Chapter 4 GARDEN EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED INDOORS

"The meeting is called to order," began Jay. "To-night, so The Chief says, each fellow has some special thing to talk about. Albert will have an accident with that bottle unless he begins right off, so tune up, Savage."

"This bottle is full of vinegar. I might have brought a lemon or anything else acid. This blue paper is called litmus paper. I got it at the drug store for ten cents. Just look right here, and you will see magic worked. I shall put some vinegar on this piece of paper. See!"

"Turned red as quick as scat!" said Jack.

"Litmus will always turn red when any acid gets on it. I've tried several acids at home. It works every time," went on Albert as if no one else had spoken.

"I cannot see what this has to do with gardens." began Philip.

"Now you keep quiet until I finish. Haven't you fellows heard your fathers talk about sour ground? Well, that means acid soil."

"Why, we have a piece of ground, where sorrel grows thick; father says that is sour," added George.

"Just a minute, Albert," broke in The Chief; "that is one way, George, that farmers tell a sour bit of land. Weeds grow thickly over such ground, but as George has said, sorrel is likely to predominate. Go on, Albert."

"Any soil may be tested with this litmus. The Chief calls this the scientific way of going at it. I was able to get a little soil from our future garden plot, and I'll find out right now if it's acid." Albert opened a small box which was full of soil that looked quite clayey. He wet a piece of litmus and buried it in the soil.

"We'll have to leave this a few minutes, and I'll finish what I have to say. If soil is very acid it has to be changed back again."

"Back again to what?" asked Jack.

"Why, back again, so it isn't acid," Albert continued, decidedly confused.

"I'll help you a bit," and The Chief came to the rescue, "Get that big bottle over there, Albert." Albert brought the bottle. In it was a liquid clear as water.

"Taste it, Peter," and The Chief handed Peter a little in a small glass.

"Why it doesn't taste like much of anything; sort of flat."

"That's it exactly, Peter. It certainly is not an acid, is it?" Peter shook his head. "It is lime water and does not belong in the acid class, but to one which is exactly opposite to the acids, the alkalies. Soils ought to be neither acid nor alkaline, but neutral, as it is called. An alkali will help make neutral an acid. If the soil is acid it is bad for your crop. Put a little lime water on the litmus which the acid has turned red."

Albert did this and the boys watched interestedly to see the effect. "Back again," sang out Jack as the red litmus changed to blue.

"Now from this you see a way to overcome the acid conditions of Albert's piece of land, if it proves to be acid."

"I see," said Jack, "lime it."

"Exactly! Now see, Albert, if the paper has changed colour."

"My, I should say it had!" and Albert held up the piece of litmus paper, now quite red from its contact with the soil.

"Well, Albert, it is pretty plain to see what you have to do. Did you find out the amount of lime to use?"

"In the book I read it said for clay soils 400-2000 pounds per acre."

"I should say," said The Chief, "for that special piece of land use about 20 bushels to the acre."

"How many pounds of lime," asked Jack, "to the bushel?"

"I can answer," grandly went on Albert, "there are 70 pounds to the bushel. So that makes 1400 pounds."

"Quite a proposition!" said Jay.

"Yes, but your land is only a half acre and so that changes matters a little. How much is lime a bushel, Jack? Ask your father, will you?"

"I think," said The Chief, "that we'll have to lay a drain pipe through your land. Anyway I shall come around in early spring and have a look at it."

"Now Peter, we'll hear from you," Jay announced.

"My work was to find out how long it took different kinds of seeds to germinate, that is sprout. I took a dozen each of different seeds, put blotters in dishes, wet the blotters, and placed the seeds on these. I kept them in a warm place in the dining room. I have made each of you fellows a copy of the table."

PETER'S GERMINATING TABLE

Beans 5-10 days.

Beets 7-10 days.

Cabbage 5-10 days.

Carrot 12-18 days.

Celery 10-20 days.

Lettuce 6-8 days.

Onion 7-10 days.

Peas 6-10 days.

Pepper 9-14 days.

Radish 3-6 days.

Tomato 6-12 days.

Turnip 4-8 days.

"I'd like to know what use a germinating table is, anyway?" asked Albert scornfully.

