GARDEN CALENDAR FOR APRIL.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 91, 6 April 1876, Page 7

GARDEN CALENDAR FOR APRIL.

Kitchen Garden Department, — Prepare vacant ground for future crops. Clear away all fallen leaves and litter. Contemplated alterations should now be done before wet weather sets in. In settling the rotation of cropping*-,, avoid as far as possible two crops of the same nature on the same ground in succession. Cabbage. — Plant for spring use. If not done before, sow for spring planting. Carrots. — Take up and store in sand. Cauliflowers. — Prick out on a warm sheltered situation. Celery. — Continue to earth up. Garlic. — Towards the cad of the month plant the cloves, 6 inches apart, in shallow drills 1 foot apart. Lettuce. — Plant out on warm borders from previous sowings. Nasturtiums. — Gather for pickling. Shalots. — Plant as directed for Garlic. Tomatoes. — Gather fruit, and hang up in a warm place.

Fruit Department. — Most kinds of Apples and Pears will be fit for gathering in the course of this month.

if the fruit parts readily from the spur on being lifted to a horizontal position it is ripe. If it requires pulling or twisting it is not fit for gathering. Care should be taken not to bruise the fruit. Store in a cool darkroom. Propagate Gooseberries and Currants by cuttings, taking care to pick out the eyes from the lower part of the cutting, and as high up as 3 inches above the depth to which it will be inserted in the soil. Make fresh plantations of Haspberries and Strawberries, planting the latter in rows 2 feet apart.

A gentleman who has a thrifty peach tree in an insecure place, put a capital stone imitation of dog a under it to lighten off boys. The other morning he went out to find the legs and tail broken off the image, and the body 'sticking in the ground, labelled, "This 'ere doT-g*. feels sick." Soot. — The analysis df soot gives the following valuable manurial proper- 1 ties. It. contains. ammonia'in the form of a sulphate, and is of special value to the horticulturist, because of its obnoxious qualities to many insects and worms, which invariably shift , their" quarters when it is applied to herbs and flowers. It is therefore doubly useful in the feeding as well as protection of herbage. Be Kind to Stock — Young heifers generally become more gentle cows, : aid better and more quiet milkers when broken, trained, and milked -by. women, than by men, foi* the reason that women speak and act more gently with them. Many heifers, steers, -and colts are spoiled and learn bad tricks from bad and violent treatment. It is safe to say that all bad tricks and habits

are learned from bad treatment in breaking. It is well known that the: best and most successful horse-trainers speak low and act gently with their animals while in the process of their training. All animals will very generally do your bidding readily as soon as they fairly understand your wish. Often I have been pained, almost angered, to hear men yelling and bawling at tbeir teams in the field — loud enough to split - them almost — and cracking their whips. There was no offence for which I so promptly and surely discharged laborers as for yelling* and bawling at their teams, and using other violence towards them — and to the cows. Low speaking and gentleness should be insisted on by all farmers, and practised strictly and constantly by all teamsters and milkmen ; then they will. get more work and milk thereby, and have more pleasant teams and cows to use.

Plant-Food Supplied by the Atmosphere. — Can we not get abundance of ammonia and carbon from the atmosphere 1 A careful study of the work on Modern Farming, by that great man Baron Liebig, taken in conjunction with his former admirable pro. ductions, has still further confirmed my belief in his so-called mineral theory. In seeking for addiiional facts to justify my convictions, I select the following": — A successful farming friend of mine never manures his turnips, but depends entirely on cultivation, and I never knew him to fail in growing* a good crop of white turnips. These are fed off by sheep, eating no oil-cake or corn; barley sown with seeds succeed the turnips, and nre followed by wheat, thus completing course or rotation , beans or peas take the place of clover, so that is only grown once in eight years. He ploughs his ground at least four times before sowing the turnips, and, no doubt, herein 'lies the secret of his success. We have (at any rate I know that I have) been apt to condemn so many ploughings, but Leibeg's recent scientific explanation of fallow (which every agriculturist should study) has completely removed my objection, and convinced me of the advantage of very frequent stirring*, admixture, and separation of the granules of soil; and it has also confirmed me. unalterably in the conviction, that if the ' inorganic or incombustible substances — food of broadleaved or bulbous plants — exist in the soil in an available condition, and in sufficient quantities, all the combustible subs' ances can be furnished by the atmosphere. Could I doubt this ' wlaen wading through a dense vegetation of bulbs ancl leaves as high ns my knees on a soil to which no organic manure had been applied for that crop ! What an abundant supply of carbon, and nitrogen must this fallow crop havo accumulated for the succee ling crop! Then comes the question — Is it cheaper to obtain this supply of nitrogen, by three extra ploughings, rather than by the purchase and application of carbonaceous and nitrogenous manures 1 I think it is cheaper. What an insight to the mysteries of fallow and tillage do we obtain from the Baron's discoveries ! Let us then profit by them.

Sensitiveness op Milk. — As an illustration of the extreme sensitiveness of milk it may be stated that a large percentage of the sewage matter of London is used in the irrigation of meadows near the metropolis. The irrigation with sewage matter increases wonderfully the productiveness . of the. soil, and especially its production of all sorts of grasses. When meadows and pastures are so irrigated, the production of milk per acre is increased four or five fold. Recently the question has arisen as to -whether the quality of the milk made from the grass produced upon ground irrigated with the sewage was equal to that produced from the grass grown upon ordinary lands. And it was found that milk made from the sewage grass became rancid in thirtysix hours, and thafc butter made from this milk also became rancid much sooner than butter made from ordinary milk. It was also found that there may be a very material alteration in the composition of the milk,, while the most delicate analysis would fail tv show the change. Thus, after exposing milk to the gases issuing from a drain, the analysis failed to show that it had undergone any change, and yet it was possible to distil from it a product having a very- ofensive smell. In the case of the sewage grass, it was suggested that perhaps the difficulty was occasioned by its unusually succulent character; but this was a mere sugges-' tion, the merits of which, do not appear to have been fully examined. But whatever the xeason _ the .-fact appears to be established, and*;should impress more fully upon the minds of dairymen and farmers that milk is one of the most* delicate , and sensitive products with which they have to. deal';" and" its character can only be preserved jby the exercise of constant care. ; Milking* in filthy stablest-placing, milk in imp'er-' fectly cleansed vessels,, and "in ill-venti-lated milk-rooms, undoubtedly damages to, a greater or less degree a very large proportion of this product ; ancl a veryconsiderable portion of the remainder is "damaged* before it is drawn fiiom the cow,. -by course, rank herbage,! impure air, and stagnant water. ' The ;best' of product can only be expected from, the best'of "milk* and the best milk 6an only be expected from the best of coyvs given the. best of attention and tr/eattnent.>~- { Live Stock Journal.'. . '