DICTIONARY OF SEASONABLE GARDEN WORK. 



433 



Melons. — Watch for bugs. Bone-meal and tobacco- 

 dust are good preventives, if applied thickly all around 

 the plants, Stir the ground frequently, drawing fresh 

 soil up to the plants. 



Onions. — Keep them free from weeds. 



Orchard jMauaf^cmcyil . — Continue to spray for scab 

 and blights. Mulching newly-set trees often induces 

 strong summer growth. All windfalls in apple orchards 

 should be picked up and destroyed at once. This is 

 done most conveniently by pasturing the orchard with 

 swine or sheep. Destroy caterpillar-nests. Slugs on 

 cherries, peas, etc., are easily destroyed by applications 

 of dry lime or ashes. Pruning, especially important to 

 young orchards, consists mostly of rubbing off superflu- 

 ous shoots as soon as they start. Prune for fine fruit, 

 not for a great quantity of it. Thin apples, peaches, 

 pears and plums at your earliest convenience —it pays. 



Peppers may still be planted. 



Potatoes. — Begin spraying with the Bordeaux mixture 

 to prevent blight and rot. Harvest the early potatoes, 

 and if possible dispose of them while prices are yet 

 high. Seed-potatoes of good early varieties will prob- 

 ably bring a good price next planting season. If you 

 can get seed for planting now, plow up the old straw- 

 berry-patch and plant it in potatoes, selecting early va- 

 rieties. 



Radishes . — Sow the summer varieties for succession, 

 and begin sowing the winter sorts. 



Rhubctrb. — An application of fine manure around the 

 plants will help them to recover strength for next season's 

 yield of stgjks, 



Seed-Saving-. — Usually it is safest and best to depend 

 upon specialists for one's supply of seeds. Indiscrimin- 

 ate use of home-grown seeds, owing to crossing and hy- 

 bridization, often results in much loss and annoyance. 

 Melons "mix' readily with cucumbers, and squashes with 

 pumpkins, and varieties of tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, 

 etc., with other varieties of the same vegetable. Usu- 

 ally it is safe for gardeners to save and use their own 

 seeds of lettuce, radish, salsify, herbs, peas, beans, 

 and of any other vegetables that are planted one va- 

 riety only in a mass, at some distance from other mem- 

 bers of the same species or genus. 



Solving Seed. — In dry weather sow seed a little 

 deeper than is usually recommended, and firm the soil 

 well above them. 



Squashes. — Keep the ground well cultivated around 



the plants Find and crush the large black squash-bugs. 

 The yellow-striped beetle can be kept in check by inch- 

 thick applications of bone-meal and tobacco-dust. To 

 guard against the borer, apply the kerosene emulsion, 

 and cover the joints of the vines with fresh soil. This 

 causes them to throw out roots at those points and 

 makes them independent of the main root. 



Slrazfberries, — A new plantation that will bear a 

 reasonably good crop next season, may be started from 

 the first young runner-plants taken up with a large clod 

 of soil, or allowed to root in pots sunk in the ground. 

 Fall planting will seldom give good results north of New 

 York City, and even in New Jersey we would prefer 

 spring planting. But summer planting will sometimes 

 prove successful. 



Strazvberry- Forcing . — Young plants may now be 

 started in pots for next winter's crop. Fill three-inch 

 pots with nice rich loam, and sink them, up to the rim, 

 in the ground around the parent plants This should be 

 done just as soon as the runners begin to start. Direct 

 the runners so that they shall strike root in the pots, and 

 keep them well watered in dry weather. In about three 

 weeks the plants will root and may be taken up in th;ir 

 pots. Place them close together in a somewhat shaded 

 location, and when the pots are full of roots, shift the 

 plants into six-inch pots, filled with rich fibrous loam, 

 potting firmly. Stand them in an open airy place, and 

 give all the water needed. 



Tomatoes. — We always like to stake or trellis a few 

 plants in the house-garden. They are ornamental if 

 trimmed to a single stalk, and tied to a six-foot pole. 

 Thus we can have the plants quite close together, and 

 they usually give ripe fruit a trifle earlier than those 

 planted outdoors. 



Tomato-Forcing. — Plants from seed sown early this 

 month will fruit in November. Start them in three-inch 

 pots, one plant to the pot, and shift the plants into 

 larger pots as they grow. The fruiting plants should stand 

 in ten or twelve-inch pots. Use light fibrous loam for 

 potting-soil, thoroughly mixing a teaspoonful of bone- 

 meal with each potful of soil. 



Turnips. — Sow the swedes early this month— the 

 flat strap-leaf varieties later. 



[['eeds are easily killed in this hot weather if cultiva- 

 tors and hoes are used industriously. Prevent their 

 seeding for a few years and you will have very little 

 weeding to do afterwards. 



