough to give the roots their full spread. Commonly the roots are cut back somewhat. All bruised and broken roots should be trimmed off clean in any case. Most of the fibrous roots on a transplanted tree are of no value. It is a common fault to set a tree too deeply or not deep enough. Usually a dark ring on the stock will show where it stood in the nursery. The tree should go into the ground with this ring just below the surface. After a part of the soil has been replaced, a bucket of water may be poured in, not so much because water is needed as to work the soil among the roots. APRIL 73 It may be said, in passing, that the roots must never be allowed to dry out from the time they leave the nursery until they are planted again. When the trees are taken to the field, it is a good plan to wrap the roots in wet burlap or to set them in a pail or barrel filled with water. Some people make a thin mud and "puddle" the roots in that. While the soil is being replaced about the roots, the tree may be raised and lowered slightly in order that no air spaces may be left around the roots. The rootlets cannot start unless they are in the closest contact with the earth. Some people use a lath to press the soil into the openings between the roots. When the hole has been filled, a slight depression may be left to catch rainwater, but it is better to mulch the trees with grass, straw or stable litter. As a rule, but little fertilization is needed when trees are set out. It is better to feed them liberally later. Whether to buy one or two-year-old trees is a disputed point. It is not worth while to get trees more than two years old at any rate. Once in the ground, they must be cut back according to the variety and the way they are to be grown. These days fruit trees are almost invariably headed low and it is well to have the lowest branches not more than eighteen inches from the ground. Peach trees usually are trimmed back to a mere whip. Apples and pears are cut back less sharply and the purpose kept in mind of making an open, branching head. With most varie- ties it is best to cut out the leader. 74 THE COUNTRY HOME When one has a small place, it is desirable to grow a number of dwarf fruit trees, particularly apples and pears. While it is necessary to wait from four to fifteen years to get fruit from a standard apple tree, according to variety, dwarf trees will bear in two or three years, while the fruit is quite as large and of the best quality. Oftentimes dwarf trees are trained on walls or buildings, thus taking no garden space which could be used for other crops. Often, too, these trees are trained on wires or trellises in much the same way as grapes. Considerable attention is necessary to grow them in this way, but very inter- esting effects are secured as well as high-class fruit. When an orchard is being planted it is of the utmost impor- tance to have trees of two varieties that bloom at the same time in order to secure cross fertilization, unless, of course, there be another orchard close at hand. Varieties of high quality in some sections are almost worthless in others, but it may be said in a general way that the following apples will provide a satis- factory succession for home use: Summer. Red Astrakhan; autumn, Gravenstein and Wealthy; early winter, Hubbardston and Mcintosh's Red; late winter, Baldwin, Greening and Northern Spy. Among the best pears are these : Summer, Bart- lett and Clapp's Favorite; autumn, Beurre Bosc and Seckel; winter, Beurre d'Anjou and Dana's Hovey. The small fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries, should go into soil which has been thoroughly APRIL 75 pulverized and preferably enriched with barnyard manure or sheep manure. For the home garden there should be a variety of sorts, including the red and blackcap raspberries and both white and red currants. A new raspberry called the St. Regis is of special value because it bears nearly the whole summer through. Cuthbert is a good red raspberry and Golden Queen is a popular yellow kind. Cherry and Fay's Prolific are favorite red currants, while White Grape is the best white sort. Doubt- less there is no better blackberry than Snyder, and Lucretia is the common dewberry, which is really a trailing variety of the blackberry, but ripens earlier. All the bush fruits should be planted away from buildings, where they will get a free circulation of air. It is not a good plan to set them along the fences. Currants will do very well in partial shade and even raspberries are often grown between the trees in a young orchard. Raspberries should stand four feet apart and blackberries six feet. Three feet will be far enough for currants if they are kept trimmed. Considerable cutting back should be done at planting time and the roots should be carefully arranged in the soil. Cultivation is com- monly practiced, but mulching is sometimes adopted. In the established fruit garden overgrown plants may still be trimmed, old canes being cut out. It is often an advantage to stake the blackberries. Nip off young canes of raspberries and black- berries when three feet high and cut out all but three or four. 76 THE COUNTRY HOME There is no better time for making a strawberry bed, which should have a sunny location and be well drained. Probably the single row system is the best for the home garden, the plants being set about 16 inches apart with three feet between the rows. The important point to remember when setting strawberry plants is to have the crowns exactly level with the ground. At least a third of the roots should be trimmed off square with a pair of sharp scissors. Then, if the plant is taken between the finger and thumb and quickly twirled, the roots will open into a circle just right for setting into the hole made for them. The holes are quickly made with a long trowel, but when a number of plants are to be set out, it is easier to open rows with a hand plow. 71ie roots must not be allowed to dry out. No fruit can be expected unless care is taken to purchase perfect flowering plants or else a staminate and a pistillate variety. Otherwise the flowers will not be fertilized. Stam- inate varieties are perfect flowering. Among many good varie- ties for a succession are these : Early, Ozark, Glen Mary and Sample ; medium early, Abington, King Edward and Brandy- wine; late, Belmont and William Belt. Sample is the only variety among those named which is not perfect flowering, yet it is best to grow other kinds with Glen Mary and William Belt. The old strawberry bed should be cultivated; and when the leaves start to grow, a mulch of hay between the rows will keep the ground moist and the berries clean. APRIL 11 The orchard should be plowed over, it kept in cultivation, but not deeply near the trees. Harrowing every ten days is wise, for it is important to conserve all the moisture possible at this season. Many people prefer the mulch system, which means that the trees are grown in sod but with all the