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JOUBNAL OF HOKTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 31, 1867. 



cayed. Let all observations aa to improper heights or mia- 

 arrangemeuts of any kind be made now. Coloured sticks might 

 be made use of as to the arraugement of both coloHiaud height. 

 The colour of the stick would indicate the colour required to 

 fill that station, whilst the name of the plant and remarks 

 might be written thereon. Plant all autumn bulbs without 

 delay. Let all biennials be planted out soon, such plants as 

 the Sweet William and Wallflower, are of great use in flower 

 borders, and may be planted three or four in a mass. Dahlias 

 should be marked forthwith. Pinks may be planted out, and 

 Carnation layers or pipings still potted to place in frames. 

 Standard Eoses that have made luxuriant growth during the 

 summer, should now be cut moderately back to lighten the 

 head, to prevent damage by wind ; also stake and tie such as 

 require it. As the different kinds of bedding plants become 

 destroyed by frost, they should be removed, and the beds 

 trenched quite to the bottom ; by attending to this now, much 

 time and labour will be saved next spring, and the beds will 

 be in a much better condition for planting. Hardy annuals 

 that have been sown for blooming early in spring, it 'too thick, 

 should now be thinned, and transplanted into vacant beds. 

 New work, laying turf, and planting, should be forwarded now 

 as much as possible before the weather changes to wet. Dahlia 

 stems that are blackened by frost should be cut near the ground, 

 but the roots need not be taken up for a short time, if the 

 weather continue favourable. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



The time is at hand when ungenial weather will frequently 

 drive the labourer in-doors, where a stock of work should now 

 be provided. The tying of new mats, cutting and picking 

 shreds for the walls, cleaning old nails, drawing bast for the 

 next summer, arrangement of herbs, examining stores, making 

 flower sticks and labels, washing and putting away all spare 

 propagating and other glasses, making straw or reed mats, 

 protectors for tender plants, as well as making a stock of besoms 

 and baskets for the ensuing year, are matters of as great con- 

 sideration as out-door business, and should be attended to in 

 good time. Gardeners and others should purchase a most liberal 

 stock of Russian mats at this period— in fact, a twelvemonth's 

 supply; these will at once furnish a little in-door labour. 

 Willows should be immediately procured for baskets, and a 

 good stock of cloth for shred-cutting. All superfluous or dead 

 plants in pots should be emptied out, and the dirty pots from 

 every part placed in the shed ready for washing in bad weather. 

 Plenty of broken pots should also be housed in a shed corner 

 to be crushed and sorted in bad weather ; they may be fairly 

 reckoned amongst the most important materials for the potting- 

 shed. Any one having old, half-worn sashes without glass, 

 may readily make most useful straw covers of them, well 

 adapted for covering Endive and other salads, Parslev, &c., as 

 also for placing over early crops of Potatoes, Radishes, and 

 Carrots. The straw is drawn through the hands in bunches, 

 and laid across the longitudinal bars of the sash in a regular 

 way. When covered equally, three or four long sticks or laths 

 are placed on the straw in a Une with the sash-bars, and bound 

 down to the latter in a few places by tarred cord. If housed when 

 out of use they will last a couple of years. Attend to good arrange- 

 ment in the conservatory, picking ofl' decayed leaves, thorough 

 ventilation, ite. Fine specimens of Chrysanthemums, late 

 Salvias, with other autumn plants, should "be occasionally in- 

 troduced from the other houses, removing occasionally inferior 

 plants for a while to make way for them. In the mixed green- 

 house let every attention be given to a due regulation of the 

 heat. Where everything is grown in one house, it is of the 

 utmost importance that heat shall be in proper proportion to 

 the hght. In such a house the proprietor naturally desires to 

 have flowers late as well as early, as far as they can be secured. 

 To effect this, fires must be in use occasionally, even at this 

 period, and to those who are thus circumstanced, we would 

 say beware of night heat ; oo' will be sufficient in such a structure 

 for the present. Let the thermometer rise, notwithstanding, to 

 70' or more during sunshine, observing, when such is fitful, to 

 let the temperature fall to 00° in the day, if dull weather take 

 place. 



STOVE. 



