AMERICAN AGrRIC ULTURIST. 
A3 
187*7. ] 
be encouraged when the calf is a week or two old, 
and danger of inflammation is, passed. Every 
farmer cannot have bis cows fresh in the winter, 
nor can every dairyman or woman make winter 
butter of first duality, but those who can do these 
things are able to get double the profits from their 
cows that others do, and have their dairy work 
come at the season when there is little else to be 
done—a matter for smart farmers to think over. 
The Card .—A pair of cards ought to be kept in 
every cow stable, and they should bo frequently 
used. A clean, sleek hide is a credit to the owner 
and a comfort to the animals. We have carded 
bulls, cows, and calves every day in the winter, and 
occasionally in the summer, for many years, and 
never found our stock to be trey bled with lice. 
Cattle that have been purchased have sometimes 
been found lousy, but after a few applications of 
the card, dipped in kerosene, the vermin disap¬ 
peared. The carding, and the brushing afterwards, 
should be done before the milking. There will be 
no complaints then of specks in the milk. In place 
of the brush, a brisk rubbing with a handful of soft 
oat straw will give a good finish to a carding. 
Horses .—Idle horses may be kept in a straw yard 
with an open shed for shelter. A few ears of com, 
given daily, will keep them in good condition. 
Brood mares, at least, should have as much exercise 
as this. Horses kept in stables should be well 
curried and brushed. A sharp curry-comb is a 
nuisance in a stable, and makes many nervous 
horses fractious and irritable. The sharp teeth 
may easily be rubbed down with a file or a whet¬ 
stone. To clean a curry-comb, dip it into a solu¬ 
tion of 'common sal-soda, rinse it about a short 
time, and then wash it in hot water. When the 
coat begins to shed, a pint of linseed-cake meal 
may be given daily to each horse with benefit. 
Fattening Cattle .—A change of food will be of 
great help in quickening the appetite of stall fed 
cattle. A pint of molasses, mixed with a feed of 
cut straw and meal, will be taken very readily. 
This may be given once a day, and one to two 
ounces of salt with an alternate feed. Roots, 
sliced and sprinkled with either cotton or linseed- 
cake meal, will be very healthful. A few apples 
will be useful between meals. A pound of meal 
stirred in the drinking water will help. By vary¬ 
ing the food in this way one can hardly overfeed 
fattening stock so as to pall the appetite. 
Sheep, feeding for the butcher, can profitably con¬ 
sume, according to the size, from one to two 
pounds of grain per day, with hay, straw, and 6 to 
12 pounds of roots. It will not pay, as a rule, to 
keep fattening sheep to save the fleece after they 
are ripe for market. The value of the pelt always 
enters into the price given by the butcher, and to 
feed sheep two months to save the value of the 
pelt, and then find this deducted from the price of 
the sheep, is not a pleasing surprise. Fat sheep 
generally sell best this month or early in March. 
Lambs .—Every lamb of the right kind now ap¬ 
pearing, if within 300 miles of New York, may be 
made, by proper management, to be worth, three 
months hence, $8 or more in the market. The 
raising of early lambs for market is a growing and 
profitable business. To give all the details of their 
management would take too much space. They 
may be learned by studying Stewart’s “ Shepherd’s 
Manual,” in which this branch of sheep feeding is 
explained at length. The essentials to success are 
the right kind of sheep ; to have lambs early, and 
to feed well until ready for market. Dry, warm quar¬ 
ters and good food for the ews are indispensable. 
Store Sheep can be wintered very well on straw, 
fed twice a day, with some roots, a pound of hay, 
and a pint of grain between the morning and even¬ 
ing feeds. No grain or roots should be fed until 
the morning feed of straw has been eaten clean. 
Salt.—A lump of rock salt kept in a shed or 
under cover, where the animals can lick it at will, 
is the safest way to give this necessary condiment— 
given to excess, it is hurtful, especially to pigs. 