grass thrown around the trees to a point some distance beyond the spread of the limbs. Usually it is wise to increase this mulch with additional grass or other litter. No good orchard man will cut the grass under his trees and take it away unless he replaces it with a liberal application of manure. It is well to spray the peach trees this month with lime- sulphur wash to prevent peach-leaf curl. In the South beans of all kinds, beets, cucumbers, corn, squash and pumpkins and melons may be sown. Tomato and cabbage plants should be set out in rich ground. People who like okra should sow seed in drills at once. All the annual flowers may be planted and coleus beds should be set out. Coleus cuttings root readily in the open ground. GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW GARDEN Cinerarias and Chinese primroses may be started from seed in April. The former will flower next spring and the latter in time for the holidays. Seeds of campanulas for forcing next season may also be sown. Lilacs, deutzias, bleeding heart and similar plants that have 78 THE COUNTRY HOME been forced under glass may be set in the open when danger of frost is over. This is also the time for pla-nting out the house azaleas, bougainvilleas and ericas, provided established warm weather has come. If grown in a partially shaded place through the summer, they will bloom next season. They are best kept in their pots, the latter being plunged in well-drained soil. Careful watering is required by azaleas. It is best to keep the soil just moist. Paris daisies removed from the pot and planted out will give some flowers during the summer, but it is useless to take them indoors again. The yellow flowered genista may be plunged in the garden and grown on until frost. It will flower again next season. Cuttings of this plant made earlier in the season may be set into the ground and potted up in the fall. The astilbe, commonly called spirrea, may be planted in a partly shaded border after it is through flowering and should be left for a year until the following fall. Then it may be taken up and forced again. A few of the bulbs which have been forced in the window garden may be saved. They include freesias and the oxalis. Tulips, hyacinths and narcissi grown in the open garden may also be stored in a cool, dry place after the foliage ripens and will be ready for blooming again the next season. In April the golden calla lily (Richardia Elliottiana) bulbs should be potted up, rich soil being used. They should then be APRIL 79 left in a cool, dark place until the roots start, perhaps two weeks. When brought to the light they will grow rapidly and flower in about three months. April is a good month to start heliotrope. APRIL POULTRY WORK Poultry keepers have their hands full in April, caring for the newly hatched chicks. Many hens are still allowed to run with their broods and when only a few chickens are to be raised this plan gives satisfaction. The hen which is mothering chicks must be dusted at least once a week with a good lice powder, and the coop will require spraying with kerosene or painting with a prepared lice exterminator. It is economical of labor to use one of these preparations, for one application a season is sufficient. If the chickens are allowed to run in a garden, it will be necessary to confine the hen, while the youngsters are allowed their liberty. It is always well, though, to keep the chicks shut up when rain is falling and not to give them their liberty while the grass is wet with dew while they are small. A small yard with roofing paper over it makes a good run for such times. When a hen is brooding ducks, a yard of low boards is suf- ficient. The hen may be allowed to jump in and out as she pleases. Ducklings require less brooding than chickens and are soon willing to dispense with their foster mother. 80 THE COUNTRY HOME It is different with guinea chicks. They will follow the hen about until they are full grown, often to biddy's obvious annoy- ance. Sometimes they will even trail after a cock bird. The experiment of brooding chickens with capons has been tried, and with a degree of success. The only trouble seems to be that the big, slow-moving bird occasionally steps on the chicks, with disastrous results. In small yards, a hen with chicks may be allowed a certain degree of liberty and yet prevented from doing damage if a string is attached to one leg, the other end being tied to a ring running on a wire stretched between two sticks. Chicks which seem to droop are likely to be suffering from lice. It is well to use lice powder on them and to touch the tops of their heads lightly with grease. One advantage of rearing chicks in a brooder lies in the fact that the plague of lice is escaped, for a time at least. Brooder chicks require more attention than those with hens, however. You must not play truant when operating a brooder. The heat must be kept equable and feed rations given regularly. None of the old-style wooden brooders can successfully care for more than fifty chickens, but poultry keepers everywhere are begin- ning to use metal hovers of a new type and accommodating from 1 50 to 1,000 chickens at one time. They, of course, are for men and women who raise chickens on a large scale. The amateur will naturally stick to the smaller brooders. APRIL 81^ Chicks should not be removed from the incubator until thor- oughly dry. By that time the brooder should be warmed up and ready for them. It is best to have the floor covered with fine sand and after two or three days a litter of cut clover or alfalfa may be added. From 95 to lOO degrees of heat will be needed the first week, after which it may gradually be decreased at the rate of five degrees a week. A thermometer is necessary, yet the heat should be regulated largely by the actions of the chickens. If they are found stretched on the floor and panting, the temperature is too high; if they are huddled, it is too low. When they settle down contentedly, a slight distance apart, the poultry keeper knows that they are all right. Plenty of ventilation is very important. Neither brooder house nor brooder must be kept too tight. After a few days, the chicks may be allowed to venture from under the hover, but a semi-circular yard of chicken wire will be needed, lest they stray away and forget how to get back. Following along the wire fence, they will find themselves under the hover again. There is no reason for making a complex matter of chicken feeding. Just as satisfactory results come from simple methods. Many people start with hard-boiled eggs. Others use oatmeal from the grocery store, fed dry, or rolled oats. Others mix the eggs and the oats, softening the mixture slightly with warm water. Bread soaked in milk, but with the milk partly squeezed 82 THE COUNTRY HOME out, makes an ideal ration for the first few days. Milk, either sweet or sour, is always good for growing chicks. Most people like to fuss with their chickens a little