Farm, Garden and Orchard Notes.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 20 August 1915, Page 1

Farm, Garden and Orchard Notes.

AUGUST. KITCHEN GARDEN. Work, in this part of the garden, will now increase daily.. Row’s of peas should be sown fortnightly for a continual succession. A patch of early potatoes may be planted in a warm situation. Onions should now be sown on ground prepared in the autumn. As regards the culture of the onion, Mr Neal’s instrucs tions, w’hich we again reprint at end of this article, cannot be beaten. Rhubarb roots should now oe planted out in a very rich bed, and rows of the following may be sown : parsnips, carrots, (the main crop at the month’s end), beet, turnips, asparagus, broad beans, celery, brussel’s *

sprouts, and a good bed of cabbage and cauliflower for summer use. Plant Jerusalem artichokes in rows, three feet apart and one foot in the rows. Those who are fond of slugs will now find plenty of them. We have already recommended lime as the most efficacious means of putting them out of the world, but those keeping fowls or ducks might try the following plan instead : Put little heaps of bran all round the vegetable beds and go out the last thing at night with a lantern you will find your vegetables untouched but swarms of slugs feasting at the bran, gather them in a tin or bucket and cover them till the morning, when the fowls will make short work of them. Bran is capital feed for poultry, and if you can administer it inside a slug and already half digested, so much the better. Apterite is a splendid soil fumigant for slugs. Sold by Cooper and Nephews, Auckland.

FARM. Sow spring wheat, picking the best of the land as oats will succeed on a poorer soil. Spring sowings of grass and clover may begin this month. ORCHARD. All planting should be finished early in the month, grafting should be done now, you should also clear your trees of all moss, scale [and other blights the best remedy is to buy “ Cooper's VI Fluid. Mix 1 part of fluid to 100 of water. The trees may be either sprayed or the mixture put on carefully with a large brush such as a bill-posting brush, this should be done early in the month. Scale will be found still adhering ito the trees, but quite dead,and will comejoff if touched, all blights are beginning to show signs of vitality this month, it is therefore necessary to clean your trees early. Pruning should be finished in the early part of the month. Gooseberry cuttings must {be set this month, a good cutting should be 15 inches long, remove all the eyes except 4 at the top, insert 7 or 8 inches in the ground, plant perfectly upright, and as the branches begin to grow put a small piece of wood between them and the main stem to throw them well out, they will then form healthy trees and there will be no suckers, and if blossoms should show nip them off. Raspberries should be planted, say 4 canes to each plant 3 feet apart when they commence to bud tie the heads of two sets of plants together so as to form an arch, the shoots will then all grow perpendicular and the fruit will get the full benefit of the sun and be much finer, a good stiff clay soil is best for the raspberry. During Ist and 2nd week spray

peach trees to prevent leaf curl. Mixture: 101 bof biuestone, 101 b unslacked lime, (slack before using), 40 gallons of water. On no account must this spraying, if delayed, be applied after the buds have burst and the leaves developed. FLOWER GARDEN. Planting of trees and shrubs should be finished early in the month, plant out carnations, antirrhinums, pansies, fuchsias, phloxes, pinks, penstemons, pelargoniums, &c., sow hardy annuals, plant out your dahlias, gladioli, &c., keep the soil clear about the roots of hyacinths, strike cuttings from roses, and you may form lawns by turfing or sowing, keep your lowns mown and rolled. If the weather is not too cold and wet you may plant out some hardy annuals.