ROUTINE OF COTTAGE GARDENING. 
389 
and if a warm sheltered spot can be had, a 
few radishes. 
December is reckoned the dead month of 
the year. A great deal may be done, how- 
ever, by cottagers during their spare hours in 
collecting leaves, mould, &c, along the sides 
of hedges. It is impossible for a cottager to 
have too much manure when spring comes, 
and he should ever remember that the collect- 
ing of it about his neighbourhood produces a 
neat and tidy appearance. Roads and fences 
should be now repaired ; and if any part of 
the land should require trenching or draining, 
now is the time. Gooseberry bushes should 
be all pruned during this month. If any stubble 
is left, let it be dug up for potatoes planted 
about six inches deep. 
Let January be commenced by trenching 
up stubble ground on which plenty of liquid 
manure has been thrown, for carrots. This 
crop dislikes fresh solid manure, but the 
liquid, if put on now, it likes. The ground 
should be left rough, so that the atmosphere 
may operate effectually upon it. When the 
time comes for sowing, which is the end of 
March, it should be prepared afresh. During 
this month you will have an opportunity of 
meeting with a few well-formed savoys : take 
them and plant them by themselves for seed, 
for a good breed requires no greater attention 
than a bundle of loose leaves. In like man- 
ner, a few carrots and Swedes should be 
selected for seed. Potatoes should now be 
planted during open weather, also early frame 
peas, which should be steeped in a decoction 
of bitter aloes to prevent the mice eating 
them. If in a warm situation, a line of 
radishes may be put in between the rows of 
peas, and removed before the latter interferes 
with them. 
February. — In reference to many crops 
Nature, during this month, makes the last 
call upon cottagers : — now, or not till next 
season. If hedging and ditching has to be 
done, it must be proceeded with immediately. 
If a fence has to be planted, not an hour 
should be lost, for the whitethorn is already 
on the start and will soon be green with 
swelling buds. On all patches of grass, lu- 
cerne and vetches, the liquid manure should 
now be applied, and especially on such spots 
as want mending. Wheat, too, if found back- 
ward, or thin in parts, should have some of 
the liquid applied to it. If your early cab- 
bages are to be in the market ten days earlier 
than those of your neighbour, steal a march 
upon him by applying the contents of the 
tank, poured into circular basins formed 
around the root of each plant. In fact, the 
work of no month in the year affects the day 
of reckoning so much as the present. It is 
now that the heavy sheaves are to be formed. 
The spade should be in continual exercise, 
digging two spits deep, for a carrot crop to be 
sown the end of next month, and for a present 
sowing of beans and planting of cabbages. 
Now level down the well-trenched ground for 
a main crop of onions, which may be sown 
during the last week of the month. At the 
same time sow parsnips in rows eighteen 
inches apart. 
March opens with carrying plenty of liquid 
manure to the ground intended for carrots pre- 
vious to its being turned over afresh for the 
seed; and in like manner for mangold-wurtzel. 
Sow both from the 20th till the end of the 
month. Let a full crop of potatoes be now 
planted, and between each set insert a table 
bean which rises high and interferes not with 
the haulm of the former. If there is a warm 
vacant spot under a fence, insert a few kidney 
beans, but reserve the main sowings till April 
and May. A full crop of onions should now 
be sown in rich, deep, free soil which has 
been well manured and ridged up in Decem- 
ber. They should be sown in rows a foot 
apart, covering the seeds about three quarters 
of an inch deep. They will succeed all the 
better if the soil is trampled with the feet, or 
pressed down with the back of a rake. Early 
turnips may also be sown now, but the soil 
should be fine and rich. 
In April potatoes have to be planted, carrots 
sown, and a crop of barley laid down on part 
of the turnip ground. Early cabbages should 
now be carefully earthed up, leaving a ridge 
on each side of the lines, so as to hold the 
liquid manure, which should be again applied 
during this month. Choose the evening or 
cloudy moist weather for this operation. If 
not formerly done, stubble land should now be 
turned over for turnips. Mangold-wurtzel 
will succeed well enough still : the seeds 
should be inserted in rows two feet apart, the 
plants rising in lines at about a foot apart. 
May. — The rye which was recommended to 
be sown at Michaelmas should now be suc- 
ceeded by turnips or potatoes. In either case 
solid manure and the contents of the tank 
should be applied liberally, and the soil dug 
twice over. All growing crops, including 
wheat, should have the soil loosened about 
them during this month, by frequent hoeings. 
Sow a full crop of French beans in lines four 
feet apart, planting cabbages between. It is 
also a good plan to sow turnips between the 
lines of carrots. 
In June see that all your potato crops are 
clean. If any should have failed, raise a neigh- 
bouring set carefully with the spade, and 
take all the shoots away except one, which 
leave where it was taken from. The others 
carefully divide and plant in your open spaces, 
covering up the plant so as to leave only a few 