at first, but in point of fact, it is perfectly safe to begin feeding a good commercial chick feed the second day, without any prelimi- naries. No food of any kind is needed for 36 hours, as the chick is nourished by the yolk of the egg, which is absorbed just before the shell is broken. The ready-mixed chick feeds are convenient, but not indispensable. Cracked wheat and corn will answer. Some good breeders feed bran after the first week, keeping it before the chickens at all times. At the end of the second week, ten per cent of beef scraps is added. The commercial dry mashes contain a wider variety, but are more expensive. The chicks should have coarse sand or fine grit always at hand, with water in abundance, but the drinking vessel should be one that the little birds cannot climb into. There are many good foun- tains on the market, but a flower saucer, with a brick in the middle, will answer the purpose. It is important that young chickens have plenty of green food, tender grass, lettuce or sprouted oats, the latter when nothing else is available. If they have the run of a grass plot, they will get their green stuff first hand. Often the chicks are kept in small, covered runs on grass land, the runs being moved their width every day or two. When sprouted oats are fed chickens, the sprouts should not be over an inch long. APRIL 83 Bread soaked in milk and sprinkled with coarse sand is a good first ration for ducklings. After three days gradual shift may be made to a soft mash consisting of four parts bran, one part ground oats, one part cornmeal, two parts of green stuif and one part of beef scraps. This mash is of the proper con- sistency when it will crumble in the hands. Sloppy mashes for hens or ducks are quite out of date. Poultrymen of today wonder how their grandmothers succeeded in raising chickens on cornmeal mush. Ducklings will appreciate a generous amount of waste green stuff from the garden. It is well to feed both chickens and ducks five times a day at first, but after four weeks, three times a day will be sufficient. There are no arbitrary rules about feeding ducks. I have often used dry oatflakes scattered on the grass when I wanted to be away for half a day. A neighboring breeder raises his Indian Runner ducks entirely on dry commercial mash, the same mash he feeds his laying hens. He seldom loses any and they thrive mightily. Different treatment is needed, of course, for Pekin ducks being grown for market. They must be pushed with heavy feeding, and fattened largely on beef scraps. Rouen and Muscovy ducks are perhaps better meat birds for the coun- try home. They are easy to raise, and the Muscovys have no quack, like other ducks. They are strong flyers, though, and their wings must be clipped. Five weeks, instead of four, are required for hatching Muscovy duck eggs. 84 THE COUNTRY HOME Broilers are most in demand this month and next. Pheasants begin to lay this month and are best provided with sheltered nests, perhaps barrels or boxes with a few branches thrown over them. The eggs may be removed and given to bantam hens to incubate, but four or live should always be left in the nest. Guinea eggs may be set this month, preferably toward the latter part. Guinea fowls are well worth raising for the meat they produce; there is no better substitute for game. These birds may be allowed full liberty, except, perhaps, in the spring, when they are laying, for they will do no damage in the garden, but on the contrary eat many bugs. Turkeys need free range, but should be kept shut in at night. Eggs laid this month are best incubated by hens. LIVESTOCK AND BEES The calves need warm, dry pens and plenty of skim milk. When separators are used, the skim milk may be fed direct to the calves. If milk is scarce, hay tea may be gradually sub- stituted. It is well to look to the feet of the colts before they are turned out. Often they grow very fast in winter and leveling up is needed now. Farrowing sows require comfortable quarters and dry pens are necessary for the growing pigs. APRIL 85 April is the month to purchase bees. It is best to buy them near home, if a good bee farmer can be found, but the bees may be sent safely by express. One should read up on the subject before taking up the keeping of bees. The work is not so simple as it often is made to seem. At any rate, an investment of more than $25" is not advised until the bees have begun to pay their way. This is not to suggest that the keeping of bees should not be rndertaken. On the contrary, no country home is complete without a colony or two. A strong colony in a ten-frame hive will cost from eight to twelve dollars. Gloves, veil, a smoker and a hive tool may be ordered at the same time. They will be needed from the first. Early April is also the month to examine bees in the estab- lished apiary. If a colony has been winter killed, the combs may be removed to another hive. New queens must be ordered for colonies found to be without queens. Weak colonies will need feeding on a syrup made of one part of granulated sugar to two parts of water. The water should be warm and the sugar thoroughly dissolved. Feeders may be purchased, but a shallow pan from the ten-cent store is just as good. It should be partly filled with excelsior for the bees to travel on and placed in the top of the hive, under the winter cushion in the super. The bees will need water, and if none is near by, a pan of water with chips floating on it may be set near the hives. MAT ''Among the changing months May stands confessed T^he sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed!' — T^hompson. ■V M MAY AY is the month of blossoming shrubs and the busiest month of all the year, to the maker of gardens, particu- larly in the northern parts of the country, where frosts linger. Not that planting monopolizes the time and labor of the garden maker. Many other duties, too, crowd thick upon the owner of a country home. Often it is impossible to repair the walks until the settled weather of May has come. Yet this is very necessary work. Sometimes the only way to get a per- fect walk is to use tile drain a foot or two under the surface. Whether a walk is of brick or cement, it is important to have a good foundation of cinders. It is a waste of money to lay a cement walk unless perfect drainage is provided for. The ashes from the furnace make an excellent walk or drive when covered with gravel. If the fences are old, it is economy to replace them little by little each spring, using modern wire fencing. Cedar, locust or chestnut posts should be chosen and it is well to dip the lower ends into tar or some prepared preservative before they go into the ground. It pays to top-dress the fields with good reliable grass fer- tilizer, which should go on early in the spring, preferably just [89] 90 THE COUNTRY HOME before a rain. This is the month to seed timothy. Many field crops can go into the ground this month, but it is useless to sow or plant