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; IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. a 
4 es beauty of the flower-garden for the present year 25 
, has now fairly gone, and all that can be done to * 
please the eye is to maintain as much neatness as possible. Keep the 
broom and rake in constant use, until the trees and plants are divested 
of their decaying leaves ; cut away the tops of all plants that have been 
killed by frost, and rake and trim the beds. Planting and transplanting 
trees and shrubs, forming and altering walks, laying down turf, and all 
kinds of alterations and improvements, where such is desirable, will 
now eneross considerable attention. Wherever it is practicable, it is 
much best to commence such business at this time, and proceed with 
all despatch, to enable each to become established or settled before 
another spring. These matters are too often deferred, or do not engage 
attention to that extent they ought to receive. New work hurriedly 
and imperfectly done, as a natural consequence of, and in conjunction 
with its being performed late in spring, is a sure prelude, more or less, 
to unsightly : appearances through summer and autumn, produced by 
dead or dying trees and shrubs, brown glades and patches of lawn, ugly 
fissures in newly made ground, and so on. Amongst other out-door 
occupations this month, are partially or otherwise pruning a variety of 
things, supporting and protecting them at the same time, as may be 
deemed necessary. In the protection of tender things, the principles 
demanding attention are few and simple, and within the reach of every 
one, at least as far as such can be carried without the aid of houses and 
artificial heat. A comparative degree of dryness is the first great 
essential, whether in the atmosphere or the soil. Ina frame or pit, this 
amount of dryness cannot be guaranteed without motion in the air; 
and this, of course, in the absence of fire-heat must be accomplished by 
a very free ventilation at every fitting opportunity, remembering that a 
small amount of frost is, in general, less prejudicial than an accumu- 
lation of damp, which will rapidly tend to a kind of mortification in the 
system of the plant. The same atmospheric conditions are to be 
obtained out of doors, as far as attention can secure them; thus, half- 
hardy plants against trellises or detached, if covered with a mat and 
stuffed closely with hay inside, will be in danger of perishing of what 
we may for the present term suffocation ; the same specimen will always 
run through a long winter better with the mat alone, more especially if 
the collar is well protected by some dry and porous material, and, 
above all, the root well top-dressed with sawdust or ashes, or perhaps 
the two blended. As to comparative dryness of the soil, that must be 
accomplished principally by the most perfect drainage; this is indeed 
the great desideratum with plants of tender habits; indeed, without it, 
