62 - 
western CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY. 
cheapest method of procuring manure, but whether 
they could in any case afford to apply it. This, in 
consequence of the very high value of land, and all 
agricultural products in that country, they satisfied 
themselves they could do; and hence their immense 
importations, amounting, during the present year, it 
is said, to over a thousand ship loads. Had one step 
further been made in their investigation, they would 
have found that the fertilizing materials allowed to 
waste on their farms, or in the neighborhood, would 
furnish them with an equally valuable material, at a 
small part of the cost of “ the far-fetched and dear 
bought ” article. The value of the offal and manures 
wasted annually in London and other large cities and 
towns of England, undoubtedly far exceeds that of all 
the guano ever imported into that country. 
Leaving out of consideration innumerable other 
materials, which are too generally allowed to be 
drained through ditches and sewers into our rivers, 
and thence carried hopelessly beyond our reach into 
the ocean, there are three great sources of supply for 
enriching our fields, similar in their general charac¬ 
teristics to guano, which, if carefully husbanded and 
applied, would add a constantly increasing fertility to 
our fields. These are bones, liquid, and household 
manures. 
Bones, besides the oil and gelatine which they con¬ 
tain, which are valuable food for plants, especially the 
latter ingredient (containing as it does a considerable 
proportion of nitrogen and the salts), yield a large 
proportion of phosphate of lime, which is of the 
highest value to soils, being absorbed in considerable 
quantities by nearly all valuable products, as the 
grasses, clovers, lucerne, &c.; wheat and other grains; 
beans, peas, potatoes and most roots; and enters 
largely into milk, cheese, and other animal products. 
It is true that but a small portion of phosphate of 
lime (which is the principal part of ."-he earth of 
bones) is annually abstracted from the scil, where it 
naturally exists; yet when fields have been depas¬ 
tured for a great number of years by growing ani¬ 
mals, and especially by milch cows, without the ad¬ 
dition of any other substances than the manure they 
have dropped, or the refuse vegetation which has 
decayed on the ground where it was produced, an im¬ 
mense deterioration has taken place. In Cheshire, 
England, where the dairy is a great object of atten¬ 
tion, it has been found, that on pastures long used for 
this purpose, which had thereby become greatly im¬ 
poverished, the addition of bone dust to the land had 
resulted in the immediate augmentation of the crops 
on the land, of 700 per cent.! Nor need this excite 
surprise, when it has been found by the strictest exa¬ 
mination, that the milk of a single cow, will, in 75 
years, exhaust the land where she has been pastured, 
of more than a ton of phosphate of lime, to say nothing 
of other substances. Land is even much more rapidly 
exhausted of phosphate of lime when subjected to 
close tillage. R. L. A. 
Buffalo, January, 1845. 
WESTERN CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY. 
In this month, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, 
the. frosts are sufficiently out of the ground to begin 
plowing, and no time should be lost in commencing 
this operation. If the farmer suffers his plowing to 
get behindhand, he will find it very difficult to get his 
crop pitched in good time, and his work will be con¬ 
stantly pressing upon him before he is ready for it 
But he must be cautioned not to plow his ground 
when too wet. This will cause it to bake, and leave 
it in bad condition for working, and still worse con¬ 
dition for producing a good crop. He must wait 
patiently till his soil is in a proper state for the plow, 
and then hasten on the operation as rapidly as possi 
ble. Sod ground may be plowed wilhout injury, 
where, if there were no sod, it would be entirely too 
wet. Let the ground be plowed when in a proper 
condition , and in a proper manner, and thus a foun¬ 
dation will be laid for a good crop, without unneces 
sary injury to the soil. 
This month is generally more mild than January, 
but it is also more wet. Stock will therefore con¬ 
tinue to require equal attention, as in the preceding 
month. February is usually a fine month for hemp 
breaking, and the brakes should be kept in motion 
every day that is suitable for the purpose. The to¬ 
bacco planter must also be busy every damp day, in 
stripping out the residue of his crop. What he has 
previously stripped, if put in wind rows —tails lapped 
and heads out—should now be re-hanged, to get it in 
order for pressing in hogsheads, or for delivery in 
hand, if accustomed to sell that way. Bailing hemp 
and hauling manure should also be attended to, as 
recommended in the January calendar. 
In this month rails should be split and hauled in 
place, for repairing fences; nor should the wood pile 
be suffered to disappear, but should be enlarged as 
circumstances may admit. Graziers, too, must be 
vigilant in attending to their herds, and keep them in 
thriving condition. If they do not thrive, it is diffi¬ 
cult to keep them from falling off. A stationary 
point■ is almost impossible; and if suffered to lose 
flesh, a spring market for them is lost. This is a 
critical month for the wool grower. In latitude 38 v 
to 40°, reserved blue grass pastures will, with little 
feeding, keep sheep in good heart till the first of Feb¬ 
ruary. Grass is now nearly gone, and the young 
grass cannot be depended upon till some time in 
March. During this month sheep should, therefore, 
have good keeping, or they will greatly fall off in 
flesh, and their clip of wool will be shortened. It 
would be highly beneficial to them to be fed with 
roots, such as beets, turnips, &c., during February. 
In this month Irish potatoes for early use should 
be planted; also early garden peas, if the ground is 
in proper condition to work;-—lettuce, radishes, &c., 
should be sown. Hemp spread in November and 
December, for winter rotting, will be ready to be 
taken up in this and early in the succeeding month. 
It should be closely attended to, and taken up as soon 
after it is sufficiently rotted as possible, as it is more 
or less injured by every rain which falls after it is 
sufficiently watered. It should be put in shocks 
large enough to make from 50 to 75 pounds of lint. 
If the hemp is tall, the shock may contain enough to 
produce the latter quantity. Large shocks, if well 
put up, are best, because less liable to be blown down 
by the wind, and having proportionally less outside 
exposed to the weather, there will be less loss of lint 
before they are broke out. In this month the nights 
are still long, and the farmers would do well to look 
to the recommendations of the January calendar; nor 
should they neglect the advice there given in relation 
to their children. A. BeattV 
Prospect Hill, Ky. 
