CALENDAR OF GARDEN AND FARM OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 100, 4 December 1852, Page 7

CALENDAR OF GARDEN AND FARM OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER.

The Garden.—There is some consolation in knowing that the present season is quite an exceptional one ; for vegetation—checked by unseasonable cold south-west winds, and by unusual spring frosts—up to the end of the past month had not made the progress we had anticipated ; but just as we commenced grumbling the rapid growth both of Garden and Farm productions became truly astonishing, at once exciting surprise, effectually suppressing discontent, and shaming us into silent admiration.

The season is now so far advanced that the chief gardening duties of the month will be the care, rather of the crops we have sown than of the few we can successfully commit to the ground ; for although Peas and Beans may still" be sown, yet the crops they are likely to produce will he inferior to those sown last and previous months, and though they may yield equally well, yet a considerable portion of the pods are liable to be destroyed by a caterpillar abounding at that season. French Beans and Scarlet Runners may be planted, and additional sowings of Radishes, Lettuces, Cress, and Mustard, may be continued; but the chief crops which claim attention this month are turnips, a large breadth of which should now be sown for winter use. The Yellow Swede for use as a vegetable should be sown as early as possible in December, and the yellow and white garden varieties about the end of the present and beginning of the ensuing month.

Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, arid flowering Broccolis may now be extensively planted, for upon the exertions made at this season, the limited or plentiful supply of winter vegetables will entirely depend. Flower borders should now be exhibiting a profusion of Roses, Fuchsias, Pinks, Carnations, Stocks, Sweet Williams, Flowering Bulbs, and many varieties of annuals ; and though, at Christmas, we can neither suspend " Mistletoe Boughs" from the ceilings of our dwellings, nor display bunches of Holly-berries, yet by the time it arrives, we shall be able to pile our tables with delicious strawberries and enjoy the fragrance and beauty of wreathes of blooming roses —luxuries which . the noblest and wealthiest, of England's aristocracy cannot, at this season, obtain.

The Fabm.—Field crops of Carrots and Parsnips sown in September will now be fit for thinning; the former should be left 6 inches and the latter 7 inches apart. Their after culture consists merely of hand and horse-hoeing to keep down weeds, and stir the soil for the purpose of admitting air to the fine lateral fibres of the plants. These operations should never be attempted unless the weather be perfectly dry ; for hoeing is most injurious if performed -when the soil is damp, for not only is the destruction of the weeds less effectual, but it forms,a crust on the surface of the soil which bakes and hardens around the plants, excluding the atmospheric air—an element, without a full supply of which vegetation proceeds but feebly, - Potatoes planted in drills last month should -now have a light horse-harrow drawn over them to level the tops of the ridges, and afford afresh .smooth surface shortly before they begin to appear. The sowing of yellow Swede Turnips may he continued until the middle of the present month, and after that period to be succeeded by the Yellow Aberdeen, the White Globe, ano White Stone; for those who contemplate extensive pig-feeding in autumn and winter, will find Turnips, next to Mangold Worzel, the most profitable crop they can grow for the purpose. Those also who are desirous that their cows should milk plentifully during the winter months, when milk and butter —from their greater scarcity—command the best price,

should, at this season, plant extensively such large varieties of Cattle Cabbage, as the Drumhead, and the Imperial Battersea, both of which I have grown by the acre for cow-feeding, and found them to induce a plentiful flow of milk without imparting the slightest perceptible flavour.

Haymaking would commence about the 10th of the present month, but our youthful progress in that department of agriculture render any instructions, at present, unnecessary. I have now brought the Calendars down to the close of the year, and have determined not to continue them ; for all that were originally contributed to the Guardian, and lately to the Lyttelton Times, I have re-written and corrected, besides furnishing those necessary for the remaining months of the year; all of which will be published in the Canterbury Almanack, where—if they possess the merit of being useful—they can more readily be.referred to in a much more convenient form. W.W; Cnristclmrch, Dec. 1,1852.