The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-26
FARM AND GARDEN,

FARM AND GARDEN.
LIQUID MANURE FOR THE FLOWER
GARDEN.-Liquid manure has a won
derful effect upon garden plants, and
may be used both in the vegetable and
in the ornamental departments. The
best time to apply it is Just before a
shower. For tender Towering plants it
must be weak. A tablespoonful of gu
ano, or a small handful of fowl drop
pings to a gallon of water will make it
strong enough. Soapsuds may be used
IN the same way.
FIGS FOR Hoes. The San Diego
World advises greater cultivation of the
fig tree, because the fruit is good for
hog feed. An acre will fatten more
hogs than an acre of corn, and all that
is necessary is to stick a fig emitting
down, and in three or five months the
plants will bear fruit-three crops a
vear-and In three years the tree attains
the size of q twelve-year old apple tree
The same paper says a firm of honey
raisers, the first year of their cultivation
of bees, cleared Sl2, 600 on their honey
crop.
LOOK OUT FOR DRoUTH THIS SUMNER.
We may look out for drouth every
season, and shall seldom look altogether
in vain, but the present spring up to
this time has, in most parts of the coun
try, been marked by frequent rains, and
a wet spring is likely to be followed by
a dry summer. "What can we do about
it? ?" do you ask? Keep the soil well
stirred aud our crops vigorous by clean
cultivation. If our lands were proper
" prepared before planting, we have
the means in cur hands of protecting our
crops against all moderate drOuths. The
bad farmer suffers every year, either
from dTOUths or from too much mOis
ture, and, generally, from both. Such
" bad luck" is sure to follow him, from
year to year, till he shall mend his ways
and learn a more rational system of
farming.
GRASS GARDEN WALKs.-After hav-
ing been bothered for years by grass
and weed grown walks, determined to
conquer the enemy by a mastery sur
render. I therefore spaded up all ry
walks, adding enough good soil to raise
them to a level with the adjoining beds
raked and rolled them till they were
firm and even, and then sowed them
thicklg with "mixed lawn grass seed, "
scratching it in with a rake, and giving
a final going over with the roller, and
awaited the result. In a very few days
mot over three weeks, L had the pleas
ure of walking on green UClUet instead
of gritty gravel and with the help of
lawn mower, and an occasional cutting
down of the edges true with sharp
spade, have had no further trouble with
my walks. Always green and pleasant
to the foot and eye, never washing,
never weedy, never muddy, never wet
(being above the garden leveD, they are
" a Joy forever" and the perfection of
garden walks.-COr. Country Gent.
PRUNING TOMATOEs.-Th tomatoes
are benefited by pruning we have not
the slightest doubt, and we yearly pre-
tIce 1T in our own garden. Some re-
commend and others practice cutting
off all the tops of the plants. to which
we most strongly object, as we are sat
istied that such a course IS very iniuTi-
GUS to the plants, as well as to the per-
feet ripening of the fruit. As the to-
matO begins to grow, select say three or
four of thestTcDgest shoots, pinch all the
others out, should there be any, by the
finger and thumb, close to the main
stem. When these four branches be.
gin to show fruit, a small lateral branch
will show itself Immediately at the
next joint. These should be all pinched
ont as soon "a they appear, letting no
shoots grow at any time, but the four
main branches referred 10 by so doing,
whether the plants are tied to stakes or
laid on the ground, we have always
found that we secured q larger, finer,
and at the same time a heavier crop
than we could by any other process
obtains.
To DESTROY BUGS, ANTS, ETC.-No
insect that craRls can live under the APP
plication of hot alum water 1t will
destroy red and black ants, cockroaches,
spiders, chintz bugs, and all the myr-
lads of crawling pests which infest our
houses during the heated term. Take
two pounds of alum and dissolve it in
three or four quarts of boiling water
let 1t stand on the stove until the alum
Is all melted then apply it with a
brush while nearly boiling hot, to every
Joint and creyice in your closets, bed
steads, pantry shelves and the like.
Brush the Crevices in the floor of the
skirting or mop boards, if you suspect
that they barber vermin. If in white
washing a ceiling, plenty of alum is
added to the lime, it will also serve to
keep insects at a distance COckrOaches
will flee the paint which has been washed
in cool alum water Sugar barrels and
boxes can be freed from ants by draw
ing a wide chalk mark Just around the
edge of the top of them. The mark
must be unbroken, or they will creep
over it, but n continuous chalk mark,
half an inch in width, will set their
depredations at naught.
WATERING PLANTS IN SUMNER
Plants growing in the open ground AMI
fully exposed to the sun, are frequently
ruined by the very means taken to save
them-by watering in hot, dry weather.
Generally, merely the surface of the
ground is wet, and the moisture soon
evapOrates, leaving the soil dry and
hard-almOst imperviOus to air, as we'll
as the deWs. But this is not the only,
nor the greatest evil which results from
the ordinary slight waterings which
plants get. The temporary, supertic al
moisture causes the roots to seek the
surface, where, in the intervals between
the waterings, the heat and drOuth de-
stroy them, and the plants become
stunted or die outright. The remedy
lies in n more thorough irrigation and
in different node of applying the
water. In the case of young trees and
large herbaceOus plants, the best way is
to carefully scrape away the soil around
them to the depth of an inch or two,
forming a shallow basin into which suffi-
cient water should he poured to moisten
well the ground as deeply and as widely
as the roots extend. When the water
has soaked in, the dry earth should be
returned, which will prevent speedy
evaporation. Among small plants, which
cannot be treated in this way, make
holes with an iron rod or a sharpened
stake several inches in depth, and fill
them with water, which will thus reach
the deepest roots.
The Seasonableness of Food.
A writer in Scribner's SAYS: "The
whoIesomeness of food depends nearly
as much on the time it is taken as on