302 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[October, 



much manure, if the roots are healthy. If a 

 tree seems to suffer after a heavy manuring, it 

 is only that it was in a bad way before this. Of 

 course, if one were to empty a cesspool, a cart 

 load of fresh lime, or some other inordinate 

 mass of food under a tree, it would suffer ; but 

 our meaning is that no amount of manure that 

 would be found of benefit to any regular garden, 

 will be otherwise than beneficial to a fruit tree, 

 if the roots be healthy. 



Celery as it grows will require earthing up, 

 and Endive successively blanched ; but the main 

 business of the month will be preparations for 

 housing the root crops for the winter. Beets are 

 generally the first thing attended to, they 

 being the most easily injured by frost; Carrots, 

 Salsafy and Parsnips following. The latter are 

 never really good until they have been well fro- 

 zen ; and many leave them entirely in the ground^ 

 taking them up as wanted for use. We prefer 

 taking them all up and packing them in sand or 

 half-dried loam, in a shed or cellar, which can 

 be kept just above freezing point; yet the cooler 

 the better. If suffered to be in heaps they heat 

 and soon rot. In the same situation Endive 

 and Cape Brocoli may be preserved to the end 

 of the year — they are taken up with a small 

 quantity of earth adhering to them, and placed 

 side-by-side together. Tomatoes, if dug up also, 

 and suspended, roots upward, in such a situa- 

 tion, will keep good a long time; but this must 

 be done before the least frost has touched them. 

 It is a wise plan to sow a little more Early York 

 Cabbage early in the month, as in fine mild win- 

 ters the September sowing grows too forward 

 when protected. A very slight protection is bet- 

 ter for them than any elaborate affair, the sun 

 principally injuring them. The same remarks 

 apply to Lettuce intended to be kept overwinter 

 for spring use, though the sun is less destructive 

 to them than to the cabbage. 



Forcing vegetables, wherever the least com- 

 mand of heat can be had, is the most interesting 

 and useful part of gardening. It is not by any 

 means what it is often considered, an operation 

 by Avhich you pay a dollar for a mouthful. The 

 Asparagus, Sea Kale, Lettuce, Radish and 

 Cauliflower can be had for months earlier than 

 in the open ground, wherever a regular tem- 

 perature of 55° can be obtained, with, of course, 

 the proper amount of air, moisture, &c. As- 

 paragus can be had under a greenhouse stage, 

 though of course the tops will not be so green, 

 nor will it be much else but indifferent under 



such circumstances,- as it would be in full light. 



Radishes require an abundance of air, and 

 Lettuce light. Cauliflowers, if kept for some 

 months with all the light and air possible, at a 

 temperature of 50° or 55° may have it gradually 

 raised to 60° or 65°, and even 70,° and thus come 

 into use in February, when there is no vegetable 

 more desirable. 



Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Beans require a 

 temperature of at least 65° to begin with. If 

 a temperature of 70° can be maintained in the 

 coldest weather, a few of these might be sown 

 by the end of the month, which will produce 

 some very acceptable dishes about New Year's 

 day. Rhubarb, if carefully taken up at the fall 

 of the leaf and potted, or put into boxes, will 

 also come forward well if put under the stage in 

 a house of the last temperature. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



HAS THE PEAR A NEW ENEMY. 



BY A CONNECTICUT READER. 



I send you some tips and branches from my 

 injured i)ear trees. I hope you can tell me what 

 ails them. The ends of branches, new growths 

 and fruit buds look very much like those of the 

 buttonwood, which of late years has been subject 

 to some such trouble. Unless our books on the 

 pears are very loose and meagre about its pests, 

 the hurt to my trees seems that from a new foe. 



Is the Scoh/tus guilty of this harm ? I cannot 

 trace on my trees the marks of his work named 

 in the books. I have carefully searched but can- 

 not find him. That " small beetle " has not been 

 seen. Neither do I find that small hole as of a 

 pin or needle, at top or base of any bud, for him 

 to go out or in. Nor have I struck any gallery 

 of his boring around the pith of limb or bud. 

 No leaves wither after starting, as they do where 

 he cuts their sap conduits. 



On some of th e last year's growths, every leaf- 

 bud fails, and the shoot shrivels and dies down 

 to the old wood, whence a new one starts out to 

 try its chances. On another of last year's grow- 

 ing, only the end bud lives. There, right beside 

 this you may find shoots from whose sides at in- 

 tervals, one or two buds start, while all the rest 

 are dead. In like manner the fruit buds are 

 served. Some die clear down to the branch, 

 others only to their base, whence pushes out 

 a thrifty growth for a new struggle with its foe. 

 Some trees, and some parts of the same tree, suf- 

 fer more than others. The tops are most exempt 



