257 



THE GARDEN" GUIDE FOR NOVEMBER. 



Kitches Garden. — Mil lew is very 

 prevalent in damp seasons, and is en- 

 couraged by a foul state of the ground ; 

 therefore keep all clean, and remove dead 

 leaves from among sprouts, kale, etc. 

 Paths should be turned, and protective 

 materials got ready, and kept under cover 

 for use wherever -wanted. Peas and beans, 

 for the first crop next season, may be sown 

 on well-drained ground ; but where snails 

 abound, they are likely to be entirely eaten 

 up before the new year. To sow now is 

 altogether a speculation. 



Fruit Garden'. — Planting and pruning 

 should be commenced at once. Old apple- 

 trees infested with vermin should be well 

 scrubbed with a hard brush dipped in warm 

 brine, and all the holes stopped up with a 

 paste made of clay, sulphur, soot, and cow- 

 dung. Plant at once all bush and tree 

 fruits. Stake newly-planted trees. Put 

 in cuttings of gooseberry and currant trees. 

 Prune vines and wall- fruit trees. 



Flower Garden'. — Continue to plant 

 hardy bulbs; a sound loam moderately 

 manured will grow any of the kinds ordi- 

 narily used in bed and borders. Large 

 bulbs place with their crowns four inches 

 from the surface, small ones two inches. 

 Tike up dahlia and marvel of Peru roots, 

 dry carefully, and store safe from frost. 

 Air hardy plants in pits well, and look out 

 for mildew and vermin. Make all speed 

 to complete improvements and alterations. 



Greenhouse and Stove. — Keep the 

 house as cool as possible to be safe from 

 frost. Give plenty of room, or the plants 

 will get spindled and mildewed. Plants 

 to be forced should remain in the green- 

 house a fortnight before going to the stove. 

 Roses, Siberian lilacs, deutzias, camellias, 

 azaleas, double flowering peaches, etc., 

 should be brought on in batches to keep up 

 a succession. Keep vines well syringed 

 where they have broken well; let the heat 

 be moderate. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Mushrooms i>r Pasture Land. — A Per- 

 plexed Rector wishes to know whether 

 the experiment has ever been tried of 

 planting mushrooms in pasture land, and 

 with what success. The meadows about 

 him yield them, and they are to his mind 

 much better in flavour than any grown 

 artificially. He would, therefore, be 

 thankful to know how best he can secure 

 a crop in bis own field. — Oct. 5,1865. 

 [The experiment has been often tried, 

 very fairly and perseveringly tried, but 

 has always failed, or has been successful 

 on so small a scale as to be equivalent 

 to a failure. And although many culti- 

 vators of experience anticipate the day 

 when every rod of meadow land shall 

 yield its annual ton of mushrooms, we 

 think there is not the slightest proba- 

 bility of that anticipation (or even a part 

 of it) being realized. It is observable 

 that mushrooms do not appear in the 

 meadows till a certain period of the year, 

 and then only in certain spots. Now we 

 cannot command the elements so as to 

 secure the meteorological conditions, 

 and the degrees of earth-heat and mois- 

 ture which favour their spontaneous 

 production ; and hence the first condi- 

 tions of out-door cultivation are wanting. 

 Then the mushroom grows only in a 

 soil prepared for it either by nature in 



the droppings of cattle on ground trodden 

 by cattle, or in loam rich in nitrogenous 

 elements, where cattle have been long 

 pastured ; or in beds artificially prepared 

 by man, who gathers together the need- 

 ful materials, and establishes for them 

 the needful conditions of warmth, mois- 

 ture, etc., etc. It would indeed be a 

 grand thing to command a crop of open 

 ground mushrooms with as much cer- 

 tainty as we command a crop of spinach, 

 but it cannot be done. The surest 

 way for the Rector to secure mushrooms 

 in his own field is to keep it constantly 

 fed by horses and horned cattle. It may 

 be worth reminding our correspondent 

 and others who are interested in this 

 matter, that good stable manure spread 

 out in a mass two feet deep and covered 

 with about four inches of good loam any 

 time in the spring, and left alone in any 

 shady place out of doors, will be sure to 

 produce fine mushrooms from about the 

 end of June to the end of September. 

 We get plenty of mushrooms from cucum- 

 ber and marrow beds.] 

 Strawberries this Season and next. — 

 A correspondent, dating from Euston, 

 Norfolk, inquires why his strawberries 

 should produce a crop in October, though 

 at the proper season they were almost 

 barren. The question is a very interest- 



