1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
249 
earth or sand makes a better bedding than straw 
during the hot season. 
Artificial Food. —Butter dairymen, will find some 
of the artificial foods profitable to feed with green 
fodder or pasture. Scouring caused by green feed, 
may be stopped at once, by giving the cow 2 quarts 
of dry cotton-seed meal. 
Sheep. —Keep ewes intended for the butcher by 
themselves, and feed liberally. A quart of mixed 
ground feed or bran, and oil-cake meal, will soon 
bring them into marketable condition. Keep store 
Sheep in a light pasture, and give a handful of 
feed daily. Provide shade of some kind. 
Dysentery in Sheep, is to be guarded against. Ail¬ 
ing sheep will retire from the flock, and may not be 
found until too late, unless the flock is watched and 
counted frequently. As soon as a looseness of 
the bowels is perceived, the sheep should be moved 
to a cool shed, and one ounce of castor oil be given. 
A bran or oatmeal mush will be beneficial. 
Flies of all kinds are now very troublesome, and 
should be watchfully guarded against. (See hints 
for last month). If maggots are found upon the 
sheep, apply tar and grease, (rancid butter or lard) 
to the parts, and clip off the wool closely. Carbolic 
sheep-dip, and other preparations of carbolic acid, 
may be used to prevent attacks. 
Figs. —Young pigs may be made ready for market, 
in 100 days if desired, by good feeding. The sow 
should be well fed with rich slop, to force a good 
flow of milk, and a feeding place for the pigs should 
be provided, in which they can get spare milk with 
a little fine ground barley meal or wheat middlings. 
Fondtry. —The flock should now be weeded out; 
all unprofitable fowls, poor layers, and poor moth¬ 
ers, should be used or marketed. Tw'o weeks feed¬ 
ing in a coop will be sufficient to make them fat. 
A few of the best old hens may be kept over for 
early setting, but many in a flock are unprofitable. 
The utmost cleaidiness should be preserved about 
the premises in the hot weather. All wastes and 
garbage should be disposed of on a compost heap ; 
a load of good soil and sods from fence rows will 
be useful, as the basis for it. Weeds should be 
gathered and added to the heap. Liberal additions 
of plaster will prevent disagreeable odors. 
Pure drinking water is of the first importance. 
More dangerous poisons are taken into the system 
with the water used, than in any other way. That 
from brooks is dangerous, as wash from manured 
fields, and soakage from the soil flows into them. 
Water from clear wells and springs only, should be 
given to cattle, and if such precaution is need¬ 
ed for them, it is equally so for the owners. Much 
avoidable disease is due to impure water. 
-- 
Notes on Orchard and Garden Work. 
While these Notes are made anew each month, 
there must, from the nature of the case, be some 
repetition. Sometimes repetition is useful; for ex¬ 
ample, we have in several years past repeated— 
not in the same lauguage, to be sure, but the fact, 
that cultivators of the soil, whether farmers, or- 
chardists, or gardeners, become too thoroughly 
fixed to the soil, and to their own special portion 
of it. No people more need recreation than they, 
and none take less. Then in no pursuit is travel so 
instructive as in that of the cultivator. It is hardly 
possible for one intelligent gardener or orchardist, 
to visit the grounds of another, without learning 
something. When the warm months come, we ad¬ 
vise all who can possibly do it,—and most can if 
they will, to go away from home for a few days, if 
for recreation only—well; if for both recreation and 
instruction,—better. Nothing enlarges ones ideas 
so much, as to see and talk with others in the same 
occupation. No money expended gives a better 
return than that invested in judicious travel. Of 
course, one is not expected to go off and “let his 
pursley get ahead of him,” but the work should be 
planned in advance with this absence in view.... 
The hoe and horse-cultivator should be frequently 
used, especially if there have been rains. The 
weeds are easily killed by the hot sun, if uprooted. 
Orchard and Nursery. 
