THE WINTER PROTECTION OF PLANTS. 75 



laid in such a way that there are some air passages under- 

 neath and among* them. If this is done in a neighborhood 

 infested with mice it will be necessary to guard against their 

 depredations by scattering some h.andfuls of poisoned wheat 

 about the mounds. 



It is also very desirable to have the wintering plant kept 

 somewhat dry. Nothing is more certainly fatal to it than 

 that it should stand in a foot of water for a while in the early 

 spring. And it is good policy in the case of the more tender 

 plants to cover the mounds with tar paper or with packing 

 cases to keep off the wet. 



Now to speak more in detail about the course to be pur- 

 sued with regard to various kinds of plants it is to be noted 

 that some require no winter protection at all. Small fruits 

 like currants, Downing gooseberries, Turner and Philadelphia 

 raspberries, do quite well without any winter protection, 

 although in the case of raspberries it is altogether better to 

 cover them because it brings them through the winter with 

 unimpaired vigor and because if they are branchy, as they 

 ought to be, the melting snow is very liable to break off the 

 branches. 



Many of the perennial flowers like the delphiniums, 

 emerocallis, perennial phlox and sweet william do quite well 

 in an ordinarily sheltered situation without any protection 

 but it is safer to scatter a little litter over them ; and there is 

 also a long list of flowering shrubs which are quite independ- 

 ent of any artificial covering during the severest winter and 

 the most unevenly regulated spring. 



There are on the other hand some plants ordinarily 

 reported hardy which have not proved to be so in my experi- 

 ence. I have tried twice to bring hollyhocks through the 

 winter out of doors and have not succeeded, although the 

 Indian Head experimental farm reports that it succeeded in 

 1894. My efforts to winter hydrangea paniculata success- 

 fully have been disappointing but on this line I have not given 

 up trying. 



