768 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Oct. 



OCTOBER. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF PINE-PLANTS. 



Din'ing this month, the same treatment as directed for the 

 former month should be continued. The temperature, how- 

 ever, of each division, should now be reduced gradually a few 

 degrees, say two or three ; that is, fi'om 70^ or 72^ to 69° oi 

 68°. Artificial heat is not to be now applied to excite the 

 plants to grow in the herb, that is, to increase in size, but 

 merely to prevent any check to the roots from cold or damp. 



On the approach of cold nights and dull foggy weather at 

 the beginning of the month, fires will be wanted in the fruit- 

 ing-pit, and probably also in the others ; but by the middle 

 or the end of the month they will be indispensable in all the 

 compartments where fire-heat is used. Those pits which have 

 not the convenience of flues will now^ require strict attention to 

 keep up a sufllicient temperature, but great care must be taken 

 not to exceed the necessary degree, for much more caution is 

 necessary in the management of pits heated by dung or leaves 

 in a state of fermentation, than in the compartments heated by 

 means of fire-heat ; the former being subject to many changes 

 from the state of the atmosphere and that of the materials with 

 which they are composed, over which the cultivator has little 

 controul. The fires can be liglited or put out in a short time, 

 and thus a temperature can be sustained almost to a single 

 degree for a length of time; whereas, if any material alteration 

 take place in the beds of fermentable matter, either by their 

 falling or rising to too low or too high a temperature, they are 

 not so soon to be rectified. Nothing but attention and obser- 

 vation, and a frequent examination of the watch-sticks in the 

 beds, and guarding the linings against the eflJects of too much 

 cold, rain, or wind, can guard the cultivator at this season 

 against sudden changes in these compartments. 



Air must be admitted as the state of the weather will |>er- 

 mit, and should now particularly (as well as at all other times) 



