86 APRIL. 



hemp, mustard, rape, poppy, rhubarb, and other 

 medicinal plants; at the end of the month 

 planting mangel-wurzel, carrots, and Swedish 

 turnips. Early potatoes are planted. Hops* are 

 poled, and the ground between the rows dress- 

 ed. Evergreens are planted, as holly, yew, and 

 the fir-tribes. Poultry-broods are now nume- 

 rously hatched, and demand much of the good 

 housewife's care. The anxieties attending the 

 raising of young poultry are far from inconsider- 

 able. Watching for, and discovering the nests, 

 particularly of ducks, turkeys, and guinea-fowls, 

 which are fond of laying away in hedge-bottoms 

 and beds of nettles; securing and preserving 

 eggs, setting them, and observing, from time to 

 time, that they are not broken, or addle ; sprink- 

 ling them with water as they approach the time 

 of hatching ; supplying the sitting fowls daily 

 with food and water ; assisting the chicks occa- 

 sionally to escape from the shell, and removing 

 them, as they appear, to the house, till the 

 whole brood is hatched. In farm-kitchens, in 

 spring, we perpetually hear a chirping of chick- 

 ens, ducklings, goslings, etc. and see a basket 

 set near the fire, covered with a flannel ; or a 

 worsted stocking rolling about the hearth, like a 

 great snake, with here and there the head of 

 a chicken peeping through a hole. They have 

 next to be placed under a coop, which confines 



