300 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



^October, 



housing the root crops for the Winter. Beets ai'e 

 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 frozen ; 

 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 i 

 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 situation, 

 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 

 Winters the September sowing grows too for- 

 "ward when protected. A very slight protection 

 is better for them than any elaborate affair, the 

 sun principally injuring them. The same re- 

 marks apply to lettuce intended to be kept over 

 Winter for Spring use, though the sun is less de- 

 structive 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 which you pay a dollar for a mouthful. The 

 asparagus, sea kale, lettuce, radish, and cauli- 

 flower can be had for months earlier than in the 

 open ground, wherever a regular temperature of 

 55° can be obtained — with, of course, the proper 

 amount of air, moisture, etc. Asparagus 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 circum- 

 stances, as it would be in full light. 



Radishes require an abundance of air, and let- 

 tuce light. Cauliflowers, if kept for some months 

 with all the light and air possible, at a tempera- 

 ture of 50" or 55'*, may have it gradually raised 

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

 use in Pebruarj', when there is no vegetable more 

 desirable. 



Cucumbers, tomatoes and beans require a 

 temperature of at least 65° to begin withj 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. 



THE JAPAN PERSIMMON AGAIN. 



BY E. MANNING, HARRISBURG, O. 



In the September number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, Mr. Samuel Parsons, of Flushing, 

 N. Y., criticises my remarks on the hardiness of 

 the Japanese Pei'simmon. I gave my experi- 

 ence because you asked for information about its 

 hardiness. Mr. Parsons says the American Per- 

 simmon is a Southern tree, rarely found indige- 

 nous with us, etc. Mr. A. J. Downing, in his 

 Landscape Gardening, says, page 244: "The 

 Highlands of the Hudson, and about the same 

 latitude on the Connecticut, is its I^rthern 

 limit." I have been perfectly acquainted with 

 groves of the native tree in two different locali- 

 ties in Central Ohio ; and the trees, old and 

 young, are perfectly hardy there. 



I could show Mr. Parsons plants in my own 

 grounds not over two feet high, which passed 

 through last winter without losing a bud. If 

 Mr. Parsons' experience is, that young trees of 

 four to six feet cannot be left out unprotected, 

 the native tree there and here is very different. 



As I slated in my former remarks on the Ja- 

 panese varieties, I planted them one year ago 

 last Spring. Both varieties were grafted on the 

 common stock, four inches above ground. I may 

 now say, further, that I turned a flour barrel 

 over each one last Fall, before cold weather set 

 in. Last Spring I was about to order six more 

 varieties, but first examined the ones I already 

 had; and to my chagrin found the tops and 

 bodies of both were killed to the junction of the 

 graft. The native stock to the ground was unin- 

 jured. Both of the Japanese kinds had made a 

 pretty good growth the season before. 



I feel justified in my former remarks about 

 expensive curiosities that only ended in chagrin, 

 for I have spent several hundred dollars for trees 

 and shrubs which proved tender, some of which 

 I tried the third time. 



BUDDING THE WILD PLUM. 



BY T. T. S., ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



Some years ago there was considerable de- 

 mand for plum trees budded on the wild West- 

 ern or Canadian plum ; but nurserymen found it 



