Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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Jioiliebs piitljoui glides This spring a year ago I gave one of our visitors information about a hotbed and what can be raised in it. Recently I met the same person again and naturally we began to talk about the growing of plants, and as it was a rather mild day, I mentioned that the time for making a hotbed would soon be here. “Not for me,” replied the lady, “no hot-bed for me again.” When I asked why not, I received the following answer: “The moles killed all my seeds and plants last year.” I laughed for a second and then replied that this could not be true. As the time was short I could not explain, but begged her to build another hotbed this year and I promised her to keep the moles out. I am sorry not to have her address, but I am sure she is a reader of our “Wise-Acres,” and as I would like to see a little hotbed in every city back-yard, I will give a few of my own experiences in this line: My dear reader, when I first started to build a hotbed I had the same trouble that you had, namely; every morning when I looked at the bed I found that the mole had been working in it and many of my seedlings were thrown out; next I looked at the roots of my seedlings and found some were broken off, and this made me believe that moles eat roots. Immediately I purchased a mole trap and set it in the frame. The next morning I went to the hotbed to take the mole out of the trap. How disappointed I was not to find the mole securely caught. It had been working all over the bed again and very, very close to the trap, too. Not knowing what to do, I left the trap in there for several days, but I never caught the mole and neither will you ever catch it in a trap, because the soil in a hotbed is always loose and as soon as the mole strikes an obstruction it will go around it. Some of the plants were thrown out every day and all I could do was to plant them again. One day while I was doing this I saw the mole working in the other end of the bed. I caught the little miner by its neck and killed it instantly, but I never will do this again. I took the dead mole to my friend, a young doctor, who cut it open for me and we examined the little fellow very carefully, but we did not find any plant roots in it, but a number of remains of insects; cut worms, eel worms, wire worms, larvae of other insects like the potato bug; plant lice, slugs and fish worms, etc. From this examination I know that the mole does not make its living from roots, or parts of plants, as so many people believe. The roots may be broken off accidentally or because the injurious insect is resting on it when the mole is looking for carnivorous food. Therefore, we should never kill a mole, as by this means we will be increasing our insect supply. My dear reader, are you going to go into the business of growing insects or plants? Of course, this mole is in no way welcome in the hotbed, but at the same time it is not necessary to kill it, only drive it out of your hotbed and this can be done very easily. i.—Before you bring the manure into the hotbed put some small-meshed galvanized wire at the bottom and around the inside 10

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be as attractive as it is useful. Docs thee get the “idear” (that’s Bostonese). Doesn’t it quicken thy pulses, and doesn’t thee wish thee were in touch with the School of Horticulture? Just come to see us some time along in May or June and we will show thee what scientific methods will bring from old Mother Earth. If the orders are not too rushing we may give thee a golden brown morsel of broiler, but as we are expecting to corner the top-price market, it plight happen they would all have gone into the money box. In any event we will let thee listen to our aspiring young cocks practicing their pew-found crows. And I warn thee that middy blouses and sturdy shoes will be a necessary part of thy equipment, for there isn’t a ghost of a chance of thy escaping some contact with Soils once thee falls under the influence of this energetic atmosphere. And now doesn’t thee think that after all this I can sincerely sign myself Farmer Jane. tEo n Jlxolet Blue violet, that lives in spring so gay, Amid the bluebell, primrose, bluet, too, Who never could compare at all with you, But try from you to take our love away,— Sweet flower, who all will well and truly say Art prettier far than fairest roses hue, Reveal, I pray, from what you get your blue, Your graceful form, your pretty stem. In May You disappear, your blue eyes gone, to me The woods are dead, the flowers all decayed, And naught remains but bright and gaudy flow’rs. I wish that all the year I could you see In velvet clad, and that you could evade Old Nature’s law, and be forever ours! Lola Poppletoi? 9

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of the frame and no mole will ever enter your hotbed. This, of course, is somewhat expensive and the wire will last for only two seasons and the frame will not be movable. 2.—A somewhat cheaper remedy is the following: sprinkle potash on the bottom of your hotbed, then put in the manure and before you set the frame on the manure sprinkle potash where the frame sets, and a little outside the frame; these are the places where the mole enters. 3—Still another good remedy is: to take a handful of cotton, soak it with kerosene and put it in one of the tunnels where the mole has been burrowing, but avoid bringing the kerosene in contact with the plants. This last remedy should only be used when the mole has come into the frame, and it will certainly drive it away. You can also do this in your flower beds or your lawns, as the mole’s sense of smell is very keen and it very much dislikes the odor of oil. I have tried all three remedies and have found them very effective. Come and see our hotbeds without moles! Fritz O. Lippold. pril An altered look upon the hills; A Tyrian light the village fills; A wider sunrise in the dawn; A deeper twilight on the lawn; A print of a vermilion foot; A purple finger on the slope; A flippant fly upon the pane; A spider at his trade again; An added strut in chanticleer; A flower expected everywhere; An axe shrill singing in the woods; Fern-odors on untraveled roads, All this, and more I cannot tell. —Selected. 11