FARM AND GARDEN OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 110, 3 December 1873, Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER, 1873.

Corresponding to June in Europe.

Farm.—This is the haymaking month, with fine clear, warm weather; but if the weather is unsettled leave it for a time, far better standing than cut down. Mould up potatoes after flat hoeing, also maize. Carrots hoe and thin. Mangolds, hoe, thin, and transplant. Swedish turnips hoe and thin. Drumhead cabbage, plant out; hoe those planted last month, mould up, give plenty of room. Joseph May concludes his farming operations with the following : —“ Never stock pastures in spring, until genial showers have warmed the earth. Never allow the grasses to run to seed, or any part of a field to be eaten bare, leaving other parts to get rank and coarse. Spread the droppings, remove stagnant water and tall weeds. In moving stock from field to field, let the change be to better fare, never to worse. Never allow stock to remain long in one field, shift them often, Colonial-grown seeds are better than British. Keep good cats about your place. Plant a few fruit trees every year, procured from a practical nurseryman.” Kitchen Garden.—Plantoucßrussels sprouts, savoys, broccoli, on very rich ground; early white Cape to begin with, Dilcock’s bride, and mammoth, walcheren, cauliflower, and late London. Plant-out celery and leeks; choose showery weather for planting. Two more sowings of tall late peas this month; manure and water before sowing if ground is dry. Another sowing of cabbage, cauliflower, round spinach, radish, lettuce, and small salading, drumhead Savoy; earth-up main crop potatoes, thin-out advancing crops of carrots, turnips, red beet, and cabbage lettuce; sow early horn carrots and onion for drawing young in autumn; train and stop., piemelons tomatoes, pumpkins, and

Fruit Garden.—Cherries require looking over, pick fruit as it ripens ; pears and plums, also thin fruit where necessary, also peaches and nectarines ; when two are together pick one off. All trees bearing a heavy crop of fruit, water with manure water ; pinch tops off young shoots of figs, it hastens second crop, adds to the quantity of fruit. Thin-out gooseberries for bottling, and remove strongest shoots from interior, destroy suckers; strawberry beds, hoe, and keep down runners, water if necessary. Gather fruit when dry; look over spring-grafted trees, disbud side shoots, and keep down suckers, also attend to young slocks for budding and grafting next season.

Flower Gardens.— Plant-out tender annuals, as well as stock of bedding plants ; finish planting dahlias, put stakes down, then give each a good watering, rake ground between plants ; hoe and rake gravel walks, mow lawns, pare edges, prune or clip hedges ; camellias and azalias well drench with water once a week ; put in cuttings of pinks carnations, pansies, and stocks, for flowering next spring; also, anterbinnums, peustemons, phloxes, and Japan pinks.