GARDEN AND FARM OPERATIONS FOR JANUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 105, 8 January 1853, Page 10

GARDEN AND FARM OPERATIONS FOR JANUARY.

The Garden. —January,—-the equivalent period of the year to an English July,—is usually characterized by hot dry weather, the Thermometer, especially towards the end of the month, occasionally' rising several degrees higher than ever it attains to in England; it is, therefore, of some importance in gardening that the best possible use should be made of the first few days of the month for the planting out of Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Broccoli, and other winter vegetables whilst the ground is still moist from the frequent showers that usually occur iv December ; for if these operations are deferred to the end of tbe month, and then carried * on whilst the soil is dry, tbe sun bright, and the winds parching, the chances of success will, necessarily, be greatly diminished. ' r=l rr%Q All the garden varieties of white or yellow Turnips may now be sown, and to ensure their immediate growth, a pot-full of water should be run along each drill as soon as it is drawn ; the seed may then be sown, and at once covered in, and if, prior to this, it has been steeped in cold water for 12 hours, its appearance above ground will be very considerably hastened. Radish, Lettuces, Cress, Mustard, and Endive, similarly treated, may be sown in small quantities at weekly intervals of time to keep up a constant supply of salading. Celery may now be planted in well manured trenches, giving it the moistest portion of the garden, and if it be desired^ to have it really fine, it must be drenched with water every alternate evening throughout the hot dry weather of both the present and ensuing month; for in its original wild state, Celery is a sub-aquatic, and under cultivation it can" only attain perfect vigour in a soil either naturally rich and moist or artificially rendered so. The Farm.—Between this, the end of the Turnip sowing season, and the commencement of Harvest, an interval of some six weeks ensues, during which little can be done on the Farm either in the way of planting or sowing ; still every industrious Farmer will endeavour to turn that period to an equally valuable account in the ploughing of land to lie fallow for next season's crops; for past experience confirms how desirable it is that all land turned up for the first time should lie at least four months before being cropped, and if it is full of Fern roots it should lie still longer, otherwise scanty crops and much disappointment is certain tc ensue. As soon, therefore, as the Potatoe crops are drill-harrowed and moulded, and the Turnip crops are drill- harrowed and thinned, let the breaking up of land, for next season's crops be commenced; for flax or grass land turned up at this season will be in fine order for wheat-sowing about the end of May. Wet land, or indeed any portion of the plain, having a retentive subsoil, should be ploughed in 12, 18, or 24 feet ridges, so that the frequent furrows may run the surface-water—liable to lodgein winter—off to the boundary ditches. A well ploughed ridge should have all the sides' of the furrow slice inclining at an angle of 45, and the part of it left uncovered by the succeeding one should be equal to the depth of the furrows : thus the whole ridge will be ploughed to a specified and uniform depth—which constitutes the perfection of good ploughing. To make a furrow slice of 9 inches—which is a fair size—lie at the proper angle of inclination its depth must be 6 nches, and a section of the furrow will represent a right-angled figure. The system of many of those who plough by contract, is to go only 4 inches in depth, and lay perfectly flat a furrow slice 11 inches in width, by which an acre even of new land can be skimmed over in some six or seven hours. With the uninitiated in Farming such work will pass for ploughing-, but the man of thorongh practical judgment will condemn it as a barbarous abuse of the word —Cultivation. w. w. /,