370 
SOUTHERN CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER. 
This is the best month for spreading out hemp for 
dew-rotting, in the latitudes below 40°, as it gets a 
whiter and better rot than if spread earlier. 
Kitchen Garden. — Every fine day uncover the 
frames in which are lettuce and cauliflower plants, 
otherwise they will become spindling from want of air. 
Hot beds can now be made for forcing asparagus for 
the table in January. If the ground is open, continue 
trenching for spring crops. When the ground is frozen, 
cart manure, repair fences, clean seeds, prepare tools 
for spring. Provide pea-sticks, bean-poles, &c., and 
finish all that will be required in the spring, and which 
can be done when the ground is frozen. 
Fruit Garden and Orchard. —Finish those things 
which may have been omitted the previous month. If 
the weather continues open, digging and plowing may 
be done advantageously. Perform any work that may 
tend to forward your business in the spring.' 
Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. —Con¬ 
tinue to protect your beds of bulbs and also flower-beds 
and shrubs as directed in last month. Should the wea¬ 
ther continue open in the early part of this month, 
bulbs may still be planted. They should not be left as 
late as this, but if such has been the case, they had better 
be planted now than left until spring. Now carefully 
protect seedling bulbs. The more tender kinds of 
trees can have their roots protected from frost, by lay¬ 
ing manure or long litter about them. 
SOUTHERN CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER. 
The closing month of this year is one in which every 
agriculturist should take an interest, and for many use¬ 
ful hints we will refer the reader to the northern calen¬ 
dar for this month. 
Cotton-picking will probably occupy this month until 
Christmas, when this business will have been com¬ 
pleted, if the culture has been well managed, and the 
season favorable. It would be well to start your plows 
and break up ground for corn; let nothing but cotton 
prevent—not even cleaning; for plowing is only one 
job; yet, if done soon, it is generally advantageous, 
and if bad weather should set in, when it must be done, 
time will be lost and a drawback ensue, whereas by 
plowing in time, cleaning can be done later. 
In weather not employed about other labor more im¬ 
portant, manure and trim all kinds of vines and fruit 
trees, except the orange tribe. Transplant evergreens 
and other trees, sweet briars, honeysuckles, jasmines, 
&c.; sow late peas and beans, and set out onions for 
seed; set all hands at work in cleaning up for other 
crops, picking up limbs, grubbing, cleaning up hollows, 
sides of bayous, cutting down cornstalks with hoes, 
gathering materials for making manure, &c., &c. 
If you do not live in the immediate vicinity, say five 
or six miles, from a sugar plantation, by all means keep 
bees. This can be rendered one of the most produc¬ 
tive branches of business of the day. Procure a few 
swarms at first, and they will soon multiply to any ex¬ 
tent required. Use sections of hollow logs, four or five 
feet long, for hives, if you have no other more conve¬ 
nient materials to make them of, and allow the bees to 
work over the honey a second time, that you may avoid 
the injurious effects in eating honey which may have 
been gathered from poisonous flowers. If the above- 
named class of hives be used, there will be no neces¬ 
sity for killing the bees; for when the hives are filled 
with honey they can be removed without harm from the 
end opposite to that in which the bees are at work, and 
they will immediately go to work and fill the vacancy. 
In most part of the southern states bees may be kept at 
work during the winter. If there are not flowers for 
them, they can be made to work over the bad honey 
collected the season before. 
This is also a busy month for the sugar-planter. He 
will be active in cutting and carting his cane with all 
possible despatch; and he should employ one or more 
practical and intelligent men to conduct the operations 
of the mill. In the manufacture of sugar, we know of 
no better method than that given by Professor Mapes 
in a letter to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, from which we 
make the following extract: 
1st. To cut the cane as ripe as possible; but before 
any acetic acid is formed; litmus paper, touched to the 
fresh-cut cane, will turn red if acid. 
2d. Express the juice without loss of time, as every 
moment after cutting will deteriorate its quality. 
3d. A small quantity of clear lime-water, say one 
quart to a hundred gallons of juice, should be added 
the moment it is expressed, unless the juice shows acid¬ 
ity with litmus paper; in that case, no lime should be 
used, but a solution of sal soda, or soda ash should be 
added, until it is precisely neutral. 
4th. When the juice is neutral, free from excess of 
acid or alkali, it should be evaporated in such an appa¬ 
ratus as would finish its charge in 30 minutes; if the 
boiling power is too small, good crystallization can not 
possibly be obtained. 
The whole time occupied from the cutting of the cane 
to finishing its boiling should not exceed one hour. 
5th. To know when the boiling is finished, place a 
thermometer in the kettle, and continue to evaporate 
until it stands at 239° Fahrenheit. If, when placed to 
run off after cooling, it should be found too freely 
boiled, the next time boil to 240°, or, if too light to run 
off, to 238°, and so on. 
6th. The kettle or boiler should be so arranged, that 
the moment it is done its charge should be thrown into 
a cooler, capable of holding a number of charges. The 
first charge should be left in the cooler without stirring, 
until the second charge is thrown in; then with an oar 
scrape the crystals found on the side and bottom of the 
cooler loose, and gently stir the whole mass together: 
the less stirred the better; so continue at the letting in 
of each charge, to stir gently; and when all is in the 
cooler, let the whole stand until it cools down to 175° ; 
then fill out into sugar moulds of a capacity not less 
than 14 gallons. When cooled in the mould suffi¬ 
ciently, say fourteen hours, pull the plug out of the bot¬ 
tom of the mould, and insert a sharp point, nearly as 
large as the hole, some six inches; withdraw the point, 
and stand the mould on a pot to drip. 
7th. If the sugar is intended to be brown, leaving it 
standing on the pot for a sufficient length of time, in a 
temperature of 80^, will run off its molasses and leave 
it in a merchantable shape; it will probably require 
twenty days. It can then be thrown out of the moulds, 
and will be fit for use. When moulds can not be ob¬ 
tained, conical vessels of wood or metal, with a hole at 
the apex, will answer equally well. 
Conclusion. —At the close of the year many per¬ 
sons employ themselves in reviewing the events of the 
past—their acquirements—their well or ill-spent days— 
or their hours of idleness and inattention. Good reso¬ 
lutions for the future guidance naturally follow; and to 
such, kind reader, we most heartily join our warmest 
wishes for permanent success—trusting that each of you 
who thus have resolved, may go on, adding “ flower to 
flower and knowledge to knowledge,” until you blos¬ 
som in the garden where no good resolutions are blast¬ 
ed, and where no flowers either wither or fade. 
