SPRINGLIKE AUTUMN.
Some may feel that autumn is a melancholy time. The garden consists largely of dead stalks, dirty leaves litter the lawns, only weeds luxuriantly flourish. Autumn has this strain of melancholy, it is true ; but in such October days as we have enjoyed the 'likeness of autumn to spring is salient and surprising. In certain regards the two seasons are, as nearly as may be, identical. It is a pericd of new growth. Half the plants you dig up; say in the rough border, are putting Out roots as fast as ever they will. It is indeed more springlike underground at this season than even in April. Our men of science have recently discovered that the beneficent soil microbes which create fertility are more active now than at any season of the year ; and this is one reason—out of several —why it is better to transplant as it is better to sow in autumn than in spring, though the two seasons are roughly parallel in this regard. Perhaps you best taste the springlike savour of autumn on some newly sown tilth. The wheat is now • four inches high, the lines of the fresh green blades are close and continuous as any lines of seeds sown in private gardens in March. Shelley talks of seeds lying corpse-like in their tomb till they respond to the clarion of the spring ; but what millions germinate now, as other millions germinate in spring!
Previous page
