The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-04-04
AGRICULT URAI.
HINTS For APRIL.

OAUDs A}DA liz kAOHS4 Va any VI LAAC
grade not yet sowed 10 full, should be
first attended to and the sowing com
pleted, adding clover or timothy where
either IS to follow grain crop in the
system OF. rotation pursued. But it
must be added that Spring Is a pre-
carious season for attempting to start
the young plants IN timothy meadow,
the plant is hbro- dubious, and, when
young, throws out its ibrous roots so
very near to the surface that, in early
Summer, the earth parts with all its
moisture by evaporation to a depth
greater than that occupied by the
horizontal strata Of fibrous roots issU-
ing from the little bulb of the timothy
plant, and thus the whole crop per-
ishes in midsummer.
The most suspicious period for SOW
ing timothy is in September with
Winter grain, or in August for a crop
the following year, as when soWn with
a Fall crop Of wheat or rye it is over
Swallowed and dwarfed so as to come
into crop the following year
Among the early jobs to be begun
or completed in A pril is that Of plant
ing the Irish potato crop which is
one of the most singular plants IN its
habits we have in cultivation When
growing, its leaves cannot bear the
slightest frost, and yet it delights in
the cool weather Of Spring and au-
tumn, and generally. when planted so
late as not TO have formed young
potatoes on the coming of the hot
weather In midsummer, will fail
to form any at all Early
planting, therefore, secures the best
returns, and is allowable inasmuch
as the potato is a good while coming
up. Those who would cultivate the
potato proftably should select good
ground, in clean filth, and planting
in drills thirty inches apart, keep
the crop perfectly clear of weeds
by using the harrow just before the
plants come up, and the cultiYator
afterwards until the plants are some
ten inches high, and just ready to fall
over, when, by a single furrOW from a
rows from single mOld-b0ard pillow,
the cultivation should be finished,
closely tiltering the loose dirt in
among the plants from either side.
In districts of country where hemp
is one of the farmers crops, it Is bet
ter to sow this crop before than after
planting the corn crop. Hemp seed
will vegetate at a low temperature,
and the plant is not injured by a
slight frost, and, besides, it is insur
ing the success Of the hemp crop to
get it to attain such height and Wig
or of leaf as will cover the ground be
fore the hot dry days of June.
The great crop, however, of this re
giOn Is the corn crop, and whilst we
think the pitching of this crop should
be delayed until the departure of
irOsts, yet we think experience war
rants the belief that early planting is
desirable. In July, when Summer Is
at its greatest heat, if the corn plant,
during the earlier stages of the grow
ing season, has been we'll cared for
and has attained a vigorous young
growth, it will, at this period, develop
rapidly, requiring only a few weeks of
hot weather and seasouabie rains TO
reach its highest perfection. But, as
the corn plant needs both moisture
and hot weather, prudence dictates to
US the selection of that period in
Summer for its growth which will be
luOoe tlhOly " luI ulSu IuOSc lWO bl6-
ments of thrift, moisture and heat, at
that stage of the life of the corn plant
when they are most needed.
Experience and registration of the
weather leave no doubt that, as a gen.
eral rule, the winter accumulation of
surface water, which IS gradually ex-
hausted by evaporation, furnishes a
better supply of moisture for early
summer than that which appertains to
which Is the closing
month Of the growing season, for
which reason a corn crop planted to /
mature in September instead of Au-
gust, is much the more uncertain of
the two.
KITCHEN GARDEN.
Parsnips, satisfy, and carrots for
family uSp Shgu Il he SCUM oaYlv- Il,