HINTS TO AMATEURS. 375 



say, subjects that vdW bear anything short of hard frost, — 

 pots and greenhouses for those that will bear none, and 

 stoves and warmed buildings for plants belonging to the 

 tropics and warm countries. In supplying artificial climate, 

 there are several points to be attended to. One is, that in 

 all parts of the world the darkness is colder than light, night 

 colder than day, — even where it is light all night, shade is 

 colder than sun. We think we can hear our readers exclaim, 

 "Well, any fool knows that." Be it so ; but many gardeners, 

 in giving artificial climate, act as if they did not know it, — 

 they make up their fires at night, and reverse the order of 

 nature, their plants are shut up and the house heated more 

 than it has been all day. The more they know what we have 

 told them, namely, that night is colder than the day every- 

 where, the more they are to blame for reversing it when they 

 pretend to imitate the climate of foreign countries. 



EooT Preserving and Storing. — The great points to aim 

 at in the preservation of roots, are coolness and dryness, and 

 not to admit frost. Potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, beet- 

 root, mangel-wurzel, horse-radish, dahlias, asparagus, and 

 tubers and bulbs of all kinds, must be kept from heat, wet, 

 and frost. l^o matter how cool short of frost, no conse- 

 quence how dry if cool. Cellars underground, when dry, are 

 excellent places ; but when there is no proper place, parsnips, 

 carrots, mangel-wurzel, beet-root, and even dahlia tubers, may 

 be pitted in the same way as potatoes, — that is, piled in a bank 

 covered with straw, and six inches of earth over all of it. 

 By choosing a diy shady place, these may be as safe as they 

 would be in a dry cellar. But where there are proper apart- 

 ments, outhouses, and cellars, there is this advantage, — they 

 can be used from day to day, whereas a pit opened daily 

 would soon spoil the remaining stock. Bear in mind, then, 

 that all you have to do is to keep any or all roots and tubers 

 from frost, heat, and damp, and they will be safe. 



Glass is a very important item in a garden establishment. 

 It is all over the place, — occasionally and often gets broken, 

 when nobody did it. We chiefly mention the subject here to 

 recommend that some be had of all the sizes of the panes in 

 use, that when an accident happens it may be immediately 

 repaired. The heat that escapes through a broken pane in 

 the roof can only be appreciated when the house is fumigated 

 with tobacco ; to stand outside and see the smoke issuing 



