| a mean height of about 29°85. 
630 
CALENDAR. 
and of the choicer kinds of other flowering bulbs | flower, and some varieties of gooseberry - bushes, 
should be covered with awnings, or with fern, straw, 
or long dry litter; choice perenmial-rooted, hardy 
flowering plants, such as double stocks, double sweet- 
williams, double chrysanthemums, male pinks, and 
the hardier and finer verbenas, should be protected ; 
and pots or boxes of choice seedlings should be placed 
in a frame or under glasses. In open weather, lawns 
and grass walks should be polled and frequently 
rolled ; and portions of them which have been broken 
or too deeply bared, may be mended with lifted and 
—The culture of greenhouse and hothouse plants is 
dependent, not wholly on the season of the year, but 
partially on the intentions of the gardener as to pro- 
tecting and forcing ; and—with much more appropri- 
_ ateness than could be done in the present article— 
| it will be discussed at one view in the articles GREEN- 
| HoUSE and HoTHOUSE. 
FEBRUARY. 
Phenomena.—The weather of February in any one 
year may be extremely variable; and that of this 
| month in different years sometimes exhibits the most 
_ discrepant and even opposite characters. 
| eral view, it is a fitful succession of frosts and thaws, 
In a gen- 
of drenching rains, violent storms, and genial calms; 
_ yet it may in one year be nearly all stern frost, —and 
| in another, nearly all genial and vernal mildness. 
In 
six years, between 1807 and 1839, it was intensely 
| cold); in other six, it was extremely rainy and tem- 
| pestuous; and in four, it was calm, pleasant, and com- 
| paratively dry and warm. 
| tricts near London, has been recorded to range, in 
| February, between 60° of Fahrenheit and 5° below 
The thermometer, in dis- 
zero. The barometer has a mean range of 1°43, and 
The depth of rain is 
exceedingly variable, not only in different years, but 
in different and nearly-adjacent localities; and the 
amount of evaporation is very nearly, if not quite, an 
inch. The prevailing winds of the month, in severe 
| seasons, are from between north and north-west; 
| and in mild seasons, from between south and west. 
The particular character of the weather regulates, 
| ina great measure, the classification or grouping of 
the birds which visit us. When frost prevails, our 
rivers and ponds continue to be frequented by the 
different kinds of the duck tribe; and our shores and 
sandbanks are the resort of innumerable waders, in- 
cluding the sandpipers, the tolani, and others. But 
when mild though showery weather prevails, our 
fields are visited by numbers of vermivorous birds, 
and particularly by peewits and plovers ;—and in the 
first week, larks, throstles, and chaffinches sing, 
earth-worms appear on the surface of the soil, and 
bees, gnats, and numerous small insects leave their 
retreats or achieve their final transformations, and 
sport in the sunbeams and among the opening vege- 
tation; in the second week, linnets are numerous, 
and geese begin to lay; in the third week, house- 
sparrows begin to build, and rooks begin to pair; 
and in the fourth week, the wood-lark and the black- 
bird sing, and the partridge begins to pair. 
In the first week, when the weather is mild, and 
has been preceded by a mild January, the polyan- 
thus, the primrose, the snowdrop, the violet, the 
whin, and the white deadnettle are in flower, and 
several flowering shrubs, particularly the honey- 
suckle, the elder, and several kinds of roses show 
bloom; in the second week, the female catkins of the 
hazel appear, and the dandelion and the creeping 
crowfoot begin to flower; in the third week, the 
_ catkins of many of the willows and poplars appear, 
and the stems of crown imperials and early tulips push 
boldly up, in the open ground, toward their flowering 
| conditien; and in the fourth week, groundsel, wood- 
stray; erry, and several species of veronica are in 
peach-trees, apricot-trees, and thorn-trees, inclusive 
of the common hedge hawthorn, begin to expand 
their buds.—The most conspicuous blooms, in the 
parterre, are crocuses, snowdrops, anemones, prim- 
roses, polyanthuses, wallflowers, cyclamens, Christ- 
mas roses, periwinkles, alpine alyssums, perennial 
adonises, daisies, daffodils, hepaticas, Persian irises, 
and dog-tooth violets; in the open shrubbery, lau- 
rustinus, daphne mezerium, rhododendron atrovirens, 
La NIT en SPARE RPE ce ayer ey | cydonia japonica, pyrus japonica, phillyrea, cornelian 
pasture fields. 
cherry, almond, cherry plum, and Glastonbury thorn ; 
and, in the greenhouse and conservatory, hyacinths, 
tulips, polyanthus-narcissus, primula verticillata, 
pinks, mignonette, lily of the valley, geraniums, 
cinerarias, roses, some amaryllide, enkianthus quin- 
queflora, rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmias, camellias, 
five or six kinds of acacias, and many kinds of Cape 
heaths. 
The Farm.—Stock ewes now begin to lamb, and 
must be very carefully attended. The shepherd 
ought, throughout the lambing season, to sleep close 
to the flock, that he may be ready to tend and assist 
any ewes which he sees near lambing, and may, if 
necessary, give the lambs some warm cow's milk. 
The ewes ought to be kept away from wet yards, 
and well attended to as to at once warmth, cleanli- 
ness, and proper feeding. Ewes which have lambed 
should be drawn from the flock, and placed upon 
rouen or new grass pasture. Sheep which are feeding 
on turnips ought now to receive oil cake, not only 
for their own sake, but for the benefiting of the land. 
All live stock now require special attention; for, in 
February and March, they are usually more liable to 
disease and damage than in any other part of the 
ear. 
; Beans, pease, vetches, cabbages, spring wheat and 
black oats may now be sown. ‘The latter end | 
of the month, if the weather be open, is the proper 
time for sowing kohl-rabi. Part of the preparation 
for sowing carrots in next month should now be 
made. ‘The general farm labour, for the economical 
employment of both men and horses, which was 
proper for January, should be continued throughout 
February, — ploughing during open weather, and 
thrashing and carting during frost. If north-east | 
winds begin to blow toward the end of the month, 
the paring and burning of grass land, when the prin- 
ciple of it has been approved and adopted, should be 
carried into practice. Such borders of ploughed 
tields as are encumbered with the clearings of ditches 
or with accumulations of soil by the plough and the 
harrows, or such as are in any other way raised and 
irregular, and especially such as are overrun with 
rank weeds and straggling bushes, ought now to be 
brought into an orderly condition, clean, level, and 
in perfect keeping with the well-tilled expanse of 
the general surface of the fields. Underwood, as in 
the preceding month, may still be very profitably 
felled. The instant any field is thoroughly ploughed, 
care must be used to keep it free from stagnant — 
water and from the desolating sweep of heavy rains, 
by means of water-furrows. Top- dressings of 
wood - ashes, lime, malt-dust, or other appropriate 
surface manure, may now be spread upon grass 
lands; but all such top-dressings ought to consist 
principally of alkaline and earthy elements, or to be 
of a nature which will sink into the soil, there to 
undergo slow chemical decomposition, and not be 
speedily dissipated into aeriform conditions by lying 
in immediate contact with the atmosphere. Top- 
dressings of salt, wood-ashes, soot, or any similar 
manure, which possess the double property of aiding 
the crop and killing the grub, may now be given also 
to green wheat. Pe ety 
Great care ought to be used throughout February, 
to keep the beasts of the farm-yard constantly, 
: = 
