Gardening Literature 
T present there is little that can be 
done outside. A person who thinks 
that for that reason a garden is to be en¬ 
tirely lost sight of until February or 
March is not on the way to make the 
greatest success of it. It is in fact the 
ideal time for doing two of the most 
important garden duties—planning and 
studying. Write to the Agricultural De¬ 
partment at Washington and to your State 
college for the free but excellent litera¬ 
ture with which either will supply you. 
Buy or get from the library two or three 
good books—magazines or papers are ex¬ 
cellent, but they can never go into things 
as thoroughly as does a good book. Prog¬ 
ress, especially in garden matters, must 
come largely through experience; it will 
come ten times faster through experience 
supplemented by careful study. 
The Last Work in the Garden 
N many sections, especially with such 
mild, late falls as we have had for the 
last few years, the ground does not freeze 
hard until after the first of December. 
So there may still be time to get out any 
remnants of root crops, especially such 
hardy things as parsnips and oyster-plants, 
which remain in the ground. And if you 
Pave more of these than can be used now, 
and want to carry some over winter out¬ 
doors, it repays a good deal of time and 
trouble in the spring, if you will dig a nar¬ 
row trench in some well-drained position, 
and store these roots in it, covering them 
rip with soil and letting it freeze over. 
Any surplus of late cabbage may be kept 
over in the same way, but requires more 
■covering. 
Time for Mulching 
HE winter mulch, which you have 
been holding in readiness to put on 
“after the ground begins to freeze hard,” 
will have to be put on some time this 
month. Where the mulch is not to be left, 
as for instance on the strawberry bed, 
something that will hang together, such as 
meadow hay or straw (the former is pre¬ 
ferable because it covers the ground more 
thoroughly), will be desirable. For some 
purposes, however, dry leaves will do ex¬ 
cellently. Around small beds or along 
Porders, a fine plan is to drive clown small 
.■stakes and on these stretch a wire which 
need not be more than six inches high, to 
hold them in position; this will not only 
save a good deal of work in putting on the 
leaves and in cleaning and raking up in the 
spring, but it makes the place look a hun¬ 
dred per cent neater; otherwise you will 
have to use boards, shutters, pine boughs, 
or something of the sort to hold the mulch 
in place, especially until it becomes settled. 
Winter Work in the Orchard 
A NOTHER standard winter job, of 
course, is spraying and pruning. 
The former used to be a dreaded job, in¬ 
deed, to the man with only a few trees, 
and without the proper equipment for 
weighing out, mixing and boiling the in¬ 
gredients, and so forth ; now there are put 
upon the market a number of reliable 
preparations of miscible oils and lime- 
sulphur wash, which can be bought in 
small quantities suitable for the home gar¬ 
dener and which can be applied quickly 
and without getting oneself into endless 
The general scheme of orchard pruning is to keep the 
trees low-headed 
difficulties. Miscible oils have come into 
general favor, but some authorities claim 
that their continued use will work injury 
to fruit trees. In spraying, however, re¬ 
member that there is little use in doing it 
at all unless you do it with absolute thor¬ 
oughness ; most of the pests for which we 
spray will multiply so rapidly when they 
have a chance that trying to combat them 
is like fighting fire — if you don’t get it all 
out, you might just as well save your labor 
and time and accept defeat in the first 
place. 
In pruning, use a sharp, fine-toothed 
saw for the branches which are too large 
to be cut with a knife or the pruning 
shears, and paint over the stumps of any 
branches larger than an inch and a half or 
two inches which have to be cut off. The 
general scheme of pruning, nowadays, is 
to keep trees as low headed as possible 
and with an "open center”—so that they 
will be easy to care for and can be reached 
from the ground, and sunlight and air will 
have equal access to all parts. Limbs 
which are broken or otherwise damaged, 
or which cross or rub one another should 
be cut ofif clean, and in most cases as near 
the main trunk or branch as possible. 
In pruning, especially in cutting large 
branches of trees, it is well to saw first a 
little on the under side, so that when the 
limb is cut through from the top enough 
to give way it will not break down and 
tear ofif a long strip of bark, leaving an un¬ 
sightly and dangerous wound. 
The matter of painting the wounds 
made by pruning, mentioned incidentally 
above, is deserving of further attention, 
for it is a very necessary although unfor¬ 
tunately often misunderstood operation. 
In the first place, its object is to preserve 
the exposed wood from the weather and 
also to prevent the activities of borers and 
other insect pests that are perpetually seek¬ 
ing a foothold wherever the absence of 
bark gives them a favorable opportunity. 
In the second place, from a purely esthetic 
standpoint, it makes the tree less conspicu¬ 
ous by concealing the raw look of freshly 
cut stubs. 
A considerable number of preparations 
have been devised for this purpose, but 
one of the best, provided it is conscien¬ 
tiously and intelligently applied, is ordi¬ 
nary good linseed oil and lead paint. 
Work it well in so as to cover every bit of 
exposed wood and fill any cracks there may 
be, and after a few months apply it again 
as a precautionary measure. Do not be 
content to put on a thin coat of poor paint; 
if you do, it will crack and give entrance 
to the rot-producing moisture and fungus 
germs, and the last stage of that particular 
tree will be far worse than the first. 
Take care, too, not to break the bark of 
the tree if you have to climb about in 
pruning. Wounds are often made in this 
way which later make trouble, though at 
the time they seem slight. 
(389) 
