The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-03-11
FARM WORK FOR MARCH.

FARM NOhk FUN MAhCIl.
This month is the beginning of &C
tive farm work, as it is the beginning
month of spring. Fencing should be
completed and also ditching. Manure
hauled out and spread. Plaster, or plas-
ter and salt, to be spread over the grow
ing grain and clover crops-one bushel
of plaster to three of salt, well mixed,
to each acre. All good weather, pillow
your land for the coming crops, if the
land be sufficiently dry, and be sure to
pillow deep, or subsoil.
We need hardly to impress you with
the Importance of sowing oats at the
earliest moment.
CLOVER AND OTHER GRASS SEEDS.
Sow clover, or orchard grass and
clover, or clover and rye grass-or all
three together would be better. What
ever you do, be sure and use plenty OF
GOOD seed, to secure q thick stand.
Timothy may now be sown, but 1t is
better that it should have been sown in
the fall.
ORCHARDS
All orchard trees may be pruned this
month, particularly peach trees. The
peach should be shortened one-third Of
last years growth, and those branches
nearest the top, rather more so; all
dead or broken wood cast away; and
where side branches interlope, or are
too thick, cut them off, and leave the
tree in the shape of wine glass, as
near as you can. Work about the
trees, remove the earth around the
trunk; pick out the grubs with wooden
spatula; clean away the gum and slime
often found at the roots of peach and
plum trees; scatter quart of lime or
gallon of ashes-coal ashes would
do if no wood ashes are to be had
return the earth then wash the body
and larger limbs with mixture Of |
quart of soft soap, pint of salt, one
pint of unleached ashes, and a small
quantity, say l ounce of sulphur; re-
duce the mixture with water or soap
suds, to the consistency Of white-wash,
and apply with white-wash brush.
This quantity will serve for several
trees.
This and next month is the time for
planting out orchards, and ought to be
embraced by every man who is not
already supplied, if he wants comforts
for his family and expects to make his
farm valuable.
APPLES
are said to be by scientists superior as
brain food to FISH, which have been
by all great researchers in the elements
of brain food, pronounced the best
aliment for students, though we confess
we have known large number of folks,
especially of dark skins, who lived
principally on behring's, who did not
seem from their keep to be smarter than
other folks.
According to hygienic principles,
apples are undoubtedly wholesome food
for man and beast, and ought to be in
abundance on every farm, nearly all
the year round. They are also very
profitable as cropif properly managed
in their cultivation, and harvesting and
judicious handling, asserting, storing
and sending to market.
POTATOES
We would recommend planting pota-
toes early or very late, as crop
for market. If you plant now, they
will come in market at the exact period
between the influx and the early crops
of the North Your late planting, in
June and July, will escape the drought,
and be in time for sale before the glut
comes from the North after frost and all
through Winter.
We do not profess to know how it is,
but we do know that Northern and
Western potatoes and apples are much
better than our Middle States products.
Therefore we should get our apples and
potatoes in our markets at the season
when they have not to meet competition
with formidable rivals We are sup
ported in our opinion by large potato
growers in Maryland, that we should
get our potatoes planted before or on
st. Patrck's Day, or earlier, SO as to
follow the Cuban and the Southern
United States product in our markets,
and before the North and West send in
the crop of their earliest planting.
In planting potatoes, either for early
or late crops, it is of no use, unless the
the land be well and deeply plowed and
pulverized, and large quantity of man
ure intermixed with the soil Open
trenches four inches deep SOW good
fertilizer in the trenches, suitable to the
growth of the plant, and use the best
seed of the best varieties known.
LIME
If possible, use lime as a top-dressing
to your young clover and other grass
fields. On poor land twenty bushels
per acre, and repeated for five successive
years and on good land, with a large
amount of grass roots and heritage,
fifty bushels per acre, and repeated
within two years You will then have
farm worth cultivation, with the addi-
ton of manure and fertilizers suited to
the crops you design to cultivate.
Maryland Farmer.
WHITE GRUBs.-These pests can be
driven out of any soil by a very small
quantity of salt sown broadcast over it
Five pounds per acre will Danish them
for the season, in twenty-four hours
after the application, if there is moisture
enough in the soil, or shower, or dew
sufficient to dissolve it. There is not the
smallest danger in using even bushel
to the acre, as far as plant life is con-
cerned. Salt attracts moisture, liber-
ates the insolube fertilizers of the soil,