CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
Author of Home Vegetable Gardening and Gardening 
Indoors and Under Glass 
Preparing tor Fall Work 
ITH September we begin to enter 
into the fall rush, but unfortunately, 
there is no fall “fever” similar to the 
spring planting fever which comes along 
to help us out, and yet there is a certain 
"“fall feeling” which lends a zest to the 
work to be done at this season. 
Just as you have learned to make every 
moment of the rush in April and May 
-count by having done ahead everything 
which you possibly can in February and 
March, so now you should get everything 
in readiness to handle and store the things 
which before another thirty days must be 
harvested and cured and stored away. The 
first step in this direction is to prepare a 
■suitable place for 
-them. If you are so 
fortunate as to have 
a good cellar under 
your house you have 
a natural advantage 
which is worth many 
-dollars a year to you. 
That part of it in 
which you are to 
.store vegetables must 
be cut off effectively 
from the furnace or 
'boiler. In hundreds 
of cases, a good part 
of the supply of win¬ 
ter vegetables is 
spoiled because the 
precaution is not 
taken of putting up 
a good double parti¬ 
tion dividing the cel¬ 
lar into two or more 
.rooms. If your cellar 
space is limited make 
-a small furnace room 
large enough to han¬ 
dle coal and ashes and 
so forth, and get the 
benefit of the rest of 
your cellar space as a 
store house. Such a 
partition should be built double with an 
air space one or two feet deep between 
the walls—or this air space may be made 
wider still and fitted with shelves to use 
for the storing of preserves and so forth, 
and such things as will keep in a medium 
temperature. And if your cellar has a 
dirt floor, by all means put in a concrete 
one; a low grade mixture taking only one 
part of cement to two of sand and two of 
gravel may be used and will cost very 
little. Be provided, also, with means of 
sufficient ventilation which may be closed 
in severe weather. If the walls are “dry” 
so that the mice or rats can find a way of 
getting through them, point them up 
with the same material. Before anything 
is put in for the winter the cellar should 
be scrupulously cleaned, and it would pay 
well after this cleaning to give it a coat¬ 
ing of whitewash, the materials, for which 
will cost but a few cents and are easily 
applied. Then ask your grocer to save up 
for you three or four sugar barrels and a 
dozen or two cracker boxes. These latter 
hold just about a bushel each and are ex¬ 
cellent for handling root crops and for 
packing things down in sand. Be careful 
not to contaminate the stock you store by 
any that is bruised or rotting. 
Guard Against the First Frost 
W HILE most of the roots and fruits 
are not hurt by the early frosts, in 
fact do not reach their full maturity nor 
attain their juiciest flavor until after frost 
has added the finishing touches to their 
development, nevertheless there are some 
which, if you are to save them, must be 
gathered before the inevitable morning 
every fall when you get up to find that the 
first frost has come. Among these ten¬ 
derer things are squashes, tomatoes, green 
beans, melons, cucumbers and pumpkins. 
Peppers and egg-plants cannot stand a 
great deal of frost, either, although if it 
is only cold enough to blacken the leaves 
it may not injure the fruit. This should 
be a sign, however, to the wary gardener 
to take no further chances. The nicest of 
the fully developed tomatoes are picked 
even if they are still entirely green and 
placed in a sunny window or where they 
may be covered up with a sash, so that 
they will gradually ripen and may in 
this way be had for several weeks after 
the first killing frost. Or the entire plant 
may be hung upside down in the cellar 
and by this method the fresh tomatoes may 
frequently be had until after Thanksgiv¬ 
ing. The vine fruits, 
even such apparently 
hard shelled ones as 
sugar pumpkins and 
winter squash, must 
be handled like eggs 
if you want to keep 
them successfully 
for any length of 
time. At the time of 
gathering, many of 
the fruits have not 
fully matured and 
they are very easily 
bruised and wherever 
the slightest bruise is 
made rot is sure to 
set in before very 
long. Squashes, mel¬ 
ons and pumpkins 
should all be cut with 
a foot or so of the 
vine left to each stem 
and turned over so 
that the earth where 
they have been lying 
on the ground may be 
brushed off after it 
becomes thoroughly 
dry. They may be 
stored for a while in 
an open shed or in a 
corner of the veranda where they may be 
covered at night with an old carpet or a 
few empty bags, and should then be put 
away in a cool, dry place, where the tem¬ 
perature, preferably, will not go below 
forty degrees. The melons should be 
packed in old hay or straw, where they 
may be readily examined so that the ripest 
may be used first. The egg-plants and 
peppers may be carefully packed, being 
sure that they are perfectly dry at the 
time, in cracker boxes, and they will keep 
for some time. 
Late planted celery for fall and winter use, coming up in the trenches which will later be 
banked to blanch the stalks 
G63) 
