268 
OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER. 
Towards the middle of this month the winter usually commences, and severe 
weather may be expected. All valuable shrubs and plants which may be deemed 
hardy, but the hardiness of which has not been sufficiently tested, should be 
afforded some kind of protection, that the fearful ravages committed by the frost 
in the preceding winter may not be reacted during the present season. There are 
various modes of affording shelter to plants, all of which are useful, but most of 
them are especially applicable to different kinds. Thus, litter for herbaceous 
plants, old bark for bulbs, and mats or straw hurdles for shrubs and trees, are 
respectively found most suitable for those peculiar sorts. 
In making use of any kind of protection for plants in the open ground, the 
first and principal point is to attend to the preservation of the roots ; for, if this 
is duly effected, most plants will recover and sprout again, even though the stems 
and branches should be entirely destroyed. This practice is very frequently 
neglected by cultivators, who appear to think only of preserving the stems and 
branches, which is certainly sufficient where this end can be fully accomplished, but 
where the protection afforded to those parts proves inefficient, in nine cases out of ten 
the roots perish with them. Hence the importance of sheltering the roots likewise. 
Whatever material is used for this purpose, the necessity of its being of a dry 
nature, and also, if possible, capable of repelling wet, should always be kept in 
view. Moisture, where it exists in any quantity, is sure to attract the greatest 
degree of frost, and therefore, when the roots of plants are surrounded and satu- 
rated with a superabundance of it, they will be much more exposed to injury on 
that account. That covering, then, which is found to be most impervious to rain, 
will undoubtedly prove most beneficial. By thus protecting the roots, we by no 
means wish to supersede the use of other covering for the more exposed parts of 
plants, but merely to see these two desirable objects distinctly yet conjointly 
effectuated ; and every practicable method should by all means be adopted for 
preserving the upper portions of shrubs. 
In the management of all plant structures, we have little to recommend beyond 
what was inserted in our last month's " Operations." Stove and other plants should 
be placed on a dry and even surface, and not plunged in bark or any other mate- 
rial of a similar nature, as this would tend to keep them too moist, according to 
the temperature we wish to see employed. All climbing plants, whether stove 
or greenhouse, that are trained to the rafters or roof, should be vigorously pruned • 
as, besides this being the proper season for performing that operation, it would 
remove a considerable obstruction to the rays of light, which, being very limited 
at this season, should be allowed to descend, without any mitigation, on all kinds 
of plants. When fire-heat is required in any department, the temperature should 
be elevated very gradually, and never be suffered to rise higher than is absolutely 
necessary. A rapid change in the temperature of a house from cold to heat, or the 
