DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



He followed our advice — not only in his 

 garden and orchard, but in his meadows. 

 In the latter he sowed it broad-cast, like 

 plaster, while in the garden he spread it over 

 the ground while ridging it up for winter. 

 This season he had better growth of vegeta- 

 bles and grass, and larger fruit, than for 

 many years past, and he attributes it very 

 justly to the action of guano applied in the 

 autumn — when it has time to impart its fer- 

 tilising properties to the soil, in which they 

 become completely incorporated before the 

 next season's growth commences. 



Save Thk Dead Leavks. — Very few 

 gardeners would be guilty of so foolish a 

 thing as to waste barn-yard manure. But 

 they are almost all guilty of a waste not a 

 whit less excusable. , We mean the waste of 

 dead leaves that fall at this season of the 

 year, from trees and shrubs of all kinds. 

 If every horticulturist would reflect for a 

 moment on the nature of these fallen leaves 

 — which contain not only the vegetable mat- 

 ter, but the earthy salts, lime, potash, &c., 

 needed for the next season's growth-and that 

 too, exactly in the proportion required by the 

 very tree or plant from which they fall — 

 nay more, if they would consider that it is 

 precisely in this way, by the decomposition 

 of these very falling leaves, that nature en- 

 riches the soil, year after year, in her great 

 forests, it would scarcely be possible for 

 such a reflecting horticulturist to allow these 

 leaves to be swept away by every wind that 

 blows, and finally be lost altogether. 



A wise horticulturist will diligently col- 

 lect, from week to week, the leaves that fall 

 under each tree, and by digging them under 

 the soil about the roots, where they will de- 

 cay and enrich that soil, provide in the 

 cheapest manner, the best possible food for 

 that tree. In certain vineyards in France, 

 the vines are kept in the highest condition 

 by simply burying at their roots every leaf 

 and branch that is pruned off" such vines, or 

 falls from them at the end of the sea- 

 In the same manner, the leaves that 



fall from young fruit trees should be careful 

 ly saved and dug-in beneath the surface of 

 the soil. A single year's experience of its 

 good results will confirm our readers in this 

 practice. 



Some Autumn Hixts. — Dear Sir : I send 

 you a few hints for the management of the 

 garden in autumn, which may perhaps be 

 useful to your readers. 



1. Carnations. — A frame of boards — 

 an old hot-bed frame covered with glass and 

 a few boards, is all that is needful to keep 

 Carnations through the winter. The plants 

 should be taken up — the new layers I mean, 

 and carefully potted in a mixture of old de- 

 composed manure, sand and loam; the pots 

 set on some coal ashes spread over the bot- 

 tom of the bed. So long as the weather is 

 warm and mild, give a good supply of wa- 

 ter whenever the soil in the pots appears the 

 least dry, and keep the frames open. When 

 the frost sets in, water more sparingly — but 

 give air as often as you can. During the 

 winter, keep the glass covered with boards 

 for a good part of the time — especially if the 

 soil in the pots is frozen. The great point 

 is to keep the plants perfectly dormant and 

 quiet during the winter, and for this pur- 

 pose you only open the bed to the sun when 

 the weather is fine, and there is not a parti- 

 cle of frost in it — all the rest of the time 

 you keep it shaded well with boards, ad- 

 mitting the air in at one end — or both ends. 

 As spring opens, j'ou gradually open the 

 plants to the sun, and commence giving them 

 more water. About the 10th of April you 

 plant them out in the bed where they are to 

 bloom. I ought to add to this simple prac- 

 tice, that the rats and mice are verj' fond of 

 Carnations, and it will be wise to keep a lit- 

 tle arsenic and meal on boards, at the bot- 

 tom of the beds, that they may get their de- 

 serts. 



2. Dahlias — Many lose their Dahlias 

 from too much care in preserving the roots. 

 The following is my mode, pursued with 

 success for years. I take up the plants 

 soon as the frost has blackened the 



