GARDENING CALENDAR FOR AUGUST. 
351 
especially of young trees, be injured from in- 
attention to nailing, or otherwise securing 
them ; a windy night might ruin them. 
Plums. — These are very unequal in ripen- 
ing, and require to be often looked over : 
some will now be required for kitchen use ; 
these, if taken off with care, may assist those 
to be kept for dessert. 
Raspberries. — The young canes, if strong 
and likely to suffer from wind, should be tied 
up : the fruit for preserving must be gathered 
on a dry day. 
Strawberries. — Lay them in pots, if re- 
quired ; and at an early period cut off the 
runners, and plant them, if wanted, in nursery 
beds for new plantations. Those potted early 
for forcing, should be set in a hot dry place to 
ripen them. 
Vines. — Do not leave a shoot that is not 
required, and give the bunches and berries a 
final and good thinning. 
THE FORCING GARDEN. 
General Directions. — Fire heat may in 
nearly every case be dispensed with, except 
in the fruiting pine pit, and in these cases it 
must be very moderate. Renew linings to 
hotbeds where required. Continue the rou- 
tine operations of July. 
Cherries. — The house must stand fully open, 
or if the plants are in pots or tubs, or there 
is any way of getting them out, it would 
answer the same end, of resting them, and 
their place might be filled with growing 
plants. 
Cucumbers. — Temperature from 60 to 
90 degrees. Provide now plants for a winter 
stock ; they may be obtained either by cut- 
tings, layers, or seeds, but will bear soonest 
from layers. Get suitable soil prepared for 
them, and placed in readiness where they are 
to be planted ; there is nothing better than 
fresh turfy loam, with about a third of leaf- 
mould. Water the bearing plants with 
liquid manure, and keep them clean and regu- 
larly thinned : fumigate often and shut up 
early. 
Figs. — Temperature from 55 to 75 degrees. 
Withhold watering entirely ; it may be ne- 
cessary to sponge over the leaves to kill the 
red spider. The good forcing sorts should 
be increased now by cuttings or suckers. 
Melons. — Temperature from 65 to 90 de- 
grees. Maintain a brisk heat by means of 
linings, yet if the sun heat is economized, as 
it were, by early closing in the day, little or 
no artificial heat is requisite ; shut up early 
therefore, but give plenty of air to those ripen- 
ing. Water only in the mornings, and not 
over the foliage ; thin the shoots and slightly 
stir and freshen up the surface of the soil. 
Miishroovis. — Temperature from 55 to 60 
degrees. Keep the house or cellar, or where- 
ever they are grown, dark. If the early 
directions were attended to, young mush- 
rooms should soon be making their appear- 
ance in the old cucumber or melon beds ; these 
may still be made available for that end, by 
taking off the soil all but two inches, thrust- 
ing in spawn at six inches apart amongst 
the dung, shutting up the frame, and shading 
with mats ; a good crop may thus be expected 
in due time. 
Musas. — Temperature from 65 to 90 de- 
grees. Always maintain plenty of moisture 
about the growing plants, but keep those 
whose fruit is ripening, dryish : shift the ad- 
vancing suckers as their appearance directs ; 
give a rich loamy soil, and water with liquid 
manure, when the roots are strong and touch- 
ing the edges of the tubs. 
Nectarines and Peaches. — Temperature 
from 55 to 80 degrees. The trees in the early 
houses must be syringed if the least dirty ; 
keep them exposed, unless the wood requires 
ripening. The late houses must have air and 
water as before ; withholding the latter en- 
tirely when the fruit is ripening, and there 
! giving air night and day. 
Pine Apples. — Temperature from 65 to 90 
| degrees. Many of the fruit will now be cut, 
' and a general re-potting of the young plants 
I and suckers may take place ; the suckers are 
strengthened by remaining for a time on the 
old stool. On the Hamiltonian system they 
are allowed to remain attached, and the soil 
is brought up about them, whereby they are 
induced to root freely ; of course they are all 
planted out in a prepared bed of soil. Equal 
success attends both plans when due attention 
is bestowed. Where there is a brisk heat, 
airing at night is commendable. 
Strawberries. — Those plants which are be- 
ing prepared for forcing should be put early 
into six-inch pots and placed close together, 
or plunged at the foot of a south wall, where 
they will become fully matured early in the 
autumn ; and this is no small advantage for 
the earlier crops. 
Vinery. — Temperature from 65 to 85 de- 
grees. Where the fruit is ripening keep the 
house dry and airy. The growing house must be 
moist and free of draughts. The houses for 
early forcing must be thrown open, or the 
vines taken out. Attend, where necessary, to 
thinning, stopping, and keeping clean. The 
late houses must not be too much retarded, as 
cold will and does cause a stagnancy of the 
" circulating medium," which results in stone- 
less berries, rust, and unripened wood. It is 
well to do without syringing in the late vine- 
ries where little fire heat is required ; the 
necessary moisture may be maintained by 
damping the floor, walls, &c. 
