MONTHLY CALENDAR. 231 



The ground being usually frozen, and giving us good 

 hauling, it is always the month in which our energies are 

 given to getting manure, muck, lime, etc., into conveni- 

 ent places for spring work. Care should be taken to get 

 manure in heaps large enough to generate sufficient heat 

 to prevent its being frozen, so that it can be turned and 

 broken up thoroughly before it is spread upon the ground. 

 This work is often very slovenly performed, and the value 

 of manure much reduced by inattention to turning and 

 breaking it up during winter. Sometimes it is injured by 

 being thinly scattered, so that it freezes solid; and again, 

 if thrown into large heaps, and left unturned, it burns by 

 violent heating, getting in the condition which gardeners 

 call "fire fanged." It is always an indication that the 

 manure heap needs turning when it is seen to emit vapor, 

 no matter how often it has been turned previously, for it 

 should always be borne in mind that it quickly loses by 

 heating, while it always gains by a thorough breaking up 

 in turning. 



January is usually the month in which we have our 

 heaviest snow stormS, which often entail on us an immense 

 amount of necessary, though unprofitable labor, not only 

 in clearing roads, but also in clearing off the snow from 

 our cold frames and forcing pits, for even at this season of 

 dormant vegetation, light is indispensable to the well-be- 

 ing of our vegetable plants ; unless they are in a frozen 

 condition, that is, if we have hud a continuation of zero 

 weather, all our plants of Cabbage, Lettuce, Cauliflower, 

 etc., are frozen in the cold frames; if in this state, the 

 glass is covered up by snow, it is unnecessary to remove 

 it even for two or three weeks, but if the weather has 



