498 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. [SEPT. 



The regular watering of the plants must now be duly attended to, 

 for one day's neglect, at this season, might destroy many of your 

 most valuable plants. Keep all the collection free from decayed 

 leaves, and such pots as are plunged in the earth must be turned quite 

 round in their seats once a week, for the reasons mentioned in the 

 preceding months. 



Keep all the pots and tubs free from weeds, and continue to pro- 

 pagate the various kinds by suckers, layers, or cuttings.. 



LABELLING THE PLANTS. 



In large collections all the plants should be labelled, having the 

 generic and specific name of the plant on each label. These may 

 be made of small slips of pine or cedar, each from six to ten inches 

 long, near an inch broad at top, tapering to a point at the lower 

 end, and about a quarter of an inch thick. "When the sticks are 

 ready, the parts to be written on should be rubbed lightly with 

 white oil paint; then with a black lead pencil, while yet wet, 

 write the generic and specific name of the plant thereon, which will 

 soon dry and become completely permanent ; the label is then to be 

 stuck into the pot near the rim, and so deep as to leave the writing 

 easy to be seen. These labels will continue good for three years, or 

 longer. 



SEPTEMBER. 



WORK TO BE DONE IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



SOME persons who write on gardening, content themselves by 

 simply saying that such a thing should be sown in such a month ; 

 this gives a latitude in the present, of thirty days, so that an inex- 

 perienced person may be led to think that he is within due bounds, 

 if he sows on the 30th of September what ought to have been sown 

 in the first week, perhaps about the first day thereof, whilst expe- 

 rienced gardeners well know that a difference of three or four days, 

 particularly in this month, makes a greater odds, in crops, than most 

 people could imagine would be consequent on the difference of as 

 many weeks. 



I am not an advocate for sowing seeds on a particular day of the 

 week or month, nor in the full or wane of the moon, nor when the 

 wind blows from the east, west, or any particular point of the com- 

 pass; these ridiculous and superstitious notions have been long 

 since deservedly banished out of the well-informed world ; but in 

 this month, above all others in the year, there is an absolute neces- 

 sity of sowing certain crops within a few days of particular periods, 

 in order to insure the best possible success, so that the plants may 



