42 
WORK FOR FEBRUARY, ETC. 
on your farm. Cut and pile your summer fuel, if 
not done before. 
Repair of Buildings. — Carefully examine your 
barns, stables, and other out-buildings as well as 
your own dwelling, and see that all necessary re- 
pairs are promptly made. Cover them, if neces- 
sary, with Mr. Boyle's " cheap paint," as detailed 
at p. 225 of our seventh volume ; or perhaps, what 
would be still better, the "American Indestructible 
Mineral Paint," described at p. 11, of the present 
volume. If neither of these is not sufficiently eco- 
nomical, a coat of good whitewash may be put on 
instead. 
Tools, Implements, fyc. — Thoroughly overhaul 
all the implements, tools, and machines on your 
farm, and put them in good repair, discarding all 
bad ones, and supplying their places with those that 
are of the best quality and new. 
Maple Sugar. — Prepare for making maple sugar, 
which should be commenced the latter part of this 
month, or early in March. See that your sap 
buckets or troughs are tight and clean, and if you 
have not enough for the work you have to perform, 
supply the deficiency by new ones. Put your boil- 
ers in order, and arrange them in a manner that will 
economize in fuel. In tapping your trees, do not 
make the holes too large nor too deep • neither is 
it best to tap the trees very far from the roots. Yet 
the higher the holes are bored above the ground, 
the more saccharine the juice, and the shorter-lived 
the trees. 
Dressing Flax and Hemp. — If you have flax or 
hemp to break and dress, it should be done this 
month, for in March you will have plenty of other 
work to do. 
Care and Management of Stock. — Continue well 
to look after your stock. This and the next fol- 
lowing, are the trying months for animals, and if 
well carried through these, you may safely trust 
them afterwards. Those accustomed to green food 
a great part of the year, and are now kept upon that 
which is dry, should have their condition carefully 
observed. Roots should be provided, more or less, 
as a change; such as potatoes, turnips, ruta-bagas, 
mangold wurtzel, beets, carrots, parsnips, &c. 
Chaff, with corn-cob and Indian meal, may also oc- 
casionally be given. Do not allow them to take 
their drink too cold nor when over-heated with ex- 
ercise or work. Let them also be carded, brushed, 
urried, or wiped down with straw, at least once in 
uventy-four hours. Working animals should in- 
variably have grain, which may he given with 
i hopped hay, or otherwise, and should be fed and 
watered at regular hours, three times a day. All 
pregnant animals should have a dry, warm shelter, 
well littered, and have plenty of nutritious food, 
but should not be made too fat. If near their time, 
they should be allowed to remain loose, unmolest- 
ed, in separate stalls, or pens, and should be aided, 
when necessary, in giving birth to their young. 
Swine should have constant access to water, sul- 
phur, salt, charcoal, and wood ashes, in order to 
thrive. Breeding-in-and-in should not be practised 
beyond two or three generations, unless the fami- 
lies from which the males and females have de- 
scended are very distantly related. 
Poultry. — Provide your hens with warm, com- 
fortable houses and convenient poles to roost upon ; 
and if you wish them to lay well, keep their apart- 
ments and nests clean. Allow them to have con-' 
stantly before them plenty of gravel, broken clam 
or oyster shells, as well as a heap of wood or coal 
ashes, brick dust, and finely-pounded old mortar, or 
lime, to pulverize, or dust themselves in. Give 
them water, boiled mashed potatoes, mixed with 
Indian meal, and a little fresh meat of some kinds, 
finely chopped ; also grain and the tender refuse 
leaves of celery, cabbage, &c, and there will be no 
want of eggs. . Turkeys, ducks, and geese should 
be provided with suitable shelters and pens for lay- 
ing. They should be daily fed with mashed potatoes, 
chopped turnips, or cabbage leaves, mixed within- 
dian meal, and every few days with a small quantity 
of oats, buckwheat, or Indian corn. 
Manures. — Take proper care of your stable ma- 
nure, and see that it is not thrown out of a " hole 
in the wall," there to lie, and mix with snow, as 
well as to have all the virtue washed out of it, not 
only by the rain, but by the drippings of the roof. 
Erect some kind of a shed over your manure heaps, 
if it is nothing more than a rude covering made of 
posts set in the ground, with a roof formed of poles, 
slabs, thatched with spruce boughs or straw. If 
you have marl, or muck, in your vicinity, that can 
be dug at this season without exposure to wet, cart, 
or sled it into your yard, or fields, in order that it 
may be tempered by the genial influences of the 
frost. 
Kitchen Garden. — Sow early cucumbers in hot- 
beds, which, if well managed, will produce in April. 
Celery may be sown in a warm border, and will be 
ready to vegetate the first mild weather. The 
directions for last month will apply equally well to 
this. 
Fruit Garden and Orchard. — Fruit trees that 
grow too luxuriantly, and do not bear well, may 
now he pruned at the roots. Cut away the wood 
in grapevines which has borne fruit the preceding 
year, and leave the young wood to hear the ensuing 
season. If the pruning of vines be left until the 
sap begins to rise, they will bleed profusely, and, 
if weak and sickly, they will suffer much injury, 
Procure grafts and cuttings, and cover them with 
earth until required for use. Scions may be 
cut during this month and the next, for grafting, 
and carefully laid away in a cool place, packed in 
sand, moss, or clay, till required for use. 
Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. — Finish 
pruning hardy early-flowering shrubs, by cutting 
off all dead wood, and straggling or interfering 
branches, close to the stem or limbs. Keep the 
gravel walks neat and clean, and roll them after the 
winter frost. 
WORK FOR FEBRUARY, SOUTH. 
Grinding and Management of Sugar Cane. — If 
you have not completed your cane harvest, finish 
it according to the directions given in January. 
As soon as the black frosts are over, which 
usually occurs by the last of this month, and the 
ground becomes sufficiently dry, the covering of 
the cane that was planted in autumn, or early 
winter, should be reduced to one or two inches, by 
scraping, with hoes, the earth from the top of the 
drills, towards the centres of the spaces between 
the rows. After this, the hoes followed by the 
