334 Calendar of Farminrj Operations. 



yoiing wheats. Look carefully to your ewes. Mares will be 

 foaling : give plenty of bran mashes and boiled beans, there is 

 nothing like beans for producing milk. Ten days after foaling put 

 the mare to the horse again. Kill and cure bacon in cold weather : 

 it does not do to cure it in frost however. Sows should be farrow- 

 ing now : oatmeal and steamed I'oots, capital food for young 

 pigs. Cart horses miist be kept in spirited condition. The first 

 hoeing must now begin. Excellent top dressing for young wheat, 

 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda mixed with 2 cwts. of salt. Sow the first 

 succession of vetches for Jul}'. Keep the roller at work on wheat 

 and grass lands. Limewash hen-house and procure a change of 

 eggs. Sow carrots on land deeply ploughed and manured in autumn. 

 If your land is not so prepared, manure now and plough it in 

 shallow : or sow land on which turnips have been eaten ofi". Sow 

 flax in an adhesive loamy soil manured in autumn with well rotted 

 dung. Give more hay with the turnips as they are apt to be laxa- 

 tive this month. Shut up meadows for mowing ; handpick, and 

 bush-harrow them. To drag them with haiTows is capital practice ; 

 it will often double the crop if a dose of guano be given on the first 

 succeeding wet day ; without guano it will do wonders. 



April. — Operations to be continued as during last month. Sow 

 vetches at intervals of a fortnight if you fear a deficiency of the 

 artificial grasses. Sow grasses this month with advantage. Hand- 

 hoe wheat for the second time. Harrow old pastures and beans, 

 preparatory to rolling when the groimd is dry. Eoll the spring 

 com if well up. Your cows should be in good order for calving. 

 Sow red clover 7 to 8 lbs. per acre : the thicker the plant the finer 

 will be the stems : it does better on soil manured for barley than 

 when the manure was applied to the previous crop of turnips. 

 Plant out field cabbages and supply well this gross feeder with 

 liquid manure. Sow mangold wurzel to the end of this month. 

 Check wireworm ravages with Crosskill's or Cambridge's roller. 

 Get in the last of the turnips : if allowed to nin to seed they are 

 sadly exhaustive of the soil. Sow lucerne in drills, having trenched 

 before if you want fine cuttings. Cut and lay fences early in the 

 month to avoid the wood's bleeding. Eoll and bush-harrow grass 

 land if not already done. Hand-hoe wheat, beans, peas. Fat lambs 

 fetch high prices. Sell off your porkers before the warm weather 

 comes. Sow carrots and parsnijis and subsoil the land on which 

 you grow them. Feed off luxuriant wheat with sheep. Potatoes 

 should be planted the last fortnight of this month. Paring and 

 burning may proceed ; spread the ashes, harrow them in, and I'oU. 

 Begin to stock pastures. " The sheep pastures should have one 

 young steer to 1 2 sheep. The bullock pastures one horse to every 

 12 beasts. The sheep pastures should be kept comparatively bare ; 

 but the bullock lands must have good bite, so that the animals may 

 quickly feed and soon lie down to rest and i-uminate. An old 

 grazing nile is that grass should be 24 hours old for a sheep, and 12 

 days for a bullock." Clean out boxes and sheds and put the manure 



