well dug in. I know of one gardener who saved all the bones 
from the table and had them coarsely ground up, this of course 
mil make the finest and most permanent sort of plant food. We 
must save our meagre supply of cow-manure for our choicest 
plants and vegetables. Why is it not practical for a club to 
arrange for a car-load of this necessary evil to be sent from a 
distance and distributed to those who need it? 
By the middle of November we have had heavy frost and 
are able to dig up, dry and store our Dahlia roots and 
Gladiolus corms. I dry my Dahlia roots for an hour in the sun 
and store them upside doM^n in barrels. This keeps the sap in 
the tubers and prevents rot. Dampness or freezing they cannot 
stand. Sometimes I store my best varieties in dry sand in the 
cellar, but more often packed loosely in barrels. But, Don't 
forget to label each one carefully. 
Gladiolia "Glads" as the trade calls them, should be dried a few 
hours, the stems and old basal bulbs removed, and stored in 
paper bags and hung in a frost proof cellar. The small bulblets 
which cluster around the base of the parent bulb may be 
detached now and planted in boxes of well-prepared sandy soil 
mulched with leaf mould to keep in the moisture and winter 
in a cold frame to be planted out next May, Of course, this is 
advisable only with the varieties which are expensive or diffi- 
cult to obtain. 
New I have been watching the Dahlia Shows and getting the 
Dahlias names and whereabouts of the choicest new varieties with 
which to dazzle our " constitutents " in the January number; 
but I find that with some of the best the stock is still scarce 
and if you wish to be sure of them you must get your order in 
this fall, therefore, if you want the entrancing Shudoiv's 
Lavender, Latoma, Insulinde, and J. L. Child's Azalea, you 
would better order them now. The first can be gotten at the 
Bessie Boston Dahlia Farm, San Mateo, California. 
Mrs. Charles Stout's new book on Dahlias is to come out by 
Christmas. Then we shall know everything that is to be known 
about this popular tuber. 
It is hard for the novice in gardening to realize that we 
cover to keep the frost in, not out. Wait till the ground is 
frozen and then cover your beds lightly so they will not thaw 
and freeze alternately and heave out your little plants. But be 
careful not to cover over the heads of Fox Gloves, Canterbury 
bells and Rockets. More plants are smothered to death than 
frozen in our gardens. They should be protected from the 
winter sun, the best covering being a light layer of straw, salt- 
hay or leaves applied after the tops have been killed by frost. 
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