CALENDAR. 
cleanly, and abundantly littered; and if the stock 
of straw or other litter upon the farm itself appear 
to be insufficient or stinted in quantity, agreement 
ought immediately to be made with some more 
provident neighbour for a regular weekly supply. 
Broken fences in boggy or swampy situations, may 
now be mended with truncheons of alder or of the 
most suitable kinds of willow or poplar; and either 
narrow belts along the sides of such hedges, or spots 
and expanses of such open swampy ground as cannot 
speedily be drained and tilled, may now be planted 
with osiers and other sorts of willows. Irrigated 
meadows now require nice attention; for if the 
water be permitted to overflow them for many days 
in succession, a white scum of a nature very destruc- 
tive to the grass is generated; and if the water be 
then turned off, and the land exposed in its wet state 
to a night of severe frost, a large proportion of the 
tender grass will be destroyed. If a farmer have any- 
where a piece of very deep, rich, dry, sound, friable, 
sandy loam, very deeply ploughed in autumn, and 
thoroughly pulverized and mellowed by the action of 
the winter’s frost, he may, in favourable weather, about 
_the 12th of February, sow it, if he pleases, with pars-~ 
nips,—the most valuable of all the roots which a 
farmer can cultivate. If land designed for a potato 
crop be tolerably dry, even though it was well tilled 
in autumn, it may now receive a ploughing prepar- 
atory to the planting of the crop in the beginning of 
March. The lime-kiln may be plied in any part of 
February; and lime may be carted and spread when- 
ever the carts can move without damage to wet 
soils. The cropping of pollards for fuel should cease 
toward the end of February. The sowing of sainfoin 
should, if possible, be completed in February, and 
ought never to be deferred beyond the beginning of 
March. 
The Kitchen Garden.—The produce of the natural 
ground of the kitchen garden available for use in 
February comprises potatoes, turnips, parsnips, car- 
rots, borecoles, cabbages, savoys, broccoli, Jerusalem 
artichokes, beet-root, alexanders, celery, chervil, 
parsley, salsafy, sage, scorzonera, endive, sorrel, 
eschalot, lettuce, garlic, onions, leeks, horse-radish, 
and rocambole; and that of the hot-beds or forcing 
appliances of the kitchen garden comprises rhubarb, 
radishes, sea-kale, cresses, mint, kidney - beans, 
asparagus, mustard, cucumbers, and mushrooms. 
About the middle or latter end of February, cab- 
bages, borecoles, and savoys should be sown for use 
in July and in autumn. in any time of the month, 
when the weather is open, the autumn sown cab- 
bages and other hardy garden brassica may be trans- 
planted to their final situation. In dry open weather, 
late and strong celery should be earthed up; and in 
the latter part of the month, a small sowing of up- 
right solid celery may be made, on a warm border, 
for an early crop. Both in the beginning and in the 
latter part of the month, sowings may be made, in a 
warm border, of short-topped radish and salmon- 
radish. In the beginning of the month, spinach may 
be sown; and throughout the month, advancing crops 
of it should be thinned and well weeded. In the 
beginning of the month, cos lettuces, for forward 
growth, may be sown in a frame; in the middle, 
several sorts may be sown on a warm border; and 
in the end, in mild weather, seedlings in frames 
should be thinned, and the thinnings planted in the 
open ground. in the latter part of the month, an 
early crop of carrots and the main crop of parsnips 
and of beets may be sown, the remains of last year’s 
crops drawn and stored, and a few of them trans- 
planted two feet asunder to run to seed. In the 
middle or toward the end of the month, onions and 
leeks may be sown. In open weather, successions 
of pease and beans may be sown, and advancing crops 
must be earthed up. In the latter part of the month, 
631 
thyme, salsafy, hyssop, scorzonera, savory, marjoram, 
and parsley may be sown; and at any time, in mild 
open weather, borage, angelica, coriander, chervil, 
lovage, burnet, and other similar plants may be sown, 
and garlic, rocombole, and eschalots may be planted. 
In the latter part of the month, and on a warm 
border, a few potatoes, for an early crop, may be 
planted, and some early Dutch turnips may be sown, 
In any open weather, horse-radish and liquorice may 
be planted. 
In the end of the month, on a slight hotbed, some 
early white broccoli may be sown. In the begin- 
ning or middle of the month, the raising of early 
melons and cucumbers, may be commenced or re- 
peated; the plants of former sowings, if they have 
escaped injury, should be pricked out and planted in 
larger and final hotbeds; and all sound and rooted 
plants, if hitherto untopped, should now be pruned 
of the top of their first runner-bud. At any time of 
the month, hotbeds may be made for forcing aspa- 
ragus, or for the raising of early kidney-beans; and 
throughout the month, mushroom-beds must be well 
protected from frost and heavy rains. In all mild 
weather, cauliflower plants in frames should receive 
perfectly free airing; and in fine settled weather 
toward the end of the month, a few of the strongest 
may be transplanted to their final situation in the 
open ground. Weekly, in cucumber frames, or to- 
ward the end of the month on warm borders in the 
open ground, cresses, radishes, and other small salad 
plants may be sown. 
The Fruit Garden.—The principal home - grown 
fruits available for use in February are filberts, wal- 
nuts, chestnuts, almonds, and some kinds. of pears 
and apples. In February, the pruning of standard 
fruit- trees may at any time be attended to; the 
pruning of pear-trees and apple-trees on walls and 
espaliers ought to be completed; the pruning of 
vines ought, as early as possible, to be performed ; 
and the pruning of raspberry, gooseberry, and cur- 
rant bushes, if previously unattended to, should now 
be speedily done. In this month also, gooseberry and 
currant plants may be propagated; a few potted early 
green gooseberry bushes may be placed in the fore- 
ing-house; strawberry plantations should be cleared, 
and spring-dressed; all sorts of hardy fruit-trees may 
be planted; newly planted standard fruit-trees should 
be supported with stakes; fruit-tree and fruit-bush 
borders should be digged and neatly dressed; fruit- 
trees on hot- walls or within houses, particularly 
cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, figs, 
and vines, may be steadily and constantly forced; 
the seeds of apples, pears, plums, cherries, and other 
hardy fruit may be sown for raising grafting-stocks ; 
new plantations may be made of stocks to graft and 
to bud upon; grafting, in any of its several methods, 
may be commenced, in mild, weather, in the latter 
part of the month; and syringings, sweepings, and 
washings of fruit-trees may be practised for the de- 
struction of insects. 
The Flower Garden.—Toward the end of Feb- 
ruary, in dry and mild weather, many kinds of hardy 
annuals may be sown in the open ground, particu- 
larly adonis flos, lavatera, mallow, sunflower, hawk- 
weed, sweet pease, lupines, Venus’ looking - glass, 
rocket larkspur, dwarf lychnis, Venus’ navelwort, 
Lobel’s catchfly, candytuft, convolvulus, chryseis, 
cerinthe, echium, nigella, poppy, scorzonera, nastur- 
tium, and ten weeks’ stock; and so early as the mid- 
dle of the month, such tender annuals as cockscombs, 
balsams, tricolors, and capsicums may be sown upon 
hotbeds.—In severe weather, whether frosty or ex- 
cessively rainy, beds of the choicest bulbous-rooted 
plants should be protected. In the beginning of the 
month, some choice annuals, for early bloom, may 
be sown in pots, and placed in the hothouse; and 
some pots of pinks, sweetwilliams, carnations, ane- 
