12G 
July, 1891. 
ORCHRRD ?anp X n O RR DEN \ 
What to Do in July and How to Do it. 
CABBAGE. 
At the North and in the Middle States 
July is the time for setting the main' crop 
of winter cabbage plants. At this season it 
is necessary to have large and stout plants 
for transplanting. Small and rapidly 
grown plants are hard to move in the heat 
of summer. Don't transplant immediate- 
ly after a rain, but just before if possible. 
We prefer to set all plants of this kind 
when the ground is only moderately moist. 
Make a hole with a trowel, let an assistant 
till it with water, in which drop the plant 
and fill in the dry soil. Plants set out in a 
very wet soil just after a rain, get the soil 
baked around them and do not thrive so 
well as those set in the above manner. From 
North Carolina southward it is too early 
yet even to sow the seeds for winter cab- 
bage. August is plenty early enough to 
sow winter cabbage seed here for plants to 
be set in September. September set plants 
here, in rich moist soil, will make better 
cabbage than plants that are starved and 
stunted during our dry summer weath- 
er. They will grow here in any season un- 
til Christmas, or later, and early sowing is 
an error. Of this more later. 
SWEET POTATOES. 
Sweet Potato plants of the Southern 
Queen variety will usually, in a warm soil, 
make a good crop set as late as July 1st, as 
far north as New Jersey. Here in North 
Carolina the best potatoes for winter keep- 
ing are grown from cuttings from the vines 
of the earlier ones set any time this month 
or even in August, These have been found 
to keep much better in winter than sweet 
potatoes raised from the early-set plants. In 
writing of sweet potatoes for northern 
planting I should have mentioned the Pea- 
body. This is the most enormously produc- 
tive potato we have grown, and we believe 
v ould suit northern growers much better 
than the Southern Queen. It is not popu- 
lar here because too dry to suit our people. 
Its chief fault is the enormous size it at- 
tains, making it necessary to cut up for 
cooking. The skin is a pinkish purple color, 
and the flesh a fine yellow like Nansemond. 
We think this potato well worth trying 
at the North. 
TURNIPS. 
Long White French we consider the best 
of all table lurnips. It is of the Iiuta Baga 
class and should be sown early in July. It 
is the hardiest turnip we know, and 1 have 
had it stand in the garden unhurt in a mild 
winter in northern Maryland. In this lati- 
tude it can be left out with the Chinese 
Winter radish and pulled at any time in 
winter. August is a better time to sow 
strap-leaf turnips at the North, and Septem- 
ber here. These should be grown quickly 
and not to too large a size. There is a large 
globe turnip grown here under the name of 
North Carolina Prize. It is similar to the 
Norfolk, but much better and I believe it is 
a sort well worth growing elsewhere. Al- 
ways sow turnips in rows so that they can 
be thinned and cultivated. Broadcast sow- 
ing unless they are merely intended for win- 
ter greens, for which they are largely grown 
here, is always unsatisfactory. 
CELERY. 
Unless for early fall use it is yet too early 
to set celery except in the Northern States. 
From New Jersey southward August is full 
early enough to set the main crop for win- 
ter. In this latitude we prefer to plant 
about the first of September. Celery makes 
a poor hollow growth in hot weather, and 
the best is that which grows late. We hope 
some of our northern readers will try the 
plan we have recommended heretofore of 
planting in beds five feet wide, setting the 
plants six inches apart in rows crosswise 
the bed, and one foot between the rows. 
The whole bed is earthed up together, and 
a bank a foot thick carried up on each side. 
When hard freezing comes on it is earthed 
all over and covered with forest leaves and 
corn stalks and allowed to stand where it 
it grows. We will again describe the pro- 
cess in detail later on and will only say now, 
that in planting the beds we use a board 
one foot wide and six feet long, nicely 
squared at the ends. On each edge of the 
board notches are cut, six inches apart and 
six inches from each end. This will make 
eleven plants in the row and the row five 
feet long. In planting, stretch a line tight- 
ly along one side of the proposed bed. Be- 
gin at one end, and lay the planting board 
at right angles to this line. Set a plant at 
each notch, and turn the board over and 
repeat the operation, making the rows just 
one foot apart. By keeping the board 
square against the line the plants will thus 
be set very straight and uniform. All that 
is needed then is clean culture until earth- 
ing time, which process we will describe 
later. In planting largely this way the 
beds can be made of any length but a space 
eight feet wide for earthing should be left 
between the beds, giving room to thorough- 
ly pulverize the soil for earthing w ith plow 
and cullivator. Remember never to culti- 
vate nor handle celery when wet with dew 
or rain. 
SALSIFY, CARROTS AND BEETS. 
Salsify, carrots and Blood beets for win- 
ter use will do better sown this month than 
earlier. Salsify is one of those things which 
are usually sown too early and the mid-sum- 
mer heat checks their growth and injures 
the roots. In North Carolina the parsnip 
crop can still be sown though for this June 
would have been better. I have had better 
salsify and parsnips from summer sowing 
than from the old practice of sowing very 
early in spring. And we get an additional 
advantage in the use of the land for an early 
crop. Parsnips and salsify were always re- 
garded as more expensi ve because they oc- 
cupied the land the whole seas' n. Both 
can easily be made a second crop. 
BEANS AND SQUASHES. 
Successive crops of string or snap beans 
should be planted every two weeks to keep 
a regular supply for the table. Bush sum- 
mer squashes can also be planted as a suc- 
cession and winter squashes will still do 
well, particularly in the South. But with 
us our sweet potatoes so completely answer 
all the purposes to which northern people 
put squashes, that but little attention is 
given them here. 
In this connection I would recommend to 
our northern readers the drying of sweet 
potatoes when they are cheap and plenty. 
Cut in thin slices they dry in the sun more 
readily than anything I know, and when 
steamed in winter come back to their orig- 
inal character. For making pies and pud- 
dings these dried potatoes are far superior 
to northern squashes. We formerly used 
them largely in Virginia, but here in North 
Carolina where, the first of June, we are 
still buying last year's potatoes for fifty 
cents per bushel it hardly pays. 
PICKLES. 
Cucumbers for pickles should now be 
planted. For this crop as well as all other 
of the family we prefer to manure in the 
hill with a good compost. Put the compost 
in the furrow and pull a little soil over it 
and plant the seeds. We usually make the 
hills five feet apart each way, but some 
plant as close as 4x4 feet. This is in some 
places a very profitable second crop for 
the market gardener. We still use the Im- 
proved White Spine, but Nichols’ Medium 
Green is good and the old Long Green. We 
suppose that every one knows that cucum- 
bers should be cut from the vine with a 
short piece of the stem attached, and never 
pulled off. Canteloupes for mangoes are 
planted in the same way. 
LATE IRISH POTATOES. 
Get seed of the southern early crop which 
can now be supplied by the Norfolk and 
Richmond seedsmen and try a crop of late 
potatoes. Plant them in the latitude of 
New Jersey early in July and we think the 
result will be good. Here it is better to 
defer the planting until middle of August 
and we have raised a good crop planted in 
September. This late crop is getting to be 
a very important one in the South, and 
fully as certain as the early crop. These 
late grown potatoes keep unsprouted until 
late in spring. 
TOMATOES. 
In North Carolina a crop should be grown 
from seed sown in June and transplanted 
in July, to take the place of the early crop 
and give better fruit for canning purposes. 
ENDIVE. 
Those who are fond of endive should sow 
