DEC.] THE GREEN-HOUSE. 575 



compost heaps if not clone last month, and prepare more if neces- 

 sary ; rake off the fallen leaves of trees, and dig among your clumps 

 and shrubbery plantations. 



In hard frosty weather, when little else can be done in the gar- 

 den, than the covering and uncovering of tender plants, See. prepare 

 lable sticks, to mark or number the various flowers and seeds 

 \vhen they are planted or sown, and prepare all the tools and every 

 other necessary convenience for your spring operations. 



THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



IT generally happens that the weather is extremely rigorous in 

 this month ; therefore, more than ordinary attention must be paid 

 to the Green House plants. In cold or frosty weather keep the 

 windows and doors closely shut, and close your window-shutters 

 carefully every night, and also in extremely rigorous frosts except 

 while the sun shines on the windows. 



When Green-Houses are so constructed as to have no window- 

 shutters, which is certainly wrong, large thick mats should be 

 hung and nailed, or made fast by small hooks, in front of the lights 

 every cold night, and also in the day time when the weather is 

 very severe, and no sun. It may sometimes be necessary, even 

 when there are shutters, to hang and nail up mats in front of the 

 windows, to check the piercing wind. If there are short roof-lights, 

 they must be covered with mats, or with strong canvass during the 

 continuance of severe weather ; these may be so contrived as to 

 roll up and fall down, by means of lines and pullies, at pleasure. 



During the continuance of severe frost accompanied by jiicrcing 

 cutting winds, the windows must never be opened, that is, you must 

 neither slide the lights up or down, but always keep them and the 

 door or doors close, and any plants that are too near the glass must 

 be removed into the interior of the house, especially at night and in 

 cloudy dark weather. 



If you find the frost likely to reach your plants, notwithstanding 

 all this care, you must heat the flues by gentle fires at night, and 

 also in the day time when the frost is very pierceing and the wea- 

 ther dark, and indeed without such a convenience it is almost use- 

 less to attempt the erection or trouble of a Green-House either in 

 the middle or eastern states, on account of their extremely rigorous 

 winters. But you must be particular never to heat the air above 

 40 or 45 degrees, of Fahrenheit's thermometer ; for all the heat that 

 the plants require at this season, is only,just as much as will pre- 

 sereve them effectually from frost. 



However, be very particular every day when the weather is 

 mild and the sun shining on the windows, to slide down the sashes 

 even if but half an hour, in the middle of the day, to admit fresh 



