438 
CALENDARIAL MEMORANDA FOR NOVEMBER. 
Asparagus. The beds should now, if not done before, receive their 
winter dressing, by laying a coat of old hot-bed dung, two or three 
inches thick, over, and covering this with a little mould digged from 
the alleys. This covering nourishes the roots, and when decomposed 
enriches the ground when it comes to be forked up together. 
Artichokes must also be secured from frost by a thick covering of 
litter over the place occupied by the roots, and this covered with earth, 
laid like a ridge along the rank of plants to keep the roots dry. 
Sea Kale. The beds of this vegetable should receive a fresh coat of 
sand, if necessary, and a thick covering of dry leaves or litter, as well 
to repel frost as to encourage early gro'wth. If any be intended for 
forcing, either in the open ground by linings of hot dung, or in pots to 
go into a forcing-house, it is now time to begin, especially if wanted 
for Christmas. 
Mushrooms. The bed or beds made in September will now begin to 
bear. Particular attention will be required to maintain a uniform 
degree of heat in the bed, and this can only be regulated by the quan¬ 
tity of the covering employed. If the surface has become very dry and 
loose, a good sprinkling of tepid water may be of service. 
Fruit Garden.— Removing old worn-out fruit trees and planting 
young ones is one of the operations of the gardener in this month, and 
the sooner it is done the better. Pruning of all fruit trees, except 
peaches and nectarines, may now be performed, in order that the nail¬ 
ing may be done in the course of the winter. If the bearing wood of 
peaches and nectarines be fully ripened, it should now be unnailed, to 
remain so till pruning time in March, and this for the purpose of delay¬ 
ing the expansion of the flowers, which are very apt to be too early 
excited by being laid close to the wall in the earlier months of the year. 
It is the proper time for transplanting and pruning all the small fruit 
trees,—as gooseberries, currants, and raspberries,—which, when done at 
this time, allows the ground among them to be digged and laid in order 
for the winter. 
A few pears and apples may yet be hanging on the trees ; these may 
be gathered as soon as they have had “ enough of the tree,” or at any 
rate before hard frost sets in. These late ripening sorts are also in gene¬ 
ral long keeping, and on that account much valued. To keep them 
safely is a material point, and there is perhaps no better plan than that 
recommended by T. A. Knight, Esq., president of the Horticultural 
Society of London. “ The most successful method of preserving apples 
and pears which,” he writes, “ I have tried, has been by placing them 
in glazed earthen jars, each containing about a gallon, and surround¬ 
ing each fruit with paper; but it is probable that sweet dry oat chaff 
