January 



is hoped, prove thoroughly practical, and tend materially to aid the 

 cultivator in obtaining from the vegetable garden an abundance of 

 everything in its season, and of a quality, too, of which he need not 

 be ashamed. 



JANUARY 



WORK in the garden during the opening month of the year is 

 entirely dependent on the weather, and it is futile to enter on a vain 

 conflict with Nature. When heavy rains prevail keep off the ground, 

 but immediately it will bear traffic without poaching be prepared to 

 take advantage of every favourable hour. Much may be done in 

 January to make ready for the busy spring, and every moment use- 

 fully employed will relieve the pressure later on. Survey the stock 

 of pea-sticks, haul out all the rubbish from the yard, and make 

 a * smother ' of waste prunings and heaps of twitch and other stuff for 

 which you have no decided use. If properly done, the result will be 

 a black ash of the most fertilising nature, such as a mere fire will 

 not produce. Should the soil be frost-bound wheel out manure and 

 lay it in heaps ready to be spread and dug in where seed-beds are to 

 be made. If the weather is open and dry, trench spare plots and 

 make ready well-manured plots for sowing Peas and Beans. So far 

 as may be convenient, all preparatory work should be pushed on with 

 vigour, and every effort must be made to lay up as much land in the 

 rough as possible ; for the more it is frozen through the greater will 

 be its fertility, and the more beautiful, as well as more abundant, the 

 crops. 



It is a matter of the most ordinary prudence to be prepared to 

 resist the shock of a severe frost. When this event occurs, many 

 suffer loss because they are not prepared for it. Good brick walls 

 and substantial roofs are needed for the safe keeping of fruits and 

 the more valuable kinds of roots; but when rough methods are 

 resorted to, such as clamping and pitting, there should be a large 

 body of stuff employed, for a prolonged frost will find its way through 

 any thin covering, no matter what the material may be. As there is 

 not much to do now out of doors, it is a good time to look over the 

 notes which were made concerning various crops in the past season, 

 and to attend to the seed list. 



SEED SOWING should be practised with exceeding caution but 

 great things may be done where there are warm, sheltered, dry 



147 L2 



