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THE farmer’s manual. 
will pay you well for a bushel or two of plaster, or 
a few bushels of lime, or leached ashes, to the acre. 
Your orchards continue to claim your attention ; 
finish trimming as fast as possible, and cart or sled off 
the brush before the ground becomes soft and 
poachy — give to each tree a top-dressing of your' 
best chip, stable, or compost manure ; your fruit 
will richly repay, besides the extra profits upon 
your grass under your trees ; whether mowing or pas- 
ture, together with the growth of your trees. No far- 
mer ever paid too much attention to his orchards, nor 
probably ever will. 
Look to your fences, and see that they secure your 
orchards, grass and grain lands against your horses, 
cattle, and sheep. If your fences are bad, you have 
toiled in vain ; all is at hazard ; all is bad. 
Commence setting your fruit and shade trees; 
these, if omitted in December, generally succeed 
best, (when set in the spring,) as soon as the frost 
is out of the ground. Whenever the frost will per- 
mit, plough your hemp and flax ground, together 
with such land as you design for peas. Frequent 
ploughings greatly benefit these crops, and your peas 
cannot be sown too early to prevent the cftects of 
the bug, and insure you a good crop. 
Look to your water-courses, and change their direc- 
tion to receive the benefit of the spring rains; the 
frequent changing of your water-courses will render 
your mowing even, and prevent one part from becom- 
ing too rank, and lodging, before the other part is 
grown fit to cut, and thus turn to your best profit, that 
which if neglected, would become waste and damage. 
Now is the time to nurse your stock with pota- 
toes and carrots ; and even your cattle and cows will 
pay you as well for the use of the curry-comb as 
your horses, and if you nurse them well in the spring, 
they will repay you with interest through the summer. 
Let your sheep range upon your old stubble fields, 
where you have not sown clover for mowing — green 
