1874 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
43 
manure on to the heap. Without these the work 
can not be economically performed. 
Any Work that can be done now instead of in the 
spring should not be neglected. 
Seed Com, if not already selected, should be at¬ 
tended to. 
Clean Seed barley, oats, peas, beans, and spring 
wheat, and put in barrels, bins, or bags ready for 
use. Blow out all light grains and foul stuff. 
Sort over Potatoes in the cellar, and free the cellar 
from all decaying vegetables and fruit. 
Ventilate the Cellar every day by opening the door 
and windows when the temperature is above freez¬ 
ing or not more than a degree or two below. 
Whitewash the cellar walls and also the walls and 
partitions of pig-pens, cow-stables, hen-house, etc. 
Clean and Oil the Harness , and let it be put in 
thorough repair. 
Make an Inventory of everything you have on the 
farm, and its estimated value. 
Petroleum is very cheap. We wish we could in¬ 
duce every reader of the Agriculturist to get a 
barrel and use it freely for preserving implements, 
machines, etc. In cold weather it is better to warm 
it before using, as wood will absorb more of it. 
Examine every Implement and Machine you have ; 
clean it; oil the bolts and tighten the nuts, and put 
it in perfect order. Then wash it with petroleum. 
Go over it two or three times and get on as much 
as the wood will absorb. 
Get out Stone-boat and other planks. Repair old 
stone-boats and make new ones. Saturate them 
with petroleum. Afarmer would find a stone-boat 
for every team very useful. For ordinary use two- 
inch plank is thick enough; but for large stones 
better have them 21 or 3 inches thick. 
Mend Bags, mark them, number them, and put 
them in their proper place. A piece of board say 
three feet long and six inches wide nailed on to 
one of the beams in the barn makes a convenient 
support for bags—and for many other things, such 
as pails, baskets, etc. 
A Good Farmer can not enjoy his evenings or 
sleep well at night until he knows that all his ani¬ 
mals are comfortable and everything is in its 
projfer place. 
An Hour's Work at Night in the winter season 
will, often save two hours’ work in the morning 
when everything is frozen up solid or is covered 
with snow; 
Make the House Warm and Comfortable .—Provide 
proper ventilation, and make the doors and win¬ 
dows air-tight. 
Horses that are working regularly need extra feed 
in cold weather. There is nothing better than 
chaffed hay and corn-meal. 
Horses that are Driven Fast should have oats in¬ 
stead of corn-meal. t 
Farm Horses that are doing little or nothing can 
be well wintered on chaffed straw with a little corn- 
meal and bran, say 2 bushels chafi (16 lbs.), 4 lbs. 
bran, and 4-lbs. corn-meal each per day. 
Cows are healthier in a deep, open shed than in a 
close, ill-ventilated stable. But a stable is much 
more economical of space, and it can be kept warm, 
clean, and well ventilated; and when this is the 
case the cows will require less food, or if they eat 
as mueh food will cither give more milk or store 
up fat. > ’ 
Liberal Feeding is usually the most economical 
feeding. It is a great waste of digestive powers to 
so feed a co,w that she neither gives milk nor in¬ 
creases in weight; it is a still greater waste to so 
feed her that she must consume more or less 
of the fat and flesh previously stored up in the 
system. This is what happens when an animal 
weighs less in the spring than in the fall. 
Cows that are well fed and kept in a barn stable 
should be carded with a curry-comb two or three 
times a wepk. It will pay in health, in looks, and 
in milk., 
Watering Cows is an important matter. We for¬ 
merly turned our cows out to water only once a 
day, but are now satisfied that it is better to turn 
them out twice a day. Be careful, too, that each 
cow has access to the trough, and that the “ boss 
cows ” do not keep the others away. Cows re¬ 
quire much more time in watering than horses. 
Encourage them to drink by throwing a little meal 
on the water. 
Salting Animals requires judgment. To let them 
go without for several weeks and then give them 
all they will eat is a bad practice, and sometimes 
a dangerous one. The better plan is to have rock- 
salt where the animals can lick it every day. 
In Fattening Animals , the great aim of the feeder 
is to induce them to eat ail they can digest and 
assimilate. How this can be best done depends on 
circumstances. Change of food will sometimes be 
attended with advantage and sometimes not. 
There is one general rule that should be borne in 
mind : When the animal is hungry, in the morning, 
feed the less palatable food, such as straw or 
stalks, and when the animal has eaten as much as 
it will then tempt it to eat more by giving more 
cut straw or stalks moistened and mixed with bran 
and meal. The food left in the mangers may be 
sprinkled with salt and water and put in racks in 
the yard, and when the cows are turned out to 
water they will be likely to eat it up clean. 
Sheep are specially fond of clover hay. They will 
keep in good condition on this alone. But when 
straw is fed grain should be given in addition, say 
one pound each per day. We arc now feeding our 
sheep (Cotswolds) twice a day sliaffed oat and pea 
straw, all they will eat, % lb. bran, and % lb. oats 
or peas, and 15 bushels of sliced mangels to 100 
sheep. We feed mangels only once a day, at noon. 
We never had them do better. Merinos of course, 
being so much smaller, require less food. 
When to Feed will depend a good deal on circum¬ 
stances. Horses and cows should be fed early in 
the morning, say six o’clock. Sheep need not be 
fed until after breakfast, say seven or eight o’clock, 
and then again at four o’clock in the afternoon. 
