238 



NEW EN(n.AM) FARMER, 



Feb. 9, lS3i. 



sraw ssTia^iLiisra) a>ii®sasi3a 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 9, 1831. 



GARDENER'S WORK FOR FEBRUARY. 



If the weather should l)e sufficiently niikl, you 

 may carry manure iuto those places where it is 

 needed, leave it in lieaps without spreading. 

 Wlierever and whenever the snow is sufficiently 

 off the ground, rake together and burn, or what 

 is better, cart into your barn-yard, the haulm, with- 

 ered stems of plants, or whatever may remain of 

 last year's crop. Fences may now be inspected 

 and repaired, and seeds rubbed out, cleaned, done 

 up in papers and labelled. Straw mats for hot- 

 beds, poles, rails, lattices or trellises for espalier 

 trees * should now be made ready for use. See 

 that your garden tools are in good repair, and pro- 

 cure such new ones as may be necessary. Set 

 about |)rocuring and preparing materials for, and 

 forming hot-beds. Clean trees from moss, and 

 protect them agair)st mice and rabbits by white 

 washing with lime, or smearing with some com- 

 position which is offensive to those vermin. Enter 

 in earnest into the business of forwarding various 

 kinds of seedling plants, by artificial means, so 

 that they may have strong roots and arrive at some 

 size by the time they would naturally make their 

 first appearance above ground. This may be 

 done by sowing the seeds in small pots, and placing 

 them in a hot bed. Attend to your fruit in your 

 fruit-room or cellar, on shelves or in boxes, and 

 if necessary pick it over, and cull out whatever is 

 defective ; wipe the remainder dry and pack it 

 away anew. But if it is put down in some sort 

 of grain, dry sand, flax-seed, chaff, or what proba- 

 bly is best of all, pulverized plaster of Pai'is, it 

 may, perhaps, uot require picking over. Yon may 

 perhai)s, towards the last of the month begin to 

 force asparagus in hot beds, sow under glass cases 

 for transplanting, or otherwise, radishes, carrots, 

 small salads, jjcas, beans, &c. Protect small plants, 

 which may show a disposition to vegetate, by 

 matting, littei', cases of wicker, old bark, and other 

 suitable means. 



* Espalier rails are substitutes for walls, which they 

 so far resemble that the trees are regularly spread and 

 trained alonj them, are fully exposed to the li£;ht, and, 

 havino; their branches tixed are less liaTile to be injured 

 by high winds. They may be made of wood, cast iron, 

 or wire and wood. 



. ' An espalier has this advantage over a wall tree, tliat, 

 being wholly detached, the branches have liberty to form 

 fruit spurs on both sides, which, in the wall trees cannot 

 be effected but on one ; in fact, common fruit walls are 

 unnecessary in the United States, except in the Eastern, 

 and some of the Middle States, where they are useful in 

 forwarding to lUie perfection and Haver some late kinds 

 of superior peaches, grapes and other late fruits ; but 

 when walls are built for other purposes, and are con- 

 veniently situated, advantage ought to be taken ol them 

 for raising fruit ; observing to suit the various kinds to 

 the various aspects.' — M'Mahon. 



were reserved for that purpose because they were 

 too worthless for the harvest. 



Dress out hemp and fla.x, and see that your spin- 

 ning wheels come somewhat nearer to perpetual 

 motion than some machines, which have been in- 

 vented for that purpose. For every cent saved iu 

 domestic manufactures you gain at least three 

 cents. One cent you gain by the greater dura- 

 bility of the home spmi article ; one cent you save 

 of cash )io< paid for the purchase, and one cent, 

 or perhaps, countless cents by bringing up your 

 family to habits of thrift and industry. 



Look well to your sheep. If you wish for fine 

 healthy landis, yuu will take good care of the ewes. 

 ' For a few days or weeks before yeaning time 

 they shoidd be generously fed. Some juicy food 

 which they are fond of should be given thetn, such 

 as turnii).s, potatoes, &c, that they may have more 

 milk for their lambs : for it is the opinion of care- 

 fill observers that want of milk is the cause of the 

 dying of so many lambs in the first stages of their 

 existence.' * It has been recommended to give 

 ewes about i a gill of Indian corn a day each, till 

 they have produced their young, in order to give 

 them strength; and while suckling, good roots 

 or some other juicy food. The Farmer's Manual 

 says ' If you have stored more turnips than are 

 sufficient for the use of the table, give them to any 

 stock that will eat them, except your sheep ; give 

 to them potatoes, but not turnips at this season ; 

 they will injure the lambs. Weak Iambs should 

 be treated in all respects as if they had been drown- 

 ed, and you would restore them to life. Apply 

 gentle and reeular warmth ; give warm milk fre- 

 quently in small quantities, (the milk of the sheep is 

 best,) and if the ewe has sufficient for its support 

 you may generally raise them, but if not they gen- 

 erally die. It is more work to nurse one such 

 lamb for 24 hours than to feed regularly 100 sheep 

 for the same time. If your flock be large the 

 wethers should be kept by themselves. They do 

 not require so good keeping as ewes and young 

 slieep.' The Farmer's Guide says ' If lambs are 

 weak it is necessary to give them, the first day or 

 two, a small quantity of cow's milk warm, three or 

 four times in the day ; if it is cold weather, the 

 cup containing the milk shoidd stand in another 

 vessel that is partly filled with warm water. Should 

 the lamb be chilled, rub his legs with tow, and let 

 a warm cloth he put round it. But if corn, barley, 

 oats or white beans are given to sheep, during the 

 winter, in small quantity, the lambs will be strong 

 and the trouble of nursing saved. 



