MONTHLY CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS. 397 



plants that are outside should be covered with two or three 

 inches of leaves, salt hay, or straw, to protect them during 

 winter. Cabbages that have headed may be usually preserved 

 against injury by frost until the middle of next month, by 

 simply pulling them up, and packing them close together in a 

 dry spot in the open field with the heads down and roots up. 

 On the approach of cold weather in December they should 

 bo covered up with leaves as high as the tops of the roots ; or, 

 if the soil is light, it may be thrown over them if leaves are 

 not convenient. Cabbages so packed will keep until March, if 

 the covering has not been put on too early. Where small lots 

 only are grown, these and Cauliflower may be hung up in 

 a cool cellar, and will keep for months. Whenever it is practi- 

 cable, all empty ground should be dug or plowed this month, 

 trenching or subsoiling, whenever time will permit. All such 

 operations, when performed in the fall, not only benefit the 

 soil, but greatly facilitate work at the hurried season in the 

 spring. The cold frames where Cabbage, Lettuce, or Caul- 

 iflower plants have been planted will now require regular 

 ventilation by lifting up the sashes in warm days, and on 

 the approach of very cold weather, straw mats or shutters 

 would be a great protection to the plants. For the CauU- 

 flower this protection is absolutely necessary here. 



DECEMBER. 



Greenhouse and Flower Garden. — We are now fairly into 

 winter, and close attention must be given to protecting all 

 tender plants. It is one of the commonest complaints, es- 

 pecially from ladies, that their plants "looked so nice until 

 one cold night in December " defeated the whole care of the 

 year by killing or wounding hundreds of the cherished favorites 

 of the greenhouse or windo%v garden. There is no rule but 

 vigilance ; and as extra strong fires will be kept up, look out 

 again nightly for all combustible matter near the flue or 

 chimney. If, by sundown, you find the thermometer in the 

 greenhouse or parlor where your plants are kept, falling down to 

 thirty-four or thirty-fi^e degrees, the chances are that there will 

 be frost in the house before morning unless the fires are kept up. 

 If there are not sufiicient heating arrangements, the best pro- 

 tection, in such cases, is either to set the plants under the 

 benches or on the walk if in the greenhouse, or move them from 



