THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



270 



CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE. 



In the northern counties, this month is the 

 general period of harvest. Cut beans with hand- 

 sickle, tie the crop into sheaves with straw ropes 

 or of tarred twine, and carry the crop when dry, 

 and build it into ricks, or lodge it in barns, Thatch 

 all ricks quickly ; beans and peas require immediate 

 thatching, as leguminous straws imbibe and hold 

 much moisture. Carry all straws from the rick- 

 yard to the cattle yards for htter, and rake all 

 clean. Employ plenty of hands in harvest, and re- 

 ward them liberally. 



Gather fruits, as pears and apples. 



Finish the dunging of clay fallows. Cart stones 

 and tiles to drains. Scour ditches. Repair, widen, 

 and strengthen brooks and rivulets ; and mix the 

 earth excavations with lime for composts. Lay 

 well-prepared composts on grass lands eaten bare, 

 and on lucerne, the surface being first scarified, and 

 then roll it heavily. This preparation raises the 

 first spring crop. 



Sow winter vetches on good lands, and fallowed 

 and dunged on poorer soils. Mix the seed with 

 beans or winter barley. 



Plough the stubbles for next year's green crop 

 fallows, and work the lands, and the dung may 

 also be applied, which very much furthers the 

 spring operations. Skim the surface from weeds 

 of pea and bean grattens to be sown with wheat. 

 The autumn cleaning of stubbles is a practice of 

 much value in early climates and on dry lands. 



Seed-furrow in the end of the month the clay 

 fallows to be sown with wheat. Plough grass leys 

 for the same purpose, and sow if circumstances 

 permit. Collect and burn the weeds on scarified 

 grounds, and lay on dung. Plough with one fur- 

 row, and sow the wheat. 



Pick hops. The flowers are placed in bins, 

 being first cut off by scissors, and are paid for at 

 a fixed rate ; then carried to the cart, and dried 

 chiefly with coke. Some use sulphur, to give the 

 hops a yellow tinge. The haulm of hop makes a 

 good litter. Set the poles erect, and cover till next 

 year. 



Keep all live stock in good condition, especially 

 the work-horses, as the wheat-sowing is at hand. 



CALENDAR OF GARDENING. 



Mushroom beds are now prepared, being the 

 season for those produced naturally, if the month 

 be showery. 



Lettuces may be sown early for winter, and when 

 fit for being transplanted, the young sets are placed 

 in a roomy frame, where to stand for the winter. 

 Some hardy sorts will endure the open frosts. 



Plant cabbages for spring in an open situation, 

 on rich lands and well prepared. Fresh earths are 

 very suitable for this plant. 



The plants of spinach are now thinned to regular 

 distances of two or three inches, the plants will 

 then become stocky ; and may be thinned again, 

 and the plants so removed for the table. 



Thin out and hoe the spaces between the rows of 

 turnips, which should always be sown in drills. 



Sow salads again if required. 



Exterminate every weed ; and bring each plot to 

 that state of neatness and order, which renders a 



garden a sober, quiet picture during winter, more 

 beautiful perhaps than that of the rampant luxuri- 

 ance of summer. 



Plant strawberry beds in rows, of plants that 

 have been raised in pots, and now transplanted 

 with balls of earth. But fresh young-rooted sets 

 will rarely fail. 



Place nets over wall fruit, to catch the falling 

 fruit. 



Suspend bottles half-filled with treacle-water 

 among the branches, into which wasps will enter 

 and are destroyed. 



Remove greenhouse plants to their winter quar- 

 ters, and clip box-edgings. Transplant pinks 

 raised from pipings ; and also some hardy herba- 

 ceous plants. Then rough dig and fork all the 

 vacant parts of borders. 



Weed and roll the walks of gravel when in a 

 damp state. 



REVIEW OE THE CORN TRADE 



DURING THE PAST MONTH. 



August has come and gone; and the many 

 hopes that were entertained of its bringing with it 

 a month of summer, have passed away in disap- 

 pointment. It has, in truth, become a painful task 

 to note the perpetual inclemency of the weather. 

 Scarcely more than two days of sunshine have fol- 

 lowed each other ; while the quantity of rain that ' 



has fallen has been prodigious, followed mostly by 

 cold nights. The crops have, consequently, made 

 little progress ; and it is almost a wonder that any 

 pieces have ripened ; but they have at last, after a 

 manner far from satisfactory; and many fields have 

 fallen below the sickle during the last week. Let 

 us hope that Providence, though threatening, will 



