Squashes.—Keep the ground well stirred, and use tobacco dust freely for bugs and beetles. Cover the joints with fresh soil, to guard against injury by the vine-borer.
AUGUST
Beets.—A last sowing of the early table sorts may be made for a succession.
Cabbage.—Harvest the early crop, and give good cultivation to the main crop. Keep down the bugs and worms.
Celery.—The latest crop may yet be set. Earlier set plants should be handled as they attain sufficient size. Common drain tiles are excellent for blanching if one has them, and must be put on when the plants are about half grown. Hoe frequently to keep the plants growing.
Onions.—Harvest as soon as the bulbs are well formed. Let them lie on the ground until cured, then draw to the barn floor or some other airy place and spread thinly. Market when you can get a good price, and the sooner the better.
Tomatoes may be hastened in coloring by being picked just as they begin to color and placed in single layers in a coldframe or hotbed, where they can be covered with sash.
SEPTEMBER
In many parts of the North it is not too late to sow rye, or peas, or corn, to afford winter protection for orchards. As a rule, very late fall plowing for orchards is not advisable. Now is a good time to trim up the fence-rows and to burn the brush piles, in order to destroy the breeding places of rabbits, insects, and weeds. Cuttings of gooseberries and currants may be taken. Use only the wood of the current year’s growth, making the cuttings about a foot long. Strip off the leaves, if they have not already fallen, tie the cuttings in large bundles, and bury them in a cold cellar, or in a sandy, well-drained knoll; or if the cutting-bed is well prepared and well drained, they may be planted immediately, the bed being well mulched upon the approach of winter. September and October are good months in which to set orchards, provided the ground is well prepared and well drained, and is not too much exposed to sweeping winds. Wet lands should never be set in the fall; and such lands, however, are not fit for orchards. Strawberries may still be set; also bush fruits.
Seeds of various flowers may now be sown for winter bloom, if one has a conservatory or good window. Petunias, phloxes, and many annuals make good window plants. Quicker results are secured, however, if border plants of petunias and some other things are dug up just before frost and placed in pots or boxes. Keep them cool and shaded for a couple of weeks, cut down the tops, and they will send up a vigorous and floriferous growth. Winter roses should now be in place in the beds or in pots.