before there is a prospect of settled weather with the ground fairly dry. If manure is spread on the surface, it should be thoroughly plowed in, but not deeply when the crop is to be corn or anything else with a shallow root growth. A combined seeder and manure spreader is a very useful implement. On all large farms the manure spreader has come to be almost indis- pensable. It is a great mistake to turn out stock too early. If the ground is wet it will be badly cut up and grass is injured by too early cropping. IN THE FLOWER GARDEN Much depends upon location and season, but some time in the course of May practically all the annuals may be planted in the open ground. Likewise, those that have been started in boxes in the house or in cold frames may be set out, provided they have been properly hardened oif . Among the best annuals for the average garden are nas- turtiums, godetias, petunias, Drummond's phlox, four o'clocks, annual gaillardias, pot marigolds, scabiosa, zinnias, sweet alyssum, candytuft, cosmos, poppies, larkspurs, mignonette, nicotiana (tobacco plant), portulaca, salpiglossis, ten-week stocks and night-blooming stocks (mathiola) . MAY 91^ There will be an abundance of bloom from all these flowers, if started in May. Several of them are particularly well adapted to special purposes. The poppies are almost unrivaled for beds or borders of brilliant colors and many of the newer sorts are wonderfully attractive. It will be necessary to make successive sowings in order to have flowers all summer. The pot marigolds and portulacas are the best annuals for filling in empty spots in the beds. It is well to grow a number of plants for this purpose. They may be transplanted in mid- summer and when budded without causing them to stop blooming. The portulacas are unsurpassed for exposed, sunny places, where the soil is sandy. They will flourish where almost no other flower will grow. It is useless, however, to plant the seed until warm weather comes. When one wants a garden of sweet odors, the flowers to choose are the night-blooming stocks, which are not at all good to look upon while daylight lasts, but become delightful as soon as the shadows have deepened into night; nicotiana, another night-blooming flower of enchanting sweetness; mignonette, which requires successive sowings and likes a cool soil; scabiosa or mourning bride, one of the best annuals for cut flowers, and the annual wallflower. There are many excellent perennials, started plants of which may be purchased at the seed stores and set out in May. They 92 THE COUNTRY HOME include larkspur, phlox, dictamus or gas plant, lily of the val- ley, Japanese anemone or windflower, tufted pansy, hemerocal- lis or day lily, and digitalis or foxglove. The tufted pansy will bloom the first season, as should the day lily; the larkspurs pos- sibly may. One of the very best garden flowers is antirrhinum or snap- dragon, a perennial which usually is grown as an annual. Early blossoms are secured by sowing the seeds indoors, but there will be an abundance of flowers when a sowing is made in the open ground in May. There are few more persistent bloomers, remaining in flower until frost comes. The snapdragons will grow in partial shade and are almost unexcelled as cut flowers. Climbing roses may be planted to good advantage in May and some of the new sorts are remarkably fine. They bid fair to supplant the old-fashioned Crimson Rambler, which is quite undesirable after the blooming season is over, because of its untidy habits. Among the best climbers are these : Hiawatha, Clothilde Soupert, Climbing American Beauty, Tausendschon, Dorothy Perkins and Sweetheart. Several of the new climbers, including the American Beauty and Sweetheart, have consid- erable fragrance, a quality which has been rare in climbers heretofore. There is no better time to plant hardy vines than early in May. Some of the best varieties for the country home are actinidia, a fragrant Japanese climber, excellent for covering MAY 93 arbors and trellises; Aristolochia, or Dutchman's Pipe, probably the best of all vines for making a complete screen, the large, heart-shaped leaves overlapping; Virginia creeper; clematis, both Henryi and Jackmanni, the latter having violet purple flowers; the hop vine; Chinese wistaria and Hall's honey- suckle. The latter is a particularly good vine because it yields a profusion of white flowers and also because it keeps its glossy green foliage until late in winter. Two good climbers besides the well-known nasturtium and morning-glory for annual planting are Cobea scandens and the matrimony vine. Late in May in most sections dahlias may be planted. These flowers have come into great popularity of late years and the cactus and decorative types are particularly fine. The Pompon varieties, however, are unrivaled for cutting. Dahlias do not need very rich soil, but the ground should be thoroughly pre- pared and the tubers should be placed on their sides, not upright, in a trench six inches deep, with two inches of soil over them, the trench being filled as the plants grow. Dahlias need a free circulation of air so that the rows should be from three to four feet apart and the plants from two and a half to three and a half feet apart in the row. Many lilies may be planted in May. They like a sandy soil but may be deceived by running a little sand into the bottom of the hole where they are to go. Deep planting, from eight to ten inches, should be the rule. 94 THE COUNTRY HOME Tuberous rooted begonias, started in the house, may be set in the open ground before the end of the month. They will grow in complete shade but are rather particular as to soil, which must be porous and rich. Spading a little well rotted cow manure and sand into the ground is a help. Such shrubs as forsythia and early-blooming spirea may be pruned as soon as they have blossomed, the branches that bore the flowers being cut away. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN The planting of vegetables begun last month may be con- tinued right through May, although with due regard to weather conditions. There is absolutely no advantage in the planting of such warm weather crops as beans, cucumbers, squashes and melons before the ground is warm. The seeds will only rot. Usually corn may be planted safely after the middle of the month. There are two ways of having a succession. One is to plant early, medium and late kinds at the same time; the other is to make successive sowings of an early kind. Many people are coming to depend entirely upon Golden Bantam, a yellow sort, but of unsurpassed sweetness and flavor. Lima beans are very tender and must not be started until late in the month. Time may be gained by starting the beans in strawberry boxes or paper pots indoors or in a cold frame. They are to go into the ground on their sides and with eyes down. MAY 95 All beans are of the easiest culture and do not need verv rich ground. Poultry manure should be