Figs. —Dry, warm, well-ventilated, clean pens or 
yards are necessary for success in raising swine. 
Disease inevitably accompanies neglect in these 
things. There is no mystery about the diseases 
which destroy so many swine. An unhealthy same¬ 
ness of food, all corn, or all whey, no roots; too 
much wet, damp and filth; perhaps too close in- 
breeding, all result in disease, which in time be¬ 
comes constitutional. A beginning of a better 
way may be now made with the young pigs to be 
soon looked for. Provide the brood sows with 
warm, dry pens, with plenty of bedding of cut 
straw. Feed corn meal, bran and mangels, tur¬ 
nips or potatoes, and apportion the different kinds 
of food with regard to the condition of the sows. 
Poultry .—Some of the hens that have been laying 
will brood this month. Provide a warm place for 
them, where they will be quiet and undisturbed. 
A sunny comer in a warm stable will do very well 
for the chicks next month if the fowls are of a 
hardy breed. These early chickens will make early 
market birds, and the pullets will lay early. 
Seed.— Provide all seed that may be wanted, at 
once. Choose those kinds that have been carefully 
grown and free from weeds. Order corn, oats, 
clover, timothy, and other grass seeds and garden 
seeds at once, to be on hand when wanted. 
Work in the Horticultural Departments. 
In January and February, when the majority of 
our readers can do but little out-door work, it has 
been our custom to devote these notes to general 
matters, rather than to details of operations. Last 
month the Orchard and Fruit Garden received spe¬ 
cial attention, general plans were discussed, and 
selections of varieties were given. This month we 
devote our notes mainly to the Vegetable or Kitchen 
Garden, and refer to last month for information on 
fruit culture. If our correspondents will consult 
the January and February notes before sending us 
questions about fruit and vegetable culture, they 
will often find their queries already answered, for 
the notes are written with the wants of many cor¬ 
respondents in mind. 
While we devote our space largely to the Kitchen 
Garden, the Orchard and Fruit Garden are not to be 
neglected. In the warmer States planting will be 
in season, and general spring work fairly open. In 
northern localities there are often mild spells in 
February when pruning can be done, and the damp 
foggy weather so frequent now is a most favorable 
season for washing and scarping the tranks of 
neglected trees. Our January remarks in regard 
to selecting and purchasing, are all the more im¬ 
portant now. As spring approaches, every week’s 
delay becomes the more impolitic and dangerous. 
Kitchen and Market Garden. 
As the heading “Kitchen Garden” has led some 
to suppose that the notes only applied to the small 
patch devoted to supplying the table, we adopt a 
more comprehensive and discriptive title. 
Every Farmer within a few hours drive of a market 
— and a manufacturing village is often abetter one 
than even the famed Washington Market in New 
York — will find it to his interest to provide for the 
wants of that market. While he may not care to 
become a market-gardener, and devote himself to 
numerous small and often perishable crops, he can 
at least adopt 
Farm Gardening, and greatly to his profit. Roots, 
such as beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc., cab¬ 
bages, squashes and celery are among the easily 
raised crops, always in demand, and which need 
not be hurried to market. Tomatoes, sweet corn, 
melons and spinach are perishable, but often profit¬ 
able. A farmer who is near a market for such things 
can not afford to go on raising poor crops of Indian 
com, rye and buck-wheat. 
Books. —No branch of horticulture is better pro¬ 
vided with literature than this. “Gardening for 
Profit” by Peter Henderson, is a useful guide to 
those who grow vegetables for home use or for 
sale. “Money in the Garden” by P. T. Quinn is 
another standard work, and “Farm-gardening and 
Seed-growing” by J. Brill, is also a most use¬ 
ful work. It will pay every cultivator to have all 
three of these works, as each has its peculiar ex¬ 
cellencies, and gives methods and experiences dif¬ 
ferent from the others. 
