264 
OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER. 
evidence of skill in a cultivator. In the varied changes during the present month, therefore, it 
will be necessary for hira to be specially on the alert. Whenever the weather is at all foggy, 
rainy, or dull, or the air is in any way rendered very moist, and there is neither a drying wind nor a 
bright sun, no kind of plant structure should be at all opened. To admit a damp air to plants at 
this season, would be like introducing a pestilential one to an apartment tenanted by human beings. 
But when the reverse of all this is the case, and the air is so dry, or the wind so brisk, (not strong,) 
or the sun so powerful, as to make the opening of the sashes a drying instead of a damping process, 
or merely to render it of no effect as regards moisture, the hghts of greenhouses and frames should 
be thrown freely open, provided there is no frost. Stoves, too, may be similarly ventilated, 
though, perhaps, not to the same extent ; for it is of the highest consequence to keep down the 
temperature as low as will be safe in all plant-houses at this time. 
When, again, a few degrees of frost occur, the culturist should not immediately resort to fires, 
if they can be done without. A well-glazed house will always be several degrees warmer than the 
external air ; and should the temperature of a greenhouse or cool pit be reduced nearly or quite 
to freezing point, and even two or three degrees below it, scarcely any of the plants will take the 
least harm if they are in a proper state of dryness and maturity. Where, indeed, plants do happen 
to get frozen, the house, pit, or frame should be covered over immediately with thick canvass or 
garden mats, before the sun shines upon it, and be kept thus till the plants are gradually thawed, 
sprinkling them with cold water, when they are very bad, to facilitate this reaction. 
If, by any unlooked for frost, which may come so suddenly as to catch some of the tender shrubs 
that are planted out of doors uncovered, their shoots should get more or less severely nipped, the 
safer plan is to throw on the covering early in the morning, ere the sun has risen, and by thus pre- 
venting its rays from acting on them directly, they will most likely be saved from damage. 
In managing all kinds of plants in houses during this month, one simple and common rule will 
be almost of itself a sufficient guide ; and that is, to give no more water than is really essential ; 
such necessity being determined by each plant's appearance, or rather, by the state of the soil in 
the pots. This should never get absolutely dusty ; nor should the leaves of the plant ever flag. 
Short of these two circumstances, however, any proximity to them will be desirable. Pans for 
containing evaporating water, whether in greenhouses or stoves, and all open cisterns, should be 
emptied and disused. Dryness is now the main thing to be sought ; and the more naturally this 
is attained — that is, by avoiding the causes of moisture, instead of abstracting it through artificial 
means after it has been created — the better will it be for the plants, besides being more economical. 
With the exception of things that are wished to be forced, and those Orchidacese that have 
not yet become sufficiently accustomed to our climate to conform their habits to its peculiarities, 
all plants should now be literally at rest. And this phrase is not to be regarded as comparative. 
In as far as any living thing can absolutely repose, plants ought to do so in winter. 
In the forcing-house, the conditions will, of course, be necessarily reversed. There the laws of 
growth will have to be followed. Gentle heat at first, gradually afterwards increased, is one part 
of the procedure of nature ; and if this be bottom heat for forcing, it will be more genial. Atmo- 
spheric moisture, exhaled from the soil, is another condition ; and this will be best supplied by 
watering the material used for bottom heat. As much light as possible, and a due amount of water 
to the roots, are the other two necessaries. To supply the first in perfection, a low-roofed structure 
is almost indispensable ; and, with reference to the water, we may remark, that it should be always 
a little tepid when applied. 
^ To pass to the open ground, the practice of digging beds and borders at this time is a good one, 
as it gives them an air of neatness and freshness all the winter, and also tends to mellow the soil. 
Among evergreen shrubs, such as American plants, &c., it may be impolitic to dig over the soil 
annually ; but in this, as in all cases, there are two views to be taken. Where the soil is so very 
light as not to become much compressed by the action of the atmosphere and the weather, and 
where it is never trodden, it may be better not to stir it at all, as the roots would then be secure 
from injury. But, under opposite conditions, the opening of it to the air by forking, and the 
lightening of it by the same means, so as to give the roots a freer passage, and the water a more 
decided circulation, are of first importance. It must be settled, then, by the existence or absence 
of such conditions in a considerable degree, w^hether a border should or should not be forked over. 
