AMERICAN AGK.LC U JLT U1UST. 
3 
CALENDAR OE OPERATIONS. 
JANUARY, 1857. 
[We put down here a summary of various operations 
many of them very common ones, it is true, but a simpts 
catalogue like this will often suggest a piece of work that 
would otherwise be forgotten. The Calendar is adapted 
to the latitudes of 41° to 42<h A little allowance must be 
made for each degree of latitude—later north—earlier 
south. This table will be made out anew every month 
and adapted to the season of each year. It will also be 
greatly enlarged at the planting and sowing seasons. 
Explanations .— 1 The letters f. m. 1. refer to first, mid¬ 
dle, and last of the month. 
Doubling the letters thus: if., mm., or 11., gives emphasis 
to the particular period indicated.] 
FARM. 
Bams—Have stables and stalls for cattle and horses 
and keep them well littered at night. If you have prepared 
aheap of dried muck, as we have urged in former numbers 
of the Agriculturist, use it freely now, either by spreading 
over the stables and stalls, or covering the manure heap 
with it after each cleaning out of the stables. Keep the 
feeding or main floor clean, sweeping up the chaff and 
mixing with ground feed, wetting it sufficiently to cause 
ihe meal to adhere. 
Cattle—Feed mostly under cover, cutting and steaming 
stalks as directed last month. When fed in the yards let 
the hay, stalks, &c., be putin racks. Watch cows about 
to calve and see that they have plenty of room and are 
well bedded at night. Cut and feed roots to milch cows 
after milking. 
Cellars—Watch the approach of frost and double the 
windows, or put straw into them if frost is working in. 
Bins of potatoes or other roots may be covered with straw 
or blankets to keep them more secure. Do not move them 
in a frozen state. 
Economy of the Farm—In addition to the directions of 
last month under this head, look well to the feeding of 
stock and making manure. Fodder that cattle often refuse 
will be eaten with avidity if cut and mixed with meal or 
shorty. Stalks cut and thrown into a cask or hogshead 
and steamed by pouring a few pails of hot water upon 
them and covering with a blanket, will swell out and make 
excellent food by adding a little meal. Use due economy 
In feeding hay, but be not too ambitious to sell largely, es¬ 
pecially if you have to cart it some distance to market and 
pay the same money for manure, freighting or carting the 
latter equally as far; better increase your stock of milch 
cows and sheep, using your own hay and making manure 
on the farm. 
Fowls—Keep in warm quarters, feeding well now that 
the ground is frozen or covered with snow. Cellars under 
oarns or other buildings, or an excavation made in the side 
of a hill with a roof over it afford good shelter during win¬ 
ter. Give meat and pounded oyster shells, or lime to 
keep up the supply of eggs. Boiled potatoes and buck¬ 
wheat cakes alternating with grain are good food. See 
article last month and elsewhere in this No 
Hogs—Give plenty of straw for bedding and make as 
much manure as possible by throwing in each day a little 
of the dried muck and leaves collected in Autumn. 
Clean out the pens often and use absorbents (muck, straw 
or soil) to take up all the liquid. 
Horses—Stable in warm well littered stalls, and blanket 
whenever standing out of doors. Let them cool off after 
driving hard before giving water. Feed carrots, if they 
can be had, instead of too much grain. 
Marketing Produce—This is a good season to dispose 
of, at least a portion of the surplus products of the farm, 
and much care and calculation are requisite to do it with 
profit. Vegetables should only be taken out during mild 
weather. Hay and grain may be marketed when the 
cold is too severe for vegetables. 
Sheep—Provide with suitable shelter, and if any are 
about to lamb—which is earlier than is best—put them in 
separate warm pens. Give salt, or feed salt hay occasion¬ 
ally both to sheep and cattle. 
Wood—Cut and draw from the swamps while they are 
frozen and the sledding or carting good. Have a full 
year’s supply, not only at the door, but cut, split and piled 
away under cover if possible, before the spring work com¬ 
mences upon the farm. 
ORCHARD AND NURSERY. 
