632 ° 
mones, hyacinths, and other favourite hardy peren- 
nials, whether fibrous-rooted, bulbous, or tuberous, 
may, for early bloom, be placed either in the hot- 
house or in hotbeds. In mild and open weather, 
hardy, herbaceous, fibrous-rooted plants, whether 
biennials or perennials, such as stocks, rockets, 
saxifrages, hepaticas, violets, primroses, gentians, 
phloxes, monkshoods, potentilla, and columbine, 
may be transplanted to any situation where they 
are wanted, and, in most instances, may be freely 
separated into portions by the parting of the root- 
clods. Such auricula plants as are in pots should be 
dressed; and such choice ones as are in the open 
ground should be protected by mats or glass from 
severe weather. The seeds of auricula, polyanthus, 
and other primule, may be sown either in pots, in 
boxes, or in a very warm and well-sheltered part of 
the open border. In mild weather, about the end of 
the month, plants of carnations and pinks, raised 
from layers, may be removed and planted. In any 
open weather, most kinds of hardy, flowering, deci- 
duous shrubs, such as roses, spirceas, lilacs, jasmines, 
sumachs, laburnums, Guelder-roses, cistuses, honey- 
suckles, robinias, and scores of others, may be safely 
transplanted ; the pruning of flowering evergreen 
shrubs may still be attended to, but ought now to 
be brought to a close; and both the planting of new 
edgings to beds and borders, and the mending of gaps 
in old ones, whether of box, thrift, double daisies, 
none-so-pretty, gentiana verna, or other plants, may 
now be most successfully and neatly performed. 
Throughout the month, lawns and grass walks 
ought to be kept perfectly clean; and in dry open 
weather, they should be repeatedly polled and 
rolled. 
Marcu. 
Phenomena.—March is usually characterized as 
the windiest month in the year; yet it very fre- 
quently partakes of the same fickleness, uncertainty, 
and contrasts of character as February, Storms and 
strong gales occasionally blow at all times of the 
month ; and tempestuous winds, which are popularly 
though very absurdly designated equinoctial gales, 
very often occur between the 17th and the 24th, and 
not seldom between the 24th and the end. Fierce 
storms, accompanied with destructive snowdrifts, 
have likewise repeatedly occurred during the first 
week of the month. In most years, the prevailing 
wind blows from the north-east, and is keen, cut- 
ting, unhealthy, dry, and powerfully evaporating ; 
but in other years, it blows from the south-west, 
and is accompanied with excessive rains. The ther- 
mometer has a mean height of 42°, and usually ranges 
between 27° and 60°, but has been known to fall so 
low as 5°, and to rise so high as 70°. The extra- 
ordinary minimum temperature of 5°, however, oc- 
curred in 1845; and the minimum of previous years, 
so far as known to record, was 17°. ‘The barometer 
has a mean range of 1°30, and a mean height of 29°87. 
The probable depth of rain, upon an average of many 
years, is 14 inch; and the probable mean evapora- 
tion is 1°3 inch, or very nearly equal to the depth of 
rain. 
In the first week of March, the bay-tree, and two 
or three species of willow and of poplar, are in blos- 
som, numerous species of cone-bearing trees are in 
full flower, and hawthorns, poplars, gooseberry- 
bushes, and various other trees and shrubs are green 
with young foliage; in the second week, crocuses, 
hepaticas, and numerous primulz, are in flower, and 
the elder, the pilewort, the honeysuckle, the creep- 
ing crowfoot, and some kinds of roses are in leaf; 
and in the third week and fourth week, a multitude 
of shrubs and herbs are covered with foliage, and a 
comparative profusion of spring-flowering plants are 
in bloom. The most conspicuous flowers of the 
CALENDAR. 
month are, in the shrubbery, mezereon, daurian 
rhododendron, small-calyxed rhododendron, almond, 
cydonia japonica, mahonia, manna-ash, cornelian 
cherry, sea buckthorn, scarlet - flowering maple, 
peach, spurge laurel, and Spanish traveller’s-joy; in 
the parterre, wallflowers, violets, auriculas, polyan- 
thuses, primroses, anemones, crocuses, cyclamens, 
crown-imperials, daffodils, daisies, dog’s-tooth vio- 
let, pilewort, squills, ranunculuses, van-thol tulips, 
hyacinths, hepaticas, gentians, Persian irises, and 
various others; and in the greenhouse and conserva- 
tory, jonquils, pinks, carnations, numerous amaryl- 
lide, honeysuckles, roses, polyanthus-narcissus, kal. 
mias, rhododendrons, camellias, lilacs, acacias, cape 
heaths, and many others. 
In the early parts of March, earthworms, slugs, 
and snails engender, the small tortoise-shell butter- 
fly appears, and the tomtit, the ring-dove, the white 
wagtail, the jackdaw, the yellow wagtail, and the 
brown wood-owl, attract attention by either their | 
appearance, their song, or their peculiar habits; in 
the middle parts of the month, numerous flies ap- 
pear, the turkey-cock gobbles, and the marsh tit- 
mouse begins his song; in the latter part of the 
month, the common flea appears, the field cricket 
leaves its retreat, the yellow-hammer, the goldfinch, 
and the green woodpecker sing, and the rook, the | 
raven, and the house-pigeon build their nests; and | 
throughout the month, the redwing, the woodcock, 
the fieldfare, the palmipedes, and some others of our 
visitors, leave our shores, and pass away to the 
shores of the Baltic, to Norway, to Siberia, and to 
the cold parts of North America. 
The Farm.—In March, all sheep, whether ewes, 
lambs, or fatting sheep require to be extremely well 
kept; for if they be insufficiently fed or carelessly 
tended at this season, all the money previously ex- 
pended on them will be nearly thrown away. Ewes, 
in particular, ought, previous to lambing, to be fed 
on carrots, mangel-wurzel, and hay, and, after lamb- 
ing, to be transferred, along with their young, to 
sound new grass; and they should be kept in a 
warm, dry, well sheltered, and perfectly clean con- 
dition. ‘Throughout the month, all cows and lean 
and young cattle should be kept close in the farm- 
yards, and on no account allowed to wander over 
any of the fields; for, when they find their way into 
a grass field, they not only break the sward and 
make a waste of manure, but, by obtaining a mouth- 
ful or two of sweet young grass, contract a repug- 
nance to the dry and somewhat artificial food of the 
yards. All cows and mares which have quite re- 
cently produced young, should be carefully and nicely 
attended to, for food, for shelter, and especially for 
ventilation and thorough cleanliness ; and all yard- 
fed or stall-fed fatting beasts should be well cared 
for as to food, water, and litter. Colts should re- 
ceive hay; and horses ought to be constantly on full 
work, and daily receiving a full allowance of hay 
and corn. ‘‘ March,” says Arthur Young, ‘‘is a 
month in which carrots are in full perfection; they 
have now evaporated much of their moisture, and 
easily bend in the hand, being as it were withered. 
Then every ounce is nourishment, and they are fully 
as hearty as oats; insomuch that horses that have had 
a month’s carrots will refuse oats. To provide this 
root in ample quantity for February, March, and 
April, is an object that ought never to be omitted.” 
Poultry, during March, require much attention ; 
their boxes or lockers should be so often replenished 
with hay or strawas to secure perfect cleanliness; their 
houses should be so cleansed and lime-washed as to 
be kept free from vermin; their supplies of corn, 
buckwheat, boiled potatoes or other food, should be 
good and regular; and free access ought to be con- 
stantly afforded them to a gravelled yard, to clean 
water, and to a range over grass. 
