271 



DECEMBER WORK IN THE GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE. 



"We are not prepared to incur the 

 responsibility attaching to the office 

 of the prophet, else we would predict 

 a desperately wet winter, and would 

 urge our readers to get earth-work, 

 planting, &c, completed as speedily as 

 possible, for it is likely enough that 

 out-door work will be scarcely prac- 

 ticable for the next two months. We 

 have had an unusually dry season ; 

 brooks are dried up, wells have failed 

 to give their wonted supplies, and, in 

 many places, trees and shrubs planted 

 last spring, have perished entirely, 

 or have scarcely got hold of the 

 ground even now. The mean tem- 

 perature, and the mean rain fall, are, 

 however, pretty constant, and what 

 is withheld by Providence, at one 

 season, is usually compensated for 

 in another, hence, as we had less 

 than our usual amount of rain in 

 October, and scarcely any all through 

 November, a very heavy fall may be 

 expected before the year terminates, 

 and, indeed, may come before these 

 pages meet the reader's eye. Nature 

 never remains long in our debt, and 

 the amount of rain to be expected 

 during a certain season, if withheld, 

 may be given at last in one single 

 day, as happened on the 22nd of 

 October, 1857, when, in the course of a 

 few hours, the heavens let fall a deluge. 

 December is a most uncertain month ; 

 it may be hard frost with snow or muggy 

 weather, and drizzling rains ; and 

 so long as the weather continues open 

 for a single day, whatever needs to be 

 done out of doors, should be done at 

 once, and everything should be left 

 so that the severest weather can do no 

 harm. The probabilities are in favour 

 of long-continued and heavy rains, 

 and when once the ground gets sod- 

 dened, it docs more harm than good 

 to touch it ; hence, where planting 

 cannot be completed pretty early in the 

 month, it is best to leave it over till 

 February, for from the middle of 

 December to the end of January, is a 

 hazardous time to disturb any kinds 

 of trees and shrubs. 



Kitchen Garden. — Lay all spare 

 ground up in trenches, and on strong land 

 turn in manure. On sandy soils manure 



should be withheld till spring, as it may 

 get washed away by the winter rains. All 

 choice crops should be at once protected 

 sufficiently to enable them to resist the 

 severest weather ; take up broccoli and lay 

 them in by the heels with their heads to the 

 north, and earth up the stems nearly to the 

 heads, and beat the earth into a firm slope 

 to throw off the rain. Any cauliflower or 

 lettuce plants remaining out, should, except 

 in very warm sheltered spots, be at once got 

 into frames or pits, or underhand-lights, but 

 are to have air at every favourable opportu- 

 nity. If damp hangs about them for any 

 length of time, they will suffer more than 

 from cold, and at the first severe frost may 

 be cut off altogether. Sow Sangster's No. 

 1, and Daniel 6'Rourke Pea, and a few rows 

 of mazagan beans on dry warm slopes. It 

 is best to sow thick, and cover the drills 

 with fresh wood or fine coal-ashes. If the 

 plants are too crowded, they may be thinned, 

 and a few more rows made by trans- 

 planting, but the chances are that weather 

 and vermin will thin them sufficiently lief. .re 

 the time for the first spring sowings. Plant 

 rhubarb, seakale, asparagus, and potatoes. 

 Go on forcing all except potatoes, and of 

 the latter, a few ash-leaved may be planted 

 in frames over well-tempered dung, for an 

 early supply. They do very well under 

 calico lights, but will require to be well pro- 

 tected by mats or litter during frosts. 



Fruit Garden Prune and nail in wall- 

 fruit trees, and give a little protection to 

 the roots of tender fruit trees in hard 

 weather. Straw or dry fern will answer 

 as well as anything for this purpose, as 

 also to bind round the stems of vines that 

 are planted in borders outside of houses. 

 Dig lime and soot into the soil between the 

 rows of currants, gooseberries, and rasp- 

 berries, to nourish the roots and keep down 

 vermin. Plantations may be made now, 

 and canes of currants and gooseberries 

 put in to increase the stock. Old apple and 

 pear trees should have special attention now. 

 Where they are mossy or infested with 

 blight, scrub them with a dandy brushy 

 dipped in warm brine, or scrape the moss off 

 with any blunt instrument, such as an old 

 hoe. As a rule, orchard trees should not 

 be pruned at all ; but the rule is open to 

 many exceptions, and the knife and saw 

 must be used freely wherever trees have 

 been allowed to grow into a confused mass of 

 entangled branches. Cut all dead branches 

 away to the quick-wood, and smear every 

 wound made in the pruning with some clay 

 paint. Rank growth should be cut in, 

 and the whole of the branches regulated, 