Very little can be done during this month save root¬ 
grafting young trees in the house or cellar. In the nur¬ 
sery labels should now be made in sufficient numbers to 
last through the season of sales and transplanting. Pre¬ 
pare stakes lor the head of nursery rows. Several plans 
have been adopted to mark with definiteness the rows and 
division of different kinds of apples pears, &c., as they 
stand in the row. The best methods are by using flat painted 
stakes, on which the names are written with a painter’s 
brash ; and by stakes nearly round with a chamfer taken 
om. one aids about one third the diameter of the stick ■ 
commencing at the end and extending downward say six 
inches. Pass a wire around one inch from this end of the 
stick and fasten it there by small nails, leaving it loose 
enough to slip a label in between it and the chamfer upon 
the stake. The labels are of pine about four inches long 
and one and a half wide by less than a half inch thick, 
and are painted upon the side next to the stake and round¬ 
ed off upon the back towards the lower end, so as to fit 
the space like a wedge. The inner surface of the label is 
first painted and the names written on as wished. Stakes 
made in this manner of locust or some other durable wood 
about three feet long, will last a life lime and can be 
changed as desired, or the labels can be changed without 
moving the stakes. 
Mice will probably be less troublesome this winter as 
the ground is now well filled with water. We however 
advise treading the snow around standards and choice 
varieties in the nursery rows to prevent their gitdling the 
trees above ground. 
KITCHEN AND FRUIT GARDEN. 
Cabbages, Cauliflowers, lettuce, spinage, &c., in cold 
frames attend to, covering with straw or mats in very 
severe weather and admitting air whenever it is mild. Air 
must be given every two or three days even in severe 
weather, opening the sashes for a few minutes upon the' 
upper sides. Remove any decayed leaves or plants, else 
the offensive odor will be injurious to the healthy growth 
oi the others. 
Hot Bed Frames—Have in readiness for use when 
wanted, glazing the sashes if necessary. If new ones are 
wanted make them of sound plank, two feet high on the 
back, and for six feet width, about 15 inches high in front 
and ofany required length. Nail them firmly to similar 
plank five or six feet long, one end being two feet and the 
other 15 inches wide. Plane the upper edges so that a 
sash will fit evenly and closely upon them. 
Mushroom Beds—Give extra covering during severe 
weather to those producing. Collect fresh droppings 
from grain fed horses to form new beds. 
Raspberries—Examine the ridges of covered canes and 
throw more earth upon those which are exposed. It is 
sufficient that the earth entirely covers them, but the win¬ 
ter rains will sometimes wash them bare. 
FLOWER GARDEN AND LAWN. 
There is very little to do in this department at present 
except to keep an eye to the shrubbery, especially the 
evergreen, which will need a little care to prevent the 
snow from breaking down the branches. Shake off the 
snow which lodges on them and shovel away from those 
branches which are being drawn down by the settling 
drifts Loose straggling branches should be drawn up 
with bands or strings so as to prevent exposure to the 
drifting storms. If any bulbs were kept for late blooming 
in the spring and not planted last month, put them in at 
once if the ground can be worked. We by no means ad¬ 
vise keeping them this length of time out of ground, as 
this puts back the blooming. Many however desire later 
flowers and to this end delay setting. But, a perfect flow¬ 
er in its season, is a far prettier sight than a partially de¬ 
veloped, imperfect bloom out of season. 
If new grounds are to be laid out in the spring this is a 
good season to form the plans and execute the drafts. Some 
of the main walks may be graded if the frost is not too 
severe, and hardy shrubs and deciduous trees may even 
be planted whenever the ground will admit of working. 
Prepare labels and stakes for spring use, tying them in 
neat packages to facilitate the operations of a busy season. 
GREEN HOUSE. 
Air at all suitable times, not however allowing the tem¬ 
perature to fall below 35° unless the house is filled with 
hardy plants. In cool weather it is better to raise the 
heat to 50° or 55° before admitting air. Open the top 
sashes a few inches in the middle of the day, and the 
front ones when the weather will permit. Exclude fogs 
especially, as they are very injurious to plants. 
Camellias—Syringe freely and wash the leaves of those 
plants which are covered with red spiders, using a sponge 
and rain water. If the plants are properly syringed every 
evening during summer, and twice a week during winter, 
there is but little dange r ot the spider. In syringing at 
this season, guard against wetting the blooms as it will 
cause premature decay. Cuttings may be made now. 
Fumigate the vyhoie house with tobacco smoke occa 
sionally to destroy the green-fly, and use sulpher to kill or 
drive away red spider. 
Heat—The particular temperature of the houses must 
be governed by circumstances. If a hardy collection of 
plants are grouped together in one room, the mercury may 
even fall below the freezing point, while a tender collec¬ 
tion would require a much higher temperature. The 
temperature of each room should be as even as possible 
always raising it a little before admitting cold air. 
Hyacinths, Jonquils, Narcissus and other bulbs—Exam¬ 
ine with care and destroy any insects preying upon them 
Carry afew.ofthe most advanced to the hot house to for¬ 
ward them. Give water freely, and if in.glasses change 
the water each week; place growing ones near the light. 
