DEVOTBD TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1856. 



NO. 6, 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor, 

 Office. ...QuiNCT Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K nOLBROOK, ) Associate 



HENRY F. FRENCH, ( Editors. 



i- 



JUNE, AND ITS WORK. 



TINE, perhaps, of aU 

 the months in which 

 vegetation is grow- 

 ing and is to be 

 tended, calls for 

 ' more care and nice 

 attention than any 

 other month. The 

 main crops have 

 S been planted, the 

 (^ seeds have sprung 

 ^^ into a new exi&t- 

 -li ence, and presented 

 their tender stems 

 and leaves to the 

 eye of the cultiva- 

 tor, while their roots 

 have struck below 

 in search of mois- 

 ture, and gathered 

 a firm hold to sus- 

 tain the plant in place. These evidences of life 

 and progress gratify the hope in which the seeds 

 were cast into the ground, and cheer the farmer in 

 his labors. 



In June, all the hoed crops require constant at- 

 tention, and their treatment during this month 

 will decide whether they are to be materially ben- 

 efited, or not, by atmospheric influences. A plant, 

 as an animal, to grow fast and well, must be 

 healthy — and that health \n\l depend upon the cir- 

 cumstances under which it is placed. If in a lean, 

 compact, close soil, its growth will be slow, it will 

 be more or less moss-covered, and look shrivelled 

 and old, even in June. But if it stands in a warm, 

 generous soil, light, finely-pulverized, and porous, 

 so as to admit air and heat, then it will stretch away 

 in a cheerful and vigorous growth, and come to 

 maturity in season. Plants show this difference 

 according to the treatment they receive ; but that 

 they may assume tlie latter form, the soil should 



be rich, and then the cultivator and hoe kept in 

 frequent use, especially during the month of June. 

 Plants may derive important aid from the atmo- 

 sphere ; but in order to avail themselves of this, 

 they must be vigorous and in health. During all 

 their growth they require large portions of carbonic 

 acid, and if small, hard and weak, they are not in 

 a condition to receive it, though it ever floats about 

 them, waiting to be pressed into their service. 

 It is the food of plants and of the whole vegetable 

 world ; they absorb it into their systems, and 

 whilst they retain the carbon, they emit the oxy- 

 gen, and so feeding themselves, they purify our at- 

 mosphere. The atmosphere, also, is continually- 

 charged with vapor, which, as the earth becomes 

 cooled at night, is condensed upon it, and if thfr 

 soil be fine and porous, is taken up by it and appro- 

 priated by the roots of the plants. 



There are many ways in which plants derive di- 

 rect and immediate benefits from the atmoe^jhere, 

 provided the farmer has done bis part to place them 

 in a condition to receive it. After plowing, ma- 

 nuring, and planting, therefore, he can scarcely be 

 more unwise than to fail to give them careful and 

 attentive cultivation. So far as his agency is con- 

 cerned, he must see that they have light,, heat, 

 moisture, and a seed bed in which their roots may 

 traverse freely, and lay hold of the humus, or par- 

 ticles of mould. He can furnish them with light, 

 by a proper arrangement of rows — with Aeai, byan 

 open, loose soil, and with moisture, by proper 

 drainage, and stimulating manures. 



Cucumber, (Cucumis.) — The cucumber isacold^ 

 watery and indigestible fruit, yet more universally 

 admired, probably, than any garden esculent in 

 common use. 



On analysis it has been found to contain in 600 

 parts not less than 582.80 of water — the remaining 

 17.20 consisting of thirteen diflerent ingredients, 

 in various proportions, the principal of which ar? a 

 fungous substance, nearly resembling the substance 



