DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. III. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1851. 



NO. 12. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, 

 Proprietors. 



OFFICE, QUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



S. W. COLE, Editor 



WORK FOR THE SEASON. 



June is the first warm month in the year. It is 

 a time of peculiar beauty. All nature is adorned 

 with living green. The beautiful trees are in full 

 foliage and vigorous growth, and the earth is 

 clothed with luxuriant herbage. This is a very 

 hurrying season with the farmer; frequently before 

 he has done planting, the weeds start up among his 

 crops and contend for the mastery. 



Planting. — Those who have not finished plant- 

 ing corn and potatoes, should attend to the business 

 as soon as possible, as it is growing late. An 

 early frost may destroy late planted corn; and late 

 planted potatoes are most liable to rot. In planting 

 late, early kinds should be used, unless you have a 

 hardy variety, like the Black potato, for instance. 



Squashes, <^c. — In planting squashes, melons and 

 cucumbers, the better way is to plant many seeds, 

 and then if insects come to destroy them, by daily 

 attention to killing the insects, they will eat only 

 a part of the plants, and there will be enough left. 

 We have followed this method for years, and have 

 never failed to have plants enough to cover the 

 ground. It requires but little expense as the in- 

 sects abound only a few days. 



Beans. — The small pea bean is late, and should 

 be planted as early as the first of this month; but 

 the liremen, (called also Kidney,) and the Meri- 

 machee (called Pierce bean in the Boston market) 

 are early varieties and bear planting as late as the 

 20th of June. They are both white beans, and 

 good varieties. 



Weeding. — The weeds are growing while the 

 cultivator is asleep, and in stormy weather when 

 he cannot destroy them. A little neglect re- 

 quires much extra labor. If a piece of land be ne- 

 glected a week or teti days, after the proper season 

 for weeding, which is at an early period, four or 

 five times the labor will be required to destroy the 

 weeds; and this loss of labor is not the only disad- 

 vantage, the weeds choke and shade the cultivated 

 plants, and rob them of their food — of that very 



food which is then prepared to nourish them in 

 their tender state. 



Hilling. — The practice of hilling plants is fast 

 going out of fashion. Nearly all of our best far- 

 mers till their corn on a level; and many have dis- 

 continued the practice of hilling potatoes. Let any 

 one who hills his potatoes, examine them after a 

 powerful rain has succeeded a drought, and he will 

 find that while land on a level is well saturated with 

 water, his potato hills are dry. If there is any ad- 

 vantage in hilling any plants, it is on wet land, as 

 the hills throw off the water, which settles down 

 in the hollows made by digging up the earth to 

 make hills. This leaves the hill comparatively 

 dry; of course hilling on dry land, or land of medi- 

 al texture, is injurious. 



Cabbages require less labor, and they succeed as 

 well, when sowed where they are to grow. It 

 saves much time in transplanting. The Red Dutch 

 is very late, and should be sowed early. Better 

 when sowed in May. The Savoy is rather late, 

 and ought to be sowed the first of June. The 

 Drumhead is earlier and may be sowed from the first 

 to the middle of June. The Low Dutch Drum- 

 head is earlierthan the larger kind, and will gener- 

 ally succeed well if sowed by the 15th or 20th. 



Ruta-Baga and Cabbage Turnips may be sowed 

 any time in this month. The first of the month is 

 rather early for the fimiier, as they are liable to 

 grow corky when sowed early. From the 10th to 

 the 25th of this month is a good period for sowing 

 these turnips. 



Prvning Fruit Trees. — It will answer to prune 

 the latter part of this month, as the tree is not so 

 full of sap as in the spring; but we prefer delaying 

 this operation till July and August, for in June the 

 bark peels readily, and will often start in sawing 

 off a limb; and by going on to trees with hard boots 

 or shoes, the bark will start and greatly injure the 

 trees, unless great care be taken to avoid it. 



Grape Vines. — Those who have neglected their 

 vines till this late period, should consider that bet- 