Oranges, Lemons, Oleanders, &c.—Do notgive too much 
water at this their resting period. If affected with scale, 
wash with strong soap-suds, or a weak solution of whale 
oil soap, syringing freely. 
Water—Give sparingly and with caution, especially to 
those plants which are in an inactive state. Succulent, 
herbaceous and deciduous ones will only require a little 
once or twice during the month to keep the earth from 
becoming too dry. Other growing plants will require a 
watering once or twice a week, taking care not to damp¬ 
en the floors, as a dry atmosphere is desirable at this sea¬ 
son. 
HOT HOUSE. 
These will require particular attention during this 
month especially to guard against frost and the ravages 
of insects. The temperature must be as even as possible 
a neglect of even a few minutes maybe very disastrous 
to tender varieties of plants. 
Air—Admit every day if the w-eather will permit, low¬ 
ering the top sashes a few inches about noon, but not per¬ 
mitting a draft of cold air to circulate through the room 
Bulbs—Bring a few Hyacinths, Jonquils, Ixias, &c.,into 
the Hot House for early Dloom, watering freely. 
Cactuses—Keep in dry situations giving very little wa¬ 
ter. 
Cleanliness should be constantly attended to. Sweep 
and wash the houses often. Pick off all dead leaves and 
syringe those plants which can not readily be washed. 
Heat—Regulate as evenly as possible, putting on the 
shutters before sundown in severe weather. If left off till 
the temperature begins to fall it will take some time with 
a hot fire to get it up again. 
Insects of various kinds will make their appearance and 
multiply rapidly unless checked at once. Tobacco fumi¬ 
gations will destroy greenfly and fumes of sulphur—give., 
wilh care—is sure death to red spider, or daily syringing 
will effect the same purpose. Search out the mealy bug, 
and either collect by hand or immerse the plants affecteu 
in a solution of one pound strong soap, one half pound 
flour sulphur, one half pound leaf tobacco, with one fourth 
ounce nux vomica and a teaspoonful of turpentine ; the 
mixture to be boiled for three or four hours in two gallons 
of rain water. Scale may usually be destroyed by wash¬ 
ing with strong soap-suds. 
Pines—Let the bottom heat of those fruiting be about 
85° giving water weekly. 
Repotting of Fuchsias, Cinerarias, Pelargoniums, Rosea, 
Primroses, &c., may be done at this season. 
Syringe the foliage of plants daily to keep them fresh 
and free from insects. 
Temperature should be from 55 11 to 65°, never under 
50°. 
Water—Give daily to those plants which are dry 
unless this is their resting season. There is more danget 
of giving too much than too little at this season. The 
water should be taken from a tank or cistern in the house. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
We must beg at least for ‘‘ time ” to reply to the great 
number of queries received. Before us is a mass of let¬ 
ters passed to the editorial desk, in which every conceiv¬ 
able thing is enquired for, from a.steam engine to a pack¬ 
age of three flower seeds. Now, though in offering to 
send the Agriculturist for $1 a year, we do not contract 
to spend five dollar’s worth of time for each subscriber in 
hunting up machinery, implements, and making out pre¬ 
scriptions for the wants of the individual soils, on a thou¬ 
sand farms, yet we are disposed to be as obliging and 
affableas possible, and so, w-hile most of our subscribers 
are asleep, we aie four or five nights in a week tugging 
away at the pile of letters aforesaid. All we have now to 
say is, that if any correspondent thinks his or her letter 
neglected let him, (or her) remember that there are 15- 
000 readers of the Agriculturist, each one of whom is just 
as likely to ask questions by letter as himself. Remember, 
also, that there are but 26 working days in a month, and 
only 24 hours in a day, all told. 
A Bov Farmer.— A voluntary agent of this 
paper in Chenango county writes: “ In Guilford, 
I found a boy farmer about fourteen years of age ; 
extent of farm, half an acre; products this year, 
eighty bushels of roots, besides corn, cabbages, 
cucumbers, beans, onions, &e., in abundance for 
his father’s family. He sawed wood to get money 
to pay for the Agriculturist, and says, ‘ with this 
for a guide, his farming pays.’” That boy will 
“get along in the world.”—ED7 f 
Cranberry Plants Wanted. —We have had 
many recent inquiries as, to where cranberry 
plants can be obtained,and at what price. Both up- 
upland and lowland varieties are inquired for 
Those who have plants for sale would benefit both 
themselves and others by advertising the fact 
