Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-06-10
Bai!p 3kfnuebrt 3ournal.
About the Garden.
SOME Coop SUGGESTIONS FOR JUNE.

4
| The month of June Is scarcely less hur-
ried in the garden than May. for although
the hurry OF planting is nearly over. there
is a good deal more marketing to be done !;
the radishes, spinach, lettuce. cabbage
greens, peas, and cucumbers, rhubarb and
asparagus, will keep the wagon well load
ed, and the hands busy good deal of the
time getting up the loads. In putting up
greens for the market it is the best way to
cut them early in the morning while the
ed, wash them in cold water, and let them
lie for some time upon the bench to swell
before boxing up. Asparagus will be
easier to tie in tight punches if slightly
wetted, and will swell out nicely if placed
standing up in tub with an inch of water
in the bottom; do not allow the tops or
buds to get wet, it is apt to make them rot
in warm weather. There is a good deal
of knack required to bunch asparagus
rapidly and neatly, and not everybody
can do it satisfactorily.
Tomato plants set out early in June Of
ten do quite as well as those set out earlier
Celery plants are set on rainy days, all
hands turning out with rubber or oil cloth
suits, for celery plant stuck in the rain
is sure to grow, while on a dry day the
chances are rather against it, Successive
sowings of peas, beans, lettuce, spinach
and corn. are made every two weeks by
those who like a continuous supply of
these vegetables late in the season. Cab
bage seed may be planted where it is to
grow without transplanting as late as the
10th; cucumber seed for pickles from the
Goth to the 30th and squash seed, on very
rich land, as late as the 10th to 18th :;
melon seed sown up to the 10Th often do
well; though gardeners usually prefer to
transplant their melons from a frame,
about June 9TH, from seed sown three or
four weeks previously. using the method
often described for transplanting cucum-
GERS lima beans also are transplanted in
precisely the same way.
| After the hot weather fairly begins,
which is usually about the 18th to the
| 2Oth, the glass may be safely taken off the
cucumber beds, the planks taken up which
form the frame, and both piled away to
rest. and to be repaired. as convenient.
before they will be needed again next
November. The cucumbers, as thev be-
gin to bear. will need abundant watering,
unless the season is unusually wet, and
when once the watering begins it must be
followed up until it rains. Strawberries
also will grow very much larger if well
watered though the flavor of the fruit will
not be as good as if left to ripen dry.
The killing of weeds will occupy a good
deal of the gardeners time this month.
The tools now in use make this work a
good deal easier than it used to be. and if
care has been taken to prevent the seed
ing OF weeds in years previous, the task
will not be a very serious delay or ex-
pense. Purslane is by far the most trou-
blesome weed on old gardens; taken when
quite small, just as it breaks ground, it is
easily destroyed by the shove hoe. but
when it gets an inch long or more it should
be picked up. and carried off the garden
in baskets: hens and pigs devour it greed
lily. and it is food for them. Most of the
garden crops need thinning out to do well,
and little advice as to the proper dis
tances to leave the plants may be of SER
vice. Onions. if sown as thev should
be, 4 pounds of seed per acre on
| good land, will need no thinning; if
crowded they will grow out of ground on
top of each other. and still grow of good
size if the land is good enough. Beets
need thinning to three or four inches apart
parsnipS and carrots the same, and dan
delions will be better for it, though many
neglect it; dandelions and parsley can
stand two or three inches apart Three
plants are enough for hill of melons and
cucumbers; two or three for a hill of
squashes two for hill of lima beans
thin them out after they are large enough
to escape the danger of being thinned for
you bv insects. The most defficult thing
to do is to thin squashes, for the borers
often destroy them after they begin to run
and the remedy against this pest is not
yet satisfactorily discovered; will some of
the entomologists enlighten us as to where
he comes from Is he the larva of the
yellow striped cucumber beetle And
must we destroy this beetle to be sure of
a crop of squashes ? Such is our belief;
at any rate | never get many. squashes ii
| neglect them. and know no better way
of destroying them to kill them on the
ordinary shingie trap. just as we kill the
black bugs. Will Paris green answer tor
these fellows ? Insects are becoming
yearly more troublesome: they are more
difficult to fight than weeds, and are one
OF the greatest obstacles to success which
the gardener has TO encounter. they are
constantly offering new difficulties in con-
sequence of the miraculous rapidity with
which they multiply. and often astonish
us with the almost equally miraculous
way in which they disappear.
Mr.. David NJ. Ranck of Wilmington. Del,
SAYS that St. Jacobs Oil. the conqueror of
pain, cured him of rheumatism.