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J435

FARM WORK FOR JULY.

CULTIVATION OF CORN.-At this backward season with the harvest pressing up on the ordinary hands of the farm, it is better to secure additional force wherever it can be had rather than the corn should suffer.  The product of corn on all soils not wholly exhausted of the plant food, depends very largely upon thorough tillage.  A light loose friable soil, kept constantly stirred and perfectly free from the growth of weeks and grasses, is absolutely essential to the vigorous growth of this fine cereal. It is therefore a matter of the first importance that the cultivator and shovel plough should be kept running through the rows, and that the hoes should be freely employed about the hills until the corn is ready to be laid by. The more the sol is pulverized, and the cleaner it is kept the better will be the chance of an excellent crop.

LATE POTATOES.-These should be attended to.  Keep the earth well stirred about them, and if they require assistance give them a top dressing of ashes, refuse salt and plaster.  Wood ashes, wood earth and lime mixed together make also an excellent dressing for potatoes.

TURNIPS.-A light soil, rather sandy than otherwise makes the best soil for the white turnip.  In such a soil if it is rich naturally, or has been made fertile the turnip grows rapidly and produces large crops.  It is too early to sow the white turnip, but the ground may be got ready for it, and the seeding for the main crop may be made towards the close of the month, or during the first week of August.  If Rutabagas are to be cultivated, and they make the finest winter food for stock, they should be seeded early the present month, in drills three feet apart, well rotted manure being first deposited along the course of the drills, or else the sides of the drill well sprinkled with some commercial fertilizer, that is rich in phosphates.  After the drill has been formed as if for the reception of potatoes, ridged up by two bouts of the plough, the crown of the ridge should be flattened, either by passing a light roller longways of the ridges, or by breaking down the ridges with the back of a rake.-Another finer drill should then be made along the centre of the flattened ridge some half an inch deep, along which the seed should be either sowed with the hand, or drilled in.  If seeded broadcast, and that is the general although not the best practice, sow about two pounds of seed to the acre.

BUCKWHEAT.-This grain should be in the ground by the close of the second week in July.  If the land is poor give it a moderate dressing of ashes, and bone dust, say ten bushels of wood ashes to one barrel of finely ground bone.  Two hundred pounds of a good super-phosphate mixed with fifty pounds of Peruvian Guano will also answer a similar purpose.

ORCHARDS.-Keep the trunks and limbs of the fruit trees clean and in a healthy condition.  If they are scabby, mossy or other diseased, scrape them well and apply the often recommended mixture of whale oil and soft soap.  As a preventive of insects, and of the borer, particularly, substitute a small quantity of coal oil (kerosene) for the whale oil.  Cut all black knots from the cherry and plum trees and burn them.  Cherries, apricots, plums and pears may be budded towards the close of the month.

GARDEN WORK FOR JULY.
Look now that the garden receives ample and steady attention.  Most of the principal crops have been seeded long since, but the labor of the garden is steady and unintermitting.  Cleaning off old beds, weeding hoeing, manuring and preparing for fresh crops, these are the duties that press on the attention, and it must be remembered that a full garden is to the household what a full granary is to the farm.

OLD GARDEN BEDS.-Look that the beds from which the earlier supplies of vegetables have been gathered are carefully cleaned off, bountifully manured, deeply spaded, well pulverized, ready to receive the see of other vegetables, or plans yet to be set out for winter uses.

MELONS, &c.-Keep the melon beds well earthed up, light as an ash heap, free from weeds, and water liberally after sun-down in dry weather.  Do the same by canteleupes, cymblins, cucumbers, &c., all of which require similar treatment and similar attention.  Take care not to bruise the vines in working them, and pinch off the terminal buds to throw the vines into fruit, and the prevent them from straggling too far.

CUCUMBERS FOR PICKLING.-Prepare the bed and see that your plants are set

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