Agricultural Calendar — July

July

The month of July: it is the month in which one moves from heat to coolness, and from the coast to the mountain. It is of great importance, for any halt in the work we do in our gardens leads to the ruin of those gardens and forces us to begin reviving them anew when the month of September comes.

Ornamental gardens

On the coast: You must not neglect your gardens during your absence, or you will be obliged to begin them all over again on your return. Besides this, you can pick many flowers during the summer with which to adorn your houses in the mountain.

- Keep up the watering of the flowers, especially whenever the heat grows intense.

Turn over the soil to destroy the harmful weeds.

- Treat the roses with sulfur and nicotine to destroy the cotton disease and aphids. (See the calendar for the month of May.)

- Likewise treat the carnations with nicotine and with what is called in French Bouillie Bordelaise (put in a tin of water 40 grams of nicotine and from 150 to 200 grams of Bouillie Bordelaise, then spray this compound with a garden sprayer, or one like that used for Fly-Tox).

- Likewise the chrysanthemums should be pruned: leave each clump three stems instead of the many stems that have grown. From those three stems cut away the buds, except the head bud. Then stake them to long canes, for they will grow, and repeat this work every 10 or 15 days. In this way you will obtain beautiful, large flowers.

In the mountain: You can tend your gardens following the instructions given you above.

And you can plant in them stocks, zinnias, verbena, phlox, and dahlia bulbs.

Fruit:

On the coast: Continue the spraying operations, at intervals of at least 7 days and at most 15 days, according to the nature of the soil.

- It is advisable to begin hoeing after every watering; in this way you pull out the harmful weeds.

- As for oranges, sour lemons, tangerines, and citrus fruits of every kind, fight the disease of Erinose, which blackens the rind, by using a solution of Sulfo-calcique at the rate of 2% (put two liters of this preparation in 100 liters of water, then spray it on the trees, and especially on the fruit, the leaves, and the branches — always beginning from the inside).

In the mountain: Continue treating the apples and pears with the following solution:

Water: one tin
Lead arsenate: 60 grams
Ready-dissolving sulfur: 100 grams
Cold lime: 120 grams

and this every 15 to 18 days.

And if aphids appear, add to this solution from 30 to 40 grams of nicotine.

As for the vines, continue treating them with sulfur and with agricultural D.D.T. prepared for spraying, at the rate of 150 grams to every 20 liters of water.

Then treat the peaches with agricultural D.D.T. prepared for spraying, at the rate of 150 grams to every 20 liters of water.

The trees are watered according to their age and their height above sea level (watering every 15 to 45 days); and if the weeds multiply, they must be pulled out.