avoided, as it tends to produce a rank growth of leaves instead of fruit. Successive sowings of bush beans will be needed, but the pole varieties will continue to bear until frost. When planting them, it is best to put some well-rotted manure at the bottom of the hole. Poles, which preferably should have the bark on, are easily set if the hole is first made with a crowbar. Six feet apart is near enough for the holes and the plants should be thinned to three to each pole. Kentucky Wonder or Lazy Wife is perhaps the most prolific and most satisfactory pole string bean. Probably the Dwarf Horticultural is the best shell bean, and of the dwarf string beans there is nothing better than Stringless Greenpod. Parsley may be sown early, but it is wise to soak the seeds in warm water a few hours to hasten germination. Peppers sown now will yield a late crop. The late crop of potatoes is commonly planted shortly after the corn goes in. It is now possible to buy eyes instead of whole potatoes; a box of these eyes is enough to plant a small garden and may be sent by parcel post. Seeds of late cabbage and cau- liflower may be sown in the cold frames or in a seed bed. Both these vegetables require the richest garden soil. New land is well suited to them. Like most crops of this character, they need an abundance of nitrogenous plant food, and poultry manure is good for them. Another sowing of peas, lettuce and 96 THE COUNTRY HOME radishes should he made. Pr()hal)ly the variety of lettuce which is most certain to head imder all conditions is Bi^ Boston. Let- tuce needs to he prown very (juickly if it is to he crisp. It is helped alon;^ hy nitrate of soda, which is valuahlc tor torcm*; all leaf crops. It may he used at the rate of two ounces tor twenty feet, sowinpj it in the soil hut not allowing it to touch the plants. If the season is dry and water is not easily applied, the fertilizer may he dissolved in water at the rate of two ounces to a gallon of water and given hy means of a watering can. Late in the month, as a rule, the cucmiihers, melons and squashes may he planted. It is of great advantage to start them under garden frames, which are merely hoxes with a light of glass on top. A week or two may he gained in this way, while the tender plants are also protected from an unexpected frost. In order (o make these vegetahles hear ahundantly, they nuist he fertili/.cd liherally; a hig shovelful of manure in each hole is none too much. It is an excellent plan to start cucumhers in the hotheds or cold frames after tlic early ]ilants have heen removed and to let them remain there. They will feed on the manure in the heds and produce enormously. Prohahly White Spine is the hest all-round variety. For watermelons, the one kind to he depended upon in the North is Cole's L^.arly. For muskmelons there is nothing hetter than Montreal Nutmeg and Emerald Gem. People who like MAY 97 scjuash should cxpcriniont with ihc l^]n<;lish Marrows, wliith in many respects are to he preferred to the orihnary summer scjuashes. For winter s(|uash there is nothing better, of course, than tlie old-fashioned Iluhhard. It is imperative that the garden he given constant cultiva- tion at this season in order to keep tlie soil Idled with moisture, which is even more important than keeping down weeds. If there seems to be lack of fertility and manure is not available in suflicient (juantities, it is well to use a certain amount of all- round garden fertilizer at planting time, depending upon nitrate of soda after the plants have started. In many cases an equal mixture of hardwood ashes and bone meal will give good results. It is always advisable to test a new garden for acidity. This is easily done with a ])ie(e of blue litnms pajur from the drug store. The paper is thrust into a handful of sod which has been slightly moistened. If the paj)er turns red, it is an unmistaka- l)le inclication of an acid soil, the degree depending uf)()n the intensity of the coloring. I he remedy for an acid soil is, of course, lime, which maybe bought at the seed stores or of dealers in fertilizers. It may be used at the rate of from ^00 to 1,^^00 {)()unds to the acre. In a small garden a peck of lime to twenty feet of a row will be right. Doubtless fly beetles will show up before the end of May, working havoc with the melons, s(]uashes, cucumbers and pota- 98 THE COUNTRY HOME toes that arc up. Dusting the plants with ashes or soot will help to keep this pest away. Oftentimes boxes covered with fly net- ting or nnislin are used as a protection. Celery for the late crop may be started in a seed betl now and set out in July. Tt is always an adxantage to transj)lant celery several times, in order to keep (he tap roots short. Probably the best varieties for winter use are i^oston Market and Giant Pascal. Early ( clery plants may be purchased and set out late in the month, (lohlen Self I^>hnuhing and White Plume are the best varieties. MVKSTOCMs. AND rOULTRY This is the month for the cattle to be turned into the pas- tures. Even the calves are benefited by being aHowed to run in the liehls. It is not to be expected, though, that grass will answer entirely for milch cows. The grain ration must be reduced very gradually. Some hay will still be needed. Tt is not wise to allow horses on new grass for more than a few hoiu'S at a time when first turned out. Wherever there is plenty of pasture land, it is profitable to raise a colt or two ea( h year. Removing the shoes from the work horses while they are being used in the fields in the spring is beneficial. If the weather turns bad and the horses must be kept in the stable, it is well to reduce the amount of feed. MAY 99 Broody hens become a nuisance unless broken up at once. Nothing is gained by dipping them in the watering trough or otherwise abusing them. The proper phm involves the con- struction of a little elevated coop, raised from the floor and with slatted sides and bottom. In such a coop the sitting hen will soon become normal, particularly if imprisoned there as soon as her broodiness is discovered. If to be used for hatching eggs, the sitting hen should be removed at night and placed in the nest in which the eggs are to be incubated. If a nestegg is given her and she is found the next morning to be sitting tight, she may be depended upon to stick. A well-made nest for a sitting hen is flat and shallow, with a rim of hay or straw to confine the eggs. When the nest is so shaped that the eggs roll to the middle, some of them are likely to be broken. If an egg is broken and the others are smeared, it is necessary to wipe them off at once with a cloth dipped in warm water. It is a mistake to keep growing chickens of different sizes together; the smaller chicks will suffer. If hens and chickens are running together, a crate with slatted sides just wide enough for the chickens to pass through may be set over the water and feed dishes of the latter. In that way the hens will be excluded. Keeping chickens and ducklings together is poor policy, unless they have wide range. Ducklings foul the ground very quickly and make the drinking water dirty. 