480 



THE GARDENER. 



[Oct. 



wliile the plants must not be allowed 

 to sulfer for want of water, it requires 

 to be supplied in much less quantity. 

 Melons ripening this month can be 

 kept longer in good condition than in 

 summer. 



Cucumbers. — Keep the tempera- 

 ture a little over 70°. Give air early 

 in the day, and sh\it early to husband 

 sun-heat, and lessen the moisture in 

 the soil and air as the days shorten, 

 but avoid an arid state of the atmo- 

 sphere. Where the roots are near to 

 hot- water pipes, mulch the surface 

 with some old mushroom-bed manure, 

 and be careful that no check arises 



from over-dryness. Stop young grow- 

 ing plants at every joint, and do not 

 let the foliage become crowded nor 

 the j)lants bear too freely until well 

 established. 



Strawberries in Pots.— These should 

 now have thoroughly filled their pots 

 with roots, and have strong promi- 

 nent crowns. If very wet weather 

 occurs for any length of time lay the 

 pots on their sides, and should any of 

 the plants be too late, remove them to 

 cold frames and put glass over them, 

 keeping them near the glass and freely 

 aired, to get their growth more ma- 

 tured than could be in the open air. 



KITCHEN-GARDEN. 



The season has now arrived when 

 practical men turn their attention to 

 renovation and improvement of their 

 gardens. It is well to note the weak 

 points, and find out the best remedies 

 to strengthen such. If it is the ab- 

 sence of sound drainage, it may have 

 attention at earliest convenience : this 

 is too often looked upon as a rem- 

 edy for evils which a proper system 

 of deep cultivation would abolish. 

 When land of a tenacious character 

 is turned over shallow and careless, 

 the crops, whatever they are, root 

 quickly through this to the hard bot- 

 tom, through which they cannot pene- 

 trate ; rain rests there till it has had 

 time to percolate into any crevice or 

 crack which affords an outlet. When 

 drought sets in, plants are then baked 

 in the shallow surface, and either 

 shrivel up or become the victims of 

 mildew or vermin. It may be argued 

 that the bottom is so barren that if it 

 was turned to the surface nothing 

 could exist in it but weeds. With 

 such we have had to deal for a number 

 of years, and now we never had better 

 crops, and prepare the land by turn- 

 ing up a deep spade depth, and the 

 crumbs to the surface — then the bot- 

 tom is turned over as deep as a "graft- 

 ing" tool can move it (this tool is 

 something like a curved draining- 

 spade) ; the bottom layer being thus 

 prepared allows water to pass off 

 quickly, and roots of plants are also 

 safe from drought in dry seasons (such 

 as we experienced here during last 

 spring and early summer, when we 



were nine or ten weeks with drying 

 winds and total absence of a single 

 shower). The bottom layer becomes 

 enriched, and in course of time may 

 be brought to the surface in small jiro- 

 portions to act as a purifier to the top 

 layer of soil. Light surfaces may 

 often be improved with an addition 

 of heavy soil worked into them ; and 

 heavy land is of course improved 

 by light sharp soil being mixed with 

 it. Preparations for crops to be plant- 

 ed this month (such as Cabbage, Let- 

 tuce, Batavian Endive, or any other) 

 should be thoroughly trenched, and 

 the manure placed evenly under tie 

 top spit. In spring, when growth 

 becomes active, the roots then run 

 greedily downwards away from drought. 

 Were this practice more general, 

 there would be less experience of the 

 evils of premature seeding of Cabbage. 

 Space does not allow us to give in- 

 stances of experiments we have tried, 

 which have, in every case, proved the 

 fallacy of shallow talk. 



It is not uncommon at this season 

 to see gardens belonging to the ama- 

 teur class left in dishabille just as all 

 crops ceased to produce, and weeds 

 and decaying matter offending the 

 eye in every direction, A special 

 effort should be made to remove all 

 that is unsightly and useless : it may 

 be collected on any vacant space, cov- 

 ered with soil, and at the proper time 

 can be turned into the trenches ; or 

 where there is a proper rubbish-heap 

 (kept free from stones and sticks), all 

 vegetable matter can be rotted and 



