60 
SOUTHERN CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY* 
sugar-beet, and the better varieties, perhaps, should 
stand second only to potatoes. Chaff, grain, bran, &c., 
may also occasionally be given, and for working animals, 
grain invariably at all times. If you expect hens to 
lay during the winter, they must have a warm room, 
and plenty of suitable food. A stone, brick, or what 
is better than either, a clay house, impervious to wind 
and cold, with a supply of oats, shrunk wheat, barley, 
and even corn, with some animal food added, in addi¬ 
tion to a supply of gravel and old mortar or lime, and 
water, will give you a constant supply of fresh eggs all 
winter. 
Finish threshing your grain, and have it stored be¬ 
yond the reach of rat, mouse or weevil. Scions may 
be cut, during this and the two succeeding months, for 
grafting, and carefully laid away in a cool, damp place, 
till required for use. If the roots have not been assort¬ 
ed when stored for the winter, the best should now be 
selected for seed and use, and the remainder fed out to 
the stock previous to a growth of green food in the spring. 
The young animals, calves, lambs, &c., should be care¬ 
fully protected from cold, and have an abundant supply 
of food. When it is intended to raise animals on the 
farm, it is better to have them dropped from the latter 
part of March to the middle of May. The weather is 
then warmer and fresh feed abundant, and the young 
can be reared with half the expense and risk that at¬ 
tends them during severe weather. But such as are 
near a market, and wish to send in early calves, and 
Iambs, may find an advantage in having them come 
much earlier in the season; but all the hopes of the 
farmer will be disappointed, by neglecting the proper 
means of protection. Such cattle as have been suffered 
to set poor, will probably be found to have lice, which at 
this season, collect around the roots of their horns. They 
may be destroyed by a strong decoction of tobacco juice, 
or Scotch snuff, lard, fish oil or soft soap, applied on 
the top of the head, and along the back to the root of 
the tail; also spirits of turpentine, mercurial ointment, 
and corrosive sublimate, are effectual remedies, but dan¬ 
gerous when cattle can lick the part where they are 
applied, both being a deadly poison. After the cattle 
are once rid of lice, keep them in good condition, and 
they will be but little exposed to a renewal of the dis¬ 
ease. Prepare for making maple sugar the last of this 
month. 
Endeavor to finish breaking hemp this month, as 
March will be a much more busy one. If the weather 
be open continue plowing. 
Kitchen Garden.— Sow early cucumbers and mel¬ 
ons in hot beds. If well managed, the cucumbers sown 
early in this month will produce fruit in April. Celery 
can 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. —Gooseberries, cur¬ 
rants and raspberries, may now be pruned if the weath¬ 
er be tolerably mild. Fruit-trees that grow too luxuri¬ 
antly and do not bear, should be pruned in the roots. 
Cut away the wood in grape-vines that have borne fruit 
the preceding season, and leave the wood formed that 
season to bear fruit the ensuing year. If grape pru¬ 
ning is left until the sap begins to rise, the vines will 
bleed profusely, and suffer much injury. It is said that 
the first bud on a shoot will not produce fruit. Con¬ 
sequently a second or third should be left in pruning. 
Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. —See 
directions for December and January. Finish pruning 
hardy flowering shrubs. Cut off all dead wood and 
Straggling or interfering branches close to the body or 
limbs. Keep the gravel walks neat and clean, and roll 
them after the winter frost. 
SOUTHERN CALENDER FOR FEBRUARY. 
In the beginning of this month repair all your fences, 
and employ yotfr men in cutting up and rolling logs— 
and your women and children in knocking down cot¬ 
ton-stalks, when not too large, with a stick, cutting 
corn-stalks, firing log-heaps, and burning chunks and 
the brush that may have fallen from trees, clearing up 
hollows, &c., and be in readiness to commence plowing 
your cotton-fields as soon as the season will admit. By 
the latter end of the month, if the weather be favora¬ 
ble, keep as many plows running as is Convenient when 
the earth is in proper condition. By keeping busy at 
this season of the year, it will enable you to control 
your crop, and give you time to do your work effectu¬ 
ally, which is one half of the battle. 
If your land was in corn or cotton last year, run off 
the rows in the old water furrow with a short plow this 
year, using two horses, and running deep. Then, with 
a turning plow, throw to this two furrows, one from 
each side in order to reverse the last beds. Leave the 
ground in this condition until a day or two before you 
wish to plant, and then break out the entire surface be¬ 
tween the rows—the baulk. Prepare your ground and 
sow your tobacco seed, if you have not done it before* 
Give to your cows boiled cotton seed, with a little 
chopped corn added. It will give the butter a rich fla¬ 
vor and fine yellow color. The seed must be well 
cooked, which will require but a few minutes, 
Mark off’ your sweet-potato ground some time in 
this month with a double-horse plow, and let it lie un¬ 
til it becomes well settled by two or three rains. 
If you have a good grape-vine, take care of it, and 
propagate others from it by cuttings and layers, and its 
fruit will repay your labor. If you have not, buy one 
and plant it the present spring. The second year after 
planting, it will produce you fruit, which will increase 
every year as the plant enlarges. The fruit will be 
found to be wholesome and grateful, and you will real¬ 
ize the pleasure of “ sitting under your own vine” during 
the intense heat of summer. The native varieties most 
worthy cultivation, are the Isabella, Winne, and 
Catawba. If you wish foreign fruit, the sweet-water, 
Chasselas, black cluster, and Burgundy, are to be pre¬ 
ferred . A little experience will make you familiar with 
their management. 
As soon as the black frosts are over, which usually 
occurs by the last of the month, and the ground becomes 
sufficiently dry, the covering of the cane that was plant¬ 
ed 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, toward the centres of the spaces be¬ 
tween the rows. After this, the hoes followed by the 
plows, should be passed through the fields about every 
ten days, in order to keep down the grass and weeds. 
Should the season have been so backward as to have 
prevented you from finishing planting your sugar-cane, 
it can be done at the close of this month. Do not cov 
er it at a depth exceeding two inches. 
Sow all kinds of early melons, cucumbers, kidney 
beans, squashes, asparagus, radishes, lettuce, and gar 
den cresses for seed. Sow late dwarf peas and onion 
seed, carrots, parsneps and red beets. Sow tomatoes 
in hot beds, or in boxes in the house, if the season is 
backward; the egg tomato and the golden drop are 
the best kinds. A compost of pigeon-dung and earth 
will give them an early start. 
This month is proper for grafting the cleft. If youi 
trees have not been pruned, do it at once. Set out fig 
trees—plant hop roots and all kind of aromatic herbs. 
Set out cabbages, lettuces, carrots, parsneps, turneps, 
&c., designed for next year’s seed. Sow oats, plants 
Indian corn, and early Irish potatoes. 