Plenty of sunshine and free ventilation are now the re- 

 quisites here, observing much moderation in the use of arti- 

 ficial heat. Let the thermometer rise, however, to 80' or more 

 on bright days. It is not the object now to promote growth, 

 but to take care of that which we have obtained. The season 

 of light and heat is taken advantage of by the diligent gardener 

 who does not work against nature. 



FORCINO-PIT. 



Keep the temperature of this structure by night at 60°, and 

 increase it by day, if necessary, by fire heat 15° above the night 

 temperature. This will assist nature in flowering the few plants 

 and bulbs which bloom in anything like perfection during 

 dull and dark November. All autumnal forcing, whether of 

 fruits or plants, is in direct opposition to nature, and swim- 

 ming against the current requires great exertion, especially as 

 two currents have now set in — cold and darkness. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Neapolitan Violets should have as much air as possible, and 

 the runners should be removed as they appear. Brompton 

 and Intermediate Stocks intended for next year should be kept 

 dry, and air should be admitted to prevent damp. See that 

 everything is now stored for the winter. Slop Verbenas as they 

 advance, in order to make them bushy. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST "SVEEK. 



Collecting Tree Leaves. — Few gardeners, however anxious, 

 can act up to their own sense of right and duty, even as re- 

 spects the commonest operations. A change in the plans of 

 the heads of the family, visitors coming or expected, and other 

 circumstances, will often cause work to be done that might have 

 remained undone, and cause work to be put off that ought to 

 be attended to ; and this is often of much consequence in such 

 changeable weather as we may expect now, v.hen every fine 

 day ought to be devoted to forwarding all out-door work as 

 much as possible. The necessity of neatness, and the leaves 

 falling from the trees, make a vast amount of work, and con- 

 tinuous work too, if the attempt must be made to keep the 

 lawns and the walks thoroughly clean. Unless under parti- 

 cular circumstances, and where it is desirable to employ as 

 much instead of as little labour as possible, we do not consider 

 such constant sweeping anything but a work of superfluous 

 attention to neatness. 



Strange it is, but true, that many of us will become almost 

 poetic about the wondrous beauty of the many colours which 

 the leaves of our deciduous trees assume in autumn ; but no 

 sooner do these richly coloured leaves drop to the ground than 

 we look upon them as suggestive of desolation and of melan- 

 choly ideas, and we are never quite satisfied until they are aU 

 removed out of our sight. Even to accomplish this near a 

 mansion involves no small labour. Only the other day we had 

 as pretty a piece of short green carpet lawn as the eye ever 

 rested on, and the direction of the wind was such that we 

 hoped the appearance would last for a long time without our 

 being at further trouble; but a change of the wind during the 

 night covered the whole of this piece of lawn with a livery of 

 varied yellow from the Horse Chestnut, the Elm, and the 

 Maple. We just note this that proprietors of places may be 

 reminded of the vast difference of labour involved when it is 

 looked for that these shall be removed every day, when com- 

 pared with the more easy system of quietly waiting until all, 

 or the greater part, of the leaves have fallen. 



This latter plan, so far as the leaves are concerned, maybe 

 safely followed in rather low sheltered positions, and then the 

 saving as to labour is immense ; but in elevated, exposed places, 

 and in cases where the leaves are valuable, it will not be safe 

 to wait for all the leaves, but collect them whenever they are 

 thick enough to secure a good heap quickly. We have some- 

 times waited until the great bulk had come down, and had the 

 satisfaction of finding the trees bare after a windy night, and 

 not a leaf to be seen in pleasure ground or park, all having 

 been wafted to the ploughed fields far away. This just teaches 

 us at times to be satisfied with moderate instead of more ample 

 returns for our labour. 



We have sometimes in exposed positions tried to combine 

 neatness with economy in the following manner. Near the 

 mansion we have tried to keep the grass shorter and smoother 

 even than in the height of summer, and on that, if there was 

 more than the slightest breeze of wind, the dry leaves would 

 not remain. Walks smooth and rolled will have almost aa 

 little tendency to hold a dry leaf ; iu fact, they would be less 

 tempting than the smooth lawn but for the small hollows at 

 the verges, and even in this respect the less the verge is elevated 

 above the walk the better. Then on the pleasure grounds 

 farther from the house and but little seen, we have let the grass 

 grow longer at this season, or we have scythe cut it without 

 cleaning it up for a few days, and in these cases the long grass, 

 or the small ridges where cut, held the leaves where they fell, 



