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WORK FOR DECEMBER, NORTH AND WEST. 
WORK FOR DECEMBER, NORTH AND WEST. 
Settle Your Accounts. — "Short settlements make 
long friends, 1 ' and as we wish to see love and good 
will to all men nourish everywhere, Ave commence 
our advice in work for December, with an earnest 
recommendation to our readers, to make it one of 
the duties of this month to settle every account 
with every individual with whom they have had 
any dealings during the past year. If there is any 
matter of difference between you and some neigh- 
bor, as in the common course of human character 
there will be, do not go to law about it; don't sue 
nor be sued for a paltry little sum. It is far better, 
more neighborly, and far more in accordance with 
the spirit of Christianity, to submit it to two or 
three of your friends ; and let us tell you, from 
seven years' experience in taxing up costs in a law 
court, it is far less expensive. Therefore, take the 
advice of one who has the best wishes for your 
welfare, and settle all your accounts, or matters of 
difference with neighbors, or relatives, in December, 
and then you will be prepared for a merry Christmas 
and happy-new-year. 
Make Your House Warm. — If you have not 
attended to this advice for November, do not neg- 
lect it a day longer. Above all things, make the 
" old folks' room" comfortable. ' : Honor thy father 
and mother," &c, which you can do in no other 
way more truly than thus administering to their 
comfort during a cold northern winter. 
Remember Your Stock. — Be assured that it takes 
just as much more feed to keep a cow warm out of 
doors, as it would of fuel to keep a stove warm in 
an open room, instead of a tight one. This is poor 
economy. 
Killing Hogs. — This is the month for butchering, 
and although it is a job of hard, disagreeable labor, 
farmers generally contrive to make a day of plea- 
sure of it, by inviting some neighbor to come and 
help, by way of "changing works." This is all 
right. It promotes harmony and good feeling ; 
provided, that old-fashioned accompaniment of 
butchering day is excluded. As you love peace, 
banish the old black rum jug — don't scald your 
throat instead of the hogs. The best way to scald 
hogs, is, not to heat the water in kettles, as we 
used to do, over the old kitchen fire, and then carry 
it out in pails, to the great danger of everybody 
around. Provide a trough about ten feet long, and 
wide and deep enough to receive the body of a 
large hog; fill it half full of cold water; have a 
dozen stones, weighing ten to twenty pounds each, 
heated in a convenient fire ; take them out with a 
shovel (it will not injure a barn shovel) ; put them 
into one end of the trough, and the water will soon 
be hot enough; then re-heat the stones for the 
next hog. Water may be heated in a tub, or barrel, 
but it is not so convenient as a trough. Try it. 
Have Your Oxen Shod. — This is important at the 
north. They are far more economical than horses, 
and if well shod, will do as much work in getting 
up wood, drawing logs to the saw mill, sledding 
rail<4 hauling in hay from the water meadow, while 
it is frozen, and hauling out manure when it is 
not — and a thousand-and-one winter jobs that 
every good farmer will attend to this month. 
Christmas. — Be sure and make this a day of 
pleasure and profit. Let it be a feast of fat things. 
Have your children and grandchildren home in the 
old farm house, and thank God for one more return 
of this day. Let the children enjoy a merry 
Christmas. 
Visit Your Neighbors, and talk over plans for 
improving your farms, during these long winter 
evenings. Take a number of the Agriculturist in 
your hand, and show them what a valuable paper 
he can get for a dollar a year ; and then go and get 
as many'subscribers as you possibly can for it. 
WORK FOR DECEMBER, SOUTH. 
Planting Potatoes. — In Mississippi, and parts 
adjacent, the best common potatoes that we have 
ever seen raised, were planted in November and 
December. Plow the ground deep, not less than 
ten inches — twenty would be better ; open a deep 
furrow, and fill it with good stable manure, well 
tramped down; cover it slightly with earth, and 
lay the tubers ten or twelve inches apart; then 
cover with a heavy furrow turned up from each 
side, and smooth oft the bed with hoes. Arrange 
the rows so the water will not stand, and you will 
have a good crop. 
Garden Vegetables, for early spring use, should 
be attended to this month. Onions, lettuce, cabbage, 
tomatoes, &c, should be planted in many parts of 
the south. Of course, we cannot make our direc- 
tions general for so great a country as the United 
States. 
Put Your Garden in Order, before you sow the 
seeds. If it is a clayey soil, trench it two feet 
deep and drain it. Put coarse manure, or rotton 
chips and trash, in the bottom of the trenches. If 
your soil is sandy, still trench it, and haul clay, of 
which put six inches well bedded in the bottom ; 
or, if you cannot get clay, take muck. Mix a rich 
dressing of fine manure with the soil, and then you 
are ready to see the spring open, and everything 
you plant grow flourishingly. 
Cotton Picking, Sfc. — This business is too apt to 
absorb everything else. But do not forget that it 
is all-important to your interest to attend to a great 
many other things this month. You will probably 
find this the best season for killing hogs, and you 
should see that they are well fed, and ready to 
be killed the first cold spell. We never wait for 
pork to cool before salting. Cut up and salt at 
once. See that every part is thoroughly rubbed 
with fine salt. Within a week, overhaul and 
rub again ; in ten days more, repeat the opera- 
tion. Whenever the meat has completely ab- 
sorbed six pounds of good rock salt to the hun- 
dred weight, and laid about twenty days, it will be 
found to be cured enough to smoke. This should 
be done in a cool, well-ventilated room. The best 
way is to have a fire out doors, and conduct the 
smoke through a flue ; but never build the fire in 
the same room in which the meat is to be cured. 
Take Care of Your Lambs. — This is the best month 
for sheep to drop their lambs, as far south as Mis- 
sissippi. . The sheep should be looked after, and 
provided with some better feed than frost-bitten 
cotton stalks. *j 
Work Important to be Done, upon all the planta- 
tions along the Mississippi and bayous, just as 
soon as the rolling season is over, or cotton out of 
the fields, is, to repair the levees. Do not forget 
