84 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



have a close call from frost. When there are indications of a 

 dew fall and the thermometer drops rapidly late in the day, 

 and the air is still, and the sky is clear, the gardener's safe 

 course is to cover the plants. Those in the cold-frames, if 

 covered even with cloth sash, will be protected from several 

 degrees of frost. Blankets and old bags and burlaps sup- 

 ported above the plants on a few short sticks will answer 

 the same purpose. 



For plants that have already been set out other means will 

 be necessary. One of the most effective methods of covering 

 such early things as potatoes and peas is to run the wheel hoe 

 with the hilling attachment along the row and hill up the 

 earth over the plants. 



Also you will find it well to save a supply of newspapers, 

 with which in a few minutes you can cover up a hundred or 

 two hundred plants or hills of such things as pole beans, 

 tomatoes, melons or squash; put several thicknesses of 

 newspaper over each and hold the edges down with a few 

 trowelfuls of dirt. Inverted tomato cans or flower pots may 

 be used to protect individual plants. 



If, in spite of all your precautions, some of your plants 

 get nipped they should be protected from the sun the next 

 morning and watered as early as possible with very cold 

 water. This may form a very thin coating of ice on the 

 leaves, but it will serve to get the frost out gradually, which 

 lessens the damage. 



Instead of temporary frost protection of this kind, how- 

 ever, much better and earlier results are to be had by per- 

 manent plant protectors, of which there are numerous kinds 

 to be bought or made. One of the simplest is the plain 

 forcing hill, which is nothing but a pane of glass on top of a 

 bank of soil about the hill or plant. In many soils, however, 

 this cannot be successfully accomplished; and it is always 

 somewhat of a makeshift method, open to the objection 

 that the hollowed hills collect water when it rains, and are 

 too low for most purposes. One of the various types of 

 individual forcers to be bought can be used to great ad- 

 vantage, particularly when only a few are required. With 