100 THE COUNTRY HOME Although no water to swim in is required by ducks or duck- lings, their drinking dishes must be deep enough so that they can wholly immerse their bills. Otherwise the nostrils will become clogged with food and mud and the birds will be in danger of suffocation. Pekin ducklings need watching. They sometimes get on their backs and are unable to regain their feet. Brush heaps where the chickens may seek shelter will lessen the losses from hawks. Guinea fowls do good service in scaring these birds away. One pound of Dwarf Essex rape will seed a quarter acre and provide enough green food for a large flock until fall. The tops are broken off and new growth springs up. Before the incubator is put away for the season, it should be thoroughly cleaned and scalded with hot water. It is good prac- tice to wash it out with a strong disinfectant. Turkey poults must not be allowed to run in the morning until the grass is dry and must be confined on wet days. This is true of pheasants, also. Turkeys must be kept out of the wet until they weigh seven or eight pounds. Turkeys are not hard to raise if certain essentials are not overlooked. To keep them dry and in perfectly dry coops is of prime importance. It is equally important to keep them free from lice. They must have a plentiful supply of green food, preferably lettuce, and shade in the middle of the day. Sour milk is valuable and may be given freely. MAY 101 Bread soaked in milk and given a dash of red pepper is excellent for starting the young turkeys. Three times a day is not too often to feed lettuce, and there should be grit and char- coal always at hand, as well as fresh water. When four or five weeks old the poults will shoot the red, and need particular attention then, especially the females. A raw egg beaten up in milk is of value. Once this critical period is over, the turkeys will make rapid growth. When there are permanent yards for the poultry, it is well to grow a few fruit trees in them. Plums are best for the pur- pose; poultry manure pushes peach trees too fast. Plum trees grow quickly and provide adequate shade, while the hens devour the curculio, the pest which makes holes in the fruit. Jarring the trees in the early morning helps. Chicks hatched early this month should make good winter layers if kept growing steadily through the summer. When the breeding season is over, it is time to get rid of the old male birds. THE month's work WITH BEES Swarming will keep the bee farmer alert this month. Some swarming is desirable for increase, but often far too many swarms issue. This may be prevented to a considerable extent by giving the bees plenty of room and putting ''supers" on the hives early. A frame of brood may be taken from a strong 102 THE COUNTRY HOME colony and given to a weaker one, being replaced with a frame carrying a full sheet of foundation. It is well to have the sec- tions in the "super" filled with foundation, as more honey is secured. The bees require ten pounds of honey to make a pound of wax. When a swarm does issue, the old hive should be set to one side. A new hive with full sheets of foundation should then be placed under the cluster, wherever it may have formed, and a sheet spread in front of it, so that when the swarm is dislodged, it will fall on the sheet. Usually the queen will run in at once and the rest of the bees will follow. The hive may be at once set on the stand occupied by the old hive and the bees in the field will naturally mingle with the swarm on their return. It is well to put on a "super" at once, for the hive will be filled now with lively young bees ready for work. Sometimes a swarm catcher is used, in which case the new hive is placed on its stand at once and the sheet spread in front. The bees are then brought back and dumped on the sheet. If the owner of the bees can not keep close watch of them, he will find it an advantage to use a queen trap, which is attached to the front of the hive at the entrance. The worker bees are able to pass through, but it will hold the drones and the queen. After the swarm comes forth and finds that the queen is not with them, they will come circling back, but the queen will be secure. The bee keeper's work is to shift the hives as MAY 1 03 already described and then to release the queen at the entrance of the new hive. In this way all the labor of capturing the swarms is avoided. Occasionally the trap should be removed and emptied of dead drones. JUNE 'June, and the garden ivith roses is red; Da2sies of silver in meadows are spread. Roses and daisies! T^he lark in the sky, Loveliest of any is June's month, say /." — Anon. JUNE JUNE is the month of birds and poets. The latter can look out for themselves, no doubt, but it is well worth while coaxing the birds a little in order that we may have them as friendly neighbors around our country homes. Much may be done to attract the birds by putting up shelters and bird houses. This work must be done with an intelligent understanding of the likes and dislikes of our feathered friends or your time will be wasted. Some birds will not occupy boxes at all, while others will accept only those of a certain character. Several concerns are now making inexpensive bird homes, based on a complete understanding of what is needed. Oftentimes there will be a decided increase in bird life on a country place, if an attempt is made to protect the songsters from cats and other marauding creatures. When the bird houses are on poles, the cats will not be able to reach them, if a sheet of tin two feet wide is tacked entirely around the pole. Sometimes it is possible to place the sheets of tin around small trees where there are nests. English sparrows are a great pest and have a tendency to drive away all the native birds. The owner of a country home should have no compunctions in shooting as many as possible. An easy way to destroy large numbers of these [ 107 ] ■ 108 THE COUNTRY HOME birds is to construct a V-shaped trough ten feet long with a shot- gun resting in one end. If the trough is partly filled with corn, the sparrows will be attracted to it and the gun may be dis- charged by means of a string leading to some point of conceal- ment. The result is sure to be heavy slaughter. Bird traps now on the market are effective in exterminating sparrows. Bird baths are a delightful garden accessory. They may be m sliallow pans set in the ground or more pretentious cement foun- tains. Unless it has a sloping bottom, the bird bath should not be more than two inches deep, and when it is set into the ground it is safer for the birds to have no plants or grass growing close around it, where cats may find concealment. An elevated bird bath is preferable, for then the birds are not easily attacked, while it is easy to observe them at their al^lutions. June