V 
A UTUMN 
13 S 
Although nature has done its work, and the 
flowers are dying and the seeds are ripening, 
it is just the very time when the gardener must 
be busiest. There are many delightful autumn 
days in which to work, when the air is too 
chilly to sit out and do nothing, but before 
the frost has disfigured the waning beauty of 
the garden. First there are cuttings to be 
taken, and layers to be removed. The carna¬ 
tions that were layered in July will have rooted, 
and each little plant can now be cut away 
from the parent and planted where it is to 
remain during the winter. A number of 
flowers are easily increased by making cut¬ 
tings, and the majority of these have to be 
taken in the early autumn. If children are 
fortunate enough to possess a small frame, they 
must now make up the soil and prepare it for 
the cuttings, which must then be planted in 
rows; but even without a frame a great many 
will strike out in the garden, especially if a 
little protection of branches and brackens is 
given to help some of the more tender ones 
through the hardest part of the winter. Chil¬ 
dren in the warmer districts of England could 
in this way grow calceolarias, chrysanthemums, 
pentstemons, or scented verbenas, and many 
half-hardy cuttings that would require a frame 
in the North. Violas and pansies are very 