Marketing. —The marketing of early fruits, will 
be a large part of the work of the month. See 
that crates, baskets, and other packages are at hand, 
and are tidy, and neatly marked ; always assort the 
fruit, making three grades, firsts and seconds for 
market, and the third for the pigs. Pack so tight, 
that it cannot bruise in transit. 
Pruning can be done in this month. Look to an 
open head to the tree, that the sun and air may 
reach the interior. 
Grafts will need attention as directed last month. 
Pinch all those that are growing too vigorously. 
Thinning. —Though rather late, it will still pay 
in the apple and pear orchards. The first thinning 
is rarely sufficient. Better remove the excess 
even though the fruit is of some size ; that which 
remains, will be enough better, to pay for the labor. 
Buckling should be done as soon as the buds 
are mature, and the bark of the stock rises read¬ 
ily. Several have asked us to describe the method 
of budding. It is not practicable to repeat such 
matters every year. In August, 18T7, we gave 
plain directions with engravings ; that, or any other 
number may be had, post paid, for 15 cents. 
Insects. —Destroy any Tent Caterpillars' nests that 
may have escaped earlier notice. The Codling Moth 
is best caught by bands of cloth or of heavy paper, 
placed around the trunks ; these should be removed 
once a week, and all worms found under them, 
killed. Let the hogs eat the wormy wind-falls. 
Slugs on cherry and pear trees, can be killed by 
dusting with lime from a muslin bag tied to a pole. 
Blight. —If this "appears, there is but one thing to 
do, cut away the blighted twig, branch, or whole 
tree, as the case may be. Cut down to bright sound 
wood, and burn the removed portions. 
Young Trees. —The nursery rows should be kept 
clear of weeds. The horse-hoe will reach most of 
these. Use a short whiffle-tree, wound with cloth, 
or otherwise protected. Beds of seedlings must be 
weeded by hand. They should be shaded and 
watered if the weather is dry. If seedling ever¬ 
greens damp off, sift dry sand upon the bed. 
The Fruit Garden. 
Grape Vines. —In spring we directed that vines 
planted then should be allowed to bear but a single 
shoot. It is well to wait until the vines are older 
before putting up a trellis ; a stake 5 or 6 feet out 
of the ground will answer for the first two years. 
Keep the shoot tied up to this; if other shoots 
start from the root or the old wood, remove them. 
In the axil of each leaf, or where the leaf joins the 
stem, a shoot may appear, this is a lateral, do not 
remove it entirely, but pinch all off but one leaf; 
if it makes another start, pinch that back to one 
leaf, and so on, should it start again. Should the 
vine reach the top of the stake, let it take care of 
itself. If the vine was planted last year, and two 
shoots are grown, keep these tied to the stake and 
treated in the same way. On established vines, 
keep the laterals pinched as. above, and when the 
shoots are as long as desired, stop them by pinch¬ 
ing. Insects that now appear are mostly those 
that can be hand-picked. 
Mildew. —Keep a careful watch, and if whitish 
patches appear on the underside of the leaf, the 
growing shoot, or the fruit cluster, use sulphur at 
once. Bellow's for the purpose are sold at the seed 
and agricultural warehouses. Sift the sulphur be¬ 
fore putting it into the bellows, and in using the 
bellows so manage it that a light cloud of the sul¬ 
phur will be scattered, to settle upon the vines. 
Choose a calm day. Repeat the sulphur after a rain. 
Strawberries. —If grown in single rows, remove the 
mulch when the picking is over, fork in manure, 
keep the ground clear of weeds, and remove the 
runners. If the alternate system is followed, the 
spaces that have bebn used as paths this season are 
to be manured, forked up, and raked level to make 
a rich fine bed into whic’h the ruuners from the old 
plants are to be directed. If pot layering is prac¬ 
tised, layer the earliest runners. This is to be com¬ 
mended for private gardens ; it is simply to sink in 
I the soil small pots filled with rich Soil, under the 
runners as they appear; place the runner on the 
soil of the pot, and put a clod on the stem to hold 
it until it has taken root. When the pots are filled 
with roots, turn out the balls of earth and set 
them in a new bed. Plants so treated will go on 
and grow and bear a good crop next year. 
