THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



thought that the right method to beat the spring 

 frosts would be by lighting slow fires, that would 

 produce a warm and heavy smoke, to hang between 

 the trees on such still nights as usually accompany 

 frost. The smudge fire is a method well thought 

 of by our Board of Agriculture, and its efficacy has 

 been vindicated where it has been tried. In the dead 

 leaves of June, then, in the lank weeds uprooted 

 from the garden, the damp straw of our stables, the 

 clippings of the shrubbery, and much other unvalued 

 rubbish, reside many of next year's apples. The 

 careful gardener collects heaps of such stuff, and 

 would like to burn it now. If he does, he may be 

 burning next year's apples. There is one supreme 

 week when such burning should be done when the 

 pink apple-buds have just opened, and when a kindly 

 declaration of war in the keen afternoon air tells 

 us that Jack Frost is about to descend on the embryo 

 ribstons and redstreaks of next September. 



