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THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
liouse shut upon the first of September, by which 
method the fruit is well set before the very dull weather 
comes on; less unnatural forcing, and much less at¬ 
tendance and anxiety are secured by this practice. The 
principle on which it is founded is much the same as 
that by which the Dielytra is proposed to be dealt with, 
and the same principle has a wider range than most 
people would think or believe. It was on this principle 
that Mr. Knight first founded the practice of pruning 
unhealthy Golden Pippin and other unhealthy trees; 
also, the Plum and other stone fruit, in September, just 
in time to fill up the remaining buds with healthy sap 
for the next season, and late enough to hinder these 
buds from starting that autumn. Moreover, it is on 
this principle that all good gardeners would wish such 
trees and bushes as they intend for transplanting should 
be pruned that season as early as the end of September. 
To prune any tree, evergreen or deciduous, some time, or 
soon after transplanting it, is not nearly so good in 
practice, and all the reasons which have been given for 
this delay, and some of them go even to twelve-months 
after planting, have all been founded on deductions 
which are now all but acknowledged to be of little or no 
use. 
NEW DAHLIAS. 
If I had taken to the florists’ branch of our calling, 
without losing the notions which the other branches 
forced into my head, I should, probably, make half a 
fortune out of new seedling Dahlias, while the rest of 
the florists were in bed; at least, while their new Dahlias 
were in beds. 
Instead of following the common herd into such wild 
notions as “ripening the roots,” I would just do the exact 
opposite. As soon as my new seedling, or my newly bought 
in treasures, had proved themselves to my “ fancy,” I 
would cut them down to the surface of the ground that 
very day, were it as early as the fifth of September, the 
Asparagus day. I should see whether “ ripening” blind, 
fanged tubers, and bull-necked “ roots,” was a better 
plan than taking them fresh and fresh as they bloomed, 
cutting off their heads in September, and striking their 
young startlings in October, and casting the old roots to 
the dogs and frost, after every ineb that could be made 
out of them were on its own roots 
While the roots and tubers of Dahlias are at the top 
of their speed in September, is really the right time to 
get the most out of them after all; in ten days after 
cutting them down, eyes will sprout all round the neck. 
Cuttings from these sprouts have all the vigour in them 
that is lost in “ drying,” later in the season, and such 
vigour, too, as the plant never can put forth, under any 
circumstances, till that time next year; so that they 
would root with a quarter of the trouble with early 
spring cuttings from languished dry roots. A good 
stool would furnish cuttings in September, almost as 
fast as one could strike them, and as soon as it slackened 
in growth, I would up with it, just as I would an 
Asparagus stool, place it on a slight hotbed, and never 
cease making cuttings from it till I had more than 
enough ; but I would koep the thing a secret until my 
fortune was made, and like the rest of them, I would 
advertise in the spring, that my only root of Sultan or 
Sultana, did not “break” very well; while, perhaps, I 
had one hundred plants of it, from the autumn strike, 
| to go to “ work” with a fresh start, and from that stock 
I would have no end of plants for the May market. 
There is a class of gardeners, of whom I am one, who 
for many years have believed that the sudden falling off 
in the properties of first-rate Dahlias is owing to the 
present practico of drying the roots in winter store, that 
thus the energy, or vital energy of the plant is arrested 
so far the first season, that the “ properties” give way 
before the plant passes from the hands of the raiser. 
The more care that is taken to dry the first root, and 
January 30. 
the more plants that are propagated from it the first 
season, the more the constitution of the original is 
spent, and the new plant carries with it the spent con¬ 
stitution, so to speak, instead of the natural constitution 
of the parent, before the root was first dried; hence the 
cause of the constant “runningout” of the best seed¬ 
lings. On the other hand, we know several kinds of 
Dahlias which did not show any first-rate points as 
seedlings, and were less delicately brought out on that 
account, and their properties, such as they were, have 
not failed yet, after many years of drying and pro¬ 
pagation, in various way. Nevertheless, direct experi¬ 
ment alone can prove whether our views are right or 
otherwise, and this experiment in September, beginning 
with a seedling, appears to me to be the only rational 
mode of tosting the question. At all events, I am quite 
sure that the best and easiest way of securing a good 
stock of plants, on the shortest notice, is to propagate, 
as I propose, in September. We all know that many 
old garden plants refuse to bear seeds now, from the 
fact that they have been propagated from the roots time 
out of mind. Some of the border Crocuses may be 
instanced as being fairly worn out by division of the 
bulbs, and J take it that our Dielytra sjiectahilis has 
been introduced in this worn out state by the Chinese; 
but I expect now that we are to have a few seedlings 
of it under our way of cultivation, that these or some 
of them will return to the wild habits of the plant, and 
produce seeds freely when they come of age; then they 
are ready for the cross-breeder. D. Beaton. 
FORETELLING THE WEATHER. 
It was noticed last week, that in November, Mr. 
Beaton prophesied that we should have no winter until 
the middle of January, or thereabouts. He even 
specified the very day; and if he had put out this 
prophecy in a shilling almanack, he might have easily 
procured a more than Murphy fortune for a lucky hit. 
The calculations on which our friend proceeded were 
not given to us; he may wisely keep them in reserve 
until another season has confirmed their truthfulness ; 
for, changeable as is the weather, to a proverb, in our 
insular position, I have no doubt, that when our 
meteorologists continue their labours somewhat longer, 
there will at least be grounds obtained for predicting 
the general character of the season a little farther 
advanced than mere probable conjecture. The great 
evil in all more fortunate forebodings is, that—just as 
in a case of quack medicine that happens to be success¬ 
ful—we are sure to be reminded of the prophecy that was 
right, but left in blissful ignorance of the hundreds 
that were wrong. Now and then we have a striking 
evidence of great facts being revealed in dreams; but 
that would be rather an insecure basis for rearing a 
theory upon the importance of these fitful visions in 
general. 
I have no doubt but there is something more than 
the dreamy in Mr. Beaton’s calculations. A consider¬ 
able number of years has led me to think, that if there 
is no ice with which an ice-house can be filled from the 
12 th to the 20th of November, it generally remains un¬ 
filled until towards the 20th of January; and though 
exceptions there have been, still, there has been some¬ 
thing like a general rule in the matter. 
Though nothing so definite has yet been reached as 
to preclude constant watchfulness ovor our tender 
plants, still much may be done by shrewd calculation, 
to save labour and keep down the coal bill. I know 
young men, that in the winter months study the 
growing and waning of the moon, as an element in the 
supply of fuel they give their furnaces at bed-time, 
experience having proved that, as a general rule, though 
