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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1899)
' * * * ' ' ' ' " ' . . j - $ . . ffig" - - , : - . ; & . , . , _ . . , . . . . . , > ; t be Conservative * of nil beauty , which robs the flower and starves the tree. Beautiful things must have attention. If you cannot spare the $100 , begin with $10 , and care for what you have. Many of these choice things , the whole family of syringas and honey suckles grow from cuttings , so with small beginnings you can adorn your yard. There is a Klondike in many a man's brain , if he can only get it out. I was over 85 years old before my attention was called to horticulture. Since then it has had a wonderful fascination. It is a science which introduces you into the best society. I know a man who is awkward , poorly dressed , and ungram- maticnl , yet he is looked upon as a king by wealthy ladies and gentlemen of Boston , and he is listened to like an oracle. I happen to bo a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. It is now worth a million of dollars. The flower shows are marvels. One day is given to rhododendrons and azalias. These we must almost entirely dispense with. Then come the peonies , and the large hall is a palace of delight. Then comes rose day , a day of freshness and sweetness and beauty. Last year I wandered through that scone of enchant ment , and took the names of some of the very choicest , and found when I got back to Nebraska that many of them were our favorites here. What charming times we might have if our society would do its best 1 Secure the most beautiful things , and give them the best cultivation. Some of us who were early settlers have had a hard time in the conquest of this new laud. We had to battle with the hopper , the blizzard , the sirocco , and the drouth. It was hard , constant and unremitting toil , until we have grown grey under it. But we have been victors , and the time has come for change. The sod house has given way to the comfortable home. Ought you not to reward yourselves for your fidelity , and your wives for their hope and toil and patience ? In our dreary land with its trying climate , let us see if we cannot discover a new and beauti ful country , where , amid flowers and under graceful trees , we can wait in a land elysian "till the shadows are a lit tle longer grown. " We can make a fair Beulah land as we wait this side the river. Every man can discover some spot of beauty on his own homestead. Let the farmers vie with each other in improvements. Then a visit from farm to farm will be more than the eternal monotony of going from some southeast quarter to a northeast quarter. I prac tice what I preach. Across the way from my home , a year ago , were two of the weediest lots in York. Now they ore beautiful with 15,000 trees and flow ering shrubs. Horticulture opens before us a charm ing world. It has no looked gates ; we I " ' ' -fa I k I - r i , 1 iLt \ can all enter in. Horticulturists are a cordial fraternity. In the East , where I nave spent some years , I received cor dial welcome. I was often invited to address meetings , and was ticketed to banquets. You will find here new sources of enjoyment , and hosts of smil ing flowers and nodding trees will bid you royal welcome. When people grow grey they ought not to grow old. They cannot endure the hard toil of former years. Leave that to someone else. Get a little pleasure out of the sunset of life. Let it glow with beauty , as the clouds glow at the close of day. Teach the young to love the country and to love the home. Too many men treat their wives and children as though they had no rights which the hog and steer are bound to respect. A place may be a paradise for the hog and a sheol for a liome. ConclltloiiH of SurrcRA With the Flower Giirdon. If you plant ever so fine a lot of shrubs under a lot of cottonwoods , you will fail. Never a meaner trust or a more grasping monopoly among men than you will find in a row of cottonwoods. They want the earth , and are bound to have all of it they can reach. If one of them is fifty feet high it will send out its roots as foragers fifty to one * hundred feet. It is a ravenous tree , and robs everything near it. It is good in its place , but its place is not near a flower garden. Yet flowers must have shelter. A red * edar hedge is the cheapest and best thing. An evergreen requires only one-tenth as much water as an elm or cottonwood of the same size. It is not a gigantic robber , and it makes a good shelter both for summer and winter. Do not plant too near your hedge. Give that plenty of room. Your plants need water. You may not have a well near where you want your flowers. Frank Jones , of York , has a neat cart , with a barrel winch holds about fifty gallons , which he sells for $6.00. A boyer or woman can wheel it , if not too full. Put in a faucet and attach a piece of hose , and you are all right. Put your trees and shrubs in a de pression. If yon have a choice tree , and you want to be sure , give it a full bar rel of water. Do this in the fall before it goes into winter , and perhaps four times in the summer. I have known people to water their trees all summer , and never get a drop down at their roots. They were planted on a ridge instead of in a furrow , the ground was kept hard and never cultivated. Al ways stir the ground after watering ; that retains the moisture. If you have a hose , remember the hoe , it is worth more than the hose. Let that be your main dependence. During many of our summers , good cultivation after every shower will retain the moisture without extra watering. If you want the best success for the more delicate flowers ; lmt are too sensitive for our climate ; hen build A ruth Screen to shut out half the sun and half the wind. You can build this with little expense. Have it high enough so you can walk under it , and you will be sur prised at the difference. The choicest flowers cannot stand the whippings and scorchiugs of the open ground. People often buy perpetual blooming roses , and think they have been cheated because they do not bloom here in Sep tember. The same kinds do in the Enst , in a softer , moister climate , but they cannot bloom in the open hero , in such weather as ushered in this mouth. I have made this screen shelter a care ful study for years , and introduced it into Oklahoma , which has the draw backs and adversities of Nebraska mul tiplied by two. With a little cnre and watchfulness we can have the best at our own home. The Cost. To secure a choice flower garden , well sheltered , you will first need an evergreen hedge. A plat of ground , seven rods square , will give you a little over one-fourth of an acre. Cedars suitable for planting can be had for $5 to $10 per hundred. If you can wait long enough you can get 500 little ones for $5.00 , and let them grow a year or two. But unless you are very careful , you had better get those all ready. They should be planted two feet apart , and when the branches touch , dig out the alternate ones and make an ever green barn of them , as you may have seen in another article. Four feet apart is the right distance for a long-lived healthy hedge. Inside your enclosure , while your hedge is growing , plant your peonies , phloxes , columbines and hardier shrubs , and increase the num ber as you can. Put your lath screen in the middle. Have a seat in it , where you can be in company with your treasures. If you begin at the bottom , $25 will give you a good start. Only let your motto be "constant care and cultiva tion. " Hunt out a weed as you would a deadly enemy. Your floral treasures will give you more comfort than the costliest tapestries and adornments. Build a $1,000 house in a ten-acre lot , and adorn this with skill and care. Let your neighbor build a $10,000 house , with no outside adornment , and in ten years your place will bo worth the most. From the moment you move in , your place grows better , and his les sens in value. 0. S. HARIUSON , President Nebraska Forestry Associa tion. Letters that are warmly sealed are often coldly opened. Jean Paul.
