FRUIT GARDEN. 
395 
days, to keep the earth out of the heart of the 
plants. Young plants may still be planted in 
a slight drill, although they will only grow 
enough for soups. This young stuff must 
have the benefit of rich earth, and the safest 
way to secure its growth, would be to dig in 
some rotten dung along the line, before it is 
planted ; the drill must be very slight, for it 
cannot grow much. 
Salads should be treated all the year alike, 
or nearly so, but plenty should be sown in 
frames where a winter supply is required. 
All the sorts of Lettuces, small Salads, as 
wanted ; Radishes also. Onions for drawing 
very small may be sown among the Lettuces, 
to guard against the destruction of the out of 
door crops. Lettuces may be planted out 
in warm protected borders. Endive and Let- 
tuces may be blanched by being tied up with 
bast matting, and that which has grown enough, 
may be pulled, and kept in mould in a shed or 
outhouse, or covered with kale pots out of 
doors, for it will preserve them in the hardest 
winter. 
Winter Spinach. — Thin out the plants to 
nine inches apart ; this is, as we have be- 
fore observed, kept in use a long time, by 
gathering only the outside leaves, and suffer- 
ing the others to grow, consequently it must 
have room to grow, and be always kept clear 
from weeds. 
Potatoes that are ripe, must be taken up 
and preserved in appropriate places, where 
neither wet, frost, nor heat can reach them ; 
the large growers dig a pit a foot deep, in 
which they heap the potatoes, then top them 
with six inches of straw, and then cover with 
as much thickness of mould. 
FRUIT GARDEN. 
In the fruit garden there is a busy time 
coming on. Tlte gathering of fruit at proper 
seasons is a very important affair, for a few 
days too early or too late will make all 
the difference between rotting and keeping. 
In the case of apples, cut one open, and if the 
pips are turning colour, that time, or any day 
within a week, will do ; if they are still white, 
let them hang longer. Choose a dry day for 
gathering, and for fruit that is to keep let 
them not fall one inch, for however slight a 
bruise may be, it is sure to bring decay at 
that part, sooner or later ! The hundreds of 
modes of keeping fruit, recommended by dif- 
ferent authors, leave us no better satisfied 
than we were with the old plan of laying 
them on shelves singly on straw, in a dark 
apartment, and occasionally examining, 
wiping them, and throwing out the damaged 
ones : where a fruit, however, has to be kept 
months before it is ripe, packing in boxes or 
baskets may be rdsorted to, for a portion of 
the time ; but generally we have found that 
after resorting to fifty different modes of 
various degrees of troublesomeness, people 
have returned to the old and generally effica- 
cious plan of laying them on racks or shelves, 
singly, on straw, and paying attention to 
them whenever they were damp from sweat- 
ing, or otherwise. Gathering Peaches, Nec- 
tarines, Plums, and stone or pulpy fruit, is 
quite another affair. These can hardly get 
too ripe on the tree, and it is well to contrive 
to fasten a net against the wall, sloping out- 
wards, but forming a bag, so that what falls 
should not be damaged for the table. Where, 
any fruit on a tree varies as to the time of 
ripening, they should be frequently examined, 
and the forwai'dest taken. By this plan you 
may be gathering a considerable time, and 
have all in perfection. 
Insects are the cause of endless mischief 
in a fruit garden, and notwithstanding so 
much has been said and written, they will 
occasionally baffle almost every thing tried for 
their destruction. Like all other things de- 
pending on early attention, the insects that 
destroy fruit are rarely thought of until the 
period for doing mischief arrives. They have 
then got so far a-head, in respect to numbers, 
that the destruction of thousands hardly 
appears to lessen the evil. Bottles of sugar 
and water catch and kill myriads, and yet 
there seems to be as many as ever after weeks 
of this destroying operation. An author, of 
some experience, recommends all manner of 
traps at once. He says, " Bottles of sugar 
and beer, hanging on the trees, rotten fruit 
and arsenic in flat shallow vessels, at short 
distances, but out of the way of bees, (how is 
this to be managed ?) poultry, or other domes- 
tic animals, and all other contrivances for 
killing should be resorted to." Granted, if it 
can be done safely. We have even seen bees 
caught with wasps in the bottles of stuff, and 
we fear that in the fruit season, although many 
wasps fall a sacrifice, bees also suffer in a 
large degree. We believe bottles of sugar 
and. water, or sugar and beer, are attractive, 
and save fruit occasionally, but not always. 
Strawberries. — The runners may be 
planted out a foot apart, in rows two feet 
apart, if they have not been so planted already. 
If the object is to make new beds or borders, 
these distances are right enough, but if it be 
only to make running plants, six inches apart 
every way would be enough. August is the 
proper month for this, but if it has not been 
done, better late than never. Get a few 
of the Alice Maude and Swainstone Straw- 
berries to try ; they are invaluable in some 
localities, especially where early fruit is an 
object, though, as a first-class Strawberry, in 
all its points, nothing has yet beaten Kean's 
