512 MANUAL OF GARDENING 
freely for bugs and beetles. Cover the joints with fresh soil, to guard 
against injury by the vine-borer. 
AUGUST 
Beets. — A last sowing of the early table sorts may be made for a 
succession. 
Cabbage. — Harvest the early crop, and give good cultivation to 
the main crop. Keep down the bugs and worms. 
Celery. — The latest crop may yet be set. Earlier set plants should 
be handled as they attain sufficient size. Common drain tiles are ex- 
cellent for blanching if one has them, and must be put on when the 
plants are about half grown. Hoe frequently to keep the plants 
growing. 
Onions. — Harvest as soon as the bulbs are well formed. Let them 
lie on the ground until cured, then draw to the barn floor or some 
other airy place and spread thinly. Market when you can get a good 
price, and the sooner the better. 
Tomatoes may be hastened in coloring by being picked just as they 
begin to color and placed in single layers in a coldframe or hotbed, 
where they can be covered with sash. 
SEPTEMBER 
In many parts of the North it is not too late to sow rye, or peas, 
or corn, to afford winter protection for orchards. Asa rule, very late 
fall plowing for orchards is not advisable. Now is a good time to trim 
up the fence-rows and to burn the brush piles, in order to destroy the 
breeding places of rabbits, insects, and weeds. Cuttings of goose- 
berries and currants may be taken. Use only the wood of the current 
year’s growth, making the cuttings about a foot long. Strip off the 
leaves, if they have not already fallen, tie the cuttings in large bundles, 
and bury them in a cold cellar, or in a sandy, well-drained knoll; or 
if the cutting-bed is well prepared and well drained, they may be 
planted immediately, the bed being well mulched upon the approach 
of winter. September and October are good months in which to set 
orchards, provided the ground is well prepared and well drained, and 
is not too much exposed to sweeping winds. Wet lands should never 
