156 GARDENING. 



to open trenches around the plant, and to draw up 

 about it the earth furnished by these. This is again 

 covered with long dung or stable litter, so as entire- 

 ly to exclude rain, and snow, and frost. But, in ma- 

 King these provisions against cold and wet weather, 

 we must not forget that it is possible to be careful 

 over-much; for if the mounds of earth and litter be 

 large and close, we expose our plants to suffocation 

 from want of air ; to exhaustion from a continued 

 vegetation, and to scorching from the fermentation 

 of the covering matter, which, if the weather be wet 

 and but occasionally warm, seldom fails to occur. 



To obviate these difficulties, it has been proposed 

 that the mounds be gradually formed ; that the first 

 covering be merely a wrapping of long dung, and 

 that the additions made to it be conformed to the 

 weather, leaving openings in all cases on its south- 

 ern side for the purposes of ventilation, and in no 

 case permitting the covering to exceed two feet in 

 thickness.* But even this mode of treatment is not 

 free from objection ; for, iir^fcthe direct application 

 of the dung to the plant will always alter its flavour, 

 and very- much degrade it ; and again, the capri- 

 ciousness of the weather does not generally give 

 either warning of its changes, or time to accommo- 

 date ourselves to them : they often take place in 

 the night, and often (whether in the night or in the 

 day) under circumstances which prevent us from 

 giving to the plant the additional covering it may 

 require. Two other methods, therefore, not dis- 

 similar in themselves, have been suggested ; the 

 one, to employ hollow cylinders of earthenware, 

 covered with a tile or piece of slate, and of capa- 

 city sufficient to embrace the plant; the other, to 

 form caps of straw (such as are used for lodging 

 bees), and having a moveable top of the same ma- 



* This suggestion is M. Thouin's ; the writer of the excel- 

 lent article on the artichoke, to be found in the Encyclopedia 

 Methodique. 



