November, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



XV 



dens should be looked over and staples re- 

 placed. If you have grown vines on your 

 house and barn, as I have advised, see that 

 these are all in perfect order for next year's 

 growth. Now go into your vineyard and trim 

 your grapes, laying down the vines at the 

 same time. The vines that must be covered 

 I can not recommend, although I do a little 

 of this sort of work myself. Dutchess and 

 Goethe and Iona require and deserve such 

 extra care, but you are probably growing 

 Worden and Niagara and Brighton and Hayes 

 and Agawam, which do not need covering. 

 When vines are quite young it is well enough 

 to hill up about them with compost or soil. 

 Now go into your flower garden and trim 

 your roses. If you live far enough to the 

 north you can afford to cover a few of these 

 — at least lay over them limbs of evergreens. 

 In this trimming business keep your saws and 

 shears away from your evergreen trees. An 

 evergreen tree should stand like a pyramid 

 flat on the ground. It can be headed in for a 

 few years to make it compact, but never 

 sheared. If you have evergreen hedges be 

 sure they are not trimmed until spring. 



There is a special sort of drainage necessary 

 at this time of the year, especially if you live 

 on a hillside. You must get ready for freshets 

 and a surplus of water when the thaws come. 

 Study your ground and cut little surface 

 ditches which will catch the water quickly 

 and throw it into larger ditches. The im- 

 portance of this matter can hardly be over- 

 estimated. Land is impoverished with great 

 rapidity where it is allowed to wash. The 

 best soil goes down into the valleys, until the 

 land becomes a rock pile or a clay heap. 

 There is no sense in putting on manures every 

 year only to have them washed off by the 

 rains. I have watched the denudition of 

 knolls and slopes, and carefully measured the 

 loss. It is annually from two to six inches. 

 This can be entirely prevented by studying 

 the lines of wash, and just as freezing weather 

 comes on, opening temporary ditches. Under- 

 draining, if thorough, will, of course, do a 

 good deal of this work, but the superficial 

 ditches will still be necessary. 



I do not consider a country home any way 

 complete without cold storage. This does not 

 mean a costly building, arranged for an en- 

 tirely equable temperature. It is not difficult 

 to have a cheap storage place that will serve 

 quite as well as elaborate buildings. The 

 trouble is that storage in our ordinary cellars 

 has become impossible since the advent of fur- 

 naces. Potatoes are dried up so that the 

 shrinkage becomes one-fifth of the bulk. Ap- 

 ples can only be stored at a loss of so many 

 that one can scarcely keep a kitchen supply. 

 Those that do not decay are shriveled and 

 flavorless. I prepared a cellar under my car- 

 riage house, connected with my barn, by build- 

 ing very thick stone walls, absolutely frost 

 proof. Through this an underground ditch 

 runs, keeping the air moist, but not molding. 

 This cellar is thoroughly ventilated all sum- 

 mer, but when the apples and vegetables are 

 once in storage, it is closed entirely for the 

 winter ; opening it only as we need to take 

 our stock to market. The temperature is kept 

 at about thirty-four degrees, just above freez- 

 ing. Over the floor above is spread a liberal 

 supply of autumn leaves. Out of this the 

 apples come in May and June without the 

 slightest shrinkage, and with very little loss 

 from decay. The expense of such a cellar is 

 trifling, and the advantages are very great. 



During November the market wagon is in 

 continual call, and my custom is to close up 

 stock as closely as possible, although my stor- 

 age is good. If the market price is any way 

 reasonable, accept it. Let each year take care 

 of its own troubles, and not run over into the 

 next. 



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