is a busy month for the farmer and the garden maker. There yet remains much planting to be done and continual stirring of the ground is of the utmost importance. The lawn should be mowed at least once a week and the clippings left where they fall. If a longer period elapses it is better to rake up the clippings. Some people make it a point to save all the lawn clippings for their poultry. Either they feed them green or else spread them on a piece of burlap until they are dry enough to crackle when touched, and then store them in barrels for winter. This is an excellent month for sowing millet, field beans. JUNE 109 fodder corn, turnips and rutabagas. Japanese millet is an excel- lent crop for the northern farmer to grow, making useful fodder for milch cows, both green and when dried. It will grow on comparatively damp ground and should be planted at the rate of twenty pounds to the acre, the seed being harrowed in. Corn planted in June should be heavily fertilized; in fact, it is not often that the ground is made too rich for corn. Fer- tilizer may be used in the hill and also broadcasted. The prac- tice of hilling up or ridging corn and potatoes is largely being given up, but cultivation is continued as long as possible and this cultivation should begin even before the plants appear above the surface, using a light harrow. It is an old saying that tillage is manure. Late potatoes may be planted this month and it is well to place the seed as close as twelve or fourteen inches in the row, if thorough cultivation can be given. Potato bugs are likely to appear in force and the plants must be sprayed or dusted with a poison of some kind. Arsenate of lead has largely replaced Paris green because it sticks better. When the potato patch is small, one of the proprietary poisons like Slug Shot or Bug Death may be dusted on the plants while they are wet with rain or dew. A coffee can with a few holes punched in the bottom makes a good duster. Two crops which are growing in favor are soja or soy beans and cow-peas. Both are legumes, which means that they take no THE COUNTRY HOME iiitroiren ivom the air aiui thus imnrcn o the si>il whoro thov are crown. The cow -pea docs licst m the South and the so} bean in the North, ^he^■ are >aluahU^ as fodder and as eo\er erops and often are sown anioui;- eorn at the hist eultivation. Rotli these ereips are w ell worth i::row m^ tor nnprox m^ poor land. .\nother er(>p whieh should have a ]^laee wherever it can be ^rown is alfalfa. C^nee started, it niaA' be eut for inan\' years, will ) ield tw o or more erops a season and possesses hii;h feeding value. I'^Tifortunatel}-, it is not always easy to ^et alfalfa to grow . It must have a hospitable soil, whieh means that it must be deep and sweet. As a rule, a heavy application of manure is needed to prepare the ground and it is impossible to make the seed bed too fine. Such preparation of the ground as is given for ordinary erops will not suffice, and weeds must be practicalh' extermi- nateei before the seed is sown. In addition, either the soil or the seed must be inocul'ated and lime is required. There are preparations on the market in which the seed may be soaked, or soil from alfalfa land ma)- be purchased. Starting an alfalfa field is not an easy task, but the results are well worth all the time and effort. In many sections hayins; will besjin h\ the end of tiie month. It is always well to cut clover as early as possible, for then there is an excellent prospect of getting a satisfactory second crop in September. JUNE m ORCHARD AND SMALL FRUITS Perhaps the most important work to be done in June is spraying. ()nt experiment station lias emphasized this fact by senciing out a f)oster with this title in large letters, "Let Us Spray." Just as the blossoms fall from the fruit trees, these trees should be Thorcmghly covered with a combination of Bor- deaux mixture and arsenate of lead. When the amount of work to be done is not large, a ready-mixed poison may be purchased and for a few trees a powerful bucket spray pump will answer. Spraying the apple trees at this time will kill the codling-moth and at the same time the tent caterpillar. It is poor policy to use the spray until the blossoms fall, however, for otherwise many bees will be sacrificed and the bees are needed to pollenize the Howers. It is well to spray all the fruit trees with this same poison, for various pests are destroyed by that means, while the Bor- deaux in the mixture is effectual in overcoming scab, an- thracnose and rust. J'he regular Bordeaux mixture may be used to advantage on the grapevines and in the berry patch. While one is about it, it takes but little time to spray the orna- mental shrubs and trees, as well, and the result is likely to be beneficial. Many seasons, aphids or plant lice of various kinds and colors are exceedingly abundant. Their presence is indicated 112 THE COUNTRY HOME by the curling of the leaves and they must be taken in hand early, because it is difficult to get rid of them if the leaves become tightly curled. Spraying with kerosene emulsion is effectual. This preparation is easily emulsified by running it through the spray pump or by using a common bicycle pump. Of late there has been a growing tendency to use one of the several nicotine preparations, which are very much more con- venient and are fully as effective. They come in liquid form and it is only necessary to dilute them. These preparations may be made use of in the flower garden, greenhouse or any-^ where else that plant lice appear. When these lice are found on foliage trees, about the grounds, most of them may be washed away by turning a vigorous stream from the hose against the under part of the leaves. If the currant and gooseberry bushes are not watched, the currant worm is likely to steal a march on the garden maker, for this pest begins his work near the bottom of the plant and often is not discovered until the leaves are well riddled. Hellebore is commonly used to fight this fellow, although arsenate of lead is sometimes sprayed on the plants before the fruit forms. If the plants are thoroughly dusted with hellebore (which must be fresh) mixed with one-third flour, while the dew is yet on the leaves, the career of the currant worm will be ended in short order. It is well, however, to watch for a second brood a few weeks later. JUNE m Raspberry plants are likely to be attacked by borers this month and a sharp lookout for them should be kept up. It is a good plan to cut off and burn all canes in which the borer has been at work. If there are any wild cherry trees around the place they may be expected to harbor tent caterpillars and should either be sprayed or cut down. In case the young orchard is not in sod or crops, cultivation once a week will be needed. In sod land the trees should be at least dug around frequently. Grass cut in a well-kept orchard is never removed but is used to mulch the trees; unless, indeed, large quantities