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Twelfth month 
Morning stars — Venus, Saturn 
December, 1914 
Thirty-one days 
Evening stars—Mars, Jupiter 
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i. 3 |> Garden work is 
pretty well over for this 
year. Clean and then 
grease all tools thor¬ 
oughly before leaving 
them for the season. Be¬ 
gin to put out suet for 
the birds. 
2. © Full moon ih. 
21m. P. M. 
Newly-planted trees 
may have to be protected 
from girdling by mice 
and rabbits; band them 
with a strip of tar paper, 
its lower edge tight to 
the earth. 
3. © Paint the nests of 
gypsy moths with creo¬ 
sote, and look up the sub¬ 
ject of winter spraying 
and pruning generally, to 
be ready to act next 
month — or act now, if 
weather is favorable. 
4. © Washington bade 
farewell to his officers, 
I/ 8 . 3 - 
Coldframes containing 
any kind of plants should 
now be covered at night 
with mats. 
5. © When snow comes, 
conserve it by banking it 
up around trees, etc., and 
over borders, thus pro¬ 
viding for a continuance 
of Nature's best mulch. 
It thaws less rapidly 
when thus banked. 
‘If New Year’s Eve’s night wind blow south, it betokeneth warmth and growth; 
If west, much milk and fish in the sea; if north, much cold and storms there’ll be." 
"Chaste as the icicle. That’s curded by the frost from purest snow.” — Shakespeare. 
6. © St. Nicholas’ Day 
— the patron saint of 
sailors as well as of 
children. 
When the bulbs that 
are being forced show 
color in the buds bring 
them into sunlight. 
13. (§j Many things of 
the garden make delight¬ 
ful Xmas gifts; choose a 
book, or a plant, or a tool 
— or a set of seeds — for 
your suburban friends. 
20. © Beginning to¬ 
day, learn the outlook 
for fair or foul weather 
for the year, by letting it 
and the eleven succeed¬ 
ing days represent the 
year’s months in order. 
7. © Put them again 
into shade when the 
flowers have opened, to 
make them last. Be on 
the lookout constantly 
for hibernating places of 
insects, and surely de¬ 
stroy them. 
14. Washington died 
1799. 
Third anniversary of 
the discovery of the 
South Pole by Roald 
Amundsen. 
21. © The Pilgrims 
landed, 1620. 
To-day is the indicator 
for February’s weather. 
8. © Crocuses need but 
a fortnight’s forcing, 
therefore bulbs set in a 
pan now will be in bloom 
for Xmas if kept in the 
warmth and sun. A fl¬ 
inch pan will hold a 
dozen bulbs. 
15. Go over the vege¬ 
table and fruit stores 
often enough to keep 
them free of decaying 
specimens. One bad ap¬ 
ple will spoil its fellows 
in bin or barrel in no 
time! 
22. © Winter begins 
to-day — which is the in¬ 
dicator for March. 
Seeds of lettuce, rad¬ 
ishes and spinach sown 
now in hotbed will fur¬ 
nish these late in March, 
January and February, 1 
respectively. 
9. © Grapes may be 
pruned now. Mulch 
strawberries with strawy 
material, and hold in 
place by throwing a few 
shovelfuls of earth on 
top of the mulch. 
16. © New moon, 9h. 
35m. P. M. 
Now is the time to dig 
up rhubarb roots and 
asparagus roots for forc¬ 
ing next month. They 
force readily in a warm 
cellar where they can be 
kept moist. 
23. © April’s indicator. 
Has your garden .any¬ 
thing that will afford 
Christmas house decora¬ 
tions? Are you quite 
sure? Look everywhere 
—carefully—not sacrific¬ 
ing evergreen branches, 
of course. 
10. (§j Last quar. 6h. 
32m. A. M. 
It is interesting to 
bring cocoons of various 
kinds indoors and put 
them into wire netting 
cages to study. Leave 
them on the branch, 
bringing it in, too. 
17- © Eleven years ago 
to-day — no more —- the 
Wright brothers made 
the first successful flight 
with a biplane. 
24. First quar. 3I1. 
25m. A. M. To-day shows 
May’s weather. 
If there are no Christ¬ 
mas trimmings growing 
there, note the deficiency 
and remedy it before next 
Christmas. 
11. Now is a good 
time to get bargains in 
cyclamen bulbs for flow¬ 
ering next Christmas. 
18. © This is a good 
time to spray such roses 
as are not under cover 
with whale-oil soap solu¬ 
tion for scurfy scale. Use 
a pound of soap to a gal¬ 
lon of water. 
25. Christmas Day. 
Be sure that the birds 
have their dinner — suet 
and peanuts, and a shal¬ 
low dish of water re¬ 
newed night and morn¬ 
ing if the weather is 
freezing. 
12. Buy plants of 
Astilbe Japonica now for 
Easter flowering. It is 
the plumy spirea of the 
florists, and nurserymen 
sell the plants for from 
30 to 50 cents. Keep it 
warm and growing. 
19. © Tulips, slow in 
forcing up to now, force 
easily from now on, and 
may be brought to flower 
in four to five weeks. 
26. © Holly is hardier 
than is commonly sup¬ 
posed. if put in a winter 
shady place and sheltered 
from northwest winds. 
Strip the leaves when 
planting it, and get stam¬ 
inate and pistillate plants 
to have berries. 
27. Black alder, 
though leafless, is daz¬ 
zling with red berries all 
winter and will grow 
anywhere. This also 
must be planted in 
“pairs,” though 5 berry¬ 
bearing or pistillate 
plants to one staminate 
will do. 
28. Bittersweet and 
the showy red - barked 
dogwood of the wayside 
— kinnikinnick — and bar¬ 
berries are all useful for 
decorative use. And al¬ 
most any garden may 
have a clump of galax 
with its splendid leaves. 
29. Time to get at 
the garden reading now ; 
learn why, for example, 
a single tree of holly will 
never bear fruit. Sassa¬ 
fras also has this pecu¬ 
liarity — and quite a num¬ 
ber of species. 
30. J) Study the errors 
of the year past in the 
garden, and learn now- 
why failures were fail¬ 
ures ; and map out the 
plans for another sum¬ 
mer, profiting by these 
experiences. 
31. U Keep the note¬ 
book going all through 
the winter as well as in 
summer ; for the weather 
records alone are invalu¬ 
able garden data, and 
constitute really a kind 
of garden insurance. 
All kinds of weather this month, from thunder and lightning to 
blizzards; cold and stormy after the middle of the month. 
sail 
381 
