tarines.—In November, nail and prune vines; preserve 
grapes for winter use; prune apricot-trees, peach- 
trees, and nectarine-trees; plant plum-trees, cherry- 
trees, peach-trees, nectarine-trees, apricot-trees, pear- 
trees, and apple-trees, for growth upon walls and 
espaliers; prune cherry-trees, plum-trees, apple- 
trees, and pear-trees, on walls and espaliers; store 
apples in approved methods for preservation ; remove 
all unripe fruit from fig-trees; prune gooseberry 
bag-preserved grapes, and a féw late peaches and nec- 
| 
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bushes and currant bushes; plant gooseberry bushes 
and currant bushes; prune and plant raspberry plants; 
plant and dress strawberry beds; plant filbert-trees, 
hazelnut-trees, fruiting barberry bushes, walnut-trees, 
chestnut-trees, service-trees, mulberry-trees, quince- 
trees, and medlar-trees; and prune away exuberant 
growths, remove straggling shoots, and cut out de- 
cayed wood and worn-out bearers from standard 
| apple-trees, standard pear-trees, and other kinds of 
standard fruit-trees. 
The Flower Garden.—In November, plant most of 
| the spring and summer flowering kinds of bulbous 
and tuberous-rooted plants; transplant monkshood, 
irises, golden-rod, perennial sunflower, lily-of-the- 
valley, and many other kinds of hardy perennials ; 
plant campanulas, sweetwilliam, rocket, carnations, 
columbines, stocks, wallfowers, and many other 
kinds of hardy perennials and biennials; cut away all 
dead stems of perennials; remove decayed annuals; 
plant bulbs in pots and in water-glasses; shelter and 
protect potted auriculas, potted carnations, and all 
kinds of choice seedlings; cover fuschias, select car- 
nations, and other nearly hardy plants, which incur 
some risk of damage from the weather; prune ever- 
green and deciduous shrubs; dig and clean the soil of 
the shrubbery; protect the roots of newly planted 
shrubs and trees; protect also the roots of garryas, 
arbutuses, myrtles, magnolias, and similar slightly 
tender shrubs; exercise special care over beds of ane- 
mones, ranunculuses, and choice hyacinths and tulips ; 
prepare compost for flower-pots and flower-beds ; 
plant and clip hedges of thorn, hornbeam, privet, 
beech, elm, yew, and holly; plant edgings of box or 
thrift ; and reduce lawns, grass-walks, gravel-walks, 
| and the whole garden to perfect order. 
DECEMBER. 
Phenomena.—December is sometimes designated 
the gloomiest month in the year; yet it has very 
generally a mere continuation of the characteristics 
of November, and is sometimes exceeded by that 
month in the aggregate of real gloom and disagree- 
ableness. In some years, it has prevailingly a dry, 
bracing frost; in others, it has an almost uninter- 
rupted series of fogs, and drizzling rains; in others, 
it maintains, till near its close, a considerable pro- 
portion of the clearness and mildness which charac- 
terize a remarkably fine autumn; in many, it acquires, 
toward its close, a stern, relentless, wintry charac- 
ter; and in most, till near its end, it possesses a com- 
bination of wetness, storminess, and comparative 
mildness. South-west winds usually prevail during 
about one-fourth of the month, and are sometimes 
violent, and accompanied with heavy rains, and oc- 
casionally with thunder. Easterly and north-easterly 
winds frequently prevail during five or six days, and 
are usually accompanied with frost. ‘The commence- 
ment of severe or actual winter generally occurs in 
the latter part or towards the end of the month; and 
is not unfrequently preceded by calms, fogs, and 
heavy rains. ‘The thermometer has a mean height 
| of about 39°, and usually ranges between 17° and 
55°; but it has been known to fall to two degrees 
below zero, and to rise so high as 58°. The bar- 
ometer has a mean height of 29°69 inches, and usually 
ranges between 29°12 and 30°32. The mean fall of 
rain, on the average of many years, is 2°47 inches; and 
De 
a 
the mean evaporation is 0°6 of an inch. The winds, 
on the average of many years, blow one day from 
points about the north, 24 days from points about 
the north-east, 34 from points about the east, 4 from 
points about the south-east, 2 from points about the 
south, 84 from points about the south-west, 6 from 
points about the west, and 4 from points about the 
north-west. 
Almost all annual plants of our country, whether 
indigenous or introduced, exist during December 
only in the epitomized and hybernating form of seed; 
and the vast majority of other plants are in a state of 
profound repose, resting their roots dormantly be- 
neath the surface of the soil, and escaping the dam- 
age or destruction which their delicate organism 
would otherwise sustain from the rigours of frost or 
from alternations of frost and sunshine. In mild 
seasons, a few of the autumnal flowering plants con- 
tinue their bloom into December, and even beyond | 
its close, and a small number of vernal-flowering 
plants bloom more or less freely in anticipation; but, 
in most instances, both classes have a sickly and 
drooping appearance, and afford abundant indication 
of being completely out of their natural season. Yet 
the daisy and some chrysanthemums often bloom in 
great brilliance ; and hellebores, cyclamens, pansies, 
anemones, wall-flowers, stocks, polyanthuses, and 
primroses, not infrequently rise far above sickliness, 
and altogether astonish a novice by the comparative 
flushness and fulness of their floral beauty. All the 
evergreen shrubs, also, and many of the evergreen 
herbs, contribute to the garden and the villa-ground 
features of refreshing and most welcome verdure; and 
a few, such as the laurustinus, the arbutus, and the 
evergreen cytisus, contribute the additional and a 
richer feature of floral bloom. ‘The mosses and the 
liverworts, however, are unchecked in vegetation; | 
and, though simple in organism, and individually | 
minute, they impart an agreeable verdure to close 
scenes, and afford an interesting subject of botanical 
investigation during all the wintry night of the gen- 
eral sleep ef plants. 
During December, almost all insects which have 
escaped destruction are inert in their winter-torpor ; 
but respectively in the beginning and toward the end 
of the month, appear the December moth and the | 
yellow-line quaker ; and on warm days, a few gnats | 
may be seen sporting in the sunbeams. Reptiles and 
other animals which have torpid habits of hyberna- 
tion, as the lizard, the frog, the hedgehog, and the 
badger, are also everywhere out of view. Yet such 
of our indigenous or naturalized animals as retain the 
exercise of their instincts, perception, and locomo- 
tivity, become more confiding in man, and excite 
much more tender feelings of interest than during 
summer or autumn; and various agreeable families 
of the feathered tribe, urged hither by inereasing | 
scarcity of food in their native haunts, arrive upon 
our shores, and pleasantly vary our specimens of 
animated nature. The web-footed birds from the 
arctic regions, and the timid and suppliant wrens, 
thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, and robin redbreasts 
of our own land, specially challenge the attention, and 
interest the feelings, during the snows of December. 
The Farm.—All kinds of cattle, throughout De- 
cember, continue to be constantly in the farm-yard, 
and must be treated in the same manner as in No- 
vember. ‘The littering of the yards, stalls, stables, 
cow-houses, hog-sties, and cattle-sheds, ought te be 
so regular, constant, clean, and plentiful, as both to 
keep all the stock in a comfortable condition, and to 
prevent the loss of any manure. The ewe and 
wether hogs ought, throughout this month, as 
throughout November, to be kept folded on turnips. 
The ewes should continue to be on grass; but, dur- 
ing snow or hard frost, they must receive an allow- 
ance of hay; and should any of the forward ewes 
a 
