When the frost has cut down the flowers, and robbed the shrubs of their leaves it is time for the fall cleaning of the garden. This should be completed before the leaves begin to fall, as if left until then they will greatly complicate matters.

Pull up and consign to the compost heap all annuals, weeds, stalks of perennials, Lilies, and ornamental plants, and the litter used for mulch during summer. This last might be left on were it not for the fact that it is likely to harbour insects which would do mischief. It is therefore better to remove it and work the bed over, leaving all clean and neat.

This is the time to look out for cutworms, chrysalids, and the like, and destroy them. Much may be done in this direction. Look carefully along the edging between the curbing and the grass where the cutworm lurks. Look for the chrysalids of borers in the ground around the Clematis, Cosmos, Hollyhocks, and Dahlia beds, and when found destroy them. On the under side of boards, steps, and under the edge of the siding of the house will be found the cocoons of the hickory tussock-moth and the cabbage-worm, all of which should be destroyed. After removing the dead annuals rake over the beds, leaving them clean and neat.

Beds of perennials, Roses, bulbs, and especially of Lilies and Peonies, must be well rounded up to shed water, as all plants are injured by water standing about their roots. If not already high enough to admit of this, more earth must be added to raise them sufficiently. The earth from the window-boxes may be used to advantage, especially for the Tea-rose bed, where a foot of mellow earth, brought well up around the plants and rounded to shed water, will so protect them that, though the tops may freeze, all below the soil will be likely to live. Over this should be placed several inches of rough litter or leaves and a frame of rough boards put around the beds and covered with sash, canvas, or boards to shed rain.

Young climbing Roses should have three or four inches of earth banked up around them; wrap their tops with straw or sacking, or old carpet may be drawn over them and tacked to the trellis or support on which they grow. Plants under the eaves of the house, where the water drips, should have boards arranged to catch and divert it to the lawn.

Protect equally from the cold winds of winter and the sun; plants are not injured so much by freezing as by thawing suddenly, as they must when the sun shines directly upon them. If they thaw gradually, little if any damage is done, but sudden thawing ruptures the plant-cells, causing serious injury. To prevent this and the settling of water about the roots are the points to keep in mind when giving winter protection.

For plants whose tops die, leaves offer an excellent protection—better than manure, in that they do not scatter seeds of weeds. For plants that form a fall crown of leaves—as the Hollyhock or Annunciation Lily—a box with an open end filled lightly with leaves is satisfactory. Close, air-tight covers, as boxes, tin pails, iron kettles, and the like, should never be used to protect plants of any kind. Wooden frames covered with wire netting, and filled loosely with leaves, allowing the moisture to evaporate rapidly, have given the best results; next come frames covered with thin cotton cloth, then loose boxes with one end knocked out. The idea is to retain the dry leaves around the plant, protect from sun and cold wind, and allow the rapid evaporation of any moisture that may collect. Wet or frozen leaves around a plant are worse than no protection; especially is this true in the case of Myosotis, Pansies, Carnations, Canterbury-bells, and Foxglove, all of which do better in the cold-frames. Where these are not available, recourse may be had to the boxes with netting, or to evergreen boughs. When filling in about a plant with leaves do it lightly, as a mass closely packed becomes damp and mouldy, and kills rather than protects.

Plants too tall to be covered should be protected with straw or corn-stalks; cover for some little distance beyond the roots with leaves or litter, and place straw or corn fodder around them, bringing it to a point at top, and tying firmly there and in the middle, sloping the stalks sufficiently to shed rain. Tall Rosebushes, young AlthÆas, and similar growths, are much benefited by this form of protection. Long beds of plants—as Japanese Iris, Pansies, and the like—maybe protected by taking narrow boards eighteen or twenty inches long, with a notch cut in one end, the other end being pointed and driven into the ground; set these at intervals through the centre of the beds; place the poles lengthwise of the beds, their ends resting in the notches, and arrange evergreen boughs across the poles on each side to shed rain. Corn fodder may be used where the evergreens cannot be procured, or a row of pegs may support two boards, forming a ?-shaped roof, which will protect from wind, sun, and water equally. Protect the Lily and Peony beds with a foot of leaves and rough, old manure. Rhododendrons, at the North, must have both roots and tops protected if there is to be any bloom the following year. Muslin-covered frames and leaves will do this best. Great care must be taken not to break off the buds, which are exceedingly brittle. Frames with removable lids that will admit of filling in gradually, and allow the leaves to settle before finishing, are best. Pile leaves around the roots of Clematis, and stretch sacking or other cloth over the trellises on which they grow. Protect in the same way English Ivy and Ampelopsis Veitchi while young. A northwest angle of a building affords very good protection.