Blackberries and Raspberries. —Treat all plants that 
come up, and are not wanted for next year’s fruit¬ 
ing as weeds. Those to grow should be stopped 
by pinching at 6 feet for Blackberries and 4 ft. for 
Raspberries. When the fruit is off of either, cut 
out the old canes that have borne it. 
Currants. —The long weak shoots that push from 
the interior are to be broken out, and also all others 
not needed. Pick the fruit early, as soon as well 
colored, for jelly, but for table use let it be thor¬ 
oughly ripened. 
Biitchen and Maflcet darden. 
Have no waste ground where weeds may grow. 
When the early crops are off, clear and plant again. 
Asparagus. —Pull such weeds as appear, and if 
the Asparagus Beetle is discovered, cut away the 
branches on which their eggs are placed. 
Beans. —Plant for late; the Refugee is best for 
salting and pickling. Pinch the Limas when they 
have reached the top of the pole. 
Beets. —Sow for succession of young roots and to 
supply beet greens. Sow only early sorts now. 
Cabbages. —Set out for late crop. They need rich 
soil, and must be kept clean and watched for 
worms. Catch the white butterflies early in the 
morning, when they are slow in moving. 
Celery. —Set in rows three feet apart and six 
inches in the row on the level, in well manured soil. 
The trench system has nearly gone out of practice. 
Cam-ots. —Thin; hoe until the tops prevent fur¬ 
ther work among them. 
* 
Corn. —Plant early sorts for late use and drying. 
Save seed from best specimens of the early crop. 
Cucumbers. —Dust with ashes or lime to keep off 
striped beetle. 
Egg Plants can be forced by the use of liquid ma¬ 
nure. Keep the fruit off the ground by placing 
straw under it. If Potato Bugs abound, it is dif¬ 
ficult to save the egg plants without daily vigilance. 
Melons. —Remove late sets that would not ripen. 
Save only pure seed. Turn to secure even ripening. 
Onions. —Harvest as soon as the tops die down. 
Store in a cool airy place. 
Sweet Potatoes.— Do not let the vines root. Move 
them when hoeing by lifting with the hoe handle. 
Squashes. —Keep clear of bugs by hand-picking. 
Let the vines strike root at the joints. 
Tomatoes. —Keep from the ground by frames 
or trellises. Brush or hay is better than nothing. 
Flower (Barden so sal Lawn. 
Everything should be kept in good order. Mow 
the lawn when it needs it... .Remove large weeds 
that may start up_If the weather is dry, water 
should be used freely... .The edgiugs to beds and 
walks should be kept neatly cut.... Bedding plants 
need much care now, as they will grow rapidly, and 
will often need the knife_Cut away flower clus¬ 
ters of plants cultivated for their foliage, and trim 
and shape to suit the design.... Tall flowering 
plants, like Dahlias, Gladioluses, Lilies, etc., will 
require stakes. Do not use unsightly devices for 
holding up plants ; straight stems of shrubs are 
better than painted sticks... .Climbers should not 
be allowed to fall away from their supports.... 
Keep the ground clean around perennials; and 
save seed of all plants as they ripen. 
Greenlioiise anti Window Plants., 
This is a difficult time of year to keep the green¬ 
house looking attractive. Shading must be used. 
Whitewash is the cheapest—muslin on the outside 
of sash is perhaps the best... .Frequent sprinkling 
of walks, etc., is necessary to keep the rooms cool. 
-Fumigate at frequent intervals, and allow a 
good circulation of pure air....If the weather is 
dry, it is a good time to get and store the year’s 
supply of sphagnum moss from the peat bogs. 