"Well," Peter replied thoughtfully, "it gives you an exact knowledge of the time to expect your seedlings to poke up. Now suppose radish came up in four days. The carrot you had planted didn't come up and after twelve days, discouraged, you plant more seed. Now two days later the first carrots you sowed begin to appear. If you had known that it took carrots from 12 to 18 days to germinate you'd not have made the mistake of planting again so soon. I think of another reason," went on Peter warming up to his subject. "Suppose you planted beet seed. You waited ten days; nothing happened; you wait two more and still no seedling appears; something is surely wrong and you plant over again."

"What could be wrong," asked Philip.

"The seed might be poor," replied Peter. "George has been testing seed," said Jay, "and he might tell us about it now, couldn't he, Chief? It seems to come in here." The Chief nodded.

"I have been finding out whether certain seeds which I happen to have on hand are worth planting or not. If any of you fellows have seed and wish to find this out, you can easily enough. So you can be sure whether old seed is worth planting. Now it happens that father had some of his last year's corn and some from four years ago. So I took 100 seeds of each. If you test small seed like lettuce, The Chief says 50 seeds will do. These I put on blotters just as Pete did his. Of course, I kept them separate. From last year's seed 90 seeds sprouted out of the 100, or 9/10 of them. And that equals 90 per cent. If all seed was 90 per cent. good it would be all right to use, I think. Now when I looked at the four-year-old seed, what do you think? Only five seeds had started. That makes only 1/20, or 5 per cent. Of course, no one would care to use seed where only 5 per cent. of the seed sprouted."

"Is there any real percentage of germination that seeds should have?" Jack asked eagerly.

"Yes," replied The Chief, "although value as you see from George's experiment is lost by age. The real standard germination value for corn is 87 per cent., for beans 90, for turnips 90, for peas 93, etc. You can see that the per cents. for these vegetables run high. So do not use seeds when the per cent. has dropped too low.

"Has George found out the time when other seeds lose value?" asked Peter. "I did not work this table out because I did not have the old seed to work with," replied George, "but The Chief gave me a book to look it up in. I have printed on our press the table. So you fellows may each have a copy." George handed the sheets around the table.

It happened that The Chief had a little old printing press that he had presented to the Club. Club real estate, Albert called it.

GEORGE'S TABLE

AGE OF SEEDS FOR PLANTING PURPOSES

2-3 years. 3-4 years. 5-6 years. 8-10 years.

Corn Beet Pea (5-6) Cucumber

Celery Lettuce Radish (4-5) Melon

Carrot Turnip (3-6) Squash

Bean Pumpkin

Tomato

Pepper

Onion

Parsley

"Now, George," Albert begged, "give us a table of germinating per cents."

"Not much, each fellow can work out the value of his own old seeds and see if they are worth using."

"I think George is right," began The Chief after the laugh at Albert's expense ceased. "Perhaps you'd like to try the effect of depth of planting on corn. Here are some boxes of earth. George, you plant six kernels of corn one inch deep and mark the box with your name and the depth on it, Peter, plant the next box with six kernels at two inches. Albert, try three inches, and Jack, four inches. It will be your business, Myron, to drop in here each half day and note the first appearance of corn in the different boxes."

The result of this experiment, which took about two weeks in all, was as follows:

DEPTH OF PLANTING TIME TO COME UP

1 in. 8? days

2 in. 10 days

3 in. 12 days

4 in. 13? days

This experiment showed the boys that seeds too deeply planted are hindered in progress.

"Myron, you may take the floor now," signalled Jay.

"I have worked out and printed for you the amount of seed necessary to plant a certain space. I have printed my table just as George did. 'H' stands for hills and 'D' means drills."

"What is a drill?" asked Philip.

"Why a drill is a furrow. You can make a drill with a rake handle, or a hoe. We can show you better when we get outdoors, Philip," Myron answered quite condescendingly.

MYRON'S SEED-ESTIMATE TABLE

NAME METHOD OF PLANTING

HILLS OR DRILLS QUANTITY OF SEED

Bean (Bush) D 1 qt. for 100ft.

Beet D 1 oz. for 50ft.

