Texas Almanac, 1859 Page: 83
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HINTS TO THE FARMERS. S3
In this month the setting of potato.slips must be looked to, and if the rains are
light, should be set and watered for several days, in the morning, before the sun is
too hot, and in the evening as the shadows lengthen. Towards the close of this
month the planter may begin to estimate what may be the result of his labors,
and if the seasons have been propitious, begin his preparations for the gathering in
during the coming month his early harvest.
JU. E.
This is the harvest month for the farmers of our State, and the cradle and scythe
are now brought into full requisition. The oats have already been garnered, and
the wheat is now waving its bearded heads, inviting the grasp of the practised
reaper. Texas is not behind any State in the Union, for its abounding capabilities
to produce the cereals that supply the. food of the world. We can with truth,
exclAim:
"So with superior boon, may our rich soil,
Exuberant Nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land.; the naked nations clothe,
And be the eahautless granary of a world."
Towards the close of this month the cotton should be worked over for the last
time, and perfectly cleansed of all. grass and weeds. Among the earliest planted
cotton fields, numerous bolls may now be found, and some- few presenting their
whitened locks to be plucked and made the adornment and comforter of mankind.
It is but rare that the cotton matures so early, and its small yield at this season, is
scarcely worthy of notice.
The early sweet potatoes should now be ploughed and worked over and re-
bedded, and all the weeds and grasses eradicated. Every preparation should soon
be made for the pulling of fodder and the mowing of the grasses, intended to serve the
stock during .the pinching days of the coming winter.
JULY.
This month should be especially dear to every American heart. To it belongs
the sainted day of our National existence; and it is the season of great public joy
and festivity with every patriotic citizen. Although with us, it is the close of the
field harvest, yet in the Middle, Western, and Northern States, the joyous reaper's
notes are not unfrequently mingled with the song of triumph over the foes of freedom.
In this month our grasses are fully, ripe, and every farmer who would provide
for his stock their winter stores, must look to the securing of his fodder, and the
reaping of his hay. Of our field grasses, the orchard or crabgrass is greatly
superior to any other, save the musquit, which we have yet seen tried; and if the
cow-pea is sowed at the last ploughing of the coin and cut with the grass, it makes
bay greatly superior to any we import here from the North. The stock seem to
give it the preference, and its fattening qualities are unrivalled. But having green
grass upon our prairies the year rotnd, there is a manifest indifference in regard to
this crop, which we are sorry to observe. Although our stock may live through
the winter upon the growing herbage, it is obviously the interest of every stock-
raiser, and especially those who desire the luxury of milk in the winter, to lay up
for hard weather a good supply of grass for his cows and to feed his work-oxen.
It is good and cheap food, and can be stacked without shelter in the open air.
In the early cotton; planted upon our prairies, (which mature the staple jn
advance of the timbered lands,) a very fair picking may be had by the close of
this month, and no time should be lost in securing this crop as rapidly as it opens.
It is more liable than any other to. be materially injured by heavy winds and
lasting rains.
AUGUST.
"lNow is the winter of our discontent made glorious anmmer."
Withli the beginning of this month the planter's attention is profoundly engaged
in the gathering of his cotton, and all hands are now called to duty. This is the
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Texas Almanac, 1859, book, 1859~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123765/m1/84/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.