Forwarding Plants. — In the great majority of 
country gardens the natural “seed time and har¬ 
vest” are accepted. When it comes time to “make 
garden” the ground is prepared, seeds are sown 
and the job done up. As a consequence there is a 
great supply of vegetables for a month or two and 
a dearth at other times. A little trouble will prolong 
the season at both ends. By sowing under glass, the 
seeds of various tender vegetables, the plants will 
be ready to set in the open ground at the time seeds 
can be sown there, thus making a gain of 6 or more 
weeks, a matter of great importance, especially if 
the crop is to be sold. This forwarding of the 
plauts is generally accomplished by the use of 
A Hot Bed .—We would, if it were practicable, 
avoid the repetition of matters that have been more 
than once described, but as our notes are made to 
meet the wants of our readers, we are obliged to 
sometimes repeat. A dozen letters or more are at 
hand asking for directions to make a hot-bed. As 
strange as it may seem to those accustomed to 
them, hot-beds are looked upon by many as some¬ 
thing difficult to make and to manage. 
What is a Hot-Bed? — It is essentially a box cov¬ 
ered with glass, containing earth in which to sow 
seeds, and is heated to the proper temperature 
(usually) by means of fermenting manure. It may 
be small, for the wants of a family garden, or large 
for a market garden, or where plants, such as let¬ 
tuce, are entirely grown in them, the beds may 
cover acres of surface. Small hot-beds of less than 
three, or perhaps two sashes, are not desirable and 
where but very few plants are needed, they are move 
readily raised in window boxes, described below. 
The Heating Material is generally stable-manure. 
Every one knows that fresh manure, thrown into a 
pile, will become hot, often so hot as to burn that 
at the center of the pile. Manure for the hot-bed 
must be so treated as to produce a sufficient heat, 
and at the same time to continue it as long as pos¬ 
sible. Manure, long and short together, is placed 
in a conical pile, and as soon as the escape of steam, 
or a stick thrust into the center of the heap 6hows 
to the hand that the heat is rising, the pile should 
be turned, this is done by forming it into a new 
pile by the side of the old one. If the manure ap¬ 
pears dry, water it. The use of leaves with the 
manure modifies the violence of the heat, and at 
the same time prolongs it. One half its bulk of 
leaves may be added to ordinary manure, or if it i? 
very free from litter, an equal bulk may be used. 
The leaves may be evenly mixed with the manure 
at the first turning, or added when the bed is made 
up. When the manure has been turned about 
three times, it is ready for use. 
The Sashes. — In cities, or places where there are 
sash-factories, hot-bed sashes may be bought ready 
made, either glazed or unglazed. They cost glazed— 
from $2.50 to $4 each, according to material and 
make.—They are 3x6 feet, the sides and ends of 
li inch pine; 4 bars run lengthwise (there are no 
cross bars) and rabbeted to receive the glass. A sash 
of this kind will require 45 lights of 6x8 glass. This 
is bedded in putty, each pane lapping on the one 
below it from i to i inch, and fastened by tins. No 
putty is used on top of the glass, but one or more 
coats of white-lead paint are given. 
The Frame. — There are two ways of making a 
hot-bed. One is, to place the manure in a pit; the 
other, to build it up in a pile and set the frame upon 
it, the first being common in market gardens and 
the other for small hot-beds. In making a pit the 
earth is excavated 2i feet deep, 6 feet wide and of a 
length according to the number of sashes. The pits 
are lined with rough boards, nailed to posts, and 
extends above the surface 3 or 4 inches in front and 
a foot at the rear. Sliders or strips 2 inches wide, 
extend from front to rear, where every two sashes 
come together, these have their ends let into the 
boards of the frame by a dove-tail joint and help to 
keep the frame firm. A narrow strip is nailed in the 
middle of every slider, to make a guide to hold the 
sash in place when sliding it up or down. The other 
style of frame is usually made to fit three sashes; 
