14 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



fitable pork, you ought to push your pigs from the birth. 

 Look carefully after your lambs ; see that the mothers are 

 well cared for ; have dry and warm pens for any that are 

 feeble. A little tenderness to the lambs will be well repaid 

 by and by. 



GARDEN. Your lettuce may be transplanted from the 

 hot-bed the middle and last of this month. A foot apart 

 is none too much, if you wish head-lettuce. Sow your 

 main supplies of radishes, cabbage, tomatoes, etc. Get 

 your pie-plant seed in early as possible ; also carrots, pars 

 nips, and salsify or oyster-plant. Prune your gooseberries, 

 currants, and raspberry bushes. Grapes, which were not 

 laid in last fall should be pruned and laid in early in March ; 

 but if neglected then, let them be till the leaves are large 

 as the palm of your hand. Look out or worms nests, and 

 destroy them promptly. 



5 . WORK FOR MAY. Your whole force will be required in 

 this month. If the season has been late or wet, you still 

 have your corn to plant. Pastures will be ready for your 

 stock ; remember to salt your stock every week. Weeds 

 will now do their best to take your crops. Your potato 

 crop should be put in, as there will be little danger of frost. 

 After the 15th, you may put out sweet potato slips. If 

 you have not grass-land for pasturage, try for one season 

 the system of soiling, i. e. keeping up your cattle in 

 the yard or home-lot, and cutting green-fodder for them 

 every day. An acre or two of corn, sown broad-cast, or 

 oats and millet, should be tried. Above all other things, if 

 you have warm, deep sandy loam, put in an acre of lucerne. 



During the last of this month, and at the beginning of 

 the next, pruning may be done. If the limbs be large, 

 cover the stump with a coat of paint, wax, grafting clay, or 

 anything that will exclude air and wet. 



The garden will require extra labor in all this month. 

 After the 15th, tender bulbs and tubers may be planted, 

 dahlias, amaryllises, tuberoses, etc. Peas will require brush; 



