A BOWL OF COLONIAL PUNCH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 404, 17 September 1856, Page 8

A BOWL OF COLONIAL PUNCH.

We take the folloAving extracts from our witty cotemporary, ' Melbourne Punch/ of the 7th instant. GAKDENIN-G OPEHATIONS FOR AUGUST. Great diligence must be exercised this month in pruning young trees before they begin to shoot, because the shooting season "commences here "as. in England, on the first of September. There is nothing like activity in this operation.' 'if you intend having boiled mutton on a Sunday, sow a few turnips not later than the previous Thursday. If you are a married man, your Avife will do $11 the sowing while you cut

about and get some cuttings ; every tailor knows that. Plant gooseberries ten feet apart, prepare the holes Avith a corkscreAV, and cover them up with lime to protect them from the slugs, avlio are instantly destroyed by the acid of the limejuice. Rhubarb seeds may be planted closer and a little magnesia substituted for the lime. These brief remarks are the result of prolonged reflection and lengthened experience, and are offered to the public m the patriotic hope of stimulating the scientific culture of green grocery. There is no reason why avc should be dependent upon foreign countries for green grocery, or any land of grocery, tea,, sugar, tobacco, pickled onions, or any vegetable in daily requirement. The cultivation of the tea tree is simple in the extreme. You get your plants from the Yarra's bank, put them in pots, (common tea-pots), Avater them carefully (boiling water); andAvhen full groAvn, scrape the roots in the same Avay. Sugar AA*ell deserves a small space of ground reserved for its production. It groAvs upon a cane,- and the best A'ariefcy is the large Malacca cane, canis major, of Linnaeus, Avhich bears fruit twice a year, in pods containing exactly half a pound. Tobacco is raised from cuttings easily enough, but carefully exclude any portion of a cigar, or some weeds will appear as a natural consequence. If the season be dry, keep your eye upon your onions, they require watering,-but don't keep your eye too close or that will be watering too. If the Avea-. ther is wet, never mind the onions, but stop leaks in doors. Radishes may be groAAm this month under glass, the best kind is the horse radish, which makes an excellent pudding for invalids. New-ground must be trenched two spits deep by an American spittoon, and Avell manured with, bones which may be boned from Carlton Gardens and the boner is entitled to a bonus. Some judgment must be exercised in the application of this-powerful fertiliser, as Aye have heard of an unfortunate gardener injudiciously applying a barrow of bones to his halfacre allotment; it has produced nothing but vegetable marrow ever since. This [being leap year, hops may be groAvn, but Avill not take a start until the spring time. It would be as well to get in a little Indian-corn, as it is excellent food for, pigs, and produces corned pork.