238 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
odcl shillings can be pounced upon, get some good 
neighbour, who makes guano purchases, to sell you 
from fifty to one hundred pounds weight of Messrs. 
Gibbs and Co.’s Peruvian Guano. Also, collect all 
the burnt-ashes you can, charcoal dust, &c., and add 
all these to the old humus, or rotten and mellow 
manure, on the outhouse floor. Turn the whole, and 
blend them thoroughly, and you have a material of 
a highly concentrated character, excelled by no other 
fertilizer; and this you may sow in the drills with 
your swedes, mangold, parsnips, carrots, &c.; whilst 
the coarser manure may be dug in a spade’s depth. 
Early Crops. —The industrious cottager, emulous 
of making the most of the summer, while the season 
is young, will begin betimes to see what he can get 
before his more tardy neighbours, without compro¬ 
mising the rotation of crops he has planned; we will 
hereupon give him a little advice. Cabbages of a 
good hearting kind, such as the Matchless, may be 
introduced between almost any coming crop, pro¬ 
vided a judicious forecast is exercised. A clever cot¬ 
tier will use his head as well as his heels. Now, we 
advised, long ago, in our allotment advice, a good 
provision of autumn-sown plants; for, although the 
allotment holder, like other folks, may go a-begging 
sometimes, we would not have him trust to such a 
course, but rather encourage a habit of self-reliance, 
which, indeed, is the basis of all true progress, and 
independent feeling, whether in the individual or the 
community at large. Be this as it may, plenty of 
dwarf early cabbages should be planted out in the 
second week of February. Horn carrots, too, should 
be sown on a rich sloping bank, in a warm situation. 
These will want a little litter strewn over them; in 
fact, to be attended to like early radishes. They will 
come into use in the early part of May, and continue 
for many weeks. Potatoes, in warm situations, we 
need hardly remark on: everybody looks well after 
these. Peas. —Some Blue Imperials, soaked in luke¬ 
warm water, for two hours, may be sowed in the first 
week, on ground required for a secondary crop in the 
end of July. Early long-pod beans, soaked as the 
peas, in the first week—these may go on the drill 
ground; and parsnips might be sown between the 
rows in March, or the latest potatoes planted be¬ 
tween. Swede Turnips placed close together in 
drills, in a warm nook, and soiled in just overhead, 
will produce fine sprouts for boiling in three weeks, 
or less. These are a very useful thing, when greens 
are short. Bound-leaved spinach may be sown in the 
first week, in a warm position, and on rich soil; this 
is a useful early vegetable. Strong rhubarb plants 
may be covered, at the beginning of February, with a 
chimney-pot, or any old cask, or other vessel, to ward 
off the winds. This will make three weeks differ¬ 
ence in the produce. 
Breaking down Ridges. —Land that was trenched 
and ridged in the autumn, as we recommended, will 
soon require digging down for crops. Be sure not to 
do so when snow is on the ground, or when frozen. 
Mind, also, that it is dry when handled, or it will 
become, what practical men call, “ livered,” which 
means, that the air cannot enter. No crops will 
thrive on land in this state, albeit they may be good 
soils. 
In conclusion for this month, let us advise the 
cottier to be very earnest in his endeavours. It is 
no light matter to have a nice garden; and the weal 
or woe of a family frequently depends on the amount 
of perseverance displayed by their male protector. 
[January 31. 
THE ROULTRY-KEEPER’S CALENDAR. 
February. 
By Martin Doyle, Author of “ Hints to Small 
Farmers,” dec. 
Fowls. —The doom of our handsome cock has been 
sealed. His tyranny and selfishness increased, not¬ 
withstanding the coercive discipline he had under¬ 
gone ; and he has therefore been put to death, and 
hung—by the tail. After three weeks’ suspension, 
his body was stripped of the plumage, which he had 
disgraced by his want of gallantry, and his general 
misconduct, and converted into cock-a-leekie. Thus, 
the gluttonous creature has been more useful in his 
death than in his life. The hens, notwithstanding 
his constant neglect and frequent chastisement of 
them, seemed so woe-begone at his removal from 
them (it appeared as if, from the force of habit, they 
preferred conjugal tyranny to the desolation of widow¬ 
hood), that the vacancy in their affections was im¬ 
mediately filled up. A promising white cockerel, 
also of the Dorking breed (with four of his fairest 
young wives, who accompanied him from his former 
seraglio), was placed beside them, at night. In the 
morning he was found dead upon the roosthis 
death is a mystery. No marks of ill-treatment were 
discovered on his corpse, and he had been in perfect 
health on the preceding day. The wives, who had 
followed his fortunes and perched at his side, were 
alive, and in health, on the fatal morning. We in¬ 
troduced another cockerel from the same young brood, 
on the succeeding morning, and, after two or three 
days’ amusing shyness of each other, a gradual union 
of the two cligues took place, and the young cock 
now seems to be a bond of perfect amity between 
both. 
The continued severity of the weather, and the 
want of artificial means of warming the fowl-house, 
have prevented any laying of eggs yet. Amateurs, 
who have to purchase corn for their fowls, will find 
them unprofitable, as layers, during a hard winter of 
long continuance. While nature assumes a snow- 
white dress instead of her natural green livery, fowls 
become so mopish and confounded, that they will 
scarcely leave their roosts for food. The most quar¬ 
relsome liens become quiet, the cocks crest-fallen. 
We gave our fowls a few scraps of meat during 
the snow, to revive their languid spirits, as they had 
no chance of picking up insects, which their instinct 
leads them to seek as condiments with their other food, 
in the hope that the excitement occasioned by scram¬ 
bling for the meat, might beguile a few moments of 
their melancholy hours, and give them healthful 
exercise—as a game of “ hockey,” or of “ foot-ball,” 
would exhilarate school-boys. We also, on the sug¬ 
gestion of the Rev. E. S. Dixon—the most delightful 
and practical of all writers on poultry—have burned 
some oyster-shells (partly to warm our fingers), in 
order to supply lime to the hens and pullets in the 
most agreeable form. The picking of the calcined 
oyster-shells, which in due time will generate egg¬ 
shells, has been a great source of pleasure to the 
fowls. 
Much mortality in the fowl-yard is not to be ex¬ 
pected, since the air, though cold, has been dry. If 
the roosts and floors have been kept clean, and the 
wind and snow prevented from entering through the 
roof of the poultry-house, and blowing on their heads 
(which are their most tender parts) fowls generally, 
have probably preserved their health. 
Spangled Hamburgh Fowls. —The next variety 
we shall particularise arc the spangled Humburghs, 
of which there are two kinds, the Golden and the 
