The Home Garden 



FEBRUARY 



Hot-beds for very early plants can be made 

 this month. See chapter on Hot-beds and 

 Cold-Frames for directions. 



Mushrooms can be grown at this season as 

 well as any other if the proper degree of tem- 

 perature can be maintained. 



If the cellar supply of salsify and parsnip 

 has run short, plants can be dug from the open 

 ground with but little difficulty, if the snow is 

 not deep. Chop down about the roots with an 

 old axe, cutting the frozen earth away as if it 

 were wood. The roots will generally come out 

 whole and uninjured, if you work carefully. 



If potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables 

 have been stored in pits, they can be got at 

 safely, on pleasant days, if care is taken to 

 bank up the opening well afterward. Vege- 

 tables kept in this way will be found to have 

 a most delicious flavor after having eaten 

 cellar-stored ones for several months. 



Pruning of all kinds of fruit-trees is now in 

 order. Let your knife be sharp, that it may 

 make a smooth cut. It is well to go over the 

 cut surface with a coat of good paint, immedi- 

 ately after pruning. 



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