FARMER'S WORK FOR FEBRUARY. 



Take this leisure time to select an I purchase 

 such neat cattle, sheep, pigs, seed corn, seed 

 wheat, potatoes for planting, &c, as will be 

 likely to prove most valuable on your farm, having 

 in mind the following maxim, viz. Choose those 

 animals or vegetaldes to propagate from, that pos- 

 sess the qualities you wish might be possessed by 

 their offspring in the greatest perfection. Our 

 farmers are too apt to sell off their best stock to 

 the butchers and keep the poorest to breed from : 

 and to gather their seeds from vegetables, which 



■ Dean'3 New Eiiglnnd Farmer. 



ECONOMY IN THE USE OF FIRE-WOOD. 



The following, from a respectable corresponde it 

 in Worcester County, has already been published 

 in the New England Farmer, vol. v. page 223, 

 and is here given for the benefit of those who 

 have subscribed for our paper since that period. 



Mucli depends on preparing wood for the fire, 

 and much on the manner of using it after it is 

 prepared, — to say nothing about the construcfion 

 of tire ])laees, and the advantages of using stoves. 

 The method which from experience appears to me 

 the best and most economical, is, during the win- 

 ter to cut and haul a suitable quantity of wood, 

 which I saw into billets of two feet in length, 

 splitting it fine, assorting it, and laying aside that 

 which is of inferior quality for use during the 

 summer, and piling the better part in my wood- 

 house for winter service, which I saw iuto pieces 



of eight and twelve inches in length, as it is 

 needed for the fire. I find it advantageous to us 

 a considerable portion of green wood wilii tha 

 which is dry, as a more steady and lasting fire wil 

 be produced than would he the case were the di) 

 wood used entirely by itself A very considera- 

 ble saving may be realized by using the saw in 

 sead of the axe, in preparing v.'ood for the fire 

 although very few of our common country peoph 

 are aware of the fact, having never tried the ex- 

 periment. A saw suitable for this business cost! 

 no more than an axe, is as easily kept in order, 

 and with careful usage will last many years. A 

 man can saw as much and probably more wood in 

 the same time than he can cut with an axe, scarcelj 

 any litter is made, the wood is all cut of an exac 

 length, and on the whole the annual saving to everj 

 householder by using the saw instead of the axe 

 would in the course of several years amount tt 

 something of consequence. 



COW CABBAGE. 

 Mr Thomas Stockbridge of Weymouth, Mas9„ 

 has raised this season, about 700 plants of thif 

 singular variety of cabbage whi( h grew from tw.6^ 

 to five feet in height. He considers it superior 

 anything he ever raised as fodder for cows. Tliej" 

 will eat it in |)refereiice to English hay, good pas- 

 ture grass, or any- fodder he could give them ; aut f 

 sensibly increased the quantity of their milk ' 

 Horses eat it freely ; but it seems to be pcciiliarlj • 

 well fitted for milch cows. He kept a cow through K 

 the fall almost exclusively on between two and) 

 three hundred plants, although the first year o; II 

 their growth, and he is satisfied that no plant il 

 or grass, will afford an equal amount of foddei i 

 from the same space of ground, as they yield a il 

 constant succession of thick new succulent leaves il 

 as fast as the old ones are plucked. They should il 

 he sowed as early as possible in the spring, on th( D 

 richest soil, and raised about two feet apart. 



Sore Throat from Cold. — At this season of th( 

 year, when common colds are prevalent, a bettei 1 

 remedy cannot be prescribed for a soreness oi ^ 

 injiammaiion of the inside of the throat, whicl ' 

 often attends a severe catarrh than the following: ' 



Mix a wine-glass full of good calcined Magnesia 

 and Honey to the consistence of paste or jelly, and 

 take a spoonful once an hour through the day for " 

 a day or two. It is cooling, healing, and a very i; 

 gentle cathartic. — Bermuda paper. ' 



A writer in the New York Journal of Conv- !| 

 merce, statas that fresh snow from the surface, || 

 used in making a pudding, will render it equally i| 

 light as eggs: two table spoonfuls are to hi! sub- ^ 

 stitutcd lor each egg; if this proportion is exceed- y 

 ed, the pudding>will fall to pieces in boiling. I| 



We ask attention to the Ibllowing extract of a J 

 letter, dated Liverpool, 16th Nov. 1830 : — 'Our f 

 rail road from this to Mimchester, continues doing f 

 well ; the receipts from passengers alone exceed 

 two thousand pounds (sterling) per week, and peo- " 

 pie are no longer afraid to travel at the rate of 

 twenty miles an hour.' — U. S. Gaz. 



At the Portsmouth Dock Yard, Eng. an expert- I' 

 inent was lately tried, of the relative strength of i 

 two 14^ inch cables, one of them made of Rigs \i 

 hemp, and tarred in the common manner; the I 

 other made of New Zealand flax saturated with a ' 

 solution of gum, the invention of Capt. Geo. Har- 

 ris, R. N. The hemp cable was broken, while 

 not a yarn iu Capt. Harris' cable was strained. 