They do not like to eat in the dark, unless it is a 
little in the middle of the night. 
Swine , owing to low prices, have been much 
neglected. It is a good time to engage in raising 
improved breeds of pigs. The demand is now 
good, and is likely to be still better. Pork has ad¬ 
vanced rapidly, and the prospects are favorable for 
a still further advance. Get a good breed, and 
give good care and feed, and pigs will be as profit¬ 
able as any stock we can raise. 
Work in the Horticultural Departments. 
This month will witness the commencement of 
active garden operations in many localities. No¬ 
thing will so facilitate the work as to keep ahead of 
it, and even drive it; the moment our work begins 
to drive us, so soon do we find gardening, as well 
as other occupations, up-hill business. Now is the 
time to arrange all the necessary operations, so 
that the labors of the year may be carried on eco¬ 
nomically and intelligently. Every gardener ought 
to know at the commencement of each week what 
work is to be done; in this arrangement due allow¬ 
ance must be made for rainy days, and in-doors 
work provided for the help whenever it is possible. 
Order at once everything that can possibly be 
needed during the busy season. Seeds, trees, etc., 
if left until wanted, will in many instances be of 
inferior quality, as late in the season the stock of 
the best varieties is exhausted. A workshop in 
connection with a garden is almost a necessity, as 
many handy tools can be made during the winter 
and rainy weather. 
Orchard and A'urscry. 
Much can now be done towards making the or¬ 
chard look well during the summer. 
Washing and Scraping can be carried on when 
mild days occur. A triangular plate of iron at¬ 
tached to a handle three feet in length makes q 
handy implement for removing the loose bark from 
trees; the edges should be sharpened, but not 
enough to injure the fresh bark. The best mate¬ 
rial for washing after the trees have been s.craped, 
is strong, soft soap thinned with water, so as to be 
conveniently applied by a brush ; a solution of pot¬ 
ash or soda will answer, but soap is better. 
Manure .—Draw out at any time when conven¬ 
ient ; it is better for the teama to have something 
to do during the winter. If left in piles of suffi¬ 
cient 6ize in the field, fermentation will go on, ex¬ 
cept when the weather is very cold. See that 
plenty of absorbents are used in the stables; dry 
earth and leaves are the best materials for this. 
Planting .—The time for planting must be gov¬ 
erned, of course, by the locality; in the Northern 
states two months hence will be soon enough, 
while at the South a great deal will be done the 
present month. Nothing is gained by too early 
planting; better wait until the ground is thoroughly 
dry, as the trees cannot be injured if properly 
heeled-in in a dry spot. 
Varieties must be selected according as they are 
intended for market or home use. Spring is the 
time for tree agents and peddlers to make their 
annual trips through the country. Do not buy 
from their showy colored pictures unless the varie¬ 
ties are known to be good, and even then it is a 
better plan to visit a neighboring nursery if there 
is such in the vicinity, where the varieties are kept 
true to name. There are agents who are undoubt¬ 
edly honest in their dealings, but there are so many 
of the other sort that it is hardly safe to trust to 
them unless they are personally known. 
Insects .—A constant fight must be kept up upon 
the various insects which infest the orchard and 
nursery. Tent caterpillars’ eggs are easily seen 
now, and can be more readily removed than if left 
until they hatch. The female canker-worm will 
appear on mild days, and ascend the trees to de¬ 
posit her eggs. There are many patents for pre¬ 
venting the ascent, but anything fastened around 
the tree which will serve as a barrier, will be effect¬ 
ive, whether strips of paper covered with tar or 
printer’s ink, or troughs containing petroleum. 
Injured Trees must be looked after, and any 
limbs which have been broken by wind or ice 
removed, after which let the wound be carefully 
smoothed with a sharp knife, and covered with 
liquid grafting-wax, shellac varnish, or common 
paint. If any trees have been girdled by mice, the 
bark may be united by small twigs of the same 
kind placed at short distances around the trunk, so 
that the inner bark of the tree is brought in con¬ 
tact with the inner bark of the twigs, both at the 
top and bottom. Then a plaster of cow dung and 
loamy earth should be applied, and the whole 
bandaged with a cloth. 
Cions .—Cut before the sap starts, and preserve 
in fresh sawdust or sand. 
Grafting should be done only when the swelling 
buds show that growth has commenced. In many 
parts of the South this process can be carried on 
now, but the middle of April or first of May is 
early enough for most Northern localities. 
Fruit Garden. 
But little can be done here until later in the 
season. 
Dwarf Trees may be pruned and afterwards 
washed with soft soap, as suggested under “ Or¬ 
chard and Nursery.” The pruning can usually be 
done with a 6harp knife if they have not been neg¬ 
lected too long. The principal pruning necessary 
will be to bring the trees into proper shape. 
Grape-vines .—Prune during mild days, if not at¬ 
tended to in the fall. 
Blackberries and Raspberries.—Set as soon as the 
condition of the soil will allow, as the underground 
shoots start early, and are often injured if their re¬ 
moval is left until late. Provide stakes or wire 
trellises for tying up the canes. 
Currants and Gooseberries .—Cut out the old 
growth and shorten the new so that plenty of light 