of stable manure be substituted. Water sprouts should be removed from all trees before they have grown two inches. No tree can afford to support a crop of useless sprouts. It is still possible to regraft fruit trees, if good scions have been preserved. The scions should be soaked until plump before they are inserted. Newly set trees will need watching and buds which start at a point where limbs obviously will not be wanted should be rubbed off, but this thumb pruning is likely to be found more important the second year. As a rule, no cutting will be needed except where trees are well grown. It is seldom that pruning of any kind is demanded by plums and cherries. Many cherries will be picked in June and care should be taken not to bruise the trees or to break off fruit spurs, as the latter will give the next season's crop. 114 THE COUNTRY HOME As soon as the strawl^erry bed ceases bearing, it should be (horou^'Jily cultivated and a bed over two years old ought to be ph)vved up and planted to late vegetables. New plants may be made by using strong runners, setting them into small pots sunk into the ground until they have made good root growth. IN THE FLOWER GARDEN Dahlias and cannas may be set out early in the month. It is an advantage to start cannas indoors a few weeks earlier and it is not a bad plan to sprout the dahlias. The dahlia clumps should be scj)aratcd anyway, allowing a good eye to each piece, and they may be easily started in moss or peat in a box or on the cellar floor, using a moderate amount of water. In this way it is possible to weed out all |)()or roots, only those which have started being planted. All the annuals may be sown with perfect confidence this month. This is an excellent time, also, to start perennials tor blooming next season. The seed may be planted in a special seed bed or an imoccupied cold frame may be taken for the purj)()se. It is still possible to set out potted perennials from the seed stores. This may be done, in fact, up to the first of July, if the plants are kept well watered. Late asters set out this month should have a small handful of ashes placed around the roots to keep away the root aphis, and should not be watered freely until they begin to flower. JUNE \_[^ All tlie early liowcring shrubs should bo pruned as soon as they have ceased blossoming. The more new wood, the better the display next year. The bulbs of April Howering tulips may be lifted and stored in the cellar to ripen. It is nnich better to leave the cottage or May Howering tulips m the ground, planting some shallow rooted annuals, like pot marigolds or portulacas, over them. It is well to spray the roses once or twice this month with potassium sul|)hide to prevent mildew and black spot. Nico- tine is as valuable as any remedy for keeping down aphis, and probably the best way to get rid of rose bugs is to pick them off. IN Tin- VEGETABLE GARDEN Bush beans and sweet corn should be planted twice in June in order to provide a long succession. Lettuce may be sown at any time and the careful gardener uses this salad plant to iill in vacant spaces. As the weather gets hot, lettuce needs shad- ing at first and an abundance of water. The winter beets and turnips may be planted this month and the beets may be transplanted freely if most of the tops are cut off and plenty of water given. Beets do not recjuire as much thinning as some of the other root crops and in the home garden may be thinned out in such a way as to give beet greens for the table. Although sweet corn was sown last month, there is no need to plant pop-corn until June. 116 THE COUNTRY HOME Winter pumpkins and squashes will have plenty of time for growing, if planted this month. It is a common and excel- lent practice to grow pumpkins among the corn. Welsh onions planted now will give tine bunching onions next spring at a time when they will be highly prized. New Zealand spinach should be better known. It is not really a spinach at all, but makes a lirst class midsummer sub- stitute for that favorite vegetable. As soon as the pea and bean vines cease to bear they should be pulled up and burned, thus leaving the ground free for a later crop, which may be cabbages, celery, rutabagas or man- gels. People who keep hens often make it a point to plant man- gels for winter feeding. Another good crop for the poultry keeper to grow in the garden is Dwarf Essex rape, which will be large enough to feed in five or six weeks and may be fed continuously from the same plot of ground, as new tops develop when the old leaves are pulled off. The same plan may be used with Swiss chard, a very useful vegetable for the small garden. The leaves boiled are a good substitute for spinach and the midribs may be cooked in the same way as asparagus, having much the same flavor. Late in the month celery plants may be set out, whether home grown or purchased. Celery is not hard to grow if a few important points are remembered. It needs good rich soil to begin with but will stand a little shade. Much is gained if the JUNE 117 ground is saturated with water to a depth of several inches be- fore the plants are set out. Modern gardeners allow water to run on the celery plot for a whole day and this is a much better plan than applying water afterwards. When the plants go into the ground, the roots should be cut back perhaps one-third. It is a common practice to plant celery in trenches, but there is another method which may be followed to advantage in the home garden and with less work. The plants are placed some- what closely together and the soil around them made very firm; then fresh horse manure is spread around the plants to a depth of two inches, but not allowed to touch the stalks. The manure will act as a mulch, conserving all the moisture in the ground, besides feeding the plants generously as they grow. Tomato plants may still be set out. If the plants are at all spindling, it is wise to make a little trench in the ground and to bury a part of the stalk in this trench, along with the roots. New rootlets will be thrown out all along the part of the stalk under ground, producing a much stronger plant. Early fruit is secured by training the plants on poles or trellises. When poles are used, it is the practice to pinch out the laterals, forcing the growth into the main stem. Fewer but better tomatoes are secured in this way. On the whole, however, there is no better plan than to make an A-shaped trellis over which the vines can climb, plants being set on each side. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture will prevent tomato rot. 118 THE COUNTRY I lOMR H cutting asp:ir:i<];iis has ceased, the hcd should he li<;htly |)h)\v<'(l and tlioroughl y cultivated, after which it should receive a hheial a|)|)licatioii of commercial feitili/.er with an e(|ual amount oj kainit. Cutworms are pretty certain to he nuich in eviclence and the amateur often is pu/'/.led how to (hal with them, l^rohahly the hest way to protect all ve