OCTOBER. 



709 



OCTOBER. 



Endive, Lettuces, &c. Some lettuces for 

 a spring supply may be pricked out under a 

 frame, though the hardier kinds will fre- 

 quently stand the winter on a warm border. 

 Lettuce and endive formerly planted out 

 now require tying up. Small supplies of 

 small salading sow weekly in small boxes. 



Potatoes. The tubers are now at maturity. 

 Dig them up and store for the winter, so as 

 to protect them from the frost. The three- 

 pronged potato-fork, with broad tines, 

 rounded and blunt at the points, is a well- 

 known implement. It is usual, where the 

 haulm is strong, to cut off the tops, and by 

 inserting the fork under the whole plant, 

 turn the whole up in a mass, the potatoes 

 being collected after the digger in baskets ; 

 they may either be stored in a suitable room, 

 or stored away in pits in the open ground, 

 properly drained and covered, first with a 

 layer of earth, then with a thatching of 

 clean straw, and then with soil sufficiently 

 thick to protect them from the severest 

 frosts. 



Radishes. Sow also a small patch of 

 radishes in the beginning, and again to- 

 wards the end of the month. If the weather 

 proves mild, they will advance, and be 

 ready for drawing in November and 

 December. 



Seakale. This will be ready to force 

 towards the end of the month, either by 

 removal to a forcing bed, or by covering 

 the plants with pots, and these with stable 

 manure on the beds. 



Spinach, Winter. Keep winter spinach 

 free from weeds, and thin off where requi- 

 site, leaving the strongest plants. 



October. Orchard House, 

 Work in. 



Rest for Trees. Unless this structure be 

 used to ripen fruit that has been retarded 

 behind a north wall, it should now stand 

 open night and day, or the trees be 

 removed outside, and the house be devoted 



for three months to storing bedding plants, 

 &c. If the trees are planted out in the 

 borders, then the lights may be stored 

 away for three months, or used for other 

 buildings. In all cases secure a season of 

 perfect repose for the trees. 



Strawberries. These will or ought to 

 have completed their growth for the 

 season ; the sooner they go to rest the 

 better. The floors of orchard houses are 

 the best possible wintering places ; as cool 

 as possible, without being frozen, is all the 

 winter treatment they require. Properly 

 placed, it is seldom indeed that they 

 require any water until they are wanted 

 to grow. 



Strawberry Plants, Stacking. Lacking 

 the floor or stage of any cool house or cold 

 pit, the next best mode of keeping them is 

 to stack them, not exactly as reaped corn 

 is stacked, with all the heads inwards, but 

 just the reverse heads out. See also 

 Strawberry Plants, How to Stack. 



October. Shrubbery, Work in. 



Transplanting. Now is the time to 

 look at the shrubbery and pleasure ground 

 and note what changes are to be effected 

 there, if any are required. It may be that 

 beeches, &c., 20 feet or 30 feet high, are 

 to be moved, to break the prevailing east 

 wind, on the other side of the lawn. Lose 

 no time, then, in preparing the holes, and 

 getting all preliminaries arranged for a 

 heavy job of transplanting. The sooner 

 all deciduous trees are moved, the greater 

 is the chance of success. If the weather 

 continues mild, they will form fresh roots 

 before the winter ; and by the time that 

 the spring excites to renewed growth, the 

 roots will be sufficiently restored to perform 

 their important functions without let or 

 hindrance. Large evergreens may also be 

 safely removed this month. 



Turf Laying, &c. Turf laying, and 

 ground work generally, will also be pro 