Cabbage H 1 oz. for 2000 plants

Carrot D 1 oz. for 100 ft.

Corn H 1 qt. for 100 hills.

Lettuce D 1 oz. for 120 ft.

Musk melon H 1 oz. for 60 hills.

Onion D 1 oz. for 100 ft.

Parsley D 1 oz. for 150 ft.

Pea D 1 oz. for 100 ft.

Pepper D 1 oz. for 2000 plants.

Potato H 1 peck for 100 hills.

Pumpkin H 1 oz. for 30 hills.

Radish D 1 oz. for 100 ft.

Tomato H 1 oz. for 1000 plants.

Turnip D 1 oz. for 150 ft.

"This table is all right, I suppose," began Philip, "but if a fellow doesn't know quite how far apart to plant his cabbage, say, I can't see how this table helps much."

"I took it for granted," Myron answered, "that you fellows know a little about things. But if a person didn't know what you ask, Philip, I suppose this table isn't much good. Shall I call all the tables in, Chief?"

"Not at all, Myron, this is a good table so far as it goes. Next time each of you boys look up this matter. Perhaps you can work out a good scheme for such information."

"Now, Philip, we'd like to hear about your shrub money and then we'll have time to see Jack's coldframe plans, before club time is over," at which Jay settled back in his chair as if club work was a strain on a fellow after all.

"I may have one dollar to spend. I have decided to buy three shrubs. I shall plant one by itself; the two others together in a clump. I wanted forsythia, but I have finally decided on Japan snowball and Van Houtte's spirea."

"Why?" asked Albert.

"You see the forsythia shows up best against a dark background because of the bright yellow flowers. I have no good setting for such a shrub. Then, too, it blossoms so very early in the spring, in April you know, that it seemed to me, since I must plant this spring, I'd disturb less a later flowering shrub. I chose the Japan snowball because it's less liable to have lice than some others and because it looks well all by itself on the lawn. That spirea is a specially good variety of spirea because it does well almost anywhere, and also it is very showy and the foliage is handsome all summer long. Some shrubs look scrubby after awhile."

"Where did you get all this knowledge, Philip?" asked Albert, half enviously.

"I made it my business to know. I hunted up shrubs in a catalogue, then I called on a florist, and we had a shrub talk together."

"Now, I call that getting down to real work," Jay remarked. Philip looked happy and Peter nearly tilted his chair over in his pleasure for he evidently felt the city was making good.

"Now, Jack, bring on the coldframe."

"I have my drawing right here," began Jack, spreading it out on the table while the boys crowded about. "You look at the drawing as I explain. Myron and Jay have promised to help me make it. It will be a coldframe this year; next fall I shall change it into a hotbed."

"How?" broke in Albert.

"I shall dig out the soil from the coldframe. Then I shall put in two feet of manure and cover it with four inches of soil. This spring about all I can do is to mix into the soil some well-rotted manure. I guess I shall put in about three inches in all. I guess I can explain," continued Jack, delighted at this opportunity to air his newly acquired knowledge. "The Chief has talked this over with me. It all depends upon what you wish to use the frame for. I want to use mine to get an early start this spring, so I make the bed rich and depend on the sun's rays mostly for heat. This, then, is a coldframe. The sloping glass frame helps you see. But next winter I hope to really get results out of this frame, so I have to supply extra heat. The layer of manure underneath gives this. I then have a hotbed. If I just wish to keep plants along, ready to force next spring, then the sun's rays would be enough for that work without the layer of heat."

"I see, thank you, and why do you say layer of heat? I should call it a layer of manure."

"Because it is heat, isn't it? And anyway real gardeners call it that. We may as well use the right names; don't you think so, Chief?"

"Surely, Jack. It's our business to know right terms. Each line of work has its own language. Jack has done a good piece of work so far. We shall have most of our next meeting in the workshop. Jack, Myron and Jay are going to work on this frame. You other fellows will be able to make stakes and dibbers enough for the crowd."

"What is a dibber?" asked Albert.

"That is for you to look up. If you have any old rake or hoe handles bring them along for dibber making. Good-night, boys."

Off into the night they scampered-a jolly, sound lot of lads.

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