273 
OPERATIONS FOR JANUARY. 
Severe frosts are now usually experienced, and very commonly cold strong- 
winds from the east or north, or the points between these two quarters. The 
influence of the former is apparent to all, and means are invariably adopted to 
check it when necessary ; but the destructive agency of winds is not so universally 
perceived. 
Evergreens, from the verdure of their foliage, and the readiness with which the 
loss of vitality is detected by the change in their colour, present the best facilities 
for examining the effects of wintry blasts. And it will be obvious, on investigation, 
that they are much more frequently injured from this class of agents than by the 
intensest frost. Hence, first, the importance of strewing dry litter or fern-leaves 
over dwarf Rhododendrons and other evergreen shrubs during the occurrence of 
such winds as those of the middle of the last December ; and secondly, the necessity 
for sheltering all tender plants more thoroughly at these periods. Let the fact 
herein asserted once be thoroughly known, and it will be impossible for cultivators 
to treat so slightingly as they do the operation of winds, both on plants growing in 
the open ground, and those in houses ; for they abstract heat through the glass, and 
diminish it by insinuating themselves into the crevices caused by the laps in 
glazing, to an incredible extent. 
Garden-mats should be had in extensive requisition at this time for covering 
frames and other plant-structures. Their employment, or that of some similar 
external protection, cannot be too much or too often insisted upon. They exclude 
cold far more certainly than fire-heat, besides beieg very considerably less expensive, 
less injurious to plants, and requiring less labour in their application. It must 
not, however, be assumed that fires will be entirely superseded by that system. 
They will always be useful, indeed essential, on special occasions, but need not be 
so regularly or so largely brought into operation. 
In forcing flowering shrubs or bulbous plants at this season, leaves that have 
been collected from the woods or parks will form an excellent substitute for bark 
or manure ; since the heat they create is very genial, and free from all noxious 
exhalations. The ease witli which they may be obtained renders them of especial 
value where economy is sought. The pots containing the plants may be plunged 
in them ; and the same materials, mixed with a little stable manure, will serve 
to place around the frame or pit for maintaining the requisite heat. 
Water, under any form, is to be kept as far as practicable out of plant-houses, 
as it admits the more rapid dispersion of heat. For this reason, cisterns in them 
that are ordinarily left open and full should at once be closed or emptied, and no 
fluid be administered to any plant that is not almost withering for want of it. 
VOL. VII. — NO. LXXXIV. N N 
