238 \U\\Vv \ NG OVER A WINTER FIRE. 



citlturist or Mi ores Rural New Yorker are 

 dragged from some dusty hiding-place, and 

 pored over with an interest that no plot in a 

 novel can awake/i. His limited library bearing 

 on the garden will be drawn upon as he reads 

 up on certain points, or seeks to learn the opin- 

 ion of others as to the culture and value of 

 certain crops. 



And this leads us to say that a gardener's 

 labors (if such you can call them) over a winter 

 fire, are the most profitable in the year. 



But little confidence does that campaign in- 

 spire which is carried forward on the hap-hazard 

 principle ; and strategy provided after dinner 

 on hot afternoons will not answer for the main 

 operations of the year. Therefore draw your 

 drsk or table to the easy-chair by the fireside, 

 and with pen and paper elaborate your plans, so 

 that when the season opens you will have 

 nothing to do but carry them out with the ut- 



