FARMERS' AND GARDENERS' CALENDAR FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER.

Southland Times, Issue 1047, 30 October 1868, Page 2

FARMERS' AND GARDENERS ' CALENDAR FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER.

♦ Mean temp. '59 ° — corresponds to May in 'EngTand, mean, temp; 56°. „ *'-: Rjtchbn' Gabdeh. — With this month we j arrive at the commencement of summer. In the kitchen garden, earth up peas and beans, likewise cabbages ; stake peas, for they bear much better. Peas may still be sown for succession. Plant out vegetable marrows, ridee cucumbers, tomatoes, and capsicums — neither of those vegetables will succeed if exposed to cutting winds. French beans may now be planted with safety ; the best Borts are the early dunn, the negro, and the early speckled. Scarlet runners can bo kept dwarf by heading back, and white Dutch runners should now be planted. Full crops of turnipß and carrots may now be sown for autumn and winter use, also red beet, and white or silver beet as a substitute for spinach. Continue successional sowings of radish, mustard, cress, lettuce. Plant any of the sorts of cabbage or cauliflower for autumn use upon vacant ground, and keep the hoe going and all crops free from weeds. Sow Bavoys, drumhead, broccoli and kail, for winter cropping. Cucumbers, and melons in frames should be earthed up, and well supplied with water in dry weather. Sow main crops of celery. The early celery sown in the nursery bed should now be exposed to the open air to harden, but shaded from the mid-day sun, and well supplied with water, and, in about a week or ten days, should be planted in a nursery bed of light rich soil, about one or two inches apart, and well watered and shaded till they strike root. Fruit and Flower Garden. — In the fruit garden continue to remove all useless and misplaced shoots from peacheß, nectarines, and apricots. Grape vines will now be showing where their bunches of grapes are coming, and every shoot not wanted should be taken out, and those, left should be pinched or cut off two joints above the fruit ; every shoot sjd treated will throw out side shoots, called laterals; these in their turn must be taken off one joint from the main shoot, and as they continue to grow, shorten to one joint each time throughout the whole season. Should the weather prove dry, strawberries will requiry watering to enable their fruit to set and swell off. In the flower garden all pot plants that have been preserved through the winter may be planted out with safety, as all danger of frost may be considered past. Balsams and other tender annuals may also be sown, and hardy ones thinned out, as they grow stronger and flower better for it. Continue to stake and tie everything requiring it, as neatness and cleanliness should be the order of the day. Farm. — Finish planting potatoes early in the month ; cut them in to sets, d ust with lime, and plant immediately in drills 28 inches apart and. one foot distance. Finish sowing mangold-wurzeL This crop has been tried by many for the last two seasons since the turnip crop has suffered by the aphix, as a substitute for turnips, but with indifferent success, but, vrith a little more experience in their culture, they will answer quite as well as turnips. Fortunately, the turnip crop was comparatively free from blight last season, but as Swede turnips are most liable to be destroyed, it would be prudent to avoid growing them for some time, until the blight disappears. Purple and green top yellow turnips are little inferior, and they, with some earlier varieties, slijfild be put in plentifully in the course of the month, in land thoroughly pulverized and well manured. On the plains, the Aberdeen often grow too large and get soft in the heart, whereas the larger the Swede the more solid and less watery. A very certain method of securing a rich sole of grass is to put it in alone, during this or next month, in land that has been ploughed in winter, and manured. Plough lightly ; give a full harrowing till quite smooth on the surface, roll, and then sow the grass seeds, giving a liberal allowance of clover, then cover with a brush harrow or a very light harrow for the purpose; it will spring up rapidly, and two cuttings may be had, while in autumn the result will be a close clovery sole that will Btand for many years.