fires — only too often ! There is a great deal of woody herbaceous stuff to clea. out from many gardens, and this, together with the abundance of autumn leaves, usually finds its way to the lire. Bonfires are a lazy and wasteful way out. The modern scientific gardener goes back to the very ancient way of dealing with garden refuse, and makes manure with it..
If you have a big garden and can spare a corner for a pit you can dig one out about two feet deep and lay your toughest refuse in that, after chopping it a bit with a sharp.spadc. This is, however, a messy way ; you have to put a layer of earth or animal manure over every nine inches or so, and the sides of loose heaps tend to fall out or be picked out by blackbirds and thrushes in search of worms. A better plan is to construct a heap with sides of firm turf (if available). Best of all for the smaller-sized garden is a brick bin with an earth bottom. If the earth at the bottom is really old compost, so much the better. it will be already full of beneficial microbes which will colonise and rot down the material you put on top. There is nothing you need be afraid of putting into a well-made heap, except diseased stuff. All except the very woodiest parts will work down to a flaky manure without a trace of smell, and richer than stable manure.
If you have two bins or two compartments (preferably not quite isolated) you can start building one up now just as you begin to draw upon the compost laid down in spring and summer for digging in now.
PLANTING FOR FRUIT
There arc not many fruit trees of good quality to be had now, but there are many hushes of soft fruits and bramble-types that you may wish to plant. This is the time. The greatest success for all kinds is assured when the trees are transferred without check in thc damp and still days of late October and early November, just before the last leaves fall naturally. The soil is still slightly warm. and root action positively takes place before winter puts a real stop to active growth. Needless
to say, there should be hardly any check.
A hole should be dug of adequate size to contain all the roots of the plants spread out fairly flat, without any doubling up. When covered, the top roots should only be about four inches below the surface. 'fo be successful, you need to have the holes dug at least a week or so in advance to allow the earth to get properly settled. The incorporation of compost is a great help towards a good start. Begin now. At the actual time of planting you will have to tread the soil firmly. Now is your chance to let the air get to it and to loosen it up for a little' while in readiness for easy working then.
A r t LONDON GROUP IHl giants of the London Group are the giants of painting in England to-day. One ought, at an exhibition of the group's work, to get a very good
idea of our contemporary art. This year's show is a pleasant but sober affair. Everyone looks very established and arrived and competent; the note of experiment is absent, and with it has disappeared that hint of excitement and bravado. The big names are painting exactly like themselves and there is no need to elaborate what a James Fitton, an Edward le Ras. an Ivon Hitchens, a Ruskin Spear, a Fred Uhlman looks like (although there is uniquq among the exhibits that dream cathedral of Uhlman's, constructed as it were in white muslin).
The most interesting people to watch on these walls arc the lesser-known. Particularly I recommend David Bombers. N. Martin Bell (who is laminated by the ordinary French street in the same way as Utrillo), Mary Hand (for her humour). Gordon Richards whose Charlady is the most hauntingly beautiful little picture in the exhibition, Anne Carline and Mary Edwards. Coldest and least moving of the exhibits were two religious pictures (rbe Magi. by Duncan Grant, and Martha and Mary. by Vanessa Bell).--(Royal Academy.)