NEW€M& 



DEVOTfiD TO AaRECUIiTURE, HORTICULTUKE, AJTD EXNDKED AKTS, 



NEW SERIES. Boston, Febriiary, 1870. VOL. IV.— NO. 2. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Plblishers, 

 Office, 34 Mjerchants' Row. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, ) editors 

 S. FLETCHER, i ^""OHS. 



FEBRUARY. 



HORT always, and sometimes 

 very sharp, is this month of 

 J^ February. The "backbone 

 of winter may be broken," but in 

 efforts to recover its full strength 

 again, it blows, and snows, and 

 freezes, and does so much in this 

 line, that January would stand back 

 as a second-rate month, if it could come along 

 and make little February a visit. 



Sudden changes of temperature make unu- 

 sual vigilance necessary on the part of the far- 

 mer. His stock feels them. The milk pail 

 shows them. The young cattle stand with 

 their feet nearer together, and their backs 

 "hunched up" if they are exposed, or in their 

 stalls, if the weather is very cold. All the 

 animals need more food, because more heat is 

 required to keep them warm. Food to thenx 

 Is like fuel to us, in a cold day. We krow 

 how to get up warmth without eating ap nnu- 

 s;ial quantity of food ; they do not, ani?, there- 

 fore require more care. 



Removing Manure.— Where one is so for- 

 tunate as to have a barn cellar, that does not 

 freeze, this month affords aP excellent oppor- 

 tunity to take the manure to the fields, where 

 it is to be used in the spring. The labor of 

 loading and unloading it, if hauled out upon 

 a sled, is not lost, as it is so much work done 

 towards mingling and making it fine. This 

 work accomplished, greatjy facilitates the 



preparations for planting and sowing in laying 

 lands to grass, in the spring. 



It also saves cutting up the fields, that are 

 obliged to be crossed with carts, after the 

 frost has left the ground. Cart-ruts not only 

 make ugly blotches to look at, but are much in 

 the way of the mowing machine and rakes, 

 whether by horse or hand, and also cut short 

 the crop. 



If manure is thrown fn^m lean-to v/indows 

 into heaps, it is better to take it to the fields 

 in February, even if at some trouble to break 

 it up when frozen. 



The work of preparation, and of sowing 

 and planting in the spring, cannot be post- 

 poned without the loss of nearly a whole 

 yea'''s operations. Whatever, then, can be 

 accomplished in the winter months to aid for- 

 ward the spring work, ought always to be at- 

 tended to. 



Something may be done this month in get- 

 ting together materials for fences. On most 

 farms a portion of the fence is of wood. On 

 some, entirely so. Posts may be split out and 

 morticed, and rails sharpened. For "bars" 

 that are frequently to be taken down they 

 should be straight, light and smooth, and 

 made of strong material. 



A good rail fence, made of chestnut or red 

 cedar, will last a great many years. We have 

 seen fences made of young cedar and chest- 

 nut trees, split once only, that we were in- 



