160 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



April 



Hot-Bed. — With most farmers, early this 

 month will be soon enough to start the hot- 

 bed. Mode s of preparing and managing them 

 have heretofore been given and need not now 

 be repeated. Sow seeds for early and tender 

 plants, and those requiring a long season, such 

 as lettuce, radishes, egg plants, &c. 



Onioxs. — Sow seeds in well prepared beds 

 and ground as soon as the soil will work with- 

 out sticking to the tools. Wood ashes makes 

 one of the best fertilizers for the onion. Ma- 

 nure with any kind of weed or foreign seed in 

 it is to be especially avoided. Sow in drills 

 one foot apart ; use seed of last season's 

 growth only, as older will disappoint you. 



Parsley. — The seed is a long time coming 

 up and should be sown early. It makes a 

 very pretty edging for beds or borders, &c. 



Parsnips. — Sow in rich, deep soil, in drills 

 eighteen inches apart, as soon as the soil will 

 admit. Last year's growth of seed should be 

 used. 



Peas. — Plant early varieties in well pre- 

 pared soil in good heart ; dry, warm soil is the 

 best. The pea plant is seldom injured by 

 spring frosts, — will often endure to be covered 

 with a late snow after coming up, as I know 

 by experience and frequent observation. 



Seed. — Set out cabbage, parsnips, carrots, 

 onions, turnips and other roots in rich soil, to 

 grow seed for another year, where they will 

 meet the notice daily, that they may have 

 proper care and the seed be gathered at the 

 right time. Some seeds are better grown in 

 every garden than to depend upon the market 

 therefor, as adulteration, &c. is too frequent. 

 Some growers and dealers are to be implicitly 

 relied upon ; but I am sorry to say all are 

 not. 



I have always found it perfectly safe in 

 planting beans, cucumbers, melons and the 

 like, "to make haste slowly," and retain the 

 seed in the house till well into May, when we 

 have settled warm weather. 



Wm. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn., 1869. 



Wool Growers of the West. — The adjourned 

 winter meeting of the Northwestern Wool-growers 

 and Sheep-breeders Association was held at Tur- 

 ner's Junction, 111., Feb. 16. The Annual Sheep 

 Fair and Shearing is to be held at Belviderc, 111., 

 May 18-20. Resolutions were passed in favor of 

 the continuation of the present duties on foreign 

 wool ; against the renewal of the reciprocity treaty ; 

 in favor of a joint exhibition of wools and woolens 

 in the West, and also of that in New York, in 

 1869. The Western Rural says the meeting was 

 very interesting and showed that the breeders of 

 fheep in the Northwest are not all disheatened. 

 The following topics for the evening discussions at 

 the Shearing Fair were announced .—Feeding and 

 Care of Sheep; Time of Lambing; Time of Shear- 

 ing and Mode of Preparing Wool for Market. 



fA. 



PKEPABATION OF THE SOIL. 



MONG the objects to 

 be attained in 

 the preparation 

 - of the soil for 

 ^ the reception of 

 the seed, two 

 things are chief- 



^^^^^^' ly to be attend- 

 ed to, — the mechanical 

 condition of the soil, and 

 a proper supply of plant 

 food. The first is effect- 

 ed mainly by the use of 

 the plough, the harrow, 

 the spade and the rake. 



Those ploughs do their 



work best which turn the 



furrows evenly and leave 



them cracked and broken, 



so that the air and rain 



can penetrate through 



their entire thickness. The short and convex 



mould-board does this most effectually in most 



soils. 



The proper depth of ploughing must depend 

 much upon the nature of the soil, and the 

 treatment it is to receive. If it is naturally 

 deep, or if it is to be heavily manured, a 

 deeper ploughing is proper than in a shallow 

 soil, or where a lighter manuring is to fol- 

 low. A well pulverized seed bed, as deep as 

 the roots ordinarily penetrate, is the best safe- 

 guard against excessive wet or extreme drought. 

 In the one case it allows the water to reach 

 below the roots of the young plants, and in 

 the other it enables the roots to penetrate 

 more deeply in search of needed moisture, 

 and causes the moisture to rise by capillary 

 attraction from below. When the furrow has 

 been turned, especially on grass land or sod, 

 the harrow or cultivator should follow until 

 the soil is fine and friable to as great a depth 

 as possible without displacing the sod. On a 

 compact or clayey soil the Pepperel harrow 

 does good work. Where this is not at hand, 

 the cultivator is better than the common 

 square-toothed harrow. 



Then apply the manure and work it in with 

 the harrow, the cultivator or horse-plough un- 

 til it is thoroughly incorporated with the soil. 

 This is an important matter in the preparation 

 of the soil. If it is placed below the farrow, 



